Reuters Health News Summary

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. Cancer patients may need longer support to quit smoking

Cancer patients are more successful at giving up cigarettes for good if they take smoking-cessation medicine for 24 weeks instead of the usual 12 weeks, a small clinical trial suggests. Continuing to take varenicline (Chantix, Champix) as directed and attending ongoing behavioral counseling were the most important factors for successful quitting and avoiding relapse, the study authors report in the medical journal Psycho-Oncology. Poland detects mad cow disease on farm: OIE

Poland has reported a case of atypical bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) among cattle on a farm near the Czech border, the Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said on Monday. The case of BSE, commonly known as mad cow disease, was found in the southwestern town of Mirsk, the OIE said, citing information from the Polish agriculture ministry. Most U.S. kids not meeting sleep, exercise and screen time targets

Just one in 20 U.S. children and teens gets the amount of sleep, exercise and screen time that doctors recommend for optimal health, a new study suggests. Children and teens are supposed to get at least one hour of moderate to vigorous physical activity each day and limit screen time to less than two hours. Kids ages 6 to 12 old also need 9 to 12 hours of sleep, while teens need 8 to 10 hours nightly. Senator Sanders asks why drug, once free, now costs $375k

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders sent a letter to Catalyst Pharmaceuticals on Monday asking it to justify its decision to charge $375,000 annually for a medication that for years has been available to patients for free. The drug, Firdapse, is used to treat Lambert-Eaton Myasthenic Syndrome (LEMS), a rare neuromuscular disorder, according to the letter, made available to Reuters by the senator's office. The disorder affects about one in 100,000 people in the United States. Obesity-related cancers rising in U.S. young adults

Mirroring the decades-long increase in obesity rates in the U.S., cancers that are thought to be driven at least in part by excess weight are also on the rise among people under age 50, a new study suggests. Rates for six of 12 cancers related to obesity have been increasing in successive generations of young adults, with the sharpest increases in the youngest age groups, researchers report in The Lancet Public Health. Denver to vote on whether to decriminalize 'magic mushrooms'

Denver voters will decide in May whether to decriminalize possession of small amounts of the hallucinogenic drug psilocybin, which would make it the first U.S. city to halt prosecution of people caught with psychedelic mushrooms. The citizen-driven proposal, which election officials said this week reached the required number of signatures to be on the city's municipal ballot, would not legalize so-called "magic mushrooms," but rather make them a low priority for law enforcement, according to its language. WHO and vaccine group back 'critical' cervical cancer shots

A vaccine given to girls to protect them against a virus that causes cervical cancer is a "critical" health tool and access to it should be scaled up as swiftly as possible, especially in poorer countries, cancer experts said on Monday. Figures from the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) showed an estimated 570,000 new cases of cervical cancer were diagnosed worldwide in 2018, making it the fourth most common cancer in women globally.