The Food and Drug Administration has approved a new form of pain-reliever OxyContin designed to reduce tampering and abuse.

It is difficult to cut, crush, chew, or dissolve the new pills, preserving the slow release of the active ingredient, oxycodone, over time.  If a potential abuser tries to dissolve the pills in water, they form a gummy mass that cannot be injected.

After the new formulation is on the market, the FDA will require Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin, conduct a study of how well it meets the goal of reducing abuse and misuse.  Purdue also must develop a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) that includes a medication guide for patients and education for health care providers on the appropriate use of opiates to manage pain. Read the rest of this entry »

Although being obese increases risk for most colon and rectal cancers, the connection isn’t true in all types of colorectal cancer.

Cancers that are linked to microsatellite instability (MSI) don’t appear to be influenced by obesity, strengthening the belief that MSI cancers come about differently than the average colorectal cancer.

Overall, in a recent study, body mass index and weight gain during adult life increased risk of colorectal cancer by about 30 percent for men and 20 percent for women. However, increased risk was limited to microsatellite stable or microsatellite low tumors. Read the rest of this entry »

As a first step in implementing health reform, on April 2 Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius asked state governors and insurance commissioners to work with the federal government to establish temporary high risk pools to provide affordable insurance for people with pre-existing conditions.

In a letter to governors, Secretary Sebelius laid out several options states will have to use $5 billion in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to bridge the time from July 1, 2010 until January 1, 2014 when the insurance exchanges will be available.

Coverage will need to include at least a floor set of benefits established by the federal government.  Out-of-pocket costs are limited to $5,950 for an individual, and premiums cannot be set at more than the existing standard non-group rates.  There can be no exclusion for pre-existing conditions.

Governors were asked to respond with a letter of intent by April 30, 2010.  If a state does not want to participate in the program, the Department of Health and Human Services will provide the high risk pool services to needy individuals in that state. Read the rest of this entry »

The actor John Forsythe died April 1.

He was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2006 and had been battling the disease again over the past year.  His death was due to complications from pneumonia.  He was 92. Read the rest of this entry »

Looking at more than 10,000 screening CT colonography or virtual colonoscopy exams, doctors found cancers in 1 in every 200 patients, but more often those cancers were not colorectal cancer, but unsuspected cancer found outside the colon.

The tests found 22 colorectal cancers (1 in every 500 patients examined) and 36 other cancers (1 in every 300 patients.)  More than half were found at an early stage I.  After an average follow-up time of 30 months, only 3 patients had died of cancer.

Renal cell cancer was the most frequent extracolonic cancer, discovered in 11 patients who didn’t have symptoms.  Eight lung cancers were also found along with six cases of non-Hodgkins lymphoma and eleven cancers in other sites.  More specific information about patients, their cancers, and their survival is part of the report in Radiology. Read the rest of this entry »