ER Visits by Underage Drinkers Spike on New Year's

The number of emergency department visits that involved underage drinking jumped by more than 250 percent on New Year's Day two years ago, compared with other days of the year, a new U.S. study reveals. Researchers with the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that an estimated 1,980 emergency visits on Jan. 1, 2009, had something to do with underage drinking. The national average for such visits during the year as a whole was 546 per day.

Compared with other national holidays, the number of admissions on New Year's Day linked to underage drinking was 191 percent higher than on Memorial Day and 110 percent higher than on the Fourth of July, the researchers explained. "This stunning increase in underage drinking-related emergency room visits on New Year's Day should be a wake-up call to parents, community leaders and all caring adults about the potential risks our young people alcohol face for -related accidents, injuries and death during this time of year," Pamela S. Hyde, the agency's administrator, said in a news release.

"Parents, clergy, coaches, teachers and other role models must do everything they can to positively influence young people including talking with them early and often about the many health dangers underage drinking poses to their physical and emotional health and well-being," Hyde urged. Kenneth R. Warren, acting director of the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, described the finding as "very troubling" and said that it was "in line with what we already know about the increase in alcohol-related problems during the winter holidays."

Epilepsy Found to Be More Common in U.S. Than Thought

A new study suggests that one of every 26 people in the United States will develop epilepsy at some point in their life. That's a higher rate than previously believed and, experts say, highlights the need for more funding and attention to the condition. "This study is an important analysis of the potential number of patients of epilepsy in the United States," said Dr. Joseph I. Sirven, the chairman-elect of the Epilepsy Foundation's professional advisory board and a professor and chairman of neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Sirven, who was not involved in the study, noted that it makes two important points:

* Older adults are more at risk for developing epilepsy.

* A greater number of people will develop epilepsy during their lifetime than thought.

"The study suggests up to 12 million Americans will develop epilepsy, which is a greater number than expected," Sirven said. "Moreover, this is a conservative estimate and not the worst case scenario as the lifetime risk would be higher in more urban areas. Clearly, more attention needs to be paid to this condition." The findings are published in the Jan. 4 issue of Neurology. For the study, Dale C. Hesdorffer, an associate professor of clinical epidemiology at Sergievsky Center at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City, and her research colleagues looked for the likelihood of developing epilepsy among residents of Rochester, Minn., between 1960 and 1979.

New Drug Strategy Shows Promise Against HIV

Scientists are reporting early but promising results from a new drug that blocks HIV as it attempts to invade human cells. The approach differs from most current antiretroviral therapy, which tries to limit the virus only after it has gained entry to cells. The medication, called VIR-576 for now, is still in the early phases of development. But researchers say that if it is successful, it might also circumvent the drug resistance that can undermine standard therapy, according to a report published Dec. 22 in Science Translational Medicine.

The new approach is an attractive one for a number of reasons, said Dr. Michael Horberg, director of HIV/AIDS for Kaiser Permanente in Santa Clara, Calif. "Theoretically it should have fewer side effects and there's probably less of a chance of mutation in developing resistance to medication," said Horberg, who was not involved in the study. Viruses replicate inside cells and scientists have long known that this is when they tend to mutate potentially developing new ways to resist drugs. "It's generally accepted that it's harder for a virus to mutate outside cell walls," Horberg explained.

The new drug focuses on HIV at this pre-invasion stage. "VIR-576 targets a part of the virus that is different from that targeted by all other HIV-1 inhibitors," explained study co-author Frank Kirchhoff, a professor at the Institute of Molecular Virology, University Hospital of Ulm in Ulm, Germany, who, along with several other researchers, holds a patent on the new medication. The target is the gp41 fusion peptide of HIV, the "sticky" end of the virus's outer membrane, which "shoots like a 'harpoon'" into the body's cells, the authors said. The launch of this peptide is a first step in the virus's bid to inhabit host cells.

