Cancer :: Sexual problems of long-term cancer survivors merit more attention

The first study to look at sexual function in very long-term female survivors of genital-tract cancer found that these women were pleased with the quality of their cancer care but less satisfied with the emotional support and information they received about dealing with the effects of the disease and treatment on sexuality.

Pregnancy :: Common preterm labor drug has more side effects than alternative

The drug most commonly used to arrest preterm labor, magnesium sulfate, is more likely than another common treatment to cause mild to serious side effects in pregnant women, according to a study from researchers at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and Stanford University School of Medicine.

Cervical Cancer :: Cervarix cervical cancer vaccine protects against lesions caused by cancer-causing virus types

Results from an interim analysis of a Phase III study show that CervarixTM, the GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) cervical cancer candidate vaccine, provides up to 100 percent protection against advanced precancerous lesions caused by the most common types of human papillomavirus, types 16 and 18.

Cancer :: New genetic marker characterizes aggressiveness of cancer cells

Levels of a small non-coding RNA molecule called let-7 appear to define different stages of cancer better than some of the “classical” markers for tumor progression, researchers from the University of Chicago report in the June 25, 2007, early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Pneumonia :: Gender may play role in recovery from pneumonia after ozone exposure

Does air pollution have a bigger effect on the immune system of females than males? It did among mice exposed to ozone — a major component in air pollution that is known to negatively affect lung function — and then infected with pneumonia, as significantly more females died from the infection than males.

Embryo :: Donated embryos could result in more than 2000 embryonic stem cell lines

In a survey of more than one thousand infertility patients with frozen embryos, 60 percent of patients report that they are likely to donate their embryos to stem cell research, a level of donation that could result in roughly 2000 to 3000 new embryonic stem cell lines.