Expectant parents have gotten an ugly exposure to a rapacious aspect of modern medicine: Over testing, over diagnosis, and over treatment, specifically with a new, fast-growing high-tech twist. The grownups — whether over-reaching to safeguard the unborn or in a simply silly way to determine the gender of their hoped-for bundle of joy — are….
Continue ReadingGenetic Testing
Blood and spit, vampires and dead family secrets
Funny the mischief that can happen with a little blood and spit. Seemingly unrelated medical stories last week brought home the lesson of the law of unintended consequences. Those consequences abound everywhere, in health care most especially. So with blood, we’re learning about a bizarre new fountain-of-youth treatment, with echoes of vampires, for seniors who….
Continue ReadingPatients? We’re just profitable bit$ and byte$ to Big Pharma and insurers
Big Data may be a business buzzword that puts most consumers into a big sleep, but big alarms are sounding for Americans about Big Brother intrusions into their lives via the collection and analysis of vast amounts of highly personal information. Of course, Big Pharma and medical insurers are at the fore of invasive practices….
Continue ReadingFor early-stage breast cancer patients, dreaded chemo may be unneeded
Breast cancer patients may get a welcome respite from one of the disease’s dreaded aspects — its aggressive and costly treatments. New research suggests that thousands of women with early-stage breast cancer who now are told to get chemotherapy don’t need it, while a larger, significant number of patients can benefit by halving the time….
Continue ReadingA new caution on how breast cancer care also can harm women’s hearts
As cardiologists and oncologists swap cross-fire about the conditions they treat and how they do so, here’s hoping that, above all, their female patients end up helped and not harmed, getting vital information about risks and benefits of therapies for two of the leading killers of women: heart disease and breast cancer. What’s behind the….
Continue ReadingExperts fret over how precise key basics may be in ‘precision medicine’
Although billions of dollars and lots of positive public attention have been lavished on the promise of genetic-based “precision medicine,” this therapeutic approach to treating cancer and other serious diseases may need more scrutiny for basics of quality control. National Public Radio deserves credit for airing some less-heard experts’ worries about the roles of at….
Continue ReadingSunday pro football games aren’t the place to serve up genetic screening malarkey
Let’s give a hurrah for Maryland health officials — they threw a red flag at a high-tech startup that planned with the Baltimore Ravens football team to serve up a mass genetic screening test at a recent game. The blunt reality is this would have been genetic malarkey. This incident should serve as a reminder, caveat emptor,….
Continue ReadingPathologists’ errors get new scrutiny as medical tests soar in use, importance
Pathologists are the medical specialists whom few patients ever meet, but they play increasingly important roles in treatment decisions. Some new reports raise concerns about systematic errors in the path lab. The New York Times painted a surprisingly distanced picture of the work of pathologists in a recent report on these medical doctors who are….
Continue ReadingFDA reverses course, allows controversial over-the-counter genetic test sales
Federal regulators have reversed themselves and approved a company’s controversial plan to sell direct to customers saliva-based tests that can predict their genetic risk for diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Officials of the federal Food and Drug Administration emphasized that the tests cannot show conclusively if individuals will develop conditions for which they may have….
Continue ReadingStar-power reconsidered: What’s the cost of celebrities’ cancer commentaries?
Celebrity is a powerful force in public opinion, and it often has been pursued by medical experts eager to tap its do-good potential. But a pair of recent star turns on preventive testing have caused consternation over their unintended and unwelcome outcomes. Have Angelina Jolie and Ben Stiller led their fans astray, prompting some to misunderstand….
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