Gene Activity May Affect Acute Myeloid Leukemia Outcome

For acute myeloid leukemia patients, overactive genes in their leukemic stem cells (LSC) can translate into a more difficult struggle to overcome their disease and achieve prolonged remission, new research reveals. "In many cancers, specific subpopulations of cells appear to be uniquely capable of initiating and maintaining tumors," the study authors explained in their report. The researchers identified 52 LSC genes that, when highly active, appear to prompt worse outcomes among acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients.

Between 2005 and 2007, study author Andrew J. Gentles, of Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., and colleagues examined gene activity in a group of AML patients as well as healthy individuals. Separate data concerning AML tumors in four groups of patients (totaling more than 1,000) was also analyzed. In one of the patient groups, the investigators found that higher activity levels among 52 LSC genes meant a 78 percent risk of death within a three-year period. This compared with a 57 percent risk of death in the same time frame for AML patients with lower gene activity among these specific "signature" genes.

In another AML patient group, the research team observed that higher gene activity prompted an 81 percent risk for experiencing a disease set-back over three years, compared with just a 48 percent risk among patients with low gene activity. What's more, Gentles and his colleagues found that higher activity among these 52 LSC genes generally meant a poorer response to chemotherapy treatment and lower remission rates.

Keeping Holiday Drinking in Check May Counter Cancer

Though holiday partying often includes alcohol consumption, cancer experts are urging partiers to partake moderately. "Research shows that drinking even a small amount of alcohol increases your chances of developing cancer, including oral cancer, breast cancer and liver cancer," Clare McKindley, clinical dietician in the Cancer Prevention Center at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, said in a news release from the center.

"Researchers are still trying to learn more about how alcohol links to cancer," she added. "But convincing evidence does support the fact that heavy drinking damages cells and increases the risk for cancer development." To reduce risk, experts say, drinkers can do a number of things. First, stick to the recommended serving size. A drink is defined as 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine or 1.5 ounces of liquor. Women should have no more than one drink a day and men should have no more than two drinks a day, according to the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

Try to avoid high-calorie drinks. Many popular alcoholic drinks are loaded with calories, especially those mixed with soda, fruit juice or cream. A one-cup serving of eggnog, a holiday staple, has about 340 calories. Being overweight or obese is also associated with an increased risk for cancer. Researchers believe that it is the ethanol or alcohol in beer, wine and liquor that increases cancer risk. Check the ethanol percentage numbers on bottle labels and stay away from 100-proof liquor.

Gene Research Brings Insight Into Deadly Childhood Brain Tumor

U.S. scientists have unraveled the genetic code for the most common type of brain cancer in children. Gene sequencing reveals that this tumor, medulloblastoma, or MB, possesses far fewer genetic abnormalities than comparable adult tumors. The discovery that MB has five to 10 times fewer mutations than solid adult tumors could further attempts to understand what triggers the cancer and which treatment is most effective.

"The good news here is that for the first time now we've identified the broken genetic pieces in a pediatric cancer, and found that with MD there are only a few broken parts," said lead author Dr. Victor E. Velculescu, associate professor with the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. "And that means it's potentially easier to intervene and to stop it," he said, likening the cancer to a train that's speeding out of control.

Velculescu and his colleagues, who report their findings in the Dec. 16 online issue of Science, say this is the first time genetic decoding has been applied to a non-adult cancer. Each year this cancer strikes about 1 in every 200,000 children younger than 15 years old. Before migrating through the patient's central nervous system, MBs begin in the cerebellum portion of the brain that is responsible for controlling balance and complicated motor function.

Docs Claim Transplant Cured Man of HIV, But Experts Urge Caution

In a rare case, a man living in Germany who had both leukemia and AIDS no longer has any detectable HIV cells in his blood following a stem cell transplant for his leukemia three years ago. But experts were quick to caution that the case does not have practical implications for the treatment of AIDS worldwide. As it turns out, the donor for that transplant carried a rare mutation in a gene that increases immunity against the most common form of HIV.

