All News articles – Page 1957
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News
In Brief
An agent that improves survival in metastatic breast cancer patients has been launched. Herceptin (trastuzumab), a humanised monoclonal antibody, suppresses tumour growth in the 20-30 per cent of metastatic breast cancer patients who overproduce a growth factor called HER2. It binds HER2 receptors on the cancer cell surface so that ...
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Bring on the clones
Once thought of as beyond the pale, the cloning of human embryos is now being encouraged by the government. Jenny Bryan looks at what's in store
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Far and wide: the broader picture
Leeds Teaching Hospitals trust has recruited an extra 150 nurses over the last two years, with a further 40 due to join between now and January. The trust has also attracted 42 extra consultants since 1998.Overall its staff turnover rate has dropped from 17 per cent to around 10 per ...
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It's a bug's life
Antimicrobial resistance to antibiotics is a growing problem. But while more research is needed, new data suggests that hospitals might need to change their strategies for dealing with the problem. Rhonda Siddall reports
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The taxing business of keeping public patience
Hypothecation could raise public expectations to a dangerous level
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Cancer treatment remains a lottery as HAs fail to follow NICE guidelines
More than 20 per cent of health authorities are still not following national guidelines for the drug treatment of breast and ovarian cancer, according to a survey.
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H pylori drug cash claim
Drug treatment to eradicate Helicobacter pylori in infected patients with non-ulcer dyspepsia may be cost-effective, according to a new meta-analysis by the dyspepsia review group (BMJ, 16 September 2000, p659).
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Law change paves way for probe into retired GPs
The Consumers' Association is celebrating a victory after a change in the law allowing the health ombudsman to investigate GPs who have retired from the NHS. The move follows a complaint from a reader of the association's Which? magazine, which highlighted a loophole in the law. An investigation into the ...
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It's a dog's life as CHCs refuse to lie down and die
Thumbing through my copy of the NHS plan I notice I did not even tick, asterisk or otherwise (*! ! ? *) mark paragraph 10.27, where it should have boasted a signpost: 'Here be dragons.' Instead, under the bland heading 'Scrutiny of the NHS', it notes: 'The power to refer ...
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Seeing double: what is cloning?
Cloning is making genetically identical copies of living things. Scientists have been doing it since the early 1970s with antibodies, cells and genes but, until Dolly's birth, whole-animal cloning proved elusive.
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Trusts no longer clueless
Lothian and Borders Police in Scotland has contracted its forensic medical services out to Lothian primary care trust.
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Cost index sparks familiar rows on data
The NHS index of reference costs has come under attack for its use of faulty data and a 'continued lack of sophistication' in the way costs are measured.
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When coughing up is essential
GPs are under constant pressure from health authorities to reduce prescribing costs, and nowhere is this more obvious than in the treatment of asthma.
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GDC increases lay members to counter public fears
The General Dental Council has voted to allow greater lay representation on its ruling body to counter public concern about complaints relating to NHS and private dentistry. At its meeting earlier this month, the council agreed to set up a 'smaller, more strategic' body which will comprise 11 lay members ...
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A cure for Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and strokes?
Foetal and embryonic cells have already been used to try to repair nerve damage in people with Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis or following a stroke. In the 1980s British doctors were among the first to transplant foetal tissue into the brains of people with Parkinson's disease in an effort to ...
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Days like this
Speculation about a change in health policy is rife following Margaret Thatcher's resignation as prime minister and her replacement by John Major. But it is thought unlikely that health secretary William Waldegrave - appointed only last month - would be moved in any Cabinet reshuffle.