Category: 8. Health
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China-led report charts new course for global liver cancer control-Xinhua
SHANGHAI, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) — A landmark report on the global prevention and control of liver cancer, led by Chinese experts and recently published in The Lancet, presents a new international roadmap to tackle a growing global health burden.
The report, titled “The Lancet Commission on addressing the global hepatocellular carcinoma burden: comprehensive strategies from prevention to treatment,” was released on July 28, World Hepatitis Day.
It is the first time in over 200 years that The Lancet has published global health research led by Chinese experts. The study also involved contributions from 51 specialists across countries and regions such as Japan, the Republic of Korea, the United States and Spain, among others.
The Lancet Commission was co-chaired by Fan Jia, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Speaking at a press conference in Zhongshan Hospital affiliated with Fudan University in Shanghai, Fan emphasized what distinguishes the study from typical academic reviews.
Unlike standard reviews or research articles, the report focuses on implementable public health strategies, said Fan.
Liver cancer, which is often referred to as a silent killer due to its long latency and subtle early symptoms, poses a serious challenge to global public health systems. The published report systematically reviews global practices, including China’s experience, and covers topics such as epidemiology, risk factor control, early diagnosis, pathology, imaging, treatment strategies and medical ethics.
One key finding is the shifting pattern in liver cancer aetiology. While hepatitis B and C remain the dominant risk factors, cases linked to metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) and alcohol consumption are on the rise. Unhealthy lifestyle habits such as high-sugar diets and lifestyles that lead to obesity are also reshaping the global liver cancer landscape.
Despite these challenges, the report estimates that about 60 percent of liver cancer cases are preventable. “China has accumulated valuable experience in prevention and control,” said Zhou Jian, president of Zhongshan Hospital. “From hepatitis B vaccination and early screening to improvements in clinical care, our efforts show that liver cancer can be managed like other chronic diseases such as hypertension or diabetes.”
To reduce new cases and deaths, the report proposes a three-tiered strategy.
First, prevention efforts should focus on expanding hepatitis B vaccination, promoting antiviral treatment for hepatitis B and C, and enhancing public awareness about the risks of unhealthy diets and alcohol.
Second, liver fibrosis screening should be integrated into health checks for high-risk groups such as people with diabetes or obesity, and there should be a broader adoption of non-invasive testing to improve accessibility.
Third, treatment systems should be strengthened by improving access to drugs, narrowing regional disparities, and incorporating palliative care at the start of treatment.
According to the report, liver cancer accounts for an estimated 870,000 new cancer cases and 760,000 deaths globally each year. If effective prevention measures are not taken, the global burden is projected to rise significantly, with new cases and deaths expected to reach 1.52 million and 1.37 million by 2050.
Modeling suggests that achieving an average annual reduction of at least 2 percent in age-standardized incidence rates is necessary to reverse this trend, potentially preventing 8.8 million new cases and 7.7 million deaths over the next 25 years. ■
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Full-Body MRIs: Can They Save Your Life or Are They a Waste of Money?
Doctors have been arguing over the utility of preventive full-body MRI scans for decades. In 2004, it became a central plot point on an episode of the TV show “Scrubs.”
“I am considering offering full-body scans here at Sacred Heart. What do you think?” Dr. Bob Kelso, chief of medicine at the hospital in fictional San DiFrangeles, asks.
“I think showing perfectly healthy people every harmless imperfection in their body just to scare them into taking invasive and often pointless tests is an unholy sin,” Dr. Perry Cox responds, echoing a sentiment many real doctors have toward high-end preventive scans.
In the TV show “Scrubs,” Dr. Kelso (pictured) wants to start offering full-body scans to patients. Mitch Haaseth/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images
It’s been more than 20 years since that Scrubs episode first aired, and yet real doctors are no closer to settling their big debate about full-body MRIs.
Preventive full-body MRIs are now used in high-end longevity clinics and are available through a growing suite of direct-to-consumer offerings. Prices range from $2,500 or more for a one-hour scan to new AI-assisted offerings that cost $500 and only take about 20 minutes.
Kim Kardashian promoted Prenuvo’s scan on Instagram in 2023, calling it a “lifesaving machine.” Ernesto Ruscio/GC Images
Stars and longevity fiends, including Kim Kardashian, tout these scans on social media, and everyday patients share real success stories, gripping testimonials of lifesaving insights they’ve gleaned from scanning their entire bodies for signs of danger.
