HEALTH ISSUE: SHORT CUTS

SHORT CUTS


Viagra can help treat
brain tumours


A drug currently approved to treat erectile dysfunction could significantly improve the delivery of the anti-cancer drug Herceptin to certain hard-to-treat brain tumours, according to a new study at Cedars-Sinai's Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute. The research could help doctors improve treatments for lung and breast cancers that have metastasised to the brain. Even if a cancer is susceptible to drugs, these drugs must penetrate the "blood-brain barrie" if they're to treat cancer that's metastasised to the brain. "Mother Nature created this barrier to protect our brains from dangerous substances, but here we need to get through the barrier to deliver the drugs, and that's a problem," says study author Julia Ljubimova.

Soft drinks double pancreatic cancer risk:

Giving one more reason for kicking the cola habit, scientists have claimed that too much consumption of sugary carbonated beverages may increase the risk of pancreatic cancer. Researchers at Georgetown University in the US looked at sugar-sweetened carbonated beverages or soft drinks and the risk of pancreatic cancer in 60,000 men and women in Singapore over a 14-year period and found that those who drink more than two soft drinks a week almost double the risk of developing the disease.;