A Stony Brook University researcher is testing a new form of aspirin–one that is much more potent than its commercially available counterpart, but with almost none of the side effects–to determine whether it can be used to prevent colon cancer in patients who are prone to the disease.

The study of the new medication–called nitric oxide-donating aspirin, or nitroaspirin–is supported by a $3.2 million grant from the National Cancer Institute. Basil Rigas, M.D., Professor of Medic

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may be as accurate as computed tomography (CT) in detecting acute bleeding in the brain in patients showing signs of stroke, and more accurate than CT in revealing chronic bleeding in the brain, according to a study in the October 20 issue of JAMA.

Noncontrast computed tomography (CT) has been the standard brain imaging technique used for the initial evaluation of patients with acute stroke symptoms, greatly due to its capacity to rule out the p

Toremifene study finds significant reduction in the incidence of prostate cancer for men with high grade PIN

Toremifene, a drug currently used to treat breast cancer in women, was found to reduce the incidence of prostate cancer for men at high risk for the disease. In a study presented today at the American Association for Cancer Research Third Annual International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research, scientists found that patients at all dose levels for toremi

A leading stroke researcher says the aging of the American population means that more people are at risk for stroke, and unless new approaches are developed to reduce stroke incidence, it will surpass heart attacks and cancer as the major cause of long-term disability and premature death.

“…The heart will no longer be the cause of most sudden deaths, leaving behind an ever-growing population of the elderly disabled by stroke and vascular dementia …,” writes James F. Toole, M.D., a

New research shows that the plant estrogens in soy don’t impair fertility in monkeys. The study was designed to test a theory that high-soy diets can compromise fertility in women.

The results, from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and Emory University School of Medicine, were reported today at the annual meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in Philadelphia, Pa. “Our results suggest that a high-soy diet probably won’t compromise fertil

Researchers have discovered an unexpected role as a tumor promoter for a molecule that was previously thought to function exclusively as a cancer suppressor in neuroblastoma (NB), a highly aggressive and deadly childhood cancer. The study, published in the October issue of Cancer Cell, reveals new evidence about what stimulates progression of neuroblastoma and may provide a likely target for new anti-cancer therapies.

Neurotrophin tyrosine kinase receptor type I (TrkA) responds to nerve

Method may help halt A-T, cancer, other genetic diseases

UCLA scientists have devised a novel way to repair one of the genetic mutations that cause ataxia-telangiectasia, (A-T), a life-shortening disorder that devastates the neurological and immune systems of one in 40,000 young children. Reported Oct. 18 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the findings could hold far-reaching implications for treating A-T, cancer and other genetic diseases.

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Comprehensive study raises questions about ’demethylation’ agents

Agents believed to selectively “restart” genes that limit cancer’s growth — a potential treatment option already in early clinical studies — instead turn off as many genes as they turn on, a team of researchers from the National Cancer Institute and Johns Hopkins has discovered. “We don’t know what effect all these changes might have, but it’s clear that when scientists are looking onl

Transplantation of human brain cells corrected involuntary muscle spasms in rats with ischemic spinal cord injury, according to research published online October 12 and in print October 19, 2004 in the European Journal of Neurosciences by investigators at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine.

Ischemic spinal cord injury, caused by reduced blood flow to the spinal cord, occurs in 20 to 40 percent of the several hundred patients each year in the U.S. wh

For the first time, researchers have sequenced all 36 genes of novel receptors that appear to play a critical role in the innate immune protection of zebrafish – an achievement that could lead to a better understanding of infectious diseases and certain cancers.

Their paper, titled “Resolution of the novel immune-type receptor gene cluster in zebrafish,” appears online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “This is the most genetically complex system

Working with an enzyme that degrades anti-cancer drugs in humans, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill biochemists and colleagues have made a discovery that they believe eventually could help improve such drugs’ design and effectiveness.

The scientists have shown that the enzyme protein can be made to “fly through the vapor phase” — from which solvent water is totally absent — without changing its structure.

When a solution containing the enzyme was introduced

Get a group of scientists together and mention the word “chlorine” and watch the sparks start to fly. That’s exactly what happened at a forum on a different, but related, topic of sustainability, sponsored by the news magazine Chemical & Engineering News, a publication of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

As a result of a “vigorous and provocative debate” about chlorine at that forum, the magazine’s editors asked two leadin

It’s a good thing that the now eight-year-old son of Miklos Gratzl, a Case Western Reserve University biomedical engineer, got a splinter in his finger one day – at least for the sake of science. With apologies to his son – instead of an “Ouch!” moment, for Gratzl it was more of an “A-ha!” moment.

As he was removing it from his son’s finger, the splinter gave him an idea: Since it showed no open wound in the skin, he thought to himself that a sensor like a sliver would be ideal

The prevalence of Helicobacter pylori (a type of bacteria associated with gastrointestinal disorders) is high among patients about to undergo weight loss surgery, and treatment to eradicate the bacterial infection before surgery may be beneficial, according to an article in the October issue of The Archives of Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

The number of obese and morbidly obese Americans is steadily increasing, according to background information in the article.

Two of the most commonly prescribed drugs for treating HIV (antiretroviral drugs)–nevirapine and efavirenz–can both raise levels of the “good type” of cholesterol (HDL cholesterol), but nevirapine raises it higher than efavirenz, according to a new study by van Leth and colleagues published in the launch issue of PLoS Medicine. “These data suggest that nevirapine may be preferable to efavirenz in HIV-infected adults who have increased cardiovascular risk,” says Andrew Carr, an HIV specialist a

Patients with stable vitiligo, a skin disorder characterized by patches of lighter colored, or depigmented skin, may achieve good repigmentation of these areas with skin transplants using skin taken from normally-pigmented areas of their own bodies, according to two articles in the October issue of The Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

According to the articles, vitiligo is one of the most common pigment cell disorders, distinguished by depigmented patc