FDA approves Roche skin cancer drug

U.S. health regulators on Monday approved Roche’s pill to treat an advanced form of the most common form of skin cancer, known as basal cell carcinoma.

The drug, Erivedge, which was co-developed by Curis Inc, was given a green light by the Food and Drug Administration more than a month ahead of the expected March 8 decision date. It was…

Bird flu claims second victim in China

A man in southwest China who contracted the bird flu virus died on Sunday, health authorities said, the second human death from the virulent disease in the country in just under a month.

The news comes after neighbouring Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia also reported deaths from avian influenza, and after chickens tested positive for the H5N1 virus in Hong Kong,…

For Older Women, Year Following Hip Fracture Can Be Especially Deadly

Women age 65 and older who fracture a hip are much more likely to die from any cause during the following year than they would be if they had avoided injury, a new study suggests.

The increased risk of death associated with hip fractures was especially dramatic among younger women. In the 65- to 69-year-old age group,…

Depression Increases Risk of Stroke

People with depression are more likely to have a stroke than their mentally healthy peers, and their strokes are more likely to be fatal, according to a new analysis published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Depression is a relatively minor risk factor for stroke compared to high blood pressure (hypertension) and other health conditions and…

Diabetes Doubles Alzheimer’s Risk

People with diabetes are at increased risk of having a heart attack or stroke at an early age. But that’s not the only worry: Diabetes appears to dramatically increase a person’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease or other types of dementia later in life, according to a new study conducted in Japan.

In the study, which included more than…

Lung Cancer Rates Begin to Decline for U.S. Women

The rate of new lung cancer cases among American women is finally beginning to decline, much as it has for men in for years, a new U.S. government report shows.

New cases of lung malignancies fell by 2.2 percent per year on average for women between 2006 and 2008, after rising an average of 0.5 percent between 1999 and…

Teen Driving Restrictions Fail to Curb Fatal Crashes

State laws that place restrictions on teenage drivers and require them to “graduate” from an intermediate license to a full license do seem to prevent fatal crashes involving teens, but only among the youngest drivers.

A new analysis of national crash data published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that between 1986 and 2007,…

Depressed People Often Hide Symptoms from Doctors

Family doctors and other primary care physicians are often the first health professionals to learn that a patient is depressed, but that doesn’t mean they identify all of the depression cases that walk through their offices.

Far from it: A new survey of California adults has found that 43% of people would keep their depression symptoms to themselves…

Stress, Dust of 9/11 Linked to Acid Reflux

People exposed to the terror and dust of the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center have higher rates of asthma and post-traumatic stress than those who were further away from Ground Zero. But they also have high rates of a less obvious health problem: heartburn.

A new study of more than 37,000 adults who worked at Ground Zero or…

Study Highlights 5 Keys to Diabetes Prevention

Would you be willing to change one aspect of your life—such as eating healthier or exercising more—if you knew it would reduce your likelihood of developing diabetes? Would you make two, three, or five lifestyle changes to bring down those chances even more?

Every little bit helps, a new government study suggests. Meeting just one of five key health…

How to Prevent the Freshman 15

So many first-year college students gain unwanted pounds that the so-called Freshman 15 is the subject of a new MTV reality show. (They’re auditioning now.) But the phenomenon, say experts, is probably a misnomer. According to a 2008 study in the journal Eating Behaviors, female college students who gain weight during their first year actually gain an…