An increased cancer risk in post-menopausal women after they stopped taking combined hormone therapy was an “unexpected finding” in a study that will be reported in the March 5 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), said Rowan T. Chlebowski, M.D., Ph.D., a Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute (LA BioMed) lead investigator who contributed to the study.

Scientists in Scotland have unexpectedly discovered that black tea may help to combat type 2 diabetes. The discovery is at the laboratory stage and the research team is hoping to get funding to investigate further and replicate their findings in clinical settings.The discovery is the work of Dr Graham Rena and his team at the Neurosciences Institute of the University of Dundee, and is published in the journal Aging Cell.

President Bush on Saturday during his weekly radio address asked Congress to pass a bill (S 2237) that would restrict online sales of prescription drugs, the Los Angeles Times reports. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.

Representatives of state Medicaid programs are urging Congress to stop proposed federal Medicaid guidelines from taking effect, but “the states themselves are pessimistic about Congress’ response” and are preparing to cut programs and have threatened lawsuits against CMS,

Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.) has proposed legislation (HR 4105) that would place a one-year, nationwide moratorium on the Medicare recovery audit program, CQ HealthBeat reports.

Mary Agnes Carey, associate editor of CQ HealthBeat, examines a Government Accountability Office report on Medicare Advantage costs, a scheduled House vote on mental health parity legislation, Senate approval of the

Certain groups of kidney disease patients, including minorities, are not being referred to specialists soon enough, according to a report by researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, the Winston-Salem Journal reports. The

A debate about “whether universal coverage should even be a national priority” will replace the current “skirmish” over the “mechanics of universal health coverage” when the general election campaign begins, the New York Times reports. Presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.

The New York Times published an editorial on Friday supporting bipartisan compromise legislation approved by the House Foreign Affairs Committee that authorizes $50 billion for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief over the next five years.

The National Cancer Institute on Friday announced a new study aimed at comparing the efficacy of GlaxoSmithKline’s breast cancer treatment Tykerb with Genentech’s breast cancer treatment Herceptin,