March 31st, 2011 by Elaine Schattner, M.D. in Opinion
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The Times ran an intriguing experiment on its Well blog yesterday: a medical problem-solving contest. The challenge, based on the story of a real girl who lives near Philadelphia, drew 1379 posted comments and closed this morning with publication of the answer.
Dr. Lisa Sanders, who moderated the piece, says today that the first submitted correct response came from a California physician; the second came from a Minnesota woman who is not a physician. Evidently she recognized the condition’s manifestations from her experience working with people who have it.
The public contest – and even the concept of using the word “contest” – to solve a real person’s medical condition interests me a lot. This kind of puzzle is, as far as I know, unprecedented apart from the somewhat removed domains of doctors’ journals and on-line platforms intended for physicians, medical school problem-based learning cases, clinical pathological conferences (CPC’s) and fictional TV shows. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Medical Lessons*
March 24th, 2011 by Elaine Schattner, M.D. in Research
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A recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine includes an article with the bland title Cytarabine Dose for Acute Myeloid Leukemia. AML is an often-curable form of leukemia characterized by rapidly-growing myeloid white blood cells. Cytarabine — what we’d call “Ara-C” on rounds — has been a mainstay of AML treatment for decades.
The new report* covers a fairly large, multicenter, randomized trial of adult patients with AML. The researchers, based in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium and Germany, evaluated 860 patients who received either intermediate or high doses of Ara-C in their initial, induction chemotherapy. According to the journal, “this investigator-sponsored study did not involve any pharmaceutical companies.”
The main finding was that at a median follow-up of 5 years there were no significant differences between the groups in terms of complete remission rates, relapses or overall survival. The high-dose Ara-C offered no clear advantage in any prognostic subgroup, including those with genetic changes that bear a poor risk. Not surprisingly, Grade 3 and 4 (severe) toxicities were more common in the patients who received higher doses of Ara-C. Those patients also had lengthier hospitalizations and prolonged reduction in their blood counts.
Why am I mentioning this report, besides that it hasn’t received any press coverage? First, because the findings might matter to people who have AML and are contemplating treatment options. But mainly it’s an example of how carefully dialing down some chemotherapy doses could reduce health care costs and lessen untoward effects of cancer therapy — in terms of early toxicities and, possibly down the line, fewer secondary malignancies – without compromising long-term outcomes.
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*subscription required: N Engl J Med 364: 1027–36 (2011). The free abstract includes some details on the chemo doses.
*This blog post was originally published at Medical Lessons*
March 15th, 2011 by Elaine Schattner, M.D. in Opinion, Research
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Lupus, an autoimmune disease, [recently] turned up on the front page of the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). It cropped up, also, on the first page of the New York Times business section, and elsewhere. Scientific American published a nice online review just now. The reason is that the FDA has approved a new monoclonal antibody for treatment of this condition.
The drug belimumab (Benlysta), targets a molecule called BlyS (B-lymphocyte Stimulator). The newspapers uniformly emphasize that this drug marks some sort of triumph for Human Genome Sciences, a biotech company that first reported on BlyS in the journal Science way back in 1999. BlyS triggers B cells to produce antibodies that in patients with lupus tend to bind and destroy their own cells’ needed machinery, causing various joint, lung, liver, kidney, brain, blood vessel and other sometimes life-threatening problems. So if and when Benlysta works, it probably does so by blocking aberrant autoimmune B-cell activity.
The newspapers don’t give a lot of details on the drug’s effectiveness, except that it appears to help roughly one in 11 patients, and the main benefit may be that some lupus patients on Benlysta can reduce their use of steroids, which have long-term and toxic effects on many organs. The most recent major medical publication on a trial on the drug came out in the Lancet two weeks ago.
Some reported caveats are that the drug has not been adequately tested or approved for patients with severe kidney or neurological manifestations of the disease, and that its activity, marginal as it is, appears to be less in patients of African heritage based on trials completed thus far. Additional trials are in the works.
The drug is expensive, to the updated tune of $35,000 per year. According to the WSJ: “Estimates of how many Americans are affected range from 161,000 to 1.5 million.” (How’s that for a wide ballpark figure? Likely a function of how hard it is to define and establish diagnosis for this disease, which anticipates how hard it will be to measure this drug’s effects — see below.) The same WSJ piece says analysts expect the drug to become a blockbuster, with annual sales eventually topping $1 billion. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Medical Lessons*
March 10th, 2011 by Elaine Schattner, M.D. in Health Tips, Opinion
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Lately I’ve been worrying about Kevin’s refusal to eat broccoli, and wondering what exactly is so good about those green bunches of roughage. In browsing the Web for more detailed information on the matter, I found a helpful vitamin chart.
