A new marine antitumoral to care

It was one of the surprises of the largest oncology conference that is held every year in the U.S. in late May, but the drug of marine origin eribulin continues to confirm its usefulness in treating patients with breast cancer. A phase III trial with important Spanish participation demonstrates that the antitumor drug last see the light could come from the deep sea.

In fact, since last November, eribulin already authorized in the U.S. by the drug agency (FDA, according to its acronym in English). And the results just now to make known the British journal 'The Lancet' open the door a little more for their European counterpart (EMA) chooses the same decision. Thus become the second antitumor gestated in the sea that reaches patients after Yondelis (Spanish firm PharmaMar), which is already used for sarcomas and ovarian cancer.

New marine antitumoral

Eribulin (marketed by Eisai and Halav Japanese lab) is a compound synthesized from a body of the seas Nipponese, 'Halichondria okadai', whose antitumor properties were discovered in the mid-eighties. As explained the Dr. Javier Cortes, Institute of Oncology, Vall d'Hebron in Barcelona, and co-author, "is a new type of chemotherapy, on the one hand, prevents tumor cells continue dividing , while the other, form aggregates inside a [sort of lumps] toxic to malignant cells. "
Spanish participation

Embrace The study (funded by the drug's manufacturer in order to achieve its approval in Europe) has been conducted in 140 centers around the world with 762 women with breast cancer, about 50 of them from several Spanish hospitals. It was, explains Dr. Cortes of patients with very advanced tumors and metastases and who had relapsed despite receiving several lines of previous treatment.

"Faced with the classical treatment chosen by their oncologists," he explains, "eribulin improved survival by 20%." On average, this extension meant an additional two and half months of life, but as you add the Catalan specialist "should be borne in mind that in the last 10 years we have not seen any drug to improve survival in metastatic breast cancer."

Marine antitumoral to care the Cancer

Cortes also noted that despite being a chemotherapy was well tolerated eribulin ("just the hair falls out and only 10% of patients experienced fatigue"), which is administered in the hospital in "less than five minutes" appears to benefit all breast cancers equally regardless of their molecular profile.

However, not everything is rosy in the seabed. "Patients are still dying of breast cancer, not all trial participants benefited from eribulin and a still significant 7% suffered significant neurotoxicity from treatment," admits the Spanish oncologist.

Therefore, as pointed out in an editorial in the same journal Nacy Lin, Dana Farber Institute in Boston (USA), despite the progress that this represents, there are still unanswered questions. "What cancer subtypes benefit most and why improved overall survival over that time to relapse? What time to relapse should be considered futile treatment ?...". But we must wait for new tests to answer these questions new antitumoral to care the cancer.

The advantages of being bilingual

For decades, researchers investigate the effects on the human brain the knowledge of two different languages. At the last meeting of the American Society for the Advancement of Science (AAAS according to its acronym in English), which has just begun in Washington (USA), bilingualism has not gone unnoticed and the Bilingual Advantages..
Several studies presented in Washington, in the context of a conference on 'What does bilingualism on the brain?' Demolish decades in which it was feared that learning two languages could create confusion in the brain, especially in For children.

Advantages of being bilingual

One study comes from the laboratories of the University of Granada, where teachers Maria Teresa Bajo and Pedro Macizo have worked with several volunteers who spoke both Spanish and English perfectly (though not necessarily had grown between the two languages) and the Bilingual Advantages..

After measuring their response time and brain activity to a question, the researchers found that bilingual people are capable of activating two languages at the same time, even in situations where you only need one. As explained his Univera a press release, the blingüismo not only improves care but also trains the memory of these people, like a kind of 'mental gymnastics'.


Although as acknowledged in the same forum Judith Kroll, University of Pennsylvania (USA), all these advantages do not mean that bilingual people are smarter or learn better. In his case, his findings show that they are, yes, people 'multitasking', capable of handling multiple tasks simultaneously and quickly disregard irrelevant information that the brain perceives and the Bilingual Advantages.

Bilingual Advantages

Recently, a study on the same topic published in the journal Neurology by Elen Bialystok (Toronto) showed that using two languages every day getting delayed an average of four years the appearance of Alzheimer's. And although the greatest benefits were seen in people who usabanambas language daily, the Canadian researcher notes that even in summer practice the second language learned at school can be beneficial against dementia.

