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A World Health Organization report in October classified processed meat, including bacon, as potentially carcinogenic.PHOTO:GETTY IMAGES
(Wall Street Journal) It was a big year for health news. Bad news—from outbreaks of the measles and foodborne illnesses to skyrocketing drug prices—was mixed with glimmers of hope and the seemingly impossible, including using the body’s immune system to fight cancer and research to slow biological aging.
Here is a roundup of some of the top-10 health issues of the past year.
1. Drug prices
Outrage over thehigh cost of medicationsintensified after some companies sharply raised prices for drugs they hadn’t developed, but insteadbought the rights to.Valeant Pharmaceuticals InternationalInc.drew criticismfrom doctors, hospitals and Congressmen after The Wall Street Journal reported the company had increased the price of two cardiac-care drugs by 525% and 212%, respectively. In the fall, Turing Pharmaceuticals AG was widely criticized after it boosted the price of the anti-parasite drug Daraprim to $750 a pill from $13.50. Turing founderMartin Shkreliwas later arrested on unrelated fraud charges from previous work at a hedge fund. Mr. Shkreli, who resigned from Turing, has said hebelieves his arrest was relatedpartly to the drug-price increases.
2. Cancer immunotherapy
Efforts to use the body’s immune system to fight tumors made big strides this year. The Food and Drug Administration approved the first immunotherapy drugs for lung cancer,Bristol-Myers SquibbCo.’s Opdivo and laterMerck& Co.’s Keytruda, both of which treat non-small-cell lung cancer, the most common form of the disease. The FDA also approved the combined use of Bristol-Myers’sOpdivo and Yervoyto treat advanced melanoma. Both drugs were previously used individually to treat melanoma, and experts believe combining them has the potential to improve treatment. But the hefty price-tag of the drug combination—more than $250,000 per patient for the first full year—remains a concern.
A measles outbreak focused national attention on parents who opt not to get their children vaccinated or who choose to delay the shots.PHOTO:PHANIE SARL/CORBIS
3. Vaccinations
The measles outbreak that began in Disneyland eventually spread to affect nearly 200 people in 24 states, touching off concerns about people opting not to get their children vaccinated or whochoose to delay the shots. The outbreak also drew attention to particular communities around the country—including California’s Orange County, where Disneyland is located—where a relatively large percentage of the population isn’t vaccinated.Pediatricians spoke of increasing pressuresfrom parents to delay vaccines, and some doctors began setting policies to no longer see such patients.Public-health groups and officialsdoubled down on efforts to raise awareness of the importance of getting timely vaccines. The topic emerged in one of the Republicanpresidential candidates’ debates. And California joined West Virginia and Mississippi in passing laws that prevent parents from getting vaccine exemptions for philosophical and religious beliefs.
4. Cancer screening
New guidelinesfrom the American Cancer Society raised the recommended starting age for mammograms to 45 from 40. After age 55, women should get mammograms every other year rather than annually, the guidelines said. Meanwhile,a large study foundthe number of men diagnosed with prostate cancer dropped significantly in recent years along with the number of men screened for the disease, using the so-called PSA test. That was welcome news for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which had been seeking to rein in routine testing for the disease. But many doctors and medical groups were outraged whenMedicare officials proposedpenalizing physicians who order PSA tests considered unnecessary.
5. Allergies
Eat peanuts early and often as an infant and thechances of developing an allergyto them later are greatly reduced. That was the takeaway from a highly anticipated study that is changing the way allergists and pediatricians treat allergies. The study found that 17.2% of children at risk for developing an allergy who avoided peanuts until age 5 ended up with a peanut allergy compared with just 3.2% who regularly ate peanuts. In August the American Academy of Pediatricsissued interim guidelinesrecommending introducing peanut-containing products to infants at risk of developing an allergy between 4 months and 11 months of age.
6. Foodborne illness
The E. coli and norovirus outbreaks among people who ate atChipotle Mexican GrillInc.restaurantssickened more than 100 peopleacross the country in recent months. The outbreaks reveal large safety gaps in the way food is manufactured and processed, allowing microbes—including salmonella and listeria—to contaminate more foods. Foodborne infections showlittle to no overall reductionover the past nine years, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And more powerful strains of common foodborne bacteria continue to develop as microbes become resistant to many antibiotics used to treat illnesses they cause.
7. What’s in your age?
Increasingly less, according to scientists who distinguish between chronological and biological age. One study found the process of aging can begin relatively early in life, with some people aging three biological years for every one year of real time. Agrowing body of research, involving laboratory experiments on animals and observational studies of people, has shown drugs can delay the aging process. Scientists announced the start of aclinical trial to test a particular drug’s abilityto prevent or delay some of the most debilitating diseases of old age, such as cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s.
8. Perils of meat
Steak and bacon lovers were none too pleased when the World Health Organization classified red meat and processed meat aspotentially carcinogenic. Thecontroversial report, published in October in the journal Lancet Oncology by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, reviewed 800 studies and said the data for processed meat was more clear-cut than for red meat. The meat industry, as to be expected, begged to differ.
9. Preventing heart disease
A new class of cholesterol-lowering drugs, known as PCSK9 inhibitors, gave people at high risk for heart disease who can’t take statins or get sufficient benefit from them a potential new drug to take. The FDAapproved two such drugsthis summer. But their anticipated high price has already prompted insurers torequire rigorous evaluationsbefore covering the prescriptions and sparked a debate over what constitutes statin intolerance. Data from large studies testing whether the drugs actually prevent heart attacks are expected beginning in late 2016.
People widely use smartphone apps and wearable technologies, such as the Fitbit Surge smartwatches shown here, to track fitness and diet. Patients and doctors also increasingly are using them to manage chronic conditions and monitor serious disorders.PHOTO:CHRIS RATCLIFFE/BLOOMBERG NEWS
10. Dr. Tech
Fitbit, the Apple Watch, and dozens of smartphone apps and wearables have people keeping track of how much they sit, stand, walk, climb stairs and consume in calories. But smartphone apps and wearables are guiding more than just fitness and diet in the health space. They also are increasingly being used tomanage chronic conditions, postsurgical care, mental health and other serious disorders. Doctors are using the data tomonitor treatments and conduct research.
