Fox Chase Cancer Center researchers have presented preliminary results of a clinical trial in which women received a two-week shorter course of radiation therapy than the current standard following a lumpectomy. The study was presented today at the annual Charles A. Coltman Jr. San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.
Radiation therapy daily for six or seven weeks after a lumpectomy is the standard course of treatment for many women with breast cancer who have had breast-sparing sur
Six months of treatment with celecoxib (Celebrex) in women at risk of developing breast cancer results in the reduction of estrogen receptor expression in breast cells, a research team at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center has found.
The surprising insight – that celecoxib may regulate a cell’s use of estrogen – could help explain the drug’s observed anticancer properties, says the study’s lead author, Banu Arun, M.D., associate professor in the Department of B
Identifying asymptomatic people with genital herpes infection through targeted screening of high-risk groups may prevent disease transmission. However, widespread screening of pregnant women is unlikely to reduce the occurrence of herpes in newborns, according to an article in the January 1 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, now available online.
Herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) infects more than one-fifth of the United States population, but about 90 percent of those peop
Coral reefs around the world could expand in size by up to a third in response to increased ocean warming and the greenhouse effect, according to Australian scientists.
“Our analysis suggests that ocean warming will foster considerably faster future rates of coral reef growth that will eventually exceed pre-industrial rates by as much as 35 per cent by 2100,” says Dr Ben McNeil, an oceanographer from the University of News South Wales. “Our finding stands in stark contrast to prev
Scientists use fluorescence to track ultrafine particles taken up by white blood cells
In some of the first work documenting the uptake of carbon nanotubes by living cells, a team of chemists and life scientists from Rice University, the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and the Texas Heart Institute have selectively detected low concentrations of nanotubes in laboratory cell cultures.
The research appears in the Dec. 8 issue of the Journal of the Ame
A new drug candidate previously shown to reduce harmful side effects of the autoimmune disease lupus also may be useful in treating psoriasis.
In a study published online Dec. 3 in the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, scientists from the University of Michigan report that a compound called benzodiazepine-423 (Bz-423)—a chemical cousin of the anti-anxiety drugs Valiumâ and Xanaxâ—suppresses cell growth in a model of psoriasis. In psoriasis, cells multiply
Cell replacement therapy offers a novel and powerful medical technology. A type of embryonic stem cell, called a neural crest stem cell, that persists into adulthood in hair follicles was recently discovered by Maya Sieber-Blum, Ph.D., of the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milos Grim, MD Ph.D., of Charles University Prague, and their collaborators.
The discovery – reported recently in Developmental Dynamics, a journal of the American Association of Anatomists published by John W
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have successfully tested the first gene therapy for skin cancer, using a mouse model for the disease xeroderma pigmentosum, or XP.
Their results, available online and to be published in an upcoming issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show promise for similar gene therapy to be pursued in children suffering from this rare disorder.
XP is a debilitating disease in which patients must avoi
Using food, UCI psychologist Elizabeth Loftus demonstrates false beliefs can affect people’s later thoughts and behaviors
For the millions of Americans who worry about overeating during the holiday season, there may be hope: A new UC Irvine study suggests changing their memories of food may be a way to influence their eating habits.
With food as the subject, UCI psychologist Elizabeth Loftus conducted the first scientific demonstration of the effect of false beliefs on
New easier-to-read road signs based on Penn State research are appearing across the U.S. and Canada.
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has approved the interim use of a new typeface, called Clearview, for signs on all public streets, highways, and byways. New signs bearing Clearview, instead of the old familiar Highway Gothic, already appear on Routes 322 and 80 in Pennsylvania near Penn State, on highways throughout Texas and in Canada.
A decade in development,
Scientists have found a “molecular Achilles heel” in the organism that causes pneumonia, providing a target for the development of a new class of antibiotics that could eventually eradicate the disease. Their report is scheduled to appear in the Dec. 28 edition of Biochemistry, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.
“Streptococcus pneumoniae places an enormous burden on the welfare of humanity,” says Thomas Leyh, Ph.D.,
A newly discovered genetic defect might represent an important risk factor for major depression, a condition which effects 20 million people in the U.S., according to Duke University Medical Center researchers. The mutation in the gene — whose protein product plays a primary role in synthesizing the brain chemical serotonin — could lead to the first diagnostic test for genetic predisposition to depression, the team said.
“Abnormalities in brain levels of serotonin have been wide
Advanced ceramics are wonderful materials – they withstand temperatures that would melt steel and resist most corrosive chemicals. If only they weren’t so brittle. Poor resistance to fracture damage has been the major drawback to the widespread use of advanced ceramics as structural materials. Help, however, may be on the way.
A collaboration of scientists led by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has uncovered cl
Northwestern University researchers have identified a key molecular “signal” that allows malarial parasites to release virulence proteins inside human red blood cells.
The investigators, led by Kasturi Haldar and N. Luisa Hiller, also found that the process by which the malarial parasite remodels red blood cells is far more complex than scientists previously had realized. Haldar is Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor in Pathology and professor of microbiology-immunology a
A comprehensive examination of research by a panel of independent experts finds insufficient evidence to draw a link between serious adverse health consequences and commonly used ’silver’ fillings
For many of us, having a dental cavity filled can be a frightening experience. Others take such dental repair in stride. Regardless of how you approach a trip to the dentist, you can take comfort in a new report, which concludes that the peer-reviewed scientific and medical literature pub
Levodopa is the most powerful drug available to treat the symptoms of Parkinson disease, and almost all patients with the disease will eventually need to take it. But there has long been controversy about when it should be started, in part because of concern that the medicine itself might cause further damage to the brain cells that are impaired in this disease. To resolve the controversy, a Columbia University scientist led a team of experts from the Parkinson Study Group to study levodopa’s
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