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EMA approves CTI's Pixuvri Pediatric Investigation Plan for lymphoid malignancies and solid tumors

Cell Therapeutics, Inc. ("CTI") announced today that the European Medicines Agency ("EMA") approved CTI's Pixuvri (pixantrone dimaleate) Pediatric Investigation Plan ("PIP") for the treatment of lymphoid malignancies and solid tumors in children between the ages of six months and 18 years. Previously, the Pediatric Committee (the "PDCO") of the EMA adopted an opinion agreeing to the PIP and a deferral of the initiation of the clinical studies until after the drug receives EMA approval.

17 Nov 2010

Study reveals true effects of malaria on African generations

Almost a third of cerebral malaria survivors developed epilepsy or other behavioral disorders in the most comprehensive study to date of the disease in African children, solidifying the link between malaria and neuropsychiatric disorders that affect hundreds of thousands of children.

17 Nov 2010

Noninvasive method to determine estrogen levels in infants through diapers

With the help of babies and more than 5,000 of their diapers, Emory University researchers have developed an accurate, noninvasive method to determine estrogen levels in infants.

17 Nov 2010

Maine has most improved health care quality; Kansas needs more dentists

Maine Public Broadcasting Network News: "Nationwide, Maine is most improved when it comes to health care quality, according to 2009 statistics from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. In one year, Maine jumped from 12th place to fourth best in categories ranging from cancer to patient safety, from maternal and child health to long-term care.

17 Nov 2010

Researchers explore interplay between pain and anxiety

Disability from chronic pain in adolescents can be exacerbated by high levels of anxiety, according to research reported The Journal of Pain, the peer review publication of the American Pain Society.

17 Nov 2010

Neurologic complications remain an important cause of morbidity and mortality after heart surgeries

Strokes, seizures and other neurological complications related to heart surgery account for "considerable morbidity and mortality," Loyola University Health System neurologists report in the November issue of the journal Hospital Practice.

16 Nov 2010

Reuters reports on PLoS medicine series on water, sanitation

Nearly 20 percent of the world's population still defecates in the open, and action to improve hygiene, sanitation and water supply could prevent more than 2 million child deaths a year, health experts said" on Monday, following the release of a series of papers on water and sanitation published in the journal PLoS Medicine, Reuters reports.

16 Nov 2010

States seek ways to balance Medicaid budget, contemplate dropping out of program

Kaiser Health News: "As budget-weary state officials contemplate dropping out of the state-federal Medicaid program, a potentially game-changing question has arisen in Washington: Would poor people who lose Medicaid be eligible for subsidies to buy private coverage in an insurance exchange beginning in 2014? Cindy Mann, director of the federal Center for Medicaid and State Operations, last week said the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services was considering the question.

16 Nov 2010

Today's Op-Eds: Congress needs conservative leadership; reviving tort reform; can states afford to drop Medicaid?

Nothing has gone quite so awry as the massive, government-run Obama health program, and it is plain that the individual mandate, the employee mandate, the abortion funding, the tangle of outsider/insider councils like the comparative effectiveness board and the effective nationalization of healthcare under grants of authority to the Department of Health and Human Services.

16 Nov 2010

Study finds IgE antibody levels double with increasing age

In the first such study since the 1970s, researchers observed a highly statistically significant increase of IgE, a type of antibody associated with allergic reactions.

16 Nov 2010

Study finds infants' sleep associated with cognitive functions

At ages 1 and 1-1/2, children who get most of their sleep at night (as opposed to during the day) do better in a variety of skill areas than children who don't sleep as much at night.

16 Nov 2010

New findings help identify impact of prenatal environment on early parental care on brain

New findings released today help identify the long-term impact of the prenatal environment and early parental care on the brain. Using animals as models, researchers help explain why early inflammation and a mother's exposure to drugs such as nicotine and high doses of pain killers have lasting consequences for children and even future generations.

16 Nov 2010

Researchers identify pattern of brain activity that may develop ASD

An autism study by Yale School of Medicine researchers using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has identified a pattern of brain activity that may characterize the genetic vulnerability to developing autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Published today in the early edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study could eventually lead to earlier and more accurate autism diagnosis.

16 Nov 2010

Employees will see changes in 2011 health benefits

"Workers who have received their annual enrollment packets for insurance benefits" should expect slight changes to their plans this year due to the health care overhaul. Most employees can expect to pay more next year, due in part to the 1 to 2 percent increase in insurance costs brought about by the law.

16 Nov 2010

Canadian government announces new research initiative on childhood obesity

The Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health, today announced new initiatives for research on physical activity and childhood obesity through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

16 Nov 2010

Handwriting problems in autistic children likely to continue into teenage years: Study

A new study suggests that the handwriting problems that affect children with autism are likely to continue into their teenage years.

16 Nov 2010

Children's Hospital pediatric immunologist collaborates with European gene therapy researchers to study WAS syndrome

A pediatric immunologist at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia collaborated with European gene therapy researchers who achieved marked clinical improvements in two young children with Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome, a very rare but often severe immunodeficiency disorder.

16 Nov 2010

Researchers develop new vaccine delivery system for rotavirus infection

Researchers have developed a promising new approach to vaccination for rotavirus, a common cause of severe diarrheal disease that is responsible for approximately 500,000 deaths among children in the developing world every year.

16 Nov 2010

Study discovers health care gap in treating young patients with thyroid cancer

Thyroid cancer is the third most common malignancy in children, and the incidence is rising approximately one percent per year. Now a new analysis published in the October issue of Annals of Surgical Oncology indicates that although the proportion of young patients undergoing total thyroidectomy increased by 34 percent between 1985 and 2007, a variety of hospital and patient factors—including disparities in access to surgeons and state-of-the-art care—affect whether a child actually receives this procedure or another less extensive operation.

16 Nov 2010

OtoSCOPE method offers single-run genetic testing for hearing loss

Pinpointing the exact genetic cause of inherited deafness has always involved sequencing one gene at a time, a process that can take up to a year and cost roughly $1,000 per gene. It would cost around $75,000 to test all known deafness causing genes using this approach. Now University of Iowa researchers working with colleagues at Baylor College of Medicine have developed a test that can screen all of the genes known to cause deafness in a single run, in one to three months and for about $2,000.

16 Nov 2010