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NHS health apps leak personal data, gene clue to secondary breast cancer and the veg making us fat

NHS-accredited health apps are failing to protect people’s personal details, it has emerged.

According to The Times, researchers found the health apps – reviewed by NHS England and included in its app library – send unencrypted personal and health information over the internet.

Kit Huckvale, lead researcher from Imperial College London, said: ‘Our study suggests that the privacy of users of accredited apps may have been unnecessarily put at risk, and challenges claims of trustworthiness offered by the current national accreditation scheme run through the NHS.’

The BBC reports scientists have discovered a ‘genetic clue’ as to why some breast cancers relapse.

They found certain genes or combinations of genes were more common in secondary cancers – so the looking at the complement of cancer genes in some primary cancers may help predict if they are more likely to relapse in the future.

The researchers said this could mean ‘taking regular samples of cancer tissue to track how the disease is progressing and changing’, the report says.

Some vegetables could be causing people to become overweight, the Independent warns.

The only named culprit seems to be the sturdy potato, however, while cauliflower, broccoli and Brussel sprouts were ‘top performers’ in the weight stakes.

 

 

 

 


          

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