MORE CAUTION ABOUT TESTS

A CT scan is a terrific medical tool - just note its benefits for people with lung cancer ( A LIFESAVING TEST FOR LUNG CANCER is one the list ) - but there's now a long overdue fot its potential dangers. "A remarkable series of studies showed that CT scan are responsible for a huge number of cancers every year," says Robert Wachter, MD, a patient safety expert and chief of hospital medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. What's "huge"?

More than one in 300 women and one in 600 men who undergo a single cardiac CT scan will develop cancer because of the radiation exposure, one study showed.
Radiologists say, you should keep a record of your X-rays, CT scan, and other radiation tests and alert your doctors if you think they're requesting a test you've already had.

TRAINING THE BODY TO FIGHT CANCER

What if you could dispense with chemo and radiation and use your immune system to destroy cancer cells. That's the principle behind Provenge, a vaccine used to treat prostate cancer, recently approved by [US] FDA. The men who used Provenge in studies so far (all of whom had advanced prostate cancer) lived an extra four -and -a -half months, on average - but some got an extra three years. Equally important, side effects were minimal. The results are imperfect and the cost high - more that $90,000 for a full round of treatment -but the Provenge is still a remarkable development, Len Lichtenfeld, MD, deputy chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, said when the vaccine was approved.

 TRAINING THE BODY TO FIGHT CANCER

The reason: It provides evidence that the immune system can be stimulated to fight cancer. Already the FDA is considering a second cancer - treatment vaccine - this one aimed at a hard -to - treat form of lymphoma.

DOING LESS FOR BREAST CANCER BENEFITING MORE

It has been clear for years that a women who has a lumpectomy to treat breast cancer must get a radiation too - otherwise, her risk of dying from the decease increases. But many women skip the treatment, partly because it's so inconvenient. So it was significant when researches finally got proof that a three -week regimen can work just as well for women with early -stage breast cancer as one that lasts five weeks.

Another study last year even suggested that some women might be able to get a single radiation treatment during surgery -and be done with it. "When it comes to cancer, we tend to think that more treatment is better," says Susan Love, MD, breast surgeon and founder of the Dr Susan Love Research Foundation, California. "But that's not what the science is showing."

KNOW MORE

PAIN RELIEF THAT HAS A STUNNING BONUS

When someone has a terminal illness, a doctor's emphasis may eventually shift from attempts at a cure to relieving pain managing symptoms. It's not surprising that a approach, called palliative care, improves quality of life. What was surprising in a recent study: Adding palliative care to standard treatment lengthened life for patients with terminal lung cancer. "They lived 12 months instead of nine - 25 percent longer." says Dr Komaroff. "For someone who's not suffering, those three months can be very precious."

PAIN RELIEF THAT HAS A STUNNING BONUS

The study should change people's idea of what palliative care is about, said one expert in a New York Times article. "It's not about killing Granny," said Diane E. Meier, MD, director of the center to Advance Palliative Care in New York. "It's about keeping Granny alive as long as possible - with the best quality of the life."

A LIFESAVING TEST FOR LUNG CANCER

If you're a heavy smoker - or used to be - getting screened with a low dose chest CT scan may cut your risk of dying of lung cancer by 20 percent, a major study reported in November 2012. "There's nothing short of stopping smoking, or never starting smoking,, that has that sort of impact on lung cancer- that's huge." says Ernest T.Hawk, MD, ice President for cancer prevention and population
sciences at MD Anderson Cancer Center.

 CT SCAN MAY CUT RISK OF LUNG CANCER BY 20 PERCENT

This doesn't mean everyone should line up for CT scan. The exam involves significant radiation and has serious downsides  including false alarms that can lead to unnecessary surgery. Still, says Dr Hawk, "we have very few options for lung cancer once it's established. This test will likely have profound implications."

NEW HELP AGAINST THE DEADLIEST SKIN CANCER

Until last year, it had been 13 years since the [USA} FDA last approved a drug to treat advanced melanoma, a brutal skin cancer that can kill patients within sin months. But two new options - with jaw - droping results were approves last year. The sight of tumours shrinking in a matter of weeks in patients on the drug PLX4032 spurred "pinch me" moments for the researchers, the New York Times reported. Another drug, ipilimumab, produced equally impressive benifits.

THE SIGHT OF TUMOURS SHRINKING IN A MATTER OF WEEKS SPURRED "PINCH ME" MOMENTS FOR RESEARCHERS STUDYING TWO DRUGS.

PLX4032 zeroes in on a mutation found in many melanoma tumours, says Allan C. Halpern, MD, vice president of the Skin Cancer Foundation New York and chief of dermatology at Memorial Sloan - Kettering Cancer Center. In early tests, it shrank tumours in a whooping 81 percent of advanced melanoma (no more than 20 percent typically respond to current drugs). Ipilimumab uses a broader approach, taking the brakes off the body's own immune system so it van fight cancer more aggressively. In one study. ipilimumab nearly doubled the number of patients surviving one year.

HEART REPAIR WIHTH BARELY A CUT

Until now, there haven't been a lot of options for someone whose aortic valve (the one that lets blood go from the heart to the rest of the body) has got gummed up by calcium deposits. Surgeons had a crack open the sternum to get at the heart, or make do with less effective drug treatments if the patients was too sick or too old for aggressive measures. Now surgeons can help without so much as nicking a patients chest - by snaking a catheter up through the groin. (The technique is know as transcatheter aortic valve implantation, or TAVI.) The technique isn't just easier for these fragile patients; in he first studies, the incision - free approach helped them live longer than people getting standard treatments.

TTHE TECHNIQUE IS KNOW AS TRANSCATHETER AORTIC VALVE IMPLANTATION, OR TAVI

Doctors are making similar progress in using catheters to replace other kinds of heart valves - the late actress Elizabeth Taylor has her mitral valve repaired, then tweeted about it! - and cardiologists say that way they treat -0 valve disease may never be the same