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Study shows women may face decreased kidney damage from ischemia reperfusion injury

After a kidney transplant, women may experience decreased kidney damage from ischemia reperfusion injury compared to men due to the impact of gender-specific hormones, suggests a new preclinical study and an analysis of patient data published online in the Journal of Clinical Investigation from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

19 Apr 2016

Penn researchers report results of CAR therapy trial in brain cancer patients

Immune cells engineered to seek out and attack a type of deadly brain cancer known as glioblastoma (GBM) were found to have an acceptable safety profile and successfully migrate to and infiltrate tumors, researchers from Penn Medicine and Harvard University reported at the AACR Annual Meeting 2016.

19 Apr 2016

Physicians failing to talk to stroke patients about end-of-life treatment preferences

US research suggests that physician-patient discussion about limitations on life-sustaining interventions following ischaemic stroke is low, poorly documented and often left too late.

14 Apr 2016

Transcranial direct current stimulation can allow faster comprehension of meaningful word combinations

How the human brain processes the words we hear and constructs complex concepts is still somewhat of a mystery to the neuroscience community. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can alter our language processing, allowing for faster comprehension of meaningful word combinations, according to new research from the department of Neurology the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The work is published in the Journal of Neuroscience.

11 Apr 2016

Penn researchers discover molecular mechanism that underlies common cerebrovascular disease

Cerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs) are clusters of dilated, thin-walled blood vessels in the brain that can cause stroke and seizures, yet exactly how they form is somewhat of a mystery. Now, a team from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has discovered the molecular mechanism that underlies this common cerebrovascular disease. They published their results this week online ahead of print in Nature.

31 Mar 2016

High out-of-pocket costs linked to lower use of specialty drugs

"Specialty drugs" have become important treatment options for many serious and chronic diseases, and in some conditions like cancer they represent the only chance for long-term survival.

29 Mar 2016

Cancer patients who choose home-based palliative care tend to live longer

A large study from Japan found that cancer patients who died at home tended to live longer than those who died in hospitals. Published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the findings suggest that oncologists should not hesitate to refer patients for home-based palliative care simply because less medical treatment may be provided.

28 Mar 2016

Meridian Health to debut first annual BuildingHOPE Benefit at Eagle Oaks Golf & Country Club

Meridian Health Foundation's first annual BuildingHOPE Benefit will take place on Friday, May 13, 2016 at Eagle Oaks Golf & Country Club in Farmingdale, NJ. The event, formerly known as the Sweetheart Ball for its February timeframe, has been moved to May and will benefit oncology research through Meridian Cancer Care.

26 Mar 2016

Restrictions to opioid prescription block their use for safe, effective pain relief

Opioids are very effective for treating some types of pain, such as cancer pain and postoperative pain, but not for other kinds of pain like chronic low back pain. An increase in the number of opioid-related deaths among addicts has led to the current movement to restrict opioid prescribing by state and federal authorities.

25 Mar 2016

Penn neurologists uncover new genetic cause of Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease

Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease (CMT) is a family of inherited disorders of the peripheral nervous system, affecting approximately one in 2,500 Americans. Its most common iteration, CMT1, comes in many forms, most of which have to date been linked to a small set of causative genes.

23 Mar 2016

Whole genome sequencing of chimpanzee parasite reveals clues about human malaria

Understanding the origins of emerging diseases - as well as more established disease agents -- is critical to gauge future human infection risks and find new treatment and prevention approaches. This holds true for malaria, which kills more than 500,000 people a year. Symptoms, including severe anemia, pregnancy-associated malaria, and cerebral malaria, have been linked to the parasite's ability to cause infected red blood cells to bind to the inner lining of blood vessels.

22 Mar 2016

Antipsychotic drugs may do significantly more harm to Parkinson's disease patients

At least half of Parkinson's disease patients experience psychosis at some point during the course of their illness, and physicians commonly prescribe antipsychotic drugs, such as quetiapine, to treat the condition. However, a new study by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Michigan Medical School, and the Philadelphia and Ann Arbor Veterans Affairs Medical Centers and suggests that these drugs may do significantly more harm in a subset of patients.

21 Mar 2016

Penn study calls on physicians to avoid over-prescribing opioids for surgical patients

Physicians are prescribing more opioid painkillers than ever before to patients undergoing common surgeries, according to new research from the department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

21 Mar 2016

Simple TB screening and isoniazid can be effective for HIV patients at risk for TB

The number one killer of HIV patients in resource-limited areas, including parts of Africa and India, is tuberculosis (TB), underscoring the need for optimal treatments and effective strategies to address this deadly co-infection. But TB is harder to detect in HIV-infected patients and diagnostic test results take time, so many healthcare providers prescribe multi-drug TB treatments as a precaution.

20 Mar 2016

Many kidney transplant patients may benefit from lower-than-standard dose of CNIs

The kidney is the most commonly transplanted organ in the United States, with more than 17,000 transplants performed each year. Following kidney transplant, patients are routinely placed on a regimen of immunosuppressant medications to prevent organ rejection, which often includes calcineurin inhibitors (CNIs) as the backbone medication of this regimen.

16 Mar 2016

Population health research on cardiovascular health finds positive results

In 2009, Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation, along with Allina Health, New Ulm Medical Center and the community of New Ulm, Minnesota, began a 10-year population health research project to learn if heart attacks and heart disease risk factors within a community could be decreased through community efforts. Results for the first five years have been released, and the initial findings are positive.

14 Mar 2016

Promoting breastfeeding as 'natural' way could result in harmful decision-making, experts warn

Breastfeeding campaigns that extol breastfeeding as the "natural" way to feed infants could result in harmful decision-making by some parents on other important health matters, according to experts from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

14 Mar 2016

Popular kidney cancer drugs do not reduce incidence of recurrence

Two widely used targeted therapy drugs approved by the FDA for the treatment of metastatic kidney cancer—sorafenib and sunitinib—are no more effective than a placebo in preventing return of the disease to increase life spans of patients suffering from advanced kidney cancer after surgery, according to a new multi-institutional study in the Lancet led by a researcher at the Abramson Cancer Center (ACC) of the University of Pennsylvania.

10 Mar 2016

Shift in workforce model in public mental health clinics may affect efforts to improve services

Community mental health clinics, where most specialty mental health treatment is delivered, have been relying more on independent contractors to treat patients, largely for budgetary reasons. Many of these clinics have simultaneously been moving towards the greater use of evidence-based psychosocial practices , broadly defined as talk therapies that are informed by rigorous research as well as clinician expertise and patient preferences.

9 Mar 2016

Researchers find new link between elevation of certain amino acids and type 2 diabetes

More than 29 million Americans are currently living with diabetes. The majority have type 2 diabetes, and for them insulin resistance - their body's inability to effectively process sugar - is a part of daily life. Therefore, understanding the cause of insulin resistance is critical to tackling this chronic disease.

8 Mar 2016