UPI NewsTrack Health and Science News

Report says side-effects 'RADAR' works

CHICAGO, May 3 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers said a program that identifies serious, sometimes fatal medication reactions may have saved hundreds of thousands of lives.

The Research on Adverse Drug Events and Reports, or RADAR, program has identified formerly unreported problems associated with 15 common drugs, said lead researcher and program director Dr. Charles L. Bennett of Northwestern University.

Bennett and colleagues reported their findings in the May 4 Journal of the American Medical Association.

RADAR, sponsored by government grants, compiles reports submitted to the Food and Drug Administration by drug companies and independent researchers. The program supplements the FDA's own monitoring system.

Between 1998 and 2004, RADAR discovered 1,700 patients suffering serious reactions from 14 drugs and drug-coated cardiac stents, reactions that caused 170 deaths.

The U.S. Congress is considering legislation that would create an independent center within the FDA to monitor the safety of post-approval drugs. The center would have the ability to force drugmakers to conduct post-approval safety clinical trials and change label wordings to warn consumers about risks found after approval.

Localized prostate cancer risk is low

FARMINGTON, Conn., May 3 (UPI) -- Localized, low-grade prostate cancer usually doesn't spread, even after 20 years, a new study led by a Connecticut researcher shows.

The study suggests aggressive treatment is unnecessary, according to lead author Dr. Peter C. Albertsen of the University of Connecticut Health Center.

"Men with low-grade prostate cancer have only a small risk of prostate cancer progression even after 20 years of management by observation or androgen withdrawal therapy alone," Albertsen wrote in the May 4 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association. "These results do not support aggressive treatment of localized low-grade prostate cancer."

Data for the study came from the Connecticut Tumor Registry and a review of medical records of men who are now 55 to 74 and were diagnosed with clinically localized prostate cancer between 1971 and 1984.

The study found that men with "poorly differentiated disease" do have a high risk of death.

Folic acid linked to mental deterioration

CHICAGO, May 3 (UPI) -- A study by Chicago's Rush University Medical Center says recommended dosages of folic acid may lead to faster mental deterioration in older people.

The study said older people who took folic acid, a common ingredient in multivitamins, at or above the recommended daily allowance of 400 micrograms, had a faster rate of mental decline than others their age, the New York Times reported Tuesday.

The effect was also evident in people whose diets were high in folic acid.

The researchers examined more than 3,500 people 65 and older, following them an average of six years.

Martha Clare Morris, who led the latest study, did not recommend any change in diet, saying more research was needed.

"There is a possibility that high intake of folic acid through multivitamins and fortified food may be harmful to older people," she said. "It's certainly an area for further investigation."

Since 1998, the Food and Drug Administration has required all grain products be fortified with folic acid to prevent a birth abnormality called neural tube defect, the Times said.

Radio observatory opens in Russia

MOSCOW, May 3 (UPI) -- A radio astronomical observatory has opened in southern Russia, a local news agency reported Tuesday.

The Badari radio observatory, with a 32-meter radio telescope, is located in the foothills of the East Sayan Mountains near Lake Baikal in the Buryat Republic, ITAR-TASS said.

The radio observatory is part of the long baseline interferometer network QUASAR, worth of $40 million, the news agency said. Iterferometery is the location and examination of sources of electromagnetic radiation through the simultaneous use of two or more separated telescopes.

Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated scientists, engineers and builders on establishment of the network.

"I hope that the operation of the modern network will give a serious impetus to the astronomy research in Russia and large international programs," he said.

The QUASAR network will conduct regular monitoring under national and international programs, including those of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the European Union. It will provide accurate computation of celestial and Earth coordinates, according to Andrei Finkelshtein, director of the Institute of Applied Astronomy.