That new television, cabinet or appliance you’re looking to snag on Black Friday or Cyber Monday could bring unexpected dangers to your home. So don’t forget to buy a kit to anchor it to the wall and keep it from tipping over and harming young kids, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) urges. “With the holiday shopping season upon us, it is critical to anchor your new TV or furniture to the wall to help prevent tip-over incidents,” said CPSC Chair Alex Hoehn-Saric. “Even if a TV or piece of furniture comes without an anti-tip-over kit, you can order them online or purchase them at your local hardware store for $20 or less,” he noted in a commission news release. Since 2000, 581 deaths caused by furniture, TV or appliance tip-overs have happened in the United States. Of those, 472 involved children. Just last month, the CPSC approved a mandatory safety standard for dressers, chests and other clothing storage units. This ensures they meet new minimum stability requirements designed to prevent furniture from tipping over. Until more stable furniture makes its way into the marketplace, the CPSC said consumers should anchor their furniture. You can repair a wall after removing a furniture anchor if you redecorate or move, the commission noted. If anchoring is not an option, it recommended placing TVs on a sturdy, low…  read on >  read on >

Over-the-counter pain relievers like aspirin, Aleve or ibuprofen don’t do a thing to slow the progression of knee arthritis, and might even make things worse, a new study suggests. Knee arthritis patients who regularly took nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) wound up with worse knee inflammation and weakened cartilage, compared to a “control” group not taking the medications, researchers report. “We found that the participants who were taking NSAIDs regularly for four years showed worse results with regard to synovitis,” which is inflammation within the knee, said lead researcher Dr. Johanna Luitjens, a postdoctoral scholar with the University of California, San Francisco’s department of radiology and biomedical imaging. “Also, we saw that the composition of the cartilage was worse in the group of NSAID users compared to the controls,” Luitjens added. NSAIDs block the production of body chemicals that cause inflammation. People regularly pop these pills to provide short-term relief of arthritis pain. Aspirin, ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil) and naproxen sodium (Aleve) are the most common NSAIDs, available over the counter at any pharmacy or grocery store. For this study, Luitjens and her colleagues analyzed data gathered from more than 1,000 participants in a federally funded long-term observational study of knee arthritis. Participants entered the study between February 2004 and May 2006. The researchers compared 277 people who were prescribed NSAIDs regularly for at least a year…  read on >  read on >

Researchers have found a way to safely deliver a steady supply of chemotherapy directly to brain tumors — in what they hope will be an important advance for patients with currently incurable cancers. The treatment involves an implantable pump system that supplies a steady drip of chemo straight to the brain tumor. Researchers have tested it in five patients who had recurrent glioblastoma, a particularly deadly form of brain tumor. They found the system was able to hit patients’ tumors with chemotherapy doses that were 1,000-times higher than is possible with traditional chemo. And there were no significant side effects. The big unanswered question, experts said, is whether the approach can ultimately extend people’s lives. Glioblastoma is an aggressive brain cancer that is diagnosed in about 12,000 Americans each year, according to the American Brain Tumor Association. Adults with the disease typically live for about 15 months after diagnosis. Sens. Edward Kennedy and John McCain both died of the disease. Glioblastoma is very difficult to treat for a number of reasons. For one, it cannot be completely removed with surgery because the tumor has finger-like extensions that interweave with normal brain tissue. “There’s no real boundary between where the tumor starts and healthy brain tissue starts,” said Dr. Adam Sonabend, an associate professor of neurological surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.…  read on >  read on >

Annual lung cancer screening for heavy smokers can provide a big boost in lung cancer survival over the long term, a new study shows. When low-dose CT screening identifies early-stage lung cancer, patients have an 80% chance of surviving 20 years, researchers found. And for some, the odds are as high as 100%. But only 16% of lung cancers are caught early, and more than half of people with lung cancer die within a year of being diagnosed, according to the American Lung Association. The average five-year survival rate is less than 19%. This study shows “how powerful screening is,” said Dr. Andrea McKee, a volunteer spokeswoman for the lung association and chair of radiation oncology at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center in Burlington, Mass. She was not involved in the study. By detecting and treating the cancer when it is small, patients can be effectively cured in the long term, the study authors say. Lung cancer screening, however, is underutilized. A recent lung association report revealed that only 6% of eligible Americans had undergone the screening. In some states, lung cancer screening rates are as low as 1%. Dr. Claudia Henschke, the new study’s lead researcher, pointed out some obstacles to screening. “There’s been talk about too many false positives and radiation. But the radiation dose is very low. It’s less than that of…  read on >  read on >