There was some good news this week for women with breast cancer tumors that carry excessive amounts of the protein HER2 (about one-fifth of cases). Two studies published in the October 20, 2005 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine looked at the drug trastuzumab for treating these types of tumors, and found that the drug cuts recurrence rates by almost 50% (over the short term). The studies are: Trastuzumab after Adjuvant Chemotherapy in HER2-Positive Breast Cancer and Trastuzumab plus Adjuvant Chemotherapy for Operable HER2-Positive Breast Cancer.

According to an article published in the October 19, 2005 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, bariatric surgery is more risky that initially believed for men, the elderly, and those whose procedures are done by a less experienced surgeon. Particularly regarding the elderly, those over 65 had a nearly threefold increase in mortality, and the risk was more than double that associated with coronary revascularization! The study looked at 16,155 bariatric surgery patients, of whom 75.8% were women. The subjects' mean age was 47.7 years, and 90.6% were younger than 65.

Research published in the October 2005 issue of The British Journal of Psychiatry found that pathological liars have structural differences in the prefrontal cortex (an important part of the neural circuitry underlying lying). Liars had 22 to 26% more prefrontal white matter (the connections between brain cells, or gray matter) and 14% less gray matter than the antisocial and normal control subjects' brains. More connections may mean more lies!