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Daily Rounds: Breast Cancer Surgery Reversal; Floating Hospital 'Renaissance'; Wood Fire Health Risks

Lymph Node Surgery for Breast Cancer Not Always Needed, Study Says - NYTimes.com "A new study finds that many women with early breast cancer do not need a painful procedure that has long been routine: removal of cancerous lymph nodes from the armpit. The discovery turns standard medical practice on its head. Surgeons have been removing lymph nodes from under the arms of breast cancer patients for 100 years, believing it would prolong women’s lives by keeping the cancer from spreading or coming back." (nytimes.com)

Patient influx lifts Floating Hospital for Children - The Boston Globe "Seven years ago, the Floating Hospital for Children was in sad shape: It was losing patients and money — a perilous $1 million a month — and was facing possible closure as it struggled to compete with Harvard’s two renowned pediatric hospitals. Now, fueled in part by growing alarm over high health care costs, the Boston hospital is experiencing a renaissance." (boston.com)

Wood smoke health - latimes.com "Health news to keep in mind as a particularly cold winter wends on: Crackling logs in a fireplace might warm the heart and the toes. A toasty fire might even be good for the soul. But a new study in Chemical Research in Toxicology, a journal of the American Chemical Society, reminds readers that wood smoke is not particularly good for human bodies. Danish researchers showed that tiny particles from wood smoke damaged the DNA in human cells in culture. Another study, published Monday in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, found that smoke from burning heating coal has negative health effects as well." (Los Angeles Times)

The real threat to health-care reform (Hint: It's not the Supreme Court) (The Washington Post) "Republicans in Congress don't want to make the Affordable Care Act better. They want to repeal it. This - and not the Supreme Court, or even any flaws in the design of the bill - is the real problem for the Affordable Care Act."

This program aired on February 9, 2011. The audio for this program is not available.

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