Tuesday, 13 October 2015

The Experimental Drug Against Lung Cancer Prolongs Patients' Lives

The Experimental Drug Against Lung Cancer Prolongs Patients' Lives.
Researchers record they prolonged survival for some patients with advanced non-small room lung cancer, for whom the median survival is currently only about six months. One ruminate on discovered that an experimental sedate called crizotinib shrank tumors in the majority of lung cancer patients with a specific gene variant. An estimated 5 percent of lung cancer patients, or brutally 40000 men and women worldwide, have this gene variant.

A second study found that a double-chemotherapy regimen benefited past it patients, who represent the majority of those with lung cancer worldwide. Roughly 100000 patients with lung cancer in the United States are over the time of 70. "This is our toughest cancer in many ways," said Dr Mark Kris, arbitrator of a Saturday press conference at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), in Chicago. "It affects 220000 Americans each year, and over a million population worldwide. Sadly, it is our nation's - and our world's - foremost cancer".

The initial study, a phase 1 trial, found that 87 percent of 82 patients with advanced non-small chamber lung cancer with a specific mutation of the ALK gene, which makes that gene merge with another, responded robustly to treatment with crizotinib, which is made by Pfizer Inc. "The patients were treated for an unexceptional of six months, and more than 90 percent saw their tumors contract in size and 72 percent of participants remained progression-free six months after treatment," said lessons author Dr Yung-Jue Bang, a professor in the department of internal medicine at Seoul National University College of Medicine in South Korea. Ordinarily, only about 10 percent of patients would be expected to return to treatment.

About half of patients competent nausea, vomiting and diarrhea but these camp effects eased over time. The fusion gene was first discovered to play a duty in this type of lung cancer in 2007. Researchers are now working on a phase 3 trial of the drug. The Korean researchers reported economic ties to Pfizer.

Thursday, 8 October 2015

Over The Last Decade Treatment Of Lupus Kidney Disorder Has Improved

Over The Last Decade Treatment Of Lupus Kidney Disorder Has Improved.
Over the whilom 10 years, therapy options for patients with an frantic kidney disorder known as lupus nephritis have vastly improved, according to a new review. This means that patients with lupus nephritis, which is a complexity that can occur in individuals with the autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), can now envision a better quality of life, without many of the harsh treatment side effects. The rethinking further indicates that new treatments for this serious kidney disorder are already coming down the pike, and will all things considered lead to even better options in the future.

And "Treatment of lupus nephritis is rapidly changing, becoming safer and more effective," Dr Gerald Appel, of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City, said in an American Society of Nephrology release release. Appel and Columbia buddy Dr Andrew Bomback pass out their findings in the Nov 1, 2010 online copy of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. The authors noted that SLE affects about 1,4 million Americans, mostly women between the ages of 20 and 40.

Wednesday, 30 September 2015

Even Easy Brain Concussion Can Lead To Serious Consequences

Even Easy Brain Concussion Can Lead To Serious Consequences.
Soldiers who experience submissive brain injuries from blasts have long-term changes in their brains, a meagre new study suggests. Diagnosing mild brain injuries caused by explosions can be challenging using prevailing CT or MRI scans, the researchers said. For their study, they turned to a unique type of MRI called diffusion tensor imaging. The technology was used to assess the brains of 10 American veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who had been diagnosed with modest traumatizing brain injuries and a comparison group of 10 people without brain injuries.

The average occasion since the veterans had suffered their brain injuries was a little more than four years. The researchers found that the veterans and the resemblance group had significant differences in the brain's white matter, which consists mostly of signal-carrying nerve fibers. These differences were linked with publicity problems, delayed memory and poorer psychomotor examination scores among the veterans. "Psychomotor" refers to movement and muscle ability associated with intellectual processes.

Scientists Are Exploring The Human Cerebral Cortex

Scientists Are Exploring The Human Cerebral Cortex.
Higher levels of self-professed religious reliance appear to be reflected in increased thickness of a key brain area, a unfamiliar study finds. Researchers at Columbia University in New York City found that the outer layer of the brain, known as the cortex, is thicker in some areas all people who place a lot of significance on religion. The bone up involved 103 adults between the ages of 18 and 54 who were the children and grandchildren of both depressed survey participants and those who were not depressed.

A team led by Lisa Miller analyzed how often the participants went to church and the wreck of importance they placed on religion. This assessment was made twice over the track of five years. Using MRI technology, the cortical thickness of the participants' brains was also exact once.

Tuesday, 29 September 2015

Undetectable HIV Virus

Undetectable HIV Virus.
Fortunata Kasege was just 22 years past it and several months preggers when she and her husband came to the United States from Tanzania in 1997. She was hoping to earn a college step in journalism before returning home. Because she'd been in the process of moving from Africa to the United States, Kasege had not yet had a prenatal checkup, so she went to a clinic soon after she arrived. "I was very overwrought to be in the US, but after that crave flight, I wanted to know that everything was OK.

I went to the clinic with mixed emotions - lively about the baby, but worried, too," but she left the appointment feeling better about the baby and without worries. That was the continue time she'd have such a carefree feeling during her pregnancy. Soon after her appointment, the clinic asked her to come back in: Her blood evaluate had come back positive for HIV. "I was devastated because of the baby. I don't call to mind hearing anything they said about saving the baby right away.

It was a lot to interpret in. I was crying and scared that I was going to die. I was feeling all kinds of emotions, and I cogitation my baby would die, too. I was screaming a lot, and for ever someone told me, 'We promise we have medicine you can take and it can save the baby and you, too. Kasege started therapy right away with zidovudine, which is more commonly called AZT. It's a medicament that reduces the amount of virus in the body, known as the viral load, and that helps bust the chances of the baby getting the mother's infection.

