New research has revealed the power behind an anti-tumor agent being studied in the laboratory. The findings, by scientists at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and the National Cancer Institute, could lead to more effective treatment strategies for cancer.

“Our new understanding of how this agent works could help us combine treatments to reach multiple targets,” said William Gmeiner, Ph.D., professor of cancer biology at Wake Forest’s School of Medicine, which is pa

Removing the aortic and pelvic lymph nodes during surgery for advanced ovarian cancer improves progression-free survival but not overall survival, according to a new study in the April 20 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Ovarian cancer is the fifth most common cancer in women worldwide. In the United States, about 25,000 women were diagnosed with the disease in 2004 and 16,000 women died from it. Long-term survival is possible after surgery and chemotherapy

A compound derived from cottonseed oil could help improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy at treating head and neck cancer, researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have found.

The findings, which will be presented Tuesday, April 19, at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting, could lead to a treatment that provides an effective option to surgically removing the cancer, helping patients preserve vital organs involved in speech a

Infants who are hospitalized with severe breathing problems may benefit from being placed on their stomachs rather than their backs, according to a new review of recent studies.

Children in the studies who were placed on their stomachs had higher blood oxygen levels and slower breathing rates than those placed on their backs, the review found.

Blood oxygen levels in the stomach-placed infants were about 2 percent higher than in the back-sleeping infants, a small but s

A collaboration between Johns Hopkins and Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists has mathematically demonstrated that a national matching program for kidney paired donation, also called paired kidney exchange, would ensure the best possible kidney for the greatest number of recipients who have incompatible donors. Kidney paired donation (KPD) provides organs to patients who have a willing, designated donor who is not compatible. A kidney from such a donor is matched to — and transplant

Researchers have closed a randomized clinical trial comparing gefitinib (IressaTM) vs. placebo following chemotherapy and radiation for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that had spread only to nearby tissues or lymph nodes. Review of interim data indicated that gefitinib would not improve survival.

The clinical trial was sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., and was conducted by a network

As body mass index goes up, so does the risk of tearing meniscus

America’s expanding waistline is straining its knees–and pocketbook–with hundreds of thousands of overweight people undergoing surgery every year because the extra pounds they pack are leading to tears in their meniscal cartilage.

In the first major study of its kind, University of Utah School of Medicine researchers found the likelihood of tearing the meniscus, the cartilage that bears much of the load o

The federal government should create and fund an umbrella organization called the United States Global Health Service (GHS) to mobilize the nation’s best health care professionals and other experts to help combat HIV/AIDS in hard-hit African, Caribbean, and Southeast Asian countries, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. Full-time, salaried professionals would make up the organization’s pivotal “service corps,” working side by side with other colleagues al

Men estimate men’s risks of common disorders higher than women do, and vice versa

New research from University of Glasgow researchers on lay perceptions about gender differences in health reveals that both men and women believe health risks are higher for their own sex than for the opposite sex. But, it also shows that males think that men are fitter and females think women are more athletic.

Professor Sally Macintyre in the MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit

Researchers at the University of Liverpool have developed a breakthrough technology that identifies molecular markers in early lung cancer.

The new technology, created in collaboration with SEQUENOM, developers of genetic analysis products, and Methexis Genomics, uses a DNA analysis technique called methylation profiling to detect cells in the lung that are likely to become cancerous.

There are a number of genetic mechanisms that can alter the characteristics of a normal

Monash University researchers and staff of the Melbourne-based biotechnology company Cerylid Biosciences Ltd, have discovered and developed a new class of anti-clotting drugs that appears to be more effective than aspirin at preventing disease-causing blood clots and has fewer side effects.

Heart attack and stroke are the leading cause of death and disability in the western world and result in the death of about 50,000 Australians each year.

They are typically caused

Can be of use in the treatment of diabetes patients with insulin resistance

Type 2 diabetes is a clinical disease characterised by disruption to the metabolism of glucose and lipids as well as to the production of and physiological reactions to insulin. These disruptions are partly due to a reduced absorption of glucose in the cells that form the body’s fat and muscle tissue. Now scientists at Karolinska Institutet have established that a type of drug targeted at receptors in t

In mouse models of intestinal cancer, use of an anti-inflammatory drug eliminated all of the cancer-causing risks produced by a high-fat Western-style diet – even when several genetic brakes to cancer formation were missing in the animals, say researchers from the Albert Einstein Cancer Center.

The investigators, who presented their findings at the 96th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, say that while the results do not yet have relevance for preventi

Experts to debate themes in new book from UN University

UNU-INTECH author Padmashree Gehl Sampath will be available for advance interviews in New York on 18 April. Telephone interviews with European and international media can be arranged on 14-15 April. Please use the contacts listed below or email terrycollins@rogers.com and/or mwangi@intech.unu.edu to schedule a time. A panel presentation and book launch will take place on Tuesday 19 April at the UN Secretariat Building, Con

An exceptionally large study of patients with glioblastoma multiforme has found an association between a genetic variation and a doubling of survival rate – the strongest link ever established between genetic variation and outcome in this deadliest form of brain cancer, according to researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

The study, presented at the annual meeting of the American Association of Cancer Research, found the differences in a common varian

Virus-host interactions at sea: The third age of phage

Cyanobacteria exert a disproportionate influence on their planet for their size. The Prochlorococcus group of cyanobacteria account for a large fraction of global photosynthesis by virtue of their ubiquitous presence in nutrient-depleted ocean waters. Even tinier agents – the viruses that infect these bacteria, called cyanophages – appear capable of wielding surprising influence on global cycles by affecting the populatio