The editorial concludes: "Unravelling a misguided perception of risk from the real facts is a difficult task, but it is essential if the perpetuation of poorly conceived ideas is to stop. In light of the current trend towards chemoprevention to reduce a person's risk of contracting cancer, it is important that the general public do not become disenfranchised from the medical community by exposure to over-reporting of contradictory reports in the popular media. Only then will cancer risk truly decrease by informed changes in lifestyle."
Reviews:
Cigarette smoking and lung cancer: chemical mechanisms and approaches to prevention
Cigarette smoking and the risk of endometrial cancer
Strategic marketing in the UK tobacco industry
Hyperthermia in combined treatment of cancer
Metastasis to and from the central nervous system-the "relatively protected site"
Stem-cell origin of metastasis and heterogeneity of solid tumours
The Lancet Infectious Diseases (TLID)
Combination antiretroviral therapies are widely used for the treatment of HIV but it is unclear whether they will continue to be effective in the face of quickly evolved drug-resistant strains of HIV, and increased risky sexual behaviour in certain communities. In the August issue of The Lancet Infectious Diseases, J X Velasco-Hernandez and colleagues, from the Instituto Mexicano del Petroleo, San Bartolo, Mexico, and the UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, USA, use a mathematical model to predict whether current therapies are reducing the severity of HIV epidemics and could lead to eradication of a high-prevalence (30%) epidemic. The researchers derived the basic reproduction number, which specifies the average number of new infections generated by one HIV case; if this number is less than one then eradication is possible. When applied to data from the San Francisco gay community, the model shows that epidemic eradication is possible, although it could take 100 years or more to achieve.
Also in the August issue, Michael M Thomson and colleagues, from the Centro Nacional de Microbiologia, Madrid, Spain, review the molecular epidemiology of HIV-1. 24 genetic forms of HIV-1 are currently recognised. This genetic variability could have important implications for vaccine development and drug therapy.
The editorial in the August issue of The Lancet Infectious Diseases discusses the tasks faced Julie Gerberding as the new head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Also in this issue:
Occult hepatitis B. Michael Torbenson and David L Thomas, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, USA
Visceral leishmaniasis: current status of control, diagnosis, and treatment, and a proposed research and development agenda. Philippe J Guerin and colleagues, Norwegian Institute of Public Health.
The Lancet Oncology