More health news in brief.
Two private AEs open in Dublin
Two new privately-operated emergency departments opened in Dublin yesterday.
The emergency department at the Hermitage Medical Clinic in Lucan, officially opened by Minister for Health Mary Harney, provides an alternative to AE, 8am-5pm, Monday to Friday for privately insured or fee-paying patients. Patients attending will be seen by an AE consultant.
Meanwhile, Hibernian Health, which recently took over the Vivas health insurance company, yesterday launched its own urgent care centre in Dublin's Smithfield area. It says its Xpress Med Urgent Care Centre will be consultant-led, treating patients from four years upwards and claims that patients will be seen within an hour.
Cancer vaccine for breast tumours
An experimental breast cancer vaccine has the potential to wipe out resistant and recurring tumours in many women, say researchers. The treatment would be tailored to women with HER2-positive cancers, which account for up to 30 per cent of all cases and tend to be highly aggressive.
The findings of the study, led by Prof Wei-Zen Wei, of Wayne State University in Detroit, US, are published in the latest issue of the journal Cancer Research.
Dr Sarah Rawlings, from the charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said: "This is very early research that has only been carried out in mice so we don't actually know if it could be used in women. Much more research is needed to find out if it works, to either treat HER2-positive breast cancer or prevent the disease, and if there are any side effects."