Regular readers will remember that I wrote about Zetia back in November. That post had some important background for this week's news, and a handy lesson about the difference between clinical and intermediate outcomes in medical studies. If you missed it, you may want to check it out. This week, Merck released the data from a study comparing the growth of cholesterol plaques in the arteries of patients taking Zocor (a cholestero...
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The More Things Change
Change is always painful, even when everyone benefits from it. We usually do our best to ignore slow trends, keeping our comfortable habits and pretending that the world will never surprise us. I'm sure long after Ford started selling cars there were plenty of horse buggy makers who were sure that the car would always be an expensive frill for the very few.
I don't think anything in the last 15 years has revolutionized our lives as much as the internet. It has transformed how we shop, commun...
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Treatment for Localized Prostate Cancer: Many Options, Little Evidence
I've written before about the controversies in screening for and treating prostate cancer.
Prostate cancer presents a unique challenge because it is extremely common, affects men who on average are older than patients with other cancers, and usually takes many years between diagnosis and disability or death. In 2007, approximately 1 in 6 men in the United States were diagnosed with prostate cancer, and 1 ...
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