Red Meat Linked to Breast Cancer

Nov. 13, 2006 — -- RED MEAT LINKED TO BREAST CANCER A new study from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School finds that eating red meat may be linked to an increase in certain types of breast cancer. In comparing women with breast cancer to women without breast cancer, researchers find that women with hormone positive tumors were more likely to eat red meat on a regular basis. They did not find a relationship between red meat and hormone-negative breast cancer tumors. However, the study is not definitive. The differences in breast cancer risk were overall quite small, and in some cases may be due to chance. More research is needed. These findings were published in the most recent issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

DIABETES MEDICATION SLOWS ARTERY HARDENING There is good news for diabetic patients who take the medication Actos, known generically as pioglitazone. A new study presented at the American Heart Association meeting in Chicago shows that Actos may slow the progression of artery hardening in addition to helping control blood sugar levels. Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago randomly assigned men and women with type 2 diabetes to take either Actos or a different drug called Amaryl every day; periodically, the doctors used ultrasound to check the patients' arteries. They found that the carotid arteries of the patients taking Amaryl had thickened by a very small amount while the Actos group showed essentially no change.

LASTING LASIK Lasik and PRK eye surgeries appear safe and effective over the long-term, according to new 10-year data presented at the Academy of Ophthalmology meeting in Las Vegas this week. The study included 100 eyes corrected with Lasik and 100 corrected with PRK surgery. Ten years later, patients had lasting improvement, averaging 20/25 vision, which is near normal measurement of 20/20. Both the Lasik and PRK procedures use lasers to reshape the cornea.

STAT is a brief look at the latest medical research and is compiled by Joanna Schaffhausen, who holds a doctorate in behavioral neuroscience. She works in the ABC News Medical Unit, evaluating medical studies, abstracts and news releases.