Hispanics Seem to Have Better Odds of Lung Cancer Survival

Hispanic people with lung cancer tend to live longer than white or black people with the disease, according to a new study.

 Researchers say Hispanics' increased likelihood of survival may be due to genetic factors or environmental advantages, such as lower rates of tobacco use.

In the study, the researchers examined diagnosis and survival data on cancer patients from a national database that pooled information from U.S. cancer registries.

They identified 172,000 adults diagnosed with any stage of the most common form of lung cancer, known as non-small cell lung cancer, between 1988 and 2007. Of these patients, Hispanics had a 15 percent lower risk of death during the study than whites. This was true for both U.S.- and foreign-born Hispanics.

The study, published online in the journal Cancer, pointed out that Hispanics tend to have better odds of survival despite facing more obstacles to health care and higher rates of poverty than other groups.

"This is important because it shows that our findings are indicative of the Hispanic population in general and not specific to specific groups of Hispanics," lead study author Ali Saeed, an M.D./Ph.D. candidate at University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, said in a journal news release.

The study's authors added that the white patients who were studied had a slightly higher likelihood of survival than those who were black. Hispanics were more likely to be diagnosed with a less serious form of lung cancer, known as bronchioalveolar carcinoma.

"Our findings will motivate researchers and physicians to understand why Hispanics have more favorable outcomes and may shed light on potential environmental factors and/or genetic factors that can explain our observations," said Saeed. "For instance, the fact that Hispanics developed higher frequencies of bronchioalveolar carcinoma could be due to genetic predispositions and/or their lower smoking rates."

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com

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Look No Further Than Wisconsin To See the Connection Between “Digital Illiterate Lawmakers” With New Law “No Web Cams During a Non Surgical Abortion Procedure” - This Says It All!

I talk a lot about digital illiteracy with many lawmakers, why?  Because it’s true and all you have to do is read the news.  It’s amazing that in the rapidly developing world of technology we have today that you still see these throw backs to the 70s.  They haven’t quite figured it out yet that technology in healthcare is here and is developing and changing rapidly.  Those of us in technology literally “laugh” at laws as such as we see right to the point here and scratch our heads as to “why” laws as such are created.  Even those who are not big techs scratch their heads too as web cams are like part of every part of life.  One wonders if these folks use smart phones too?  Outside the US when news of such is read I kind of wonder what other countries have to say about some of this too? 

We all know the governor is not too smart if you go back to the phone call to where a radio personality sucked him in to a “fake” call from one of the Koch brothers, which was really hysterical, but in another way very sad as that’s’ the level of intelligence sitting in that office, scary.  These folks that put so much effort into controlling abortions could really re-direct themselves to work on some very serious issues by all means. Back in 2011, about a year ago I wrote on this topic and it was bringing to the forefront how digital illiteracy was leading back to this “default” topic of abortions and as far as I can tell, it’s about all they can muster up to control and talk about as laws dealing with technology certainly seem to be over their heads.  So even a year ago the connection I made between digital literacy and lawmakers was pretty much on target. 

Digital Illiteracy Still Plagues Law Makers–Severe Focus on Abortion Rights Proves It–Is This Where Our Lawmaking Knowledge Leaves Off or Even Begins? Scary…

 

I just wonder if they even think about how they look to the rest of the world, and seriously it’s like a bunch of “loose cannons” running around and of course a “digital formatted law” would probably even be a bigger crime <grin>.

In a time when everyone else is looking at big data and have the ability to better sort large amounts of data, do you think lawmakers have thought this could be a good idea to help them?  So far I have not seen any evidence in that direction either, and on a federal level too.

IBM Watson Capabilities Being Pitched to Financial Industry-Congress Must Not Have Felt They Needed This So Further Behind We Fall With Effective Intelligent Lawmaking

So now we have a “no web cam” consultation law…when the rest of the world is moving forward with telehealth, I swear others looking in too have to just be rolling over laughing at such a law as it saves money and gives people better access to care.  I guess they don’t read the news and are not too concerned over better healthcare because this is related to that “default topic of abortions for the digitally illiterates”.  Last year a federal judge blocked abortion rules in Kansas, so I mean what is up with these out of touch folks as there’s yet another bunch of digital illiterates in lawmaking. 

