Health Highlights: Feb. 25, 2010

U.S. Health Agencies Hope to Speed Development of New Medical Advances

A new program will help U.S. health officials make speedier decisions about the safety and effectiveness of new products and procedures in fields of advanced research, such as stem cell therapy, genomics and nanotechnology.

The plan was announced Wednesday by the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health. Laboratory science leading to new treatments is far ahead of regulatory science, noted officials from both agencies, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Under the new program, a six-member council will work with top scientists from the FDA and NIH to ensure that the latest science is included in the regulatory review process.

In addition, the agencies will provide $6.75 million in grants for regulatory science research over three years.

One of the new program's goals is to speed up the process for testing the potency of flu vaccines. The process currently takes three to four months, but it may be possible to cut that in half, FDA spokeswoman Karen Riley told the Times.

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Fatty Foods Increase Women's Stroke Risk

Eating too much fat significantly boosts the risk of stroke in women over 50, says a new study.

U.S. researchers analyzed data from 87,230 women, ages 50 to 79, in the Women's National Health Initiative and found that those who ate the most fat had a 44 percent greater risk of stroke. Women who ate the most trans fat had a 30 percent greater risk of stroke, the Associated Press reported.

The study was presented Wednesday at an American Stroke Association conference.

"What's bad for the heart is bad for the brain," Dr. Emil Matarese, stroke chief at St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne, Penn., told the AP. He reviewed but did not help conduct the study.

"We need to look at the labels on the foods we buy," in order to determine the fat content in foods, Matarese said. "This is a simple way that any woman, especially postmenopausal women, can improve their health. Simply avoiding fried foods is a big one."

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Avastin Effective Against Advanced Ovarian Cancer: Study

The anti-tumor drug Avastin helped slow ovarian cancer progression in women with advanced ovarian tumors, according to a study by drug maker Roche Holding AG.

The company said patients who received Avastin along with chemotherapy and continued to take Avastin had longer progression-free survival than those who took a placebo or didn't continue maintenance therapy with Avastin, Bloomberg reported.

No new drug-related safety issues were seen in the study, which included 1,873 women who'd had surgery for ovarian cancer. Roche said the findings will be presented at an American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in June.

Avastin is approved for treatment of several types of cancers, including lung, colorectal and breast cancers. The drug restricts blood supply to tumors.

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FDA Approves Updated Prevnar Vaccine

An updated version of the children's vaccine Prevnar has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The new Prevnar 13 vaccine is designed to protect children 5 years old and younger against 13 varieties of pneumococcal disease that can cause pneumonia, ear infections and meningitis. The current Prevnar vaccine protects against seven varieties of pneumococcal disease, the Associated Press reported.

The FDA was scheduled to make a decision on Prevnar 13 last fall but extended its review of the updated version of the vaccine twice since then.

After the original Prevnar vaccine was approved in 2000, the incidence of pneumococcal disease infections decreased dramatically. But the number of infections began to rise again in 2005 as new varieties of the disease began to appear, the AP reported.