Category:

Doctor News

5 workout tips to keep you motivated in cold weather

by Vaishali Sharma December 2, 2022

written by Vaishali Sharma

Even the most devoted athletes may find it more difficult to get outside during the winter to jog or work out than they do when it’s bright and beautiful outside.

Exercise regimens might be seriously disrupted by this season. In addition to making us more slothful, the winter months slow down weight loss because we sweat less. Follow these suggestions on how to motivate yourself to stay active when the weather gets colder if your aim is to remove as many barriers as you can and make small changes that can make staying active easier until warmer times arrive.

Stretching indoors

Practising stretching inside can help increase your body temperature before you step out to work out. This helps reduce feeling cold as soon as you leave your house. Do some brisk stretches before wearing your cold-weather clothing.

Right activewear

In a humid climate, people opt for cotton clothing as it absorbs moisture (sweat). But in winter, you want to avoid that because if your clothes are soaked in moisture, it will leave you feeling colder. So go for sports clothing made from cotton-mix or synthetic fibre since they soak 50 per cent less moisture compared to cotton.

Pump the jams

Make a pump-up mix or find a groovy one on Spotify. Whether you’re feeling ’90s hip-hop or the Encanto soundtrack, exercising to your favourite tunes will help you get more out of your workout both mentally and physically.

Set a goal

Try setting a goal for the warmer weather months. Maybe there is a race you want to run in early spring. Or maybe you have a vacation coming up and want to be ready to hike long distances. Knowing your goal is just around the corner can keep you motivated during the winter months.

Workout with companion

Working out can be much more fun if you are bound to see a friend or workout partner whose company you enjoy. Furthermore, you are less likely to skip working out when you are aware someone is looking forward to seeing you because you committed to seeing them.

December 2, 2022 0 comment

Mental health

Researchers test promising tech treatment for youth depression

by Vaishali Sharma December 2, 2022

written by Vaishali Sharma

The outcomes of recent research on neurotechnological methods for treating teenage depression are encouraging. The study’s principal investigator, Faranak Farzan, a professor at Simon Fraser University (SFU), oversaw its publication in the Journal of Affective Disorders Reports.

The use of brain stimulation followed by a cognitive exercise to treat Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) in 26 teenagers was evaluated for its clinical and neurophysiological effects (aged 16 – 24 years old). Adult depression has previously been demonstrated to be quickly and effectively treated with theta-burst stimulation (TBS), a form of brain stimulation.

The prefrontal cortex of the brain is stimulated by magnetic pulses or bursts used in TBS. Many cognitive processes, including thinking, problem-solving, understanding, and impulse control, are controlled by this area of the brain. Additionally, it is a part of the brain that has been connected to MDD. For instance, prefrontal brain impairment has been connected to signs like rumination and suicide thoughts.

For four weeks, TBS was employed in this investigation to specifically target the prefrontal cortex in young volunteers. The researchers then saw and tracked alterations in brain activity using a multimodal brain mapping approach that combines electroencephalography and transcranial magnetic stimulation.

Depressive and rumination ratings decreased as a result of changes in brain activity.

We require more therapy options: According to Farzan, a professor at SFU’s School of Mechatronic Systems Engineering, “Major Depressive Disorder affects roughly 11% of teenagers and young adults, yet current therapies, such as medication and/or psychotherapy, fail to meaningfully relieve symptoms in about 30 to 50% of instances” (MSE). She is also the director of SFU’s brand-new eBrain Lab and holds the chair in technology innovations for youth addiction recovery and mental health.

Researchers point out that some drugs have also been linked to adverse consequences in children, including suicidal thoughts and behaviours, which has prompted the quest for less dangerous therapeutic choices.

Building on previous research: Previous research has shown a link between dysfunction of the prefrontal cortex and MDD. “Using TMS-EEG brain mapping technology, we also found that the prefrontal cortex in youth with MDD exhibited greater brain activity relative to healthy youth. It was very interesting to see in the current study that four weeks of TBS treatment seemed to reduce this excessive brain activity, possibly reflecting a return to a ‘healthy’ state,” says SFU doctoral student Prabhjot Dhami, the study’s first author.

