Health News

Risk Of Stroke Found In Pre-Diabetic Patients

Date: Jun-11-2012
According to a study published online in British Medical Journal (BMJ), individuals who are pre-diabetic may be at increased risk of stroke. Almost all people who suffer from type 2 diabetes had pre-diabetes first. Pre-diabetes is characterized by higher than normal blood glucose levels. In the UK, it is estimated that 7 million people are affected by the condition and 79 million people in the United States. Like people with type 2 diabetes, individuals with pre-diabetes are at risk for high cholesterol, obesity and hypertension...

Perjeta For Breast Cancer Gets Roche's Genentech An FDA Approval

Date: Jun-11-2012
Last week, Roche and Genentech announced results from its Phase III trial of trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) which slows progress of metastatic breast cancer, they hope to have FDA approval later in the year. In further news, Perjeta, also for treating breast cancer, has been given FDA approval also for treating HER2-postive late-stage (metastatic) breast cancer. Perjeta is meant for patients that have not previously been treated for metastatic breast cancer with an anti-HER2 therapy or chemotherapy...

Early Tumor Shrinkage With Cetuximab Correlates With Prolonged Survival In Metastatic Colorectal Cancer

Date: Jun-11-2012
Early tumor shrinkage in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer treated first line with the EGFR inhibitor cetuximab (Erbitux) is associated with prolonged survival, show results reported at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting (1-5 June 2012; Chicago, USA). Patients with metastatic colorectal cancer taking part in the AIO KRK0104 trial were randomised to capecitabine plus oxaliplatin (CAPOX) or irinotecan (CAPIRI) as first-line treatment...

Is Exercise "Useless" In Treating Depression?

Date: Jun-11-2012
The publication of a new study in the BMJ on 6 June triggered a flurry of headlines suggesting that "exercise doesn't help depression". However, reducing the study's specific, detailed findings to a media-friendly sound bite has run the risk of misleading people, because the researchers did not set out to test the effect of exercise on depression...

Diabetes Could Be Reduced With Aggressive Treatment Of Pre-Diabetes, Study

Date: Jun-11-2012
Treating pre-diabetes early and aggressively with intensive lifestyle changes or medication could be an effective way to significantly reduce the chances of developing type 2 diabetes later. This was the implication of a new study reported online first in The Lancet on Saturday that shows even when people with pre-diabetes achieved a temporary return to normal glucose levels, they were 56% less likely to develop type 2 diabetes 5.7 years later. The Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study (DPPOS) report is part of a Lancet theme issue on diabetes...

Junk Food May Be More Appealing To Tired Brains

Date: Jun-11-2012
A new study that used brain scans of people who had not had enough sleep suggests junk food may be more appealing to tired brains.  Scientists found that when normal weight volunteers looked at unhealthy food during a period of sleep restriction, the reward centers in their brains were more active than when they looked at the pictures after having slept regularly...

Chemotherapy Resistance And Overexpression Of Proteins 14-3-3

Date: Jun-11-2012
Certain proteins, such as 14-3-3, conserve their basic functions of cell cycle control in diverse organisms, from worms to humans. In a study led by Julian Cer0n and Simo Schwartz Jr, researchers from the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) and the Research Institute of Vall d'Hebron (VHIR) respectively, have described germ line functions of par-5, which is one of the two 14-3-3 proteins existing in Caenorhabditis elegans, worms used as experimental model in genetic studies...

In Serious Road Traffic Accidents, Patients More Likely To Survive If Taken Directly To A Trauma Centre

Date: Jun-11-2012
People who are seriously injured in a car accident are more than 30 per cent more likely to survive at least 48 hours if they are taken directly to a trauma centre than those who are taken first to a non-trauma centre, new research has found. However, fewer than half of people seriously injured in car accidents in Ontario are taken directly from the scene to a trauma centre. In addition, only half of those taken to the nearest hospital are later transferred to a trauma centre after being assessed and stabilized. These findings by Dr. Avery Nathens, trauma director at St...

Researchers Develop And Test New Anti-Cancer Vaccine

Date: Jun-11-2012
Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center have developed and tested in mice a synthetic vaccine and found it effective in killing human papillomavirus-derived cancer, a virus linked to cervical cancers among others. The research was published in a recent issue of Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy. "Vaccines for cancer can be good alternatives to conventional therapies that result in serious side-effects and are rarely effective against advanced disease," said Esteban Celis, M.D., Ph.D., senior member and professor in Moffitt's Immunology Program...

High Levels Of Omega-3 Fatty Acids Found In Breast Milk Of Amerindian Women

Date: Jun-11-2012
Working with researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and the Cincinnati Children's Hospital, anthropologists at UC Santa Barbara have found high levels of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids in the breast milk of economically impoverished Amerindian woman as compared to women in the United States. Their research appears in the current issue of the journal Maternal and Child Nutrition. The study compared breast milk fatty acid composition in U.S. and Tsimane women...