Mayo Clinic and British researchers have developed a new approach to cancer vaccines that purposely kills healthy skin cells to target the immune system against tumors. The new approach has eradicated skin cancer tumors in mice. The approach and results challenge conventional thinking on the creation of cancer vaccines. Their report on the “heat shock” vaccine therapy appears in the August issue of Nature Biotechnology, Results are promising because multiple rounds of treatment eradicated skin cancer
A simple blood test can now predict the probability of success for a procedure that can save the lower leg of diabetic patients facing amputation according to a study presented at the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society’s (AOFAS) annual meeting today.
The study, conducted by Alastair Younger, M.D. and Colin Meakin, M.D. at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia, examined 21 patients with diabetes who received successful partial foot amputations and 21 diabetic pa
Patients with diabetic foot ulcers experience a high level of depression and a lower quality of life according to a study presented at the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society’s (AOFAS) annual summer meeting here today.
Diabetic foot ulcers (DFU) are sores on the feet that often occur in people with diabetes. The abnormally high levels of blood sugar in these people damage blood vessels, causing them to thicken and leak. Over time, this makes the vessels less able to supply the body,
For the estimated 15 million Americans with eczema – a chronic skin disease in which the skin becomes itchy with red patches of inflamed skin – finding effective, long-lasting treatments was a difficult and frustrating process. Now, two new non-steroidal medications recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are improving the quality of life for eczema patients of all ages and offering hope as potential treatment options for patients with other hard-to-treat skin conditions.
For the estimated six to seven million Americans with psoriasis, the warm-weather months of summer might be the most challenging. Instead of being able to cover up their condition with sweaters or pants, psoriasis patients – forced to keep cool by wearing short-sleeved shirts and shorts – find themselves revealing the raised, thickened patches of red skin and silvery-white scales that they try so desperately to hide. Now, new treatment advances offer patients more hope in finding a life-long solutio
Every year, Americans spend millions of dollars on anti-aging products in their unwavering quest to look younger. But treating stubborn wrinkles and fine lines often require more help than is available at the cosmetics counter. In the last few months, several new skin fillers have received approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treating facial wrinkles and are safe and effective options for combating aging skin.
Speaking at ACADEMY ’04, the American Academy of Dermatol
For the approximately 30 percent of the U.S. population affected by venous disease, covering up their varicose and spider veins with clothing or cosmetics can be a real pain. But the physical pain caused by this common medical condition is what drives most patients to seek treatment.
Speaking at ACADEMY ’04, the American Academy of Dermatology’s summer scientific session in New York, dermatologist Mitchel P. Goldman, M.D., an associate clinical professor of dermatology at the University o
A drug once considered for cancer chemotherapy is advancing in clinical trials to test its effectiveness in fighting a virus from the herpes family that threatens transplant patients.
University of Michigan professors Leroy Townsend and John Drach developed the compound maribavir. It is licensed by ViroPharma, which announced today that maribavir is headed for phase 2 clinical trials for the treatment of cytomegalovirus infection in stem cell transplant patients. New drugs go thro
The presence and severity of peripheral arterial disease, as measured by comparing blood pressures in the arm and leg, and the nature of the leg symptoms a patient experiences can be used to identify those at highest risk of decline in walking endurance, according to a study in the July 28 issue of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a chronic condition that results from narrowing of the vessels that supply oxygen-rich blood to
The latest scientific and clinical advancements in head and neck cancer, one of the most deadly forms of this disease, will be presented at the 6th International Conference on Head and Neck Cancer being held August 7-11, 2004, at the Wardman Park Marriott in Washington, DC. The meeting, sponsored by the American Head and Neck Society, will host world renowned experts in the diagnosis, treatment, reconstruction, rehabilitation, and basic science of head and neck oncology.
Head and neck canc
U.S. adults spent an average of three days a month feeling “sad, blue, or depressed”, during 1995-2000, according to a study published today in Health and Quality of Life Outcomes.
“People who reported a higher number of sad, blue or depressed days also reported engaging in unhealthy behaviours such as cigarette smoking and physical inactivity,” write the authors of the study. “Although most people who report depressive symptoms several days each month probably do not have a diagno
Having been a victim of stuttering, only able to relieve the pressure of the inability to enunciate my thoughts at a young age through concentration and replacement of words, this topic has special meaning. After quite a long time spent in a career in broadcasting where speaking was what I was paid for, the hope of conquering stuttering is not only strong but it is mandatory. It’s causes are few while it’s consequences are vast. It is time for research to concentrate on causes and not on w
The preferred treatment for hepatitis C, peg-interferon and ribavirin, is safe for people who are also infected with HIV, according to a new study in the July 29 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. Moreover, this treatment proved superior for the treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in HIV-coinfected persons when compared with the previously accepted treatment, standard interferon and ribavirin.
The study compared the effectiveness of two forms of interferon: a once-weekly dose of
Nearly everyone has heard the popular notion that the blind hear better than the sighted – possibly to make up for their inability to see. Now, researchers at the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI), McGill University and at the Université de Montréal have shown that the blind really do hear notes more precisely but only if they became blind when they were very young. Their findings, Pitch discrimination in the Early Blind, were published in the journal Nature (July 15th).
Dr. Robert Zat
As many as 65 percent of stroke patients are likely to be treated with antihypertensive medications during the first four days of hospitalization, despite current guidelines of the American Stoke Association that recommend against treating all but the most severe cases of hypertension during the first few days following a stroke. A recent retrospective study found that nearly all stroke patients who were being treated for hypertension prior to admission had their medication regimens continued or int
In a study using hypothetical cases, physicians commonly made end-of-life treatment decisions that were not consistent with patient preferences stated in explicit advance directives, according to an article in the July 26 issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
According to background information in the article, significant concern remains about how well physicians know and follow the treatment preferences of their patients. Decisions are particularly
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