West Newsmagazine 5-1-24

36 I HEALTH I
May 1, 2024
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Even for young women, having more than one drink per day carries significant
cardiovascular risks, according to a new study.
(Adobe Stock photo)
HEALTH
CAPSULES
By LISA RUSSELL
Siteman offers newly approved
melanoma treatment
May is Melanoma and Skin Cancer
Awareness Month; and while skin cancers
are the most common cancers diagnosed
in Americans, melanoma is the deadliest
of these cancers, claiming close to 10,000
lives every year. In 2024 alone, well over
100,000 Americans are expected to be
diagnosed with melanoma. They will join
more than a million U.S. adults already
battling the disease.
This year, certain patients with melanoma
receiving treatment at Siteman
Cancer Center will have early access to a
promising new therapy.
Siteman is one of the first cancer treatment
centers nationwide to offer a newly
approved cell-based immunotherapy that
targets advanced melanoma. The therapy is
for patients with metastatic melanoma that
can’t be treated with surgery and that has
continued to grow and spread after other
approved treatments have failed.
The immunotherapy drug, called lifileucel,
received accelerated approval from
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
in February. To receive this type of fasttracked
approval, treatments must be
shown to have likely clinical benefits to
patients, allowing them to access promising
treatments quickly, even as further
clinical trials are underway.
Lifileucel is the first treatment for cancer
that uses immune cells called tumor-infiltrating
lymphocytes, or TILs. The therapy uses
a patient’s own T cells – which are immune
cells that have already found and infiltrated
the tumor – in an attempt to kill the cancer.
Washington University doctors and
researchers were involved in clinical trials
that led to the FDA’s fast-tracked approval.
They also continue to participate in ongoing
clinical trials investigating TIL therapy
for patients with advanced lung and cervical
cancers
According to the results of an initial clinical
trial reported in The Journal for ImmunoTherapy
of Cancer, melanoma tumors
shrank at least 30% in about a third of
patients treated with lifileucel. About half of
the patients whose tumors responded to the
therapy experienced a remission of at least
12 months following a single treatment.
Long-term intermittent fasting
could harm the heart
Time-restricted eating, also called intermittent
fasting, has become an extremely
popular weight loss method over the past
several years. About 10% of Americans
over 18 have tried intermittent fasting
for some period of time, according to the
International Food Information Council.
The simplicity of this diet method is part
of its appeal. Intermittent fasting involves
eating only during a shortened window
of time each day, forcing the body into
a quasi-fasting state where it burns more
fat for fuel. The diet has been found to be
effective for weight loss in many studies,
while others have pointed to health benefits
including lower cholesterol and blood
pressure, improved insulin sensitivity and
more.
But the news about intermittent fasting
is not all good. A recently published longterm
analysis of more than 20,000 U.S.
adults found that those who fasted for 16
hours or more per day were more likely to
die of cardiovascular disease than peers
who ate normally over the course of 12-16
hours per day.
Key findings of the analysis, which
spanned a period of between eight and 17
years, included:
• People who followed a pattern of eating
all of their food across less than 8 hours per
day had a 91% higher risk of death due to
cardiovascular disease.
• Among people with existing cardiovascular
disease, an eating duration of 8-10
hours per day was also associated with a
66% higher risk of death from heart disease
or stroke.
• Time-restricted eating did not reduce
the overall risk of death.
“We were surprised to find that people
who followed an 8-hour, time-restricted
eating schedule were more likely to
die from cardiovascular disease. Even
though this type of diet has been popular
due to its potential short-term benefits,
our research clearly shows that, compared
with a typical eating time range
of 12-16 hours per day, a shorter eating
duration was not associated with living
longer,” said senior study author Victor
Wenze Zhong, Ph.D.
Zhong noted that, although the study
noted a long-term relationship between
intermittent fasting and cardiovascular
death, this doesn’t mean that timerestricted
eating was the cause. He said its
findings should encourage a more cautious,
personalized approach to dieting.
More than one drink a day
raises women’s heart risks
A recent large study suggests that even
for younger women, averaging more than
one alcoholic drink per day can significantly
raise the risk of coronary heart disease.
Scientists from Kaiser Permanente
Northern California conducted the analysis
of more than 430,000 adults between the
ages of 18 and 65 over a four-year period,
based on the participants’ self-reported
average alcohol intake. For women, the
cutoff line between moderate and heavy
drinking was seven drinks per week; for
men, that level was 14 per week.
They also looked at “binge” drinking
behavior, defined as three or more drinks
on one day for women and four for men.
Although heart disease risk was highest
among adults who reported binge drinking
– for both men and women – drinking
even slightly above average significantly
increased women’s risk in particular, said
Jamal Rana, M.D., Ph.D, FACC, a cardiologist
with the Permanente Medical
Group.
“For women, we find consistently higher
risk even without binge drinking…I wasn’t
expecting these results among women in
this lower age group because we usually
see increased risk for heart disease among
older women. It was definitely surprising,”
Rana said.
Specifically, women who averaged over
seven drinks per week had a 29% higher
risk of heart disease compared with those
who drank up to that amount; and a 45%
higher risk compared to women who averaged
two drinks or less per week. Female
binge drinkers were 68% more likely to
develop heart disease compared with
women who drank moderately.
The study is among the largest and most
comprehensive to date examining the
links between alcohol and heart disease,
which has been rising among younger
Americans in recent years. At the same
time, alcohol use and binge drinking have
become more common among women,