The table comes from the HHS–sponsored National Women’s Health Information Center — a good spot to know of if you’re a woman looking online for reliable sources. It’s a bit simple for my taste. In the intro, we’re told there are 13 essential vitamins our bodies need. After some basics on Vitamin A — good for the eyes and skin, as you probably knew already — the chart picks up with a quick review of the essential B vitamins 1, 2 ,3 ,5 ,6 , 9 and 12 (my favorite), followed by a rundown on Vitamins C, D, E, H (that would be biotin) and K:
| Vitamins, Some of their Actions, and Good Food Sources |
| Vitamin |
Actions |
Sources |
| A |
- Needed for vision
- Helps your body fight infections
- Helps keep your skin healthy
|
Kale, broccoli, spinach, carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, liver, eggs, whole milk, cream, and cheese. |
| B1 |
- Helps your body use carbohydrates for energy
- Good for your nervous system
|
Yeasts, ham and other types of pork, liver, peanuts, whole-grain and fortified cereals and breads, and milk. |
| B2 |
- Helps your body use proteins, carbohydrates, and fats
- Helps keep your skin healthy
|
Liver, eggs, cheese, milk, leafy green vegetables, peas, navy beans, lima beans, and whole-grain breads. |
| B3 |
- Helps your body use proteins, carbohydrates, and fats
- Good for your nervous system and skin
|
Liver, yeast, bran, peanuts, lean red meats, fish, and poultry. |
| B5 |
- Helps your body use carbohydrates and fats
- Helps your body make red blood cells
|
Beef, chicken, lobster, milk, eggs, peanuts, peas, beans, lentils, broccoli, yeast, and whole grains. |
| B6 |
- Helps your body use proteins and fats
- Good for your nervous system
- Helps your blood carry oxygen
|
Liver, whole grains, egg yolk, peanuts, bananas, carrots, and yeast. |
| B9 (folic acid or folate) |
- Helps your body make and maintain new cells
- Prevents some birth defects
|
Green leafy vegetables, liver, yeast, beans, peas, oranges, and fortified cereals and grain products. |
| B12 |
- Helps your body make red blood cells
- Good for your nervous system
|
Milk, eggs, liver, poultry, clams, sardines, flounder, herring, eggs, blue cheese, cereals, nutritional yeast, and foods fortified with vitamin B12, including cereals, soy-based beverages, and veggie burgers. |
| C |
- Needed for healthy bones, blood vessels, and skin
|
Broccoli, green and red peppers, spinach, brussels sprouts, oranges, grapefruits, tomatoes, potatoes, papayas, strawberries, and cabbage. |
| D |
|
Fish liver oil, milk and cereals fortified with vitamin D. Your body may make enough vitamin D if you are exposed to sunlight for about 5 to 30 minutes at least twice a week. |
| E |
- Helps prevent cell damage
- Helps blood flow
- Helps repair body tissues
|
Wheat germ oil, fortified cereals, egg yolk, beef liver, fish, milk, vegetable oils, nuts, fruits, peas, beans, broccoli, and spinach. |
| H (biotin) |
- Helps your body use carbohydrates and fats
- Needed for growth of many cells
|
Liver, egg yolk, soy flour, cereals, yeast, peas, beans, nuts, tomatoes, nuts, green leafy vegetables, and milk. |
| K |
- Helps in blood clotting
- Helps form bones
|
Alfalfa, spinach, cabbage, cheese, spinach, broccoli, brussels sprouts, kale, cabbage, tomatoes, plant oils. Your body usually makes all the vitamin K you need. |
(From womenshealth.gov; table accessed 2/19/2011.)
Overall I’d say the chart is useful — a good place to start if you want to know, say, what’s a good, non-citrus source of Vitamin C. It could be improved by provision of more details, like the precise amount of Vitamin B2 per cupful of Swiss chard, and how preparing foods in distinct ways — like roasting, sautéing, boiling, or serving them raw — affects the nutritional value.
*This blog post was originally published at Medical Lessons*
March 7th, 2011 by Elaine Schattner, M.D. in Health Policy, Opinion
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[Recently] a short article in the New York Times, New Kidney Transplant Policy Would Favor Younger Patients, [drew] my attention to a very basic problem in medical ethics: Rationing.
According to the Washington Post coverage, the proposal comes from the United Network for Organ Sharing, a Richmond-based private non-profit group the federal government contracts for allocation of donated organs. From the Times piece:
Under the proposal, patients and kidneys would each be graded, and the healthiest and youngest 20 percent of patients and kidneys would be segregated into a separate pool so that the best kidneys would be given to patients with the longest life expectancies.
This all follows [the recent] front-page business story on the monetary value of life.
I have to admit, I’m glad to see these stories in the media. Any reasoned discussion of policy and reform requires frank talk on healthcare resources which, even in the best of economic times, are limited.
*This blog post was originally published at Medical Lessons*
The public contest – and even the concept of using the word “contest” – to solve a real person’s medical condition interests me a lot. This kind of puzzle is, as far as I know, unprecedented apart from the somewhat removed domains of doctors’ journals and on-line platforms intended for physicians, medical school problem-based learning cases, clinical pathological conferences (CPC’s) and fictional TV shows. Read more »
