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Research into alcohol's effect on juvenile rats

Research into alcohol's effect on juvenile rats shows they have an ability to build up a physical, but not cognitive, tolerance over the short term - a finding that could have implications for adolescent humans, according to Baylor University psychologists.

14 Jun 2012

Use, overuse of imaging tests adds about $100 billion to U.S. medical bills

The use of diagnostic imaging has nearly tripled since the mid-1990s, according to a new study, raising questions about whether the benefits outweigh the risks of increased radiation exposure.

14 Jun 2012

Embryonic stem cells hold great promise for biomedical science

With their potential to treat a wide range of diseases and uncover fundamental processes that lead to those diseases, embryonic stem (ES) cells hold great promise for biomedical science.

14 Jun 2012

Senate panel includes funding for implementing health law in spending bill

A Senate Appropriations panel on Tuesday approved a fiscal 2013 spending bill for labor, health and education programs that includes funding to implement provisions of the 2010 health care overhaul, despite Republican objections. The Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee approved the draft measure along party lines, 10-7.

14 Jun 2012

UHCO alumnus donate $5 million to University of Houston

University of Houston College of Optometry (UHCO) alumnus Dr. Doug Barnes and his wife, Molly, have made a $5 million pledge to the University of Houston. The gift will be submitted for state matching funds through the Texas Research Incentive Program.

14 Jun 2012

State roundup: Mass. bill seeking Alzheimer's care standards moves forward

A proposal to create minimum standards for Alzheimer's and dementia care in Massachusetts nursing homes is one step closer to becoming law. The state Senate Tuesday unanimously passed legislation that would require the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, which regulates nursing homes, to establish minimum standards for facilities with dementia care units. The House approved the proposal last month.

14 Jun 2012

Study shows how cisplatin prevents clumping of hSOD1 linked to ALS

A long-used anti-cancer drug could be a starting point to develop new treatments for the incurable nerve disease known as Lou Gehrig's disease or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), scientists are reporting.

14 Jun 2012

Brazilian researchers say schistosomiasis vaccine could be available in 3 years

"Brazilian researchers say they have successfully tested a vaccine against schistosomiasis, a disease caused by parasitic worms that afflicts more than 200 million people worldwide," Agence France-Presse reports.

14 Jun 2012

Mayo Clinic urologists recommend personalized approach for prostate cancer screening

There is a lot of conflicting advice about prostate cancer screening. A recent U.S. Preventative Services Task Force recommendation against prostate-specific antigen testing, regardless of age, has added to men's confusion about how to protect themselves from a cancer that hits roughly 240,000 new patients every year and claims 28,000 lives.

14 Jun 2012

Conn. children's hospital, insurer reach accord; San Francisco nurses plan strike

Connecticut Children's Medical Center and Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield announced today that they have reached a multi-year agreement, ending a two-month dispute that led to uncertainty and confusion for many patients and their families. The hospital and the Connecticut Children's Specialty Group had dropped the insurer April 16 after both sides failed to reach an agreement after a year of negotiations. Under the deal, Anthem will immediately resume covering in-network costs.

14 Jun 2012

Reovirus can trick the body's defenses to reach and kill cancer cells

Scientists have shown how a promising viral therapy that delivers a double blow to cancer can sneak up on tumors undetected by hitching a ride on blood cells.

14 Jun 2012

R.I. lawmakers pass federal health care law compliance bill

Rhode Island and Connecticut moved forward on implementing the health law: Lawmakers in Providence approved legislation to bring state health insurance laws in line with the federal health care law. In Connecticut, the health insurance exchange board added a member.

14 Jun 2012

Multimedia intervention effective in changing patients' perceptions, attitudes toward clinical trials

Seeking ways to change cancer patients' perceptions and negative attitudes towards clinical trials participation, researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center conducted a study offering two different kinds of intervention to two groups of adults with cancer who had not previously been asked to participate in clinical trials. They found a multimedia psychoeducational intervention to be more effective in changing patients' perceptions and negative attitudes toward clinical trials than standard educational literature.

14 Jun 2012

JAMA: Wage gap persists for women physician-researchers

A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that the average salary for women doctor-researchers was 16 percent lower than men, even after accounting for speciality, hours, etc.

14 Jun 2012

Study finds increase in inpatient medical procedures after Mass. health reform implementation

Researchers from Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health (BUSM, BUSPH), along with the VA Boston Healthcare System and Harvard Medical School, have found inpatient medical procedures increased more among non-elderly, lower- and medium- income populations, Hispanics and whites, after health care reform went into effect in Massachusetts.

14 Jun 2012

Health law's birth control mandate, Medicare's doughnut hole draw headlines

Drug manufacturers may abandon the health law's provisions to close Medicare's so-called "doughnut hole" if the high court overturns the measure. Also, religious leaders press the Department of Health and Human Services to widen the religious exemption to the health law's birth control mandate.

14 Jun 2012

Georgia Tech startup to create new delivery method for cell-based therapies

Cell-based therapies have yet to reach their full potential in repairing damaged tissue because of the hostile environment the cells face once injected into the body. A patient's inflammatory response normally causes the majority of these therapeutic cells to die or migrate away from the area in need of repair.

14 Jun 2012

Clinical trials can benefit under-represented populations in developing countries

While conducting more clinical trials in developing countries can help under-represented populations benefit from new medical developments, trials in low-income settings face challenges such as complicated regulations, Trudie Lang of the Centre for Tropical Medicine at the University of Oxford and Sisira Siribaddana of the University of Rajarata and the Institute of Research & Development in Sri Lanka write in an essay published Tuesday in PLoS Medicine.

14 Jun 2012

Updated survival data from Takeda’s brentuximab vedotin Phase II trial on HL

Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, today announced updated survival data from a pivotal Phase II clinical trial of single-agent brentuximab vedotin in patients with relapsed or refractory Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) after autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) showing that the median overall survival has not been reached after a 26.5 month median follow-up.

14 Jun 2012

Cancers often recur after treatment with single drugs that “target” tumor cells’ genetic pathways

Targeted cancer cell therapies using man-made proteins dramatically shrink many tumors in the first few months of treatment, but new research from Johns Hopkins scientists finds why the cells all too often become resistant, the treatment stops working, and the disease returns.

14 Jun 2012