TOP - Daily

Cancer-related fatigue was reduced for patients taking high doses of pure American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) over the course of 2 months, a Mayo Clinic–led study found.

Researchers studied 340 patients who had completed cancer treatment or were being treated for cancer at 1 of 40 community medical centers. Of the patients studied, 60% had breast cancer. Participants received either a placebo or capsules containing 2000 mg of pure, ground American ginseng root daily.

In the fight against cancer, America’s biopharmaceutical research companies are testing 981 oncology medicines and vaccines, according to a report released by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). These prospective medicines, which are either in clinical trials or under review by the FDA, include 111 for breast cancer, 121 for lung cancer, and 117 for lymphoma.

In a recent study, the antidepressant drug duloxetine (Cymbalta) helped ease pain from chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy in 59% of patients. For about 30% of patients, this tingling feeling is more than uncomfortable; it’s a painful sensation. This is the first clinical trial to find an effective therapy for this pain.

Early-stage prostate cancer treatment can also produce quality-of-life improvements for a subgroup of men who suffer from lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), according to a Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center–led study. LUTS, which includes problems of recurrent or urgent urination, is a common problem that affects approximately 40% of men.

As new biomarkers are identified to classify disease and customize treatments to individual needs, Supreme Court legal battles are in process to determine whether a private company can own the rights to a particular biomarker.

Recently, the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) advised eliminating routine prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening for prostate cancer in healthy men. According to results of a survey by Johns Hopkins researchers, the new recommendations are likely to meet serious resistance from primary care physicians. Study results were published online in the journal Cancer.

A new type of anticancer drug, BP-1-102, has been created by a University of Hawaii Cancer Center team. The oral drug targets a key protein that causes the development of many types of cancer, including breast, lung, and skin cancers.

The development of BP-1-102 was conducted by a computer-based molecular analysis of the cancer-causing Stat 3 protein.

As the baby boomers age, it’s expected that the number of Americans suffering from blindness will increase 70% by the year 2020. A new design and prototype for a prescription medicine pill bottle has been developed. It is intended to not only have universal appeal but also to fill the special needs for the currently more than 1.3 million Americans who are legally blind.

The new design features:

Flexible sigmoidoscopy, which has fewer side effects, requires less bowel preparation, and presents a lower risk of bowel perforation than colonoscopy, is effective in decreasing the rates of new colorectal cancer cases and deaths, according to results from a study that spanned almost 20 years. The study is published online in the New England Journal of Medicine.

For privately insured Americans in 2010, rising care prices were the primary driver of healthcare costs, according to the first report from the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI).