Today's health news in brief
Tumour freeze as effective as surgery
A treatment that freezes away prostate tumours is as effective as surgery, but avoids life-changing side effects, researchers have found.
Focal cryoablation, known as the “male lumpectomy”, destroys cancerous tissue with super-cold gas fired through several needle probes.
The treatment targets the tumour without damaging surrounding tissue. Because nerves and blood vessels are preserved, it does not cause the side effects of impotence and poor bladder control associated with surgery and radiotherapy.
Cryoablation can also be repeated a number of years after the initial treatment.
Doctors said yesterday the procedure was as good a potential cure as more radical treatments in cases where the disease had not spread.
The findings were presented yesterday at the annual scientific meeting of the Society of Interventional Radiology in San Diego, California.
Information leaflet on obesity
The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) yesterday launched a medical information leaflet which it said would give people information on the dangers of being overweight and obese. More than 100,000 copies have been distributed and made available to 300 pharmacies and doctors’ clinics.
The joint initiative between the School of Pharmacy and Molecular Cellular Therapeutics (MCT) follows the results of a study that was carried out by the two departments at RCSI, which revealed that pharmacies, general practice clinics and hospitals did not have any literature available to the public on being overweight.
Dr Steve Kerrigan, project leader and lecturer in pharmacology at RCSI, said, “There was nowhere for the general public to find out about the health implications of being overweight or obese. While the pharmacies had several information leaflets, we found no literature on obesity. When we visited a number of GP clinics they too did not have any leaflets available on obesity.”