Researchers find genetic variations that could be used to help tailor radiotherapy doses to individual patients
Researchers in Denmark have identified specific changes in the basic building blocks of DNA that can affect how sensitive a patient is to radiotherapy. Their findings offer a glimmer of hope that it might be possible to develop gene-based predictive tests that would enable doctors to work out the highest dose a patient could tolerate, thereby improving the efficacy of radiot
Research carried out in the United States has raised the hope that one day there could be a vaccine against pancreatic cancer – one of the most difficult cancers to treat successfully.
Dr Robert Maki told ECCO12 – The European Cancer Conference – today (Monday 22 September) that preliminary work with a cancer vaccine created from a heat-shock protein1 taken from the patient’s own tumour had resulted in one patient out of the ten vaccinated still alive and without disease after five years, an
Combining two types of drugs prescribed for osteoporosis does not produce a synergistic benefit in treating the disease, according to a study headed by a UCSF researcher.
The study disproved a previously untested but widespread belief among bone researchers that combining the two types of drugs — bone-building parathyroid hormone (PTH) and bone resorption inhibiting bisphosphonates — should interact in a beneficial way for patients. The combination is no better than either drug alone and
The world’s largest study of ecstasy-related deaths discovered that one in six people who died after taking ecstasy had not taken any other drug. “This clears up the debate once and for all – ecstasy alone can kill,” says Dr Fabrizio Schifano, whose work is published in the October edition of Human Psychopharmacology.
The study found that since 1996 there had been a clear year-on-year increase in deaths in England and Wales. “Just show anyone the graph and the message is clear – the situatio
By matching bicuspid to bicuspid and filling to filling, forensic investigators use dental records to give a John or Jane Doe a real name. Researchers from West Virginia University, Michigan State University and the University of Miami are combining advanced image-processing techniques with elements of logic to accelerate and improve the accuracy of identity matches.
The researchers are working on an Automated Dental Identification System (ADIS) that will compare a database of dental x-rays
Danish research published in this week’s issue of THE LANCET provides strong evidence that the shortening of radiotherapy treatment time has definitive benefits for people being treated for head and neck cancer.
There is debate among oncologists about the optimum treatment time for patients given radiotherapy for head and neck cancer. Jens Overgaard from Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark, and colleagues investigated whether the shortening of treatment time by use of six instead of f
Hormones that regulate cardiovascular function have been discovered to influence malaria infection. As a consequence, beta-blockers, which are safe, inexpensive and commonly prescribed drugs used worldwide to treat high blood pressure, are effective against the deadliest and most drug-resistant strain of malaria parasites.
These findings, by Kasturi Haldar, Jon Lomasney, Travis Harrison and colleagues at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, were reported in an article in t
Piero Anversa, M.D., director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute at New York Medical College, has demonstrated again that the heart has its own adult stem cells for regenerating heart muscle tissue following a coronary event. The research paper published in the September 19, 2003, issue of the journal Cell builds upon a study that appeared weeks ago in the September 2 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The Cell study was conducted in Dr. Anversa’s laboratory by a te
Teams of radiologists, scientists and radiographers from The University of Aberdeen, The University of Manchester and The South Manchester University Hospitals Trust will be using the R2 Technology ImageChecker to help detect potentially cancerous areas on mammograms.
The ImageChecker helps radiologists & radiographers in a similar manner to a PC spellchecker by automatically detecting and prompting suspicious areas on mammograms. It acts as a second pair of eyes and therefore could help to
A team of scientists, led by Toshihiro Nakajima at the St Marianna University School of Medicine in Japan, has identified an exciting therapeutic target that may lead to the development of new treatments for Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA).
As published in the latest edition of Genes and Development, the scientists report the discovery of ’synoviolin’, an enzyme that is found in abnormally high levels in diseased joints. High levels of synoviolin are found to cause an overgrowth of join
93 Percent Leave Hospital Same Day; Even Seniors Can Have Outpatient Surgery
After analyzing safety and efficacy data from an initial group of 120 minimally invasive hip surgery patients, Chicago’s Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center orthopedic surgeon Dr. Richard A. Berger says that 80 percent of hip replacement patients are eligible for minimally invasive hip surgery procedure over the conventional 10-12 inch single incision surgery.
Data from the hip surgery study
UCLA AIDS Institute scientists have devised a new technique to switch on and drive hibernating HIV from its hiding places in the body. Reported in the September issue of Immunity, the research suggests a possible therapeutic strategy to kill the hidden virus so people who are HIV-positive could eventually stop taking antiretroviral medications.
“Our findings show potential for flushing HIV out of its hiding places in the body,” said Dr. Jerome Zack, principal investigator and associate dire
Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have developed a technique that drastically decreases the time a radiologist spends calculating radiation dosages and also provides a more carefully controlled dosage with less damage to nearby healthy tissues.
Victor Wickerhauser, Ph.D., Washington University professor of mathematics in Arts & Sciences, and Joseph O. Deasy, Ph.D., assistant professor of radiation oncology in the School of Medicine, have applied a mathematical tool called wa
Age, gender, body size are better predictors of aortic aneurysm; genetics are likely important
Contrary to long-accepted conventional wisdom and to current theories, high blood pressure and other risk factors for plaque buildup are not major factors in the dangerous ballooning of blood vessels near the heart, according to a Mayo Clinic study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology this week.
“Atherosclerotic plaques and the risk factors that cause them
Children with cerebral palsy are set to benefit from the first study of its kind in the UK.
Cerebral Palsy (CP) is notoriously difficult to manage because of the different degrees of severity and clinical difficulties in assessing the results of treatment. One of the answers could be to use ultrasound scanning to visualize the damage to muscles and assess their condition.
Around 200 children, aged three to six years, will undergo tests to explore how ultrasound can be used t
Brazilian scientists may have found a new source for plastics and life saving medicines by cracking the genetic code of Chromobacterium violaceum, a free-living bacterium that commonly floats along the Rio Negro river in the Amazon rainforest.
The complete genome sequence, which will be published in a future issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was released on the journal’s Web site today. More than 100 members of the Brazil National Genome Project helped sequence t
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