Prefrontal cortex impairments in youth with MDD may also contribute to symptoms such as rumination and suicidal ideation/behaviour, Farzan notes. Since the prefrontal cortex is critical for executive functioning, dysfunction or deficits in this region can lead to the onset and maintenance of depressive symptoms.

The combination of prefrontal cortex-targeted TBS and a cognitive exercise that may potentially stimulate this brain region, according to the researchers, has the potential to maximise the prefrontal cortex’s influence on young people with MDD and more successfully reduce symptoms.

December 2, 2022 0 comment

General Surgery News

Excess oxygen during surgery linked to higher risk of organ damage: Study

by Vaishali Sharma December 2, 2022

written by Vaishali Sharma

According to a significant US study, giving patients too much oxygen during surgery increases the risk of later kidney, heart, and lung damage.

The results of the investigation were released in The BMJ. According to specialists in a related editorial, this study implies it may be time to reevaluate the liberal use of oxygen during general anaesthesia, even though the absolute risk is still modest.

Nearly all patients undergoing surgery under general anaesthesia get oxygen frequently to assist prevent hypoxia (dangerously low oxygen levels), and the World Health Organization suggests using oxygen liberally to lower the risk of infection.

During surgery, arterial blood haemoglobin oxygen saturation (SpO2) is continuously measured, enabling doctors to adjust the dose of oxygen to a target level. A normal SpO2 is 94-95 per cent. Giving oxygen in excess of that required to saturate haemoglobin – known as supraphysiological oxygen – is common.

Supraphysiological oxygen can harm the body’s cells and tissues, but the clinical relevance of these effects during surgery remains uncertain, and previous trials have not been able to detect any meaningful effects on organs.

To address this knowledge gap, a team of US researchers examined whether supraphysiological oxygen administration during surgery is associated with lower or higher postoperative kidney, heart, and lung injury.

Their findings are based on data for over 350,000 patients (average age 59; 52 per cent women; 70 per cent white) undergoing surgery with general anaesthesia and endotracheal intubation (a breathing tube placed into the windpipe) at 42 medical centres across the United States between January 2016 and November 2018.

Background information on factors such as age, sex, race, weight (BMI), and medical history was collected, and patients were screened for kidney, heart, and lung injury before and after their surgery.

The researchers then used an algorithm to calculate the amount of oxygen given above air level (21 per cent) against the time spent with oxygen saturation at or above 92 per cent throughout surgery.

Medical records were used to track cases of acute kidney, myocardial, and lung injury as well as 30 day mortality, hospital length of stay, and stroke.

The average duration of surgery was 205 minutes. Acute kidney injury was diagnosed in 6.5 per cent of patients, myocardial injury in 2.8 per cent, and lung injury in 4.4 per cent.

After accounting for baseline factors and other potentially influential variables, increased oxygen exposure during surgery was associated with a higher risk of organ injury.

For example, patients at the upper end (75th centile) of oxygen levels had 26 per cent greater odds of acute kidney injury, 12 per cent greater odds of myocardial injury, and 14 per cent greater odds of lung injury compared with patients at the lower end (25th centile).

Patients at the 75th centile of oxygen levels also had 9 per cent greater odds of stroke and 6 per cent greater odds of 30-day mortality than patients at the 25th centile.

However, patients at the 75th centile had a slightly shorter length of stay compared with patients at the 25th centile, an effect unchanged after excluding patients who died before discharge.

These are observational findings, so can’t establish cause, and the researchers acknowledge that not all patients were screened for kidney and heart injury after their surgery, nor were they able to consider factors such as diet, lifestyle, and medication use, which can influence susceptibility to organ injury.

Nevertheless, this was a large study, drawn from geographically diverse populations, ensuring precision and generalisability of the results. And findings were similar after additional analyses, providing greater confidence in their conclusions.

Based on their findings, the researchers say: “A large clinical trial to detect small but clinically significant effects on organ injury and patient-centred outcomes is needed to guide oxygen administration during surgery.”

This, and previous research, shows that oxygen can be a double-edged sword, point out experts in a linked editorial.
They suggest that future research on this topic could deal with some of the study’s acknowledged limitations and could also measure cognitive impairment because experimental evidence suggests that brain tissue is particularly vulnerable to redox imbalance.

