anorexia as women age

• The FDA approved, for the first time, an AI tool that will use mammogram images to measure breast cancer risk, adding another potential diagnostic to family history and genetic screening.
   
• FDA Commissioner Marty Makary promised in a letter to review the safety of the abortion pill, thanks to a flawed "study" from a conservative think tank.
   
• Women in their 60s and 70s are coming to clinicians for anorexia treatment--and experts say they don't know how to treat them.

Decline in Vaginal Hysterectomy Rates in the US

What: Using data from over 1 million patients, researchers looked at how often vaginal hysterectomies are performed in the US for non-cancer reasons. They found that the rate of vaginal hysterectomy has dropped significantly and is projected to decrease even further by 2030, with minimally invasive procedures becoming more common.

Key Line: "By January 2030, vaginal hysterectomy was estimated to be used in 11.9% of patients undergoing hysterectomy for prolapse and in 3.5% of hysterectomies for other indications. For all indications, a minimally invasive hysterectomy will be the most common route of surgery."

Source: Obstetrics & Gynecology

Anorexia As Women Age

What: The New York Times profiles women in their 60s and 70s who are struggling with anorexia--with little evidence on how to help them, especially as they age. The number of older women seeking treatment for eating disorders that they've dealt with since childhood or adolescence is increasing, with potential long-term health impacts.

Key Line: "Doctors are now seeing the long-term impact of disordered eating on older bodies, including osteoporosis, arthritis, dental issues and heart disease. 'My fear is that we are woefully underprepared for these patients,' said Craig Johnson, a senior adviser at the Eating Recovery Center in Denver. 'There will be an increasing number of patients that are aging into their 60s and 70s in need of palliative care that I fear we are unprepared for.'”

Source: New York Times
 

Pregnancy Complication Risks for Prior C-Section Patients

What: A study of over 70,000 women with a prior C-section found that serious and fatal complications varied birth mode and race. Black and Latino women had higher complication rates when they had a planned C-section versus a vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC). For white women, complication rates were similar between planned repeat cesarean births and VBACs.

Key Line: "While we were not able to directly examine the mechanisms underlying our results, it is possible that due to structural racism and residential segregation, Black and Latinx birthing people are more concentrated in lower-resourced hospitals that provide lower-quality care. Future studies should explore the contribution of hospital characteristics and resources to racial and ethnic disparities in SMM for those with a prior cesarean delivery"

Source: JAMA Network Open
 

FDA Commits to Reviewing Abortion Drug Mifepristone

What: FDA Commissioner Marty Makary sent a letter to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) promising to investigate the abortion pill mifepristone. The letter was prompted by Sen. Hawley sending a conservative think tank's "study" on abortion pill risks, which experts have dismissed for using wildly flawed methods. Makary's response did not include any specific plans for the review.

Key Line: "The study does not clearly state the database where it obtained the nearly 865,000 insurance claims on prescribed mifepristone abortions. The research breaks down the 'serious adverse events' by category but places the majority of those events into a vague category called 'other abortion-specific complications.'"

Source: The Hill
 

AI Tool Predicting Future Risk of Breast Cancer Now FDA-Approved

What: Dr. Connie Lehman talks about the AI tool her company developed to predict future risk of breast cancer using mammogram images. Their platform recently became the first FDA-authorized AI tool for breast cancer risk prediction, marking a significant advancement in predicting, screening, and preventing breast cancer.

Key Line: "Breast cancer has relied primarily on family history and, more recently, genetic screening. An AI platform for image analysis has added a new powerful tool to the toolbox. 'We haven’t been able to help that way very much in breast cancer until now,' said Lehman. 'We’re going to do a lot of research, as are others, to evaluate whether this could be a dynamic risk tool, and that really changes things. Could those signals and cues on the mammogram change as a result of interventions, including risk reduction strategies? And would we see that change reflected on the mammogram? That’s gotten us excited.'”

Source: Inside Precision Medicine