HEALTH BRIEFS

Stem cells breakthrough for infertile women

INFERTILE women could be implanted with new wombs grown from their own stem cells within 10 years, the doctor who achieved the first uterus transplant has predicted.

Professor Mats Brannstrom carried out the first womb transplant in 2014, which allowed a Swedish woman to give birth to a healthy baby boy.

He has since undertaken nine more procedures, resulting in a total of five births.

At present, women undergoing the operation must be given strong immuno-suppressant drugs to prevent their bodies from rejecting the new womb, which is donated by a family member or close friend.

But if a new womb could be grown from their own stem cells, no drugs would be needed and there would be fewer complications. Prof Brannstrom told delegates that womb “patches” had already been successfully grown in rats from stem cells and the procedure could be perfected for humans within 10 or 15 years.

“The concept is you create from stem cells of the recipient and transplant that into the recipient,” he told the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists world congress.

Chronic pain affects half of UK adults, study shows

ALMOST half of UK adults are suffering chronic pain, and the problem is likely to get worse as the population ages, researchers have found.

About 28 million adults – 43% of the population – are living with ongoing discomfort, including nearly one in three people of working age. About one in 10 people suffer from levels of pain that are severely disabling.

Chronic pain, which can be anything from back pain to neuralgia, is defined as lasting for three months or longer.

Researchers from Imperial College, London, who trawled databases going back more than 25 years, said the figures were astounding and warned the epidemic had been largely ignored by the National Health Service, government and employers.

Graduates at higher risk of brain tumours, says study

GRADUATES have a greater chance of being diagnosed with brain tumours, a study has shown.

Men with a university level education lasting at least three years are 19% more likely to discover a glioma – a type of cancerous tumour – than those who left school at 16.

For women, the chance of being diagnosed with a tumour was even higher, a 23% increased risk for the most educated.

Compared with men in manual roles, having a professional or managerial job was associated with a 20% heightened risk of glioma and a 50% heightened risk of acoustic neuroma – a type of non-cancerous brain tumour. The risk of glioma was also 26% higher among women in professional and managerial roles.

University College London researchers say the link could be due to educated people being more likely to seek medical help.

Cancer breakthrough for women with ’Jolie gene’

THOUSANDS of women at risk of breast and ovarian cancer could be spared surgery after it was found that an osteoporosis drug may prevent the disease.

The breakthrough, which scientists are hailing as a potential “Holy Grail” in cancer prevention, will help women born with mutations in their BRCA1.

BRCA1 has been called the “Jolie gene” after the actress Angelina Jolie opted for a double mastectomy – and hysterectomy – on learning that she carried the genetic fault.

The mutation increases the risk of ovarian cancer 29-fold. The treatment breakthrough came when researchers found the pre-cancerous cells were fuelled by the same protein that drives osteoporosis.

Less side-effects with new prostrate cancer care

MEN with prostate cancer could undergo treatment in half the time and be spared gruelling side-effects, a trial has found.

A 14-year study published in The Lancet Oncology found that giving men half the number of radiotherapy treatments, at higher doses, worked just as well as existing regimes and had less than half the rate of side-effects.