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GAO Report Finds Veterans Affairs Facilities Do Not Comply With Privacy Standards For Women
All Department of Veterans Affairs outpatient clinics and hospitals are failing to fully comply with federal privacy standards for women, according to a Government Accountability Office report, the AP/Boston Globe reports. The report comes as thousands of female veterans are entering the VA health system after returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.GAO auditors said that many VA facilities had gynecological tables that faced the door. In one instance, a gynecological table faced a door opening to a waiting room. The investigation also found cases where women had to walk through waiting rooms to use the restroom -- a violation of VA policy requiring adjoining restrooms. Four VA hospitals did not guarantee women access to private bathing facilities. In two of those cases, the facilities did not have locks.Nearly 20% of female veterans have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, and many of them have experienced sexual trauma while serving, according to the report. The report also said that most female veterans at VA facilities are ages 20 to 29. On average, female veterans using VA facilities are much younger than male VA patients, it noted.Randall Williamson, director of health care issues at GAO, said that although top VA officials are committed to improving care for female veterans, facilities are not always taking simple steps, such as repositioning exam tables. Patricia Hayes, chief consultant for VA"s veterans strategic health care group, said that the agency recognizes issues and is making changes to address disparities in care. She noted that VA is creating a long-term plan for construction improvements to address space and building layout challenges (AP/Boston Globe, 7/15).
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Consensus Forming Among Most Democrats
Democratic leaders have begun moving the rank and file closer to acceptance of basic tenets of health reform proposals, but concerns remain among the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats on how it will be paid for, Politico reports.
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Genetic Testing May Be Valuable In Treating Colorectal Cancer
For the 29,000 patients in the United States with metastatic colorectal cancer, chemotherapy with irinotecan is a standard treatment that has been shown to improve survival. But for more than one in 10 of these patients, a variation in their DNA means that this treatment could result in a severe reduction in their white blood cell count, leading to a high risk of bacterial infection and possible subsequent death. A new genetic test can identify those with the variation in order to lower the treatment dose - however, it has been unclear whether the testing is worthwhile.
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Clues To How Adrenal Cancer Forms

At the ends of chromosome are special pieces of DNA called telomeres. Think of it as the little tip that caps off a shoelace. The telomeres send signals to the cells to let them know it"s the end point, not a break that should be repaired. Over time, as cells reproduce, the telomeres become shorter and eventually no longer do their job. The cells then have a higher risk of mutating into cancer. But, a new study finds, if the telomere becomes dysfunctional at any point - regardless of shortening - it can trigger a cancer event. The study, by researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, was done in mice generally prone to develop cancer. The mice that also had dysfunctional telomeres were particularly prone to develop the usually ultra-rare adrenocortical cancer. This is the first mouse model to specifically address this rare but lethal type of cancer. "Usually when telomeres get short, they also seem to get deprotected. No one"s been able to say if it"s the shortening or the deprotection that causes cancer to arise. In this study, we were able to show that deprotection alone, even in the absence of a short telomere, is enough to trigger cancer. This may be a general mechanism of adrenal cancer as well as many other cancers in the body," says study author Gary Hammer, M.D., Ph.D., the Millie Schembechler Professor of Adrenal Cancer at the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center. Results of the study appear in the June issue of Cancer Cell. The researchers also found that a protein called p53 usually prevents the cancer trigger. P53 is critical to the cell destruction process. When it"s missing, cells replicate uncontrolled, the hallmark of cancer. In this study, the researchers eliminated p53 in the mice and found that the dysfunctional telomeres then tried to repair themselves. This led to breaks in the chromosome, causing scrambled genes and mutations. "P53 mutation together with telomere dysfunction may be the basis for the genomic changes we see in adrenal cortical cancer and other malignancies," says study author Tobias Else, M.D., a post-doctoral fellow and Garry Betty Scholar in Adrenal Cortical Cancer Research at the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center. Adrenal cancer is extremely rare -- about 600 new cases are diagnosed each year in the United States. It is typically diagnosed in late stages when there is nearly no chance of survival beyond five years. Researchers hope that a better understanding of how the disease develops will help lead to new treatments for a cancer type that gets little to no attention and limited research funding. "This work proves a basic science principle and gives us understanding of how these genetic changes occur to give us this cancer. But it is not just limited to adrenal cancer. Our research started with the adrenal gland, but we saw tumors form in multiple parts of the body. This will be of broader interest to the scientific community," Else says. Additional authors: Alessia Trovato, Alex C. Kim, Yipin Wu, David O. Ferguson, Rork D. Kuick, Peter C. Lucas all from the U-M Health System Funding: Garry Betty Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Sidney Kimmel Cancer Research Foundation Reference: Cancer Cell, Vol. 15, Issue 6, pp. 465-476 Nicole Fawcett University of Michigan Health System


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