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Researchers reveal how melanoma develops resistance to Zelboraf

Cancer is tough to kill and has many ways of evading the drugs used by oncologists to try and eliminate it. Now, researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have uncovered how an advanced form of melanoma gets around an inhibitor, Zelboraf, which targets the mutated BRAF gene.

7 Mar 2012

CU Cancer Center aims to make progress against squamous cell lung cancer

Recent advances in targeted cancer treatments greatly bolster the prognosis for many types of lung cancer, but according to a University of Colorado Cancer Center investigator, "practically nothing has improved in squamous cell lung cancer in the last decades."

7 Mar 2012

Bevacizumab drug improves cardiac output in patients with HHT

In a small study that included 25 patients with hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (a genetic disorder that leads to abnormalities of blood vessels) and severe liver involvement with this disease, patients who received the drug bevacizumab had improved cardiac output and a reduction in the duration and number of episodes of nose bleeds, a potentially life-threatening complication for patients with this disorder, according to a study in the March 7 issue of JAMA.

6 Mar 2012

Blocking Plexin B1 protein can prevent formation of breast cancer metastases

In particularly aggressive forms of breast cancer, cancer cells can settle in other organs and form metastases there. Once such metastases form, complete recovery is rare. Consequently, it is enormously important to prevent the metastasisation of the breast cancer cells. The success, however, achieved by using existing forms of therapy is limited.

6 Mar 2012

UAB first hospital in Alabama to offer Melody Valve replacement

In many ways Dylan Fields is your typical 15-year-old boy. He loves sports, and plays baseball and soccer for his school, Tallassee High, in Central Alabama. What's not typical about Dylan is his heart defect and, now, the procedure used to repair his heart.

6 Mar 2012

Cenderitide may preserve cardiac function after heart attack

The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded a $2.5 million grant to Mayo Clinic's Cardiorenal Research Laboratory to conduct a highly innovative research project, "Cardiovascular Peptides and Myocardial Infarction."

6 Mar 2012

WHO reports more than 900,000 lives saved because of HIV/TB care and prevention guidelines, releases updated version

"An estimated 910,000 lives were saved globally in six years due to guidelines intended to ensure that people living with HIV/AIDS are protected from tuberculosis [TB], the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) said today, releasing an updated policy on joint prevention, diagnosis and treatment of both diseases," the U.N. News Centre reports.

6 Mar 2012

Inhalation of nitric oxide could help improve blood flow to ischemic brain

LMU researchers developed a new strategy for the treatment of stroke, which could help to improve blood flow to ischemic brain. Strokes are due to a localized reduction in the blood supply to the brain, mainly due to the blockage of a vessel by a blood clot.

5 Mar 2012

Special computer algorithms can help doctors to make rapid diagnoses of known diseases

Just like urine and blood, breath contains traces of the products of metabolism. Such products can also be signs of infection, inflammation or cancer. For their analysis, computational bioinformatics researchers at the Cluster of Excellence "Multimodal Computing and Interaction" at Saarland University developed special computer algorithms that can help doctors to make diagnoses quickly and reliably.

5 Mar 2012

Inovio's SynCon vaccine for HPV types 6 and 11 induces CD8+ T cells in mice

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that its SynCon therapeutic vaccine for human papillomavirus (HPV) types 6 and 11, which are associated with head & neck cancers and genital warts, among other conditions, induced strong antigen-specific CD8+ T cells in mice.

5 Mar 2012

Diesel exhaust fumes linked to lung cancer among miners

It has been known that diesel exhaust may be a probable carcinogen. But the 20-year study from the National Cancer Institute took a closer look in the Diesel Exhaust in Miners Study, which followed 12,315 miners working in eight underground nonmetal mining facilities. Data were collected on the miners' health and exposure to various elements and chemicals from the time when the mine company first introduced diesel-powered equipment (between 1947 and 1967) until the end of the study in 1997. They breathed varying levels of exhaust from diesel-powered equipment, levels higher than the general population encounters.

4 Mar 2012

Consensus across studies promises to enhance NIH-supported asthma clinical research

A consortium of federal agencies and nongovernmental organizations has published a report proposing a set of common measures and data-collection methods for use in asthma clinical research.

3 Mar 2012

New outcome measures may reduce disparities in children with asthma

Newly proposed asthma outcome measures will help standardize and improve results from the hundreds of millions of dollars the National Institutes of Health (NIH) spends annually to study asthma, according to the Merck Childhood Asthma Network, Inc. (MCAN), the nation's only organization focused solely on childhood asthma.

3 Mar 2012

Heavy DE exposure may increase risk of dying from lung cancer

Heavy diesel exhaust (DE) exposure in humans may increase the risk of dying from lung cancer, according to two papers released March 2nd by the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

3 Mar 2012

Early surgical intervention stops seizures and improves quality of life

While the thought of any type of surgery can be disconcerting, the thought of brain surgery can be downright frightening. But for people with a particular form of epilepsy, surgical intervention can literally be life-restoring.

3 Mar 2012

Older women face increased risk of late stage breast cancer diagnosis

Older women with breast cancer face a higher risk of being diagnosed with the disease at a late stage, while the risk of an advanced stage diagnosis of lung cancer decreases with age, a new study shows today.

3 Mar 2012

Trans fats raises stroke risk in women – aspirin lowers risk

A new study finds that older women who take in substantial amount of trans fats are more likely than their counterparts to suffer an ischemic stroke. However, the risk of stroke associated with trans fat intake was lower among women taking aspirin, according to the findings from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers. The report, “Trans Fat Intake, Aspirin and Ischemic Stroke Among Postmenopausal Women,” was published today online in the journal Annals of Neurology.

2 Mar 2012

New HS44 molecule inhibits lung metastasis

One type of white blood cell, the Natural Killer T Cells, fights against infections and tumours by freeing cytokine proteins which activate the body's immune response and destroy infected or malignant cells. To do so they must receive an activation signal. Specific receptors located on their surface act as switches: they activate the lymphocyte in presence of an antigen, a molecule which triggers alarm signals.

2 Mar 2012

Ekso Bionics, Kessler Foundation partner to test commercial robotic exoskeleton

On Monday, Kessler Foundation became the second rehabilitation research center in the U.S. to implement Ekso, a wearable, robotic battery-powered exoskeleton that allows wheelchair users with lower-extremity weakness to stand and walk.

2 Mar 2012

p14 ARF protein also regulates tumor-induced angiogenesis

Researchers at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University have identified a new function for a gene that normally prevents the development of cancer.

2 Mar 2012