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Nelfinavir inhibits growth of HER2-positive tumors

The HIV protease inhibitor, Nelfinavir, can be used to treat HER2-positive breast cancer in the same capacity and dosage regimen that it is used to treat HIV, according to a study published October 5 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

6 Oct 2012

Progress toward preventing initial and recurrent episodes of C. diff infection

Surgeons are making progress toward preventing initial and recurrent episodes of clostridium difficile colitis (C. difficile or C. diff), a vicious bacterial infection that is estimated to affect about 336,000 people each year, typically patients on antibiotics.

6 Oct 2012

Physician warnings over fitness to drive improve road safety

Physician warnings to patients who are potentially unfit to drive may lead to substantial reductions in road crash trauma, report Canadian researchers.

5 Oct 2012

Pesticide exposure may trigger food allergies

Results from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey suggest that high exposure to dichlorophenols, chemicals found in pesticides and used for chlorinating water, may increase a person’s risk for developing food allergies.

5 Oct 2012

Increased heart death risk for elderly sleep apnea patients

Untreated severe obstructive sleep apnea is associated with an increased risk for cardiovascular death in the elderly, say researchers.

5 Oct 2012

Embolic agent useful in pediatric neurovascular lesions

Researchers report a low permanent morbidity rate when using the liquid embolic agent Onyx to treat cranial and spinal vascular lesions in children.

5 Oct 2012

Providing no cost birth control can reduce unintended pregnancies, abortion rates in women

Providing birth control to women at no cost substantially reduced unplanned pregnancies and cut abortion rates by 62 percent to 78 percent over the national rate, a new study shows.

5 Oct 2012

UMDNJ postdoctoral researcher receives 2012 NIH Director's Early Independence Award

Mona Batish, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-New Jersey Medical School, is one of 14 scientists nationwide who have received the 2012 National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director's Early Independence Award.

5 Oct 2012

QEEG-guided neurofeedback effective in treating bedwetting

For children, nighttime bedwetting is a common problem, often requiring intervention. The use of medicine and other treatments has met with limited success. Targeting neuronal activities of the brain through neurofeedback, however, has shown promising results.

5 Oct 2012

HealthPartners receives 2012 AMGA Acclaim Award

The American Medical Group Association (AMGA) today presented the 2012 AMGA Acclaim Award to HealthPartners for "Triple Aim 2.0: Designing Culture to Support Better Health, Better Experience at a Lower Cost," an inventive and patient-centered approach to align the Institute of Medicine's Aims to identify and drive performance improvement, innovation, and culture throughout the organization.

5 Oct 2012

I COUGH program reduces likelihood of respiratory complications in surgical patients

Respiratory complications—including pneumonia and ventilator dependency—are among the most common complications that occur after operations. But a simple and inexpensive postoperative pulmonary care program known as "I COUGH" reduces the likelihood of those life-threatening and costly complications, researchers from Boston University Medical Center reported today at the 2012 American College of Surgeons (ACS) Annual Clinical Congress.

5 Oct 2012

GW professor to develop blood test for early detection of breast cancer

Today, patients with precancerous lesions, or early-stage breast cancer are usually diagnosed after a mammography screening. This method of detection can lead to false-positives and overtreatment, since mammography cannot determine whether pre-cancerous cells will actually turn into breast cancer. This may all change after Sidney Fu, M.D., professor of medicine at the George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS), completes his study of early breast cancer detection using novel small RNA (microRNA or miRNA) biomarkers.

5 Oct 2012

Botox injections effectively treat urinary urgency incontinence in women

Botox- (onabotulinum toxin-A) injections to the bladder are as effective as medication for treating urinary urgency incontinence in women, but the injection is twice as likely to completely resolve symptoms. These findings were published in the latest issue of The New England Journal of Medicine by a National Institutes of Health clinical trials network including Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine (SSOM).

5 Oct 2012

UT Austin chair to receive Founders Award from National Academy of Engineering

The National Academy of Engineering has selected Nicholas Peppas as its 2012 Founders Award recipient in recognition of his pioneering work in the areas of polymer chemistry, bioengineering, pharmaceutical sciences and advanced drug delivery.

5 Oct 2012

Article explores safety and efficacy of aerosol delivery of drugs in ICU patients

Essential medications can be delivered as inhaled drugs to critically ill patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) who require mechanical ventilation to breathe. Aerosol drug delivery is highly complex, however, and if not done properly the medication will not reach the lungs and therapy will be ineffective.

5 Oct 2012

Researchers identify genetic risk allele for uterine fibroids

Uterine fibroids are the most common type of pelvic tumors in women and are the leading cause of hysterectomy in the United States. Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) are the first to discover a genetic risk allele (an alternative form of a gene) for uterine fibroids in white women using an unbiased, genome-wide approach.

5 Oct 2012

People with difficulty in chewing foods more likely to develop dementia

Can you bite into an apple? If so, you are more likely to maintain mental abilities, according to new research from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.

5 Oct 2012

What's new on pre-existing condition health plans, the Medicaid expansion

CQ HealthBeat offers a progress check on the health law's pre-existing condition insurance plan while the St. Louis Beacon explores the Medicaid expansion debate.

5 Oct 2012

Cognitively-based compassion training can boost empathic accuracy

A compassion-based meditation program can significantly improve a person's ability to read the facial expressions of others, finds a study published by Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.

5 Oct 2012

New prototype mouse model duplicates the human response in rheumatoid arthritis

Researchers at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine have developed the first animal model that duplicates the human response in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), an important step that may enable scientists to discover better medicines to treat the disease.

5 Oct 2012