Daily Aspirin Linked to Lower Risk for Deadly Skin Cancer in Women

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By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, March 11 (HealthDay News) -- Older women who take an aspirin regularly may be lowering their risk of developing the deadly skin cancer melanoma, a new study suggests.

And the longer postmenopausal women take aspirin, the more melanoma risk appears to diminish.

The effect is only seen with aspirin, not with other pain relievers such as acetaminophen (Tylenol), the researchers noted.

For the study, the research team collected data on nearly 60,000 white women who were part of the Women's Health Initiative, a long-term national study. The women, aged between 50 and 79, were asked about what medications they took and other lifestyle preferences.

Over 12 years of follow-up, the investigators found that women who took aspirin had a 21 percent lower risk of developing melanoma compared to women who didn't take aspirin.

But it's too soon to make firm conclusions, a researcher cautioned.

"Aspirin could be potentially used to prevent melanoma, but a clinical trial is needed," said lead author Dr. Jean Tang, an assistant professor of dermatology at Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, Calif.

This type of population-based study can only show an association between aspirin and the reduced risk for melanoma, not that aspirin actually helps prevent it.

Tang doesn't believe women should start taking aspirin solely to try to prevent melanoma. "It's too early to say this," she said.

It is possible that aspirin's anti-inflammatory properties might be responsible for lowering the risk of melanoma, Tang suggested. "Aspirin may also promote cell death of melanoma cells," she added.

Whether a protective effect also occurs in men is not known, said Tang, who plans to look at that in her next study.

The new report was published in the March 11 online edition of Cancer.

The study found that women who took aspirin for at least five years had their melanoma risk drop by 30 percent, compared to women who didn't take aspirin.

To try to isolate the effect of aspirin on melanoma, Tang's group accounted for other factors such as skin tone, tanning and use of sunscreen.

Each year in the United States there are nearly 77,000 new cases of melanoma and more than 9,000 deaths from it, according to the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

One expert doesn't see any problem taking aspirin to prevent melanoma, especially for people with a family history of the disease.

Prolonged use of aspirin is not without risks, including stomach bleeding, but the benefits of preventing melanoma outweigh the risk for vulnerable people, said Dr. Michele Green, a dermatologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. She praised the new research.

"I think it's fantastic. It's really a remarkable study," Green said.

"If you have a family history of melanoma, I don't see any downside of taking aspirin for this," she said. "I would urge my patients who have a family history of melanoma to take aspirin based on this study."

Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCES: Jean Tang, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of dermatology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, Calif.; Michele Green, M.D., dermatologist, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City; March 11, 2013, Cancer, online

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Health Tip: Protect Your Hips From Arthritis Damage

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(HealthDay News) -- Osteoarthritis can strike the hip following years of wear and tear that causes damage to the joint. Protecting the hips from further stress can help reduce damage.

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons lists these suggestions to help slow the progression of hip arthritis:

Allow your hips to rest, and don't overuse the joints.Practice a physical-therapy regimen that includes gentle exercises such as swimming, cycling and water aerobics to maintain joint function and motion.Try taking nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.Make sure you get plenty of sleep every night.If you are overweight, lose weight.Consider using a cane to ease strain on the joint if your arthritis worsens.

-- Diana Kohnle
Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

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Flu Infections Continue to Decline

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By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, March 8 (HealthDay News) -- The flu season may not be over, but the worst of it seems to be.

Flu activity, although still elevated, declined in most parts of the United States during the week ending March 2, U.S. health officials reported Friday.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

Four states experienced moderate flu activity: Illinois, Michigan, Vermont and Virginia. Thirteen states experienced low fIu activity: Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Texas and Utah. New York City also experienced low activity.Thirty-three states experienced minimal activity: Alaska, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

The flu continued to hit older people hard, with slightly more than 50 percent of hospitalizations involving those 65 years and older.

Eighty-seven children have died from the flu this season, with six deaths reported last week, the CDC said.

