Bone drug hope for breast cancer patients

Doctors were mostly hoping to prevent complications and relapses when they gave young women a medicine to keep their bones strong during breast cancers treatment. Seven years later, they found it did more than that: The bone drug improved survival, as much as much chemotherapy does. The study found a 37 percent lower risk of death among women who received the bone drug, Zometa. In absolute terms, it meant that 4 to 5 more women out of every 100 were alive seven years later. It’s especially impressive considering that the women took the drug, given as an infusion every six months, for only three years.

Zometa (zow-MAY-tuh) should now be offered to all patients like those in this study – younger women forced into early menopause by hormone-blocking cancer treatments, some specialists said. Bone drugs called bisphosphonates have long been sold for treating osteoporosis. Those are daily pills. Zometa, made by the Swiss company Novartis AG, is given intravenously to treat breast cancers that has spread to the bone. All had surgery followed by hormone blockers, and half also received Zometa. Now, with seven years of follow-up, researchers see that Zometa not only helped keep cancer from coming back, but also improved survival. There were 33 deaths among women given the bone drug and 49 among those not treated with it. That magnitude of benefit is comparable to many chemotherapy treatments. Researchers think because Zometa strengthens bones, it’s tougher for cancer to spread there and the drug may also have direct effects against circulating cancer cells or microscopic tumors.

Zometa’s side effects were mostly fever and bone and joint pain, and doctors saw no cases of jawbone decay, a serious problem long linked to bisphosphonates. Zometa costs more than $1,000 in the U.S. and about half as much in Europe, though the price may drop when its U.S. patent expires in 2013. Novartis helped pay for the study and Gnant consults for the company. The bone drug proved disappointing though in a large study last year in postmenopausal women, who account for three-fourths of all breast cancers. But there was a glimmer of hope in the oldest patients.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MED_BREAST_CANCER_BONE_DRUGS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-12-08-18-14-34

Afrin Side Effects

Watch out for Afrin Side Effects

Suffering a nasal congestion is really uncomfortable for people because it affects their breathing. Never mind that it is caused by allergy, deviated septum, chronic sinus infections, polyps or only extreme cold, once people have this problem, they tend to look for effective and immediate medicine to relief their pain. For this reason, people like to use nasal decongestant spray since they work directly to relief the pain from its source. One of the well known over the counter product for this kind of medication is Afrin. Many people like to use Afrin because it can relieve their nasal congestion very quickly. However, only few people know that there are some Afrin side effects that can cause more impairment to their nasal congestion problem.

Like other nasal decongestant sprays, Afrin works by making the blood vessels and spongy tissue inside the nose to recoil, but it is only for a temporary time. After a few hours, the blood vessel and spongy tissue will spring back bigger than before it was recoiled and cause more serious nasal congestion than before. Nonetheless, many people have not understood this Afrin side effect and often go back using the spray which of course will give nothing except a continuing cycle of nasal congestion. This is the most serious problem of Afrin side effects because the more times we repeat using it the more serious nasal congestion problems we will get.

Another side effect of Afrin is that it can increase the heart rate and blood pressure of the users. People with heart problem and blood pressure problem are the first people who must avoid using Afrin because of this side effect. One more effect is that it can also cause urinary problem. Therefore, it can be concluded that this spray is bad not only for our congestion problem but also for our overall health.

There are some other ways to relief nasal congestion if we want to avoid Afrin side effects. Among of them are by using saline spray, and neti pot. Old fashioned as it is, neti pot is a good solution which we can do easily and without so much bad effects. You can have neti pot with hot shower more than once a day for many days and it is no problem, unlike Afrin which cannot be taken for more than three days at a time. It is true that neti pot can only irrigate your nasal congestion and cannot cure infection, but it can give you the same relief you are looking for, as well as prevent your self from Afrin side effects.