UAE
Bahrain
Jordan
Kuwait
Oman
Qatar
Saudi ArabiaHealth News
Cancers linked to viruses lower than previously estimated
Date: Aug-07-2013The results of a large-scale analysis of the association between DNA viruses and human malignancies suggest that many of the most common cancers are not associated with DNA viruses. The findings, published in the August 2013 issue of the Journal of Virology, challenge earlier studies suggesting as high as 40 percent of tumors are caused by viruses. For years scientists believed viruses played a role in the development of maybe 10 to 20 percent of cancers...
Unexpected synergy between two cancer-linked proteins offers hope for personalised cancer therapy
Date: Aug-07-2013A team of scientists led by Associate Professor Zeng Qi[1] from A*STAR's Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB) have discovered a new biomarker which will help physicians predict how well cancer patients respond to cancer drugs. Having the means to identify patients who are most likely to benefit from currently available cancer drugs not only reduces substantially the healthcare cost for the patient, it could mean saving precious lives by getting the right drugs to the right patient at the onset of the treatment...
Study finds that patients like medical practices' use of electronic communications, but roadblocks to widespread use remain
Date: Aug-07-2013Patients like it and so do health organizations, but electronic communications in clinical care will likely not be widely adopted by primary care physicians unless patient workloads are reduced or they are paid for the time they spend phoning and emailing patients, both during and after office hours. Those are some key conclusions of an in-depth examination by investigators at Weill Cornell Medical College of six diverse medical practices that routinely use electronic communication for clinical purposes...
Research may lead to early diagnosis of reading difficulties and the development of more targeted therapies
Date: Aug-07-2013A combination of brain scans and reading tests has revealed that several regions in the brain are responsible for allowing humans to read. The findings open up the possibility that individuals who have difficulty reading may only need additional training for specific parts of the brain - targeted therapies that could more directly address their individual weaknesses. "Reading is a complex task...
Stem cells in the gingiva may have important medical applications in the future
Date: Aug-07-2013Stem cells found in mouth tissue can not only become other types of cells but can also relieve inflammatory disease, according to a new Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC study in the Journal of Dental Research. The cells featured in the study are gingival mesenchymal stem cells (GMSC), which are found in the gingiva, or gum tissue, within the mouth. GMSC, like other stem cells, have the ability to develop into different types of cells as well as affect the immune system. "Gingiva is very unique in our body," says Professor Songtao Shi, the study's senior author...
Intestinal cell findings may enable drug makers to increase absorption of medicines taken by mouth
Date: Aug-07-2013A new study reports that the small intestine uses more cells than scientists had realized to absorb microspheres large enough to contain therapeutic protein drugs, such as insulin. The finding in rats, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is potentially good news for developing a means for oral delivery of such drugs. The small intestine employs more cells and mechanisms than scientists previously thought to absorb relatively large particles, such as those that could encapsulate protein-based therapeutics like insulin, according to a new study...
Cancer drug affects chromosome that causes Angelman and Prader-Willi syndromes
Date: Aug-07-2013UC Davis researchers have identified how and where in the genome a cancer chemotherapy agent acts on and 'un-silences' the epigenetically silenced gene that causes Angelman syndrome, a rare neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by severe intellectual disability, seizures, motor impairments, and laughing and smiling...
Length of human pregnancies can vary naturally by as much as five weeks
Date: Aug-07-2013The length of a human pregnancy can vary naturally by as much as five weeks, according to research published online today (Wednesday) in Europe's leading reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction [1]. Normally, women are given a date for the likely delivery of their baby that is calculated as 280 days after the onset of their last menstrual period. Yet only four percent of women deliver at 280 days and only 70% deliver within 10 days of their estimated due date, even when the date is calculated with the help of ultrasound...
Prioritizing USPSTF recommendations based on patient characteristics may improve life-expectancy
Date: Aug-07-2013A mathematical model shows that United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations can be prioritized on the patient level to improve life-expectancy. Currently, the USPSTF makes recommendations for 60 distinct clinical services. However, only about half of these recommended services are provided to patients and utilization for some services remains very low. How to prioritize what to do in the limited time of a clinical encounter is a pervasive problem in primary care...
Self-monitoring leads to better blood pressure control at 12 months
Date: Aug-07-2013Researchers reviewed 52 published studies to evaluate the effectiveness of self-measured blood pressure monitoring (SMBP) with or without support in adults with hypertension. SMBP is the measurement of BP at home or outside the clinical setting. The reviewers assessed three comparisons:SMBP monitoring alone versus usual careSMBP monitoring with additional support (e.g...
Stay Connected
