What Will '09 Bring In Medicine?

Expert On Likely Directions In Treatment Of Obesity, Cancer, Infections, Brain Diseases, And Aging Skin

(CBS)  Every year, we hear about amazing medical breakthroughs likely to make our lives better and prolong them.

2008 was no different, and we should start seeing the results of some of that work in 2009 in doctors' offices and hospitals across the country.

On The Early Show Saturday Edition, Frances Largeman Roth, a senior editor of Health magazine, explained what's likely in store in medicine in the coming year.

FIGHTING OBESITY

The hot word in obesity for this year is "leptin." When the connection between this hormone and weight loss was first discovered in 1994, researchers helped fat, overfed lab mice stay slim. And they believed they could do with people what they did with mice: inject some leptin, and kiss pounds goodbye. Humans, it turned out, were more complicated. When they lost weight, their bodies became stingier with calories consumed and more efficient in retaining existing weight. Not willing to give up on leptin, scientists at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City started looking at the hormone as a possible weight-loss-maintenance drug. They discovered through scans that brain activity in areas connected to restraint and control declines after weight loss. Hike leptin levels, however, and those brain areas become more active. Researchers now see new possibilities for leptin in long-term weight control.

BREAST CANCER

There have been three big developments in treating breast cancer. The first is an alternative mammogram option. A recent Mayo Clinic study of nearly 1,000 women showed that new, gamma-ray cameras detected three times as many tiny tumors (as small as two-fifths-of-an-inch in diameter) as standard mammography in women with dense breasts. This development gives high-risk women another early-detection option besides mammograms and more expensive MRIs.

The next is an herbal breakthrough, Black Cohosh, a plant in the buttercup family. It's been shown to stop the growth of some breast cancer cells, according to new research conducted by a French pharmaceutical company and funded in part by the National Institutes of health. Researchers attribute the cancer-cell death to the agent triterpene glycoside, which is found in black cohosh extract. Should you take it? Ask your doctor. Past research has shown that black cohosh can interfere with certain kinds of chemotherapy and has some adverse side effects. Plus, studies so far have been done only on mice.

Finally, one-stop radiation: For most breast cancer patients who need radiation, treatments typically last up to six weeks. But a new study raises hopes for a one-day treatment known as "intraoperative electron beam radiation therapy," or IOERT. One researcher has shared the findings of an eight-year randomized trial. The results showed that women who received breast-conserving surgery followed by a single dose of IOERT at the time of surgery had a chance of survival equal to that of women who underwent the surgery followed by six weeks of postoperative radiation therapy.

COLON CANCER

Researchers have found that targeted treatments are saving lives. When oncologists discovered that different genes (BRCA1, BRCA2, HER2) were linked with different types of breast cancer, lifesaving targeted therapies were soon developed. Now, there's similar positive news for people with colon cancer. Until this summer, late-stage colon cancers were treated pretty much the same, but the discovery of a mutated KRAS colon cancer gene has helped change that. As a result, one-size-fits-all chemotherapy is being replaced with more personalized treatment that could save lives.

STAPH INFECTIONS

More hospital patients die from staph infections than from AIDS each year. But there's a breakthrough in the way hospitals will treat those infections in the future. New prevention and treatment options for the bug known officially as methicillin-resisten staphylococcus aureus have emerged.

One is a protective nasal gel (XF-73), designed to kill the microbes early on, upon contact, with every breath. Past anti-MRSA drugs focused on preventing bacteria from spreading or stunting the bacteria's growth. Also, surgeons began experimenting on animals this year with MRSA-fighting stitches coated with a virus that fights the MRSA bug but doesn't affect humans. Each tiny hole for stitches is a potential entry point for MRSA or other stubborn infections, so the idea of fortifying dozens of these sites to prevent chances of future infection is brilliant.

BRAIN DISEASES

Scientists in England this spring won permission from British medical authorities to create new embryos called cytoplasmic hybrids, eggs from rabbits or cows that have had their nuclei replaced with human genetic code. The United Kingdom puts far fewer restrictions on stem cell use in federal research than the United States does. No Frankensteins at work here: The goal is to produce stem cells that will help determine the causes of and find treatments for incurable and debilitating conditions such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

AGING SKIN

A landmark review by doctors at the University of Michigan Medical School published earlier this year in the prestigious Archives of Dermatology verified that three leading skin-renewal treatments are all, indeed, medically effective. Carbon dioxide laser resurfacing? Check. Topical retinol products? Check (at concentrations between 0.2 and 0.6 percent). Injections of hyaluronic acid? Check. Each of these three anti-aging treatments can improve skin by strengthening what's called its "dermal collagen matrix." The biggest surprise to researchers? The filler, hyaluronic acid, can also boost the creation of collagen when delivered by syringe. Doctors had previously thought its value was strictly cosmetic, not medical.