Genetic sequencing pioneer Craig Venter previously told Business Insider that he diagnosed his own prostate cancer “that was about to metastasize” with a high-end MRI “after being told by the best medical system that I didn’t have prostate cancer.”
Full-body MRIs can detect cancer early. But they can also have you parting with thousands of dollars, scheduling numerous follow up appointments to chase little dots on your scans, and in the end revealing nothing.
A full-body MRI is like a security camera for your innards
The promise of a full-body MRI is that it can uncover dangerous things happening inside you that aren’t bad enough — yet — to get picked up on other tests.
Danielle Hoeg is a perfect example of how this can work. A non-smoker in her early 40s and mom of three, she told Business Insider she decided to do a Prenuvo scan after some “wonky” blood work was taken at her doctor’s office, which suggested something might be wrong.
She signed up for a $2,500 Prenuvo scan (not covered by insurance), which took about an hour. The scan highlighted a few things: some moderate spinal degeneration and a lingering sinus infection. It also flagged a “minor” white cloud on her lung, an “indeterminate lesion” that “appears at low risk of becoming problematic,” her Prenuvo report found.
A blood test for lung cancer came back negative, but a CT scan her doctor ordered showed that, sure enough, that lung spot was likely cancer. She eventually had a stage 1 tumor removed, just three months after her Prenuvo scan.
Hoeg was in shock. She was a 43-year-old, healthy non-smoker with lung cancer. How could this be?
“I’m not out there smoking, asking for lung cancer, I’m not working in a coal mine,” she told Business Insider.
Since she caught this cancer early, she didn’t have to undergo any aggressive radiation or chemotherapy treatments. She tells everyone she can about her experience with Prenuvo.
“I have a little bit less lung, I have some scars, but I’m OK, and I’m here, and I’m with my kids, and swimming and running,” she said.
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Emi Gal, founder of Prenuvo competitor Ezra, recently acquired by Function Health, says this is exactly what full-body scans are meant for. They’re helping find cancer that either can’t be screened for or won’t get picked up on regular screening tests because it’s not big enough yet.
“My mother passed away from cancer because she found cancer late,” Gal told BI. “I’ve dedicated my career and my life really to helping everyone in the world detect cancer early.”
Ezra founder Emi Gal. Ezra/Function Health
The scans can also pick up back and spine problems, aneurysms, liver disease, and cysts.
Inevitably, they will also flag many things as worrisome that people don’t need to worry about at all, like benign scar tissue or inflammation lingering from a recent illness or injury. The scan can’t tell you definitively, “hey, this is trouble.” It just shows you when something’s there.
Are ultrasounds the real untapped medical tool of the future?
What is in there? Everything. Getty Images
As the fictional Dr. Cox presciently said on Scrubs, “If you get this scan, the next year of your life is going to be a series of endless tests.”
Prenuvo says that nearly half of its patients “find something to keep an eye on,” but doctors want to know: Are they saving lives?
For now, you won’t find major medical boards or cancer advocacy organizations recommending full-body MRIs. There isn’t the hard evidence they’d need to back up a medical recommendation.
“Your end goal is saving years of life, helping people live longer,” Dr. Samir Abboud, the chief of emergency radiology at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, told BI.
If annual scans are overkill, our annual check-ups are often not enough. Independent reviews consistently show that yearly health checks have little to no effect on preventing deadly diseases.
Dr. Tim Arling, who runs a concierge medicine practice focused on longevity, says he only occasionally recommends full-body MRIs to his patients. What he’s started doing more often is spending a few extra minutes waving a little medical wand over parts of a patient’s body as a preliminary scan for trouble.
He’s using a portable ultrasound machine, the same device doctors use to look at a fetus as it’s developing in utero. The technique is common in Japan, where doctors often glide ultrasound wands over a person’s thyroid, as an initial screen for cancer.
A technician performs an ultrasound on an Achilles tendon. Pyrosky
In addition to the thyroid gland, Arling sometimes glides his ultrasound over a patient’s liver, kidneys, or aorta, “as a little extension of the physical exam.”
