Health trends

Medical Associates Hospital opens new unit

Medical Associates Hospital in St andrew recently opened its high-dependency and coronary-care unit for patients who need more intensive observation, treatment and nursing care than is possible in a general ward, but slightly less than that given in an intensive care unit.

The hospital's chief executive officer, Dr Michael Banbury, indicated that the unit opens with a single bed but will expand as demand grows. "This will ... help to ease the burden on the University Hospital of the West Indies or Kingston Public Hospital, both of which are often overwhelmed with critically ill patients," he said.

The unit will allow the hospital to facilitate more difficult surgical procedures and offer intensive monitoring of patients who are critically ill, including patients with acute coronary conditions.

Lung cancer treatment approved

The US Food and Drug Administration recently approved Xalkori (crizotinib) to treat certain patients with late-stage (locally advanced or metastatic), non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC) who express the abnormal anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene.

Xalkori is being approved with a companion diagnostic test that will help determine if a patient has the abnormal ALK gene, a first-of-a-kind genetic test called the Vysis ALK Break Apart FISH Probe Kit. It is the second such targeted therapy approved by the FDA this year.

This ALK gene abnormality causes cancer development and growth. About one to seven per cent of those with NSCLC have the ALK gene abnormality. Patients with this form of lung cancer are typically non-smokers. Xalkori works by blocking certain proteins called kinases, including the protein produced by the abnormal ALK gene. Xalkori is a pill taken twice a day as a single-agent treatment.