Rosling and Drops Some Mad Stats.

I find this guy fascinating.  And while practical, he's not a hysteric pessimist, which is refreshing.  I generally prefer looking at history with a wide view, and this is a beautiful visualization of one aspect of that view. 

-Matt

Finnish new treatment reduces breast cancer deaths by one third

HELSINKI, Jan. 28 -- Finnish cancer researchers have had an important breakthrough in the treatment of breast cancer, according to Finnish media reports on Thursday.

The new treatment developed in Finland reduces the renewal risk of aggressive breast cancer and the consequent deaths by as much as a third.

In the treatment the Finnish researchers targeted a protein called HER2. HER2 is a growth factor protein, which transmits growth signals to breast cancer cells. The protein is the cause of the so-called HER-positive breast cancer. This cancer type is often difficult and aggressive and it has a strong tendency to send metastases to other parts of the body. About 15 percent of all the breast cancer patients suffer from this aggressive type.

If the renewal risk of the cancer is significant, cytostatic treatment is commenced after the operation. This lowers the risk of renewal of the cancer by 40 percent among patients under the age of 50. The risk of dying of the illness is cut down by 30 percent. For the HER-positive breast cancer patients, the Finnish researchers also gave trastuzumab in connection with their cytostatic treatment. Trastuzumab blocks the effects of the growth factor protein HER2 by binding to it.

Previously similar treatments have been experimented with elsewhere in regimens that have lasted for a year and a half. What is distinctive to the Finnish regimen is its shortness. The treatment only lasts for nine weeks.

"The new treatment form, trastuzumab, is one of the greatest advances in the past 15-20 years in the field of breast cancer research," said Petri Bono, chief physician at the Department of Medical Oncology, Helsinki University Hospital.

The Finnish study's results were astoundingly good. Five years after contracting the illness, 92.5 percent of the patients were still alive without the re-emergence of the cancer. The risks of renewal of the cancer or deaths caused by it were reduced by a third.

Encouraged by the results, a large-scale international follow- up research program has been launched.

Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer among women. Around 1.3 million women around the globe contract the illness each year. Around 4,100 Finnish women will contract breast cancer each year.

UCF professor's vaccine could be lethal weapon against malaria, cholera

Mankind may finally have a weapon to fight two of the world's deadliest diseases. A University of Central Florida biomedical researcher has developed what promises to be the first low-cost dual vaccine against malaria and cholera.

There is no FDA approved vaccine to prevent malaria, a mosquito-borne illness that kills more than 1 million people annually. Only one vaccine exists to fight cholera, a diarrheal illness that is common in developing countries and can be fatal. The lone vaccine is too expensive to prevent outbreaks in developing countries after floods, and children lose immunity within three years of getting the current vaccine.

"I'm very encouraged because our technique works well and provides an affordable way to get vaccines to people who need them most and can least afford them," said lead scientist Henry Daniell.

Daniell's team genetically engineered tobacco and lettuce plants to produce the vaccine. Researchers gave mice freeze-dried plant cells (orally or by injection) containing the vaccine. They then challenged the mice with either the cholera toxin or malarial parasite. The malaria parasite studies were completed in fellow UCF professor Debopam Chakrabarti's lab.

Untreated rodents contracted diseases quickly, but the mice who received the plant-grown vaccines showed long-lasting immunity for more than 300 days (equivalent to 50 human years).

Results from the National Institutes of Health-funded research are published in this month's Plant Biotechnology, the top-ranked journal in the field.

Clinical trials are needed, and Daniell is hopeful that the results with mice will translate to humans. It could be yet another example of plants delivering life-saving medicines.

The dual vaccine follows a string of other "green" vaccines developed in Daniell's lab. He's created vaccines against anthrax and black plague that generated a congratulatory call from the top U.S. homeland security official and was featured on the Discovery Channel. He's also successfully grown insulin in plants to find what could be a long-lasting cure for diabetes. Daniell's team continues to research these vaccines and is looking for investors to help fund clinical trials.

Producing vaccines in plants is less expensive than traditional methods because it requires less labor and technology, Daniell said.

"We're talking about producing mass quantities for pennies on the dollar," he said. "And distribution to mass populations would be easy because it could be made into a simple pill, like a vitamin, which many people routinely take now. There is no need for expensive purification, cold storage, transportation or sterile delivery via injections."

For Daniell, his research is more than his day job. His passion to find vaccines for the world's top 10 diseases as defined by the World Health Organization comes from growing up in India. He watched many of his childhood friends contract malaria, cholera and other diseases.

Daniell, a father of two, joined UCF's Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences in the College of Medicine in 1998. His research led to the formation of the university's first biotechnology company. Daniell also became only the 14th American in the last 222 years to be elected the Italian National Academy of Sciences. In 2007 he was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences.

