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TUESDAY, May 19, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- Lung cancer survivors are at high risk for recurrence of the disease, and smoking is a major factor in that risk, a new study shows.

The study included 192 lung cancer survivors in the United States who were followed for an average of more than eight years. During the follow-up period, 38 percent developed lung cancer.

One of the strongest factors associated with lung cancer recurrence was smoking. For each additional pack of cigarettes smoked per year, there was a 1 percent increase in a survivor's risk of developing lung cancer again.

The study was to be presented Tuesday at the American Thoracic Society annual meeting in Denver. Research presented at medical meetings should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

"We looked closely at risk factors that may help in predicting cancer recurrence in lung cancer survivors," study author Dr. Samjot Dhillon said in a society news release. "What we learned is that patients with a history of lung cancer should have close long-term surveillance so their doctor can detect early on if the cancer is recurring or if there is another cancer developing," he said.

"Along with close medical surveillance for lung cancer recurrence, it is also important for patients to stop smoking as soon as possible since this is a known risk. Every additional pack per year of smoking is associated with further increased risk of cancer recurrence," added Dhillon, of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y.

It's estimated that more than 158,000 Americans will die from lung cancer in 2015, making it the leading cause of cancer death in the United States.

-- Robert Preidt
Copyright © 2015 HealthDay. All rights reserved.SOURCE: American Thoracic Society, news release, May 19, 2015

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The risk of a pregnant woman developing gestational diabetes - hyperglycemia during the time nearing childbirth, as a result of less insulin from pancreatic beta-cell dysfunction - is affected by the sex of the fetus, suggests a 4-year study of hundreds of thousands of women.
Would knowing the sex of your baby had an influence on maternal health change your position on preferring to be surprised at the birth?

Published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, one of its authors, Dr. Baiju Shah of the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre at the University of Toronto, Canada, gives his conclusion:

"Our findings suggest a male fetus leads to greater pregnancy-associated metabolic changes than a female fetus does."

Dr. Shah explains that gestational diabetes is thought to occur because of a combination of underlying metabolic abnormalities in the mother and temporary metabolic changes that take place during pregnancy. He adds:

"Public health programs often focus on how a pregnant mother's health, behavior and physiology can impact the health of her baby."

Dr. Shah, also with the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Toronto, continues:

"This study, however, suggests that the baby can help us better understand the health of the mother, and can help us predict her risks for future diseases."

The authors discuss in the paper how the sex of the baby and the woman's glucose tolerance status in pregnancy "can together provide insight into a woman's diabetic risk after delivery" - and in a subsequent pregnancy, too.

Largest study to make the link

Nearly 643,000 women who delivered their first child between April 2000 and March 2010 were studied via insurance records in the retrospective cohort study, which included only births to a single baby.

In addition to the finding that pregnancy with boys was associated with a higher likelihood of gestational diabetes, if the condition did, regardless, develop during a female pregnancy, the mothers went on to show a greater risk of type 2 diabetes after the pregnancy.

Dr. Shah proposes that these women had a greater underlying metabolic susceptibility to gestational diabetes, "even without the added impact" suggested by the study of a developing male fetus.

The study is not the first - but is the largest - to find a link with fetal sex for pregnancy-related diabetes, say the authors. The population-based cohort consisted of the entire maternal population of Ontario.

The study ends with the note that its findings mean fetal sex "emerges as a previously unrecognized factor associated with the natural history of maternal diabetic risk both after delivery and in a subsequent pregnancy." That conclusion follows this summary of the researchers' findings on gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM):

In women with GDM, delivery of a girl is associated with a higher risk of early progression to type 2 diabetes, compared with having a boyCarrying a male fetus is associated with an increased risk of GDM overall but does not increase the likelihood of its recurrence in a second pregnancyIn women with a non-GDM first pregnancy, the increased risk of GDM associated with a male fetus in a subsequent pregnancy is particularly evident in those who previously delivered a girl.

Fetal effects on pregnant women are rarely brought to our attention, as referred to by Dr. Shah. Findings about the reverse, however - maternal effects on fetuses - are regularly reported, perhaps unsurprisingly, given numerous maternal variables. On Tuesday, for example, study results linked maternal obesity to reduced immunity in newborns.

Written by Markus MacGill

Breastfeeding is associated with a 30% overall decreased risk of breast cancer recurrence among women who have previously had one subtype of the disease, according to a new study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Breastfeeding may make the breasts less susceptible to carcinogens, leading to slower growing tumors.

The team behind the new study, from the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, CA, claims that this is the first study to examine the role of breastfeeding history in cancer recurrence.

The new study is part of ongoing research in breast cancer from the Kaiser Permanente team. Last year, the team discovered that patients with specific HER2+ breast cancer tumors have a low risk of cancer recurrence within 5 years of diagnosis. In 2013, they found that consuming high-fat dairy products following diagnosis of breast cancer increases likelihood of dying from the disease.

