Light can treat cancer??

In the US they have found that a drug which attaches to tumours can be activated by waves of light. This study has suggested that particular areas can be targeted without damaging surrounding tissues.
The National Cancer Institute used an antibody which is complementary to the surface proteins of the tumour. IR700 is a light receptive substance which is activated by infra-red light. This chemical was attached to the antibody and used on mice with inserted tumours in an environment with IR light. Compared to the control group, the tumour volume was significantly reduced.
Cancer Research UK reported that photo-dynamic therapy or using antibodies has been successful in treating cancers so combining the treatments provides a promising answer.
It is important to consider that researchers are still at the animal testing stage and therefore we cannot be certain of how this treatment will affect humans.

GMC no longer registering medical students- November Student BMJ

The General Medical Council has decided that UK medical students are not to be registered when they start their training as it would bring no benefit to patients or added protection. The registration is required by all doctors to be able to practise medicine in the country. A 2010 review has suggested that rather than checking the fitness to practice at the point if registration by the GMC, local management of students would be quicker and more efficient. New students will be given 'welcome to medicine' packs when they start their degrees since the support alongside the GMC regulation is being removed. They have also made the decision to give provisional registration reference numbers to students at the beginning of their fifth year rather than at the end- giving them batter access to the NHS.
I am interested to know whether this will make a difference to those training to become doctors?

Movember

I've just donated money toward my cousin's boyfriend who is growing a beard to raise money and awareness for prostate and testicular cancer. 'Movember' is a monthly campaign whereby men across the world are encouraged to grow a moustache. These men, the 'Mo Bros' are promoting the awareness which hopefully is encouraging people to talk about prostate cancer. It may also work by encouraging other men to go for a prostate examination.

With 1 in 9 men suffering from prostate cancer and one man dying each hour of everyday, this is a worthwhile cause. It is the most common cancer type within the male population. Testicular cancer is expected to kill 70 men in 2011. Unlike prostate cancer, which largely affects those over 50, testicular cancer is most common for those aged between 15-44. Men are encouraged to self examine regularly and to be aware of the size and shape of their testicles so they can report changes to their doctor.

The money raised in Movember is going to used to increase awareness and education as well as towards research. It is thought that global collaborative research projects are more effective than individual ones as multidisciplinary teams of key researchers can work together to increase the chance of a break through in less time.
uk.movember.com/?home

Organ donation

Yesterday I received my November issue of Student BMJ, which was nice to find on my doorstep when I got home from work! On one of the first couple of pages there was a short piece on organ donations and medical student had given their personal opinions on the matter. This made me think about how I felt about it; once I no longer need my organ why not give them to someone else who would gain from them. This morning I registered on the NHS website to become an organ donor.

To me, it is no different to passing down clothes I have outgrown to my siblings or giving old possessions to a charity shop. I can however understand that some are squeamish at the thought of being dissected and that other might not want to donate some organs such as their eyes as they feel they are unique to them. Also I can imagine that it is easier to donate your own organs than for your grieving relatives to make the decision for you. Some would be comforted that there is an upside to this traumatic event of losing someone, however others may find it hard to 'let go' and could not bear the physical thought of their loved ones being cut.

An article on the BBC news about a week ago looked at the success of organ donation in Scotland and are looking at setting up an 'opt out' scheme whereby all patients donate their organs unless they say otherwise. 37% of Scots have registered as donors however a further 600 donations are required. Changing to an opt out system hopes to increase the donations to save more lives however there are some issues to overcome before we can take patients assumed consent.

BBC weblink

Teenage Gastric Balloon trial- BBC News

In Sheffield they have planned to trial the gastric balloon on 10 children (aged 13-18) who weigh between 14-20 stone. Although very few studies have been carried out on young people, it has been very effective with adults. The specialist children's hospital has intended to offer it as an option where other treatments have been unsuccessful.
Doctors have said that lifestyle advice is very important in helping young people to lose weight and that the gastric balloon is not a quick fix.
A gastric balloon works by inserting a silicon bag of saline or water into the patient's stomach and inflating it. The pressure created in the stomach gives the patient a sensation of fullness after eating a small portion. The balloon is usually removed after a maximum of 6 months and the patient must continue to eat smaller portions in order to maintain weight loss.
If the trial is approved, the young people will be followed over 2 years to see if the balloon has helped them to lose weight. They will also be working with the behavioural support team to try and support the adolescents to keep the weight off long term.
However before the doctors can go ahead with the trial, the ethics committee must agree.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-15478078

World population reaches 7 billion today- The Guardian, Independent, BBC News

A baby born in the Philippines has been given the title of the 7 billionth baby by the EU. Today has been named seven billion Day to try and draw attention towards population growth. Through a campaign of woman's rights, reproductive health and inequalities, the UN population fund hopes to raise awareness.