Research collaborations between biochemists and anaesthesiologists should be encouraged, they add, “especially to identify cause-effect relationships between supraphysiological oxygen administration and organ injury.”

December 2, 2022 0 comment

Gynecology News

Prenatal classes cut moms’ depression in half: Research

by Vaishali Sharma December 1, 2022

written by Vaishali Sharma

One of the first studies to reveal long-term advantages for BIPOC women is the one from UCSF.

An inexpensive prenatal intervention benefits mothers’ mental health up to eight years later, according to a recent UC San Francisco research. The Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology reported that pregnant women who took part in a group wellness class that met once a week for eight weeks were half as likely to experience depression eight years later as women who received standard care. This study was one of the first to look at outcomes so far into the future.

Previous research on the same group of women discovered that the intervention also reduced their risk of depression and diabetes in the short term and supported healthier stress responses in their children.

“Given the economic and social burden of maternal depression and its potential impact on offspring, our findings suggest a meaningful benefit of a modest investment during pregnancy that supports well-being across two generations,” said Danielle Roubinov, PhD, UCSF assistant professor of psychiatry and first author of the study.

The eight-week class intervention, conducted by Elissa Epel, PhD, UCSF professor of psychiatry, and her team, included groups of eight to ten pregnant women who met twice a week for two hours to practise mindfulness-based stress reduction exercises, with an emphasis on mindful eating, breathing, and movement. A master’s degree-level health specialist led them through group courses and activities. In addition, the mothers received two phone sessions and a postpartum “booster” group session with their babies.

BIPOC Study Participants Were Priority: Historically, most studies on prenatal depression have comprised primarily white women – but not this one, noted Nicki Bush, PhD, professor of paediatrics and psychiatry at the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences and senior author on the study.

“Our participants were lower-income, racially and ethnically diverse women who are systemically exposed to factors that put them at risk for depression, such as racism and economic hardship,” Bush said. “Also, the final years of the study were during the COVID-19 pandemic, when depression rates were higher for everyone, and the burden placed on communities of colour was even greater. Even so, the treatment effects held up.”

In the trial, 162 women were randomly allocated to one of two groups: intervention or standard care. The women’s depression symptoms were examined using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) before, during, and after the wellness intervention classes, as well as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8 years later.

Despite the fact that both groups of women had comparable levels of depression prior to the class, 12 per cent of the women in the wellness class reported moderate or severe depressive symptoms at the eight-year mark, compared to 25 per cent of the women in standard care, which was a consistent pattern throughout the years.

“Mindfulness practice is known to help alleviate stress in many situations and can meaningfully affect coping and health, and it seems here that it was particularly powerful during pregnancy, with enduring effects,” Bush said. “Our sense is that the community connections and social support involved with the (wellness class) group were therapeutic as well.”

Stress Management, Nutrition and Exercise During Pregnancy: The researchers are currently collecting additional data to better understand how the intervention had such a long-term effect. Potential mechanisms include long-term changes in coping and stress reactivity, nutrition, and exercise.

Up to 27 per cent of pregnant women suffer prenatal depression, which is predictive of postnatal depression. Maternal depression is also associated with social, emotional and cognitive deficits in offspring.

“This dramatic demonstration of both short-term reduction of depressive symptoms and long-term prevention of more severe maternal depression, even during the pandemic, is remarkable, even to us researchers,” Epel said.

“It’s likely that the effects of increased stress resilience in these women are having pervasive effects on their own health and their children. We would never have known about the durability of these changes if Dr Bush and her team had not followed them for eight years. We already know pregnancy is a critical period and the lesson here is that we need to heavily invest in pregnancy wellness interventions.”

The researchers hope the low cost and relatively short time commitment of the intervention class will make it easy to scale up to larger groups of pregnant women — especially women of colour and those with lower incomes.

“It’s critical to have interventions that meet the needs of lower-income, Black, Indigenous, and people of colour, who are especially likely to experience the stress of social inequities,” said Roubinov. “We’re excited to see how these results can be scaled to reach more women and a more diverse pool of women.”

December 1, 2022 0 comment

Mental health

Study finds that experiences of daily stress decrease as people age

by Vaishali Sharma December 1, 2022

written by Vaishali Sharma

Media reports routinely discuss how daily stress may negatively affect people’s lives, including their physical health as well as their mental and emotional well-being.

