Health News

Survival Of Breast Cancer Patients With Brain Metastases May Be Improved By Combination Treatment

Date: Nov-05-2012
Adding an angiogenesis inhibitor to treatment with a HER2-inhibiting drug could improve outcomes for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer who develop brain metastases. In their report published online in PNAS Plus, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators report the first preclinical study combining antiangiogenic and anti-HER2 drugs in an animal model of brain metastatic breast cancer...

New Target Identified For Lung Cancer Treatment

Date: Nov-05-2012
A team of UC Davis investigators has discovered a protein on the surface of lung cancer cells that could prove to be an important new target for anti-cancer therapy. A series of experiments in mice with lung cancer showed that specific targeting of the protein with monoclonal antibodies reduced the size of tumors, lowered the occurrence of metastases and substantially lengthened survival time. The findings will be published in the November issue of Cancer Research...

Psychological Science Examines Social Perception And Behavior

Date: Nov-05-2012
We humans organize ourselves in myriad kinds of social groups, from scout troops and sports teams to networks of friends, colleagues, or classmates. But how do these social groups work? How do we decide whom to trust and whom to follow? And how do we deal with people that don't seem to fit the norms of our social groups? New research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, explores these issues by examining various facets of social perception and behavior...

Results In Mouse Model Offer Promising Therapy For Huntington's Disease

Date: Nov-05-2012
There's new hope in the fight against Huntington's disease. A group of researchers that includes scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have designed a compound that suppresses symptoms of the devastating disease in mice. The compound is a synthetic antioxidant that targets mitochondria, an organelle within cells that serves as a cell's power plant. Oxidative damage to mitochondria is implicated in many neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Huntington's...

Blood Tests Predict Level Of Enzymes That Facilitate Disease Progression In Atherosclerosis, Osteoporosis, Cancer

Date: Nov-05-2012
Predicting how atherosclerosis, osteoporosis or cancer will progress or respond to drugs in individual patients is difficult. In a new study, researchers took another step toward that goal by developing a technique able to predict from a blood sample the amount of cathepsins - protein-degrading enzymes known to accelerate these diseases - a specific person would produce. This patient-specific information may be helpful in developing personalized approaches to treat these tissue-destructive diseases...

Promising Results In Three Ongoing Breast Cancer Trials

Date: Nov-05-2012
A malarial drug is showing promise in stopping breast cancer before it starts, Mason researchers are discovering during a clinical trial. "The bold long-term goal is a short-term oral treatment that prevents breast cancer by killing the precursor cells that initiate breast cancer," says Lance Liotta, co-director of Mason's Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine (CAPMM). "And it's looking hopeful." The PINC trial (Preventing Invasive Neoplasia with Chloroquine) targets ductal carcinoma in situ, or DCIS, the most common type of pre-invasive breast cancer...

Study Examines Parental Behaviors That Create Anxious Children

Date: Nov-05-2012
Parents with social anxiety disorder are more likely than parents with other forms of anxiety to engage in behaviors that put their children at high risk for developing angst of their own, according to a small study of parent-child pairs conducted at Johns Hopkins Children's Center. Authors of the federally funded study say past research has linked parental anxiety to anxiety in children, but it remained unclear whether people with certain anxiety disorders engaged more often in anxiety-provoking behaviors. Based on the new study findings, they do...

Researchers Find Three Unique Cell-To-Cell Bonds

Date: Nov-05-2012
The human body has more than a trillion cells, most of them connected, cell to neighboring cells. How, exactly, do those bonds work? What happens when a pulling force is applied to those bonds? How long before they break? Does a better understanding of all those bonds and their responses to force have implications for fighting disease? Sanjeevi Sivasankar, an Iowa State assistant professor of physics and astronomy and an associate of the U.S...

Liver Transplantation And Living Donors

Date: Nov-05-2012
Researchers in Japan report that health-related quality of life (HRQOL) for donors following living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) was better than the general Japanese population (the norm). This study - one of the largest to date - found that donors who developed two or more medical problems (co-morbidities) after donation had significantly decreased long-term HRQOL. Full findings are published in the November issue of Liver Transplantation, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD)...

If You Have Doubts Before Marriage, Don't Ignore Them

Date: Nov-05-2012
Couples about to tie the knot shouldn't ignore nagging doubts about getting married, warns a University of Alberta researcher. This conclusion appears to concur with the one suggested by a similar piece published in the Journal of Family Psychology in September 2012, which indicated that pre-wedding jitters may be a sign of trouble ahead. Commenting on this new research, Matthew Johnson, who co-authored the study while at Kansas State University, said, "if you are having doubts about the relationship, just ignoring them may make a difference years down the road"...