Acupuncture relieves hot flashes from prostate cancer treatment
2011-04-24
(Press-News.org) Acupuncture provides long-lasting relief to hot flashes, heart palpitations and anxiety due to side effects of the hormone given to counteract testosterone, the hormone that induces prostate cancer, according to a study published in the April issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology•Biology•Physics, an official journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).
The main treatments for men with metastatic prostate cancer are either surgery or hormone therapy to significantly reduce the level of testosterone in the body. Eliminating testosterone has been proven to keep the cancer in check by starving the cancer of hormones it needs to grow and spread. However, about half of the time, this therapy also causes very uncomfortable hot flashes similar to those women experience during menopause. The main way to combat hot flashes is to take antidepressants, but these drugs can cause side effects of their own, including nausea, dry mouth, sleeplessness, altered appetite and sexual changes.
In a prospective study conducted in the department of radiation oncology and the acupuncture section of New York Methodist Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University, both in New York, researchers evaluated 14 men who were experiencing hot flashes due to hormone therapy for prostate cancer. Upon enrolling in the study, the men were given a hot flash score (HFS) to evaluate their discomfort from daily hot flashes. The mean initial HFS was 28.3.
Participants then received acupuncture twice a week for 30 minutes at a time for four weeks. Two weeks after receiving acupuncture, their HFS was measured again and had dropped more than half to 10.3. At six weeks post-treatment, their HFS was 7.5. After eight months, the men were evaluated again and their mean HFS was 7.
"Our study shows that physicians and patients have an additional treatment for something that affects many men undergoing prostate cancer treatment and actually has long-term benefits, as opposed to more side effects," Hani Ashamalla, M.D., lead author of the study and a radiation oncologist at New York Methodist Hospital, said. "We are now designing a randomized clinical trial to further evaluate acupuncture after prostate cancer treatment. I encourage men suffering this symptom to talk to their doctors about enrolling."
INFORMATION:
For more information on radiation therapy for prostate cancer, visit www.rtanswers.org/treatmentinformation/cancertypes/prostate. For more information on ASTRO's official journal, visit www.redjournal.org.
ASTRO is the largest radiation oncology society in the world, with more than 10,000 members who specialize in treating patients with radiation therapies. As the leading organization in radiation oncology, biology and physics, the Society is dedicated to improving patient care through education, clinical practice, advancement of science and advocacy. For more information on radiation therapy, visit www.rtanswers.org. To learn more about ASTRO, visit www.astro.org.
END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2011-04-24
A discovery by Johns Hopkins scientists about how a single-celled fungus survives in low-oxygen settings may someday help humans whose immune systems are compromised by organ transplants or AIDS.
A report on the discovery in a yeast called Schizosaccharomyces pombe appears April 22 in Molecular Cell.
Previous work by the Hopkins team showed that Schizosaccharomyces pombe, a model organism that's often used to study individual genes, contains a protein named Sre1 that allows the organism to adapt to conditions in which oxygen is very low or missing altogether.
To find ...
2011-04-24
Berkeley, CA– New research by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory finds strong evidence that homes with solar photovoltaic (PV) systems sell for a premium over homes without solar systems.
"We find compelling evidence that solar PV systems in California have boosted home sales prices," says the lead author Ben Hoen, a researcher at Berkeley Lab. "These average sales price premiums appear to be comparable with the average investment that homeowners have made to install PV systems in California, and of course homeowners also benefit ...
2011-04-24
April 21, 2011 − (BRONX, NY) − Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have for the first time observed the activity of a single gene in living cells. In an unprecedented study, published in the April 22 online edition of Science, Einstein scientists were able to follow, in real time, the process of gene transcription, which occurs when a gene converts its DNA information into molecules of messenger RNA (mRNA) that go on to make the protein coded by the gene.
Robert Singer, Ph.D., co-director of the Gruss Lipper Biophotonics ...
2011-04-24
According to a new study, severely obese adolescents are no more likely to be depressed than normal weight peers. The study, which has been released online in the Journal of Adolescent Health, did find that white adolescents may be somewhat more vulnerable to psychological effects of obesity.
This three-year study – performed by researchers from the Center for Child and Adolescent Health Policy at MassGeneral Hospital for Children (MGHfC) and the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine at Tufts Medical School – analyzed the relationship between severe obesity ...
2011-04-24
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- In the arid Namib Desert on the west coast of Africa, one type of beetle has found a distinctive way of surviving. When the morning fog rolls in, the Stenocara gracilipes species, also known as the Namib Beetle, collects water droplets on its bumpy back, then lets the moisture roll down into its mouth, allowing it to drink in an area devoid of flowing water.
What nature has developed, Shreerang Chhatre wants to refine, to help the world's poor. Chhatre is an engineer and aspiring entrepreneur at MIT who works on fog harvesting, the deployment of devices ...
2011-04-24
Scientists at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow are developing a technique based on a new discovery which could pave the way towards detecting Alzheimer's disease in its earliest stages - and could help to develop urgently-needed treatments.
The technique uses the ratio of detected fluorescence signals to indicate that clusters of peptide associated with the disease are beginning to gather and to have an impact on the brain.
Current techniques are not able to see the peptide joining together until more advanced stages but a research paper from Strathclyde describes ...
2011-04-24
A better understanding of corrosion resistance may be possible using a data-mining tool, according to Penn State material scientists. This tool may also aid research in other areas where massive amounts of information exist.
In data mining -- a branch of computer science -- computer programs categorize large amounts of data so they become more useful. Different types of data-mining programs can find correlations between data on specific subjects, or in different areas of a single subject. Data mining finds similarities and differences among data parameters that frequently, ...
2011-04-24
Online retailer HMV reveals the most popular gadgets, CDs, DVDs and video game titles available for pre-order and release during April through their online store at hmv.com.
Movies
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest DVD - Release date: 4th April 2011
The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest is the explosive final installment of Stieg Larsson's trilogy which began with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Leading on from the conclusion of The Girl who Played with Fire, Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) is under police custody and about to face the murder trial that has ...
2011-04-24
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – A study of DNA rearrangements in roundworm chromosomes may offer new insight into large-scale genome duplications that occur in developing tumors.
A report of the research led by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine scientists was published in the April 22 online edition of the journal Science. The study focused on telomeres, a region of repetitive DNA sequence that protects the ends of chromosomes from deterioration or from fusing with other chromosomes.
In many organisms, including humans, chromosome ends are capped by ...
2011-04-24
There's no question, drugs work in treating disease. But can they work better, and safer?
In recent years, researchers have grappled with the challenge of administering therapeutics in a way that boosts their effectiveness by targeting specific cells in the body while minimizing their potential damage to healthy tissue.
The development of new methods that use engineered nanomaterials to transport drugs and release them directly into cells holds great potential in this area. And while several such drug-delivery systems — including some that use dendrimers, liposomes ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Acupuncture relieves hot flashes from prostate cancer treatment
