Health News

Brachytherapy to treat cervical cancer declines in US, treatment associated with higher survival

Date: Sep-14-2013
A study by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) found that brachytherapy treatment was associated with better cause-specific survival and overall survival in women with cervical cancer. The population-based analysis also revealed geographic disparities and decline in brachytherapy treatment in the United States. Brachytherapy is a type of cancer treatment in which radioactive implants are inserted directly into the tissue near the tumor site. The study is published in the September 2013 issue of The International Journal of Radiation Oncology...

Childhood obesity linked to high blood pressure in adulthood

Date: Sep-13-2013
Children who are obese or overweight are more likely to suffer from high blood pressure in adulthood, compared with children of a healthy weight, according to a study presented at the American Heart Association High Blood Pressure Research Scientific Sessions 2013. Researchers analyzed the blood pressure and growth of 1,117 healthy adolescents over a 27-year period from 1986. Of the participants, 68% were at a normal weight, 16% were overweight and 16% were obese. At adulthood, 119 of the participants were diagnosed with high blood pressure...

Alcohol neither causes nor prevents depression

Date: Sep-13-2013
A new study does not support the belief that alcohol consumption causes depression - nor that it prevents it. This was the conclusion of clinical neuroscientists from the University of Western Australia (UWA). They write about their findings in a paper published online recently in the journal Molecular Psychiatry. In their paper, the authors describe how research has linked alcohol use, particularly alcohol abuse and dependence, to raised risk for depression. They also note that current practice for diagnosing depression implies the link is causal...

New electronic pump may increase heart failure survival

Date: Sep-13-2013
Scientists have created a novel "electronic smart pump" that they say will "revolutionize" the treatment of patients suffering from chronic heart failure. Researchers from the Nottingham Trent University and Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust in the UK say the smart aortic graft would be implanted in the patient's body and is entirely self-contained, eliminating the need for the patient to be hospitalized and wired to machinery...

Seechange Health Solutions platform shown to increase healthy behavior while reducing costly hospital utilization

Date: Sep-13-2013
SeeChange Health Solutions announced the results of a three-year study demonstrating its ability to positively increase individuals' healthy behaviors and reduce medical spending. The study tracked over 120,000 employees and their dependents participating in health incentive programs offered by their employers and powered by SeeChange Health Solution's proprietary Engagement Platform...

McMaster researchers find weather patterns play significant role in seasonal influenza

Date: Sep-13-2013
Influenza is like a cloud, moving across Canada with the fall weather, McMaster University researchers have found.  They have established that the spread of seasonal flu in Canada is tied to low temperature and low humidity and travels west to east, findings that may have significant implications on prioritizing control measures such as the timing of introducing vaccination programs across the country.  The research coauthors were David Earn and Jonathan Dushoff, investigators with the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research...

Lack of support puts young mothers at risk of mental health problems

Date: Sep-13-2013
The 'Young Mums Together' project was created by the Mental Health Foundation, and funded by Comic Relief, to provide support for a range of young mums' needs within a group context. The group helped reduce young mothers' isolation by providing a network of supportive peers who shared similar past experiences and future challenges. The group served as an awareness-raising platform around mental health problems and paid attention to removing stigma and offering referral routes to services...

Breakthrough discerns normal memory loss from disease

Date: Sep-13-2013
Cornell University researchers have developed a reliable method to distinguish memory declines associated with healthy aging from the more-serious memory disorders years before obvious symptoms emerge. The method also allows research to accurately predict who is more likely to develop cognitive impairment without expensive tests or invasive procedures...

Kiadis Pharma completes five-year follow-up of its Phase I/II clinical study with blood cancer product ATIR(TM) and study meets primary objective

Date: Sep-13-2013
Kiadis Pharma B.V., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing treatments for blood cancers, has announced that the five-year follow-up of patients with high-risk malignancies from its Phase I/II clinical study confirms long-term safety and efficacy of ATIR(TM) over a broad dose range. ATIR(TM) is a cell-based product designed to enable stem cell transplantations from partially mismatched (haploidentical) family donors for patients who do not have a standard of care stem cell donor available...

FDA grants 510(k) clearance for NanoString in vitro breast cancer diagnostic assay

Date: Sep-13-2013
NanoString Technologies, Inc., (NASDAQ: NSTG) a provider of life science tools for translational research and molecular diagnostic products, has announced that it has received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its Prosigna™ Breast Cancer Prognostic Gene Signature Assay. Based on the PAM50 gene signature, Prosigna is the company's first FDA-cleared in vitro diagnostic assay and uses the gene expression profile of cells found in breast cancer tissue to assess a patient's risk of distant recurrence of disease...