A consultant of infectious disease has expressed that media about population always focuses on poorer countries even though more resources are used my babies born in First World countries. If resources were distributed equitably the whole population could be healthy, fed and sheltered well.

Dr Thapa from WHO reported that we are too focused on the numbers rather than quality and that if the population decreases this will not necessarily improve lives. It is believed that quality and quantity are both important.
A doctor from Ethiopia believes population has risen due to an inequality of healthcare spending and the lack of available contraceptive. 

More family planning and important information on sexual health is required but religious and cultural sensitivity must be respected.

Alzheimer's breakthrough

Early research has investigated the reason for the toxicity of beya amyloid peptides and whether it is linked to heredity.

In Alzheimer's disease beta amyloid plaques form in the brain alongside tau proteins which form tangles. Researchers at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research have created a GM yeast model and used it to screeb for genes which could alter the toxicity of amyloid beta. These genes idenified also affected the toxicity of beta amyloid peptides in worms and rat brain cells.

The model has also demonstrated that beta amyloid also disrupts endocytosis (absorbing and moving substances into the cell using vesicles) in yeast cells. Interestingly, the genes which regulate endocytosis in humans has already been identified as a risk factor for Alzheimer's.

Researchers are confident that these finding with the yeast model will be applicable to humans, however we are only at the early stages of research and will need to run experiments using human cells before this we can look at how to use the results to diagnose and treat the disease.

You may have noticed that over time I have made several posts on Alzheimer's disease. After attending Medlink and writing a medical report on the disease with a friend, I have become very interested in the news regarding treatment and diagnosis. I also decided to do my Year 12 biology coursework on Alzheimer's which gave me further opportunity to look at drug developments and the NICE recommendations.

This is the link for my medical report published on the web:
http://www.medlink-uk.org/Site/documents/Alzheimers2010/DayJ&BiggsK.pdf





http://www.nhs.uk/news/2011/10October/Pages/alzheimers-disease-genes-yeast.aspx

Latest stories surrounding euthanasia

Firstly let's look at the law regarding the topic:

The 1961 Suicide Act makes it an offence to encourage or assist a suicide or a suicide attempt in England and Wales. Anyone breaking this law could serve 14 years in prison.

There is no specific law on assisted suicide in Scotland, creating some uncertainty although in theory someone could be prosecuted under homicide legislation.

To date, more than 100 UK citizens have travelled to Dignitas in Switzerland to end their lives.

Although some cases have been considered by the DPP, no relative has yet been prosecuted.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/hardtalk/9577291.stm

Sept 11

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8830679/Cliff-Richard-why-I-would-consider-euthanasia.html 17/10/11

An assisted suicide machine is being auctioned later this month in the US, alongside the personal possessions of Dr. Kevorkian. 2 different machines has been used to help end the lives of 130 people; 'the death machine, where users pressed a button to inject themselves with lethal drugs and the 'mercy machine' which used a gas mask attached to CO canister. In 1999 he was convicted of second degree murder and served 8 years in prison and was famously known for saying 'dying isn't a crime'. A film on Kevorkian's life was broadcasted on television in the States last year. I am currently trying to find a copy of the film.

(http://www.5newsonline.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-kevorkian-auctiontre79a4rp-20111011,0,6641049.story?track=rss)

Interesting articles regarding abortion and fertility treatment

An article in the Guardian on family planning states that 1/4 of births in the world are unplanned. Also 42 million abortions have occurred with over 68 000 women killed.

The Abortion Act 1967 (mainland UK) states that abortions must be carried out up to 24 week from the point of conception in licensed clinics or hospitals. Legally two doctors must agree that the abortion would cause less damage to the mother that continuing with the pregnancy (physically and mentally). However an article published last April in the Telegraph reported of an Italian baby who survived 20 hours after being aborted at 22 weeks. The hospital chaplain discovered the baby, who had been aborted after it was discovered that he was disabled, still breathing and was transferred to a specialist neo-natal care unit. As an Italian citizen, the baby boy now has the right to health and legally has the right to life.

