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LOS ANGELES -- Breastfeeding appears to cancel out the significantly added risk of hormone-negative breast cancer for women who are nulliparous until after age 25, researchers reported here.

CHENGDU, China -- The jury is still out on whether traditional Chinese herbal medicine can counter the adverse effects of adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer.

HONG KONG -- The pre-endoscopy use of high-dose infusions of proton-pump inhibitors improves outcomes for peptic-ulcer hemorrhage and other upper GI bleeding, investigators here confirmed.

HOUSTON -- Evidence linking a decrease in the annual incidence of breast cancer to a decline in hormone replacement therapy is as robust as first reported, investigators here said.

MONTREAL -- In critically ill children, a lower hemoglobin level plus leukocyte-reduced red cells was found as safe for transfusion as a higher level, researchers here reported.

TORONTO -- Anemia after kidney transplantation nearly doubles mortality and graft failure risk over four years, according to international researchers here.

ATLANTA -- When melanomas are diagnosed by a dermatologist, patients are likelier to have early-stage disease and longer survival than those whose lesion was diagnosed by a non-dermatologist, researchers reported.

LOS ANGELES -- Cetuximab (Erbitux) extended median survival by about six weeks as a third-line monotherapy for refractory metastatic colorectal cancer, but did not extend survival when used as a second-line agent in combination with irinotecan (Camptosar).

BETHESDA, Md. -- Chains of for-profit dialysis centers use considerably more erythropoiesis-stimulating agents per patient than do non-profit or hospital-affiliated centers, regardless of anemia status, found investigators here.

SEUOL, Korea -- The average body mass index in a group of children with otitis media with effusion was about 35% higher than among those with no history of ear infection, found researchers here.

LOS ANGELES -- Darbepoetin alfa (Aranesp) should not be used for treatment of anemia caused by cancer, researchers here reported. Compared with placebo, darbepoetin hastened death despite significantly reducing the need for transfusion.

LOS ANGELES -- An African-American woman whose mother or sister was diagnosed with breast cancer before age 50 has triple the likelihood that she will be diagnosed with the malignancy before age 45, researchers here reported.

BARCELONA, SPAIN -- The ability of the investigative protease inhibitor telaprevir to rapidly reduce levels of hepatitis C virus hints that shorter treatment regimens may be possible, researchers reported here.

LOS ANGELES -- An investigational oral rinse assay detected the tumor marker CD44 in both early-stage and pre-cancerous head-and-neck lesions, researchers reported here.

abstract: Subcutaneous allergen immunotherapy is clearly beneficial in the treatment of select patients with allergic rhinitis or asthma. However, this therapy is underused, partly because it requires administration in a medical facility. Sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) may be a promising alternative; it appears to be associated with fewer adverse effects, which suggests that it might be administered at home. Currently, there is no FDA-approved formulation for SLIT in the United States. However, allergists are showing increased interest in this therapy, and an approved formulation may be available in the near future. A number of studies have shown the clinical efficacy of SLIT, but many questions remain unanswered, including the effective dose, optimal treatment schedules, and overall duration of treatment. (J Respir Dis. 2007;28(4):162-168)

For several months, a 52-year-old woman has had burning discomfort in the region of her lower sternum and frequent acid/sour sensations in her throat; the symptoms are usually associated with burping after meals and recumbency.

A 24-year-old woman presents to the emergency department (ED) withgeneralized weakness, headache, and muscle cramping that have progressivelyworsened over the past week. Recently, she has also had nauseaand vomiting. She denies chest pain, palpitations, dyspnea, cough, fever,chills, diarrhea, and urinary symptoms. She has a history of type 1 renaltubular acidosis.

My 32-year-old patient has a seizure disorder that is treated with phenytoin. She wants to use hormonal contraception. Which agents will not interact with phenytoin?