Kansas Health Abortion Rules Blocked by Federal Judge Who Put The “Digital Illiterate Whack Job” Lawmakers” In Their Place And Maybe That is the 70s

 

In a round about way even the Vatican is getting tired of the digital illiterates in office even though they have their beliefs regarding abortions, they are not out trying create laws and they too see a need for better digital literacy, especially in the financial world, so again these folks in Wisconsin and their “web cam” law are really looking pathetic and the link below fell into one of my posts about “The Attack of the Killer Algorithms”, which basically again talks about digital illiteracy of lawmakers and how banks and big business control all with servers running 24/7 making life impacting decisions about all of us, and the lawmakers in Wisconsin can’t see this and continue this battle on abortions with huge amounts of time and money spent on this.  This is really sad that this is what is in office today.

“Attack of the Killer Algorithms” Part 3–Vatican Doesn’t Like It Either–Occupy Wall Street Belongs in New York As They Don’t Do Code or Algorithms in Washington–Only Find time To Talk Abortions

 

The time and money spent here even made it’s way to Washington and a couple months ago there was a hearing on women’s health and no women were invited.  I have respect for all their views but please keep it out of lawmaking and respect the views of others.  Again the latest on no web cams has more than just me looking at the severe digital literacy and mental capacities of those in office for sure as how in the world can this be controlled? 

How is one going to determine that an “illegal web cam” consult was done?  These folks just don’t get technology at all and are looking “dumber” all the time as I would rather have them jump on the band wagon and get up to speed with where many already are.  I took my link for the Komen foundation off my page and replaced it with Planned Parenthood when the analytics of where to best spend their money became a big political issue for the “digital illiterates” as they don’t realize how analytics are moving the money around, see the picture below at the post on how this intertwines too with the big even on Wall Street as some of philanthropy today has gotten out of touch too.  The analytic folks though are smart and know the digital illiterates can be manipulated and they do that, get their money where they want it and I wonder if corporate US sits back and somewhat laughs at the fact that they can manipulate the digital illiterate lawmakers too?  Komen also last year got a little out of bounds for suing other charities for the use of the word “Cure”, so what’s that tell you, big business and business intelligence analytics at work. 

Komen Foundation Cuts of Funds to Planned Parenthood - Wall Street Was Lit up in “Pink” Last Week For Fund Raising from Hedge Funds and Other Financial Companies

 

Poor Planned Parenthood is once again in the middle of this battle so again who’s going to monitor those dastardly web cams in the potential case that one might be doing a consult for an abortion?  Clearly they have no clue what this would entail with data trails and so forth…hysterically sad on on the levels of digital literacy.  In addition physicians can face felonies if violating the law.  The web cam phrase really takes the cake though and shows how far behind these lawmakers are and how they need to somehow attach themselves to “real” world out there as they are looking “dumb” and “dumber” every day when the need for “control” forces them into a box to where they think they can control “web cams” and how they are used, while the rest of the world moves forward. I don’t know how else to say this but these folks just look plain stupid and in my opinion are the “whack jobs” that somehow work on the emotions of the public when we all know the math and the algorithms are controlling who gets what today.   BD

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MILWAUKEE (Reuters) - Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin has suspended non-surgical abortions in response to a new state law that makes it harder for women to have the procedure, a move that followed anti-abortion measures in several Republican-controlled states.

T

he law, which took effect on Friday, requires women visit a doctor at least three times before having a drug-induced abortion, forces physicians to determine whether women are being coerced into having an abortion and prohibits women and doctors from using web cams during the procedure.

http://news.yahoo.com/wisconsins-planned-parenthood-suspends-non-surgical-abortions-175324214.html

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Mislabeling Work in Labs Sends Years of Cancer Research Down the Drain With Misidentified Contaminated Cells

Can you imagine being a scientist and then finding out later that the cells given for research were contaminated?  This is also hidden at times with researchers and journal publications have been in error as well and have had to be rescinded.  According to the article here there’s not much being done to ensure labeling is correct.  Researchers end up studying the wrong cancer cells and of course this directly impacts finding cures and treatments.

Some researchers have tried to bring this to light but are ignored by others they work with in fear that the errors, if brought forward would discredit an entire lab operation.  One doctor states that cell banks reported that 20% of cell lines for use in research are not properly identified and that’s a pretty large number.  When researching a specific tumor with misidentified cells, it becomes a waste of time, money an so on.

Cell lines are stored for years in freezers and the cells are what researchers study and are even shared  with other scientists so one mislabel can have a bit of a daisy chain effect.  One of the noted mix ups has been between breast cancer cells and melanoma and when it was further researched in one case the breast cancer cells were melanoma and not from a patient who had both. 

