Your biological age is written in your telomeres, which shorten every time your cells divide. Frequently dividing cells like leucocytes lose about 50 binary pairs of DNA nucleotides per year, and when they get down to a certain length, […]
A systematic review attempts to look at all studies which compare generalist with specialist care. This is doomed for various reasons discussed in the accompanying editorial, not least because most of the studies are observational, very few are randomised, it is generally impossible to adjust for case-mix, and it is very difficult to assess publication […]
Myocardial infarction should, as we know, be treated by immediate percutaneous coronary intervention, but even this doesn’t always restore an adequate circulation to the ischaemic area, so we can expect new trials of MI interventions for the foreseeable future. […]
Gene signatures in cancer cells are beginning to tell us which patients are most likely to survive. This sophisticated Taiwanese laboratory study identifies a five-gene signature which predicts good outcome in non-small-cell lung cancer. Good discussion in the accompanying editorial. […]
When Fiona Godlee first offered to take these reviews as a BMJ blog, I was given an assurance that I could be as beastly about her journal as I liked. To my surprise I don’t find my beastliness index rising with this new-look magazine-style BMJ. I described its predecessor, when Richard Smith launched it, as […]
This study shows that when given early after adjuvant chemotherapy for HER-2 positive breast cancer, trastuzumab provides significant mortality benefit in as little as two years. But the Herceptin debate is certainly not over – the benefit is small, the cardiac dangers great, the long-term effects unknown, the dosage uncertain and the costs enormous – […]
This study looked at a cohort of 782 elderly men and women in the Netherlands with raised homocysteine and, amongst many outcomes, looked for an effect of folic acid on age-related hearing loss. To be sure, fewer of those given folate found Dutch beginning to sound like double-dutch. […]
This is more a taunt than a proverb, and reminds us that throughout history, patients have taken comfort in the physical misfortunes of their doctors. Sayings of this kind are recorded in most civilisations and are especially well attested in ancient Greece. […]
While you are reading this, amoeba-like cells are crawling over your bones and eating them away. Unless, that is, you are taking a bisphosphonate to paralyze your osteoclasts and leave your osteoblasts to lay down new bone unhindered. […]
Your Christmas Day came to a blurry end with quantities of port wine and Stilton cheese. You don’t really remember going to bed, but soon afterwards you are aware that you have become a junior doctor working in an intensive care unit, trying to put in a central line. A sharp American voice from behind […]