First reported in 2009, this follow-up study, published online in the journal Blood, confirms that the recipient patient is still free of both leukemia and HIV three years after the transplant. But one expert issued strong words of caution in interpreting the finding. "Our phones have been ringing off the hook," said Dr. Margaret Fischl, director of the AIDS clinical research unit at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. "We are having patients calling us and asking if they can stop their antiretroviral therapy and the answer is uncategorically no."

The theory is that if you could wipe out every infected cell you could cure HIV, Fischl said, but this is a unique case. The patient had intense chemotherapy and radiation, then relapsed and was given a second transplant from the same donor. The donor was unique in that he had a gene that could fight the most common form of HIV. This mutation is seen in about one in every million people, Fischl explained.

Depression During Pregnancy Might Affect Baby

Babies born to mothers who are depressed during pregnancy have higher levels of stress hormones, decreased muscle tone and other neurological and behavioral differences, a new study finds. "The two possibilities are that  are either more sensitive to stress and respond more vigorously to it, or that they are less able to shut down their stress response," lead investigator Dr. Delia M. Vazquez, a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the University of Michigan School of Medicine, said in a school news release.

She and her colleagues examined the association between depression in pregnant women and the development of infants' neuroendocrine system, which controls the body's stress response, as well as mood and emotions. The study included 154 pregnant women, over the age of 20, whose depressive symptoms were assessed at 28, 32 and 37 weeks of pregnancy and again when they gave birth. Umbilical cord blood samples were taken at birth to measure stress hormone levels. At two weeks, the infants underwent neurobehavioral tests to assess their motor skills and responses to stimuli and stress.

The findings appear online and in an upcoming print issue of the journal Infant Behavior and Development. "It's difficult to say to what extent these differences are good or bad, or what impact they might have over a longer period of time," lead author Dr. Sheila Marcus, clinical director of U-M's Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Section, said in the news release. "We're just beginning to look at these differences as part of a whole collection of data points that could be risk markers," she added. "These in turn would identify women who need attention during pregnancy or mother/infant pairs who might benefit from postpartum programs known to support healthy infant development through mom/baby relationships."

Researchers Turn Stem Cells Into Intestinal Tissue in Lab

Researchers say they've turned human stem cells into functioning human intestinal tissue in a laboratory setting. The study team described its accomplishment as a "significant step" forward in efforts to better understand the function and development of the human intestine. They also expressed hope that the innovation will spur the development of new strategies to combat intestinal diseases, while opening up new avenues for the generation of transplantation tissue.

"The hope is that our ability to turn stem cells into intestinal tissue will eventually be therapeutically beneficial for people with diseases such as necrotizing enterocolitis, inflammatory bowel disease and short bowel syndromes," explained study senior author James Wells, a researcher in the division of developmental biology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, in a hospital news release. Wells and his colleagues report their findings in the Dec. 12 online issue of Nature.

The authors used two types of so-called "pluripotent" stem cells -- cells that have the chameleon-like ability to differentiate into any one of about 200 distinct cell types. Human embryonic stem cells, which are known to have such transformative abilities, were one type. For the other, the researchers looked to "induced" stem cells cells harvested from patients and reprogrammed in the lab to function as pluripotent stem cells. Though less well-tested than embryonic stem cells, induced cells theoretically have the advantage of minimizing the risk for cell rejection when replanted back into the host patient.

Sperm-Producing Cells Coaxed to Produce Insulin

Researchers have been able to prod human cells that normally produce sperm to make insulin instead and, after transplanting them, the cells briefly cured mice with type 1 diabetes. "The goal is to coax these cells into making enough insulin to cure diabetes. These cells don't secrete enough insulin to cure diabetes in humans yet," cautioned study senior researcher G. Ian Gallicano, an associate professor in the department of Biochemistry and Molecular and Cellular Biology, and director of the Transgenic Core Facility at Georgetown University Medical Center, in Washington D.C.

Gallicano and his colleagues will be presenting the findings Sunday at the American Society of Cell Biology annual meeting in Philadelphia. Type 1 diabetes is believed to be an autoimmune disease in which the body mistakenly attacks and destroys the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. As a result, people with type 1 diabetes must rely on insulin injections to be able to process the foods they eat. Without this additional insulin, people with type 1 diabetes could not survive.

