Health briefs: FDA approves cap to save hair during chemo

Hair loss is one of the most despised side effects of chemotherapy, and now breast cancer patients are getting a new way to try to save their locks.

The Food and Drug Administration said it would allow marketing of the DigniCap, a cooling system that chills patients' scalps to reduce the hair loss that is so common during breast cancer treatment. Depending on how many rounds of chemo a woman undergoes, the total cost could range from $1,500 to $3,000, said DigniCap, made by Sweden's Dignitana AB.

Tylenol is a popular remedy for treating flu symptoms. But a randomized trial of 80 adults in New Zealand has found that it is no more effective than a placebo, with no discernible effect on reducing fever or other symptoms.

Women with a false positive mammogram or breast biopsy result have an increased risk of breast cancer over the next 10 years compared with those with a true negative result, said a study in the Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. It used data on more than 2 million mammograms nationwide. Compared with women who had a true negative result, a woman with a false positive referred for further imaging had a 39 percent increased relative risk for cancer. Among those with a false-positive result referred for biopsy, the relative risk was 76 percent greater.

Hormone therapy, a common treatment for prostate cancer, is associated with an increased risk for Alzheimer's disease, a study has found.

Overall, those treated with known as androgen deprivation therapy had an 88 percent increased risk of Alzheimer's compared with other patients. The longer the hormone treatment, the more the risk increased, and patients treated at least 12 months had more than double the risk. The study is in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.