What We're Reading: DNA Sequencing as Routine Care; HPV Vaccinations and Cervical Cancer; Thirdhand Smoke

DNA Sequencing as Routine Care

HPV Vaccinations

Thirdhand Smoke

Geisinger Health System will begin to integrate DNA sequencing as part of preventive care for their patients, reported Modern Healthcare. Within the next 6 months, DNA sequencing will join mammograms and colonoscopies as routine care as the health system enrolls 1000 patients in a pilot program. In 2013, Geisinger launched the MyCode Community Health Initiative, a research-focused genomic initiative that has alerted over 500 patients about their risk of developing early cancer or heart disease. The health system expects 10% to 15% of patients will benefit from the expanded program.HPV vaccinations protect women against cervical cancer, especially when they are vaccinated between the ages of 15 and 26 years, researchers have confirmed. The researchers examined evidence from 36 previously published studies including more than 70,000 women and concluded that there are also no serious side effect risks of the vaccine. The new evidence, published in the Cochrane Library, found that for women aged 15 to 26, the vaccine lowered the risk of cervical precancer associated with HPV from 341 to 157 per 10,000.New research has found that you might be breathing in tobacco residue in spaces that no one has smoked in for years. Researchers from Drexel University in Philadelphia have found that chemicals from tobacco smoke left on clothing, furniture, and other surfaces—known as thirdhand smoke—can become airborne and travel through a building’s ventilation system. An aerosol mass spectrometer measurement taken in an indoor classroom showed that the chemicals from thirdhand smoke made up 29% of the air in the room.