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BREAST CANCER Things were confusing enough for breast-cancer patients, but in one regard doctors now have clarity: a lumpectomy followed by radiation, it has been definitively shown, is just as effective as a full mastectomy. Doctors and patients had long been concerned that simply removing a tumor instead of an entire breast might increase the chances of a relapse. But two studies, both published in the New England Journal of Medicine, that followed more than 2,500 women for at least 20 years found no difference in survival rates between those who had had mastectomies and those who had chosen the less drastic lumpectomy with radiation.
BYPASS SURGERY Doctors called it "pump head"--the mental decline suffered by 30% of heart-bypass patients in the days and weeks following their operations. The theory was that their difficulties in thinking, remembering and paying attention were somehow caused by the heart-lung machines that oxygenate and circulate blood during surgery while the heart is stopped. However, a Dutch study last year found no long-term differences in cognitive decline between heart-lung-machine patients and "off-pump" patients, whose hearts were never stopped.
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CATARACTS Cataract operations have become routine--3 million are performed in the U.S. each year--but they are not perfect. In too many cases, the performance of the implanted lens is marred by imperfections caused by measurement errors or variations in the healing process. Solution: an implantable lens that can be recalibrated weeks after surgery. The new lens contains a photosensitive compound that is activated by a tiny beam of ultraviolet light, allowing doctors to fine-tune the power of the lens after it's in place. The lens is expected to be commercially available in Europe within the year. Look for it in the U.S. by 2007.
CLONING While Dolly the sheep settles into old age (and prematurely advanced arthritis), scientists continue to churn out carbon copies of cows, pigs, mice, goats, cats and maybe even humans. Last year saw not only the birth of a cloned calico cat called cc (the sole survivor of 87 embryos) but also the widely publicized claim by a bizarre sect called the Raelians that it had created the first human clone--a baby called Eve, born the day after Christmas. Experts have called for DNA testing to prove the baby is a clone, but the child's mother--whose identity and location have been kept secret--have so far refused.
C-REACTIVE PROTEIN You still have to count your cholesterol, but the latest thing your doctor is watching is your CRP level. C-reactive protein is a blood chemical that provides a good measure of the degree of inflammation in your heart vessels. New studies have provided the strongest evidence yet that inflammation is a better predictor than cholesterol levels of your risk of heart disease. What won't change is your doctor's advice. CRP levels are lowered in the same ways by which cholesterol is reduced: diet, exercise and statins.
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