Eating oranges and grapefruit is generally good for you, but new research cites a potential link between some citrus fruits and the deadliest form of skin cancer.
Researchers using data from two long-term studies found that people who regularly consumed orange juice or whole grapefruit and had a higher risk of developing malignant melanoma compared to people who avoided those foods.
Experts said the findings, reported online Monday in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, do not prove citrus foods help cause skin cancer. They said citrus foods contain particular "photoactive" chemicals - namely, psoralens and furocoumarins - that are known to make the skin more sensitive to the sun when they're applied topically.
“We are NOT recommending changing fruit consumption as these fruits and vegetables are important for overall health,” researcher Dr. Abrar Qureshi told Reuters Health in an email. “However, until we learn more about these furocoumarins, those consuming fresh citrus fruits on a regular basis should be extra careful with sun exposure, and depending on their outdoor activities they should wear appropriate sunscreen, hats and sun-protective clothing.”
New treatment may help stroke patients
Many stroke patients have a new treatment if they seek help fast enough to get it. New guidelines endorse using a removable stent to open clogged arteries causing a stroke.
The guidelines, issued Monday by the American Heart Association, are the first time the group has recommended a device for treating strokes, and it's the first new stroke treatment in two decades to win the group's strongest backing. The federal government no longer issues guidelines like these, so the Heart Association's advice clears the way for more doctors to offer the treatment.
"It is pretty exciting," and many patients will benefit if they seek help when symptoms first appear, said the head of the guidelines panel, Dr. William J. Powers, neurology chief at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Most of the 800,000 strokes in the U.S. each year are caused by a blood clot lodged in the brain. The usual treatment is a clot-dissolving medicine called tPA, and it remains the first choice.
But the drug must be given within 4 1/2 hours after symptoms start, and most people don't seek help in time. The drug also fails to work in one or two of every four cases, Powers said.
The device is called a stent retriever. It's a tiny mesh cage that is pushed through a tube into a blood vessel and guided to the clot, like the stents long used to treat blocked heart arteries. But unlike heart stents, which are left in place to prop the artery open, brain stents trap the clot and are removed with it.
Earlier this year, several major studies found these devices dramatically cut the risk of death or disability in people whose clots persisted after treatment with tPA.
The guidelines say these patients now can be treated with a stent retriever if it can be done within six hours of symptom onset, they have a severe stroke caused by a clot in a large artery, and have brain imaging showing that at least half of the brain on the side of the stroke is not permanently damaged.