Pancreatitis News and Research

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Pancreatitis is inflammation of the pancreas. The pancreas is a large gland behind the stomach and close to the duodenum—the first part of the small intestine. The pancreas secretes digestive juices, or enzymes, into the duodenum through a tube called the pancreatic duct. Pancreatic enzymes join with bile—a liquid produced in the liver and stored in the gallbladder—to digest food. The pancreas also releases the hormones insulin and glucagon into the bloodstream. These hormones help the body regulate the glucose it takes from food for energy.

Normally, digestive enzymes secreted by the pancreas do not become active until they reach the small intestine. But when the pancreas is inflamed, the enzymes inside it attack and damage the tissues that produce them.

Pancreatitis can be acute or chronic. Either form is serious and can lead to complications. In severe cases, bleeding, infection, and permanent tissue damage may occur.

Researchers review ten years of scientific studies on mitochondrial toxicity in pregnant women

Researchers from the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona (Spain) have reviewed ten years' worth of scientific studies on mitochondrial toxicity in pregnant women. Exposure to toxic agents such as viruses, certain drugs, pesticides, alcohol and tobacco cause mitochondrial diseases about which very little is known, and which are transmitted from the mother to the foetus.

20 Feb 2015

Houston woman gets $4,300 SNAP grant for necessary home repairs

Wanda Richardson has been living on disability income since first being diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis 15 years ago. The high cost of covering her health care has made it difficult for her to finance needed home repairs.

12 Feb 2015

St. Mary's wins Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence for second consecutive year

Dignity Health St. Mary's Medical Center has received the Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence™ from Healthgrades, the leading online resource for comprehensive information about physicians and hospitals. This is the second consecutive year St. Mary's has received this award, which recognizes St. Mary's as among the top five percent of more than 4,500 hospitals nationwide for clinical performance.

21 Jan 2015

Researchers reveal key factor in understanding elevated cancer risk linked to gene therapy

National Institutes of Health researchers have uncovered a key factor in understanding the elevated cancer risk associated with gene therapy. They conducted research on mice with a rare disease similar to one in humans, hoping their findings may eventually help improve gene therapy for humans. Researchers at the National Human Genome Research Institute, part of NIH, published their research in the Jan. 20, 2015, online issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

21 Jan 2015

VolitionRx's NuQ blood-based diagnostic platform demonstrates promising results in clinical study

VolitionRx Limited, a life sciences company focused on developing diagnostic tests for cancer and other conditions, today announced that it has completed a blinded clinical study demonstrating that its NuQ® blood-based diagnostic platform is able to accurately detect 84% of early, surgically-treatable pancreatic cancers at high 92% specificity.

8 Jan 2015

FDA receives IDE application for CytoSorbents' CytoSorb cardiac surgery trial

CytoSorbents Corporation, a critical care immunotherapy company commercializing its CytoSorb® extracorporeal cytokine adsorber to reduce deadly inflammation in critically-ill and cardiac surgery patients, announced today that it has submitted an Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to conduct its proposed clinical trial using CytoSorb® intra-operatively in patients undergoing complex cardiac surgery requiring the use of a heart-lung machine.

31 Dec 2014

FDA approves Novo Nordisk’s weight loss injection, Saxenda

Novo Nordisk today announced that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the new drug application (NDA) for Saxenda® (liraglutide [rDNA origin] injection), the first once-daily glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist for chronic weight management.

25 Dec 2014

CytoSorbents starts trading on The Nasdaq Capital Market

CytoSorbents Corporation, a critical care immunotherapy company commercializing its CytoSorb® extracorporeal cytokine adsorber to reduce deadly inflammation in critically-ill and cardiac surgery patients, announced that it will commence trading today on The Nasdaq Capital Market under its current ticker symbol "CTSO".

23 Dec 2014

FDA approves intravenous administration of Erwinaze (asparaginase Erwinia chrysanthemi)

Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the intravenous administration of Erwinaze (asparaginase Erwinia chrysanthemi). Erwinaze is indicated as a component of a multi-agent chemotherapeutic regimen for the treatment of patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who have developed hypersensitivity to E. coli-derived asparaginase.

19 Dec 2014

Malnutrition predicts long-term survival in elderly patients undergoing Whipple procedure

Malnutrition is an important factor predicting long-term survival in older patients undergoing pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) (commonly called the Whipple procedure) to treat benign tumors and cysts of the pancreas as well as pancreatitis, according to new study results published in the December issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

6 Dec 2014

Mylan gets tentative approval from FDA for two pediatric dosages of abacavir/lamivudine tablets

Mylan Inc. today announced that its subsidiary Mylan Laboratories Limited has received tentative approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its New Drug Applications (NDAs) for two dosages of abacavir/lamivudine tablets for oral suspension for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in pediatric patients.

4 Dec 2014

Simple blood test may help spot pancreatic cancer

Indiana University cancer researchers have found that a simple blood test might help diagnose pancreatic cancer, one of the most deadly forms of the disease.

28 Oct 2014

CytoSorbents named Health sector winner at 2014 GREAT Tech Awards Gala

CytoSorbents Corporation is proud to announce that it was named the Health sector winner at the 2014 GREAT Tech Awards Gala last evening. Sponsored by United Kingdom Trade & Investment and the British Consulate General New York, the GREAT Tech Awards selected one winner in each of six categories from a pool of 120 high growth companies from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.

10 Oct 2014

CytoSorbents announces launch of International CytoSorb Treatment Registry

CytoSorbents Corporation, a critical care immunotherapy company using blood purification to treat life-threatening conditions, announced the launch of its International CytoSorb Treatment Registry, established and managed by the Center of Clinical Trials at the University of Jena, Germany.

3 Oct 2014

Patients with particular genetic variation more prone to drug-induced pancreatitis

Doctors have discovered that patients with a particular genetic variation are four times more likely to develop pancreatitis if they are prescribed a widely used group of drugs.

16 Sep 2014

Short-term use of DPP-4 inhibitors does not increase risk for pancreatic cancer

Researchers at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and the UNC School of Medicine have found that a popular class of diabetes medications called DPP-4 inhibitors does not increase the short-term risk of pancreatic cancer, as was previously reported by other researchers.

5 Sep 2014

Isis Pharmaceuticals begins ISIS-APOCIIIRx Phase 3 study in FCS patients

Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced the initiation of a Phase 3 study evaluating ISIS-APOCIIIRx in patients with familial chylomicronemia syndrome (FCS). FCS is a rare orphan disease, characterized by extremely high triglyceride levels, that affects an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 patients worldwide.

28 Aug 2014

Insulin can protect cells of pancreas from acute pancreatitis

Scientists from The University of Manchester have discovered that insulin can protect the cells of the pancreas from acute pancreatitis - a disease for which there is currently no treatment.

21 Aug 2014

PET-CT using FDG-labeled leucocytes may help in detecting infection in patients with acute pancreatitis

A new study diagnosing infection in patients with pancreatic fluid collections may swiftly and accurately rule out active infection in the body.

6 Aug 2014

Researchers find promising technique for type 1 diabetics to restore insulin producing cells

A new study by researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) has found that a peptide called caerulein can convert existing cells in the pancreas into those cells destroyed in type 1 diabetes-insulin-producing beta cells.

31 Jul 2014