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E-news broadcast - 19 October 2006 No.302

 

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News content

 

 

CANCER PRESSURE GROUP: Another front for a drug company

SOFT DRINKS: They contain 10 teaspoons of sugar

 

DIAGNOSTICS: They're wrong, inaccurate or just too late

 

DOCTOR ERROR: One in five don't own up (but most Canadians do)

 

PSORIASIS: Does it increase the risk of heart attack?

 

 

 

 

CANCER PRESSURE GROUP: Another front for a drug company

 

 

Things aren't quite as they seem at cancer pressure group Cancer

United, which is being launched today in Brussels. It describes

itself as a pioneering coalition of doctors, nurses and patients,

pushing for equal access to cancer care throughout Europe.

 

However, it is merely a front for drug giant Roche, which makes

Herceptin, the new breast cancer 'wonder drug', and Avastin,

researchers have claimed.

 

The drug company is funding the coalition, a senior company

executive sits on Cancer United's board, and its secretariat is

Weber Shandwick, the drug company's PR agency.

 

Several MEPs and the head of the European Cancer Patients Coalition

have already stepped down from United's board as they were concerned

about the funding arrangements.

 

At the heart of the new group's campaign is a controversial study

that has come up with dubious results. It also happens to have been

funded by Roche.

 

Still, if it keeps the Herceptin bandwagon rolling. . .

 

(Source: The Guardian, 18 October 2006).

 

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SOFT DRINKS: They contain 10 teaspoons of sugar

 

 

 

How much sugar do you put in your tea or coffee, if at all? One

teaspoon? Two? If you're right there on the edge, it might be

three. Well, every time children down a standard 330ml can of some

soft drink, they're drinking 10 teaspoonfuls of sugar, a new study

has discovered.

 

The sugar-free version is not a healthy option, either, because

that's full of aspartame, which, as previous E-news reports have

revealed, is the world's best ant poison.

 

A bold soul at the University of Bristol has called for a health

promotion campaign, which could point out to children and parents

the health hazards of most soft drinks, he suggests. That should

make significant inroads into the problem.

 

(Source: Journal of Epidemiological and Community Health, 2006; 60:

750).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DIAGNOSTICS: They're wrong, inaccurate or just too late

 

 

 

Doctors have become increasingly reliant on high-tech diagnostic

equipment, but it's so inaccurate or used so badly that it accounts

for 59 per cent of all insurance claims against doctors.

 

Of these, 30 per cent of patients died as a result of a delayed or

wrong diagnosis.

 

Out-patient diagnostics that harm - or kill - the patient are

common, a study that analysed the results from four US insurers

concluded.

 

Sadly, the doctor can't blame it all on computer technology.

Claimants complained that doctors failed to take a proper history

and examination, ordered the wrong test, or didn't follow-up

properly. In all, 99 per cent of all claimants said, as part of

their claim, that doctors were not thinking straight, or were making

bad decisions, or forgetting things or " not knowing them in the

first place " .

 

The diagnostic process sometimes stretched into years, and involved

a range of healthcare staff. The most likely to suffer from

diagnostic failures were people with breast or colorectal cancer,

whose illness was invariably not detected in time, if at all.

 

(Source: Annals of Internal Medicine, 2006; 145: 488-96).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DOCTOR ERROR: One in five don't own up (but most Canadians do)

 

 

 

One in five doctors admit they would not own up to a medical error

to the victim or next-of-kin if it resulted in the patient's death.

 

Just 40 per cent of doctors said they would openly admit when errors

had taken place, a new study has discovered.

 

The rest said they would either hide the mistake behind terms such

as " an adverse event " , or, in 20 per cent of cases, not mention the

error at all.

 

Doctors who either felt more responsible for the error, or were

Canadian, were more likely to admit when a mistake had happened.

Researchers found that Canadian doctors were more honest than those

from any other country. They did invent the Mounties, after all.

 

(Source: Archives of Internal Medicine, 2006; 166: 1585-93).

 

 

 

 

 

PSORIASIS: Does it increase the risk of heart attack?

 

 

 

People with psoriasis, the chronic skin condition, are up to four

times more likely to suffer a heart attack, especially if they are

aged below 40 years, researchers have claimed.

 

Young people with severe psoriasis are at the greatest risk, but the

risk reduces as the psoriasis sufferer ages or if the psoriasis is

mild. A man aged 60 who has mild psoriasis has a risk factor of

just one times.

 

Researchers are unsure what the link is, but think it could have

something to do with the antigen HLA-Cw6, which is more prevalent in

psoriasis sufferers.

 

It could, however, be nothing, or little, to do with psoriasis.

Psoriasis sufferers may suffer from more than their fair share of

the usual heart attack risk factors, such as obesity, smoking and

stress. Unfortunately the researchers had lifestyle data on just 60

per cent of trial participants, and so don't know if that was an

issue or not.

 

(Source: Journal of the American Medical Association, 2006; 296:

1735-41).