Health briefs

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 30, 2000

Women may have to wait longer for breast exams

CHICAGO -- Mammography centers are scaling back or even closing because of inadequate reimbursement rates and malpractice fears at a time when more and more aging baby boomers need annual breast exams, experts warned Wednesday.

With access shrinking, women often have to wait months to schedule an annual breast cancer screening and may decide to skip the exams altogether. Even women with suspicious lumps may have to wait several weeks to get a mammogram.

That can delay the diagnosis of breast cancer and result in tumors being detected at later, less treatable stages, a panel of doctors said at the Radiology Society of North America's annual meeting.

Studies have shown that routine mammograms can decrease the risk of dying from breast cancer by as much as 40 percent. About 1-million women a year are turning 40, the age when many doctors say annual screening should begin, the panel said.

Screening mammograms typically cost between $75 and $150, while diagnostic mammograms, performed when a problem is suspected, may cost well over $200.

Recommended Medicare reimbursement rates, set by Congress, are well below that -- $67 for a screening mammogram and $81 for a diagnostic exam.

Drug may slow rheumatoid arthritis

BOSTON -- A drug used to relieve the symptoms of advanced rheumatoid arthritis also appears to slow or stop the progression of the disease when given in its early stages, a study concludes.

The latest work shows that the drug, called Enbrel, works better than the standard treatment in these patients and carries fewer side effects

A study directed by Dr. Joan M. Bathon of Johns Hopkins University tested the medicine on 632 people who had suffered from rheumatoid arthritis for less than three years.

The progression of the disease stopped completely in 72 percent of the patients getting twice-weekly injections of the drug for one year. By comparison, 60 percent fared this well when taking methotrexate pills, the older standard medicine.

Those getting methotrexate were twice as likely to experience side effects bad enough to make them stop taking the drug.

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