Health News

Using DCIS Score To Quantify Risk Of IBE For Breast Cancer Patients

Date: May-06-2013
The ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) Score quantifies the risk of ipsilateral breast event (IBE) and invasive IBE risk, complements both traditional clinical and pathologic factors, and helps provide a new clinical tool to improve the process of selecting individualized treatment for women with DCIS who meet the criteria, according to a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Most women with newly diagnosed cases of DCIS are eligible for breast conservation surgery, either with radiation treatment or without...

First Portable, Real-Time Asbestos Detector Offers Promise Of Better Workplace Safety

Date: May-06-2013
Asbestos was once called a miracle material because of its toughness and fire-resistant properties. It was used as insulation, incorporated into cement and even woven into firemen's protective clothing. Over time, however, scientists pinned the cause of lung cancers such as mesothelioma on asbestos fiber inhalation. Asbestos was banned in the many industrialized countries in the 1980s, but the threat lingers on in the ceilings, walls and floors of old buildings and homes. Now a team of researchers from the University of Hertfordshire in the U.K...

Everolimus Can Overcome Trastuzumab Resistance In HER-2 Positive Early Breast Cancer

Date: May-06-2013
A study that aimed to understand how the cancer drug everolimus helps overcome the resistance breast cancers can develop to trastuzumab has left researchers contemplating a puzzle. The study showed a statistically non-significant benefit in clinical response rates for some patients with early breast cancer when everolimus was added to treatment with trastuzumab. Yet the results suggest this benefit is achieved independently of the molecular pathways researchers expected would be involved...

Grapes Activate Genes Responsible For Antioxidant Defense In The Heart

Date: May-06-2013
A study appearing in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry¹ demonstrates that grapes are able to reduce heart failure associated with chronic high blood pressure (hypertension) by increasing the activity of several genes responsible for antioxidant defense in the heart tissue. Grapes are a known natural source of antioxidants and other polyphenols, which researchers believe to be responsible for the beneficial effects observed with grape consumption...

Chalk Dust Can Contain Milk Protein, Triggering Respiratory Symptoms In Children With Milk Allergy

Date: May-06-2013
Many of today's school teachers opt for dustless chalk to keep hands and classrooms clean. But according to a study published in the May issue of Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, the scientific journal of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI), this choice in chalk may cause allergy and asthma symptoms in students that have a milk allergy. Casein, a milk protein, is often used in low-powder chalk. When milk allergic children inhale chalk particles containing casein, life-threatening asthma attacks and other respiratory issues can occur...

Location Of Life Saving Defibrillators Determined By Researchers

Date: May-06-2013
Prompt use of an automated external defibrillator, or AED, can greatly increase the survival rates of people who suffer a cardiac arrest. And MIE Professor Tim Chan, working with Dr. Laurie Morrison at St. Michael's Hospital, has developed a formula to determine where best to place these costly but life-saving devices. In a paper published in Circulation, Chan and Morrison note that publicly registered AEDs in Toronto are not in the best locations to help victims of cardiac arrest...

Youngsters On Diets Show Greater Brain Reward Activity In Response To Food

Date: May-06-2013
The story is a familiar one: most people are able to lose weight while dieting but once the diet is over, the weight comes back. Many of us can personally attest that caloric deprivation weight loss diets typically do not produce lasting weight loss. Oregon Research Institute (ORI) senior scientist Eric Stice, Ph.D., and colleagues provide results in a recent issue of NeuroImage that further our understanding of how and why most weight loss diets fail and provide a more comprehensive description of the impact of caloric restriction...

Genetic Material From 'Dark Genome' Is Involved In Rett Syndrome

Date: May-06-2013
Researchers at the Epigenetics and Cancer Biology Program at IDIBELL led by Manel Esteller, ICREA researcher and professor of genetics at the University of Barcelona, have described alterations in noncoding long chain RNA sequences (lncRNA) in Rett syndrome. These molecules act as supervisor agents responsible of 'switch on' or 'switch off' other genes in our genome that regulate the activity of neurons. The work has been published in the last issue of the journal RNA Biology. Dark genome Only 5% of our genetic material are genes that encode proteins...

Vampire Treatment For Baldness

Date: May-06-2013
Restoring hair growth on the bald patches of patients' heads by injecting them with platelet-rich plasma is possible, Italian and Israeli scientists reported in the British Journal of Dermatology, May 2013 issue. Coined "the vampire treatment", blood is taken from the patients and processed in a machine that removes platelet-rich plasma (PRP). The PRP is then injected back into the bald patches. Dr Fabio Rinaldi and colleagues believe the PRP solution stimulates new stem cells under the skin, which help hair regrowth...

Model Cell System Offers Insights Into Epilepsy, Schizophrenia, Other Neuropsych Disorders

Date: May-06-2013
Medical researchers have manipulated human stem cells into producing types of brain cells known to play important roles in neurodevelopmental disorders such as epilepsy, schizophrenia and autism. The new model cell system allows neuroscientists to investigate normal brain development, as well as to identify specific disruptions in biological signals that may contribute to neuropsychiatric diseases...