In the new study, the team found that breastfeeding appeared to improve outcomes of women diagnosed with the luminal A subtype of breast cancer.

Women with these cancers had a 30% decreased risk of breast cancer recurrence if they had a history of breastfeeding. Breastfeeding mothers were also found to be 28% less likely to die from luminal A breast cancer. The protection was found to be strongest for women who had a history of breastfeeding for 6 months or more.

However, no significant improved outcomes for women with other subtypes of breast cancer were associated with breastfeeding.

Why does breastfeeding have a protective effect for women with luminal A cancers?

Luminal A tumors are the most commonly diagnosed of breast cancers. These tumors generally have better outcomes than other tumor subtypes as they are less likely to metastasize and can be treated with hormonal therapy, such as tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors.

Marilyn L. Kwan, PhD, research scientist with the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research and lead author of the study, explains a potential mechanism behind the protective effects of breastfeeding for women with these cancers:

"Women who breastfeed are more likely to get the luminal A subtype of breast cancer, which is less aggressive, and breastfeeding may set up a molecular environment that makes the tumor more responsive to anti-estrogen therapy."

"Breastfeeding may increase the maturation of ductal cells in the breast," hypothesizes senior author Bette J. Caan, "making them less susceptible to carcinogens or facilitate the excretion of carcinogens, and lead to slower growing tumors."

In 2014, Medical News Today reported on another study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, which observed that African-American women who had four or more births and who never breastfed had a 68% higher chance of developing breast cancer compared with women who had only one birth but who breastfed their child.

A 2013 study published in the Journal of Clinical Nursing also found that women who breastfed for over 6 months were less likely to develop early breast cancer than women who did not breastfeed.

In that study, by researchers at the University of Granada in Spain, women who did not breastfeed were found to get breast cancer 10 years earlier on average than breastfeeding mothers.

However, that study also found that smoking appeared to counter the protective effects of breastfeeding. Female smokers were diagnosed with breast cancer at a younger age and had no significant benefit from breastfeeding.

The University of Granada team suggested that hormonal changes taking place during pregnancy and lactation could be responsible for the protective benefits of breastfeeding.

Written by David McNamee

It is well established that asthma is more common in women than men. Now, a new study of around 2,000 patients with acute asthma reveals women are more likely to be hospitalized when being treated for the condition in the emergency department.
Women treated in the emergency department for acute asthma are 60% more likely to be hospitalized than men, according to the study findings.

Lead study author Dr. Rose Chasm and colleagues publish their findings in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

Asthma is estimated to affect almost 26 million Americans in the US and is responsible for almost 2 million visits to the emergency department (ED) every year.

There are known disparities in how asthma affects men and women. Asthma is more common among women, and women with the condition are also more likely to suffer an asthma attack than men.

For their study, Dr. Chasm and colleagues set out to determine whether there were differences in the risk of hospitalization between men and women who are treated in EDs for acute asthma.

Women with acute asthma 60% more likely to be hospitalized than men

From assessing the health charts of around 2,000 ED patients with the condition, the team found that women were 60% more likely to be hospitalized than men.

The team says this result remained even after accounting for potential confounders, including use of asthma control medications - such as inhaled corticosteroids - weight, smoking status and whether they had visited an allergist in the past year.

While the exact reasons for the significantly higher hospitalization risk among women treated for acute asthma are unclear, the researchers suggest a number of potential explanations.

It could be down to the influence of female sex hormones, for example. Studies have shown that fluctuation of estrogen in women can trigger airway inflammation, bringing on asthma symptoms.

Other potential explanations, the team says, are differences in bronchial hyper-responsiveness between men and women, altered perceptions of airflow obstruction and differences in health behaviors. They note that further studies are warranted to identify the exact reasons behind their finding, however.

Allergist visits, use of control medications may reduce asthma-related hospitalizations

The findings also revealed that many of the patients suffered from chronic asthma, with women faring slightly worse than men. Intubation - a plastic tube inserted into the windpipe to maintain an open airway - was performed on 13% of women and 12% of men at some point in their lives.

During the past 12 months, 16% of women and 13% of men had been hospitalized for their asthma, while 36% of women and 32% of men had been hospitalized for the condition at some point in their lifetime.

What is more, the researchers found that only 10% of women had seen an allergist in the past year and the rate was only slightly higher for men, which may have impacted their control of the condition.

"Many people aren't aware that allergists are asthma specialists, and are among the best-equipped experts to help keep asthma under control," says Dr. James Sublett, an allergist and president of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

"Those who see an allergist and use controller medications find themselves in the ED much less often, and experience fewer hospitalizations related to their asthma."

Medical News Today recently reported on a study led by researchers from Cardiff University in the UK, who claim to have discovered a potential root cause of asthma - a finding the team says could lead to a cure for the condition.

Written by Honor Whiteman