One year after completing the first large-scale report sequencing breast and colon cancer genes, Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center scientists have studied the vast majority of protein-coding genes which now suggest a landscape dominated by genes that each are mutated in relatively few cancers.
Women who overcome breast cancer have every reason to celebrate. But a heart filled with joy may also be a heart damaged by life-saving cancer therapies, a growing body of research shows.
A tumor-blocking protein previously implicated in prostate and breast cancer development may also be behind the most aggressive type of pancreatic cancer. Researchers have discovered that the protein pp32 — which normally applies the brakes on a cancer-causing gene — is missing in an aggressive form of pancreatic cancer. Though the work is preliminary, the scientists say, the absent protein could eventually become a marker for the disease and a potential drug target.
Grantees of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, have adapted a rapid and accurate new molecular typing strategy and used it to conduct one of the most comprehensive studies of adenoviruses ever performed in the United States.
Men who have prostate cancer are on average four times more likely to suffer a hip fracture, with rates rising to eight times in men aged 50 to 65, according to a study of more than 60,000 men published in the October issue of the urology journal BJU International. Danish researchers looked at 62,865 men aged 50 and over, with an average age of just under 67.
Acupuncture treatments will be included for the first time in Canada as a supplementary benefit for Medical Services Plan (MSP) premium assistance recipients by April 2008, Health Minister George Abbott announced.
The provincial government is encouraging all British Columbians and their families to register for Fair PharmaCare if they have not done so already.
UK Public Health Minister Dawn Primarolo set out the way ahead for the Human Tissue and Embryology (HTE) bill by publishing the Government’s response to the Scrutiny Committee report on the bill. The bill represents a major overhaul of the law on assisted human reproduction and embryo research.
At the Keystone Symposium in Cape Town, the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise announced the appointment of its first executive director and the opening of a new secretariat in New York City. Dr. Alan Bernstein, founding president of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, will lead the international alliance of researchers, funders and advocates dedicated to speeding the search for an HIV vaccine.
A team of researchers from China and the University of Oregon have developed an approach for neuroscientists to study how meditation might provide improvements in a person’s attention and response to stress.