STAY AWAY FROM THOSE TANNING BEDS!

Melanoma risk higher for women under 40 who started indoor tanning in their teens, study finds

CBS News (1/27, Marcus) reports on its website that research published in JAMA Dermatology indicated that “women under 40 who started indoor tanning at a younger age and tanned more often have a higher risk of being diagnosed with melanoma.”

        HealthDay (1/27, Reinberg) reports that investigators looked at “data on nearly 700 men and women ages 25 to 49 who were diagnosed with” melanoma “between 2004 and 2007 and compared them with a similar number of ‘controls.’” The study indicated that “women younger than 40 with melanoma reported starting indoor tanning earlier than women 40 to 49 – at about age 16 versus 25.” Additionally, “younger women with melanoma...reported more tanning sessions than older women – an average of 100 tanning sessions compared with 40 sessions for women diagnosed at 40 to 49.”

MELANOMA DURING PREGNANCY

Women diagnosed with melanoma while pregnant may be at greater risk of metastasis, study suggests

Reuters (1/21, Rapaport) reports that a new study suggests that women who are diagnosed with melanoma during pregnancy or within a year of giving birth may be significantly more likely to have metastasis to other organs and tissues. Researchers also found that these women were also more likely to have cancer recur after treatment. The findings were published online Jan. 20 in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

GENETICS MAY DETERMINE CANCER SUSPECTIBILITY IN MANY CASES

Nearly one-third of all cancer cases may be linked to inherited genes, research finds

On its website, NBC News (1/6, Fox) reports that research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that approximately one-third “of all cancer cases can be blamed on inherited genes.”

        STAT (1/6, Swetlitz) reports that investigators looked at data on “identical and fraternal twins in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, who were part of the Nordic Twin Study of Cancer.”

        Newsweek (1/6, Firger) reports that the researchers found that “overall heritability for cancer was 33 percent among the entire study population, and notably higher for certain types of cancers.” Newsweek adds, “Significant heritability was found in 58 percent of diagnosed skin melanomas, 57 percent of prostate cancers, 43 percent of non-melanoma skin cancers, 39 percent of ovarian cancers, 38 percent of kidney cancers, 31 percent of breast cancers and 27 percent of uterine cancers.”

        HealthDay (1/6, Thompson) reports that the researchers also “identified a set of cancers in which genetics play a very small role.” This group includes “lung cancer (18 percent), colon cancer (15 percent), rectal cancer (14 percent), and head and neck cancer (9 percent).”

ALCOHOL DEATHS HAVE REACHED A NEW HIGH

US alcohol deaths have reached a 35-year high, CDC finds

The Washington Post (12/23, Ingraham) “Wonkblog” reports that US alcohol deaths have reached a “35-year high.” In 2014, some “30,700 Americans died from alcohol-induced causes, including alcohol poisoning and cirrhosis.” Excluded from this figure are “deaths from drunk driving, other accidents, and homicides committed under the influence of alcohol.” Were those deaths to be “included, the annual toll of deaths directly or indirectly caused by alcohol would be closer to 90,000, according to” a CDC report published Dec. 18 in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

        TIME (12/23, Chan) points out, “Excessive alcohol use is a leading cause of preventable death, according to the” CDC, accounting “for about 88,000 deaths each” year “from 2006 to 2010, health officials said.”

RECENT STUDY CONFIRMS THE SAFETY OF SILICONEGEL FILLED BREAST IMPLANTS

A recent report published on November 9 in the Annals of Internal Medicine states the newest findings on the debate considering the safety of the beauty surgery. And, the good thing is the research conducted by Dr Ethan Balk, of the Brown University School of Public Health in Providence, Rhode Island confirmed that silicone breast implants are not linked to any long-term health effects, according to Web Md.

