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Guidelines on cardiovascular disease prevention in clinical practice launched at EuroPRevent2012

The latest cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention guidelines have been overhauled to produce a user friendly document with concise messages that awards greater weight than ever before to evidence from clinical trials and observational population studies. The "European Guidelines on Cardiovascular Disease Prevention in Clinical Practice (version 2012)" - were launched at the EuroPRevent2012 meeting in Dublin, Ireland.

4 May 2012

Growing role of body image drugs

In the current issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics Kanayama et al. analyse the growing role of body image drugs.

4 May 2012

New light on many biological differences between individual breast cancers

New findings presented at Europe's leading breast cancer translational research conference this year shed new light on the many biological differences between individual breast cancers.

4 May 2012

Potential breast cancer patients for new immune-targeting therapies

Breast cancer patients whose tumors express high levels of genes related to immune response are more likely to have their tumor completely eradicated by pre-operative chemotherapy compared to patients with low expression of these genes, Belgian researchers report at the 4th IMPAKT Breast Cancer Conference in Brussels, Belgium.

4 May 2012

An Achilles heel within cells that bacteria exploit to cause infection

Scientists have discovered an Achilles heel within our cells that bacteria are able to exploit to cause and spread infection.

4 May 2012

Aspirin versus warfarin for heart failure patients

In a new study on more than 2,000 patients, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that aspirin was as effective as the commonly prescribed drug warfarin. It said each drug had risks, but they had similar benefits overall.

4 May 2012

State roundup: Pittsburgh insurer, hospital extend contract despite ongoing fight

A restaurant workers' group and a Los Angeles community clinic have launched a unique cooperative to provide health coverage to a group of people excluded from federal health care reform -- illegal immigrants. The pilot program, believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, offers preventive and primary care to low-wage, uninsured workers in the restaurant industry. Legal immigrants and other restaurant workers who don't meet the criteria or cannot afford coverage under the health care law are also eligible.

4 May 2012

TGen to lead multidisciplinary search for new drugs that could help treat GBM

The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) will lead a multidisciplinary search for new drugs that could help treat the most common and lethal form of brain cancer.

4 May 2012

Health care quality varies widely despite high spending in the U.S.

The United States spends more on health care than 12 other industrialized countries yet does not provide "notably superior" care, according to a new study from The Commonwealth Fund.

4 May 2012

UCLA creates crowd-sourced online gaming system to detect malaria

Online crowd-sourcing - in which a task is presented to the public, who respond, for free, with various solutions and suggestions - has been used to evaluate potential consumer products, develop software algorithms and solve vexing research-and-development challenges. But diagnosing infectious diseases?

4 May 2012

Researchers identify switches that can turn on or off genes associated with colorectal cancer

Two researchers at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth have helped to identify switches that can turn on or off genes associated with colorectal cancer. The finding offers clues about the development of colorectal cancer and could-potentially-provide targets for new therapies.

4 May 2012

Hypoxia may be a primary cause of uncontrollable tumor growth in cancers

Low oxygen levels in cells may be a primary cause of uncontrollable tumor growth in some cancers, according to a new University of Georgia study. The authors' findings run counter to widely accepted beliefs that genetic mutations are responsible for cancer growth.

4 May 2012

Prostate cancer diagnosis on the rise among U.K. men

Latest figures from Cancer Research UK reveal that the number of men diagnosed with prostate cancer in the UK has risen above 40,000.

4 May 2012

Nanoparticle carriers successfully deliver therapeutic doses of cancer drug

Current nanomedicine research has focused on the delivery of established and novel therapeutics. But a UNC team is taking a different approach. They developed nanoparticle carriers to successfully deliver therapeutic doses of a cancer drug that had previously failed clinical development due to pharmacologic challenges.

3 May 2012

Dopamine linked to willingness to work for a monetary reward

A new brain imaging study has shown that an individual’s willingness to work hard to earn money is strongly influenced by the chemistry in three specific areas of the brain. Researchers claim that this could have important implications for the treatment of attention-deficit disorder, depression, schizophrenia and other forms of mental illness characterized by decreased motivation.

3 May 2012

One in six prescriptions may carry a medication error: GMC survey finds

A new study has found that more than one in six patients who are put on medication after seeing their GP are given a prescription containing an error. The study comes from the General Medical Council.

3 May 2012

FDA recommended to continue monitoring drugs' safety after approval

Pharmaceutical drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) but later re-called from the market-such as the antidiabetic drug Avandia and pain-reliever Vioxx-were the impetus for an Institute of Medicine committee report released yesterday, recommending that the FDA take proactive steps to continue monitoring drugs' safety after initial approval and throughout their time on the market.

3 May 2012

Cardiac testing important for lung disease prognosis, treatment

A simple test for heart disease risk can go a long way toward determining the long-term prognosis for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, according to UC Irvine researchers.

3 May 2012

Large-scale, patient-specific simulations of blood function

Having a virtual copy of a patient's blood in a computer would be a boon to researchers and doctors. They could examine a simulated heart attack caused by blood clotting in a diseased coronary artery and see if a drug like aspirin would be effective in reducing the size of such a clot.

3 May 2012

Combination of two mTOR inhibitors stops growth of hepatocellular carcinoma

The combination of two inhibitors of protein mTOR stops the growth of primary liver cancer and destroys tumour cells, according to a study by researchers of the Group of Metabolism and Cancer at Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute.

3 May 2012