This article has highlighted how a child at 22 weeks (2 weeks short of the upper limit of abortion) is able to survive outside the mother's body. In 2005 a mother who had tried to abort her son three times gave birth at 24 weeks to her son who is still alive today. Should the upper limit of abortion be lowered? If a foetus of 24 weeks can survive as an individual, are they considered a person with potential rather than a potential person? By 24 weeks a foetus is nearly fully developed; it has little fat but has fully formed taste buds and it's brain is rapidly growing. This brings up ethical issues looking at what age does a foetus become a child? Philosopher, Glover uses a cake analogy to illustrate the difficulties of differentiating between the two. When you are baking a cake, when do you consider it to be a cake? Is it a cake when it's eggs, flour, butter and sugar? How about when it's a tin full of smooth cake mixture? Or is it not a cake until it comes out of the oven fully baked and ready to eat? From this analogy you can see that it is not logically possible to pinpoint the moment an unborn child goes from a cluster of cells to a foetus to a human being.

(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/7646540/Baby-boy-survives-for-nearly-two-days-after-abortion.html)

In June 2010, an article against lowering the upper limits of abortion states that at 24 weeks a foetus cannot feel pain. According to the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecologists, at this stage the brain is not developed enough to experience pain or consciousness. The studies have suggested that when a child is aborted at the upper limits (due to foetal abnormalities or risk to the mother's health) the chemical environment in the uterus induces 'a continuous sleep-like unconsciousness' and the foetus does not suffer. I think there are however still issues around whether this is ethically right, considering that they may be fit enough to survive outside the uterus.

(http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jun/25/human-foetus-no-pain-24-weeks)

One particular article more recently in the news (The Guardian 23/09/11) which caught my attention looks at an American couple who have made the decision to reduce their pregnancy from twins to a single foetus.

After 6 years of fertility treatment, a 45 year old lady became pregnant with twins and at 14 weeks decided to abort only one of her unborn children. She explained that since she had created her children artificially, she felt she had the choice to terminate one of their lives. For her the decision was easy, she believed that of she had 2 children she would only be able to give them half the love that they deserved. I can imagine that mothers who have more than one child may argue that it doesn't matter how many children you have, you will still have unconditional love for that child. If you have 4 children, does that mean that you only love each child a quarter of the amount that a single child would receive.

The procedure requires injecting potassium chloride into one of the foetus' chest. Over time it then shrivels overtime and remains in uterus until birth. The physicians need to view the procedure under an ultra sound scanner, which is visually explicit and can be quite disturbing.

There is something about separating twins that we seem to find more controversial than aborting a single child. Is this because we see twins as being lifelong best friends? Or is it because we can not imagine having to select one child over another. For that surviving child, finding out that you had a twin brother or sister who your parents chose to kill, must be something overly difficult. When the child realises that there was a 50% chance that they themselves would be terminated, I cant even start to imagine how that might affect them psychologically.

Some may say that aborting only one child is somewhat better than aborting both twins as this would mean the loss of only one life. However others believe that choosing one over the other is actually worse. I think this story is complicated by the fact that fertility treatment has been used. The family must have had some idea that there was a chance of having a multiple pregnancy when they decided to have the fertility treatment. Now they believe that they can pick and choose to reduce the pregnancy. Some may argue that this is just a step to far, however others may question why this is unacceptable when abortion is becoming increasingly accepted in society.

(http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/23/pregnancy-reduction-fertility-abortion-america)

An exciting new media- 'Medikidz' Medical Superhero Comics (BMJ)

After the article I read the other week about the bad press the NHS were receiving, I was pleasantly surprise to come across these new comics which education patients about medical conditions. There are 5 superheroes (Axon, Pump, Chi, Skinderella and Gastro- can you guess which areas?!) which specialise in a certain part of the body and take the child through the causes, symptoms and possible treatment. With 23 different titles, each issue addresses one single condition by using fun analogies to help children understand medical jargon.

Alongside these comics they are working on a children's online network so children around the world can talk to others with similar conditions and share their experiences in a safe environment. Student BMJ reports that 'having this sense of community can have a positive influence on their psychological state, thus enhancing their confidence and further improving their condition'.

This is a nice idea and hopefully will be used to teach children about medicine in a way which is both friendly and fun. I think it would be useful for doctors to inform parents of those suffering from life changing conditions about this magazine so they can make the decisions whether to get involved online and purchase the comics.

(www.medikidz.com/)