Doctors have had some success with pancreas transplants, and with transplants of just the pancreatic beta cells. There are several problems with these types of transplants, however. One is that as with any transplant, when the transplanted material comes from a donor, the body sees the new tissue as foreign and attempts to destroy it. So, transplants require immune-suppressing medications. The other concern is that the autoimmune attack that destroyed the original beta cells can destroy the newly transplanted cells.

Sleep Deprivation May Help Treat PTSD

Sleep deprivation may be therapeutic for some people with post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) and other anxiety disorders, a new study suggests. Previous research has shown that sleep plays a crucial role in the consolidation of memories, and that the development of fear-related memories is an important part of anxiety disorders such as PTSD. In this study, researchers investigated what happened when they deprived people of sleep after they had seen disturbing images. Healthy volunteers were shown video clips of both safe driving and traffic crashes.

Half of the participants were then deprived of sleep while the others got a normal night's sleep. Follow-up assessments showed that sleep deprivation eliminated the fear-associated memories. The study appears in the journal Biological Psychiatry. "Sleep deprivation after exposure to a traumatic event, whether intentional or not, may help prevent PTSD. Our findings may help to clarify the functional role of acute insomnia and to develop a prophylactic strategy of sleep restriction for prevention of PTSD," corresponding author Dr. Kenichi Kuriyama said in a journal news release.

"It would be nice if the benefits of sleep deprivation upon fear learning could be produced more easily for survivors of extreme stress," journal editor Dr. John Krystal, professor and chair of psychiatry at Yale University, said in the news release. "New insights into the neurobiology of sleep-dependent learning may make it possible for these people to take a medication that disrupts this process while leaving restorative elements of sleep intact," he added.

Bone Drug Zometa Flops Overall as Breast Cancer Treatment

The bone drug zoledronic acid, considered a potentially promising weapon against breast cancer recurrence, has flopped in a new study involving more than 3,360 patients. The drug, long used to combat bone loss from osteoporosis, did not appear to prevent breast cancer from returning or to boost disease free survival overall. British researchers presented the disappointing findings Thursday at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in Texas.

"As a whole, the study is negative," study author Dr. Robert Coleman, a professor of medical oncology at the University of Sheffield in England, said during a Thursday news conference on the findings. "There is no overall difference in recurrence rates or survival rates, except in older patients, defined as more than five years after menopause." That was a possible bright spot in the results.

"In that population, there is a benefit," Coleman said. The older women had a 27 percent improvement in recurrence and a 29 percent improvement in overall survival over the five-year follow-up, compared to those who didn't get the drug. "There was tremendous hope that this [drug] approach would be a major leap forward," Coleman noted. "There have been other trials that suggest this is the case." In one previous study, the use of the drug was linked with a 32 percent improvement in survival and lowered recurrence in younger women with breast cancer.

Weight-Lifting After Breast Cancer Won't Cause Lymphedema

Contrary to conventional wisdom, lifting weights doesn't cause breast cancer survivors to develop the painful, arm-swelling condition known as lymphedema, new research suggests. There's a hint that weight-lifting might even help prevent lymphedema, but more research is needed to say that for sure, the researchers said. Breast cancer-related lymphedema is caused by an accumulation of lymph fluid after surgical removal of the lymph nodes and/or radiation. It is a serious condition that may cause arm swelling, awkwardness and discomfort.

"Lymphedema is something women really fear after breast cancer, and the guidance has been not to lift anything heavier even than a purse," said Kathryn H. Schmitz, lead author of the study to be presented Wednesday at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. " to tell women to not use that affected arm without giving them a prescription for a personal valet is an absurdist principle," she added. A previous study done by the same team of researchers found that exercise actually stabilized symptoms among women who already had lymphedema.

