Obese patients are more likely to have a recurrence of colon cancer than their normal-weight counterparts and face an increased risk of dying from the disease, while it’s not clear that losing weight would improve their prognosis.
Although children born to mothers who smoked during pregnancy are known to be at increased risk of developing asthma, ?few studies have investigated the role of active cigarette smoking on asthma onset during adolescence?, the researchers explain in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
A check of US metro-area hospitals showed that most already are using newly recommended best practices for treating heart attack patients, unblocking arteries within 90 minutes of patients arriving at emergency rooms.
Polymers, large molecules comprised of chains of repeating structures, are used in everything from the coatings on walls of ships and pipes to reduce flow drag to gene therapy.
The veil of mystery surrounding our extinct hominid cousins, the Neanderthals, has been at least partially lifted to reveal surprising results. Scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the Joint Genome Institute (JGI) have sequenced genomic DNA from fossilized Neanderthal bones.
Research led by King’s scientists, and published online in the journal Nature, sheds new light on the development of the immune cells which are critical in fighting infection and some tumours. It may also provide clues to the mystery of why autoimmune diseases in women often go into remission during pregnancy.
Virginia Commonwealth University researchers have developed a unique anti-sickling agent that may one day be effective in treating sickle cell disease, a painful and debilitating genetic blood disorder that affects approximately 80,000 Americans.
As public health officials around the world keep a nervous eye on the spread of avian influenza, the University of Saskatchewan’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) has uncovered a key step in how the influenza virus causes infection.
A device first implanted in the United States at the University of Rochester Medical Center as part of a clinical trial is showing a significant reduction in blood pressure in patients who suffer from severe hypertension and cannot control their condition with medications or lifestyle changes.
New clues about the origins of cosmic rays, mysterious high-energy particles that bombard the Earth, have been revealed using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. An extraordinarily detailed image of the remains of an exploded star provides crucial insight into the generation of cosmic rays.