The deadly prostate cancer-for smoking patient

Men who smoke when they are diagnosed with prostate cancer is more likely to die from the disease and are likely to see the cancer return, researchers from Harvard School of Public Health found. But those who quit smoking for at least 10 years before the diagnosis was a death and recurrence rates comparable to men, who had never smoked.

"The good news is that quitting smoking is beneficial,''said Stacey A. Kenfield, lead author of the recent study and research associate in the Department of Epidemiology." The sooner you quit, the better.''

The researchers used data from a project at Harvard, which followed 51,529 men over two decades. They examined 5366 who were diagnosed with prostate cancer, 524 of them died.

Those who were smokers at diagnosis was 61 percent more likely to die of cancer. They were also 61 percent more likely to return after illness treatment.

Bottom line: Men who smoke a diagnosis of prostate cancer are more likely to die from the disease than those who have never smoked or quit a year earlier.

NOTE: Smoking has been reported in the participants. Smokers tend to be screened for prostate cancer less often and are more likely to engage in other unhealthy behaviors that can affect mortality, but the study used statistical methods to try to account for these factors.

Where you can find in: Journal of the American Medical Association, June 22/29

Subjective measures related increase in cesarean deliveries, caesarean section rates in the United States increased by 21 percent of births in 1996 to 32 percent in 2007. Connecticut was one of the states that had the biggest jump. To investigate the causes, the researchers assessed 32,443 live births at Yale-New Haven Hospital between 2003 and 2009, when the annual rate of cesarean deliveries increased from 26 percent to 36.5 percent.

Half of the increase was in women who had no previous cesarean delivery. The researchers found that the group change was attributed to the characters more subjectively defined. Lactic acidosis non-reassuring fetal state, which usually means abnormal heart rate, accounted for 32 per cent increase in primary cesarean delivery.

"We have no reason to believe that the babies experienced an abnormal heart rhythm most often during labor in 2009 than in 2003, but even more C-sections are done for this indication,''said Dr. Jessica L. Illuzzi, senior writer and researcher in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at Yale School of Medicine.