Scientists Continue To Explore The Possibilities Of The Human Brain

Scientists Continue To Explore The Possibilities Of The Human Brain.
Electrical stimulation of a determined neighbourhood of the brain may help boost a person's facility to get through tough times, according to a tiny new study. Researchers implanted electrodes in the brains of two tribe with epilepsy to learn about the source of their seizures. The electrodes were situated in the part of the genius known as the "anterior midcingulate cortex". This region is believed to be involved in emotions, drag and decision-making.

When an electrical charge was delivered within this region, both patients said they experienced the expectation of an momentary challenge. Not only that, they also felt a determination to conquer the challenge. At the same time, their sympathy rate increased and they experienced physical sensations in the chest and neck.

Wednesday, 23 September 2015

Scientists Have Found New Causes Of Stroke

Scientists Have Found New Causes Of Stroke.
Could ache upward the risk for stroke? A new long-term study suggests just that - the greater the anxiety, the greater the jeopardy for stroke. Study participants who suffered the most anxiety had a 33 percent higher endanger for stroke compared to those with the lowest anxiety levels, the researchers found. This is intention to be one of the first studies to show an association between anxiety and stroke. But not everyone is convinced the coherence is real. "I am a little skeptical about the results," said Dr Aviva Lubin, affiliate stroke director at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, who had no part in the study.

The researchers muricate out that anxiety can be related to smoking and increased pulse and blood pressure, which are known jeopardize factors for stroke. However, Lubin still has her doubts. "It still seems a little hard-headed to fully buy into the fact that anxiety itself is a major risk factor that we need to deal with. Lubin said that treating peril factors like smoking, high blood pressure and diabetes are the keys to preventing stroke.

And "I waver that treating anxiety itself is going to decrease the gamble of stroke.The report was published Dec 19, 2013 in the online edition of the journal Stroke. The look at was led by Maya Lambiase, a cardiovascular behavioral medicine researcher in the area of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Her team collected data on more than 6000 common man aged 25 to 74 when they enrolled in the first US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, started in the inappropriate 1970s.

Saturday, 19 September 2015

New Rules For The Control Of Food Safety

New Rules For The Control Of Food Safety.
A redesigned superintend to protect the nation's food supply from terrorism has been introduced by the US Food and Drug Administration, the intervention announced Friday in Dec 2013. The proposed guide would require the largest food businesses in the United States and in other nations to take steps to shelter facilities from attempts to contaminate the food supply. The FDA said it does not know of any cases where the edibles supply was intentionally tainted with the aim of inflicting widespread harm, and added that such events are distasteful to occur.

Tuesday, 15 September 2015

The Link Between Antidepressants And Autism

The Link Between Antidepressants And Autism.
Despite some concerns to the contrary, children whose moms old antidepressants during pregnancy do not appear to be at increased jeopardy of autism, a large novel Danish study suggests. The results, published Dec 19, 2013 in the New England Journal of Medicine, presentation some reassurance. There have been some hints that antidepressants called picky serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) could be linked to autism. SSRIs are the "first-line" drug against depression, and allow for medications such as fluoxetine (Prozac), sertraline (Zoloft), citalopram (Celexa) and paroxetine (Paxil).

In one late-model US study, mothers' SSRI use during pregnancy was tied to a twofold increase in the edge that her child would have autism. A Swedish study saw a similar pattern, though the risk linked to the drugs was smaller. But both studies included only pint-sized numbers of children who had autism and were exposed to antidepressants in the womb. The recent study is "the largest to date" to look at the issue, using records for more than 600000 children born in Denmark, said tether researcher Anders Hviid, of the Statens Serum Institute in Copenhagen.

And overall, his crew found, there was no clear link between SSRI use during pregnancy and children's autism risk. Hviid cautioned that the pronouncement is still based on a small company of children who had autism and prenatal exposure to an SSRI - 52, to be exact. The researchers celebrated that it's not possible to rule out a small increase in autism risk. "At this point, I do not contemplate this potential association should feature prominently when evaluating the risks and benefits of SSRI use in pregnancy".

Commenting on the findings, Christina Chambers, foreman of the Center for the Promotion of Maternal Health and Infant Development at the University of California, San Diego, stated, "I deliberate this study is reassuring". One "important" specifics is that the researchers factored in mothers' mental health diagnoses - which ranged from the blues to eating disorders to schizophrenia. "How much of the risk is related to the medication, and how much is interconnected to the underlying condition? It's hard to tease out".

Sunday, 13 September 2015

Dangerous Bacteria Live On Chicken Breasts

Dangerous Bacteria Live On Chicken Breasts.
Potentially unhealthy bacteria was found on 97 percent of chicken breasts bought at stores across the United States and tested, according to a experimental work in Dec 2013. And about half of the chicken samples had at least one breed of bacteria that was resistant to three or more classes of antibiotics, the investigators found. The tests on the 316 damp chicken breasts also found that most had bacteria - such as enterococcus and E coli - linked to fecal contamination.

About 17 percent of the E coli were a kidney that can cause urinary tract infections, according to the study, published online and in the February 2014 affair of Consumer Reports. In addition, slight more than 11 percent had two or more types of multidrug-resistant bacteria. Bacteria on the chicken were more rebellious to antibiotics used to promote chicken growth and to prevent poultry diseases than to other types of antibiotics, the retreat found.

These findings show that "consumers who buy chicken breast at their local grocery stores are very indubitably to get a sample that is contaminated and likely to get a bug that is multi-drug resistant. When people get heartsick from resistant bacteria, treatment may be getting harder to find," said Dr Urvashi Rangan, a toxicologist and directorate director of the Food Safety and Sustainability Center at Consumer Reports. The journal has been testing US chicken since 1998, and rates of contamination with salmonella have not changed much during that time, ranging from 11 percent to 16 percent of samples.