Drug Side Effects

New drugs developed in the last decade can dramatically cut the chances that breast cancer will return. But as many as one-third of women stop taking the drugs before the end of the recommended five-year course of therapy, often because of the side effects. The poor compliance worries doctors, who say women could be reducing their chance of survival. "These are lifesaving drugs for these women," says Dr.

A study reported last week that people who take anti-depressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) put themselves at greater risk for fractures. Researchers are working to understand how depression and its therapies affect skeleton strength. One thing they know: Several hormones and neurotransmitters affect, to varying degrees, the building and breaking down of bone. --- From the outside, bones look stiff, unyielding, unchanging.

The maker of the wrinkle-smoothing blockbuster drug Botox -- used by Hollywood's elite and news anchors everywhere -- is taking jokes about its most famous product seriously. Despite booming sales, Irvine-based drug maker Allergan Inc. said this week that it would address the common stereotype that injections of Botox froze the face, preventing users from making expressions. The company is set to launch a print and television advertising campaign this year dubbed "Freedom of Expression."

Amgen Inc.'s Neupogen, used to combat infections in patients undergoing chemotherapy, may increase the risk of blood cancers in breast cancer patients, according to a study. A review of medical records by researchers from Columbia University found that patients taking Neupogen had an elevated risk of developing acute myeloid leukemia or myelodysplastic syndrome compared with those not given the drug. The study is from today's Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Older breast cancer patients who get drugs to boost their immune systems during chemotherapy double their risk of developing leukemia later on, a new study has found. The study, which appears in today's issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, reported that women over 65 who took growth factors had a 2% chance of being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia or pre-leukemia (myelodysplastic syndrome). By comparison, patients who did not take growth factors had about a 1% chance.

The Food and Drug Administration said it was notifying healthcare providers and consumers about reports of about 28 cases of infants suffering a serious bowel condition after receiving Merck & Co.'s new vaccine against rotavirus. The FDA said it was not clear how many of the 28 reported cases were caused by the vaccine. It said the condition, known as intussusception, can occur in the absence of vaccination.

The makers of Ritalin, Adderall, Strattera and other drugs treating attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder were advised by the government Wednesday to give patients and their parents an additional warning that those medicines could cause serious psychiatric and heart problems, including sudden death.

Amgen Inc.'s Aranesp anemia drug was removed for use in some cancer patients from a list that Medicare and insurers follow for reimbursement, threatening as much as $500 million in sales, according to one analyst. Aranesp is approved to treat anemia in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and in kidney-disease patients. The U.S.

Swiss drug maker Roche Holding said Friday that it had suspended enrollment in a clinical trial of its experimental anemia drug because of safety concerns. The news casts a further cloud over a class of drugs that include Amgen Inc.'s Aranesp and Epogen, and Johnson & Johnson's Procrit. Roche said it was temporarily suspending recruitment into a mid-stage trial of its drug, Cera, in anemic lung cancer patients because of an "imbalance" of deaths across the four arms of the study.

Methadone, found in the body of Anna Nicole Smith's son, Daniel, after his death in September, and reportedly prescribed to her, is best known as a treatment for heroin addiction. But it can, and is, being used as a painkiller. The drug has properties that make it more effective in dulling pain -- and yet more dangerous -- than other opiate drugs, such as morphine and oxycodone. --- Methadone is a synthetic opiate first synthesized by German scientists in the 1930s.