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FRIDAY, June 3, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Graphic images on cigarette packs of diseased body parts and other smoking horrors may not have the desired effect on smokers themselves, a new study finds.Many smokers kept cigarette packs with gruesome warning images hidden, but the images didn't have a lasting effect on their smoking habits, researchers discovered after presenting thousands of specially designed cigarette packs to smokers in California.Graphic warning labels are used on cigarette packs in more than 120 countries. They were mandated by Congress in 2009, but have been held up by legal challenges from the tobacco industry.“Prior to the study, we found that many smokers in the U.S. were discreet and reported hiding their usual pack in public settings. The packs with graphic...

FRIDAY, June 3, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Adults who get COVID-19 could have antibodies circulating in their blood for nearly 500 days after infection, new research suggests."We now have a good estimate of how long antibodies last after a COVID-19 infection," said study author Michael Swartz, an associate professor and vice chair of biostatistics at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. "Our research shows that the level of antibodies in those previously infected increases for the first 100 days post-infection and then gradually declines over the next 500 days and beyond."For the new study, Swartz and his team analyzed data from more than 57,000 volunteers older than 20 enrolled in the Texas CARES survey. It was launched in October 2020 to track COVID-19 antibody...

THURSDAY, June 2, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- In what could turn out to be a potential breakthrough in the treatment of pancreatic cancer, a new report suggests a key component of a patient's immune system can be rewired to assassinate tumor cells.The experimental approach has already shown promise in one patient.Kathy Wilkes, 71, had been struggling with advanced pancreatic cancer that had spread to other organs and proven largely unresponsive to complicated and painful treatments since her diagnosis at age 67. "I just went through with it. I certainly wasn't ready to die," the Florida resident told the New York Times. "I had this voice inside saying, 'You can best this one.'"In 2021, she was treated with the new therapy.The novel approach, described in the June 2 issue of the New...

THURSDAY, June 2, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- The United States spends far more on cancer care than other wealthy nations, but it's not seeing a return on that investment in terms of lives saved, a new study shows.Compared with the average high-income country, researchers found the U.S. spends twice as much on cancer care -- more than $200 billion a year. Yet the nation's cancer death rates remain just about average.Experts said the findings -- published May 27 in the journal JAMA Health Forum -- are not entirely surprising. It's well known that the U.S. pays much more for cancer drugs, for example, so the heavy spending on cancer treatment was expected."But it was disappointing to see that despite that, our outcomes aren't at the top of the pack," said senior researcher Dr. Cary Gross, a...