The sensation of daily stress increases as individuals become older, but there is some good news as well. In a recent study, David Almeida, a professor of human development and family studies at Penn State, found that as people age, both the number of daily stressors and their sensitivity to them decrease. The results of the study were published in Developmental Psychology.

“There’s something about growing old that leads to fewer stressors,” said Almeida. “This could be the types of social roles that we fill as we age. As younger people, we may be juggling more, including jobs, families and homes, all of which create instances of daily stress. But as we age, our social roles and motivations change. Older people talk about wanting to maximize and enjoy the time they have.”

The research team used data from the National Study of Daily Experiences (NSDE), a national study led by Almeida at Penn State that collected detailed data on daily life from over 40,000 days in the lives of over 3,000 persons over a 20-year period beginning in 1995.

Respondents ranged in age from 25 to 74 at the start of the study and were invited to take part as part of the wider Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) project sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Institute on Aging.

For eight days, respondents took part in phone interviews that assessed their everyday stress levels. These daily assessments were repeated at about nine-year intervals, resulting in a 20-year longitudinal daily diary.

The researchers observed a reduction in the impact of daily stress in both the number of daily stressors reported by respondents and their emotional sensitivity to them. Stressors were reported on over 50 per cent of days by 25-year-olds, but only 30 per cent of days by 70-year-olds.

In addition to a reduction in the number of daily stresses reported, Almeida and her colleagues discovered that as people age, they become less emotionally reactive to daily stressors when they do occur.

“A 25-year-old is much grumpier on the days when they experience a stressor, but as we age, we really figure out how to decrease those exposures,” said Almeida, who noted that daily stress steadily decreases until the mid-50s, when people are the least affected by stress exposures.

While these data reveal a decrease in daily stressor reports and reactivity into the mid-50s, Almeida writes that early evidence suggests that later age, into the late 60s and early 70s, may bring greater problems and a minor increase in incidences of daily stress.

With this discovery, Almeida anticipates the next round of MIDUS data collecting, which will be the first since the COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020. This new round of data collecting will allow Almeida and his colleagues to analyse the pandemic’s influence on daily stress reactivity.

The team will also be able to analyse how people grow and change during maturity during the next cycle of data collecting.

“Growing older from 35 to 65 is very different than growing older from 65 to 95,” said Almeida. “We’ve started to see that in the data already, but this next round of data collection and analysis will give us an even greater understanding of what that looks like.”

“At the end of the next post-pandemic data collection in a couple of years, I’ll be in my early 60s, and when I started this project, I was in my late 20s,” he continued. “My own development has occurred during this study of midlife, and it has been enlightening to watch these findings play out in my own life.”

According to Almeida, we are all ageing and growing older in various ways. How we age is depending on not only the challenges we face but how we handle those challenges.

“A lot of my prior work looked at these small, daily stressors — being late to a meeting, having an argument with a partner, caring for a sick child — and found that our emotional responses to these events are predictive of later health and well-being, including chronic conditions, mental health and even mortality. With this new research, it’s encouraging to see that as we age, we begin to deal with these stressors better. On average, the experience of daily stress won’t get worse, but in fact, get better.”

December 1, 2022 0 comment

Orthopedic News

How women might lower their risk of hip fracture is shown by research

by Pragati Singh November 30, 2022

written by Pragati Singh

According to recent research, women can lower their chance of developing a hip fracture by increasing their protein intake and regularly consuming tea or coffee. According to research conducted by food experts at the University of Leeds in the UK, women’s risk of hip fracture decreased by 14% on average with every additional 25g of protein consumed daily. They also unexpectedly found that each additional cup of tea or coffee they consumed was associated with a 4% decrease in risk.

The preventive advantages were stronger for women who were underweight, with a 25g/day increase in protein cutting their risk by 45%, the researchers reported in the journal Clinical Nutrition.

For those who follow a plant-based diet, the protein can come from beans, nuts, or legumes. It can also come from meat, dairy products, or eggs. A steak or piece of salmon, together with three to four eggs, would each offer about 25g of protein. 17g of protein would be present in 100g of tofu.

A hip fracture occurred in little over 3% of the research group’s female participants.
An extensive observational analysis of more than 26,000 women served as the foundation for the inquiry, “Foods, nutrients, and hip fracture risk: A prospective study of middle-aged women.”

