Santo Domingo.- The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed that no scientific evidence links paracetamol use during pregnancy to autism in children, countering recent claims by former U.S. President Donald Trump, who suggested limiting Tylenol in pregnant women and newborns.

Public health specialist Dr. Rafael Montero criticized Trump’s remarks during an interview on Esto No Tiene Nombre, describing them as unfounded and lacking scientific basis. He explained that paracetamol, whose active ingredient is acetaminophen, has been widely used for decades without evidence connecting it to autism spectrum disorder. The rise in autism diagnoses, he noted, is due to improved detection and awareness, not medication use.

Montero added that Trump had misinterpreted a Johns Hopkins meta-analysis and improperly presented it as proof. He also questioned Trump’s decision to cite the Tylenol brand rather than the active compound, calling it inappropriate. He emphasized that patients should rely on guidance from their healthcare providers, a position also supported by the Dominican Society of Gynecologists, which reiterated that acetaminophen remains safe when prescribed.

IF IT feels like we are all a bit more anxious or depressed, it might be because we are. A new national report, published by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), indicates that nearly one out of five adults reported...

A bout of the common bladder infection, cystitis, may signal the presence of urogenital cancers-which affect parts of the body involved in reproduction and excretion-in middle aged adults, suggests research published in the open access journal BMJ Public Health.

The risks seem to be especially high within 3 months of infection, suggesting that acute cystitis might be a useful clinical marker for urogenital cancer, say the researchers. Men seem to be at greater risk than women, the findings indicate.

The lifetime prevalence of a urinary tract infection (UTI) is 50–60% in women and 13–14% in men. With the exception of a spike in young women, incidence rates of UTIs increase with age in both men and women, note the researchers.

Previously published research has shown that a bout of cystitis might be linked to an increased risk of urogenital cancers, but only a few such studies have been published and they didn’t include data from primary care facilities, which is where most cases of acute cystitis are diagnosed, they explain.

To try and plug this knowledge gap, the researchers mined several comprehensive national population and health registers and primary healthcare data sources, containing individual-level information on all people living in Sweden from 1997 to the end of 2018.

Data were available for 1,668,371 (47%) men and 1,889,211 (53%) women during this period, of whom 605,557 (17%) people were diagnosed with acute cystitis for the first time.

Most of these diagnoses (91%) were made in primary care facilities and most cases were in women (71%; 427,821).

During an average monitoring period of 15 years, a total of 257,026 (just over 7%) people were diagnosed with urogenital cancer, most of whom were men (77.5%; 199,144).

The average age at cancer diagnosis was 73, with prostate cancer the most common cancer type (62%), followed by bladder cancer (16.5%), and endometrial (lining of the womb) cancer (10%).

Cystitis preceded a cancer diagnosis in 24,137 people—-almost 9.5% of all those diagnosed with cancer during the study period. Their average age at diagnosis was 76: prostate cancer was the most common diagnosis (39.5%), followed by bladder (32%), and endometrial (14%) cancer.

The risks of a urogenital cancer diagnosis were heightened across all age groups among those who had had a bout of cystitis, and peaked within 3 months of infection, especially for prostate and bladder cancers, but persisted over several years for most cancers.

For prostate cancer, the risk, measured as a standardised incidence ratio (SIR) within 3 months of infection was 7 times higher in those who had had the infection than it was in those who hadn’t.

This corresponds to an excess cancer rate of nearly 551 per 10, 000 person-years—-a unit of measurement that combines the number of people and the time during which they were observed. For example, 10,000 patients monitored for 1 year or 1000 patients monitored for 10 years.

Similarly, the risk of bladder cancer was 3.5 times higher in men and more than 3 times higher in women who had had cystitis than it was in those who didn’t have the infection during the monitoring period. This corresponds to an excess rate of around 40 and nearly 8 more cancer cases, respectively, than would be expected per /10,000 person-years.

For gynaecological cancers, the SIRs within 3 months of infection were between 4 and 8 times higher among women who had had cystitis.

Overall, the risk of urogenital cancer was nearly 34 times higher in men and 30 times higher in women, within 3 months of infection, corresponding to nearly 484 and 96 excess cancer rates/10,000 person-years, respectively.

While the risks fell as time went on, they persisted throughout all the follow-up periods for both sexes. For example, 3–12 months after infection, the excess cancer rates/10,000 person-years were more than 79 in men and more than 19 in women. And after 5 years, these were around 9 in men and 2.5 in women.

In general, men who had had cystitis seemed to be at higher risk of urogenital cancer than women: for example, their risk of bladder cancer was twice as high for those in their 50s, 57% higher for those in their 60s, and 23% higher for those in their 70s.

This is an observational study, and as such, no firm conclusions can be drawn about cause and effect. And the researchers acknowledge that they lacked microbiological confirmation of cystitis infection or information on potentially influential factors, such smoking and underlying conditions, including obesity and undiagnosed diabetes.

