Health roundup: False hopes common among chemo patients

Your Thursday morning health roundup:

Chemotherapy and hope: A majority of patients with advanced, incurable cancers who are undergoing chemotherapy have the false hope that the treatment can cure their disease, a new study shows. More than 80% of people with advanced colon cancer and nearly 70% with advanced lung cancer -- cancers that had spread through the body -- believed cures from chemotherapy remained possible. Doctors should more clearly communicate that treatment may extend lives for a few months and ease symptoms, but won't be a cure, so that patients can make more informed decisions, researchers say. (HealthDay)

Meningitis cases: The death count from the multi-state fungal meningitis outbreak linked to tainted steroid injections is up to 24, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday. Meanwhile, the husband of one Michigan woman who died in the outbreak has been hospitalized for the same illness.(NBC News, Detroit News)

Turtle take-back: Petco does not sell tiny pet turtles -- banned from legitimate pet stores long ago because of their link with outbreaks of salmonella infection -- but the pet products chain is now accepting them from customers, to get the little trouble-makers out of the hands of children and off to a nice, safe turtle farm. (NBC News)

Today's talker: CNN took an Internet beating Wednesday after it published a story entitled, "Do Hormones Drive Women's Votes?" The story -- based on a study claiming "hormones may influence female voting choices differently, depending on whether a woman is single or in a committed relationship" -- quoted a researcher who said women in the fertile phase of their menstrual cycles might make different voting decisions because they "feel sexier." It was unpublished by the end of the day, replaced by a note that said it "did not meet the editorial standards of CNN." (Mediaite)