Features

Alzheimer & Pain !

IVF & Cancer !

New Treatment !

 Red Meat Alert !

Statin Lower Ca !

Women At Risk !

Products of SQUARE Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

EDITORIAL TEAM

OMAR AKRAMUR RAB

MBBS, FCGP, FIAGP,

P G Dip. Business Management

MAHFUZUR RAHMAN

 MBBS, MBA

EDITORIAL

Dear Doctor,

Welcome to online bulletin 'e-SQUARE'.

Our current issue focused on some interesting features like -
"Alzheimer & Pain !", "IVF & Cancer !", "New Treatment !", "Red Meat Alert !",  "Statin Lower Ca !", "Women At Risk !".

In our regular feature, we have some products information of SQUARE Pharmaceuticals Ltd. as well.

We will appreciate your feedback !

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Yours sincerely,

Editorial Team

Reply Mode      : e-square@squaregroup.com

The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of its editor or SQUARE Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

New Treatments Helping Kids With Juvenile Arthritis

New treatments for juvenile arthritis offer hope to children with the chronic autoimmune condition, doctors say. Scientists are still working to understand what causes juvenile arthritis and how to stop its progression. But, kids coping with its effects have reason to be optimistic, according to a rheumatologist and clinical team leader at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. "We don't have a cure for juvenile arthritis -- we're not there yet," he said in an FDA news release. "But we're making progress." But it's important to note that the drugs aren't risk-free. Juvenile arthritis is one of the most common chronic childhood conditions, affecting nearly 300,000 children in the United States, according to the FDA. The disease causes the immune system to attack its own tissues, resulting in pain, swelling, tenderness and stiffness in the joints. These symptoms usually begin before children are 16 years old. There are several types of juvenile arthritis, known collectively as Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA). JIA can involve the knees, wrists and ankles as well as smaller joints, according to the FDA. The largest subtype of JIA is known as polyarticular JIA, which affects many joints. Systemic JIA is another subtype that affects the entire body, triggering fevers and rashes, the agency explained. New treatments can help. In the past, children with the condition were given drugs to suppress their immune system or medications to ease inflammation, including aspirin and ibuprofen. More recently, however, drugs extracted from biological sources -- called biologics -- have become available to treat polyarticular and systemic JIA. Different biologics tend to work better for different subtypes of the disease, he said. Among the biologics approved by the FDA since 1999 for treatment of polyarticular JIA are Adalimumab; Abatacept; Etanercept; and Tocilizumab. Biologics approved since 2011 for treatment of systemic JIA are Tocilizumab and Canakinumab. These medications are typically injected under the skin or given intravenously. Children usually take them for years. The treatments target specific molecules in the body that trigger inflammation called cytokines, and other naturally occurring proteins that stimulate the immune system, according to team leader. But biologics are powerful drugs that suppress the immune system and can increase children's risk of serious infections, including tuberculosis. The FDA weighs these risks and whether the potential benefits of the drugs for children with juvenile arthritis outweigh them, he added. "It's possible that safety issues might come up in kids that we have not found in adults," he said. "For example, these drugs may affect the developing body and immune system in children, and that may warrant changes in the labels to let both health care providers and patients know what are the risks involved, and how to recognize and respond to potential problems."

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                                                                            Statin Treatment Linked to Fewer Cancer Deaths

Being treated for high cholesterol with statins is being linked with a reduced risk of death and better survival from four common cancers(Ca), a medical conference has heard. The results come from a study of 14 years of UK data that included nearly a million people. High cholesterol is known to increase the risk of heart disease, but less is known about the effect on the risk of developing cancer. Previous research in animals found that giving statins for high cholesterol can reduce the risk of breast cancer, and researchers wanted to see if there was any effect of high cholesterol and its treatment on cancer deaths. Anonymous information on people diagnosed for the first time with lung cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer and bowel cancer was gathered from hospitals between January 2000 and March 2013. When researchers from several UK centres analysed the data, they found that people diagnosed with high cholesterol and one of the four cancers were less likely to die from cancer. However, being diagnosed with high cholesterol usually lead to treatment, often with statins. So the researchers think the statin treatment might explain the protective effect, rather than high cholesterol itself. They adjusted for other risk factors, such as age, gender, ethnicity, and other common causes of death. Having a diagnosis of high cholesterol was linked to a:
• 22% lower risk of death in lung cancer
• 43% lower risk of death in breast cancer
• 47% lower risk of death in prostate cancer
• 30% lower risk of death in bowel cancer.
The study could only find a link between high cholesterol and a lower death risk, rather than establishing any cause-and-effect. However, high cholesterol has previously been linked with an increased risk of cancer, whereas animal experiments suggest that lowering cholesterol with statins may reduce it. The findings were presented to the European Society of Cardiology Frontiers in CardioVascular Biology conference in Florence, Italy. In a statement, lead author says: "The discovery of a link between obesity and high cholesterol as risk factors for cancer has been exciting for researchers and the public. "Even trendier is the idea that if high cholesterol can cause cancer, then cholesterol lowering interventions such as statins could reduce this risk." He continues: "Our research suggests that there's something about having a high cholesterol diagnosis that improves survival and the extent to which it did that was quite striking in the four cancers studied. Based on previous research we think there's a very strong possibility that statins are producing this effect." He believes these findings are also likely to be seen in other cancers, "but this is only speculation and would need to be confirmed by studies in different types of cancer." Senior author it is possible other medications taken for heart-related conditions may also help with cancer survival. "Other cardiovascular medications may also be protective and explain the varying levels of risk reduction in the four cancer types. For example, prostate cancer is associated with heart disease and these patients tend to take ACE inhibitors and beta-blockers," he says. However, he cautions it is too soon to recommend statins alongside cancer treatment without a formal trial: "Patients with cancer who are at high risk or have established cardiovascular disease should be given statins as per current guidelines. I don't think at the moment we can give statins for cancer per se. But this could change if there was a positive result in the clinical trial."

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Women Smokers at Higher Risk for Brain Bleed

Strokes characterized by bleeding inside the lining of the brain are more common among smokers, especially women, researchers report. These serious strokes -- called subarachnoid hemorrhages -- are eight times more common among women who smoke more than a pack a day compared to nonsmokers, Finnish researchers found. They're three times more common among men who smoke the same amount. Even light smoking tripled a woman's risk for this type of stroke, the study found. "There is no safe level of smoking, and naturally, the best option is never to start," lead researcher said. "The message for policymakers is that by implementing effective strategies against smoking, they can considerably reduce the burden of subarachnoid hemorrhage," researcher noted. For the study, they collected data on nearly 66,000 adults listed in Finnish national surveys since 1972. Participants were followed for an average of 21 years, until they had a first stroke, died, or until the end of 2011. The researchers found that among light smokers -- one to 10 cigarettes a day -- women were three times more likely to have subarachnoid hemorrhage, and men were twice as likely to have one compared to nonsmokers. Among those who smoked 11 to 20 cigarettes a day, women were four times more likely and men two times more likely to suffer this type of stroke, the investigators found. But those who quit smoking significantly reduced their odds of having a subarachnoid hemorrhage. After six months without smoking, their risk fell to the level of nonsmokers, the researchers reported. Although subarachnoid hemorrhage is more common among women than men, the reasons why are unclear, researcher said. Lead researcher believes the elevated risk in women largely comes down to the harms of smoking. Study author said that heavy-smoking females with unruptured aneurysms in their brain are a high-risk population, and their aneurysms should be treated. The report was published online July 21 in the journal Stroke.

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