The researchers were able to pinpoint correlations between dietary elements and health since this was an observational study. They were unable to distinguish clear cause from clear effect.

The study’s principal investigator, James Webster, a doctorate researcher at Leeds’ School of Food Science and Nutrition, stated: “Hip fracture has tremendous consequences to people and society throughout the world.
Hip fracture frequently causes the onset of various chronic conditions, loss of independence, and early mortality. The NHS in the UK spends between £2 and $3 billion annually.

“Diet is a factor that people can modify to protect themselves by maintaining healthy bones and muscles. This study is one of the first to investigate relationships between food and nutrient intakes and risk of hip fracture, with hip fractures accurately identified through hospital records.
“The results highlight which aspects of diet may be useful tools in reducing hip fracture risk in women, with evidence of links between higher protein, tea and coffee intakes and a reduced risk.”

Proteins are the fundamental building blocks of life and are essential for maintaining healthy cells, tissues, and muscles as well as strong bones.
Some nutritional experts consider the 0.8g per kilogramme of bodyweight daily protein recommendation in the UK to be excessively low. According to the study, persons who consume more protein had a lower risk of hip fracture. However, very high protein consumption, defined as more than 2 to 3 g of protein per kg of body weight per day, might have detrimental consequences on health. These extremely high protein intake levels could not be investigated by the research.

“In the UK, most individuals eat an acceptable quantity of protein, but specific groups, such as vegetarians or vegans, need to verify that their protein intakes are high enough for optimal health,” said Professor Janet Cade, who directs Leeds’ Nutritional Epidemiology Group and oversaw the study.

Why risk reductions for overweight women may be larger

Reduced bone mineral density and muscle mass may be more prevalent in underweight women. By aiding in the establishment or restoration of bone and muscle health, increasing intakes of a number of foods and minerals, particularly protein, may help lower the risk of hip fracture more in underweight women than in healthy or overweight women. The researchers point out that more study is necessary to corroborate this conclusion.

Tea and coffee both contain biologically active compounds called polyphenols and phytoestrogens which may help to maintain bone health.
Professor Cade added: “This is an interesting finding given that tea and coffee are the UK’s favourite drinks. We still need to know more about how these drinks could affect bone health but it might be through promoting the amount of calcium present in our bones.”

November 30, 2022 0 comment

HIV

World AIDS Day 2022: Background, Objectives, and Importance

by Pragati Singh November 30, 2022

written by Pragati Singh

Every year on December 1, people all across the world observe World AIDS Day. It is organised to show support for persons who are HIV-positive as well as to honour those who have died from AIDS. World AIDS Day was established in 1988 and was the first day dedicated to global health. This day is also a call to action for people all around the world to unite in order to eliminate the gaps and inequities that prohibit HIV testing, prevention, and access to care.

Governments, civil society groups, and UN-affiliated organisations work together every year to support campaigns that focus on certain HIV-related issues. Therefore, it is important to comprehend the significance of both this day and the year’s theme.

2022 World AIDS Day: History
World AIDS Day was first proposed in 1987. This day is commemorated to encourage dialogue on AIDS and HIV among national and local governments, private individuals, and international organisations. It was created by Thomas Netter and James W. Bunn, two public information officers of the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. Since 1996, UNAIDS (the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS) has been in charge of its coordination and promotion. The next day, December 1, 2017, President Donald Trump declared it to be World Aids Day.

2022 World AIDS Day: Theme
This year’s World AIDS Day has the slogan “Equalize.” It suggests that everyone should work to eliminate the inequalities that, in UNAIDS’ perspective, are preventing the spread of AIDS. This year’s topic is the most current in a long series of issues that need to be addressed.

2022 World AIDS Day: Importance
Over 38.4 million people would have tested positive for HIV by the end of 2021, with 25.6 million of those people residing in the WHO African Region. In the UK, an average of 4,139 people are diagnosed with HIV each year, and stigma and discrimination are still pervasive among many people who have the illness.

The purpose of World AIDS Day is to raise awareness of the seriousness of the problem and the need for immediate funding, education, the elimination of discrimination, and improved educational opportunities.

