NAPC News 9 September 2010

Lansley Challenged On Health Shake-Up

Stephen Dorrell, the Conservative former health minister, who chairs the Commons Health Committee, said that Andrew Lansley needed to show how GP commissioning would improve health service care.

Mr. Lansley's plans might address the issue of clinical knowledge, but the Committee, which is launching an inquiry into the plans, would shine a light on how the other weaknesses were to be tackled, Mr. Dorrell said.

Call For More Obesity Surgery To Cut Benefits And NHS Bills

A report by the Office of Health Economics has concluded that the low availability of surgery to correct obesity is leading over the long term to the expenditure of hundreds of millions of pounds in benefit payments and costs to the NHS.

If 25% had surgery, £1.3bn would be realised within three years, benefit payments would fally by up to £150m, and the NHS would save £56m a year in reduced drug prescription and patient care costs, it claimed.

Healthcare Plans Hit Morale

During heated exchanges in the Commons this week, Labour shadow health spokesman, Andy Burnham, said coalition government plans to reform the NHS had brought morale in the service to ‘rock bottom'. Mr. Lansley defended his plans and said he was protecting frontline services.

Hunt For A Cancer Cure May Lose Public Funding Lifeline

The Medical Research Council has drawn up plans to withdraw the £105 million that it spends annually on cancer to meet Treasury proposals to save at least 20 per cent on its £700 million budget. The MRC, which distributes taxpayers' funds to medical science, has decided that such heavy cuts could not be achieved without ending its support for at least one major field of research. Cancer has been identified as the prime candidate for cuts because it is well funded by charities such as Cancer Research UK, which spends about £350 million each year.

Charity To Help Fund Swiss Drug Trial

Addex Pharmaceuticals of Switzerland has turned to a US charity to support its drug development programme, as it diversifies fundraising away from a shrinking pool of private investors during the economic slowdown. Addex is to receive $900,000 from the Michael J Fox Foundation. The funds will help support a mid-stage clinical trial for its experimental treatment for Parkinson's disease.

Drugs Could Target Cholesterol

Scientists say the discovery that certain variants of a gene, SORT1 may be good targets for new drugs could pave the way to personalised cholesterol treatments. Researchers said genetically engineered mice that lacked the gene had lower levels of cholesterol. The study published in Cell Metabolism concluded that SORT1 controlled the release of the ‘bad' form of cholesterol into the bloodstream.

No Reliable Remedy For Morning Sickness

Researchers reviewing studies of remedies to cure morning sickness commonly used by pregnant women concluded that there was no reliable cure. Women often try home remedies, alternative therapies or use medicines to ease sickness. But a review of 27 studies, involving more than 4,000 pregnant women, failed to find any reliable and safe treatment.

Lead researchers, Dr Anne Matthews, of Dublin City University, said the at despite the wealth of treatments available, it was not possible to identify with confidence any safe and effective interventions for nausea and vomiting in early pregnancy.

Hope For Arthritis Sufferers

Just days after research showed that statins did not increase the risk of cancer, new research suggested they may help to prevent rheumatoid arthritis. As study of almost two million patients by Dr Gabriel Chodick from Maccabi Health Services and Tel Aviv University, has found those who take statins are 40 per cent less likely to get rheumatoid arthritis than those who do not.

Three Drinks A Day Keep Doctor Away

A major new report suggests that three glasses of alcohol a day helps you live longer. The 20-year study revealed men and women who drank moderately were more likely to outlive those who were teetotal or drank heavily.

Research by the University of Texas found that despite current health advice to have no more than two drinks a night, the experts found that having three drinks did no harm Worst off were non-drinkers, who were 51 per cent more likely to die before moderate drinkers.

Rich Patients More Likely To Survive Cancer

Cancer patients in the wealthiest parts of the country are far more likely to survive than those in poorer areas, figures show. Those from impoverished households faced a much bleaker prognosis with less chance of still being alive a year after diagnosis. On average, a person diagnosed with any type of cancer in England has a 65 per cent chance of surviving at least 12 months, compared with 62 per cent a decade ago. But the figures from the Office of National Statistics showed a distinct gap between the rich and the poor with those living in wealthy regions enjoying survival rates almost 25 per cent higher.

Tomatoes Could Offer Hope To Prostate Cancer Victims

A daily serving of tomatoes could protect against prostate cancer and slow the growth of a tumour in an existing sufferer, research suggests.

A study involving mice bred to be genetically susceptible to cancer showed those fed a daily diet rich in tomato extracts were less likely to fall ill, and survived longer if they did.

UK Radiotherapy Lagging Behind

Too few UK cancer patients are receiving state-of-the art radiotherapy care, experts say. Cancer Research UK (CRUK) waned that only 7% of patients received a new type of radiotherapy, compared with 20% in Europe.

CRUK experts said that patients were receiving older types of radiotherapy, or having to travel abroad for care.

The number of people receiving radiotherapy in the UK tripled between 2000 and 2009, and the number of radiographers rose by 40% between 2000 and 2006.

However, CRUK estimates that, in total, only 38% of cancer patients in England are getting radiotherapy, although research shows that up to 50% might benefit.

The charity says differences in staffing levels and equipment mean UK health care trusts are failing to offer equal opportunities for patients to receive radiotherapy.

And for those patients, who are being offered radiotherapy, many suffer unacceptable long waiting times before receiving their treatment, the charity said. Its view was that lack of public awareness about radiotherapy's importance in treating cancer is affecting treatment provision.

Experts say the UK is lagging behind the US and Europe in introducing new, more targeted radiotherapy technology, such as intensity modulated radiotherapy (MRT) or image guided radiotherapy (IGRT).

IMRT uses computer to control the radiotherapy machine to vary the intensity of the radiation beam, helping to closely match the three dimensional shape of the tumour. It gives very précised doses to a cancer or to specific areas within the tumour while minimisig the doe to nearby tissues.

IGRT takes images of the cancer before and during radiotherapy so the doctor can make sure the treatment is precise and accurate.

In Europe, around 20% of cancer patients receive IMRT, while only 7% of UK patients have access to it.

Professor Sir Mike Richards, the government's national cancer tsar, said that delivering stat of the art radiotherapy was a complex operation. The government was now planning ways to boost services to meet the needs of future cancer patients so they all would benefit from it received it.