Bile News and Research

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Higher than average success rate reported for children receiving living donor transplants

Ninety-six per cent of children who have received liver transplants from living relations are still alive five years after surgery, according to research published in the July issue of the British Journal of Surgery.

17 Jul 2008

How the cholesterol-lowering drug ezetimibe (Zetia) works

A new study in the June issue of Cell Metabolism, a Cell Press publication, sheds light on the action of the drug ezetimibe (trade name Zetia), which is used to treat high cholesterol. Ezetimibe is unique among cholesterol-lowering drugs in that it works by cutting the amount of cholesterol taken in from the diet rather than by blocking cholesterol's manufacture in the body.

3 Jun 2008

Combining liver cancer treatments doubles survival rates

By combining the use of stents and photodynamic therapy, also called SpyGlass, physicians at the University of Virginia have been able to significantly increase survival rates for patients suffering from advanced cholangiocarcinoma, cancer of the liver bile duct.

16 Apr 2008

Promising Australian cancer drug on show in the U.S.

A cancer drug in the process of being developed by two Australian companies has shown promising results in preliminary trials on animals.

16 Apr 2008

New technique improves outcome for living donor liver transplants

The University of Alberta Hospital (UAH) is one of only a few centers in Canada that perform living donor liver transplantation, a surgical procedure developed in the late 1980s that expands the organ donor pool. About 80 liver transplants are done a year in Alberta, 10 of those being living-donor.

19 Mar 2008

Routinely used diagnostic approaches: only limited diagnostic sensitivity for bile duct cancer?

Surgery is the only curative treatment in patients with bile duct cancer.

14 Mar 2008

Combined therapeutic approach of stenting and photodynamic therapy improves survival in late stage liver cancer patients

A combined therapeutic approach of stenting and photodynamic therapy may improve survival rates for patients suffering from advanced liver bile duct cancer, according to a study published this month in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology , the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute.

12 Mar 2008

Cause of effectiveness discovered for a cirrhosis treatment useful in 40 percent of patients

Scientists of the Center for Applied Medical Research (CIMA) of the University of Navarra have discovered the molecular mechanism responsible for the effectiveness of an existing treatment for primary biliary cirrhosis, which combines two substances in order to produce an effect that does not result from either substance separately.

28 Feb 2008

Are tumors causing stricture of bile duct always malignant?

The benign biliary tract tumor is rarely found in clinical practice.

26 Feb 2008

Exercise may reduce gallstones

A new University of Illinois study shows that exercise-trained mice get far fewer gallstones than sedentary mice and identifies potential mechanisms to explain why this occurs.

14 Feb 2008

Study looks at off-label use of biliary stents

Although approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a palliative treatment for cancer patients who have developed bile-duct obstructions, biliary stents are sometimes used "off-label" for the treatment of peripheral vascular disease (PVD).

22 Jan 2008

How probiotics work in gut

Probiotics, such as yoghurt drinks containing live bacteria, have a tangible effect on the metabolism, according to the results of a new study published (Tuesday 15 January) in the journal Molecular Systems Biology.

16 Jan 2008

New magnetic method of delivering cells and genes to repair injured or diseased organs

Scientists have used magnetic fields and tiny iron-bearing particles to drive healthy cells to targeted sites in blood vessels.

8 Jan 2008

New drug that cuts risk of cardiovascular disease shows promise

The first clinical trial of a new kind of drug to cut the risk of cardiovascular disease has been found safe and effective at dropping levels of "bad" low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol by as much as 40 percent.

18 Dec 2007

U.S. approval of Nexavar (sorafenib) for inoperable liver cancer

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Nexavar (sorafenib) for use in patients with a form of liver cancer known as hepatocellular carcinoma, when the cancer is inoperable.

19 Nov 2007

Endosonography-guided biliary drainage is useful in cases with failed endoscopic biliary stenting

The role of endosonography (ES) in digestive diseases is expanding gradually from diagnostic applications to therapeutic ones. The feasibility of ES-guided cholangiopancreatography was first reported by Harada et al. (pancreatography) and Wiersema et al. (cholangiography) in 1995 and 1996, respectively.

5 Nov 2007

Exclusion of common bile duct stones prior to gallstone operations

CBDS occur in 7-20% of all patients undergoing a gallstone operation and may complicate the course of surgery.

1 Nov 2007

Surgery, radiation gives early survival advantage in bile duct cancer

Oregon Health & Science University researchers are reporting the discovery of an early survival advantage when a combination of surgery and radiation therapy is used for patients with a rare but deadly bile duct cancer.

28 Oct 2007

Attenuation of NASH by stimulation of free fatty acid metabolism

Medically-complicated obesity is a societal problem that needs to be solved. Liver disease, specifically non-alcoholic steatohepatitis or NASH, is just one of the many complications of increased body weight.

28 Oct 2007

Combination targets offer new hope in fight against cancer

While some targeted therapies - drugs developed to attack specific molecules in the critical chemical pathways occurring within cancer cells - work well by themselves, increasingly researchers are finding that they work better when teamed with other targeted and conventional therapies.

24 Oct 2007