News Summary

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal has rejected a lawsuit claiming that the 1998 nationwide tobacco settlement between the states and Big Tobacco led to a tobacco “cartel” that drove up cigarette prices, Reuters reported Sept. 26. Smoker Steve Sanders filed the suit against the California Attorney General, saying that the tobacco settlement and ensuing state legislation violated federal antitrust laws. The suit said that the agreement allowed cigarette makers to raise cigarette prices $12.20 per carton so they could cover the costs of the settlement without losing sales or market share. The appeals course ruled that the tobacco settlement did not implicitly or explicitly quash competition in the cigarette market. Current California AG Jerry Brown said the ruling “reaffirms the legal framework of the national tobacco settlement.” Added Philip Morris spokesperson Bill Phelps: “The decision affirms that the [settlement] and the related state statutes do not violate the antitrust laws and are not preempted by the Sherman antitrust statute, and that the state of California, as well as the tobacco manufacturers, are immune from lawsuits under the antitrust laws for entering into the [agreement].” Similar cases have been filed in other courts, and some have allowed the litigation to proceed to the discovery phase.

Better hold off on smoking a cigarette after sex: a new study finds that smokers face an increased risk of erectile dysfunction, and sexual problems are greater among those who smoke more, Reuters reported Sept. 26. Researcher Jiang He of Tulane University School of Public Health and colleagues reported that male smokers had a 41-percent greater risk of erectile dysfunction than nonsmokers. Among men who smoked up to 10 cigarettes per day, risk increased 27 percent; risk rose 45 percent among those who smoked 11 to 20 cigarettes daily, and those who smoked a pack of cigarettes a day or more were 65 percent more likely to have erectile problems. “The association between cigarette smoking and erectile dysfunction was found in earlier studies,” said He. “However, most of those studies were conducted in patients with hypertension (high blood pressure), diabetes and cardiovascular disease. What distinguishes this study is that it is the first to find this association among healthy men.” “This study really has a strong message for young men,” He added. “It may get their attention if they know that smoking is associated with erectile dysfunction — even in the healthy population.” The research was published in the Oct. 1, 2007 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology. Reference:
http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/166/7/803   This article summarizes a mainstream media report of research published in a scientific journal. It is not an original analysis of the source material, which is cited in the reference above.

News Summary

Maryland’s cigarette tax would rise to $2 per pack under a proposal from Gov. Martin O’Malley, the Baltimore Sun reported Sept. 26. “Our hope is to use the proceeds first for debt relief, but then to bridge us to a more rational, compassionate and common sense [healthcare] system that allows us to give people the coverage upfront so they’re not suffering more and costing us more,” said O’Malley. The state’s House of Delegates approved an increase in the cigarette tax this spring, but the proposal failed in the Senate. House sponsors wanted to use the money to pay for medical coverage for uninsured residence, but Senate leaders said that the state’s budget deficit should be addressed first. The plan unveiled by O’Malley is a compromise. “There’s obviously some disagreement over how aggressive we should be with health care reform,” said Delegate Peter A. Hammen, chair of the Health and Government Operations Committee. “But I think we are at the point right now where we’re working together with a plan, and we hope to have something that will increase access to affordable, quality health care and reduce the burden on the system.” If approved, the plan would give Maryland the seventh-highest tobacco tax in the U.S.

Web Site Helps Men Evaluate Risk Of Prostate Cancer

In 2007, more than 218,000 American men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, and more than 27,000 men will die from the disease, according to the American Cancer Society. While it is estimated that one man in six will suffer from prostate cancer in his lifetime, only one man in 34 will die from it. The earlier the disease is diagnosed and treated, the more likely it is for patients to survive and remain disease-free.A Web site published by Little Company of Mary Hospital and Health Care Centers in Evergreen Park, Illinois, near Chicago, encourages men to learn more about prostate cancer and to take a free confidential on-line risk test to evaluate their prostate cancer risk. The Web site’s prostate cancer risk test evaluates a man’s risk based on certain genetic and lifestyle factors that scientists believe affect one’s prostate cancer risk.Knowing one’s risk can significantly increase a man’s chance for surviving prostate cancer. When the disease is still confined to the prostate, the five- year relative survival rate is nearly 100 percent. Men whose cancer is diagnosed early may be candidates for any of the accepted prostate cancer treatments, and typically suffer from fewer side effects. Some of the treatment options available to prostate cancer patients include radiation therapy and surgery. Little Company of Mary Hospital is the only hospital in the entire greater Chicago area to offer both High Dose Rate (HDR) brachytherapy for prostate cancer treatment and the da Vinci robotic prostatectomy.High Dose Rate brachytherapy provides the most precise delivery of radiation possible in the treatment of prostate cancer. Unlike permanent seed implants, patients have temporary placement of radioactive catheters which can be custom-tailored to deliver precision internal radiation and better avoid the urethra, rectum, and nerves to reduce overall toxicity without being radioactive and exposing family members to radiation. It is a one-day procedure where patients can go back to work the very next day. HDR brachytherapy is generally more precise and less toxic than conventional seed implants.The da Vinci robotic surgical system is a state-of-the-art minimally invasive technology which allows surgeons to perform complex surgeries through tiny openings. Patients who undergo da Vinci prostatectomies typically enjoy fewer overall side effects, shorter hospital stays, and earlier returns to full activities. In addition, nerves and valves are more easily preserved using this technique, offering the patient improved urinary control and preservation of sexual function without compromising cancer control.At its earliest stages, prostate cancer does not present with any symptoms. Therefore knowing one’s risk and early detection for prostate cancer are a man’s best defenses.

