Life
IN BRIEF (Page 19)
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-02 08:06
Lung cancer in women rising
A decline in smoking in Europe and better screening mean fewer people are dying of cancer, but lung cancer deaths in women are rising in places like Scotland and Hungary where more women smoke, doctors said on Monday.
Early diagnosis and better treatments have pushed down deaths from cervical cancer and breast cancer, and declining smoking levels contributed to large falls in deaths from lung and other tobacco-related cancers in men, according to a study in the Annals of Oncology cancer journal.
The study of data from 1990-94 and 2000-04 showed that overall European cancer death rates fell by 9 percent in men and 8 percent in women in the second period from the first.
But researchers said there were wide disparities in cancer death rates between different EU countries, and said some countries where alcohol and tobacco consumption has increased had seen a rise in deaths from lung, mouth, pharynx and oesophagus cancers.
Magnets offer new hope
Tiny magnetic discs just a millionth of a meter in diameter could be used to kill cancer cells, according to a study published on Sunday.
Laboratory tests found that the so-called "nano discs", around 60 billionths of a meter thick, could be used to disrupt the membranes of cancer cells, causing them to self-destruct.
The discs are made from an iron-nickel alloy, which move when subjected to a magnetic field, damaging the cancer cells, the report published in Nature Materials said.
One of the study's authors, Elena Rozhlova of Argonne National Laboratory in the United States, said subjecting the discs to a low magnetic field for around 10 minutes was enough to destroy 90 percent of cancer cells in tests.
Diabetes a rising problem
The number of Americans with diabetes will nearly double over the next 25 years, rising from 23.7 million at present to 44.1 million in 2034, according to a study by the University of Chicago. In the same period, medical costs associated with treating the disease will triple from $113 billion to $336 billion, even without a rise in the incidence of obesity, according to the study published in the December issue of Diabetes Care.
The study said its projections, despite being significantly higher than other recent estimates, may be too conservative because they assume the rate of diabetes and obesity, a risk factor for the disease, will remain stable.
Plastics put moms-to-be at risk
Pregnant women who are exposed to higher levels of an increasingly controversial chemical in certain plastics may deliver their babies slightly earlier than women with less exposure, hints a new study.
"The magnitude of the effects seen," the study team writes in the latest issue of Pediatrics, "might be associated with adverse health effects in newborns."
The chemical, DEHP - short for di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate - is a "plasticizer" used widely in consumer products to help make vinyl plastic soft and flexible. "Exposures (to DEHP) are ubiquitous," says Dr Robin M. Whyatt from the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health in New York City. DEHP breakdown products "have been detected in 95 percent of the general US population".
More kids born with Down
A growing number of children in the United States are being born with Down syndrome, federal researchers say. The overriding reason, experts add, is that more older women are having babies.
Data from 10 regional registries of birth defects show that the incidence of Down syndrome among US children increased by 31 percent between 1979 and 2003, from 9 to 11.8 per 100,000 live births.
Down syndrome occurs when a child has an extra 21st chromosome, of the 23 that determine genetic characteristics. Though most people think of the syndrome as a cause of mental retardation, some children with Down do not need special schools, says Dr Siobhan Dolan, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology and women's health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center in New York City.
But the extra chromosome is associated with a number of major physical problems, including life-threatening heart abnormalities.
Agencies
(China Daily 12/02/2009 page19)
