| Parkinson's studies back gene therapy | | Posted Wednesday, October 18, 2006 6:59:34 PM by Blog57 Team | | LOS ANGELES -- The first studies of human gene therapy for Parkinson's disease have shown that the technique is safe, and that it can reduce symptoms for patients, two groups of researchers have reported. Each of the 24 patients who received therapy in the two separate trials received some benefit and none had significant side effects, researchers reported at neuroscience meetings yesterday and last week. Gene therapy has a tarnished reputation because of problems encountered in trials against other diseases, said Katie Hood, deputy chief executive officer of the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. The Food and Drug Administration temporarily halted gene therapy trials in 1999 after an 18-year-old being treated for a mild genetic disorder died after a violent reaction to the procedure.... | |
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| | | Hormone therapy linked to hearing loss | | Posted Saturday, September 09, 2006 9:15:37 AM by Blog57 Team | | THE hormone progestin, as a component of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) following menopause, appears to exacerbate deficits in hearing sensitivity and auditory speech processing, according to a research team at the Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in New York. "Sensory declines in elderly women, in this case exacerbated by progestin, can significantly interfere with communication abilities, including speech and hearing, professional and economic productivity, family relations, and quality of life," write the researchers in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr Robert D Frisina and colleagues used a "rigorous battery of classical and state-of-the art hearing tests assessing both the peripheral (ear) and central (brain) auditory systems," to compare the effects of estrogen alone, estrogen plus progestin, and no HRT (control) on women ages 60 to 86 years.... | |
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| | | Hormone therapy with testosterone increases breast cancer risk | | Posted Tuesday, August 08, 2006 11:00:27 PM by Blog57 Team | | BOSTON ? Aug. 7, 2006 ? Women taking a combination of hormones including estrogen and testosterone to relieve menopausal symptoms may have more than a two-fold increased risk of breast cancer, according to a new study. Led by Dr. Rulla M. Tamimi, of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, the new analysis of a data taken from the ongoing Nurse's Health Study appears in the July 24 Archives of Internal Medicine "Among women with a natural menopause, the risk of breast cancer was nearly 2.5-fold greater among current users of estrogen plus testosterone therapies than among never users of postmenopausal hormone therapies," the researchers wrote. "Women receiving postmenopausal hormones with testosterone had a 17.2 percent increased risk of breast cancer per year of use." Based on studies suggesting that testosterone can improve mood, bone density, and sexual function in postmenopausal women, the male hormone is currently included in some postmenopausal hormone therapies.... | |
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| | | Hormone Therapy Does Not Help Quality of Life | | Posted Friday, July 07, 2006 8:58:25 PM by Blog57 Team | | Combination hormone therapy does not improve quality of life for postmenopausal women, according to the Women's Health Initiative study in the New England Journal of Medicine. The paper is the second released by the WHI since July 2002, when researchers reported that the combination of estrogen and progestin increased a woman's risk of heart attack, breast cancer and stroke. These findings prompted the National Institutes of Health to halt the study nearly three years early. "There was no benefit of being in the combination hormone group in terms of general health, energy, mental health, depression, memory or sexual functioning after one year," said Dr. Jennifer Hays, lead author of the study and director of the Center for Women's Health at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.... | |
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