November 30, 2022 0 comment

Pulmonology

Lung cancer development is accelerated by carbon ultrafine particles

by Pragati Singh November 30, 2022

written by Pragati Singh

Although smoking may seem to be bad for your lungs, it is unclear whether and how lung cancer is affected by the ultrafine particles in cigarette smoke. Researchers from Baylor College of Medicine studied how airborne ultrafine particles in smoke might change a host’s defence against lung cancer using animal models.

Researchers led by Dr. Cheng-Yen Chang, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Farrah Kheradmand in Baylor’s Department of Medicine – Pulmonary, and their associates discovered that exposure to ultrafine particles alters the function of immune cells in the lungs, weakening their built-in defence against cancer. They found that the fundamental energy source of the cell is altered by ultrafine particles, leading to new byproducts in the lungs.

By weakening the host’s immune response due to the buildup of new byproducts, tumours may go unnoticed. Ultrafine particles are created by incompletely combusting organic waste in environmental and other natural fires, in addition to being present in cigarette smoke. Prior research by Kheradmand and others at Rice University revealed that immune cells in the lungs of heavy smokers contain nanoscale elements of carbon black.

“When we breathe, we inhale many particles of different sizes. They are lodged somewhere along the airways, like in the nose or trachea, depending on their size.”
“Ultrafine particles are so small they can navigate the respiratory system and deposit in the far distal part of the lung that is used for gas exchange – the process of breathing,” Kheradmand said. “It is at that point where these particles can collect and begin to alter the way lung immune cells function.”

The research sheds light on how ultrafine particles advance cancer: Chang was able to reproduce the same kind of exposure to ultrafine particles commonly found in a heavy smoker by using two separate animal models of lung cancer. When exposed to nanoscale carbon black, both animal models of lung cancer demonstrated increased tumour growth.

“What we saw was that the immune cells changed what they used for energy. They went from using fat, which is what is seen in the average cell, to using sugar. The new byproducts alter immune cells allowing for tumours to escape recognition,” Chang said. “This exposure made tumours more aggressive and more likely to metastasize or spread throughout the body.

“Another surprise was that whether mice were predisposed to develop cancer didn’t matter; exposure to ultrafine particles still led to changes in energy usage from fat to sugar in immune cells even in the absence of any tumour.
“The particles change the powerhouse of the cells, altering their internal machinery,” Kheradmand said.

Further research is required to examine additional variables such particle concentration, exposure duration, and type, as the study solely examined how the ultrafine particles influenced immune cells and the development of cancer.

“We are only looking at the significance of having these particles present in the airways – whether they are causing and progressing the disease. We know they have been found in smokers’ lungs, so our study simulated exposure similar to a heavy smoker,” Kheradmand said.

Making these particles more soluble allows for their removal from the lungs, as Chang and Kheradmand demonstrated in a prior study. This is not a way to make smoking harmless because it is still in lab models and is only the first step toward a potential future cure.

“As a general rule, there is no way to make any amount of exposure safe when it comes to smoking,” Kheradmand said. “The best course of action is to avoid exposure from the start.”

November 30, 2022 0 comment

Endocrinology and Metabolism

F reezing is better than heat therapy for tiny kidney tumours

by Pragati Singh November 30, 2022

written by Pragati Singh

Cryoablation, which kills cancer by freezing it, results in a lower risk of cancer-related death than heat-based thermal ablation for patients with early-stage renal cell carcinomas (RCCs) measuring 3 to 4 centimetres, according to a preliminary study published in The Journal of Urology, an Official Journal of the American Urological Association (AUA). The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer as a part of the Lippincott catalogue.

“In contrast, for patients with RCCs smaller than 3 centimetres, either cold-based or heat-based therapy is just as effective in reducing cancer-specific mortality,” comments lead author Gabriele Sorce, MD, of IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan. “The findings may help us to better tailor the choice of ablation technique for patients with small RCCs.” Cryoablation has a lower risk of cancer death than heating.

Renal cell carcinoma is the form of kidney cancer that occurs most frequently. Frozen or heated tumours are becoming a more popular form of treatment for individuals with RCCs in the early stages that are under 4 cm in size.

For individuals with clinical stage T1a RCCs, ablation, a cancer-killing treatment, can offer good survival rates without requiring more extensive kidney surgery.

