Hodgkin?s lymphoma survivors who have lipid screening every five years to detect high cholesterol will live a half year longer than patients who don?t have the screening and the intervention is cost-effective, according to a study presented November 8, 2006, at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology?s 48th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.
The first baby boomers are turning 60 this year. Some question whether there will be enough health care professionals to take care of them. An aging society and increased cases of chronic conditions like diabetes and obesity are straining an already fragile health care workforce. Now, the University of Missouri-Columbia is looking at ways to write a prescription for one of the major ailments facing today?s society, according to Richard Oliver, dean of the MU School of Health Professions. MU recently spearheaded the creation of FuturePoint Summit, a national coalition of academic and business leaders in the health care field, to find solutions for the allied health workforce shortage.
Prostate cancer patients who have a temporary rise in their prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels after radiation therapy – called a PSA bounce – are not at an increased risk of their cancer coming back any more than those who don?t have a temporary rise, according to the largest study of its kind presented November 8, 2006, at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology?s 48th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.
For the first time, researchers have inhibited the development of epilepsy after a brain insult in animals. By using gene therapy to modify signaling pathways in the brain, neurology researchers found that they could significantly reduce the development of epileptic seizures in rats.
Despite an overall decline in invasive breast cancer in the United States in recent years, African-American women, particularly younger ones, have not seen a significant decline in their rates, according to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh. These findings, which are being presented at the American Public Health Association (AHPA) Annual Meeting in Boston, Nov. 4 ? 8, strongly suggest the need for additional research to understand why these differences persist and to determine whether avoidable or preventable factors account for these puzzling patterns, according to the investigators.
Antiretroviral therapy can keep HIV infection in check and delay and ameliorate the symptoms of HIV/AIDS. However, the drugs do not manage to eradicate the virus completely; individuals have to stay on the drugs permanently. Preclinical studies in mice by Ekatarina Dadachova and colleagues (Albert Einstein College of Medicine) published in the international open-access journal PLoS Medicine now suggest a new strategy to locate and kill many if not all HIV-infected cells in the body.
Patients with metastatic cancer tumors in their lungs are much more likely to live disease-free if they have an experimental treatment involving shaped-beam radiosurgery rather that conventional treatment, according to a University of Rochester Medical Center study.
Mayo Clinic Cancer Center’s Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) for prostate cancer research has been renewed for an additional five years. SPORE grants are highly competitive awards given to institutions on the cutting edge of translational research in specific types of cancer.
The Mayo Clinic Nicotine Research Program is conducting a research study to help smokers who would like to quit. The study will test whether the drug Chantix (varenicline) helps smokers who have Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) stop smoking.
Gene-base therapy may be effective against HIV, U.S. researchers report. An investigational gene-based immunotherapy called VRX496 suggests it can fight the virus, according to a phase I, open-label, non-randomized clinical trial conducted at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.