Health News

Researchers Gather To Discuss Therapy Alternative For Breast Cancer

Date: Feb-07-2013
Proton therapy evaluated as a treatment option Radiation oncologists from some of the country's leading cancer centers will meet in Phoenix later this week to discuss the appropriate use of proton beam therapy in the treatment of breast cancer. Proton therapy is a highly precise form of radiation currently being used to treat a number of cancers and non-cancerous tumors...

Alzheimer's Prevalence May Triple By 2050, USA

Date: Feb-07-2013
The USA could be facing an Alzheimer's explosion as the baby boom generation ages, placing a massive burden on society, researchers from the Rush Institute for Healthy Aging at Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, reported in the journal Neurology. The authors specifically mentioned a tripling of the number of Americans with Alzheimer's disease by 2050. Co-author Jennifer Weuve, MPH, ScD, said: "This increase is due to an aging baby boom generation...

Prostate Cancer Cell Growth Arrested

Date: Feb-07-2013
Previously poorly investigated signalling pathway is critical for proliferation of cancer cells A previously poorly investigated signalling pathway is crucial for the growth and proliferation of prostate cancer cells. An international research team discovered this when studying the enzyme "soluble adenylyl cyclase" that produces the second messenger molecule cAMP. When the scientists inhibited the enzyme, the cancer cell proliferation was suppressed. The team led by Dr...

Vitamin D Deficiency An Increased Risk In Obesity

Date: Feb-07-2013
Obesity can lead to a lack of vitamin D circulating in the body, according to a study led by the UCL Institute of Child Health (ICH). Efforts to tackle obesity should thus also help to reduce levels of vitamin D deficiency in the population, says the lead investigator of the study, Dr Elina Hypponen. While previous studies have linked vitamin D deficiency with obesity, the ICH-led paper, published in the journal PLOS Medicine, sought to establish the direction of causality i.e. whether a lack of vitamin D triggers a weight gain, or whether obesity leads to the deficiency...

Gold Nanoparticle Created That Can Transport Powerful Radioactive Particles Directly To Tumors For Treatment

Date: Feb-07-2013
We've all heard that "it's not wise to use a cannon to kill a mosquito." But what if you could focus the cannon's power to concentrate power into a tiny space? In a new study, University of Missouri researchers have demonstrated the ability to harness powerful radioactive particles and direct them toward small cancer tumors while doing negligible damage to healthy organs and tissues. The study is being published this week in PLOS ONE, an international, peer-reviewed and open-access publication...

Risk Of Divorce Increased When There Is Both Heavy And Incompatible Alcohol Consumption

Date: Feb-07-2013
High levels of drinking have repeatedly been shown to predict divorce. The most cited explanation for this is that excessive alcohol use disrupts daily tasks and functioning, and increases spousal conflicts. A study of the effects of drinking among husbands versus wives, and of similar versus dissimilar drinking in couples, has found that both level of drinking and compatibility in drinking can have an influence on divorce. Results will be published in the May 2013 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View...

The Risks And Benefits Of CT In Young Adults

Date: Feb-07-2013
The underlying medical conditions facing young adults who undergo computed tomography (CT) exams represent a significantly greater health risk than that of radiation-induced cancer from CT, according to a new study published online in the journal Radiology. CT utilization has grown approximately 10 percent annually over the last 15 years in the U.S., raising fears of an increase in radiation-induced cancers. However, discussions of radiation-induced cancer risk often fail to take into account the condition of the patients being imaged, according to Susanna Lee, M.D., Ph.D...

Symptoms Of Mini Stroke Quickly Fade, But 10 To 15 Percent Will Suffer Full Strokes Within 3 Months

Date: Feb-07-2013
Each year, as many as 500,000 Americans experience mini strokes called transient ischemic attacks (TIAs). Symptoms quickly go away, usually within an hour, and many people don't seek treatment. But 10 to 15 percent of people who experience TIAs will experience full-blown strokes within three months, and 40 percent of these strokes will occur in the first 24 hours, according to an article by three Loyola University Medical Center neurologists in the journal Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics...

Essential Radiotherapy Not Received By One In Four Lung Cancer Patients In Andalusia, Spain

Date: Feb-07-2013
A study conducted by University of Granada and Virgen de las Nieves U.H. researchers has revealed that in Andalusian public hospitals radiotherapy is provided to lung cancer patients with a frequency 25 % below that established by clinical protocols. Failure to provide such treatment results in a total of 3,000 survival-day loss for all lung cancer patients...

Outdoor Particulate Pollution Linked To Impaired Fetal Growth

Date: Feb-07-2013
Mothers who are exposed to particulate air pollution of the type emitted by vehicles, urban heating and coal power plants are significantly more likely to bear children of low birth weight, according to an international study led by co-principal investigator Tracey J. Woodruff, PhD, MPH, professor of obstetrics and gynecology and reproductive sciences at UC San Francisco along with Jennifer Parker, PhD, of the National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...