http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. A novel drug may help increase the effectiveness of radiation therapy for the most deadly form of brain cancer, report scientists at Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center. In mouse models of human glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the new drug helped significantly extend survival when used in combination with radiation therapy. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-drug-treatment-brain-cancer-preclinical.html Cancer Tue, 14 May 2013 13:21:59 EST news287756500 One in ten South Africans is HIV positive but AIDS-related deaths are falling as ramped-up treatment begins to have an impact, the country's official statistics agency said Tuesday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-south-africans-hiv-positive.html HIV & AIDS Tue, 14 May 2013 12:58:22 EST news287755093 Pain is an undeniable focal point for patients with sickle cell disease but it's not the best focus for drug development, says one of the dying breed of physicians specializing in the condition. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-anti-sickling-therapies-focus-sickle-cell.html Medical research Wed, 17 Apr 2013 14:29:43 EST news285427777 In South Africa, people with HIV who start treatment with anti-AIDS drugs (antiretroviral therapy) have life expectancies around 80% of that of the general population provided that they start treatment before their CD4 count drops below 200 (cells per microliter), according to a study by South African researchers published in this week's PLOS Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-treatment-near-normal-life-people-hiv.html HIV & AIDS Tue, 09 Apr 2013 17:00:02 EST news284745277 A new study from Lund University in Sweden shows that the average life expectancy of men and women with schizophrenia is 15 years and 12 years shorter respectively than for those who do not suffer from the disease. The study has been carried out in collaboration with Stanford University in the US. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-mortality-individuals-schizophrenia.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 21 Jan 2013 11:57:07 EST news277991815 In the first Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 paper, published in The Lancet, the authors present new estimates of life expectancy for the last four decades in 187 different countries. While overall life expectancy is increasing globally, the gap in life expectancy between countries with the highest and lowest life expectancies has remained similar since 1970. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-world-population-gains-decade-life.html Health Thu, 13 Dec 2012 12:00:10 EST news274620040 Health inequalities between England's richest and poorest areas have widened in the ten years between 1999 and 2008. Researchers warn, in a study published today in BMJ, that over the next ten years, we may experience smaller increases in life expectancy than in the past decade and health inequalities may rise at an even faster rate. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-gaps-life-rich-poor-years.html Health Tue, 04 Dec 2012 18:30:02 EST news273863232 Siemens is researching a method that may make it possible to diagnose tuberculosis or lung cancer at an early stage using breath samples. The process involves an analysis of the molecular structure of the subject's breath. If the person concerned is ill, there is a shift in the relative quantities of molecules contained in his or her breath. As reported in the current issue of Pictures of the Future magazine, preliminary tests using breath samples from cancer and tuberculosis patients have been very promising. Now the process has to be verified using a larger and more diverse group of people. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-breathalyzer-diagnosis-lung-diseases-potential.html Medical research Fri, 30 Nov 2012 10:28:17 EST news273493662 Life expectancy in AIDS-hit South Africa has shot up by six years to 60 over the past few years, thanks to life prolonging anti-retroviral (ARVs) treatment, a demographer said Thursday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-life-safrica.html Health Thu, 18 Oct 2012 14:31:54 EST news269789505 Extreme temperatures during heat waves and cold spells may increase the risk of premature cardiovascular disease (CVD) death, according to new research in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, an American Heart Association journal. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-extreme-temperatures-premature-cardiovascular-death.html Cardiology Tue, 18 Sep 2012 16:35:13 EST news267204900 Despite modest gains in lifespan over the past century, the United States still trails many of the world's countries when it comes to life expectancy, and its poorest citizens live approximately five years less than more affluent persons, according to a new study from Rice University and the University Colorado at Boulder. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-stagnating-life.html Health Thu, 21 Jun 2012 13:21:22 EST news259503672 A new Audit report on fragility fractures, issued today by the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF), predicts that Brazil will experience an explosion in the number of fragility fractures due to osteoporosis in the coming decades. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-brazil-hip-fractures-percent.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 24 May 2012 11:53:06 EST news257079038 Helen E. Davies, M.D., of the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, and colleagues compared the effectiveness of treatments to relieve breathing difficulties among patients with malignant pleural effusion (presence of fluid in the pleural cavity [space between the outside of the lungs and the inside wall of the chest cavity], as a complication of malignant disease). The treatments compared were chest tube drainage and talc slurry for pleurodesis (a procedure in which the pleural space is obliterated) vs. indwelling pleural catheters (IPCs). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-treatments-relieving-difficulties-patients-lung.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Sun, 20 May 2012 11:00:02 EST news256713424 Deep-seated ageism is at the core of our culture and at the heart of an unproductive government approach to healthy ageing, says Professor Hal Kendig, Director of the Ageing, Work and Health Research Unit in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Sydney. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-healthy-ageing-important-aged-expert.html Health Mon, 14 Nov 2011 06:32:34 EST news240474599 Researchers have identified a potential drug therapy for a premature ageing disease that affects children causing them to age up to eight times as fast as the usual rate. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-cellular-premature-aging.html Genetics Wed, 02 Nov 2011 04:56:33 EST news239428573 Old people today have more sex, are more likely to be divorced, are cleverer and feel better, reveals a long-term research project comparing what it is like to be old today with 30 years ago. "It's time to start talking about the 'new old age'," says researcher Ingmar Skoog. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-age-today-pensioners-yesterday.html Health Mon, 31 Oct 2011 15:58:17 EST news239295487 A research alliance of Heidelberg University Hospital and the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ), jointly with colleagues of the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research in Leipzig, have discovered a new metabolic pathway which makes malignant brain tumors (gliomas) more aggressive and weakens patients' immune systems. Using drugs to inhibit this metabolic pathway is a new approach in cancer treatment. The group's results have been published in the prestigious specialist journal Nature. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-dioxin-like-chemical-messenger-brain-tumors.html Cancer Thu, 06 Oct 2011 10:04:32 EST news237114238 Playing street football two or three times a week could halve the risk of early death in homeless men. Research led by the Universities of Exeter and Copenhagen, out today, shows the positive impact of street football on the fitness of homeless people, a group with typically poor health and low life expectancy. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-soccer-homeless-men-health.html Health Sun, 02 Oct 2011 19:00:04 EST news236779310 (Medical Xpress) -- In a new study published in Neuropsychopharmacology, Dr. Alasdair MacKenzie has found a genetic switch that regulates thirst and appetite and is believed to be the reason many people from Western countries are more prone to high fat diets and alcohol consumption that those in Asian countries. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-fatty-food-cravings-genetically.html Genetics Mon, 18 Jul 2011 11:21:13 EST news230206849