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TUESDAY, June 16, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- An experimental blood test may improve screening for the most common form of liver cancer, researchers at the U.S. National Cancer Institute say. The test checks people for previous exposure to certain viruses that may interact with the immune system and increase the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), according to their new study. "Together with existing screening tests, the new test could play an important role in screening people who are at risk for developing HCC. It could help doctors find and treat HCC early," said study leader Xin Wei Wang, co-leader of the NCI Center for Cancer Research liver cancer program. "The method is relatively simple and inexpensive, and it only requires a small blood sample," he said in an institute...

TUESDAY, June 16, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Heart disease is on the rise among cancer patients and survivors, but they're less likely than people without cancer to be prescribed medicines to protect their heart, a new study finds. Heart disease has become a leading cause of long-term preventable death in cancer survivors, according to the study published June 16 as a research letter in the journal JACC: CardioOncology. "A history of cancer and cancer treatment are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and is an issue of substantial public health importance," said senior author Doan Ngo, an associate professor of biomedical sciences and pharmacy at the University of Newcastle in Australia. "It is clear there are practice and policy gaps regarding the treatment...

TUESDAY, June 16, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Patients with lower back problems often worry about how much time they'll need to recover if they have surgery. A new study finds similar results for two common minimally invasive spine procedures. Surgery may be recommended for degenerative conditions of the lower spine, such as a herniated disc or spinal stenosis. Researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City compared 117 patients who had minimally invasive lumbar decompression surgery and 51 who had minimally invasive lumbar spine fusion surgery. All the procedures were performed by the same orthopedic surgeon. "Our study is the first of its kind to look at return to activities and discontinuation of narcotic pain medication after single-level lumbar decompression or...

TUESDAY, June 16, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Trigger warnings are meant to alert trauma survivors about unsettling text or content that they might find potentially distressing. But these words of caution at the start of films or books may provide no help at all -- and might even hamper a traumatized person's ability to grapple with deep psychological scars, a new study reports. "We found that trigger warnings did not help trauma survivors brace themselves to face potentially upsetting content," said lead researcher Payton Jones, a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at Harvard University. "In some cases, they made things worse." Trigger warnings seem to increase the extent to which people see trauma as central to their identity, which can exacerbate cases of post-traumatic...