Health

Bausch & Lomb settles 600 eye fungus lawsuits

Contact lens maker Bausch & Lomb Inc. had an overriding reason for going private in 2007: It wanted to handle a devastating recall of its flagship lens cleaner, its chief executive said, “without a lot of outside distraction.”

More than 700 lens wearers in the United States and Asia say they were exposed to a potentially blinding infection known as Fusarium keratitis while using ReNu with MoistureLoc, a new-formula multipurpose solution for cleaning, storing and moistening soft contact lenses.

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Immune therapies finally working against cancer

Researchers are reporting their first big successes in getting the immune system to fight cancer, after 30 years of false starts.

Doctors say one of those vaccines, which is made by Biovest International Inc., can keep a common form of lymphoma from getting worse for more than a year compared to standard treatments.

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Some antidepressants may risk breast cancer return

Breast cancer survivors risk having their disease come back if they use certain antidepressants while also taking the cancer prevention drug tamoxifen, worrisome new research shows.

Doctors have long known that some antidepressants and other medicines can lower the amount of tamoxifen’s active form in the bloodstream.

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Scientists find bacterial zoo thrives in our skin

Eeeww. There’s a zoo full of critters living on your skin a bacterial zoo, that is. Consider your underarm a rain forest. Healthy skin is home to a much wider variety of bacteria than scientists ever knew, says the first big census of our co-inhabitants. And that’s not a bad thing, said genetics specialist Julia Segre of the National Institutes of Health, who led the research.

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Progress in fighting lung cancer

Cancer specialists, gathered for an annual meeting, are reporting progress in the fight against lung cancer, the most common and deadliest form of cancer, but little progress in treating colorectal cancer.

The first study showed how the combination of two anti-cancer treatments following standard chemotherapy can slow the advance of lung cancer.

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Many teens wired, caffeinated well past bedtime

Caffeine-fueled teens are texting, Web-surfing and gaming for hours into the night, which is affecting their alertness and ability to function during the day, a new study in Pediatrics shows.

She and her colleagues found that the more multitasking a teen did, the more likely he or she was to be dozing off during the day, while the kids who nodded off were also the heaviest caffeine consumers.

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Chemo Alone Is Best for Advanced Colon Cancer

Surgery is no longer the best treatment option for most patients with advanced colorectal cancer that has spread to other organs, a new study suggests.

However, “if the colon tumor is not causing obstruction, perforation or bleeding weve found these patients are best treated with chemotherapy. By moving straight to chemotherapy, patients can avoid the risk of surgical complications and can start treatment for all sites of disease without delay,” study author Philip Paty, a surgical oncologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, said in a news release issued by the center.

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Avastin Shows No Benefit Against Early Stage Colon Cancer

The cancer drug Avastin, widely used for lung, breast and metastatic colorectal cancers, appears ineffective for patients with early stage colon cancer, a result the trials lead author called “disappointing.”

But at a news conference, held Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Orlando, Fla.

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Drug Combo Proves Powerful Against Lung Cancer

A two-drug combination treatment proved successful in safely slowing advanced non-small cell lung cancer in a recent clinical trial.

Non-small cell lung cancer, often linked to past tobacco use, is the most common of all lung cancers, according to the National Cancer Institute.

In the study, a phase 3 trial involving 768 people with the disease, those who had erlotinib (Tarceva) added to their dose of the bevacizumab (Avastin) saw the progression of the disease slow more than if on bevacizumab alone.

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Experts Optimistic About Melanoma Vaccine

A vaccine for advanced melanoma has shown promise in a new study.

The study, a phase 3 clinical trial involving 185 people, found that using the peptide vaccine in combination with the immunotherapy drug Interleukin-2 improved response rates and progression-free survival, according to University of Texas M.

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