Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
When It Comes To Chemo, What Does Not Kill Cancer Makes It Stronger, New Study Confirms
Stat: Cancer Drugs Can Make Surviving Cells More Aggressive, Study Finds
If proponents of cancer quackery exulted in July when a study described how chemotherapy before breast cancer surgery might fuel metastasis — the findings put “a final nail in the coffin” of chemo, one alternative medicine website gloated — research reported last week is going to make them think Christmas came early. A new study has found more evidence that cancer treatment can be a double-edged sword, triggering biological responses that can spur aggressive tumor growth. (Begley, 12/4)
The Washington Post: Drinking Red Wine Is Good For You — Or Maybe Not
At the end of a long week, people are opening wine bottles in bars, restaurants and homes around the world, ready to kick back and relax. This relationship with wine has a long history. The oldest known winery, dating to 4100 B.C., was discovered in 2010 by archaeologists in an Armenian cave. Just recently scientists reported finding jugs that had been used for storing wine from 6000 B.C. Wine was used in ceremonies by the Egyptians, traded by the Phoenicians and honored by the Greek god Dionysus and the Roman god Bacchus. By 2014, humanity was consuming more than 6 billion gallons of wine every year. (Baranchuk, Alexander and Haseeb, 12/2)
NPR: Tylenol May Help Ease The Pain Of Hurt Feelings
Nobody likes the feeling of being left out, and when it happens, we tend to describe these experiences with the same words we use to talk about the physical pain of, say, a toothache. "People say, 'Oh, that hurts,' " says Nathan DeWall, a professor of psychology at the University of Kentucky. (Aubrey, 12/4)
The Associated Press: FDA Approves First-Of-A-Kind Test For Cancer Gene Profiling
U.S. regulators have approved a first-of-a-kind test that looks for mutations in hundreds of cancer genes at once, giving a more complete picture of what's driving a patient's tumor and aiding efforts to match treatments to those flaws. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Foundation Medicine's test for patients with advanced or widely spread cancers, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services proposed covering it. (Marchione, 12/1)
The Baltimore Sun: About 15 Percent Of Americans With HIV Don't Know They're Infected, CDC Says
Half of the Americans recently diagnosed with HIV had been living with the virus for at least three years without realizing it, missing out on opportunities for early treatment and in some cases spreading it to others, according to a new report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. What’s more, of the 39,720 Americans newly diagnosed with HIV in 2015, one-quarter had been infected for seven years or more without knowing they were ill. (Healy and McDaniels, 12/1)
NPR: New Drugs Could Prevent Migraine Headaches For Some People
People who experience frequent migraines may soon have access to a new class of drugs. In a pair of large studies, two drugs that tweak brain circuits involved in migraine each showed they could reduce the frequency of attacks without causing side effects, researchers report in the New England Journal of Medicine. (Hamilton, 12/4)
Los Angeles Times: Early-Life Stress, Especially In War, Can Have Consequences Across Multiple Generations
The wartime evacuation of Finnish children more than 70 years ago might have been an historical footnote, its cost to human health and happiness lost in the passage of time. More than 70,000 Finnish children were separated from their parents in a frantic rout and whisked away to institutions and foster families in Sweden and Denmark. The aim of this mass migration of unaccompanied children was to shield them from harm, as Finland had become a battleground for clashing Soviet and German forces. But studies by an international group of experts in child development have found that its effect was not wholly protective. (Healy, 12/1)
The Associated Press: Sex Cases Put Spotlight On Sex Addiction, But Is It Real?
Is sex addiction a true addiction, a crime, or a made-up condition used by misbehaving VIPs to deflect blame or repair tarnished images? A tide of high-profile sexual misconduct accusations against celebrities, politicians and media members has raised these questions — and sowed confusion. Sex addiction is not an officially recognized psychiatric diagnosis, though even those who doubt it's a true addiction acknowledge that compulsive sexual behavior can upend lives. (Tanner, 12/3)
