STAFF SHORTAGE
SERIOUS gaps in the public-health workforce will hit the government�s efforts to tackle major problems such as obesity, sexual diseases and smoking, it was claimed yesterday.
The Faculty of Public Health said in a report that the current workforce needed to grow by 40 per cent if a safe and effective public-health service was to be delivered. The call came as specialists gathered in Edinburgh for the faculty�s annual conference.
The report - Specialist Public Health Workforce in the UK - highlighted a shortage of specialists at a time when their role was expanding in importance and scope.
These specialists include public-health directors who advise local NHS trusts on areas such as improving the health of their population and improving health services.
CANCER HOPE
A RADICAL new drug, which it is claimed could prolong life for lung-cancer patients, could also be effective in the treatment of other cancers.
New clinical trials on the drug Tarceva have reported a significant improvement in survival rates for those with specific types of lung cancer who had already failed to respond to courses of chemotherapy.
Doctors from the Royal Surrey County Hospital said that if further trials validate the findings, the drug could bring hope for patients who currently have no further options for treatment.
Further results of trials into the use of the drug against pancreatic cancer are expected later this year.
Studies have also begun to measure its effectiveness for patients suffering from ovarian, colorectal, head, neck, glioma and gastroinestinal cancers and renal cell carcinoma.
A study of 731 patients in the advanced stages of lung cancer found that those using Tarceva lived an average of two months longer than patients using a placebo.
MELANOMA VACCINE
PROMISING results have emerged from an experimental vaccine for advanced cases of skin cancer.
Scientists said the largest multi-centre trial of a skin-cancer vaccine had shown that a patient�s own immune system can be used to combat spreading melanoma.