"I'm not done yet," he said. "I still have more diseases to attack."
Source: University of Central Florida

Low-carbo diet better than low-fat to lower blood pressure

A low-carbohydrate diet may be better than a low-fat diet plus the weight-loss drug orlistat for its effect on helping lower blood pressure, a new study in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine said.

Reseachers in U.S. picked up 146 overweight or obese adults who were randomly assigned to a low-carbohydrate diet or orlistat with a low-fat diet.

The average age of the study participants was 52 and the average body-mass index was 39 (30 and over is considered obese). Orlistat was marketed as Xenical, a prescription medication, and Alli, available over the counter.

The low-carb diet began with a carbohydrate intake of less than 20 grams of carbohydrates a day. The group taking orlistat received a 120-milligram dose of the drug three times daily and got less than 30 percent of their calories from fat.

Over 48 weeks, the low-carbohydrate group lost 9.5 percent of their body weight, while the orlistat group lost 8.5 percent. Insulin and glucose markers improved only in the low-carb group, and there was a significant drop in blood pressure in the low-carb group compared to the orlistat group. Similar reductions were seen for diastolic blood pressure.

"Weight loss was similar but substantial in both groups we studied, but blood pressure improved more in the low-carb dieters," said study author Dr. William Yancy Jr., an associate professor of medicine at Duke University Medical Center and a staff physician at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Durham, N.C.

"There are options out there. Pick a diet you think you could stick to better, and work with your physician to help you target the right intervention for you," he advised.

Yancy said the blood pressure and cholesterol drops might have been even more impressive if people had stayed on their medications, but as they lost weight and normalized these readings, the doctors took them off blood-pressure and cholesterol drugs.

Obesity is a significant inducement to many illnesses, including heart disease, stroke, diabetes and many cancers.

"There are many paths to weight loss," said registered dietitian Karen Congro, director of the Wellness for Life Program at The Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York City. What often makes the difference in whether or not a diet is successful, she said, is whether or not there's a counseling and support component to the plan.

These studies show that you don't necessarily need to get to your "ideal body weight" to make substantial improvements to your health, she said. Losing 5 percent to 10 percent of your body weight can make positive changes in blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose control.

"If it can make you a healthier person, then a diet is a success," said Congro.

(Agencies)

Salt reduction could save 92,000 lives a year

BEIJING, Jan. 22 -- Shaving three grams off the daily salt intake of Americans could prevent up to 66,000 strokes, 99,000 heart attacks and 92,000 deaths in the United States, while saving 24 billion U.S. dollars in health costs per year, researchers reported on Wednesday.

Shaving three grams off the daily salt intake of Americans could prevent up to 66,000 strokes, 99,000 heart attacks and 92,000 deaths in the United States.

The benefit to the U.S. population would be comparable to cutting smoking by 50 percent, significantly lowering obesity rates and giving cholesterol drugs to virtually everyone to prevent heart attacks, said Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo of the University of California, San Francisco and colleagues.

Such a goal, they said, is readily attainable.

Salt, which contributes to high blood pressure and heart disease, is widely overused in the United States, with 75 to 80 percent coming from processed food. Men typically consume 10.4 grams per day. For women, the average is 7.3 grams. Its use is rising.

A reduction of 1 gram would prevent 11,000 to 23,000 strokes, 18,000 to 35,000 heart attacks and 15,000 to 32,000 deaths from any cause, the researchers reported in New England Journal of Medicine.

Women would benefit the most.

"Even if the federal government were to bear the entire cost of a regulatory program designed to reduce salt consumption, the government would still be expected to realize cost savings for Medicare, saving $6 to $12 in health expenditures for each dollar spent on the regulatory program," the researchers wrote.

In a commentary, Dr. Lawrence Appel and Cheryl Anderson of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore said the new study may be underestimating the benefits.

They said it did not take into account how it would help children or the fact that lower salt intake may reduce the risk of stomach cancer, kidney disease, congestive heart failure and osteoporosis.

(Agencies)

A/H1N1 flu death toll reaches 224 in Egypt

Egyptian television crew members wear protective masks during a news conference at the American University in Cairo June 9, 2009.

CAIRO, Jan. 17 -- Egypt on Sunday reported five more death cases of influenza A/H1N1, bringing the nationwide death toll to 224, said the Health Ministry in a statement.

The dead cases came from the governorates of Gharbiya, Sohag, Port Said, Beni Suef and Giza, said the statement.

Up till now, Egypt has reported more than 15,000 cases of the novel flu, according to the Health Ministry.

Egypt confirmed its first influenza A/H1N1 death case on July 19. A 28-year-old Egyptian woman, who was back from Saudi Arabia after making Umrah (pilgrimage to Mecca at any time of the year), died of the flu virus.
(Reuters)