Health News

A Tool That Could Simply And Accurately Determine The Right Dose For Oncology

Date: Mar-05-2013
King Mithridates understood that poison is only as good as the dosage taken. Each day, he ingested small quantities of poison in order to become immune and escape his court's plotters. Oncologists run up against the same principle when fighting cancer. Sometimes, a small dose of chemotherapy may induce dangerous resistance mechanisms in malignant cells, resulting in relapse. Now, EPFL research published in the journal PLOS ONE reports a tool that could simply and accurately determine the right dose for individual patients...

The Importance Of Eating Your Greens

Date: Mar-05-2013
Eating your greens may be even more important that previously thought, with the discovery that an immune cell population essential for intestinal health could be controlled by leafy greens in your diet. The immune cells, named innate lymphoid cells (ILCs), are found in the lining of the digestive system and protect the body from 'bad' bacteria in the intestine. They are also believed to play an important role in controlling food allergies, inflammatory diseases and obesity, and may even prevent the development of bowel cancers...

ZALTRAP® (Aflibercept) Is Now Available In The UK For The Treatment Of Advanced Metastatic Colorectal Cancer (mCRC)

Date: Mar-05-2013
Treatment proven to demonstrate significant survival improvement in patients with mCRC whose disease has progressed despite treatment with oxaliplatin-based regimen2 Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that they have launched ZALTRAP (aflibercept) which is licensed for use in combination with irinotecan/5-fluorouracil/folinic acid (FOLFIRI) chemotherapy for the treatment of adults with mCRC that is resistant to or has progressed after an oxaliplatin-based regimen.1�Colorectal cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death in the UK...

First Ever Great British Bedtime Report Launched

Date: Mar-05-2013
The number of Britons getting just five to six hours sleep a night has risen dramatically in the past three years, with 40% not getting the NHS recommended six to nine hours. According to a major new report being published today (March 1) by The Sleep Council: A third of the population (33%) now get by on five to six hours sleep a night compared to 27% in 2010. And the majority of people (70%) sleep for seven hours or less. Almost half of Britons say that stress or worry keeps them awake at night. As many as 7.9 million have used alcohol to help them get to sleep at night while 6...

60 Percent Of Patients With Fire Ant Allergy Don't Adhere To Life Saving Treatment

Date: Mar-05-2013
Two million Americans are allergic to insect stings, an allergy which sends more than 500,000 people to the emergency room annually. Yet, according to a study published in the March issue of Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, the scientific journal of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAA), while fire ant allergy sufferers know allergy shots can save their life, more than 60 percent do not adhere to treatment guidelines. For optimal protection against fire ant stings, allergists recommend allergy shots, also known as immunotherapy, be administered monthly...

Proteins With Mutations In 'Prion-Like' Segments Considered Candidates For Inherited Forms Of ALS, Multisystem Proteinopathy

Date: Mar-05-2013
A multi-institution group of researchers has found new candidate disease proteins for neurodegenerative disorders. James Shorter, Ph.D., assistant professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Paul Taylor, M.D., PhD, St...

'Clean-Up' Snafu That Kills Brain Cells In Parkinson's Disease Identified

Date: Mar-05-2013
Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have discovered how the most common genetic mutations in familial Parkinson's disease damage brain cells. The study, which published online in the journal Nature Neuroscience, could also open up treatment possibilities for both familial Parkinson's and the more common form of Parkinson's that is not inherited. Parkinson's disease is a gradually progressing disorder of the nervous system that causes stiffness or slowing of movement...

Research Offers Patients Hope For New Treatments For An Aggressive And Common Lymphoma

Date: Mar-05-2013
The powerful master regulatory transcription factor called Bcl6 is key to the survival of a majority of aggressive lymphomas, which arise from the B-cells of the immune system. The protein has long been considered too complex to target with a drug since it is also crucial to the healthy functioning of many immune cells in the body, not just B cells gone bad...

Common Cancer Vaccine Ingredient Diverts T Cells From Tumors

Date: Mar-05-2013
Cancer vaccines that attempt to stimulate an immune system assault fail because the killer T cells aimed at tumors instead find the vaccination site a more inviting target, scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center report in Nature Medicine. A common substance used in many cancer vaccines to boost immune attack betrays the cause by facilitating a buildup of T cells at the vaccination site, which then summon more T cells to help with the perceived threat...

Investigators Identify Genetic Risk Factors For Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Date: Mar-05-2013
An international group of investigators has identified seven new genetic regions associated with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a common cause of blindness in older individuals. The findings, reported online in Nature Genetics, could point to new biological pathways and therapeutic targets for AMD. The AMD Gene Consortium, a network of 18 research groups supported by the National Eye Institute, also confirmed 12 genetic loci identified in previous studies. The study represents the most comprehensive genome-wide analysis of genetic variations associated with AMD...