The cell lines uses are also published in journals so they can be identified for their point of origin.  One big concern is the financial end where many who donate and contribute money could possibly learn of such mistakes and the donation rates would drop.  With biotech financing being so tough to get, this is the last thing anyone would want to have hit with contaminated cell lines.  BD

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Cancer experts seeking to solve the problem have found that a fifth to a third or more of cancer cell lines tested were mistakenly identified—with researchers unwittingly studying the wrong cancers, slowing progress toward new treatments and wasting precious time and money.

In hundreds of documented cases that undermine a broad swath of research, cancer samples that were supposed to be one type of tumor have turned out to be another, through either careless laboratory handling, mislabeling or other mistakes.

It is a problem hiding in plain sight. Warnings to properly test cancer cell lines have sounded since the 1960s, a decade after scientists started making human cancer cell lines.

Much of cancer research seeks answers to questions of basic biology, so the proper identification of cell lines may be less important, said Dr. Masters. But when seeking cancer treatment for a specific tumor, he said, such mistakes "are an utter waste of public money, charity money and time."

These mix-ups are maddeningly difficult to pinpoint: an improperly sterilized pipette, a lab worker momentarily distracted, a misread label or a typo on a record sheet.

Cell repositories in the U.S., U.K., Germany and Japan have estimated that 18% to 36% of cancer cell lines are incorrectly identified. Researchers at Glasgow University and CellBank Australia found more than 360 such mistaken cell lines, including 100 that turned out to be the late Ms. Lack's cervical cancer cells.

Other scientists, following up on the observations at Stanford, demonstrated that MDA-MB-435 behaved like melanoma because it likely was melanoma—in particular, a skin-cancer cell line called M14.

Osamu Tetsu, a head-and-neck cancer researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, did a study in 2009 that concluded all six known cell lines used by researchers studying adenoid cystic carcinoma were contaminated.

All of the work done on the rare cancer—published papers, research, drug studies—had been conducted with mislabeled cell lines, Dr. Tetsu concluded. He called the findings "catastrophic."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204571404577257513760102538.html

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Medical Marijuana Machine Gets Busted in Orange County–Battle Still Continues Over Access

 

 

The medical marijuana business still has issues over laws that don’t agree with one another.  In this case the city of Santa Ana closed down this dispensary and the machine too.  A couple years ago there was a machine installed in downtown Los Angeles that coincided with the “pot cards” that are now issued in California, also saying it was a safer way for patients to get their medications.  The machine also came with an “armed guard” and was only accessible during business hours.  In the news lately we have had law enforcement carrying out what laws I guess apply to their particular areas and the federal laws.  Banks are afraid to take the gamble in many areas. 

U.S. Medical Marijuana Business Having Issues With Banks–Is This Going to be a Cash Only Business?

In addition we had the raid in northern California on the school that teaches how to work with medical marijuana.

Medical Marijuana in the Picture Again As DEA Raids Oakland Oaksterdam University

In addition some coupons have tried to make it easier to help patients with getting access. 

Medical Marijuana Sellers Offering Online Coupons To Attract Patients

You can watch the vide below for the full story on what happened in Santa Ana.



Dispense Labs, a division of  the Dispensary Group, unveiled  Autospense  Friday, an automated dispensary that distributes medical marijuana and looks like a vending machine.

All that is needed to tap an Autospense machine is a registration card and unique PIN number, said Joe DeRobbio, Dispense Labs’ founder and CEO.

During after hours, Autospense is open only to patients who have agreed to the fingerprint option – they run their prints  through a scanner and swipe a registration card, DeRobbio said.

Autospense offers a secure, “businesslike” way to distribute and obtain medical marijuana,  said DeRobbio. With cameras, locks and sensors, the machines are difficult to break into.

Although Dispense Labs supplies the machines, it is not involved in growing the product, DeRobbio said.

“We are not associated with the industry,” he said. “We do not provide the medicine that goes in the machine.”

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/04/marijuana-vending-machine-by-calif-company/

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Microsoft Research–Where News Ideas Develop to Include Solving Big Problems Like the HIV Virus By Working With Email Spam Filters And Kinect

This is pretty wild that some of the same coding techniques that we use to identify spam mail can also be applied to identify HIV virus mutations and this is a great way to use “machine learning” for better research and knowledge.  Today there’s so much code written that you can in fact see what parts or portions of existing queries, etc. are built in and use those for another industry outside of the original design.  Mashable does some good coverage on this and also you have to love the video when you look at how they are working with augmented reality and the race car.

Of course there’s no better device and technology than Kinect that makes a lot of this happen.  In the video they are using the “Beamatron” technology as it is called to control a virtual race car that sees stuff in it’s path and having a virtual toy car as such might put some of the other folks out of business, maybe?  They also continue on to the demonstration of using Power Point in the same fashion.  We all know that Kinect is coming to Windows and developers are hard at work to make more of this happen. It is very interesting to see a million dollar surgical robot working with the $150 Kinect device, link below at what Johns Hopkins was working with. 

