In response to a recent New York Times article that questions why currently available medications designed to treat and prevent some cancers are being ignored, ECRI Institute, an independent nonprofit organization, is offering a roadmap to the evidence on Finasteride for Prevention of Prostate Cancer for free download. [More]

Kaiser Health News staff writer Phil Galewitz writes about the so-called "botax." [More]

Nutrisystem, Inc., a leading developer of weight loss products and services, today announced its company-wide support for the recently launched Stop DiabetesSM movement from the American Diabetes Association. On the heels of the successful launch of Nutrisystem D, its program designed to help people with type 2 diabetes lose weight, Nutrisystem has implemented a $5.00 contribution for every person who shares their story on the American Diabetes Association’s Stop Diabetes website, up to $100,000 through December 31, 2009. [More]

As Senate health bill consideration approaches a critical point, Majority Leader Harry Reid has taken ownership of it, The New York Times reports. "Should Mr. Reid shepherd the measure successfully through the Senate and meld it with the House version into final legislation that President Obama can sign, it would be the biggest accomplishment of his career." If he fails it would be a hard defeat for Democrats and him, especially when he faces a tough re-election campaign at home in Nevada (Hulse, 11/19). [More]

The New York Times: "The Senate is expected to vote Saturday on whether to take up the legislation. The majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, refused to say Thursday whether he had the 60 votes needed to clear that procedural hurdle." [More]

The debate on how to select patients who will respond best to costly drug treatments for aggressive breast cancer now favors fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) to measure the HER-2 receptor found in human breast tumors, according to a leading pathologist presenting at the Association for Molecular Pathology annual meeting. [More]

Spending to treat the health effects of obesity, $86 billion last year, will quadruple over the next decade, and almost half of U.S. adults will be obese by 2018, according to the annual America's Health Rankings study. [More]

New guidelines on mammograms and pap smears set off a fierce debate. [More]

Radiation therapy is effective in achieving local control and palliation in patients with pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PNTs), despite such tumors being commonly considered resistant to radiation therapy, according to a largest of its kind study in the November 15 issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics, the official journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). [More]

"The White House is on a collision course with Catholic bishops in an intractable dispute over abortion that could blow up the fragile political coalition behind President Barack Obama's health care overhaul," the Associated Press reports. [More]

These bills will provide a bedrock sense of security and stability for Americans who have health insurance, and quality, affordable options for Americans without it (Peter R. Orszag, 11/20). [More]

The Associated Press further analyzed its poll from earlier this week, with an eye on medical malpractice limits: "54 percent favor making it harder to sue doctors and hospitals for mistakes taking care of patients, while 32 percent are opposed. The rest are undecided or don't know. But congressional Democrats are reluctant to press forward on the issue. They don't want to upset a valuable political constituency — trial lawyers — even if President Barack Obama says he believes that fear of being sued leads doctors to practice defensive medicine, driving up costs for everyone." [More]

CardiacAssist Inc. announced today that the University of Colorado Hospital (UCH) has adopted the company’s TandemHeart® System. [More]

Kaiser Health News: "The health care overhaul debate in Congress now centers on two bills: the House-passed measure and the Senate Democrats' version unveiled Wednesday. They differ in important ways." KHN provides a consumers' guide that discusses mandates, new regulations on health insurers and how the legislation would affect both the insured and uninsured (Appleby, Carey, Galewitz and Rau, 11/19). [More]

News outlets report on a variety of health issues at the state level including stricter rules for drug abusers in the health industry in California, an examination of the nation's first city-run universal health care plan in San Francisco, a cigarette tax in Florida, sex offenders and ex-convicts in nursing homes in Illinois and efforts to battle medical errors in New Jersey. [More]