1.Women who are diagnosed with very early-stage breast cancer may gain no benefit from radical treatment options such as a mastectomy.
A stunning new study, reported in The New York Times says more than 60,000 American women undergo either a lumpectomy or a mastectomy, and often a double mastectomy, after being diagnosed with early stage breast cancer, “yet it now appears that treatment may make no difference in their outcomes”.
“Patients with this condition had close to the same likelihood of dying of breast cancer as women in the general population,” the report says.
Few women will die of the disease when detected at such an early stage, “and the few who died did so despite treatment, not for lack of it.”
The results, which could radically change the way breast cancer is managed, were reported in the respected Journal of the American Medical Association, or JAMA Oncology.
The study is “based on the most extensive collection of data ever analyzed.”
It involved 100,000 women followed for 20 years and the Times says it will raise questions about whether “thousands of patients are undergoing unnecessary and sometimes disfiguring treatments for premalignant conditions that are unlikely to develop into life-threatening cancers.”
Thousands of women are diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer every year, and improvements in mammograms means that radiologists can find tiny lesions.
The study raises questions as to whether the lesions are in fact a precursor to the disease or just a risk factor for some women.
“Is there any reason for most patients with the diagnosis to receive brutal therapies?” says the report, “and if treatment does not make a difference, should women even be told they have the condition?”
2. He was paid more than $1 million a year to spruik low-fat Subway sandwiches but now it seems that Jared Fogle spent some of that money having sex with minors, and collecting child pornography.
In a case that has stunned the US, Jared – who is famous around the world for losing half his bodyweight by eating low-fat Subway sandwiches – has admitted to sex offences that are likely to see him jailed for 10 years.
The New York Post reports that Jared had sex with under age girls at The Plaza and Ritz-Carlton hotels in New York, while visiting the city for Subway.
The married father of two told one 17-year-old girl she would ‘get a bonus’ if he could find her somebody even younger to have sex with, saying: “The younger the girl, the better.”
“Fogle, 37, admitted to regularly viewing and sharing sexually ¬ explicit images of children, some as young as six,” the report says.
Some of the girls were recruited through a foundation Jared started to encourage school kids to eat well.
His text messages were full of requests for “minors as young as 14 to 15 years.”
The report says Jared “will plead guilty to one count each of travelling to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor and the distribution and receipt of child pornography.”
His wife, Katie Fogle, yesterday announced that she is divorcing him, saying: “Obviously, I am extremely shocked and disappointed.”
Subway has also axed him, saying: “Jared Fogle’s actions are inexcusable and do not represent our brand’s values.”
Jared is currently fitted with an ankle monitor and confined to his home. He will need to appear in court to plead guilty as part of the deal, which would register him as a sex offender.
3.Former US president Jimmy Carter has announced during a press conference that his cancer has spread to his brain.
AP reports that President Carter, 90, told reporters on Thursday that his oncologist had found “four small spots” on his brain but that he was “at ease with whatever comes.”
“I’m ready for anything and looking forward to a new adventure,” said Carter.
Carter said he thought the cancer was confined to his liver and that an operation earlier this month had completely removed it, “so I was quite relieved.”
But that same afternoon, an MRI showed it was on his brain.
“I just thought I had a few weeks left, but I was surprisingly at ease. I’ve had a wonderful life,” the 90-year-old Carter said.
4.The real-life house in which a psychotic killer fattened up and skinned his victims in the movie, Silence of the Lambs, is for sale.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that the three-story house was transformed into a squalid home with a wretched basement for the 1991 film.
The real-life house is in Perryopolis, about 30 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.
The owners, Scott and Barbara Lloyd, both 63, were married there in 1977.
“It’s rather bittersweet,” Barbara Lloyd told her local newspaper.
“We got married in this home, we raised our son in this home, but we are ready to move on.”
The Lloyds are asking $300,000 for the home, which also features an in-ground pool.
Silence of the Lambs won five Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.
The basement where victims were held doesn’t actually exist; those scenes were shot on a set.
Real estate agent Dianne Wilk said she could imagine someone turning the house into a bed-and-breakfast with a horror theme. Maybe serve up some fava beans?
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