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Re-educating immune system cells slows tumour growth

Immune system cells recruited by cancers to help them grow and spread could be 're-educated' to attack the tumours instead of aiding them, Cancer Research UK scientists announced at the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) Conference in Birmingham today (Wednesday).

4 Oct 2007

Promising trial results show biologic therapy ustekinumab significantly improved psoriasis

The first reported findings from an international, Phase 3 study showed that more than two-thirds of patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis receiving two doses of ustekinumab (CNTO 1275) achieved at least a 75 percent reduction in psoriasis at week 12, the primary endpoint of the study, as measured by the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI 75).

4 Oct 2007

Radiofrequency ablation for chronic arthritis-related back pain

Radiofrequency ablation, where heat energy destroys or stuns the nerves of a painful joint, is a developing therapy for chronic arthritis-related back pain.

4 Oct 2007

Flavonol-rich foods may help reduce the risk of pancreatic cancer

Eating flavonol-rich foods like apples may help reduce the risk of pancreatic cancer, says a team of international researchers.

4 Oct 2007

Cancer trial combines multiple drugs to attack blood vessel formation in patients with kidney cancer

In the first clinical trial of its kind, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Abramson Cancer Center will lead a nationwide test of anti-cancer drug combinations that target blood vessel growth in patients with advanced kidney cancer.

4 Oct 2007

Neural prosthetic devices

MIT researchers have developed a new algorithm to help create prosthetic devices that convert brain signals into action in patients who have been paralyzed or had limbs amputated.

4 Oct 2007

What our genes tell us - Identifying biomarkers for key environmental risk factors

Identifying biomarkers for the key environmental risk factors responsible for two diseases that significantly contribute to death and disease of hundreds of thousands annually will be the initial focus of a new center being established at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

4 Oct 2007

Isis Pharmaceuticals awarded $1.5 million NIH grant to improve RNAi-based therapeutics

Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has announced that it has been awarded a multi-year Phase 2 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for up to $1.5 million to design oligonucleotide drugs that can exploit the RNA interference (RNAi) antisense mechanism for disease treatment.

4 Oct 2007

Gene-chip studies provide new leads in treating abnormal lung development in premature newborns

Some 20 to 40 percent of extremely premature infants suffer abnormal lung development leading to bronchopulmonary dysplasia, a chronic lung disease that can cause long-term breathing problems.

4 Oct 2007

Choosing the best treatment for disease

The diagnosis has come in, and it's not good. Worse, the patient has to choose from treatment options that are sometimes contradictory and risky.

4 Oct 2007

PAZAR - virtual bazaar of gene regulation data

An international team has opened a virtual bazaar, called PAZAR, which allows biologists to share information about gene regulation through individually managed 'boutiques' (data collections).

4 Oct 2007

FDA tightens potency specifications to ensure thyroid drugs last

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is tightening the potency specifications for levothyroxine sodium, used to treat underactive thyroid glands and other thyroid conditions, to ensure the drug retains its potency over its entire shelf life.

4 Oct 2007

Learning from the Toronto SARS outbreak

Locked doors, full masks and gowns, questionnaires and line-ups at the hand washing stations - getting health-care services during SARS wasn't easy.

4 Oct 2007

Large gap between physician and patient understanding of necessity of monthly periods

More than the two thirds of the women in a national survey say that they are interested in suppressing their menstrual periods but many of them aren't sure if it's safe.

4 Oct 2007

Renewed search for lupus treatments and cure

For the first time in decades, a significant number of clinical trials are being conducted to seek a treatment, perhaps even a cure, for lupus, a chronic and potentially fatal autoimmune disease that affects more than 1.5 million Americans -- 10,000 in Los Angeles County alone.

4 Oct 2007