Newly released research suggests that the rising cost of cancer treatments may cause some patients to turn down the care they need. According to the analysis, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, from 1990 to 2008, cancer care costs increased from $27 billion to $90 billion as new drugs were created and less invasive procedures discovered. Researchers agree that a great deal of the cost increase can be traced to financial incentives to doctors who prescribe more expensive drugs. Due to rising costs and increasing number of eligible patients, charities such as the American Cancer Society are able to help less people. In the past, the ACS could help one in five people with the medical bills. Today, they can only help one in six.

Honda Motors Co. recently announced their own brake problems, prompting a recall of 410,000 Odyssey minivans and Element small trucks from the 2007 and 2008 model years. According to Honda officials, the brake pedals could wear down over time and lose braking power, making it almost impossible to stop the vehicles unless fixed. Three crashes have been officially reported in relation to the brake problems, but those involved suffered only minor injuries.

A lawsuit has been filed against Bayer Pharmaceuticals, claiming the company sold birth control pills they knew could cause organ failure. In her lawsuit, Louise Thanos claimed that she experienced gall bladder failure after taking the birth control pill Yaz. Other women have filed similar lawsuits across the country, claiming the pills cause life-threatening blood clots and organ problems. They say the company knows or should know that the pills created a higher risk for strokes, heart attacks, deep vein thrombosis and liver and kidney disease for those who use them. Thanos claims in her lawsuit that the drug contains an insufficiently tested synthetic hormone that is dangerous to women. She is seeking unspecified damages.

The family of a quadriplegic who died in 2007 has filed a lawsuit against a Tennessee-based wheelchair company, claiming their son suffered fatal injuries while they were repairing his wheelchair. According to the lawsuit, technicians with National Seating and Mobility were repairing Jeffrey Thompson’s wheelchair when it suddenly jumped forward, trapping Jeffrey under a nearby table and severely injuring his legs. He died a few days later from complications caused by those injuries. The lawsuit accuses the technicians of failing to remove Jeffrey from the chair before they began repairs and forgetting to turn the battery off before they started. The lawsuit is seeking $10 million in damage

Social networking site Facebook has agreed to pay $9.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over a marketing program that published what users were buying. The settlement was approved by a California federal judge this week. Plaintiffs contested that the Beacon program violated their right to privacy. As part of the settlement, Facebook will issue more than $6 million in grants to organizations that study user privacy online.

A Georgia jury this week awarded $15 million to a family who was hit by a drunken driver and whose daughter suffered severe brain damage from the crash. The drunken driver ran a red light, crashing into the Maybaum family’s car. Eleven-year-old Erica’s seatbelt became dislodged and she was thrown into the back of the Jeep, striking her head and causing it to dislocate from the spine. The jury wanted to assign some of the damages to the makers of the Maybaum’s car, Chrysler, but because the car company filed for bankruptcy protection last year, the automaker was protected.

A Los Angeles jury recently awarded a California man more than $200,000 to cover the cost of a liver transplant after his insurance company, Anthem Blue Cross, refused to pay. Ephram Nehme was on the transplant list at UCLA in 2006. When his condition deteriorated, he decided to have the operation in Indiana, where the wait time was much shorter. After the surgery, however, his insurance company refused to pay the medical bills. The jury concluded that Blue Cross had breached its contract with Nehme and acted in bad faith by not paying his medical bills. Nehme was also awarded damages to cover his legal fees.

Two recently released studies have found that a popular drug to fights osteoporosis may increase the risk of bones breaking if taken for more than five years. Doctors say that the bisphosphonates drugs initially work well to halt bone deterioration, but for some reason begin to have the opposite effect after a number of years. The largest occurrence of the drug’s failure happens in post-menopausal women, USA Today reported. The FDA is analyzing the affects of the drugs, but doctors say that much more research is needed to find the cause.

Toyota Motors Inc. has announced that it believes that the account given by a man whose Prius allegedly speed wildly out of control in San Diego earlier this year does not match up with the initial examination of the car by the company. Investigators for Toyota found that the brakes would have worked had they been fully applied during the incident, but have not accused the man of lying. It is possible that the man did not fully apply the brakes, instead only lightly tapping them, Toyota officials said.

The Nashville-area Metro Council has agreed to pay nearly $100,000 to a man who claims a sheriff’s deputy ripped out his teeth and left him bloodied and in jail without medical attention for 10 days. Anthony McCoy was arrested last November for failing to pay child support. When he told officers he could not remove a permanently attached gold jewelry from his mouth before entering his cell, Lt. Tanya Mayhew allegedly ripped it from his teeth, his lawsuit said. McCoy claims the enamel from his four front teeth were ripped away, and he was only given a Tylenol for his pain.