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FRIDAY, May 26, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Minimally invasive surgery works just as well as full-scale open surgery in removing early-stage pancreatic cancers, allowing patients a faster recovery with less infection risk, a new clinical trial has found.The ability to remove all the cancer and the rate of cancer recurrence was essentially the same between the two groups, said lead researcher Dr. Mohammad Abu Hilal, surgical director at the Instituto Ospedaliero Fondazione Poliambulanza in Brescia, Italy.“This trial, which is the first trial of its kind, can confirm that minimally invasive distal pancreatectomy is a safe, valid, efficient alternative approach to the open approach in the treatment of resectable pancreatic cancer,” Hilal said during a recent media briefing held by the...

FRIDAY, May 26, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Emergency departments aren’t perceived as safe for professionals or their patients, according to an international survey from the European Society of Emergency Medicine (EUSEM).More than 90% of emergency professionals surveyed said they felt at times the number of patients exceeded the capacity the emergency department (ED) had to provide safe care. Overcrowding was a problem, they said. Overcrowding is known to carry substantial risk of harm and increased deaths, according to the society.Preliminary results from a patient survey were even harsher, with more reporting that emergency staff were angry and rude than were kind, according to the report published May 25 in the European Journal of Emergency Medicine. Among the issues were...

FRIDAY, May 26, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- With colon cancer on the rise among younger Americans, researchers are working to figure out why.A new study suggests the microbiome — the community of microorganisms in the body — may play a role. “Younger people with colorectal cancer have more biologically aggressive cancers and whatever survival benefit they have by being younger is outweighed by the more aggressive tumor biology. We also know, that for the most part, genetics doesn’t explain the recent rise in young-onset disease,” said Dr. Benjamin Weinberg. He is an associate professor of medicine at Georgetown University's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, in Washington, D.C.“But we have trillions of bacteria residing in our body, including in our gut, some of which are...

FRIDAY, May 26, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Vegetarian and vegan diets lead to lower blood levels of cholesterol and fats, according to a major new analysis of all evidence from clinical trials published since 1982.Compared to people eating an omnivorous diet, those following a plant-based diet experienced an average reduction in total cholesterol levels of 7% from levels measured at the start of the studies, a 10% reduction in “bad” LDL cholesterol levels, and a 14% reduction in apoliprotein B, a blood protein used to estimate cholesterol level, the analysis found.Those results showed that plant-based diets can play a significant role in reducing blocked arteries, thereby lowering the risk of stroke and heart attacks, researchers concluded in the review published May 24 in the...