Health News

Darwin's Principles Say Cancer Will Always Evolve To Resist Treatment But Natural Selection May Also Hold Key To Thwarting Drug Resistance

Date: Jun-25-2012
According to researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center, cancer is subject to the evolutionary processes laid out by Charles Darwin in his concept of natural selection. Natural selection was the process identified by Darwin by which nature selects certain physical attributes, or phenotypes, to pass on to offspring to better "fit" the organism to the environment. As applied to cancer, natural selection, a key principle of modern biology, suggests that malignancies in distinct "microhabitats" promote the evolution of resistance to therapies...

Poor Mothers Favor Daughters According To Study

Date: Jun-25-2012
Poor mothers will invest more resources in daughters, who stand a greater chance of increasing their status through marriage than do sons, suggests a study in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Masako Fujita, Michigan State University anthropologist, and her fellow researchers tested the breast milk of mothers in northern Kenya and found that poor mothers produced fattier milk for their daughters than for their sons. On the contrary, mothers who were better off financially favored sons over daughters...

Examining The Biology Of Tumor-Derived Microvesicles

Date: Jun-25-2012
A new paper by Crislyn D'Souza-Schorey, professor of biological sciences at the University of Notre Dame, discusses the biology of tumor-derived microvesicles and their clinical application as circulating biomarkers. Microvesicles are membrane-bound sacs released by tumor cells and can be detected in the body fluids of cancer patients. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the incidence of cancer will reach approximately 9 million deaths in 2015. The rising prevalence of the disease is a major factor that drives the growth of the oncology biomarkers market...

Risk Of Cancer Lower In Multiple Sclerosis Patients

Date: Jun-25-2012
Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients appear to have a lower cancer risk, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of British Columbia and Vancouver Coastal Health. The study, published in the journal Brain, is the first to investigate overall cancer risk in MS patients in North America...

Bariatric Surgery Achieves Diabetes Type 2 Remission In 67% Of Cases

Date: Jun-24-2012
67% of gastric bypass patients were in complete remission for diabetes type 2 after 12 months, researchers from the University of Massachusetts Medical Center reported at the 29th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS). They added that 96% of those not already on insulin and who did not have lower pancreatic function went into remission after weight-loss surgery within 12 months. Remission was less likely among those with a glucose disposition index (GDI) 30% of normal...

High Sugar Cereals Aggressively Marketed At Kids, Despite Pledge

Date: Jun-24-2012
Cereals aimed at kids are generally more nutritious now, but cereal companies are spending more on adverts aimed at encouraging children to eat less nutritious products, researchers from Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity revealed in a new report. The authors added that from 2008 to 2011 there was a 34% increase in cereal advertising aimed at children. Cereal companies, including Kellogg, Post, and General Mills, had pledged to reduce ad spending on unhealthy products aimed at children as part of the industry-led Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (2006)...

Functional Links Between Autism And Genes Explained

Date: Jun-24-2012
A pioneering report of genome-wide gene expression in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) finds genetic changes that help explain why one person has an ASD and another does not. The study, published by Cell Press in The American Journal of Human Genetics, pinpoints ASD risk factors by comparing changes in gene expression with DNA mutation data in the same individuals. This innovative approach is likely to pave the way for future personalized medicine, not just for ASD but also for any disease with a genetic component...

Faulty Cancer Science With Misidentified And Contaminated Cell Lines

Date: Jun-24-2012
Modern cancer therapies start in cells - researchers compare cancer samples to healthy cells to discover how cancer is genetically different, and use cell lines to test promising new drugs. However, a University of Colorado Cancer Center study published in the journal Gynecologic Oncology shows that due to a high rate of contamination, misidentification and redundancy in widely available cell lines, researchers may be drawing faulty conclusions...

Study Uncovers New Tools For Targeting Genes Linked To Autism

Date: Jun-24-2012
UCLA researchers have combined two tools - gene expression and the use of peripheral blood - to expand scientists' arsenal of methods for pinpointing genes that play a role in autism. Published in the online edition of the American Journal of Human Genetics, the findings could help scientists zero in on genes that offer future therapeutic targets for the disorder. "Technological advances now allow us to rapidly sequence the genome and uncover dozens of rare mutations," explained principal investigator Dr...

Study Explains How Stress Can Boost Immune System

Date: Jun-24-2012
A study spearheaded by a Stanford University School of Medicine scientist has tracked the trajectories of key immune cells in response to short-term stress and traced, in great detail, how hormones triggered by such stress enhance immune readiness. The study, conducted in rats, adds weight to evidence that immune responsiveness is heightened, rather than suppressed as many believe, by the so-called "fight-or-flight" response. The study's findings provide a thorough overview of how a triad of stress hormones affects the main cell subpopulations of the immune system...