There is no system to report adult deaths from flu, but the agency said the number of deaths remains higher than the threshold used to declare a flu epidemic.

The predominant strain of circulating flu this season continues to be influenza A H3N2, which typically poses bigger problems for young children and the elderly, according to the CDC. But predominant strains can vary across states and regions of the country, the agency noted, with more B strains appearing last week.

The 87 pediatric deaths so far compare to 153 deaths reported during the 2003-04 season, which was another H3N2 season, the agency noted.

An estimated 36,000 people die from the flu and its complications in a typical season, according to the CDC. From 1976 to 2006, estimates of flu-associated deaths in the United States ranged from a low of about 3,000 to a high of about 49,000 people.

Flu season usually peaks in late January or early February.

The best defense against the flu remains the flu vaccine, the CDC said. The agency recommends that everyone 6 months of age and older get vaccinated.

Two antiviral medications, Tamiflu and Relenza, can reduce flu symptoms and the course of the disease. To be effective, however, they must be started within 48 hours after symptoms appear.

Flu symptoms include fever, cough, fatigue, head and body aches, and runny nose. People at particular risk for flu and its complications include pregnant women, those 65 and older and anyone with a chronic illness. The CDC urges these people to get the flu vaccine, which is available as an injection or nasal spray and in a stronger dose for seniors.

Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCE: March 8, 2013, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, FluView

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Does Chewing Gum Give Your Brain an Edge?

FRIDAY, March 8 (HealthDay News) -- That wad of gum you're chewing may be more than a breath-freshener -- it might also boost your powers of concentration, a small new study suggests.

According to British investigators, prior research has found that the act of chewing gum could boost concentration when doing sight-related memory tasks. Their new study looked at the effects of chewing gum during a hearing-related memory test.

The experiment included 38 people who were split into two groups, each of which performed a 30-minute task that involved listening to a list of numbers from one to nine read aloud in a random order. The participants were scored on how accurately and quickly they were able to detect a sequence of odd-even-odd numbers, such as seven-two-one. One group chewed gum while doing the task.

Overall, participants who chewed gum had quicker reaction times and more accurate results than those who didn't chew gum. This was especially true toward the end of the task, according to the study, which was published March 8 in the British Journal of Psychology.

"Interestingly, participants who didn't chew gum performed slightly better at the beginning of the task but were overtaken by the end," Kate Morgan, of Cardiff University, said in a journal news release. "This suggests that chewing gum helps us focus on tasks that require continuous monitoring over a longer amount of time."

-- Robert Preidt
Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCE: British Journal of Psychology, news release, March 8, 2013

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Was Heart Disease the Mummies' Real Curse?

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By E.J. Mundell
HealthDay Reporter

SUNDAY, March 10 (HealthDay News) -- Unwrapping the mysteries of the leading killer of modern-day humans, researchers have found evidence of heart disease in ancient mummies from around the globe.

The study also questions assumptions about what causes the illness, since it seems to have plagued civilizations with lifestyles that were very different than those of today.

"Heart disease is a serial killer that's been stalking mankind for 4,000 years," lead investigator Dr. Randall Thompson said at a press briefing Sunday at the American College of Cardiology annual meeting, in San Francisco.

"What we found is that heart disease is present, and not hard to find, in all of these cultures," said Thompson, who is a professor of medicine at the University of Missouri and a cardiologist at the Mid-America Heart Institute in Kansas City. The study was also published online simultaneously in The Lancet.

To investigate the ancient history of atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), Thompson said he and his colleagues "gathered some forensic evidence from a 21st century instrument, a CT scanner, looking for residue in the form of calcium in arteries."

"We looked up some cold cases, some very cold cases," he said.

In total, the researchers scanned the arteries of 137 mummies -- 76 from Egypt, 51 from Peru, five from the ancestral Puebloan cultures of the American Southwest (formerly known as the Anasazi), and five from the hunter-gatherer culture of the Alaskan Aleutian islands.

