Health briefs: Inexpensive drug prevents deaths in new mothers

By News services

May 5, 2017 at 4:17AM

An inexpensive generic drug that saves the lives of wounded soldiers and civilian car crash victims has now been shown to rescue women suffering hemorrhages in childbirth. Postpartum hemorrhage, in which women bleed uncontrollably after childbirth, kills an estimated 100,000 women a year in poor and middle-income countries. The complication also forces doctors to perform emergency hysterectomies, especially when hospitals have too little blood on hand to provide transfusions. In a major six-year trial involving over 20,000 women in 21 countries, researchers showed that tranexamic acid, a little-known blood-clotter invented in the 1950s, reduced maternal bleeding deaths by a third if it was given within three hours. It costs less than $2 a dose and does not require refrigeration.

Drug OK'd for certain leukemia patients

U.S. regulators have approved the first targeted drug for certain patients with an aggressive form of leukemia. The Food and Drug Administration approved the drug for adults with acute myeloid leukemia, or AML, who have a genetic mutation called FLT3. Also OK'd was a test to identify those patients. The drug, Rydapt, known chemically as midostaurin, is used along with chemotherapy. Each year in the U.S., AML kills more than 10,000 people and about 20,000 people are diagnosed with it, the National Cancer Institute estimates. In a study of 717 patients, Rydapt combined with chemotherapy extended the time before the leukemia worsened or the patient died, compared to chemotherapy alone.

Vending machines to offer clean needles

Las Vegas will be the first American city to offer a needle exchange program through vending machines. Officials hope easy access to free and clean needles will reduce the spread of HIV and hepatitis B and C among intravenous drug users. Users will be able to get clean needles from three machines starting this month. The needle kits are free, but people who want to use them will have to fill out a form and get an ID number to track their use. At least one of the machines will be located at a counseling center where users will be able to talk to professional counselors about addiction treatment.

Blood test could help cancer treatment

Researchers have taken an important step toward better lung cancer treatment by using blood tests to track genetic changes in tumors as they progress from their very earliest stages. With experimental tests that detect bits of DNA that tumors shed into the blood, they were able to detect some recurrences of cancer up to a year before imaging scans could, giving a chance to try new therapy sooner. It's the latest development for tests called liquid biopsies, which analyze cancer using blood rather than tissue samples. Some doctors use these tests now to guide care for patients with advanced cancers, mostly in research settings. The new work is the first time tests like this have been used to monitor the evolution of lung tumors at an early stage, when there's a much better chance of cure.

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