Ovary removal can aid high-risk women

Ovary removal can aid high-risk women

WASHINGTON

For women who carry a notorious cancer gene, surgery to remove healthy ovaries is one of the most protective steps they can take. New research suggests some may benefit most from having the operation as young as 35.

Women who inherit either of two faulty BRCA genes are at much higher risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer than other women, and at younger ages. Actress Angelina Jolie generated headlines last year when she had her healthy breasts removed to reduce her cancer risk.

Monday’s study is the largest yet to show the power of preventive ovarian surgery for those women. The study estimated it also can reduce women’s risk of death before age 70 by 77 percent.

Stamp in Pa. will honor black aviator

BRYN MAWR, PA.

The Postal Service will issue a stamp next month honoring the head instructor for the Tuskegee Airmen, the first black military pilots who fought in World War II.

The postage commemorating pioneering aviator Charles Alfred Anderson will be unveiled March 13 at a ceremony in Bryn Mawr, the Philadelphia suburb where he grew up.

Anderson died in 1996 at age 89. He was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame last year.

Dingell to retire

southgate, mich.

Rep. John Dingell, who played a key role in some of the biggest liberal legislative victories of the past 60 years, said Monday that he will not try to add to what is already the longest congressional career in history.

The Michigan Democrat, who was elected to his late father’s seat in 1955 and has had it ever since, announced his decision while addressing a chamber of commerce in Southgate, near Detroit. Afterward, he told reporters that he will not run for a 30th full term because he could not have lived up to his own standards.

Veterans priorities rolled into 1 bill

washington

It’s hard to vote against veterans these days.

Majority Leader Harry Reid is counting on voters as well as lawmakers feeling that way in an election year as the Senate takes up legislation this week that addresses dozens of priorities that veterans groups have raised in recent years.

Two weeks after rolling back an effort to slow cost-of-living pension increases for working-age military retirees, the Senate is now being asked to give veterans new benefits that would cost $21 billion over the next decade.

The bill would make more veterans eligible for VA health care, require public colleges to offer in-state tuition rates to all veterans and help seriously wounded veterans get fertility treatments.

Egypt Cabinet resigns

CAIRO

Egypt’s interim Cabinet resigned Monday in a surprise move that could pave the way for the nation’s military chief to announce his widely anticipated plans to run for president.

The resignation, announced by Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi, came amid a wave of labor strikes over the government’s failure to fix the economy and rising popular anger nearly a year after Islamist President Mohammed Morsi was ousted by the military.

The Cabinet’s resignation fueled speculation that the military chief, Field Marshal Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, will soon announce a presidential bid.

Associated Press