Women who carry a common parasite are more likely to give birth to boys, Czech researchers report. In most populations, 51 percent of babies born are male, Dr. S. Kankova of Charles University in Prague and colleagues note. But among a group of women infected with the bug Toxoplasma, 61 percent of babies born were boys.
The presence of a type of bacteria called Helicobacter pylori in the stomach substantially increases the risk of cancer in the lower portion of the stomach, but may actually lower the risk of cancer in the upper stomach (gastric cardia), a study shows. “Helicobacter pylori… is known to cause gastric and duodenal ulcers and also cancers of the lower part of the stomach,” Dr. Farin Kamangar from the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland, told.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Taxotere (docetaxel) Injection Concentrate for use in combination with cisplatin and fluorouracil prior to radiotherapy for the treatment of patients with inoperable, locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN). This disease represents approximately 3 percent of all new cancer cases in the United States.
Women should be aware that not every type of breast cancer reveals itself with a lump during self exams. An aggressive, fast-spreading form called inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) grows in nests or sheets of cancer cells that spread through the breast. Because it is relatively rare, IBC is often diagnosed late or even misdiagnosed as an infection.
Merck & Co., Inc. announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved JANUVIA (sitagliptin phosphate), the first and only DPP-4 inhibitor available in the United States for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. JANUVIA has been approved as monotherapy and as add-on therapy to either of two other types of oral diabetes medications, metformin or thiazolidinediones (TZDs), to improve blood sugar (glucose) control in patients with type 2 diabetes when diet and exercise is not enough. The recommended dose of JANUVIA is 100 mg once daily. JANUVIA should not be used in patients with type 1 diabetes or for the treatment of diabetic ketoacidosis, as it would not be effective in these settings.
Roche and InterMune Inc. announced that the companies have entered into an exclusive worldwide collaboration agreement to develop and commercialize products from InterMune?s Hepatitis C (HCV) protease inhibitor program. The agreement includes InterMune?s lead candidate compound ITMN-191, expected to enter clinical trials before the end of the year. The companies will also collaborate on a research program to identify, develop and commercialize novel second-generation HCV protease inhibitors.
New data released today demonstrate significantly better immune responses in the age range 65 and above when vaccinated with GSK?s new generation (adjuvanted) seasonal flu vaccine compared to a traditional seasonal flu vaccine. These new data are highly important, since the disease burden and death toll is highest among the elderly in each flu season. The data, presented at the Influenza Vaccines for the World (IVW) 2006 Congress, showed the seroprotection rate (90.5%) achieved by the new adjuvanted vaccine in the elderly to be more than 25% higher than that reported in the age matched comparator group.
The anthrax vaccine, used to combat bio-warfare, is to be restarted with a mandatory immunisation program for troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and South Korea, declared the Pentagon. However it is not planning to do the same for troops serving in other places including the US.
At the 11th biennial meeting of the International Gynecologic Cancer Society (IGCS) underway in Santa Monica, CA, the potential impact of widespread adoption of HPV vaccination among girls in Mexico was described. In a study, “HPV-Vaccination Impact on Cervical Cancer Incidence and Mortality in Mexico: A Cancer Registry Based Model,” a team from the Mexican Institute of Social Security (Instituto Mexicano Del Seguro Social), the Mexican Institute of Public Health (Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) concluded that HPV vaccination targeting HPV subtypes 16 and 18 could reduce cervical cancer cases and deaths by 60 percent.
Researchers in the Greene Infectious Disease Laboratory at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Caribbean Primate Research Center have discovered a key mechanism by which the Filoviruses, Ebola and Marburg, cause disease. The identification of an amino acid sequence in Filoviruses that results in the rapid depression of immunological response is described in the December 2006 issue of The FASEB Journal. Using this information, researchers can begin to develop new drugs to stop these devastating diseases.