The time period encompassed was enormous, from about 2,000 B.C. for the oldest Egyptian mummies to the late 1800s A.D. for the Aleutian individuals.

"Roughly 34 percent of our mummies had atherosclerosis, either probable or definite, including more than 80 percent of the Egyptians, 25 percent of the Peruvians, two of the five ancestral Puebloans, and three of the five Aleutians," Thompson said.

The study's biggest surprise occurred with findings of extensive artery deposits among the Aleutian mummies -- people who led very traditional, highly physical lives hunting for foods such as sea urchins and fish. One Aleutian woman, aged about 50, had "extremely extensive [arterial] calcification," Thompson said, and might have been a candidate for bypass surgery if she had lived today.

All of this brings up complex questions for modern humans.

"When you look at these mummies, much of what we think we know [about heart disease] is wrong, and if you open your eyes we can learn a lot," co-researcher Dr. Samuel Wann of Columbia St. Mary's Healthcare, in Milwaukee, told reporters.

He stressed that the investigators can't say for sure that the calcified arteries they discovered meant that the people had suffered heart attacks or strokes. However, one Egyptian medical papyrus text from 1550 B.C. does describe a patient having a heart attack, he said, "and there are paintings on some tombs in Egypt that show people falling over clutching their chest, as if they are having a heart attack."

The research team concluded that heart disease is potentially as old as mankind itself, and is probably an inevitable part of aging, not just a product of sedentary lives and fatty foods.

But that doesn't give modern people a pass to be slothful, and to eat whatever they want.

"On the one hand [the study shows that] we may have less control of this disease than some people would like to think we do," Wann said. "But that's all the more reason to control the risk factors that we think we can control."

One cardiologist not connected to the research agreed with that advice.

The study "supports the notion that humans may be genetically predisposed to atherosclerosis or heart disease," said Dr. Kevin Marzo, chief of cardiology at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, N.Y. "We have no way to change our genetic makeup, so the best we can do in the meantime is to control our fates: eat healthy, not smoke, exercise and, yes, avoid the trans fats."

Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCES: Kevin Marzo, M.D., chief, cardiology, Winthrop-University Hospital, Mineola, N.Y.; March 10, 2013, presentation, American College of Cardiology annual meeting, San Francisco, with Randall Thompson, M.D., professor, medicine, University of Missouri, and cardiologist, Mid-America Heart Institute, Kansas City; Samuel Wann, M.D., Columbia St. Mary's Healthcare, Milwaukee; March 10, 2013, The Lancet, online

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Health Tip: Teach Kids to Prevent Overuse Injuries

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(HealthDay News) -- Young children can be susceptible to overuse injuries due to repetitive activities during sports competitions and practices.

The safekids.org website lists these tips to help kids reduce the risk of overuse injuries from sports:

Always warm up with jogging or light exercise for about 10 minutes before play.Gently and slowly stretch the muscles before and after playing.Promptly recognize and address injuries.Make sure to allow the body to rest for one to two days per week and at least 10 weeks during the off-season each year.Encourage children to play a variety of types of sports, and always begin a new sport slowly and carefully.Always use protective equipment designed for your particular activity when playing.

-- Diana Kohnle
Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

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Abdominal 'Chemo Bath' May Extend Survival in Ovarian Cancer Patients

HealthDay Reporter

SATURDAY, March 9 (HealthDay News) -- Women with advanced ovarian cancer who receive intense chemotherapy directly into their stomach area may live at least one year longer than women who receive standard intravenous chemotherapy, a new study says.

But this survival edge may come at the expense of more side effects.

"The long-term benefits are pretty significant," said study author Dr. Devansu Tewari, director of gynecologic oncology at the Southern California Permanente Medical Group, in Orange County. "There is no study of ovarian cancer treatments that has shown a greater survival advantage."