"We really wanted to put the last stamp on this to say, 'Hey, it is not only safe but may actually be good for their arms," said Schmitz, who is an associate professor of family medicine and community health at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and a member of the Abramson Cancer Center in Philadelphia. "It's almost like a paradigm shift," said Lee Jones, scientific director of the Duke Cancer Institute's Center for Cancer Survivorship in Durham, N.C. "Low-volume resistance training does not exacerbate lymphedema."

Depressed Smokers Less Likely to Quit Successfully

Smokers trying kick the addiction are less likely to be successful if they're depressed, says a new study. Researchers surveyed callers to the California Smokers' Helpline and found that 24 percent had major depression and 17 percent had mild depression. More than half of the smokers had made an attempt to quit smoking after calling the hotline. After two months, the rate of success of smokers with major depression was far lower than that of smokers who were mildly depressed or not depressed.

Of those who tried to stop smoking, around one in five with major depression had been able to quit and stay smoke-free, compared to nearly one in three people in the other two groups. The findings appear online and in the January 2011 print issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. It was already known that mild depression reduces smokers' chances of quitting. This study suggests that major depression has an even greater impact. But most smoking hotlines also known as quitlines do not evaluate smokers for depression, the researchers noted.

More than 400,000 smokers in the United States call smoking quitlines each year. Based on their findings, the study authors estimated that up to 100,000 depressed smokers are not receiving the targeted treatment they require. "Assessing for depression can predict if a smoker will quit successfully, but the assessment would be more valuable if it were linked to services" that address both smoking and depression, lead author Kiandra Hebert, of the University of California at San Diego, said in a Center for Advancing Health news release.

Daily Aspirin Linked to Steep Drop in Cancer Risk

Long-term use of a daily low-dose aspirin dramatically cuts the risk of dying from a wide array of cancers, a new investigation reveals. Specifically, a British research team unearthed evidence that a low-dose aspirin (75 milligrams) taken daily for at least five years brings about a 10 percent to 60 percent drop in fatalities depending on the type of cancer. The finding stems from a fresh analysis of eight studies involving more than 25,500 patients, which had originally been conducted to examine the protective potential of a low-dose aspirin regimen on cardiovascular disease.

The current observations follow prior research conducted by the same study team, which reported in October that a long-term regimen of low-dose aspirin appears to shave the risk of dying from colorectal cancer by a third. "These findings provide the first proof in man that aspirin reduces deaths due to several common cancers," the study team noted in a news release. But the study's lead author, Prof. Peter Rothwell from John Radcliffe Hospital and the University of Oxford, stressed that "these results do not mean that all adults should immediately start taking aspirin."

"They do demonstrate major new benefits that have not previously been factored into guideline recommendations," he added, noting that "previous guidelines have rightly cautioned that in healthy middle-aged people, the small risk of bleeding on aspirin partly offsets the benefit from prevention of strokes and heart attacks." "But the reductions in deaths due to several common cancers will now alter this balance for many people," Rothwell suggested. Rothwell and his colleagues published their findings Dec. 7 in the online edition of The Lancet.

Blood Cancer Advances May Improve Survival

Advances in the treatment of blood cancers offer new hope for increased survival, according to two studies scheduled to be presented at the American Society of Hematology meeting Saturday in Orlando, Fla. Results from one study suggest that treating multiple myeloma patients with zoledronic acid can improve survival, while another group of researchers are scheduled to report on their progress in treating a particularly aggressive form of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

Zoledronic acid, a type of bisphosphonate, is given to myeloma patients to bolster bone health and reduce the risk for fracture and bone pain that are a common feature of the disease.Although prior research has suggested that zoledronic acid may have a broader anti-cancer effect, the current study finds that a well-tolerated regimen of the drug can reduce the risk of death among myeloma patients.The study is published in the Dec. 4 online edition of The Lancet.

"These data add to growing clinical evidence supporting anti-cancer benefits with zoledronic acid in patients with newly diagnosed cancers," the study team, led by Gareth J. Morgan from the Institute of Cancer Research in London, said in a journal news release. The authors base their conclusions on work with 1,960 multiple myeloma patients, about half of whom were treated with zoledronic acid in combination with either intensive or non-intensive chemotherapy. The other half received clodronic acid and equivalent chemotherapy regimens.

