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Cancer death rates fell by about 2.1% per year from 2002 to 2004, compared with a 1.1% per year decline from 1993 though 2002, according to annual report to the nation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute, and the North american Association of Central Cancer Registries.

BALTIMORE -- A noninvasive scan of the retinal nerve fiber layer may offer clues to the progression of multiple sclerosis, investigators here reported.

COPENHAGEN -- Prostate cancer has fracture risks of its own, over and above those of androgen-suppression therapy for the disease, investigators here reported.

NEW YORK -- Global abortion numbers have fallen slightly -- from 46 million in 1995 to 42 million in 2003 -- according to researchers here and in Geneva.

PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- A multiple sclerosis patient who has close relatives with the disease is likely to suffer more severely than one without a family history, results of a brain imaging study show.

PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 12 -- Exposure to hazardous fumes and aerosolized heavy metals may put welders at risk of losing olfactory abilities, researchers here said.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Retinal specialists who use Genentech's bevacizumab (Avastin) off-label, instead of ranibizumab (Lucentis), to treat macular degeneration will soon find that their sources for the drug have dried up.

Nearly three-quarters of the respondents to a MedPage Today poll supported action by the FDA to formalize a behind-the-counter drug dispensing category.

BOSTON -- As former smokers age, those who take statins may benefit from a slow-down in the decline of their lung function, according to researchers here.

GAITHERSBURG, Md. -- An FDA advisory panel voted unanimously to recommend approval of a zotarolimus-eluting coronary stent made by Medtronic.

BRISBANE, Australia -- Obesity even without reflux disease is associated with six times the risk of developing esophageal adenocarcinoma compared with those of normal weight, researchers here found.

ATLANTA -- On the eve of World Arthritis Day 2007, the CDC has released a snapshot, taken in 2003, of the burden of arthritis in the working world.

WASHINGTON -- Makers of 14 over-the-counter cough and cold medicines labeled for use in children younger than two said today they are voluntarily pulling their products from store shelves.

BERKELEY, Calif. -- Within days of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, the number of low-birth-weight babies born in New York City rose significantly, found researchers here.

LEIDEN, The Netherlands -- Young women with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer may not get as much benefit from chemotherapy as those with estrogen receptor-negative disease, researchers said.

BOSTON -- When androgen deprivation for localized prostate cancer is combined with a radical prostatectomy, the risk of a cardiovascular death appears to more than double, researchers here said.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The addition of paclitaxel (Taxol) to adjuvant chemotherapy may hold little benefit for women with the most common type of lymph node positive breast cancer, researchers found.

NOTTINGHAM, England -- A blood test for tumor antibodies may allow earlier detection of lung cancer, even for node-negative patients, researchers here said.