“If I see something, I’ll have a discussion with the patient, we’ll decide if we want to do something in real time,” he said.
The move costs nothing extra to the patient and takes just a few extra minutes. Critically, it also includes the doctor in the discussion from the get-go.
Hoeg’s stage 1 cancer was graded as a “minor” finding by Prenuvo. If Abboud, who’s both a doctor and a friend, hadn’t said she should get it looked at ASAP, would she have known to take the finding so seriously?
Hoeg shared this image of her lung. The “minor” finding ended up being stage 1 lung cancer. courtesy of Danielle Hoeg
Arling said he went through a “very bizarre three-week period” last year where he ended up flagging a case of early-stage liver cancer, plus another case of early-stage kidney cancer using ultrasounds.
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“If primary care is trying to catch things earlier, the question comes down to how can we do it in a way that doesn’t necessarily add a whole bunch of extra cost or a whole bunch of extra waste?”
Maybe “we can start just sort of waving wands over people and getting a little more information,” he said.
How to decide if you should get a full-body scan: 5 questions to ask
A full-body MRI can take upward of an hour. simonkr/Getty Images
For some people, doctors are already in agreement that full-body cancer scans are a good thing. If you have a rare condition called Li-Fraumeni syndrome, which puts you at greater risk of developing all sorts of cancer, annual full-body scans are a go-to, and they’re covered by insurance.
For everybody else, the jury — a jury full of practicing physicians — is still out.
If you’re interested in a full-body scan, Dr. Arling recommends weighing a few key factors:
1. What’s your family history?
You might want to consider a full-body MRI if you’ve got a family history of cancer.
But that scan should be in addition to other recommended cancer screenings you’re already doing, Arling said: “paps, mammos, PSAs, colonoscopies, the standard stuff.”
Another option is a cancer blood test like Galleri. It costs $950.
2. What’s your medical anxiety level?
If you are anxious about medical care or testing, full-body scans may not be for you.
“If you already have that health-anxious person, I’m not super enthusiastic about recommending this test, because they’re going to find something,” Arling said.
3. What’s your level of concern?
On the other hand, full-body scans are good at “looking for trouble,” Arling said.
“If you’re really trying to find the thing, not rule out the thing, then the MRI is going to have better data. It has higher sensitivity,” he said.
It’ll be more sensitive than a Galleri test, for example.
4. What’s your budget?
Is this the best use of a few hundred to a few thousand bucks of your cash?
Might you derive more health benefits from putting those dollars into things we know will improve healthy aging, like more exercise, some personal training, better nutrition, or less stress (a nice vacation, perhaps?)
“If it gets people being healthy, great, but if it’s just a thing that rich people do to flaunt that they’re healthier than you, it doesn’t quite achieve the goal,” Arling said.
5. Is there metal in your body?
Finally, full-body MRIs may not be for you if you have metal in your body (sorry).
That’s because they work by harnessing the power of magnets. There’s no harmful radiation involved, but you generally can’t wear anything metal, inside or out. (Discuss this with your doctor, though — many surgical implants are designed to be MRI-safe).
“A typical three tesla MRI is 60,000 times the strength of the magnetic pull of Earth,” Gal said.
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Vector surveillance of avian Plasmodium and West Nile virus in Culex mosquitoes from Doñana, a UNESCO World Heritage Site | Parasites & Vectors
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Quality of care for acute ischemic stroke in China during the COVID-19 pandemic: a retrospective study using a National database | BMC Public Health
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‘I wasn’t drunk, it was a brain tumour’
Stuart MaisnerBBC News, South East
Brain Tumour ResearchJohn Starns is raising awareness for Brain Cancer Research A man who said he appeared drunk but was actually suffering from a brain tumour is helping to raise awareness of the disease.
John Starns, from Sutton Valence, Kent, was initially told he had vertigo but when there was no improvement with medication, an MRI scan three months later revealed a brain tumour.
The 63-year-old freelance photographer described his diagnosis as a “scary process”.
But he said he will “never forget the emotional release when the nurse told me my tumour was benign”.
It began in February 2022 when Mr Starns “suddenly felt unwell” commuting to London.
“It felt as though I was having a panic attack,” he said. “I was disorientated and it became difficult to walk.”
