Health News

PCORI approves $191 million to support patient-centered comparative effectiveness research

Date: Dec-19-2013
The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) has approved a total of $97.3 million in new funding for 53 comparative effectiveness research (CER) studies designed to answer questions of most importance to patients and those who care for them. It has also approved $93.5 million to build and expand the individual research data networks that will form PCORnet, an ambitious new national patient-centered clinical research network to facilitate CER.

Scientists unlock prostate cancer protein in move which could lead to improved cancer vaccines

Date: Dec-19-2013
UK scientists have identified how a specific region of a prostate-related protein can be used to trigger the body's immune response against prostate cancer. The study by scientists at Nottingham Trent University - and published in the European Journal of Immunology - could pave the way for new and improved vaccines for prostate cancer. The work focused on the prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP) protein, which is present in more than 90% of prostate tumours.

Improved anti-inflammatory therapy for acute MS relapses

Date: Dec-19-2013
Last week, the First-in-Human study with 2B3- 201, to-BBB's second product, was initiated at the Centre for Human Drug Research (CHDR) in Leiden, the Netherlands. This Phase I trial is designed to determine the safety profile, and will also give a first glance at the pharmacological profile. In this double-blind crossover study, 18 healthy volunteers are assigned to three cohorts in which they will receive an ascending single dose of 2B3-201, as well as placebo and standard of care methylprednisolone.

Breast surgeons report improved visualization of treatment area for radiation therapy

Date: Dec-19-2013
The BioZorb™ three-dimensional surgical marker dramatically improves visualization of the treatment area for radiation planning and therapy, according to a presentation at the prestigious San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium 2013. The scientific poster reports that the tissue marker is easy to place, safe to use and well tolerated by patients. In the presentation, a series of consecutive early-stage breast cancer patients was implanted with the device at the time of lumpectomy. The 3D BioZorb marker was reported to provide clinical advantages for surgeons and radiation oncologists.

Sixty percent of 12th graders do not view regular marijuana use as harmful

Date: Dec-19-2013
The percentage of high-schoolers who see great risk from being regular marijuana users has dropped dramatically in the past 10 years, according to this year's Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey, which measures drug use and attitudes among the nation's eighth-, 10th-, and 12th-graders. The change in attitudes is reflected in continued high rates of marijuana use in all three grades and could predict higher use in future years, based upon past MTF data showing an association between softening attitudes and increased use of marijuana. The survey reports that 39.

Up to one in three attendances to Emergency Departments are alcohol related in Australia

Date: Dec-19-2013
A snapshot survey taken at 92 Emergency Departments (EDs) across Australia at 2am last Saturday morning has revealed that 1 out of 7 patients attended as a result of the harmful use of alcohol; in some hot spots as many as I in 3 were alcohol related. Researchers from the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) conducted the survey, which provides the first national glimpse at the amount of alcohol presentations being treated in our EDs, especially over the festive season.

Scientists discover genetic marker of drug-resistant malaria

Date: Dec-19-2013
An international team has found a genetic marker for the malaria-causing parasites that are resistant to artemisinin, an important drug for treating the mosquito-borne disease.Among the researchers, who report their findings in a recent online issue of Nature, is a team from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the US National Institutes of Health.The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 627,000 people died of malaria in 2012.Artemisinin, combined with other drugs, is an important first line of defense against malaria.

French National Health Authority recommends routine vaccination with Zostavax® to protect seniors against shingles

Date: Dec-19-2013
The French National High Council for Public Health (HCSP) has recommended routine shingles vaccination for seniors from 65 to 74 years of age. In addition, during the first year a catch-up will be proposed to 75-79 year-olds[1].The recommendation acknowledges the heavy burden of shingles and its often-associated condition, long-lasting pain called post-herpetic neuralgia. The High Council recognizes the significant scientific evidence that vaccination is the only health option that prevents both incidence and severity of disease.

Lack of research in pain medicine cause for action, UF researcher says

Date: Dec-19-2013
The physicians most responsible for mitigating pain and shepherding people through surgery have not been publishing many research papers, which means fewer advances in the field, a group of University of Florida Health physicians and their colleagues have found. "The positive thing is that we are trying to do something about it," said Robert W. Hurley, M.D., Ph.D., an associate professor of anesthesiology in the UF College of Medicine and chief of pain medicine at UF Health. He and his colleagues Patrick J. Tighe, M.D., of the UF College of Medicine department of anesthesiology; Phebe S.

New guideline development checklist for health researchers

Date: Dec-19-2013
Researchers hope that a comprehensive new checklist will help guideline developers/organizations around the world create and implement better recommendations for health care. The guideline development checklist, created by an international team of researchers, is published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).This new checklist aims to fill the need for practical steps, tools and resources to help guideline developers create high-quality health care guidelines.