A quick test could protect against fatal chemo overdose, yet few doctors use it

A quick test could protect against fatal chemo overdose, yet few doctors use it

Main
One January morning in 2021, Carol Rosen took a standard treatment for metastatic breast cancer. Three gruesome weeks later, she died in excruciating pain from the very drug meant to prolong her life.Rosen, a 70-year-old retired schoolteacher, passed her final days in anguish, enduring severe diarrhea and nausea and terrible sores in her mouth that kept her from eating, drinking, and, eventually, speaking. Skin peeled off her body. Her kidneys and liver failed. “Your body burns from the inside out,” said Rosen’s daughter, Lindsay Murray, of Andover, Massachusetts.Rosen was one of more than 275,000 cancer patients in the United States who are infused each year with fluorouracil, known as 5-FU, or, as in Rosen’s case, take a nearly identical drug in pill form called capecitabine. These common types of chemotherapy…
Read More
Latino and Black dads often underestimate when teen sons are sexually active, delaying safe sex advice

Latino and Black dads often underestimate when teen sons are sexually active, delaying safe sex advice

Main
Latino and Black fathers often underestimate when their teenage sons become sexually active, resulting in delayed education about safe sex practices, a new study found. The research paper published in the Annals of Family Medicine explored the link between what fathers know about their adolescent sons’ sexual behavior and their guidance on safe sex. They found that fathers’ perceptions of when their sons are ready for sex correlate with their advice on condom use, which often doesn't match when their sons actually begin engaging in sexual activity.Researchers from the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing went into the Mott Haven neighborhood of the South Bronx and surveyed 191 Latino and Black teenagers, from 15 to 19, as well as their fathers, on the teenagers’ sexual behavior and knowledge.They found that many…
Read More
Some nervous travelers are changing their flights to avoid Boeing airplanes

Some nervous travelers are changing their flights to avoid Boeing airplanes

Main
One nervous traveler touches the outside of the airplane while boarding and prays before takeoff. Another brings anti-anxiety medication. A third has been watching YouTube videos narrated by pilots to understand what happens during flights. Such rituals have helped anxious passengers overcome their fear of flying. But in recent months, several travelers said, news of issues on Boeing planes has made these strategies insufficient and has threatened their ability to walk down the jetway. So they have come up with a plan: avoid flying on Boeing aircraft, even if it means re-booking flights. “I just can’t step on that plane,” said Leila Amineddoleh, an art lawyer who lives in Hoboken, New Jersey. “Even if the chance of getting hurt on a Boeing flight, even with all these incidents, is slim.”The chance is…
Read More
A ‘dangerous precedent’: Doctors and patient advocates fear restricted access to abortion pill

A ‘dangerous precedent’: Doctors and patient advocates fear restricted access to abortion pill

Main
About two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the court on Tuesday will revisit the issue of reproductive rights, this time contemplating whether to limit access to mifepristone, the first of two pills used in medication abortion.Ahead of oral arguments and eventual ruling, doctors and patient advocates are expressing alarm about what might happen if the high court decides to tighten access to the drug. Following the Dobbs ruling in 2022, 14 states now completely ban abortion, including medication abortion. A handful of other states ban delivering the drugs by mail and require patients to see a doctor in person before they can get a prescription for mifepristone. Medication abortions accounted for nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the United States in 2023, according to the Guttmacher Institute,…
Read More
Supreme Court signals it is likely to reject a challenge to abortion pill access

Supreme Court signals it is likely to reject a challenge to abortion pill access

Main
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday appeared likely to reject a challenge to the abortion pill mifepristone, with a number of justices indicating the lawsuit should be dismissed.The court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, heard oral arguments on the Biden administration's appeal of lower court rulings that restricted women's access to the pill, including its availability by mail.But during the arguments, there was little discussion of whether the Food and Drug Administration's decisions to lift restrictions on the drug were unlawful.Instead, the justices focused on whether the group of anti-abortion doctors who brought the lawsuit even had legal standing to bring the claim. The plaintiffs, represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal group, argue that the FDA failed to adequately evaluate the drug’s safety risks.But…
Read More