Wine, women and… spirits, beer and breast cancer risk
September 27, 2007 -  Barcelona, Spain: One of the largest individual studies of the effects of alcohol on the risk of breast cancer has concluded that it makes no difference whether a woman drinks wine, beer or spirits (liquor) - it is the alcohol itself (ethyl alcohol) and the quantity consumed that is likely to trigger the onset of cancer. The increased breast cancer risk from drinking three or more alcoholic drinks a day is similar to the increased breast cancer risk from smoking a packet of cigarettes or more a day

Speaking at a news briefing today (Thursday) at the European Cancer Conference (ECCO 14) in Barcelona, Dr Arthur Klatsky said: "Population studies have consistently linked drinking alcohol to an increased risk of female breast cancer, but there has been little data, most of it conflicting, about an independent role played by the choice of beverage type."

Dr Klatsky, adjunct investigator in the Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program, Oakland, USA, and his colleagues studied the drinking habits of 70,033 multi-ethnic women who had supplied information during health examinations between 1978-1985. By 2004, 2,829 of these women had been diagnosed with breast cancer. In one analysis, the researchers compared the choice of drink amongst women who tended to favour one type of drink over another with women who had no clear preference. They also looked for any association between the frequency of drinking one type of alcoholic drink over another. Finally, they examined the role of total alcohol intake, comparing it with women who drank less than one alcoholic drink a day.

They found that there was no difference in the risk of developing breast cancer between wine, beer or spirits. Even when wine was divided into red and white, there was no difference. However, when they looked at the relationship between breast cancer risk and total alcohol intake, the researchers found that women who drank between one and two alcoholic drinks per day increased their risk of breast cancer by 10% compared with light drinkers who drank less than one drink a day; and the risk of breast cancer increased by 30% in women who drank more than three drinks a day.

When they looked at specific groups, stratified according to age or ethnicity, the results were similar.

Dr Klatsky said: "Statistical analyses limited to strata of wine preferrers, beer preferrers, spririts preferrers or non-preferrers each showed that heavier drinking - compared to light drinking - was related to breast cancer risk in each group. This strongly confirms the relation of ethyl alcohol per se to increased risk."

He continued: "A 30% increased risk is not trivial. To put it into context, it is not much different from the increased risk associated with women taking oestrogenic hormones. Incidentally, in this same study we have found that smoking a pack of cigarettes or more per day is related to a similar (30%) increased risk of breast cancer."

Although breast cancer incidence varies between populations and only a small proportion of women are heavy drinkers, Dr Klatsky said that a 30% increase in the relative risk of breast cancer from heavy drinking might translate into approximately an extra 5% of all women developing breast cancer as a result of their habit.

Other studies, including research from the same authors, have shown that red wine can protect against heart attacks, but Dr Klatsky said that different mechanisms were probably at work.

"We think that the heart protection benefit from red wine is real, but is probably derived mostly from alcohol-induced higher HDL ('good') cholesterol, reduced blood clotting and reduced diabetes. None of these mechanisms are known to have anything to do with breast cancer. The coronary benefit from drinking red wine may also be related to favourable drinking patterns common among wine drinkers or to the favourable traits of wine drinkers, as evidenced by US and Danish studies."

Dr Klatsky said that all medical advice needed to be personalised to the individual. "The only general statement that could be made as a result of our findings is that it provides more evidence for why heavy drinkers should quit or cut down."

He concluded: "This has been fascinating research. Our group has been involved in studies of alcohol drinking and health for more than three decades, including in the area of heart disease. We are fortunate to have data available about a large, multi-ethnic population with a variety of drinking habits."

ECCO-the European CanCer Conference