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AGING SKIN Synthetic drugs are a <a href="http://www.healthyscript.com">health</a>

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AGING SKIN Synthetic drugs are a <a href="http://www.healthyscript.com">health</a>

[rf35]

Any real breakthrough will be, as always, quickly bought, patented, and buried by whichever pharma corp can get their hands on it first. They can''t have any actual cures cutting off the cash flow from the life-long "treatments" they peddle.

[sparks224]

"Canadians are fed up with their........."
Posted by deweyhowe

Where do you get your information?

I''ve never met any Canadians who are "fed up" with their healthcare system.
I''ve me a lot of Americans who are fed up with theirs.

[sparks224]

I''m from canada and you are sadly mistaken about our medical system. We have a far superior medical system than the US. We want for nothing. They even pay for things like hearing aids. If we need urgent care, we get it. We wait a week or so for a regular appointment if it''''s for routine tests and followups. I''d put my medical care up to yours anyday. You people are brainwashed by your insurance companies who are making bank on your premiums. Wake up America. You are SO easily fooled.
Posted by quiltfanatic

deweyhowe,
would you care to respond?

[deweyhowe]

Canadians are fed up with their state-run health care system which was put in place in the 1970s. In fact, 93 percent of those polled last month said that improving health care should be the government''s top priority. In another poll, 74 percent of respondents supported the idea of user fees -- which have been outlawed since 1984.

State-managed medicine has led to not enough doctors, nurses or hospital beds to meet the demand.

On one recent day, emergency rooms in 23 of Toronto''s 25 hospitals had to turn away ambulances -- and police officers had to shoot to death a distraught father who had taken a doctor hostage in an attempt to get treatment for his sick baby.

In Winnipeg, "hallway medicine" has become so common that hallway stretcher locations have permanent numbers.

Ambulances filled with ill patients have repeatedly stacked up this winter in the parking lot of Vancouver General Hospital, where an estimated 20 percent of patients in the midst of heart attacks must wait an hour or more for treatment.

Waiting lists for surgery in some Canadian hospitals can stretch from months to as long as five years.

Western medicine has failed us all. Synthetic drugs are a health disaster that leads to so many kidney failure and liver failure.

[quiltfanatic1]

I''m from canada and you are sadly mistaken about our medical system. We have a far superior medical system than the US. We want for nothing. They even pay for things like hearing aids. If we need urgent care, we get it. We wait a week or so for a regular appointment if it''s for routine tests and followups. I''d put my medical care up to yours anyday. You people are brainwashed by your insurance companies who are making bank on your premiums. Wake up America. You are SO easily fooled.

[sparks224]

What Will ''09 Bring In Medicine?

Who cares. No one can afford it anyway.
(Except in Canada, Europe, Japan, etc...)

[amrt5016]

So where will Canadians go for services that are rationed????
Posted by Xlib at 01:28 PM : Dec 27, 2008

I''m sure they can get those anywhere if they are willing to pay out of pocket. Even in Canada.

[xlib]

So where will Canadians go for services that are rationed????

[wl7bzh]

After the fact medical therapies are not what is needed.
Health promotion/disease prevention is what is needed, but there are two reasons nobody wants it:

1. The public doesn''t want it because it costs in discipline such as diet, exercise and immunizations. The American public would rather go to a physician, pay the "sin tax" and get the physician to repair the damage-literally have their cake and eat it too.

2. Physicians are getting out of primary care because they can''t charge the patient exorbitant fees when lifestyle effects aren''t plainly visible.
The money for physicians is in "specialties" dealing with and repairing a lifetime of unhealthy living and aging.

Quiet simply, it is more effective to put the monetary medical gun to the patients head when there is suffering and/or impending death.

And you thought prostitution was a questionable business?-maybe if they just wore white coats.

Yea, I had the fantasy of the nurse in the skimpy outfit too.