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Understanding focal adhesion kinase (FAK) may lead to new cancer treatments

Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have found an unexpected way to turn off a cellular enzyme involved in the progression of several types of human cancers.

2 Jun 2004

Improving blood pressure control of people 80 years and older

Improved blood pressure control of people 80 years and older, especially women, must be made a national priority, a Northwestern University researcher urged at the American Society of Hypertension’s 19th Annual Scientific Meeting in May.

2 Jun 2004

HHS urges people to sign up for Medicare-approved drug discount cards

HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today urged people with Medicare to take advantage of real savings on their prescription medicines by signing up for Medicare-approved drug discount cards.

2 Jun 2004

Seniors take up Medicare-approved drug discount card in mass

Walgreen Co. has announced that tens of thousands of seniors across the country have applied for the company's Walgreens Health Initiatives Medicare-approved drug discount card.

2 Jun 2004

Radiological imaging system that will give medics a clearer view inside the human body

EUREKA project E! 2427 PERMON is developing a radiological imaging system that will give medics a clearer view inside the human body by accurately monitoring organ blood flow during operations. This essential information will lead to an increase in techniques such as laser surgery over more invasive methods.

2 Jun 2004

Students win awards for research into liver disease, cancer and insomnia

Targeting a range of diseases and disorders, three University of Houston students won awards at a recent symposium for research in liver disease, cancer and insomnia.

2 Jun 2004

New therapy to send cancer-killing drugs directly to tumours

Disguising a molecule to get it past the body's immune system could greatly enhance the success of a groundbreaking new therapy, Cancer Research UK scientists report in the British Journal of Cancer this week.

2 Jun 2004

Malaria, Africa's biggest killer

It's Africa's biggest killer, but it's not HIV. It causes economic losses of US$12 billion per year, but it's not a war. And it has slowed African economic growth by around 1.3 per cent per annum, but it’s not a famine.

2 Jun 2004

Patients prescribed medication for long term illness rapidly stop taking their medicines

Many patients prescribed a medicine for a long term condition, such as asthma or heart disease, rapidly stop taking their medicines as prescribed, reveals research in Quality and Safety in Health Care.

1 Jun 2004

Advertising campaigns do little, if anything, to dissuade teenagers from using drugs

Expensive government advertising campaigns, which play an important part in the national drug strategy, do little, if anything, to dissuade teenagers from using drugs, according to a study by University of Florida researchers.

1 Jun 2004

36 percent of Americans are using complementary and alternative medicines

A new, comprehensive government survey, released by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), reveals that 36 percent of Americans are incorporating complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) into their health care regimen.

1 Jun 2004

Fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo will affect HIV patients

Fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) town of Bukavu - adjacent to the border with Rwanda - near the end of May has caused an MSF team there to seek refuge in the nearby UN compound.

1 Jun 2004

Louise Redknapp and Ronan Keating on cancer and how it affected them

Singer Louise Redknapp talks exclusively to the NHS about her fears that a fertility-threatening disease could threaten her plans for a family in a consumer-style magazine published today. Louise was diagnosed with endometriosis, a disease in which small pieces of the womb lining grow outside the womb, causing chronic pain and, in many cases, depression and fertility problems.

1 Jun 2004

There are still benefits from hormone therapy after menopause

Despite the highly publicized closing of the Women’s Health Initiative study, the scientific community should not rule out that women may benefit from hormone therapy after menopause, say researchers at UC Davis, Duke and Harvard Universities.

31 May 2004

Women who regularly take aspirin at lower risk of breast cancer

Women who regularly take aspirin seem to be at lower risk of the most common type of breast cancer than those who do not take aspirin, report researchers from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and College of Physicians & Surgeons, Weill Cornell Medical College , and New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

31 May 2004

Discovery that body temperature has a vital role in the onset of sleep

Insomnia affects up to a quarter of the population in Australia and can have a severe impact on the quality of life and health of long term chronic sufferers, who often cannot stay alert enough to remain in the workforce.

28 May 2004

Cellular garbage plays a key role in the process of cytokinesis, or cell division

A cellular structure discovered 125 years ago and dismissed by many biologists as "cellular garbage" has been found to play a key role in the process of cytokinesis, or cell division, one of the most ancient and important of all biological phenomena.

27 May 2004

New target of a cancer-causing gene

Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and other institutions have identified a new target of a cancer-causing gene.

27 May 2004

Human Genome Sciences has begun dosing patients with chronic hep C drug

Human Genome Sciences, Inc. announced today that it has begun dosing patients in a Phase 2 clinical trial of Albuferon™ (albumin-interferon alpha) in patients with chronic hepatitis C who are naïve to interferon-alpha treatments.

27 May 2004

UK House of Commons Health Committee publishes its long-awaited Report on obesity

Obesity has grown by almost 400% in the last 25 years such that three-quarters of the adult population are now overweight or obese (around 22% are now obese). England has witnessed the fastest growth in obesity in Europe and childhood obesity has tripled in twenty years.

27 May 2004