The product, which came in the US market in the 1960s, was questioned and had a moratorium in 1992, when the public raised concerns on the possibility of health risks (e.g. breast cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia) later on in case of a ruptured silicone implant.
However, they were reintroduced in the market in 2006.
"Owing to inconsistencies among the studies reviewed, further investigation is required to determine whether any true associations exist between silicone gel implants and long-term health outcomes," Dr. Ethan Balk said in a report by Mail Online.
The recent research made use of 5,000 studies investigating the health outcomes of breast augmentation surgery.
Women participants are from North America, Europe and Australia said to have gone under the knife between 1964 and 2003.
Meanwhile, the study did not include to consider other factors like alcohol consumption and smoking. Also, it is criticized for being too general as not to focus on the effects of silicone breast implants, HNGN said.
To answer this, upcoming studies planned to register patients who got the operation and record their health conditions the moment they had the surgery until they decide to replace the implants.
"Hopefully it'll show what the implants do in five, 10 or 15 years, because that's what's lacking in the current data," Dr. Rod Rohrich from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas said.
In 2014, a total of 286,000 women are recorded to have availed of the surgery in the United States according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons making the operation to be one of the most-common cosmetic surgery in the country.



Read more: http://www.counselheal.com/articles/15350/20151112/silicone-breast-implant-breast-implant-health-problems-breast-cancer-cancer.htm#ixzz3s3CTVfat

ABDOMINOPLASTY HAS HIGHER RISKS AND COMPLICATIONS THAN OTHER COSMETIC PROCEDURES

Background: Among aesthetic surgery procedures, abdominoplasty is associated with a higher complication rate, but previous studies are limited by small sample sizes or single-institution experience.

Methods: A cohort of patients who underwent abdominoplasty between 2008 and 2013 was identified from the CosmetAssure database. Major complications were recorded. Univariate and multivariate analysis was performed evaluating risk factors, including age, smoking, body mass index, sex, diabetes, type of surgical facility, and combined procedures.

Results: The authors identified 25,478 abdominoplasties from 183,914 procedures in the database. Of these, 8,975 patients had abdominoplasty alone and 16,503 underwent additional procedures. The number of complications recorded was 1,012 (4.0 percent overall rate versus 1.4 percent in other aesthetic surgery procedures). Of these, 31.5 percent were hematomas, 27.2 percent were infections and 20.2 percent were suspected or confirmed venous thromboembolism. On multivariate analysis, significant risk factors (p < 0.05) included male sex (relative risk, 1.8), age 55 years or older (1.4), body mass index greater than or equal to 30 (1.3), multiple procedures (1.5), and procedure performance in a hospital or surgical center versus office-based surgical suite (1.6). Combined procedures increased the risk of complication (abdominoplasty alone, 3.1 percent; with liposuction, 3.8 percent; breast procedure, 4.3 percent; liposuction and breast procedure, 4.6 percent; body-contouring procedure, 6.8 percent; liposuction and body-contouring procedure, 10.4 percent).

Conclusions: Abdominoplasty is associated with a higher complication rate compared with other aesthetic procedures. Combined procedures can significantly increase complication rates and should be considered carefully in higher risk patients.

COMBINATION DRUG THERAPY OFFERS ADVANTAGE IN MELANOMA

The FDA has approved the combination of vemurafenib (Zelboraf) and cobimetinib (Cotellic) as a treatment for patients with BRAF-positive metastatic or unresectable melanoma, based on an extension in progression-free survival (PFS) in the phase III coBRIM study.

In the data submitted to the FDA, the median PFS with the combination was 12.3 versus 7.2 months for vemurafenib alone (HR, 0.58). At a 17-month analysis, 65% of patients receiving the combination remained alive compared with 50% for vemurafenib. The objective response rate (ORR) with the combination was 69.6% compared with 50% for vemurafenib alone.

"As we continue to advance our knowledge of tumor biology, we have learned that cancer cells have a remarkable ability to adapt and become resistant to targeted therapies. Combining two or more treatments addressing different cancer-causing targets may help to address this challenge," Richard Pazdur, MD, director of the Office of Hematology and Oncology Products in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a statement. "Today’s approval provides a new targeted treatment that, when added to vemurafenib, demonstrates greater benefit than vemurafenib alone in patients with BRAF mutation-positive melanoma."