The prognosis of pancreatic cancer is poor but new therapies such as gemcitabine have contributed to improving the outcome for patients. Data presented at the 13th European Conference (ECCO) revealed that using the combination of gemcitabine and capecitabine increased overall survival in some patients.

Between May 2003 and January 2005, 533 patients with previously untreated or cytological proven locally advanced/metastatic carcinoma of the pancreas were randomised to receive e

New study moves sinusitis into top three reasons for chronic cough

In a new Mayo Clinic study, researchers found that more than one-third of chronic cough patients given a CT scan had sinusitis, inflammation of the sinuses. Findings will be presented at the American College of Chest Physicians CHEST 2005 meeting in Montreal.

“This study suggests that sinusitis is more common than we had previously thought in people with chronic cough,” says Kaiser Lim, M.D., lead rese

The accumulation of fat in the liver, or “fatty liver,” resulting from accumulation of central body fat, and perhaps not alcohol consumption, may represent an important underlying mechanism for the association between liver enzymes and hypertension.

The study, conducted by researchers at the University at Buffalo, appears in the current issue (November 2005) of the journal Hypertension.

“Our findings extend previous work, and indicate that the association of the liver

While most people know that chest pain can signify the presence of heart disease, it is less well known that shortness of breath can also be a serious cardiac symptom.

Now, researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center have found that patients with shortness of breath can have a higher risk of dying from cardiac disease than patients without symptoms, and even than patients with typical cardiac pain.

Authors of a study published in the November 3 issue of the New England J

An ultrasound training program for non-physicians gives astronauts and sports trainers the tools to assess injuries using real-time remote assistance from medical experts.

Researchers with the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) have developed a computer-based training method that teaches non-physicians to operate ultrasound as if they were technicians. Crew members for four International Space Station (ISS) missions have trained with the program and have perfor

The risk of human bird flu infection is small in Australia and people can still safely eat chicken and keep pet birds, according to bird medicine specialist Dr Bob Doneley.

“The chances of getting bird flu off a pet bird or your neighbours birds are so infinitesimally small,” UQ School of Veterinary Science Adjunct Professor Dr Doneley said.

“You’re more likely to have a light plane hit by a meteor and fall on your head than somebody getting bird flu off their cockatiel.”

A mutated plant that seems to return from the dead may hold the secret to how some flora protect their progeny during yield-limiting drought and other stresses, according to Purdue University scientists whose study of the plant led to discovery of a gene.

The gene, called RESURRECTION1 (RST1), has revealed a previously unknown genetic connection between lipid development and embryo development in plants, said Matthew Jenks, lead author of the study and a Purdue plant physiolog

Ground-breaking results from researchers at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA, disclosed at the 13th European Cancer Conference (ECCO) in Paris have shown for the first time that targeted drug delivery is possible using nanoparticle-apatamer conjugates.

Nucleic acid ligands (referred to as aptamers) are short DNA or RNA fragments that can bind to target antigens with high specificity and affinity; analogous to monoclonal antibodies. In

University of Leeds biologists have made an important breakthrough in developing the drugs of the future. Their work on targeting individual genes for more effective and cheaper drug testing opens the way to treatments for a huge range of diseases including diabetes and atherosclerosis, which leads to strokes and heart attacks.

Making new pharmacological ‘tools’ to explore individual genes is an enormous challenge, but vital for public health. “Testing specific genes gives us funda

Researchers at Northwestern University have discovered a key signaling mechanism that may promote the ability of highly aggressive malignant melanoma cells to metastasize, or spread from a primary tumor to distant sites within the body.

Results of their study, published in the November issue of Cancer Research, suggest that the signaling mechanism may be a potential target for prevention of metastatic melanoma.

The study was led by Angela R. Hess, a research scientist at t

Researchers have identified a protein that disrupts an important signaling pathway in prostate cancer cells and suppresses growth of the cancer.

The protein also assists in the retention of vitamin E in prostate cancer cells and increases the effect of vitamin E in limiting the proliferation of cancer cells, the researchers found.

The researchers, led by ShuYuan Yeh, assistant professor of urology and pathology at the University of Rochester Medical Center, are the f

Gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), a substance in evening primrose oil and several other plant oils used in herbal medicine, inhibits action of Her-2/neu, a cancer gene that is responsible for almost 30 percent of all breast cancers, Northwestern University researchers report.

“Breast cancer patients with Her-2/neu-positive tumors have an aggressive form of the disease and a poor prognosis,” said Ruth Lupu, director of Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Breast Cancer Translational R

Dendritic cell-based therapy uses tumor cells and ’danger’ signals to stimulate tumor immunity

A new type of immunotherapy in which dendritic cells are tricked into action against cancer when they are exposed to harmless pieces of viruses and bacteria is described in the November issue of Cancer Research. Dendritic cells, the pacemakers of the immune system, are known to play a vital role in the initiation of the immune response but are often eluded by cancer.

Neurons experience large-scale changes across their dendrites during learning, say neuroscientists at The University of Texas at Austin in a new study that highlights the important role that these cell regions may play in the processes of learning and memory.
The research, published online Oct. 23 and in the November issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience, shows that ion channels distributed in the dendritic membrane change during a simulated learning task and that this requires the rapid prod

A team led by Krzysztof Palczewski, Ph.D., chair of pharmacology at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, has taken the first steps in treating an eye disease causing irreversible congenital blindness in millions of people worldwide by successfully testing two new treatments in mice.

Publishing in this month’s open access journal PLoS Medicine, the researchers found that these treatments “provide highly effective and complementary means for restoring retinal

Lung cancer patients with extenuating health problems may have an alternative to traditional radiation therapy through a lung-sparing procedure pioneered at the Indiana University School of Medicine.

Patients with early stage non-small cell lung cancer responded well to high doses of radiation administered through extracranial stereotactic body radiation therapy, according to an article published in the Nov. 15 issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology and Ph