Kinect And daVinci Surgical Robot Do Simulated Surgery Suturing Together (Video)

If that isn’t enough you can see another use of Kinect with radiology taking the need to “touch” out of the picture.  Last year I attended the Israel Conference and had quite a bit of time to speak with Microsoft/XBOX Corporate VP Ilan Spillinger and of course he was also very high on medical solutions with Kinect. 

Microsoft Kinect Working with a PACS Server-Images on Steroids Via Gestures (Video)

When you watch the video with the car and passing the virtual “ball” around you get all kinds of ideas on how lighting, or other information could be shared like even in an operating room or the ER for that matter.  BD

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24 year Microsoft vet and Microsoft Research General Manager Kevin Schofield told me Microsoft Research is also focused, at least in part, on “solving big problems” like the HIV virus.

Medical Research would seem an odd fit for Microsoft, but the research group is filled with all kinds of experts, including a couple of MDs. One of them is also a computer scientist and became fascinated with how doctors make crucial decisions in high-pressure situations when they have incomplete information (think emergency room visits). This led to work in machine learning (Microsoft Research does a lot of work in this area), which uses what’s known to figure out the unknown. Spam filters work this way. They can look at email and if the word “Viagra” is in it, decide with some degree of certainty that it’s spam. Now, that research is being applied to HIV vaccine research.

The HIV virus is known for its tendency to mutate, which makes it hard for people to develop an immunity. A spam-like filter can find the known in the unknown — in this case the core, recognizable virus.

I asked Schofield, who began his carrier at Microsoft in the OS group, if Microsoft founder and former CEO Bill Gates used the legendary Bell Labs as a model for Microsoft Research. “At a 30,000 foot level,” Schofield said, “Bell Labs was the model, but on the ground it was more Carnegie Mellon.” There are, apparently, two styles of research lab: The Xerox Parc model, where you isolate research from the business and the other model, where you basically have business fund and drive research. Both approaches can hinder tech transfer. The second method, in particular, said Schofield, tends to guide research too strongly so that most of the work is spent delivering product enhancements. Schofield said Microsoft took the middle road.

Like any true research facility, Microsoft Research has its share of duds. I asked Schofield if there was a room where Microsoft Research keeps its failed experiments. “Failures would be a big room,” Schofield said, laughing. But he also counts some of those failures among Microsoft Research’s successes.

http://mashable.com/2012/04/21/microsoft-sexy-peek/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+mashable%2Ftech+%28Mashable+%C2%BB+Tech%29#59981Microsoft-Logo-on-Wall

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Drinking Soda Pop May Kill You!

Researchers from Cleveland Clinic’s Wellness Institute and Harvard University have found that greater consumption of sugar-sweetened and low-calorie sodas is associated with a higher risk of stroke. 

The study – recently published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition – is the first to examine soda’s effect on stroke risk. Previous research has linked sugar-sweetened beverage consumption with weight gain, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, gout and coronary artery disease.

“Soda remains the largest source of added sugar in the diet,” said Adam Bernstein, M.D., Sc.D., study author and Research Director at Cleveland Clinic’s Wellness Institute. “What we’re beginning to understand is that regular intake of these beverages sets off a chain reaction in the body that can potentially lead to many diseases – including stroke.”

The research analyzed soda consumption among 43,371 men who participated in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study between 1986 and 2008, and 84,085 women who participated in the Nurses’ Health Study between 1980 and 2008. During that time, 2,938 strokes were documented in women while 1,416 strokes were documented in men.

"The answer to the increase in strokes from drinking soda is quite simple - sugar is a metabolic acid and is poisonous to the body in all of its forms," states Dr. Robert O. Young.  Dr. Young further states, "other acids including carbonic and phosphuric acid also contribute to inflammation, atherosclerosis, acidic plaque, thrombosis, obesity, glucose intolerance, insulin resisitance, diabetes high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke."  In sugar-sweetened sodas, the sugar load may lead to rapid increases in blood glucose and insulin which, over time, may lead to glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, and inflammation. These physiologic changes influence atherosclerosis, plaque stability and thrombosis – all of which are risk factors of ischemic stroke. This risk for stroke appears hy igher in women than in men.

The pH of soda drinks are highly acidic with a pH of less than 3 and an oxidative reduction potential of over +450mV.  According to Dr. Young, "soda sucks the life right out of you!"

