Health News

Part Of Gastric Bypass Benefit Could Be Change In Gut Microbes

Date: Mar-28-2013
A new study suggests some of the weight loss that patients experience after gastric bypass surgery could be a result of changes in the mix of microbes in their gut. The researchers say manipulating microbe populations may offer an alternative treatment for obesity, for instance for patients who can't have gastric surgery. Lee Kaplan, director of the Obesity, Metabolism and Nutrition Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and colleagues, write about their findings in the 27 March online issue of Science Translational Medicine...

Death In Young Children Linked To Their Mother's Poor Health

Date: Mar-28-2013
In poorer countries, young children are more likely to die in the months before their mother's death, when she is seriously ill, and also in the period after her death, according to a study by international researchers published in this week's PLOS Medicine. These findings are important as they highlight the urgent need for proactive and coordinated community-based interventions to support families, especially vulnerable children, when a mother becomes seriously ill, not just in the period following her death...

Scientists Identify Genetic Causes For Prostate, Breast And Ovarian Cancer In Breakthrough Research

Date: Mar-28-2013
More than 80 genome regions that can raise a person's risk of developing prostate, breast and ovarian cancers, have been identified in a huge study led by scientists from the University of Cambridge and The Institute of Cancer Research, London. Scientists say that the work, conducted through COGS (Collaborative Oncological Gene-Environment Study), will push forward our understanding of the biological causes of cancer. They warn, however, that the findings do not provide enough data to currently predict who will develop breast, prostate or ovarian cancers on the basis of genetics alone...

Compulsory Community Treatment For Mentally Ill Patients Does Not Reduce Rates Of Hospitalisation

Date: Mar-28-2013
The controversial practice of discharging people under Community Treatment Orders (CTOs) after they have been involuntarily hospitalised due to mental health problems has no effect on the patients' likelihood of being subsequently hospitalised, compared to Section 17 leave, an older and less restrictive type of supervised discharge, according to a randomised trial published Online First in The Lancet...

The Economics Of Genomic Medicine - Insights From The IOM Roundtable On Translating Genomic-Based Research For Health

Date: Mar-28-2013
Viewpoint in This Issue of JAMA In this Viewpoint, W. Gregory Feero, M.D., Ph.D., of the Maine-Dartmouth Family Medicine Residency, Augusta, Maine (Dr. Feero is also Contributing Editor, JAMA), and colleagues discuss several of the issues that became apparent from the July 2012 Institute of Medicine's (IOM's) Roundtable on Translating Genomic-Based Research for Health, a meeting designed to identify critical gaps unique to understanding the economics of adopting whole-genome or exome sequence information into health care...

European Medicines Agency Investigates Findings On Pancreatic Risks With GLP-1-based Therapies For Type 2 Diabetes

Date: Mar-28-2013
The European Medicines Agency is investigating findings by a group of independent academic researchers that suggest an increased risk of pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas) and pre-cancerous cellular changes called pancreatic duct metaplasia in patients with type 2 diabetes treated with so-called GLP-1-based therapies (glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) agonists and dipeptidylpeptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors)...

BioSpecifics Technologies Corp. Announces Positive Top-Line Data From XIAFLEX® Phase IIa Study For Frozen Shoulder

Date: Mar-28-2013
BioSpecifics Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ: BSTC), a biopharmaceutical company developing first in class collagenase-based products marketed as XIAFLEX® in the U.S., has announced positive, statistically significant top-line data from the Phase IIa study of XIAFLEX for the potential treatment of frozen shoulder (adhesive capsulitis). "We are very encouraged by these positive results and look forward to progress in this program which Auxilium expects in the second half of this year," reflected Thomas L. Wegman, President of BioSpecifics...

Pitt, Mount Sinai Team Finds Novel Mechanism Regulating Replication Of Insulin-Producing Beta Cells For Diabetes Treatment

Date: Mar-28-2013
Bringing scientists a step closer to new treatments for diabetes, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and The Mount Sinai Medical Center have discovered a novel mechanism that regulates the replication of insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. The findings were recently published online ahead of print in Diabetes, a journal of the American Diabetes Association. Regenerating beta cells to restore insulin production has moved to center stage in the quest for therapies for both Type 1 and 2 diabetes, said lead author Nathalie Fiaschi-Taesch, Ph.D...

Editors Call For A Fully Correctable Research Literature

Date: Mar-28-2013
Many scientific findings, once thought to be certain, will ultimately be shown to be uncertain by new techniques, a change in thinking, improved data, research misconduct, or the result of an honest error. But the published literature is not yet up to the task of fully connecting and correcting itself, a situation that must be remedied, say the PLOS Medicine Editors in a new editorial published this week...

Hospital Remains Most Common Place Of Death For Cancer Patients In England

Date: Mar-28-2013
In England, hospital is still the most common place for patients with cancer to die but an increase in home and hospice deaths since 2005 suggests that the National End of Life Care Programme (a Programme to promote the rollout of national end-of-life care initiatives) has helped more people to die at their preferred place of death, according to a UK study funded by the National Institute for Health Research Health Services and Delivery Research (NIHR HS&DR) Programme, published in this week's PLOS Medicine...