One of the major adverse effects of cancer treatment can be bone loss, which can lead to osteoporosis and fractures. It's especially problematic among postmenopausal women being treated for breast cancer.

In a new study, cancer researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, studied mice with multiple types of cancer exposed to various treatments. They found that chemotherapy and radiation induce bone cell senescence — cells cease the constant, natural process of self-repair, self-renewal and replication. The effect occurred in both male and female mice independent of cancer type.

The good news is that researchers also found that such bone loss could be stopped by treating the mice with either of two investigational drugs being evaluated in clinical trials.

Body of Knowledge

Nipples have their own sweat glands, named Montgomery glands after the Irish obstetrician who first described them. They are located under the areola, and their sole function is to lubricate the nipple and attract the infant for breastfeeding.

Get Me That, Stat!

At least two things are inevitable with the new year: People make resolutions, and they pay more for drugs. More than 60 drugmakers increased their prices on Jan. 1, 2020, by an average of 5.8%, which followed last year's average increase of 6.3%. Pfizer, one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies and maker of everything from the statin Lipitor to the antidepressant Zoloft, raised prices by more than 9% on dozens of products, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Counts

1 in 3: Ratio of people with arthritis who also have a history of depression.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Stories for the Waiting Room

If you're the parent of an active infant, all of that troublesome, tiring crawling hither and yon bodes well for the kid later in life. Researchers tracked the physical activity levels of 506 infants who wore tiny accelerometers (baby Fitbits!) on their ankles for four days and four tracking periods at ages 3, 6, 9 and 12 months.

They found that infants who generally increased their physical activity over time (as they became more mobile) also had lower central adiposity, a measure of lower-torso fat accumulation. The finding dovetails other evidence that infants who gain weight more rapidly in the first months of life are more likely to experience obesity later in childhood and as adults.

Mania of the Week

Klazomania: an obsession or propensity to scream.

Observation

"Use your health, even to the point of wearing it out. That is what it is for. Spend all you have before you die; do not outlive yourself." — Irish playwright Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

Medical History

This week in 1840, Queen Victoria and her cousin Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg-Gotha married. Victoria was a carrier of the hemophilia gene, from which the disease appeared among a number of their nine children and further descendants. The family tree provided a famous case history in genetics. Their nine children were four sons and five daughters: Victoria, Bertie, Alice, Alfred, Helena, Louise, Arthur, Leopold and Beatrice.

Ig Nobel Apprised

The Ig Nobel Prizes celebrate achievements that make people laugh and then think. They are a look at real science that's hard to take seriously, and even harder to ignore.

In 2006, the Ig Nobel Prize in Medicine went to an international team of American and Israeli scientists for their published paper: "Termination of Intractable Hiccups With Digital Rectal Message."

Enough said.

Med School

Q: Why do medical professionals take patients' pulse using their middle and index fingers?

A: They can't employ the thumb because it has its own pulse due to the presence of the large princeps pollisis artery, which interferes with feeling a pulse in the neck or wrist.

Curtain Calls

Jonathan Capewell, 16, died in 1998. The cause of death was heart attack induced by the buildup of butane and propane in his blood after excessive use of deodorant sprays. Capewell was reported to have an obsession with personal hygiene. An autopsy showed blood levels of the aerosol propellant were more than three times the lethal limit.

To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Taokinesis at Pixabay