When Fiona Godlee first offered to take these reviews as a BMJ blog, I was given an assurance that I could be as beastly about her journal as I liked. […]
Richard Lehman’s weekly review of medical journals
Lancet 6 Jan 2007
This study shows that when given early after adjuvant chemotherapy for HER-2 positive breast cancer, trastuzumab provides significant mortality benefit in as little as two years. But the Herceptin debate […]
Ann Intern Med 2 Jan 2007
This study looked at a cohort of 782 elderly men and women in the Netherlands with raised homocysteine and, amongst many outcomes, looked for an effect of folic acid on […]
Proverb of the Week: Physician heal thyself
This is more a taunt than a proverb, and reminds us that throughout history, patients have taken comfort in the physical misfortunes of their doctors. Sayings of this kind are […]
JAMA 27 Dec 2006
While you are reading this, amoeba-like cells are crawling over your bones and eating them away. Unless, that is, you are taking a bisphosphonate to paralyze your osteoclasts and leave […]
NEJM 28 Dec 2006
Your Christmas Day came to a blurry end with quantities of port wine and Stilton cheese. You don’t really remember going to bed, but soon afterwards you are aware that […]
JAMA 20 December 2006
What will your brain be like when you’re 73? Quite good, in all likelihood, and all the better if you keep it ACTIVE. The study with this name randomised elderly […]
NEJM 21 Dec 2006
Now children, who can remember from last week’s lesson what is the best biomarker for death or cardiovascular events? Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten already. Well, never mind, in the […]
BMJ 23 Dec 2006
The Revd. Thomas Malthus no doubt used to celebrate Christmas by taking food off his starving parishioners’ tables, the quicker to help them die, and there is a school of […]
Lancet 23 Dec 2006
2195 How safe is paracetamol? This editorial highlights the study which showed that at therapeutic (4G/day) doses it can cause ALT elevation in some normal subjects (JAMA 2006;296:87), but I […]