Experts: ‘Exceptional Responders’ To Cancer Treatments Shouldn’t Be Dismissed As Just Outliers
Often categorized as statistically insignificant, patients who see dramatic results from treatments that don't work on others could hold a key to better understanding cancer. In other public health news are stories on sleep apnea treatment, brain-eating amoeba, super lice and colonoscopies.
The Washington Post:
Cancer Researchers: It’s Time To Pay More Attention To ‘Miracle’ Patients
Call it luck — or a medical miracle. During clinical trials for experimental cancer drugs, some patients simply respond better than others. And a tiny fraction of patients see dramatic results, responding so well to treatment that they survive forms of cancers that quickly kill their counterparts. Stories about people like Emily Whitehead, the then-6-year-old who was enrolled in a clinical trial that saved her life, make headlines. But statistically speaking, they’re insignificant, mere outliers. Because they deviate so far from the norm, these “exceptional responders” are often overlooked by researchers. Not so fast, says Eric Perakslis. (Blakemore, 8/26)
The Washington Post:
CPAP Machines Don’t Prevent Heart Attacks, Strokes In Some Sleep Apnea Sufferers
More than 25 million Americans have obstructive sleep apnea, a dangerous disorder that causes sufferers to briefly stop breathing while they sleep, sometimes many times each night. ... The standard treatment, the continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP, machine, keeps the airway open by pumping a stream of air through a patient's nostrils as he or she sleeps. The biggest problem with the therapy is non-compliance; many people find the air mask and hose uncomfortable and give up on the machine. But a large new sleep study published Sunday raises a serious new issue: For people with existing cardiovascular disease and moderate to severe sleep apnea, CPAP doesn't prevent heart attacks, strokes, hospitalizations or deaths any better than sleeping without the machine. (Bernstein, 8/28)
NPR:
A Young Woman Dies, A Teen Is Saved After Amoebas Infect The Brain
Doctors describe 16-year-old Sebastian DeLeon as a walking miracle — he is only the fourth person in the U.S. to survive an infection from the so-called brain-eating amoeba. Infection from Naegleria fowleri is extremely rare but almost always fatal. Between 1962 and 2015, there were only 138 known infections due to the organism, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Just three people survived. This summer, two young people, one in Florida and one in North Carolina, became infected after water recreation. Only one had a happy ending. (Aboraya and Tomsic, 8/28)
The Philadelphia Inquirer/Philly.com:
'Super Lice' Are Really A Thing. Here's How To Cope, Parents
Super lice are among us, and that's not just a back-to-school ploy to get parents running to the pharmacy aisles. A recent study published in the Journal of Medical Entomology has found that head lice resistant to the most common over-the-counter remedies appear to be dominant in 42 out of 48 states tested. Every Pennsylvania sample taken for the study turned up with all-resistant lice. New Jersey was a mix of old-school lice and the newer nasties. (Giordano, 8/28)
The Baltimore Sun:
Some Hope Virtual Colonoscopies Lead To More Cancer Screenings
Screening via a colonoscopy helps reduce cases of the disease and lower death rates. While strides have been made in getting more people tested, many still avoid getting screened. The American College of Radiology and several cancer prevention groups think that more people like [Cynthia] Bledsoe, who are turned off by the thought of getting a colonoscopy, could be persuaded to get tested if given the choice of a virtual colonoscopy. (McDaniels, 8/27)
