Health Highlights: May 13, 2007
Mar. 23 -- Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments,compiled by editors of HealthDay:
Tumor Blocker Found to Prevent Growth of Breast Cancer Enzyme
A team of Canadian scientists says it has found a way to block an enzyme that promotes the growth of breast cancer tumors, BBC News reports.
McGill University researchers report in the latest edition of Nature Genetics that the enzyme PTP1B appears to promote uncontrolled cell growth in the breast, which can produce cancerous tumors. Using laboratory mice, the scientists were able to use a drug developed by the pharmaceutical firm Merck and Co. that blocks PTP1B development.
This method could prevent up to 40 percent of breast cancer malignancy, the researchers said. The possibility of combining it with the breast cancer drug Herceptin might improve effectiveness, according to the study leader, Michel Tremblay, a professor at McGill's Department of Medical Biology.
"It's another tool to tackle cancers... however it won't cure cancer alone," BBC News quotes Tremblay as saying. "Combined with Herceptin, it may provide a 'two-way kill'."
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Proposed New Jersey Law Mandates HIV Testing for Pregnant Women and Newborns
New Jersey could become the first state in the nation to require HIV testing for both pregnant women and their newborn babies.
The Associated Press reports that with the comment that his proposed statute is a "no-brainer," state senate president Richard Codey (D) introduced the bill last week, requiring pregnant women to be tested for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, twice: once early in the pregnancy and once in the third trimester. The baby would be tested shortly after being born, the proposed law says.
While other states have some provisions requiring HIV testing, none mandates both mother and baby to be tested, the A.P. reports. Under Codey's bill, a mother could opt out if she submits her objection in writing.
Codey told the A.P. that he made the HIV testing statute a priority after he saw a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finding that treating an HIV-infected pregnant woman could dramatically reduce the possibility the virus would passed on to her child. "For newborns this can be a lifesaving measure," the wire service quotes him as saying.
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