A.
Two Factors Found to be Associated with Breast Cancer
Recurrence
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Women treated with lumpectomy
alone for a non-invasive form of breast cancer known
as ductal carcinoma in situ, or DCIS, were more
likely to have a recurrence of the disease if their
lesion was of a high nuclear grade or if it was
a palpable lesion detected during a clinical exam.
Karla Kerlikowske of the University of California,
San Francisco's Veterans Affairs Medical Center,
led the six-year study.
Kerlikowske:
I think it can change management in the sense that
those that have low nuclear grade or even intermediate
nuclear grade, lumpectomy alone is probably sufficient
therapy, along with surveillance and monitoring.
But if you have high nuclear grade, I would more
strongly consider getting adjuvant radiation or
maybe taking tamoxifen. So, our goal is to try and
treat DCIS less aggressively than in the past and
based on some sort of risk factor and knowledge
of the disease, as opposed to just aggressively
treating everybody as if all these lesions are going
to go on and be invasive cancer.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin
B.
How to Prevent the Risk of Food-Related Choking
in Young Children
Narrator:
This is Science Today. According to human health
experts, every five days a child in the United States
dies from choking on food. University of California,
Berkeley nutrition expert Joanne Ikeda, says infants
and children up to three years of age are most susceptible.
Ikeda:
The food that is most often the culprit is hot
dog products. Unfortunately, they're round and they're
fairly bulky and it's easy for them to be caught
in the trachea, so it's very important that hot
dog products be cut in smaller pieces, not in round,
circular pieces for children. Those circular pieces
should then be cut in half or in quarters.
Narrator:
Other foods that children choke on are round
candies - especially of the hard variety. The more
nutritious, yet equally circular, grapes and nuts
may also cause a child to choke.
Ikeda:
So those are the foods that babysitters and parents
need to be very, very careful about giving to children
under three years old.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
A Colorectal Test that's Inadequate in Elderly Female
Patients
Narrator:
This is Science Today. When it comes to detecting
colorectal cancer, flexible sigmoidoscopy is one
of the most common screening tools. But a University
of California, San Francisco study found that the
chance of an inadequate sigmoidoscopy examination
increases with old age. In fact, Louise Walter,
a staff physician in geriatrics at the Veterans
Affairs Medical Center, discovered that women were
twice as likely as men to have inadequate sigmoidoscopies.
Walter:
The most likely explanation is probably anatomical
differences - women's colons are different than
men's. There's a sharper turn at the sigmoid colon,
making the flexible sigmoidoscopy harder to get
around.
Narrator:
There are three screening tools for colorectal
cancer - the colonoscopy, the flexible sigmoidoscopy
and the fecal occult blood test. Walter says there
are risks and benefits to each.
Walter:
This study is certainly not meant to say you
shouldn't get screened. It's more trying to - of
the three screening tests that you could do, which
one would be the most likely to have more benefits
than risks and this is just helping in that decision.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
Understanding Common Vision Problems
Narrator:
This is Science Today. About half of the world population
is either nearsighted or farsighted. Another great
percentage has astigmatism and everyone past the
age of 45 will develop age-related loss of vision.
Ophthalmologists at the University of California,
Irvine are striving to get to the root of why these
vision problems occur. Dr. Peter McDonnell says
this includes trying to understand what it is about
aging that causes a loss in the ability to read.
McDonnell: And our belief is by understanding
actually why these happen, we can best target and
create treatment to prevent them or to treat these
problems. With patients who have trouble reading,
we'll often to a procedure called monovision, where
we correct one eye for distance vision and leave
the other eye purposely somewhat nearsighted to
allow the patient to read with that eye.
Narrator: This has proven very successful
…
McDonnell: Eighty percent of people tolerate
monovision very successfully and find that it most
improves their lives in terms of minimizing their
dependence on any corrective lenses.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa
Branin.
E.
Do Happy Marriages Lead to Better Health?
Narrator:
This is Science Today. It's been known for years
that married people tend to live longer than those
who stay unmarried. Now a study from the University
of California, Berkeley shows that a happy marriage
makes for a healthier old age. Cenita Kupperbusch,
a doctoral candidate in psychology, says a long-term
study of aging couples proves that a good marriage
can be the best medicine-at least for men.
Kupperbusch: Husbands who had increases in
marital satisfaction also had increases in their
health. On the other hand, this was a positive relationship.
So husbands who had decreases in marital satisfaction
also showed decreases in health.
Narrator: The study followed 78 elderly couples
over a period of thirteen years. Using surveys and
observation, the researchers found a clear link
between marital satisfaction and health. But Kupperbusch
says that the reason for that link is not yet known.
Kupperbusch: We don't know that changes in
marital satisfaction are necessarily causing changes
in health but we know there is some relationship
between those two. It could be that changes in health
are causing changes in marital satisfaction.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa
Branin.
