Dr. Sydney Burwell, Dean of Harvard Medical School 1956

My students are dismayed when I say to them "Half of what you are taught as medical students will in 10 years have been shown to be wrong.
And the trouble is, none of your teachers know which half."



Friday, February 21, 2014

Top Stories

New test suggests antidepressant Paxil may promote breast cancer
In a trial screening of 446 drugs in wide circulation, the new assay singled out the popular antidepressant paroxetine (better known by its commercial name, Paxil) as having a weak estrogenic effect that could promote the development and growth of breast tumors in women.

This is important because as many as a quarter of women being treated for breast cancer suffer from depression - a condition most commonly treated with antidepressants known as SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), including Paxil, which has been on the market since 1992. Almost a quarter of American women in their 40s and 50s are taking an antidepressant, mostly SSRIs. MedicalXpress

'Too much mammography'
Last week, the British Medical Journal released a blockbuster long-term study of nearly 90,000 Canadian women. It concluded that yearly mammography screenings for women 40 to 59 do not reduce breast cancer deaths, though they make a diagnosis of breast cancer more likely. That is, the study found that regular mammography leads to more cancers detected but does not lead to fewer women dying of breast cancer. MedicalXpress

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