Most people are aware that smoking is associated with various cancers, including cancer of the lung and mouth, yet many may be surprised to learn that the risk of bladder cancer in current smokers is more than three times greater than it is for non-smokers.

Findings of a study sponsored by the National Cancer Institute last year showed that screening current and former smokers with spiral CT scans can reduce lung cancer deaths by 20 percent, compared to standard chest X-rays. The results were so striking that the study was actually halted early and hailed by the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association, and other prominent health organizations.

Last week we reported on findings from a study that showed soy had no beneficial effects on reducing menopausal symptoms. Research on other nonprescription alternatives such as flaxseed, black cohosh, red clover, and botanicals has also arrived at similarly disappointing conclusions. This is unfortunate, since so many women turn to these supplements out of a misplaced fear that treatment with hormone replacement therapy (HRT) will lead to an increased risk of heart attacks and breast cancer.

Josh Bloom, New York Post August 16, 2011
Running Out of Common Drugs

Federally funded clinical trials may soon become less bureaucratically bound and more efficient if changes announced by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) come to pass. These federal rules regulating clinical trials were instated in 1981, but they have not kept pace with evolving practices and needs. While the majority of U.S. clinical trials once took place in academia, as a result of burdensome regulatory costs, now 70 percent of them are commercial and nearly half take place outside the U.S.

The FDA regulates tobacco products, but it s still determining how to categorize what are known as dissolvable tobacco products. Three different forms of these are currently manufactured by R.J. Reynolds under the Camel brand name, all made from finely ground, flavored tobacco and delivering less nicotine than a cigarette. Camel Orbs are roughly the shape and size of a breath mint, Camel Sticks resemble a toothpick, and Camel Strips fit in a strip over the tongue.

It has long been clear that autism runs in families; for some time, scientists have estimated that the likelihood of having a second child with autism is between 3 and 10 percent for families who already have one child with the disorder. Now, a new study appearing in the journal Pediatrics has found that risk to be significantly higher.

People are dying because of critical shortages of hundreds of essential, commonly used drugs the kind we take for granted, writes ACSH s Dr. Josh Bloom in his op-ed that appears in today s New York Post. Dr. Bloom aims to make more people aware of the drug shortages that are affecting patients across the U.S. As he points out, The United States saw shortages of 56 drugs in 2006, ballooning to about 200 last year.

It seems that the latest trend in treating cancer is a combination of cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (Hipec) or, as it is more familiarly called, hot chemotherapy.

States across the country are experiencing a marked decrease in their anti-smoking program budgets. In Massachusetts, for instance, funding for such initiatives dropped from $50.5 million in 2001 to $4.1 million in 2011 a decrease of more than 90 percent. Where has the rest of the money disappeared to?