Health briefs

Taking statins may lower the risk of cancer

NEW ORLEANS - In a case of medical serendipity, the cholesterol-lowering pills called statins, already widely prescribed to prevent heart attacks, also appear to have an unintended but potentially substantial benefit of warding off cancer.

Statins already are among the world's most commonly used medicines. Evidence has been building for several years that people who take them to improve their cholesterol levels seem less likely than usual to get cancer.

The latest data, released Sunday at a large cancer conference, found that people who took statins for at least five years appeared to cut their risk of colon cancer in half. Earlier work has shown reductions in breast and prostate cancer as well as across-the-board cancer risk.

Experts have other reasons to think the statins might be cancer fighters. Experiments involving lab animals and cells growing in test tubes both suggest a possible role for statins.

However, researchers seem unanimous in saying the evidence is still too weak to recommend taking statins for cancer-prevention alone, although they acknowledge those on the pills for other reasons may be getting a big bonus benefit.

The data so far "fit with what we know from the lab," said Dr. Monica Morrow of Northwestern University. "But we can't say this is enough proof for people to go out and take statins."

To be convinced, doctors say they would need to see a carefully controlled experiment designed specifically to show that statins reduce cancer risk. The data so far are based largely on watching what happens to people who go on statins for reasons that have nothing to do with cancer.

SPOTTED HORSE, Wyo. - This summer, researchers from two universities are testing water sources in this region, including natural gas discharge ponds, for mosquitoes that spread West Nile.

The virus, which can sicken and kill people and animals, began its march across the United States in 1999. Scientists initially expected the disease, transmitted by mosquito bites, to stall west of the Mississippi, where sources of standing water are scarce.

Instead, it has thrived. Ten of the states with the most illness per capita are west of the Mississippi. Eight are in a prolonged drought.

Four - Wyoming, Colorado, Montana and New Mexico - are experiencing a boom in natural gas production. The gas is forced out of underground coal beds by pumping millions of gallons of underground water to the surface. The process leaves warm, shallow ponds - ideal breeding grounds for mosquitoes - scattered across the usually arid landscape.

Scientists studying the infection are not yet ready to declare the case closed. But as researchers trace the possible link between natural gas production and the illness, places such as Campbell County in northeastern Wyoming, which has nearly 13,000 coal bed methane wells, have become open-air laboratories.

"Common sense tells you that if you've got that many water sources that were not there before, they are going to create mosquitoes," said Terry Creekmore, West Nile coordinator for the Wyoming Department of Health.

CHICAGO - Sick children who are admitted to pediatric intensive care units during the evening rather than during the day are slightly more likely to die in the first 48 hours of care, a study found.

Researchers did not determine why the difference exists, but fatigue, lighter staffing levels and less experienced doctors and nurses working night shifts could all be factors, said one of the study's authors, Dr. James P. Marcin.

Lab results and certain equipment - like MRI machines - also are not always as readily available at night, said Marcin, a pediatric ICU physician at the University of California Davis Children's Hospital.

The study, which analyzed 20,547 admissions to 15 pediatric ICUs from 1995 to 2001, appears in the June edition of Pediatrics, being issued today.

The study focused on the less than 500 deaths that occurred within 48 hours of admission, since they would be the ones most likely to be affected by the early hours of care. Researchers also made adjustments to make sure the severity of cases being compared was similar.

The mortality rate for children admitted during the day was 2.2 percent. But for children admitted during the evening - defined as 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. - the death rate increased to 2.8 percent, researchers found.

Marcin said that although the difference is small, it is statistically significant, and it increases when considering the cases of the sickest children for whom prompt and expert treatment might be the most needed.

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