Health Highlights: Feb. 3, 2009
Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:
Cancer Leading Killer in Developing Nations: Report
Cancer now claims more lives in developing countries each year than malaria, tuberculosis or AIDS, according to a report issued in advance of World Cancer Day on Wednesday.
In 2008, more than 12 million new cancer cases were diagnosed worldwide and 7.6 million people died of cancer, Agence France Presse reported.
Developing nations accounted for more than half of all new global cancer cases and about 60 percent of cancer deaths, according to the report from health foundation and consultancy Axios International.
"Cancer in the developing world is a hidden crisis that goes largely unreported, undiagnosed and untreated," said study co-author David Kerr, a professor of clinical pharmacology and cancer therapeutics at the University of Oxford in the U.K., AFP reported.
"Cancer survival rates in developing countries are exceptionally poor. Lack of awareness, stigma and reliance on traditional healers mean most people do not seek medical help until their disease is advanced, and often incurable," Kerr said.
-----
Peanut Corp. Ran Unlicensed Plant in Texas: Report
The company blamed for the nationwide salmonella outbreak that has sickened more than 500 people has a peanut processing plant in Texas that operated for years without being inspected or licensed by government health officials, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.
State health records obtained by the news service show Peanut Corp. of America's plant in Plainview wasn't inspected until the U.S. Food and Drug Administration linked the salmonella outbreak to the company's plant in Blakely, Ga.
The Plainview plant, which hadn't been inspected since it opened in March 2005, was found to be salmonella-free by state and federal health officials who checked out the facility a few weeks ago.
Even so, the case raises questions about the adequacy of government oversight of food safety, according to the AP.
-----
Donor's Kidney Removed Through Vagina
A kidney from a female donor was removed through her vagina by surgeons at Johns Hopkins University, the Associated Press reported. It's believed to be a world-first in kidney transplantation.
This technique meant the 48-year-old donor didn't require an abdominal incision, which normally leaves a 5- to 6-inch scar. The kidney was given to the woman's niece and both patients are doing well, hospital officials said.
They said this type of transvaginal kidney removal has been done before to remove cancerous or other nonfunctioning kidneys, but has never been used for healthy kidney donation, the AP reported.
The Jan. 29 operation left the donor with three pea-sized scars on her abdomen. The surgeons said they're hopeful this kind of procedure will persuade more people to become organ donors.
-----
Human-Animal Embryos Won't Produce Stem Cells: Study
Placing human DNA into cow or rabbit eggs in order to make hybrid cloned embryos to produce stem cells for research doesn't work because the animal eggs don't reprogram human DNA in the correct way to generate stem cells, U.S. researchers say.
"Instead of turning on the right genes, it turns out the animal eggs actually turn them off," senior study author Dr. Robert Lanza, of Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester, Mass., told the Associated Press.
The findings were published online Monday in the journal Cloning and Stem Cells.
Scientists would like to find a way to use animal eggs because it's difficult to get human eggs for research. While some scientists have managed to create human-animal hybrid embryos, there's no widely accepted report of harvesting stem cells from them, the AP said.
The U.S. researchers' conclusions were disputed by a British scientist who has government permission to attempt to create hybrid embryos.
"The idea that this is the nail in the coffin for hybrids is grossly overstated," said Stephen Minger of King's College, London, the AP reported.
