Cancer chances
Men who survive testicular cancer are just as likely to survive a second cancer as men who never had testicular cancer. About one-third of testicular cancer survivors will develop a second cancer later in life, say the authors of a report in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
American researchers compared the overall and cancer-related death rates for 621 testicular cancer survivors who develop a second cancer with the cancer-related death rates of 12,430 men diagnosed with a first cancer.
The authors found that, in general, the overall and cancer-related death rates did not differ between testicular cancer survivors and first-time cancer patients.
The findings suggest that "treatment regimens for testicular cancer used since 1980 have not (worsened) survival from subsequently diagnosed cancers".
Positive thinking
Children undergoing food allergy tests sometimes experience a reverse placebo effect - believing they have had an allergic reaction when they have actually received a placebo.
Dutch researchers conducted a double-blind, placebo-controlled food "challenge" in which patients were exposed to a substance that they were likely to be allergic to. They observed 132 "challenges" in 105 children with an average age of five.
A total of 17 false-positive reactions to the placebo occurred in 17 different children, meaning the children developed food allergy symptoms after being exposed to the placebo. Most of these symptoms (65%) were objective, such as rash, hives, diarrhoea and vomiting.
Writing in the journal Allergy, the researchers warned that doctors should be aware that some reactions to food allergy tests may be false-positive.
Pounds for pounds Overweight residents of an Italian town are to be paid to lose weight.
Men living in the north-western town of Varallo will receive 50 euros (£35) for losing 4kg (9lbs) in a month, Mayor Gianluca Buonanno said. Women will get the same amount for shedding 3kg. If they can keep the weight off for five months, they will get another 200 euros (£130).
"Lots of people are saying: I really need to lose some weight but it's really tough'.
So I thought, why don't we go on a group diet?" said Buonanno, who said he was about 6kg (13lbs) overweight.
Around 35% of Italians are overweight or obese, according to EU figures.
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