Intraperitoneal chemotherapy involves bathing the abdominal area with chemotherapy agents. By contrast, intravenous (IV) chemotherapy is delivered throughout the body via the bloodstream. The U.S. National Cancer Institute currently recommends intraperitoneal therapy for women with ovarian cancer who have had successful surgery to remove the tumor.

The 10-year follow-up data from two studies of nearly 900 women with advanced ovarian cancer will be presented Saturday at the annual meeting of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology, in Los Angeles.

In 2013, more than 22,000 American women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and more than 14,000 will die from the disease, according to the U.S. National Cancer Institute. There are no early screening tests for ovarian cancer, which is why it is often diagnosed when the cancer has already spread outside of the ovaries. For this reason, survival rates tend to be very low.

In the new study, women who received the intraperitoneal treatment were 17 percent more likely to survive longer than those who got IV chemotherapy. On average, women in the intraperitoneal group survived for more than five years, while those who received IV chemotherapy survived for about four years, the study found.

But survival benefits aside, intraperitoneal chemotherapy does confer a greater risk of side effects -- such as abdominal pain and numbness in the hands and feet -- and not all women can tolerate this high concentration of cancer-killing drugs. The drugs are also absorbed more slowly, providing more exposure to the medicine. The same properties that make the intraperitoneal therapy more effective likely play a role in causing more side effects, the researchers said.

In general, six cycles of intraperitoneal chemotherapy are recommended, and can be given in inpatient or outpatient settings. The more cycles the women completed, the greater their survival advantage, the study showed. After five years, close to 60 percent of women who completed five or six cycles of intraperitoneal therapy were still alive, compared with 33 percent of those who completed three or four cycles and 18 percent of those who completed one or two cycles. Women can switch back to IV chemotherapy if the side effects prove too harsh. Still, the researchers said, some intraperitoneal chemotherapy is better than none.

Younger and healthier women were among the most likely to complete the regimen.

"If after surgery all of the visible cancer has been removed and there is no cancer that is greater than 1 centimeter left in any one area, a woman is an immediate candidate [for intraperitoneal chemotherapy]," Tewari said. "If someone is older and in good shape and handled the operation well, they are also candidates."

Growing numbers of doctors and women with ovarian cancer are opting for intraperitoneal therapy, she said. And it may offer even greater benefits when paired with some of the newer therapies for ovarian cancer that are moving through the drug development pipeline.

"Its use can and should increase," said Tewari, who also is an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine.

Dr. Jubilee Brown, a spokeswoman for the Society of Gynecologic Oncology and an associate professor of gynecologic oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, said the new findings are exciting.

"This is long-term follow-up data that confirms what we expected," Brown said. "We have been waiting for years to determine if the results are short-lived or if we see it years later, and now we know that we see the survival benefit 10 years out."

"Doctors are used to giving IV chemotherapy, so this is a new skill set in terms of giving the drugs," she said. "It comes with different equipment and patient instructions and side effects. As individual physicians and centers become more comfortable and confident with learning how to manage the side effects, its use will increase."

Dr. Elizabeth Poynor, a gynecologic oncologist at New York City's Lenox Hill Hospital, agreed. "The toxicity and intensity is greater than with IV therapy, so some people can't tolerate it," she said. "But for those who do, survival is clearly benefited."

"It's a tradeoff," Poynor said. "There are more side effects, but there are also survival benefits. You don't know how you will tolerate it until you try -- and if it's not for you, you can back off."

Because this study was presented at a medical meeting, the data and conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCE: Elizabeth Poynor, M.D., gynecologic oncologist, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City; Jubilee Brown, M.D., associate professor, department of gynecologic oncology, division of surgery, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston; Devansu Tewari, M.D., director, gynecologic oncology, Southern California Permanente Medical Group, Orange County; March 9, 2013, presentation, Society of Gynecologic Oncology annual meeting, Los Angeles

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