Word: cancers
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...VACCINES If all goes well, the FDA could approve the first vaccine for cervical cancer by 2006. A large-scale study presented at a meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America in October found that Merck's experimental vaccine Gardasil was 100% effective against two strains of human papillomavirus that cause 70% of all cervical cancers. Another experimental Merck vaccine was tested this year for protection against shingles, the painful blistering disorder caused by the chicken-pox virus. In a trial of more than 38,500 adults 60 and older, the vaccine cut the risk of shingles by more...
...CANCER Thanks to early detection and better prevention programs, deaths from cancer continue their downward trend. Some highlights...
...Breast Cancer When the authors of a large international study reported that Herceptin, a powerful drug for treating advanced cases of so-called HER2-positive breast cancers, could also dramatically reduce--by 46%--recurrence of early-stage HER2 cancers, they triggered impassioned requests for the drug by patients and fierce debate among doctors. At issue was whether the trial, which had reported interim--not final--results, was reliable enough to persuade doctors to change their treatment practices. Most physicians have decided to wait for the trial to be completed in 2008 before making any decisions...
...Colon Cancer Keeping colon cancer away may be as simple as taking a calcium supplement. One study reported that patients taking 1,200 mg of the mineral daily for four years had 36% fewer colon polyps, even five years after the trial ended, than those who didn't take calcium. In a separate study, women taking more than 800 mg of calcium every day reduced their risk of colorectal cancer as much...
...Prostate Cancer The sun may be bad for your skin, but it could do wonders for the prostate. A new study found that men with high exposure to the sun had half the risk of prostate cancer than men who spent most of their days indoors. Why? The prostate uses vitamin D--which the body makes in response to sunlight--to help prostate cells grow normally and crowd out cancer cells in the organ...