CHECKUP ALARM FOR ASIAN FEMALES.

Byline: - Staff and Wire Reports

Breast cancer rates mong Asian-American women - particularly Japanese-American women - increased at a rapid pace in the mid-to-late 1990s in Los Angeles County, a USC study found.

Though Asian-American women in the past have reported lower rates of breast cancer, researchers found diagnosed cases increased 6.3 percent per year between 1993 and 1997 for Asian-American women age 50 and older. During the same time period, diagnosed cases increased about 1.5 percent a year for non-Hispanic white women age 50 and older.

The study, published today in the International Journal of Cancer, is based on cancer cases reported to the Los Angeles County Cancer Surveillance Program.

READING DEPRESSED MINDS: Computer measurements of brain waves could help those suffering from depression find the right medication faster, according to a new study at UCLA.

Researchers at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute found that measurable changes in the front of the brain can predict the effectiveness of an antidepressant within days of treatment. About 40 percent of patients with depression don't respond to the first medication that they try. It often takes six to 12 weeks to determine if a particular antidepressant will work.

OBESITY OVERLOOKED: With about one in four Americans obese, and nearly 60 percent overall considered overweight, it may be hard to imagine obesity as a hidden epidemic.

But a study just released by researchers at Harvard and Princeton suggests that only about a third of Americans consider obesity to be a major public health problem.

That could make the fight against the epidemic even harder to wage for health authorities, said the researchers.