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Are Breast Cancer Patients Being Kept In The Dark?
Despite the increase of breast reconstruction procedures performed in 2008, nearly 70 percent of women who are eligible for the procedure are not informed of the reconstructive options available to them, according to a recently published report. Newly released statistics by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) shows there were more than 79,000 breast reconstruction procedures performed in 2008 - a 39 percent increase over 2007. But in spite of this, current research suggests that many breast cancer patients are missing out on a key conversation that should take place at the time of diagnosis.
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Elbit Imaging Ltd. Announces Swiss Team Uses InSightec's ExAblate(R) 4000 Brain System To Treat Patients With Functional Brain Disorders
Elbit Imaging Ltd. (TASE: EMIT, Nasdaq: EMITF), announced that, its subsidiary (in which EI holds indirectly approximately 58.34%, InSightec Ltd., announced that a team at the University Children"s Hospital Zurich has completed a feasibility study testing the use of non-invasive transcranial MR-guided focused ultrasound surgery (TcMRgFUS) for the treatment of neuropathic pain. Ten adult patients diagnosed with chronic neuropathic pain successfully underwent non-invasive deep brain ablation surgery (central lateral thalamotomy) with transcranial TcMRgFUS and showed improvement in pain scores and reduction of pain medication with no adverse effects at three months follow-up. This is the first study in the world to test non-invasive transcranial focused ultrasound as a treatment modality for functional brain disorders.
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Test Detects Molecular Marker Of Aging In Humans
In 2004, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center announced a crucial discovery in the understanding of cellular aging. They found that as cells and tissues age, the expression of a key protein, called p16INK4a, dramatically increases in most mammalian organs. Because p16INK4a is a tumor suppressor protein, cancer researchers are interested in its role in cellular aging and cancer prevention.
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Single-payer Advocates Challenge Democrats While Private Insurers Get Nervous

Democrats working feverishly on health care reform "face increasingly noisy protests from those on the left who complain that a national program like those in Europe has been excluded from the debate," The Washington Post reports. Leaders have made it clear, however, that single-payer with its proposal of making the federal government responsible for paying for all health care, is too "politically and practically impossible." "That has not dissuaded single-payer activists, who have spent months hounding Democratic lawmakers and organizing demonstrations, including one that resulted in 13 arrests at a Senate hearing last month." Meanwhile, "Many Republicans see the movement as evidence that Democrats are setting the country on the path to "government-run health care," as they describe it. Conservatives for Patients" Rights, an advocacy group bankrolled by ousted Columbia/HCA chief Rick Scott, unveiled a $1.2 million ad campaign Thursday that portrays Democratic plans as a "bulldozer" aimed at eliminating private insurance companies" (Eggen, 6/6). The New York Times reports President Obama is also trying to soothe the fears of Republicans and insurance companies, largely that a public plan similar to state employee plans would be the first step to a single-payer system, and that because of that, insurers "would not be able to compete with a Medicare-like option and might gradually be priced out of existence." "The administration"s leading voices on health policy say the coexistence of public and private options within state employee benefit programs demonstrates that it can be done. ò€¦ In most cases, the state"s self-insured, or public, option is a preferred provider organization that competes against private health maintenance organizations. A 2008 survey by Mercer, the health benefits consulting firm, found that 61 percent of the members of state employee health plans were enrolled in P.P.O."s, but that private H.M.O."s managed to maintain a third of the market. A notable exception is the largest state plan, the California Public Employees Retirement System, where more than two-thirds of members choose a private insurance option. "It has not destroyed the market," Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, said at her Senate confirmation hearing in April. "It has not tilted the playing field. But that"s all about the way the rules are set"" (Sack, 6/6). This information was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at kaiserhealthnews.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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