However, for a subset of patients with clinical stage T1a RCCs and tumours between 3 and 4 cm in size, ablation appeared to be “less helpful.” Current European recommendations favour cryoablation over heat-based thermal ablation for malignant tumours measuring 3 to 4 cm, however US standards allow either procedure to be used.

For T1a RCCs sized 3 cm or less, either freezing or heating is permitted, according to both sets of recommendations. Between 2004 and 2018, a multidisciplinary research team studied individuals with stage T1a RCCs who had been frozen or heated. The Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program of the National Cancer Institute in the United States served as the source of the patients. Two matched patient groups with tumours measuring 3 to 4 cm in size were the subject of the study: 757 had cryoablation, and 388 underwent thermal ablation using heat.

The average age was 71 at the start of treatment. Follow-up information on cancer-specific mortality, or the likelihood of dying from kidney cancer alone, was available for 422 patients treated with freezing and for 238 patients treated with heating.

Those with RCCs measuring 3 to 4 cm who had cryoablation had an estimated cancer-specific death rate of 8.5%, compared to 12.9% for those who underwent heat-based thermal ablation, eight years after therapy. About 40% of patients in both situations passed away from diseases other than cancer.

Treatment options for kidney tumours that are tiny and potentially curative
After adjusting for non-cancer-related mortality and other covariates, patients who had heat-based thermal ablation for RCCs between 3 and 4 cm were twice as likely to pass away from kidney cancer. The anticipated cancer-specific mortality, however, was comparable between groups for individuals with tumours less than 3 cm in size: 6.8% after cryoablation and 6.1% after heat-based thermal ablation.

In patients with stage T1a RCCs sized between 3 and 4 cm, the research is one of the first to evaluate clinical results directly between freezing and heating. The findings imply that when compared to cryoablation, heat-based thermal ablation has “a very statistically significant and clinically important” disadvantage with regard to the long-term risk of kidney cancer mortality.

“Conversely, in patients with tumour size 3 centimetres or smaller, either ablation technique is equally valid,” says Dr Sorce. “We believe our findings have important implications for clinical decision-making and informed consent for patients with these small, potentially curable kidney cancers”

November 30, 2022 0 comment

Oncology News

Blood test can predict likelihood of metastasis in melanoma patients: Study

by Pragati Singh November 30, 2022

written by Pragati Singh

A recent study lead by Yale University discovered a collection of plasma biomarkers that might reasonably predict the likelihood of metastasis in melanoma patients.

The findings were reported in the journal ‘Clinical Cancer Research.’ “The rate of melanoma growth is dramatic, and there are a huge number of patients under surveillance,” said Harriet Kluger, M.D., associate professor of medicine at Yale University School of Medicine, adding, “Our current method of surveillance includes periodic imaging, which creates huge societal costs.”

Melanoma is the fifth most prevalent male cancer and the seventh most common female malignancy. In the United States, it is projected that 68,130 persons were diagnosed in 2010, with 8,700 dying. Melanoma is frequently found early enough to be removed surgically with good screening, and death usually occurs after the disease metastasizes. The probability of metastasis ranges from less than 10% in stage 1A melanoma to up to 70% in stage 3C melanoma.

Patients with melanoma are usually exposed to a battery of imaging tests, blood tests, and physical examinations, but there is no agreement on how frequently these procedures should be performed or how accurate they are.
Kluger and colleagues examined the plasma of 216 people, including 108 with metastatic melanoma and 108 with stage 1 or 2 illness.

CEACAM, ICAM-1, osteopontin, MIA, GDF-15, TIMP-1, and S100B were found as plasma biomarkers. Those with metastatic melanoma had greater levels of all of these indicators than patients with early-stage illness. In fact, 76 percent of patients with early-stage cancer showed no increases at all, but 83 percent of patients with metastatic disease had at least one marker elevated. The area under the curve, a measure of the test’s dependability, was determined to be 0.898 by the researchers. The area under the curve calculation rate ranges from.5 to 1, with 1 being optimal and.5 being ineffective.

“This finding will need to be confirmed prospectively before it is used in the clinic, but it shows that such testing is possible,” said Kluger.

November 30, 2022 0 comment

Newer Posts

Older Posts