Cancer Research and Screening

BREAST CANCER RESEARCH AND SCREENING

New Doubt about Effectiveness of Breast Cancer Screening
A large, almost quarter century long trial, involving 90,000 women, produced no definitive results on any potential benefit of mammograms, thus adding more ammunition to the continuing political and healthcare debate in the U.S. over the ethics and expenses of breast cancer screenings. The study was published on February 11, 2014 in the British Medical Journal. The study used a gold-standard methodology, called the randomized complete design, to assign 44,925 Canadian women of ages 40 to 59 to receive mammograms, while other 44,910 Canadian women received breast exam by themselves alone without mammograms. From the mammogram group, 3,250 women were diagnosed with breast cancer and 500 women had died of the breast cancer. From the non-mammogram group (placebo group), 3,133 women were diagnosed with breast cancer and 505 women had died from the breast cancer. The death rates from both the group are almost same.

Split Opinions Cloud Mammogram Politics
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force on January 11, 2016 issued a final set of recommendation on mammogram. According to the final recommendation, women between 50 and 74 are recommended to get mammogram every other year. However, the recommendation is at odd with the ones by two other respected medical organizations, namely American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and American Cancer Society. The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends regular screening beginning at 40, while American Cancer Society recommends yearly screening starting from the age 45 and then in alternate years beginning at 55.

New Methodology to Cut down the Go-to-Market Time

On December 13, 2013, researchers presented an advanced statistical methodology to try out effectiveness of a new breast cancer drug, Veliparib, that would cut down the go-to-market time significantly. Researchers presented their study, dubbed I-SPY 2, at a cancer conference in San Antonio.

Under the study (I-SPY 2), a small group of women was given the experimental drugs or combination, and then given them the surgery. The best result is a complete response, where there is no sign of cancer remains. Each patient's results are analyzed as they come in, and statistical methods are used to compute the probabilities that the drug (Veliparib) would help in various scenarios, depending on which women had complete response. This allows researchers to learn and adapt as study continues, with early patients guiding what treatments later patients get.

I-SPY 2 study suggests that adding chemotherapy drug Carboplatin and Veliparib to the usual chemo before surgery improved outcomes for women with "triple negatives"--breast cancer not fueled by Estrogen, Progestin or the gene that the medicine Herceptin targets.

Veliparib, being made by Abb Vie Inc, a North Chicago-based company, recently spun off from Abbott Laboratory, has now graduated and is eligible for testing in a definitive study.

LUNG CANCER RESEARCH AND SCREENING

Recommendation for Lung Cancer Screening
For the first time, government advisers are recommending lung cancer screening for the people who:

* Are between 55 and 79 years old
* Have smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for 30 years or the equivalent such as 2 packs a day for 15 years

The US Prevention Services Task Force on July 29, 2013 issued recommendation for CT scan for targeted population groups. Public comments will betaken until August 26, 2013. 

Tobacco and Public Health

CVS to Stop Celling Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products
In a tectonic business shift, CVS Caremark drug store chain on February 5, 2014 announced that it would stop selling tobacco products, including cigarettes. Tobacco sales will be phased out by October 1, 2014.

FDA to Regulate e-Cigarette
Food and Drug Administration on May 5, 2016 issued orders to regulate electronic cigarettes, including ban on sales to anyone under 18 and full disclosure of ingredients. The orders will become effective in 90 days.

BIRD FLU AND HEALTH CARE INEQUITY

BIRD FLU

USDA Requires Testing of Dairy Cows for Bird Flu 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on April 24, 2024 announced that every lactating cow, or dairy cow, crossing state lines would be required to be tested for H5N1 strain of the Bird flu virus. If the bird flu jumps into livestock, there is higher propensity that it may mutate and transmit to humans too.

Biden Administration to Invest $200 million in Avian Flu Testing, Tracking, Mitigating Efforts

Six weeks after the first reported case of a human infection of the avian flu transferred from a cow to a worker at a Texas farm and more than two weeks after the DA's April 24, 2024, plan to test every lactating cow crossing state lines, Biden administration's health and agricultural officials on May 10, 2024 unveiled a $200 million investment plan to test, track, mitigate, contain and compensate for Type A H5N1 virus that spread to more than 40 herds in nine states. 

Second Case of Mammal-to-Human Transfer of Bird Flu Reported

Federal and state officials announced on May 22, 2024 that a farm worker in Michigan had caught bird flu from an infected cow, second such case after the first had been reported at a Texas farm in March 2024, and since recovered. A nasal swab of the farm worker turned negative, but an eye swab tested positive, implying an "eye infection:. The first case reported in a Texas farm was also of an eye infection. 

