Lungs News and Research

RSS

UK’s health performance declining compared with 14 EU countries over past 20 years

Six decades of universal free health care, the introduction of widespread public health initiatives (eg, tobacco control, cancer screening, and immunisation), and substantial increases in health expenditure have failed to improve the UK’s health outcomes or longevity ranking against the average of 14 other original members of the European Union, Australia, Canada, Norway, and the USA (EU15+) over the past 20 years.

6 Mar 2013

Chemotherapy-free stem cell transplant shows promise for sickle cell disease

Two brothers have been cured of their sickle cell disease at the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System using a relatively uncommon type of stem cell transplant that is performed without chemotherapy.

6 Mar 2013

Targeting ARF6 may be effectively prevent melanoma metastasis to lungs

Researchers have identified a critical protein role in the metastasis of melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer.

6 Mar 2013

New tool can help determine senior citizens' 10-year survivability rates

A UC San Francisco team has developed a tool that can help determine - and perhaps influence - senior citizens' 10-year survivability rates.

6 Mar 2013

Endocrine Society issues position statement on estradiol measurement

In a Position Statement unveiled today, The Endocrine Society advocates that all methods for measuring estrogens, which play a crucial role in human biology, be made traceable to a common standard.

6 Mar 2013

National Jewish Health receives U.S. patent for POPG and related compounds

Dennis Voelker, PhD, professor of medicine at National Jewish Health, has been awarded a U.S. patent (#8,367,643) for various lipids and related compounds that can inhibit inflammation and infection in the lungs, especially those caused by influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

5 Mar 2013

Increased pneumonia rates after Japan earthquake

Significantly increased rates of pneumonia and related deaths were seen after the 2011 Earthquake and Tsunami in Tohoku, Japan, report researchers.

5 Mar 2013

Five scientists aim to make strides in predicting and preventing preterm birth

Five researchers from four states are investigating how genetics and infections interact to cause preterm birth as well as how proteins and hormones regulate a healthy pregnancy, all with the goal of giving more babies a healthy start in life, the March of Dimes announced today.

5 Mar 2013

Researchers identify smoking gun for environmental exposures to affect future generations

Grandmother's cigarette smoking could be responsible for her grandchild's asthma, and the recent discovery of this multi-generational transmission of disease suggests the environmental factors experienced today could determine the health of family members for generations to come, two Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute (LA BioMed) lead researchers write in the March edition of Review of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

5 Mar 2013

PsiOxus completes enrollment in MT-102 Phase II trial on cancer cachexia

PsiOxus Therapeutics, Ltd. (PsiOxus), a development stage biotechnology company, has completed patient enrollment for its Phase II clinical trial to study MT-102, a small molecule therapeutic for the treatment of cancer cachexia.

4 Mar 2013

Electronic health records increase colorectal cancer screening rates

Researchers used electronic health records to identify Group Health patients who weren't screened regularly for cancer of the colon and rectum-and to encourage them to be screened. This centralized, automated approach doubled these patients' rates of on-time screening-and saved health costs-over two years.

4 Mar 2013

Global inhibition of all Notch signals would not be safe after bone marrow transplantation

Bone marrow transplant is a key treatment for patients with leukemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma and other blood disorders. University of Michigan researchers have discovered that inhibiting a signaling pathway in some of the transplanted cells could prevent the most serious potential complications of the procedure, a conflict between the transplanted cells and the recipient's own tissue called graft-versus-host disease.

2 Mar 2013

Lung congestion increases dialysis patients' risks of premature death or heart attacks

Asymptomatic lung congestion increases dialysis patients' risks of dying prematurely or experiencing heart attacks or other cardiac events, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).

1 Mar 2013

Study shows how theranostic nanoparticles can effectively deliver cancer drugs to tumour cells

Tiny particles filled with a drug could be a new tool for treating cancer in the future. A new study published by Swedish scientists in Particle & Particle Systems Characterization shows how such nanoparticles can be combined to secure the effective delivery of cancer drugs to tumour cells - and how they can be given properties to make them visible in MR scanners and thus rendered trackable.

1 Mar 2013

Toshiba launches new Aquilion ONE/ ViSION Edition

The Toshiba family of Aquilion CT scanners has recently been expanded to include the new Aquilion ONE/ ViSION Edition, a faster version of the very successful Aquilion ONE, of which over 700 have been ordered globally.

1 Mar 2013

Weekend reading: Navigating treatment; Can a robot replace your doctor?

Your pathology report indicates that you have stomach cancer. Hearing those words conveying yet another cancer-related diagnosis - my fourth since the age of 20 - I felt, at the age of 57, as though I had been airdropped into a foreign country.

1 Mar 2013

Thyroid hormone may help reduce heart damage in humans with cardiac diseases

Thyroid hormone treatment administered to rats at the time of a heart attack (myocardial infarction) led to significant reduction in the loss of heart muscle cells and improvement in heart function, according to a study published by a team of researchers led by A. Martin Gerdes and Yue-Feng Chen from New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine.

1 Mar 2013

Exposure to BPA may increase risk of asthma in young children

Researchers at the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health at the Mailman School of Public Health are the first to report an association between early childhood exposure to the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) and an elevated risk for asthma in young children. BPA is a component of some plastics and is found in food can liners and store receipts.

1 Mar 2013

Steroids may reduce length of hospital stay in patients with pneumonia

Patients with pneumonia may spend fewer days in the hospital if they are given steroids along with antibiotics and supportive care. That's the finding of a Mayo Clinic analysis of eight randomized-controlled clinical trials involving more than 1,100 patients.

1 Mar 2013

Patients with diabetes at no increased risk of complications after total knee replacement

Patients with diabetes who undergo total knee replacement surgery do not have increased risk of surgical complications compared to those patients without diabetes, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published today in The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery.

28 Feb 2013