But they say: “The present study adds to the accumulating evidence of infections as markers of increased cancer risk. For clinicians, the findings indicate that acute cystitis could be a clinical marker for urogenital cancer (at least when no other cause is obvious), and particularly for occult urogenital cancer, as the risks for cancers were highest within 3 months of cystitis diagnosis.”

They add: “It is plausible that urogenital cancer, and perhaps even pre-cancerous changes in the urogenital organs, might increase the risk of cystitis because of compromised urinary tract and host defence.”

Reference:

Jansåker F, Li X, Sundquist K. Acute cystitis and subsequent risk of urogenital cancer: a national cohort study from Sweden. BMJ Public Health. 2025;3:e002495. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjph-2024-002495

PAHO highlights urgent need to accelerate hypertension control

Cristina Mitchell

23 Sep 2025

At UNGA 80 event, PAHO Director highlights critical link between infectious diseases and NCDs

Cristina Mitchell

22 Sep 2025

Breast cancer patients who participated in a remote weight loss intervention program lost an average of 4.7 percent of their baseline body weight after one year, while those in the education only control group gained an average 1 percent of their baseline weight, according to a new report from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute investigators. The findings from the Breast Cancer Weight Loss (BWEL) clinical trial set the stage for ongoing research to determine if weight loss following breast cancer treatment can reduce the risk of cancer recurrence and extend survival.

The results were published in JAMA Oncology.

“This remotely delivered intervention was successful in helping women lose weight across many different patient and treatment factors and it worked well across a large number of sites across the U.S. and Canada,” says Dana-Farber’s Jennifer Ligibel, MD, principal investigator on the study. “These results put us in a great position to be able to determine whether the weight loss program will help reduce the risk of cancer recurrence.”

Obesity is a risk factor for recurrence of breast cancer, other related health problems, and poor quality of life. There is a strong need to find an effective and reliable way to help patients lose weight after diagnosis and treatment for breast cancer.

The Breast Cancer Weight Loss (BWEL) trial, a Phase III trial supported by the National Cancer Institute and the Susan G. Komen Foundation, enrolled nearly 3,180 women from more than 637 cancer treatment centers in the U.S. and Canada. The participants, who had been diagnosed with stage 2 or 3 HER2-negative breast cancer, had completed chemotherapy and radiation therapy (if it was to be administered) and were randomly assigned to receive either a telephone-based weight-loss program plus health education or health education alone. The weight-loss program, conducted by phone, coached patients in reducing their calorie intake and increasing exercise.

In this planned analysis of results for patients after 12-months, 46.5 percent of patients on the weight loss intervention lost 5 percent of their baseline body weight and 22.5 percent lost 10 percent. In contrast, only 14.3 percent of those in the control group lost 5 percent of baseline body weight and 5 percent of controls lost 10 percent. Further, 21.9 percent of controls gained more than 5 percent of baseline body weight compared to 8.2 percent in the weight loss intervention.

“It is very hard after being diagnosed with breast cancer to lose weight and many people gain weight,” says Ligibel. “This study really underscores that it is important to help patients with their weight after a breast cancer diagnosis.”

Patients experienced weight loss on the weight loss intervention regardless of education level, socioeconomic status, and treatment types, including patients on anti-estrogen therapies. The results did show less weight loss in premenopausal, African American, and Latina patients.

“More research is needed to fine tune weight loss interventions for different groups of breast cancer survivors,” says Ligibel.

“Every person deserves the chance to be as healthy as possible after a breast cancer diagnosis. Susan G. Komen is proud to have supported Dr. Ligibel’s pioneering BWEL trial since 2016,” says Kimberly Sabelko, Ph.D., vice president of scientific strategy and programs at Susan G. Komen. “We are so grateful to the patients who are participating in it, as the findings are poised to provide us with evidence-based behavioral interventions that could help many patients live longer, better lives. This initial report demonstrating that weight loss is achievable across a diverse patient population is very encouraging, and we look forward to the long-term results.”

The study provided the intervention in both English and Spanish and provided a toolbox of recipe recommendations to support a range of dietary preferences including vegetarian, vegan, and low-carbohydrate diets. Recipes included Caribbean, Mexican, and Indian foods. Commercial partners supported the trial by donating activity monitors, wireless scales, meal replacement shakes, and food scales for patients to use if desired.

“We tried to meet people where they were as long as they were adhering to a healthy diet, the caloric restrictions, and activity levels,” says Ligibel. “Patients need support and an infrastructure, and this study offers an intervention that works across many sites and across a wide range of people.”

The long-term goal of the BWEL study will be to determine if the intervention reduces breast cancer recurrence. If it does, the program could become something more widely available to patients.

“We are working toward insurance reimbursement for weight loss programs for patients with breast cancer, making this kind of intervention available for patients regardless of their ability to pay for it themselves,” says Ligibel.

Reference:

Jennifer A. Ligibel et al, Impact of a Weight Loss Intervention on 1-Year Weight Change in Women With Stage II/III Breast Cancer, JAMA Oncology (2025). DOI: 10.1001/jamaoncol.2025.2738