Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Prostate Cancer Study Offers Insights Regarding Value Of Treatments
The New York Times: Prostate Cancer Study Details Value Of Treatments
A new study offers important information to men who are facing difficult decisions about how to treat prostate cancer in its early stages, or whether to treat it at all. Researchers followed patients for 10 years and found no difference in death rates between men who were picked at random to have surgery or radiation, or to rely on “active monitoring” of the cancer, with treatment only if it progressed. (Grady, 9/14)
The Washington Post: Almost All Men With Early Prostate Cancer Survive 10 Years, Regardless Of Treatment
The survival rate for early-stage prostate cancer is 99 percent after 10 years, regardless of whether men undergo surgery, radiation or are "actively monitored," according to studies published Wednesday. Researchers hailed the results as good news, saying they had been expecting a survival rate of 90 percent. The two new studies, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, also illustrated the complicated treatment equations facing men with early-stage prostate cancer, and they immediately set off a debate among physicians about how to interpret the results. (McGinley, 9/14)
Stat: Men With Early Prostate Cancer Can Safely Opt Out Of Treatment
Men diagnosed with early prostate cancer can safely choose active monitoring rather than surgery or radiation without cutting their lives short, according to an eagerly awaited landmark study published on Wednesday. Although research dating back to the 1970s has hinted that many prostate cancers are too slow-growing to threaten a man’s life, the new study is the most definitive ever to test that premise. (Begley, 9/14)
And a separate study reports on disparities in stroke treatment -
Los Angeles Times: Women And Minorities Are Less Likely To Get Key Stroke Treatment, Even When They're Eligible, Study Says
If you’re having an ischemic stroke, it’s crucial that you get to a hospital fast so you can be treated with a clot-busting medicine. And to improve your odds of getting that medicine, it helps to be a white man. A new analysis of more than 60,000 stroke patients from around the country found that women were less likely than men to receive an infusion of tissue plasminogen activator, the drug that’s considered the gold standard in stroke treatment. The analysis also showed that racial minorities were less likely to get the drug than whites. (Kaplan, 9/14)
Kaiser Health News: Geographic, Racial Disparities In Stroke Treatment Tracked In New Study
In the United States, one out of every 20 deaths is caused by stroke. And yet, based on new research, race and geography prevent some of the most vulnerable from obtaining effective treatments.The findings come from a report published Wednesday in the journal Neurology. Researchers found stroke patients living in the Northeast states had more than twice the odds of receiving tPA — a powerful anti-coagulant that can break up the clot causing the stroke — than those living in the Midwest and the South. (Heredia Rodriguez, 9/14)