Switch from one language to another, explaining Bialystok, seems to be a stimulus to the brain, so it makes a kind of 'cognitive reserve'. His next step will be to determine whether, in addition to cognitive improvement, bilingualism also causes physical changes in brain structure and the Bilingual Advantages..

Alcohol kills more than AIDS, tuberculosis or violence

Alcohol causes nearly 4% of deaths worldwide. That is, about 2.5 million deaths a year. More than AIDS, tuberculosis and violence, says a report by the World Health Organization (WHO). "The harmful use of alcohol is a problem worldwide, causing millions of deaths, including hundreds of thousands of young lives. It is not only a causal factor in many diseases, but a precursor to violence and injury," he said in a statement Ala Alwan, Assistant Director of the Division of Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health at WHO and the Alcohol kills more than AIDS.

Rising incomes have led to drink more heavily populated countries in Africa and Asia, including India and South Africa, and excessive consumption of alcohol is a problem well documented in many developed nations, according to the United Nations agency.

Alcohol kills more than AIDS

Policies to control alcohol remain fragile and are not among the priorities of many governments, despite the strong impact of alcohol in society through traffic accidents, violence, disease, child abuse and absenteeism underlines the WHO Global Report on Alcohol and Health.

Approximately 2.5 million people die each year from causes related to alcohol intake. Alcohol consumption is especially fatal to the younger groups and the alcohol is a major risk factor in the world of death among men between 15 and 59 years, "says the report.In Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), one of every five deaths due to alcohol, the highest rate. In countries such as Brazil, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, Ukraine and excessive alcohol consumption, is increasingly prevalent. However, WHO warns, is increasing everywhere Alcohol kills more than AIDS..

"Worldwide, about 11% of heavy drinkers had a drinking episodes every week," the report said. By gender, men, which far exceed women by a ratio of four to one, "always involved in risky drinking at levels much higher than females in all regions."

Alcohol kills more than tuberculosis

Health ministers from all 193 WHO member states agreed last May to try to curb growing binge drinking and other forms of alcohol abuse through higher taxes on alcoholic beverages and more restrictions on the marketing.

Alcohol is behind 60 types of disease and injury. Its consumption is associated with liver cirrhosis, epilepsy, poisoning, traffic accidents, violence and various cancers, including colorectal, breast, larynx and liver Alcohol kills more than AIDS..

"Six or seven years, we had clear evidence of a causal relationship between alcohol consumption and breast cancer. Now we have," said Vladimir Poznyak Reuters, responsible for the substance abuse unit of WHO who coordinated the report.Alcohol or illegal home production that bypasses the government controls and taxes, representing nearly 30% of total adult consumption in the world. And some of these beverages are toxic.

According to WHO, moderate drinking can have a beneficial effect on heart disease and cerebrovascular accident (CVA). "However, the beneficial protective effect of alcohol on the heart disappears in cases of excessive intake," the agency said.One of the most effective ways to curb alcohol consumption, especially among younger groups, is raising taxes, the report said. Set age limits for purchasing and consuming alcohol and to regulate alcohol levels in drivers also reduces the abuse if they apply, but few countries use these policies.

The crisis increased antidepressant use

The crisis is not just economic. The mental health of the Spanish also appears to be failing under significant increase in antidepressant use: 10% in the last two years. Moreover, the delivery of these products has grown as the crisis grew.

From late 2009 to February this year, the increase in units was up 6%, which meant a total of 85,671,868 euros, according to a study by consulting firm IMS Health and the Crisis and depress.

These data corroborate some schools of pharmaceuticals, such as Bangkok, which recognizes that the sale of these drugs and anxiety has increased by 16.3% in the region over the past year. In fact, Extremadura is the third region with the highest per capita consumption of these drugs, only behind the Asturias and Galicia, and the sixth in tranquilizers.

Crisis and depress

José Ángel Arbesú, coordinator of the Mental Health of the Spanish Society of Primary Care Physicians (Semergen) explained that "indeed, economic problems and unemployment crisis are triggering a series of problems of stress, anxiety and depression have been linked to an increase in prescriptions of psychotropic drugs. " It acknowledges, however, that because "the patent of many of these drugs have expired and have become generic, the total bill has not increased as much as the number of prescriptionsand the Crisis and depress.."



The fact that the number of people who use the so-called 'happy pill' (Prozac) is increasing throughout the world has led some researchers raised whether the requirements are being made without appropriate evidence. That is, without a clear diagnosis of depression or anxiety disorders, diseases that doctors normally treat this type of medication and the Crisis and depress..