SOURCE: Medical News Today
DATE: September 25, 2010
EXCERPT: "A concerted effort to boost research on women's health over the last two decades has lessened the burden of disease and reduced deaths among women due to cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, and cervical cancer, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine. .... A concerted effort to boost research on women's health over the last two decades has lessened the burden of disease and reduced deaths among women due to cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, and cervical cancer, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine.
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Requirements for researchers to enroll women in clinical trials have enabled many advances. Yet the full benefit of increased participation by women has not been realized because researchers do not routinely analyze and report results separately for women and men, the committee observed. This limits the breadth and depth of clinical information that could facilitate more effective interventions and treatments for women. Journal editors should adopt a guideline that all papers reporting outcomes of clinical trials must present data on men and women separately unless a trial focuses on a sex-specific condition such as prostate cancer, the report says. In addition, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration should enforce companies' compliance with requirements to provide sex-specific data on the efficacy and safety of new drugs and devices and should take this information into account when it considers approval, dosing, and labeling of products. more
RELATED LINK:
Go to WOMEN'S HEALTH RESEARCH: PROGRESS, PITFALLS, AND PROMISE for brief (free) and order form for report. A video of the public briefing will be available from the National Academies Press at http://national-academies.org/PODCAST.
