Health News

Researchers Aim To Eliminate Invasive Cervical Cancer

Date: Oct-01-2012
Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center and colleagues at the University of South Florida and The Ohio State University have published a paper in the September issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention that provides an overview on preventing invasive cervical cancer.  "The good news is that over the past several decades, the incidence of invasive cervical cancer has declined dramatically," said senior author Anna R. Giuliano, Ph.D., director of Moffitt's Center for Infection Research in Cancer and senior member of the Cancer Epidemiology Department...

Melatonin Supplementation Significantly Improved Sleep In Hypertensive Patients Taking Beta-Blockers

Date: Oct-01-2012
Over 20 million people in the United States take beta-blockers, a medication commonly prescribed for cardiovascular issues, anxiety, hypertension and more. Many of these same people also have trouble sleeping, a side effect possibly related to the fact that these medications suppress night-time melatonin production. Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) have found that melatonin supplementation significantly improved sleep in hypertensive patients taking beta-blockers. The study was electronically published and will be published in the October print issue of SLEEP...

Conditionally Reprogrammed Cells Act As Stem-Like Epithelial Cells And Offer Promise For Personalized Medicine

Date: Oct-01-2012
Using a newly discovered cell technology, Georgetown University Medical Center researchers were able to identify an effective therapy for a patient with a rare type of lung tumor. The single case study, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, provides a snapshot of the new technology's promising potential; however, researchers strongly caution that it could be years before validation studies are completed and regulatory approval received for its broader use...

All HIV Patients, Regardless Of Demographics And Behavioral Risk, Benefit From Effective HIV Care

Date: Oct-01-2012
Improved treatment options, a multi-pronged treatment model, and federal funding from the Ryan White Program have helped an inner city Baltimore clinic improve outcomes for HIV patients across all groups, including those most often hardest hit by the disease. Published in Clinical Infectious Diseases, the results from the 15-year analysis of patients at a clinic serving a primarily poor, African-American patient population with high rates of injection drug use demonstrate what state-of-the-art HIV care can achieve, given appropriate support...

Kids' Exercise Interventions Show Negligible Impact

Date: Sep-30-2012
Interventions like extra exercise classes that aim to increase physical activity levels in children as a way to tackle the rising problem of obesity and overweight in youngsters appears to be having only a small, almost negligible effect, according to a review published online in BMJ on Thursday...

For ALK-Positive Lung Cancer, Phase III Trial Shows Crizotinib Superior To Single-Agent Chemotherapy

Date: Sep-30-2012
The results of a new phase III trial show that crizotinib, a targeted therapy, is a more effective treatment than standard chemotherapy for patients with advanced, ALK-positive lung cancer, researchers said at the ESMO 2012 Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology in Vienna. Rearrangements of the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene are found in about 5% of all lung cancers. In previous uncontrolled studies, crizotinib has been shown to induce significant clinical responses in patients with advanced ALK-positive lung cancer...

New Weapons In The Fight Against Cancer

Date: Sep-30-2012
Where are the most promising developments from first-in-human studies? Several new first-in-man studies for drugs targeted against a range of cancers were released at the ESMO 2012 Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology in Vienna. "These studies represent our first glance at some of the drugs that may improve cancer treatment in coming years," said Prof Ahmad Awada, head of the medical oncology clinic at Jules Bordet Institute, Brussels, Belgium, chair of the ESMO 2012 Developmental Therapeutics track...

Discovery Of Leptin In Fruit Flies Has Implications For Obesity And Diabetes Research

Date: Sep-30-2012
Researchers have discovered in fruit flies a key metabolic hormone thought to be the exclusive property of vertebrates. The hormone, leptin, is a nutrient sensor, regulating energy intake and output and ultimately controlling appetite. As such, it is of keen interest to researchers investigating obesity and diabetes on the molecular level. But until now, complex mammals such as mice have been the only models for investigating the mechanisms of this critical hormone. These new findings suggest that fruit flies can provide significant insights into the molecular underpinnings of fat sensing...

Our Brains Hear Sounds But Often Miss Their Cessation

Date: Sep-30-2012
Our brains are better at hearing new and approaching sounds than detecting when a sound disappears, according to a study published today funded by the Wellcome Trust. The findings could explain why parents often fail to notice the sudden quiet from the playroom that usually accompanies the onset of mischief. Hearing plays an important role as an early warning system to rapidly direct our attention to new events...

The Immune System And Brain Tumors - Potential Breakthrough

Date: Sep-30-2012
In what could be a breakthrough in the treatment of deadly brain tumors, a team of researchers from Barrow Neurological Institute and Arizona State University has discovered that the immune system reacts differently to different types of brain tissue, shedding light on why cancerous brain tumors are so difficult to treat. The large, two-part study, led by Barrow research fellow Sergiy Kushchayev, MD under the guidance of Dr. Mark Preul, Director of Neurosurgery Research, was published in Cancer Management and Research...