Just How Many New Depression, Anxiety Cases Popped Up in 2020?
Depressive and anxiety disorders increased substantially around the world since the start of the pandemic, hitting some groups harder than others, according to a new systematic review and meta-analyses. Two proxy measures for the impact of COVID-19 — daily infection rates and reductions in human mobility — were both significantly associated with surges in major […]
Third COVID Vaccine Dose Boosts Protection in Solid Tumor Patients
A third dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine (BNT162b2; Comirnaty) could offer increased protection for cancer patients on active treatment, a new study suggested, as these patients typically don’t produce antibody responses on par with healthy individuals. One week after the administration of a third vaccine dose, neutralizing antibody responses improved in 80% of solid tumor […]
Antibiotics linked to increased risk of colon cancer
There is a clear link between taking antibiotics and an increased risk of developing colon cancer within the next five to ten years. This has been confirmed by researchers at Umeå University, Sweden, after a study of 40,000 cancer cases. The impact of antibiotics on the intestinal microbiome is thought to lie behind the increased […]
Surveillance for Prostate Cancer Is on the Rise — Do Men Stick It Out?
While the uptake of active surveillance (AS) for low-risk prostate cancer has increased over time, about half of patients eventually discontinue this strategy, according to an observational Canadian population-based study. The use of AS increased from 38% in 2008 to 69% in 2014; however, over this study period, 50.8% of patients discontinued AS and proceeded […]
Mom’s Obesity During Pregnancy Linked to Colon Cancer in Offspring
Overweight and obesity in mothers during pregnancy increased the risk for colorectal cancer (CRC) in their children later on in life, according to a population-based study. Compared with underweight/healthy weight during pregnancy, both obesity and overweight were associated with increased risk of CRC in offspring (adjusted HR 2.51, 95% CI 1.05-6.02 and adjusted HR 2.12, […]
Study Confirms, Clarifies Excess Mortality in Testicular Cancer Survivors
Platinum-based chemotherapy (PBCT) and radiation therapy (RT) for testicular cancer significantly increased the risk of premature death from other causes, especially secondary cancers, a large Norwegian study showed. Overall, the 5,700 men included in the analysis had a 23% excess mortality from causes other than testicular cancer after treatment with PBCT or RT, as compared […]
Rheumatic Events With Checkpoint Inhibitors: Tumor Type Matters
Among the factors that were associated with an increased risk for the development of rheumatic immune-related adverse events following cancer treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) was the type of malignancy involved, a large case-control study found. Compared with reference lung cancer (the most common type of malignancy in this cohort), the development of a […]
Bell’s Palsy After COVID Vaccines Still Very Rare
No significant increased risk of Bell’s palsy was seen after the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine, but risk did increase for people who received the CoronaVac (Sinovac Biotech) shot, a vaccine that uses an inactivated virus, an analysis in Hong Kong showed. Compared with the background population, the age-standardized difference for Bell’s palsy incidence was 41.5 (95% […]
Full-Dose Heparin Benefit in Certain COVID-19 Patients Confirmed
A therapeutic dose of heparin was associated with increased probability of survival for non-critically ill COVID-19 patients versus usual-care thromboprophylaxis, but not for the most severe patient population, peer-reviewed results from the REMAP-CAP, ACTIV-4a, and ATTACC multi-platform trial showed. In the non-critically ill cohort, therapeutic dose anticoagulation with heparin was superior to usual care prophylaxis, […]
Emergency department visits related to opioid overdoses up significantly during COVID-19 pandemic
Emergency department visit rates because of an opioid overdose increased by 28.5% across the U.S. in 2020, compared to 2018 and 2019, recent Mayo Clinic research finds. Emergency visits overall decreased by 14% last year, while visits because of an opioid overdose increased by 10.5%. The result: Opioid overdoses were responsible for 0.32 out of […]