Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Immunotherapy Has Been Touted As Miracle Worker Against Cancer, But It's Not Effective For Everyone
Stat: What Does ‘Tumor Mutation Burden’ Mean, And How Might It Help Patients?
As doctors, scientists, and investors try to pick apart which powerful cancer immunotherapy is the best bet for patients, there’s an emerging new tool that might clear up the fog around a whole class of medicines — if its predictive promise can be confirmed in large clinical trials. It’s called tumor mutation burden, or TMB, and it’s essentially a measure of just how unique a patient’s cancer might be. It could also help doctors identify which patients might benefit from immunotherapies called checkpoint inhibitors. (Garde, 2/5)
The New York Times: Floods Are Getting Worse, And 2,500 Chemical Sites Lie In The Water’s Path
Anchored in flood-prone areas in every American state are more than 2,500 sites that handle toxic chemicals, a New York Times analysis of federal floodplain and industrial data shows. About 1,400 are located in areas at highest risk of flooding. As flood danger grows — the consequence of a warming climate — the risk is that there will be more toxic spills like the one that struck Baytown, Tex., where Hurricane Harvey swamped a chemicals plant, releasing lye. (Tabuchi, Popovich, Migliozzi and Lehren, 2/6)
Bloomberg: Early Prostate Cancer Kept At Bay In Two Studies For High-Risk Men
Men with an early form of prostate cancer who are at high risk of seeing it spread and turn deadly may benefit from treatment with Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer Inc. drugs that slow progression of the disease. J&J’s experimental medicine apalutamide and Pfizer’s prostate cancer drug Xtandi delayed the worsening of the most common tumor by more than 70 percent compared with a placebo in two separate studies. The results, which are being presented at a medical meeting devoted to genital and urinary cancers in San Francisco, could offer an alternative for men whose cancer is progressing yet considered early-stage because localized to their prostate. (Cortez and Hopkins, 2/5)
CNN: Hot Tea Linked To Esophageal Cancer In Smokers, Drinkers
If you smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol daily, you may want to consider letting your tea cool before you enjoy it. Drinking tea while it's too hot could increase your risk of esophageal cancer, a new study suggests. In the study, published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, drinking "hot" or "burning hot" tea was associated with a two- to fivefold increase in esophageal cancer, but only in people who also smoked or drank alcohol. (Lieber, 2/5)
NPR: Nursing Homes Still Overprescribing Antipsychotics, Despite Warnings
A study published Monday by Human Rights Watch finds that about 179,000 nursing home residents are being given antipsychotic drugs, even though they don't have schizophrenia or other serious mental illnesses that those drugs are designed to treat. Most of these residents have Alzheimer's disease or another form of dementia and antipsychotics aren't approved for that. What's more, antipsychotic drugs come with a "black box warning" from the FDA, stating that they increase the risk of death in older people with dementia. (Jaffe, 2/5)
NPR: Lethal Pneumonia Outbreak Caused By Low Chlorine In Flint Water
An outbreak of Legionnaires' disease that killed 12 people and sickened at least 87 in Flint, Mich., in 2014 and 2015 was caused by low chlorine levels in the municipal water system, scientists have confirmed. It's the most detailed evidence yet linking the bacterial disease to the city's broader water crisis. In April 2014, Flint's water source switched from Lake Huron to the Flint River. Almost immediately, residents noticed tap water was discolored and acrid-smelling. By 2015, scientists uncovered that the water was contaminated with lead and other heavy metals. (Hersher, 2/5)
Boston Globe: Harvard Researchers: Vaccines Could Lessen Deaths, Poverty In Developing Countries
Researchers at Harvard University believe that vaccinations could not only lower the number of deaths in developing countries, but also decrease poverty caused by the burden of medical expenses, according to a study published Monday. The study’s findings were published in the journal Health Affairs. (Ruckstuhl, 2/5)