Four Cases of Bird Flu Reported

The Dallas Morning News reported on May 31, 2024 that a third case of a cow-to-human infection at a Michigan farm. However, this case is more alarming as the farm worker has been infected on the upper respiratory tract and being treated by Tamiflu. The earlier two cases--one at a Texas farm and the second one at a Michigan farm--were related to Conjunctivitis infection. There was fourth case, hitherto unreported, that came to the light in recent case where a worker had been infected with H5N1 at a Colorado farm in 2022 while trying to depopulate and dispose infected poultry. 

Brand New Avian Flu Found in a Deceased Person

Bloomberg News reported on June 5, 2024 that a person with underlying conditions came down with a strain of avian flu that's different from the H5N1 strain sweeping America's heartland that impacted cattle and sickened mostly the farm workers. That person was hospitalized with H5N2 strain and died in May 2024.

Fifth Person Reported to be Infected by H5N1

Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reported on July 3, 2024 that a man had been infected by H5N1 flu. He showed "pink eye", or conjunctivitis, took antiviral and recovered. His infection was mild. He became the fifth reported person in the U.S. infected by the H5N1 strain of the Avian Flu. He came in touch with an infected cow at a farm in northeast Colorado. 

Three Poultry Workers Reported to have Symptomatic Avian Flu

Colorado Health Department reported on July 12, 2024 that samples had been obtained from three farm workers at a poultry in northeast Colorado, who had displayed the symptom of H5N1 strain of the Avian Flu, for confirmatory testing. 

First Non-Farm Infection of Bird Flu Reported

The Dallas Morning News in its September 8, 2024, edition reported that a Missouri man had been hospitalized on August 22, 2024 and subsequently diagnosed with H5N1 infection, becoming the 14th human case of the bird flu infection. All other previous known human infections were linked to farms. However, the Missouri case is the first non-farm-related human infection of H5N1. Since the bird flu was reported spreading in Spring 2024, at least 200 dairy herds in 14 states were detected with the symptom. 

First Minor to be Infected with Bird Flu

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on November 22, 2024 that the nation's first child infected with the bird flu this year was from California, raising the total number of cases to 55, including 29 in California. 

First Death in Bird Flu Reported to be a Louisiana Man with Underlying Conditions

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on January 6, 2025 reported that a Louisiana man recently hospitalized with the bird flu was the first person to have died from it. He was infected from sick or dead birds in the backyard of where he had lived. The deceased had underlying medical conditions, and subsequent genetic analysis found that the virus had mutated in his body. This is also the first bird flu case where the subject has been infected from their exposure to the backyard birds. Since March 2024, at least 950 people have been infected with the H5N1 virus, most of the cases are minor. Almost all of them were infected working in farms in close contact with poultry or animals. However, a California child and a Missouri man, hospitalized after getting severely sick, are not known to have been infected from farm animals. 

First Person with Avian Flu Variant Dies

Reuters reported on November 22, 2025 that the first known death from the avian influenza variant, H5N5, did happen on November 21, 2025. The elderly man from the Grays Harbor County of the Washington state was receiving the H5N5 treatment. The elderly man did have underlying health conditions. He might have been infected from domesticated birds he used to have in his backyards. 

CHINA

Authorities in eastern China on January 28, 2014 announced ban on sales of live poultry as a strain of bird flu, H7N9, was spreading across the region, with 20 deaths reported so far this year out of 96 known cases. The deaths occurred in Shanghai, neighboring Zhejiang province and southern Guangdong province. The ban becomes effective on January 31, 2014 in Shanghai, where eight people were infected and four had died, on February 15, 2014 in the province of Zhejiang that had witnessed 12 deaths out of 49 known cases.

Hong Kong suspended live poultry trading on January 27, 2014 for three weeks after poultry imported from Guangdong in mainland had tested positive for H7N9.

Meanwhile another strain of bird flu, H10N8, too proved to be fatal as a second person had died in the province of Jiangxi during weekend after a similar death in December 2013.

HEALTH CARE EQUITY

Milbank Memorial Fund Apologizes for Funding Controversial Research

As part of nation's racial reckoning, Milbank Memorial Fund on June 11, 2022 apologized for funeral costs that it had disbursed to poor African-American families in Tuskegee, Alabama in exchange for carrying out autopsies as part of the Syphilis disease-related research. Many African-Americans were denied proper treatment and allowed to die in Syphilis disease and then Milbank Memorial Fund offered money to cover the funeral costs. Endowed in 1905 by a wealthy New Yorker, Elizabeth Milbank Anderson, the fund began to work in the Syphilis research in rural Alabama in 1935 after practices of denying treatment to poor Black males had started in Tuskegee in 1932, or even before, as part of the research. Milbank funded about $20,150 for about 234 autopsies. The practice ended in 1972 after The Associated Press made the practice public. The men sued, landing in a $9 million  settlement. However, it took almost 50 years since the end of the practice for the Milbank to issue an apology.