Health Highlights: Nov. 2, 2007
Mar. 23 -- Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:
Children Inherit Cancer Survival Traits: Study
Survival traits for certain kinds of cancers are passed from parents to children, concludes a Swedish study reported in the November issue of The Lancet Oncology journal.
Researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm analyzed a Swedish family database that included three million families and more than 1 million cancer patients. The scientists found that children whose parents had good survival rates after being diagnosed with breast, lung, prostate or colorectal cancer had better survival rates for those same cancers than people whose parents died within 10 years of being diagnosed with those cancers.
The increased risk of death for children whose parents had died earlier was 75 percent for breast cancer, 107 percent for prostate cancer, 44 percent for colorectal cancer, and 39 percent for lung cancer.
"In conclusion, our findings provide support for the hypothesis that cancer-specific survival of a patient can be predicted from previous parental survival from cancer at the same site," the study authors wrote. "Consequently, molecular studies that highlight the genetic determinants of inherited survival in cancers are needed. In a clinical setting, information on poor survival in a family might be vital in accurately predicting tumor progression in the newly diagnosed individual."
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Massachusetts Will Offer Overdose Treatment Kits to Heroin Addicts
Starting next month, heroin addicts in Massachusetts will be offered kits to help treat overdoses quickly, safely and without fear of addiction, the Associated Press reported. The state plan was inspired by similar programs in Boston, Chicago and New York City.
In 2005, heroin and other opiates killed 544 people in Massachusetts, more than double the number of people killed by firearms.
Each kit contains two doses of Narcan (generic name: naloxone), which can be squirted into the nose of someone who has overdosed. Experts say the drug causes no side effects, the AP reported. The initial test run in Massachusetts is expected to enroll 450 heroin users and cost less than $50,000. If it saves lives, the program may be expanded.
