A 30 year old woman diagnosed with breast cancer has the same chance of survival as a 60 year old woman with breast cancer according to the latest findings presented today at the European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC-5).

Scientists have known for a while that young women with breast cancer have a poor prognosis. It was thought to be because younger women were diagnosed later, with more advanced disease. The study set out to see if youth on its own was a factor for poor prognosis.

Recent research presented today at EBCC-5 from the million women study found that taking Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) increased the risk of some types of breast cancer, but not others.

Scientists analysed the data from the UK study to try and find a link between HRT and the type of breast cancer that developed. The research found that women who took HRT had an increased risk of developing lobular cancer (affecting the cells in the ducts of the milk-producing glands) and tub

An academic team which includes key researchers from the Universities of Manchester and Hull has taken both first and second prizes, in a nationwide innovation competition run by Microsoft.

Dr Paul Dark, a Clinical Lecturer in Intensive Care Medicine from Manchester Medical School based at Hope Hospital, and Drs John Purdy and Rob Miles of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Hull, mentored and supported students to develop innovative, software-based products to

Breast cancer specialists and advocates at the 5th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC-5) called today for patients to have equal and speedy access to new breast cancer treatments and procedures, as soon as they are validated by comparative clinical trials.

Doctors and patient groups fear that women across Europe are not getting timely access to new drugs and devices that could help prolong their survival and well-being. Recent advances in intra-operative radiation therapy and

A new ‘breast cancer dictionary’ is being created to help bridge the gap between patient terminology and complicated medical language, announced The French League Against Cancer at the European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC-5), today.

Most patients want to know as much as possible about their disease however they often feel unhappy with the information provided by their doctor. Patients frequently turn to other information sources but the medical language can be difficult to compr

A new European School of Oncology (ESO) task force has been created to discuss and review the current guidelines for managing metastatic breast cancer. This is the first time an open debate has taken place with breast cancer experts and patients anywhere in Europe. The European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC-5) will host the discussion.

Despite improvements in breast cancer treatment, patients with metastatic disease are still likely to die. There are a variety of European guidelines bu

Sudden death is a health problem with a rate of one in every thousand inhabitants per annum. The crisis appears suddenly, although the prompt application – within a period of a few minutes – of an elecrtical discharge from a defibrillator – makes the difference between life and death. Persons with a high risk of suffering sudden death have an internal automatic defibrillator (IAD) implanted.

Between 800 and 1000 people die in Gipuzkoa each year as a result of sudden death. These deaths are

Dry Umbilical Cord Care in Developing Countries Should Be Reconsidered

A topical antiseptic reduces umbilical cord infections and infant mortality risk, according to a study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In a study conducted in southern Nepal, babies who received umbilical cord cleanings after their cords were cut with chlorhexidine, a topical antiseptic, were 75 percent less likely to experience severe infections of their umbilical cor

Organizers of a 20-year global effort to eliminate a parasitic infection that is a leading cause of disability have an early victory to savor: a five-year Egyptian elimination campaign has mostly succeeded, according to a new report in the March 25 issue of The Lancet. Infection with the parasites, threadlike filarial worms, can lead to the dramatic, disfiguring swelling known as elephantiasis.

Researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Ain Shams University

A new experiment has shed more light on the multi-decade debate about how the brain knows where limbs are without looking at them.

You don’t have to watch your legs and feet when you walk. Your brain knows where they are. For decades scientists have debated two options for how the brain achieves this:

(1) the outflow hypothesis says that the brain monitors signals it sends to the muscles telling them how strongly to contract, and uses this to predict where the limb has m

A recent study from Scandinavia shows that the well-known differences between individuals in the efficiency of converting energy stored in food to work done by muscles are related to muscle fibre type composition and to the content of specific molecules in muscle.

When muscles contract they use energy that is derived from food. It is a two-step process. The first step occurs in mitochondria, where the energy from molecules like glucose or fats is locked away in ATP (adenosine triph

Results from a large, randomised clinical trial for patients with breast cancer show that those who received bevacizumab (Avastin) in combination with paclitaxel (Taxol) survived without the disease getting worse for almost twice as long as patients who received paclitaxel alone. The results were announced today at the 5th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC-5).

A total of 722 patients with locally recurrent or metastatic breast cancer were enrolled in the study. Patients were random

The Scientific Advisory Committee of the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM) has approved six new alternative testing methods that will reduce the need for certain drugs and chemicals to be tested on animals. The new tests use cell cultures rather than animals to establish the toxicity of cancer drugs and identify contaminated drugs. The tests approved today will not only reduce the number of animals needed for testing, but will also increase the accuracy of the tes

Researchers at Uppsala University have made the surprising discovery that the smallest possible mutation in a detoxification enzyme can alter what type of chemical reaction it will catalyse. The results has been published online by the respected journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, PNAS.

In all living organisms, molecules are transformed into new chemical substances through processes which are catalysed by enzymes. Enzymes are proteins whose catalysing cap

A new skin cream has shown promising results in the treatment of psoriasis and eczema. The cream contains fish enzymes and gelatine and is under development by researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim and the University of Bergen, Norway.

Enzymes from roe

An important ingredient in the product is the enzyme zonase, which is found in fish eggs. The enzyme can break down dead skin cells without harming living cells. Used in th

The songs of the humpback whale are among the most complex in the animal kingdom. Researchers have now mathematically confirmed that whales have their own syntax that uses sound units to build phrases that can be combined to form songs that last for hours.

Until now, only humans have demonstrated the ability to use such a hierarchical structure of communication. The research, published online in the March 2006 issue of the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, offers a new