Media Coverage

In a study released last November, researchers at Northwestern University announced the discovery of a gene in an Amish community that seemed to be associated with an average life span 10% longer than that of people without the gene. The long-lived subjects also had 10% longer telomeres–the caps at the end of chromosomes that shorten over time and drive the aging process. The gene, known as PAI-1, is linked not only to slower aging but also to better insulin levels and better blood pressure and arterial flexibility.

“Cancer patients presumably are focused on being healthy, and the patient portal is meant to allow patients to engage deeply in managing their health through looking at results and communicating with their providers,” said Dr. Mita Sanghavi Goel, a researcher at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago who wasn’t involved in the study. “This study was surprising because it found that there was a trend towards looking at fewer test results over time, even among cancer patients,” Goel said by email. “It raises the question, then, that if cancer patients are less likely to look at their results over time, who would?”

Despite the uncertainty around HSAs, Maryland’s law requiring coverage of vasectomies without cost sharing addresses a gap in men’s preventive coverage.

Still, only 7 percent of men ages 18 to 45 have had a vasectomy, according to a 2013 study by researchers at Northwestern University. The prevalence increased to 16 percent among men ages 36 to 45. Men with higher incomes, higher education and a regular source of health care were more likely to have had the procedure, the study found.

“This molecule is a super assassin against all tumor cells,” said Marcus Peter, the senior author of a study about the findings, in a press release. “We’ve never seen anything this powerful.” Huntington’s disease causes the progressive breakdown of nerve cells in the brain, causing death within 10-30 years, according to the Mayo Clinic. It is caused by an overabundance of a specific type of repeating RNA sequences in one gene, huntingtin, present in every cell. Researchers found the defect that causes the disease is also extremely toxic to tumor cells. The repeating small interfering RNA sequences attack genes in the cell that are crucial for survival.[…]Andrea Murmann, a research assistant professor in medicine at Feinberg and first author of the study, discovered the Huntington’s cancer weapon and used the molecule to treat human and mouse ovarian, breast, prostate, liver, brain, lung, skin and colon cancer cell lines. The molecule killed cancer cells in both species.

Dr. Lauren Streicher, associate clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University, wants to clear up two myths concerning a pregnancy that is progressing normally: 1) Sex will not cause a miscarriage; and 2) It’s not going to send you into labor. “If there’s already spotting or bleeding, the doctor might tell you to stop having sex to avoid increasing it, but it’s not going to hurt the baby otherwise,” she says. “As far as sex starting labor goes, if you have an orgasm, you do get the uterine contractions, but uterine contractions and labor are not the same thing.”

Situated on a 160-acre campus with pedestrian and bike paths, the new $399 million Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital opens March 3. The Lake Forest site, acquired in a 2010 deal that included the promise of replacing the aging facility at 1000 N. Westmoreland Road, gives Chicago-based Northwestern Medicine footing on the North Shore. It also provides a new training site for students and doctors from Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

The developers of enzalutamide, Pfizer and Astellas Pharma, have applied to the F.D.A. for approval to expand the use of the drug, marketed as Xtandi, to patients in this category, said Dr. Maha Hussain, deputy director of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. She co-led that study with Dr. Cora Sternberg, chief of medical oncology at San Camillo and Forlanini Hospitals in Rome.

Dr. Lauren Streicher, medical director of Northwestern Medicine’s Center for Sexual Medicine and Menopause, was not involved with the research but says that not one study showed an impact on sexual activity and athletic performance unless they didn’t get a good night’s sleep because of it – i.e., if you’re up all night having sex and you go to compete the next day, the lack of sleep is going to matter more. Smoking or alcohol use concurrent with sex could lead to possible negative effects, the study abstract notes. Streicher says that most of the studies involved were not very well done and included small sample sizes, and the study authors say more research is needed for clarity purposes.

“The findings from the trial are quite impressive in terms of delaying the visibility of the cancer,” said Dr. Maha Hussain, the study’s lead investigator who will present the data at a cancer meeting in San Francisco later this week. “The data is very likely practice changing,” added Hussain, from the Robert H Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University.

Since the first human heart transplant was performed in 1967, the procedure has been offered at major hospitals across the country, with about 2,300 nationwide each year, said Dr. Allen S. Anderson, medical director for Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s Center for Heart Failure, who treated both women. Heart transplants have positive outcomes for patients who would otherwise die from heart failure. About 90 percent of heart transplant patients survive a year after the surgery. And if they survive that first year, those transplant recipients have a 50 percent chance of living another 15 years, Anderson said