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LABA medications, asthma and inhaled steroids

A combination of airway-opening drugs and inhaled inflammation-reducing steroids works better at preventing severe asthma attacks than a normal dose of steroids alone, according to a new review of recent studies.

18 Oct 2005

Access to genetic counseling and testing are an important part of cancer control

Ten years after the identification of the first breast cancer susceptibility genes so few high-risk minority women have received genetic counseling or testing that the standard methods of calculating risk have not been validated in these groups and the results of genetic testing can still produce surprises.

18 Oct 2005

Data supports use of personal and family history of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, or both in making clinical decisions

African American women at high-risk of breast cancer have genetic mutations that would make genetic testing feasible, according to a study in the October 19 issue of JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association.

18 Oct 2005

Yeast cells help show how GSAO (glutathionarsenoxide) angiogenesis inhibitor drug works

The humble yeast has revealed the molecular workings of an anti-cancer drug that stops the growth and spread of tumours in humans by starving their blood supply.

18 Oct 2005

Intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) for head and neck cancer

Results from a University of Pittsburgh study evaluating intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) for head and neck cancer determined the ideal doses for lessening treatment side effects. The findings were presented today at the 47th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO) in Denver.

18 Oct 2005

Health insurers are turning to a new approach to get doctors and hospitals to do better

In this approach, insurers offer financial rewards for better or more efficient care and sometimes create penalties for poor performance. Even though it has become commonplace, there is little evidence about its impact on care, says R. Adams Dudley, MD, MBA, a professor in the UCSF Institute for Health Policy Studies and the Department of Medicine.

18 Oct 2005

Interactive health websites can help people live with their chronic illness

Contrary to the UCL group's original findings, the review - published by the Cochrane Library and revised after being found to contain errors - shows that people who use interactive health programs and websites generally have a better health outcome than non-users.

18 Oct 2005

HIV drug combo Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole highly effective at preventing malaria

A drug combination used to prevent pneumonia and opportunistic bacterial infection in persons with HIV/AIDS has unexpectedly been found to be highly effective at preventing malaria, according to a study published in the November 15 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online.

18 Oct 2005

Controlling antibiotic-prescribing practices in hospitals

Plenty of promising strategies exist to control antibiotic-prescribing practices, but no single method emerges as the best for hospital patients, according to a new review of studies.

18 Oct 2005

Treating malignant melanoma of the uvea with radiation therapy can spare patients from significant vision loss

Treating a rare form of eye cancer with radiation therapy can spare patients from significant vision loss, according to new research at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.

18 Oct 2005

There will be nearly ten times as many operations performed for weight loss in 2005 as there were in 1998

...report researchers from the University of Chicago and the University of California at Irvine in the 19 October 2005 issue of JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, but the groups that need surgery the most are not the ones driving the increase.

18 Oct 2005

Possible new combination treatment regimen for patients with head and neck cancers who develop a second tumor

Few treatment options exist for patients with head and neck cancers who develop a second tumor or whose disease recurs in an area that has previously received radiation. Data from an international study reveal a possible new combination treatment regimen that offers a significant survival advantage for many of these patients.

18 Oct 2005

Evidence is mounting to link toxoplasmosis with schizophrenia

Keep pet cats inside, stop feeding strays, cook meat sufficiently and reconsider the way the veterinary profession and public health agencies think - and teach - about the zoonotic pathogen Toxoplasma gondii.

18 Oct 2005

Treating four or more brain tumors in a single radiosurgery session resulted in improved survival

...compared to whole brain radiation therapy alone, according to a study the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine presented today at the 47th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO) in Denver.

18 Oct 2005

Steroids and the chicken pox are a bad combination for children

Children who have been treated with steroids and are exposed to chicken pox tend to have a more severe case of the virus, according to pediatric oncologists at Brenner Children's Hospital, part of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.

18 Oct 2005

People who carry a mutation in the melanoma susceptibility gene CDKN2A have a much lower risk of melanoma

In addition, most familial clusters of melanoma occur in families without identifiable mutations in this gene, according to a new study that appears in the October 19 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

18 Oct 2005

Radical prostatectomy may be a safe option for the treatment of prostate cancer

Prostate cancer is the most common non-skin cancer in American men and the third most common cause of cancer death. In patients with localized disease, radical prostatectomy is associated with lower disease-specific mortality, lower rates of local progression and metastases, and higher overall survival compared with conservative management.

18 Oct 2005

Single men are less likely to seek radiation re-treatment for pain caused by prostate cancer

"Patients often experience a great deal of pain if their cancer spreads to the bone," explained Andre Konski, M.D., M.B.A., M.A., F.A.C.R., director of clinical research in the radiation oncology department at Fox Chase Cancer Center and lead author of the paper on the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group study (RTOG 97-14).

18 Oct 2005

Aβ and Fyn cooperate to cause Alzheimer-like changes in the brain

Reporting in two companion papers in the October 19 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, investigators from the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease show in genetically engineered mouse models of the disease that the accumulation of Alzheimer-related neurotoxic amyloid-beta (Aâ) peptides can deplete key proteins in a specific memory center of the brain.

18 Oct 2005

Newly discovered role of MECP2 gene in Rett Syndrome

Huda Zoghbi, of Baylor College of Medicine and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Juan Young, also of Baylor and colleagues report in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, posted the week of October 17, 2005, that the Rett Syndrome gene, MECP2, regulates RNA splicing.

18 Oct 2005

Medical News

LABA medications, asthma and inhaled steroids

Access to genetic counseling and testing are an important part of cancer control

Data supports use of personal and family history of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, or both in making clinical decisions

Yeast cells help show how GSAO (glutathionarsenoxide) angiogenesis inhibitor drug works

Intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) for head and neck cancer

Health insurers are turning to a new approach to get doctors and hospitals to do better

Interactive health websites can help people live with their chronic illness

HIV drug combo Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole highly effective at preventing malaria

Controlling antibiotic-prescribing practices in hospitals

Treating malignant melanoma of the uvea with radiation therapy can spare patients from significant vision loss

There will be nearly ten times as many operations performed for weight loss in 2005 as there were in 1998

Possible new combination treatment regimen for patients with head and neck cancers who develop a second tumor

Evidence is mounting to link toxoplasmosis with schizophrenia

Treating four or more brain tumors in a single radiosurgery session resulted in improved survival

Steroids and the chicken pox are a bad combination for children

People who carry a mutation in the melanoma susceptibility gene CDKN2A have a much lower risk of melanoma

Radical prostatectomy may be a safe option for the treatment of prostate cancer

Single men are less likely to seek radiation re-treatment for pain caused by prostate cancer

Aβ and Fyn cooperate to cause Alzheimer-like changes in the brain

Newly discovered role of MECP2 gene in Rett Syndrome

How microRNA is transforming science: From discovery to diagnostics

Advancing benzodiazepine detection

The Surgeon-Scientist Pioneering Regenerative Engineering

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