Mr Starns got off his train at Sevenoaks.
He said: “I found a bench and sat there for two hours, alone.
“No-one approached me, I suspect because they thought I was drunk.”
More than three years on, Mr Starns is monitored with a scan every two years.
He said: “So far, scans have showed my tumour as stable, and I barely suffer with any side effects.
“I am one of the lucky ones.”
John StarnsJohn Starns says his story “could have ended differently” Mr Starns, a keen cyclist, is participating in a charity challenge to cycle 274 miles during August.
He said: “My story could have ended differently.
“My hope is that by supporting Brain Tumour Research, more people will benefit from the advances in research.”
Brain tumours kill more men under 70 than prostate cancer, yet just 1% of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to brain tumours since records began in 2002, according to Brain Tumour Research.
Charlie Allsebrook, the charity’s community development manager, said: “Brain tumours are indiscriminate and can affect anyone at any age.”
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Alcohol-linked cancer deaths nearly double in 30 years, experts warn
File photo. [AP]
Alcohol-related cancer deaths have surged in recent decades, experts report, even as overall cancer mortality declines. In the US they have nearly doubled over the past three decades, rising from 12,000 in 1990 to more than 23,000 in 2021, despite an overall decline in cancer mortality, experts revealed at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conference.
Greek researchers Dr Theodora Psaltopoulou, professor of therapeutics, epidemiology, and preventive medicine at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), biologist Alexandra Stavropoulou, and Professor Thanos Dimopoulos, former NKUA rector and director of the Therapeutics Clinic at Alexandra Hospital, highlight strong links between alcohol and cancers of the liver, colon and esophagus.
Τhe majority of cases in the US were men over 55, who showed a 70% mortality increase.
Public awareness remains low, with only 40% of Americans recognizing alcohol as a cancer risk. Experts urge immediate public health campaigns and alcohol warning labels.
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Hong Kong confirms first imported case of Chikungunya fever since 2019
Hong Kong has confirmed its first imported case of Chikungunya fever since 2019, involving a boy who returned from the mainland Chinese city of Foshan which is facing an outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease, the Post has learned.
A source confirmed the imported case of the Chikungunya infection on Saturday weeks after outbreaks of the disease were identified in Guangdong. About 6,100 cases have been recorded in the province so far, with about 90 per cent of patients concentrated in Foshan’s Shunde district.
The boy had been staying in Shunde for almost two weeks before returning to Hong Kong, according to a source.
Health authorities are expected to announce more details later on Saturday.
Chinese Vice-Premier Liu Guozhong visited the southern city of Foshan in Guangdong province, urging residents to “strictly implement port health quarantine measures”, according to state news agency Xinhua on Friday.
During his trip to Guangdong, Liu told authorities to “improve prevention and control measures”, “effectively eliminate mosquitoes” and halt the disease’s “spread channels”.
Chikungunya fever is spread by Aedes albopictus mosquito bites, with cases typically developing fever and joint pain that can last for a long period. Other potential symptoms include muscle pain, nausea and rashes.
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Senior Chinese official urges southern city to stamp out Chikungunya spread amid outbreak
A senior Chinese official has visited the epicentre of the country’s Chikungunya fever outbreak, as the number of cases of the mosquito-borne virus nears 5,000.Chinese Vice-Premier Liu Guozhong visited the southern city of Foshan in Guangdong province, urging the city to “strictly implement port health quarantine measures”, according to state news agency Xinhua on Friday.
During his trip to Guangdong, Liu told authorities to “improve prevention and control measures”, “effectively eliminate mosquitoes” and “cut off epidemic spread channels”.
Foshan, a manufacturing hub of 10 million residents, accounted for 2,882 cases, or about 60 per cent of 4,824 reported cases in Guangdong as of July 26. There have been no fatalities.
Outside Guangdong, Macau has also reported two cases, both of whom had previously travelled to Foshan. Hong Kong has not reported any cases since the outbreak.
Vice-Premier Liu Guozhong has called for authorities to improve prevention and control measures and “effectively eliminate mosquitoes” amid a Chikungunya fever outbreak in China. Photo: AFP This is China’s worst outbreak of the disease in decades, and Foshan authorities issued notices earlier this week offering nucleic acid PCR tests in several neighbourhoods.
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