In addition, study findings show that men and women who consumed more than one serving of sugar-sweetened soda per day had higher rates of high blood pressure and high blood cholesterol and lower physical activity rates. Those who drank soda more frequently were also more likely to eat red meat and whole-fat dairy products. Men and women who consumed low-calorie soda had a higher incidence of chronic disease and a higher body mass index (BMI). The investigators controlled for these other factors in their analysis to determine the independent association of soda consumption on stroke risk.

“According to research from the USDA, sugar-sweetened beverage consumption has increased dramatically in the United States over the past three decades, and it’s affecting our health,” said Dr. Bernstein. “These findings reiterate the importance of encouraging individuals to substitute alternate beverages for soda.”

Dr. Young suggests, "drinking soda drinks compromises the alkaline design of the body setting the stage for sickness, dis-ease, disease and death.  People are digging their graves with their own teeth when they ingest foods and beverages that are highly acidic/toxic to the blood and tissues.  These acidic foods and beverages include, animal flesh, dairy products, alcohol. coffee, tea, soda drinks, sports drinks, high sugar fruit drinks, vinegar,  and sugar in all of its forms both natural and artificial."

If you are ingesting acidic drinks like soda pop, the following article may help you kick the acidic habit before its too late!

Woman’s Coca-Cola ‘habit’ cited in death

By Eric Pfeiffer | The Sideshow – Fri, Apr 20, 2012

Experts say Natasha Harris Coca-Cola habit probably contributed to her death (AP/New Zealand Herald)When people attribute someone's untimely death to a Coke overdose, they're usually not talking about the world's most popular soda.

But experts in New Zealand say Natasha Harris' 2-gallon-a-day Coca-Cola consumption"probably" contributed to her death. The soda company responded to the alleged connection by noting that even water consumption can be fatalin excessive amounts.

"The first thing she would do in the morning was to have a drink of Coke beside her bed and the last thing she would do at night was have a drink of Coke," Harris' partner Chris Hodgkinson said in a deposition. "She was addicted to Coke."

Hodgkinson testified that Harris drank between 2.1 gallons and 2.6 gallons of Coke every day.

The 30-year-old Harris died of a heart attack in February 2010. According to New Zealand's Fairfax Media, pathologist Dr. Dan Mornin testified on Thursday that Harris likely suffered from hypokalemia (low potassium levels), which he believes was caused by her overall poor nutrition, including the unusually high levels of Coke consumption.

Though in fairness to the soda manufacturer, it was also revealed that Harris made other questionable health choices before her death, including smoking a reported 30 cigarettes per day and having poor eating habits. Dr. Mornin also said Harris had "toxic levels of caffeine" in her blood, though it's not clear if those levels came exclusively from Coke or from a combination of other sources, including coffee.

Karen Thompson, a spokeswoman for Coca-Cola Oceania, defended the safety of her company's products in a statement:

"We concur with the information shared by the coroner's office that the grossly excessive ingestion of any food product, including water, over a short period of time with the inadequate consumption of essential nutrients, and the failure to seek appropriate medical intervention when needed, can be dramatically symptomatic."

Harris reportedly experienced high blood pressure in the months leading up to her death. Hodgkinson called emergency services and tried mouth-to-mouth resuscitation but was not able to revive Harris after she collapsed in her home.

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Appalachian hospital chain, facing loss of 25,000 Medicaid patients, sues managed-care firms and state

"Appalachian Regional Healthcare, the largest health care system in Eastern Kentucky, has filed lawsuits against two of the state's Medicaid managed care companies, alleging that the managed care companies had not paid claims promptly," report Valarie Honeycutt Spears and Beth Musgrave of the Lexington Herald-Leader. ARH said it treats about 25,000 Medicaid patients at its eight Kentucky hospitals.

The moves came after Coventry Cares, one of three managed-care organizations hired by the state, said it would cancel its contract with ARH as of May 4. ARH sued Coventry in federal court on Monday; the previous Thursday, April 12, it sued "in Franklin Circuit Court against Kentucky Spirit Health Plan Inc. and the Cabinet for Health and Family Services." On March 29, "Coventry Coventry told ARH that it was terminating its contract with ARH effective May 4."

Coventry spokesman Matthew Eyles told the Herald-Leader, "We were effectively forced to break our ties with ARH until the Commonwealth takes steps to treat all MCOs equally and makes some key decisions to guarantee greater stability in the program, such as paying MCOs fairly based on whether they have healthier or sicker members." Cabinet spokeswoman Jill Midkiff said the issues don't indicate a problem with the managed-care system the state adopted Nov. 1. (Read more)

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