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Common Epilepsy Drug Taken During Pregnancy Might Raise Spina Bifida Risk

Pregnant women with epilepsy who are taking carbamazepine (Tegretol) to control seizures may be at a slightly increased risk of having an infant with spina bifida, a new study finds. Spina bifida is a condition in which the bones of the spine do not close but the spinal cord remains in place, usually with skin covering the defect. Most children will need lifelong treatment for problems arising from damage to the spinal cord and spinal nerves.

"For women with epilepsy, seizure control during pregnancy is very important," said lead researcher Lolkje de Jong van den Berg, from the division of pharmacy at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. "Our study can help in decisions regarding whether carbamazepine should be the drug of choice in pregnancy." However, the best option regarding treatment can be chosen only on an individual basis by the woman and her neurologist before pregnancy, weighing the benefits of epilepsy control against the risk of birth defects, de Jong-van den Berg said.

The report is published in the Dec. 3 online edition of the BMJ. For the study, de Jong-van den Berg's team reviewed existing research to determine the risk of birth defects among women taking Tegretol. The researchers found that infants of women taking Tegretol were 2.6 times more likely to have spina bifida, compared with women not taking any anti-epileptic medication.

Brain Scan Might Someday Spot Autism

A type of brain imaging that measures the circuitry of brain connections may someday be used to diagnose autism, new research suggests. Researchers at McLean Hospital in Boston and the University of Utah used MRIs to analyze the microscopic fiber structures that make up the brain circuitry in 30 males aged 8 to 26 with high-functioning autism and 30 males without autism. Males with autism showed differences in the white matter circuitry in two regions of the brain's temporal lobe: the superior temporal gyrus and the temporal stem. Those areas are involved with language, emotion and social skills, according to the researchers.

Based on the deviations in brain circuitry, researchers could distinguish with 94 percent accuracy those who had autism and those who didn't. Currently, there is no biological test for autism. Instead, diagnosis is done through a lengthy examination involving questions about the child's behavior, language and social functioning. The MRI test could change that, though the study authors cautioned that the results are preliminary and need to be confirmed with larger numbers of patients.

"Our study pinpoints disruptions in the circuitry in a brain region that has been known for a long time to be responsible for language, social and emotional functioning, which are the major deficits in autism," said lead author Nicholas Lange, director of the Neurostatistics Laboratory at McLean Hospital and an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. "If we can get to the physical basis of the potential sources of those deficits, we can better understand how exactly it's happening and what we can do to develop more effective treatments."

FDA Panel to Vote on Drugs Said to Prevent Prostate Cancer

A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel is expected to decide Wednesday whether to approve two drugs for the prevention of prostate cancer, the third highest cancer killer of men. Avodart and Proscar, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline and Merck, respectively, are already approved to treat enlarged prostates. The drug makers say their research shows the drugs also lower the risk of prostate cancer by more than 20 percent. FDA regulators have several concerns, the Associated Press reported. For one thing, black men, who are at high risk for the disease, were underrepresented in the clinical trials.

"The applicability to African-American men is not known due to marked under-representation," the FDA's online review stated. Blacks made up just 4 percent of Merck's patients and only 2 percent of Glaxo's patients, according to the AP. The panel of outside experts assembled by the FDA is also likely to discuss the overall value of preventing low-grade tumors. According to the FDA, more than three-quarters of the tumors the drugs prevent are slow-growing, meaning they are non-aggressive and probably not life-threatening for anyone with a life expectancy of less than 20 years.

If the tumors aren't aggressive, Glaxo has said they often involve unnecessary treatment and biopsies, or surgical procedures, to diagnose cancer, that pose risks of their own. Also, slightly more aggressive tumors were seen in men taking Avodart and Proscar, compared with those taking placebo pills, according to the FDA. But the pharamaceutical companies say the drugs simply make those tumors easier to detect because they shrink the prostate. The U.S. National Cancer Institute estimates that 217,730 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year and 32,050 men will die of it.