http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Cancer chemotherapy can cause peripheral neuropathy—nerve damage often resulting in pain and muscle weakness in the arms and legs. Now, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have discovered that chemo also induces an insidious type of nerve damage inside bone marrow that can cause delays in recovery after bone marrow transplantation. The findings, made in mice and published online today in Nature Medicine, suggest that combining chemotherapy with nerve-protecting agents may prevent long-term bone marrow injury that causes anemia and may improve the success of bone marrow transplants. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-discovery-chemotherapy-induced-anemia.html Medical research Sun, 05 May 2013 13:00:01 EST news286954775 A research team of Inserm, CNRS and MDC lead by Michael Sieweke of the Centre d'Immunologie de Marseille Luminy (CNRS, INSERM, Aix Marseille Université) and Max Delbrück Centre for Molecular Medicine, Berlin-Buch, today revealed an unexpected role for hematopoietic stem cells: they do not merely ensure the continuous renewal of our blood cells; in emergencies they are capable of producing white blood cells "on demand" that help the body deal with inflammation or infection. This property could be used to protect against infections in patients undergoing bone marrow transplants, while their immune system reconstitutes itself. The details of the research is published in Nature on April 10, 2013. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-ability-blood-stem-cells-emergencies.html Immunology Wed, 10 Apr 2013 13:07:54 EST news284818052 The blood of young and old people differs. In an article published recently in the scientific journal Blood, a research group at Lund University in Sweden explain how they have succeeded in rejuvenating the blood of mice by reversing, or re-programming, the stem cells that produce blood. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-reversing-blood-freshening.html Medical research Mon, 25 Mar 2013 10:13:11 EST news283425183 Too much antibiotic can decimate the normal intestinal microbiota, which may never recover its former diversity. That, in turn, renders the GI tract vulnerable to being colonized by pathogens. Now researchers from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, and Centro Superior de Investigación en Salud Pública, Valencia, Spain, show that reintroducing normal microbial diversity largely eliminated vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) from the intestinal tracts of mice. The investigators showed further that the findings may apply to humans. The research is published in the March 2013 issue of the journal Infection and Immunity. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-good-bacteria-expunge-vancomycin-resistant-gut.html Immunology Wed, 27 Feb 2013 12:27:33 EST news281190439 After an intensive three-year hunt through the genome, medical researchers have pinpointed mutations that leads to drug resistance and relapse in the most common type of childhood cancer—the first time anyone has linked the disease's reemergence to specific genetic anomalies. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-mutations-linked-relapse-childhood-leukemia.html Genetics Sun, 03 Feb 2013 13:00:04 EST news279114848 Scientists at the Forsyth have gained new insight on how Tuberculosis (TB) remains a global epidemic. Although drugs have been available to fight TB for 50 years, the disease still infects nearly 2.2 billion people worldwide and causes 1.7 million annual deaths. This is largely attributed to the bacteria's ability to stay dormant in the human body and later resurface as active disease. The Forsyth team, and its collaborators from Stanford University, has recently discovered that Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria that causes TB, can lay dormant and thrive within bone marrow stem cells. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-scientists-gain-latent-tuberculosis.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 30 Jan 2013 14:00:01 EST news278766332 Nine of twelve leukemia patients who received infusions of their own T cells after the cells had been genetically engineered to attack the patients' tumors responded to the therapy, which was pioneered by scientists in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Penn Medicine researchers will present the latest results of the trial today at the American Society of Hematology's Annual Meeting and Exposition. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-leukemia-patients-remission-years-cell.html Cancer Mon, 10 Dec 2012 00:10:01 EST news274319021 A new study led by researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James) shows that preparing older acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients for bone marrow transplants with a reduced intensity conditioning regimen appears to be associated with higher rates of disease-free survival relative to the more typical treatments usually given to such patients. The study was presented at the 2012 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting in Atlanta, GA. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-intensity-regimen-prior-marrow-transplant_1.html Cancer Mon, 10 Dec 2012 00:00:01 EST news274318904 (Medical Xpress)—University of Rochester Medical Center scientists are testing a new approach to speed a patient's recovery of blood counts during a vulnerable period after a stem-cell transplant, according to a study published in the journal Stem Cells. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-marrow-blood-stem-cells.html Medical research Wed, 05 Dec 2012 11:22:56 EST news273928964 (Medical Xpress)—In the first of its kind, a translational study undertaken at the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research has revealed that boosting the activity of a rare type of immune cell could be an effective way to vaccinate patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) against their own cancer. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-boosting-immune-responses-leukaemia.html Cancer Wed, 21 Nov 2012 08:48:22 EST news272710049 E. Donnall Thomas, a physician who pioneered bone marrow transplants and later won the 1990 Nobel Prize in medicine, has died in Seattle at age 92. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-father-bone-marrow-transplant-dead.html Other Sun, 21 Oct 2012 06:20:01 EST news270016042 In a preliminary clinical trial, investigators at Johns Hopkins have shown that even partially-matched bone marrow transplants can eliminate sickle cell disease in some patients, ridding them of painful and debilitating symptoms, and the need for a lifetime of pain medications and blood transfusions. The researchers say the use of such marrow could potentially help make bone marrow transplants accessible to a majority of sickle cell patients who need them. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-half-match-bone-marrow-transplants-sickle.html Medical research Thu, 20 Sep 2012 17:11:45 EST news267379886 Hospitals can dramatically reduce the number of life-threatening central line infections in pediatric cancer patients by following a set of basic precautions, by encouraging families to speak up when they observe noncompliance with the protocol and by honest analysis of the root cause behind every single infection, according to a new Johns Hopkins Children's Center study. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-triple-threat-approach-life-threatening-central-line.html Pediatrics Mon, 03 Sep 2012 03:35:02 EST news265862092 Leukemia and lymphoma patients who receive life-saving stem cell or bone marrow transplants often experience chronic side effects that significantly decrease quality of life, can last a lifetime, and ultimately affect their long-term survival. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-cell-survival-key-chronic-graft.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 16 Aug 2012 10:04:25 EST news264330235 Small but significant breakthrough studies on people who have been able to overcome or control HIV were presented Thursday at a major world conference on ways to stem the three-decade-old disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-paths-hiv.html HIV & AIDS Thu, 26 Jul 2012 17:36:09 EST news262542964 Investigators are looking into two main paths toward a cure for AIDS, based on the stunning stories of a small group of people around the world who have been able to overcome the disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-aids-main-pathways-experts.html HIV & AIDS Tue, 24 Jul 2012 11:10:51 EST news262347044 An HIV drug that redirects immune cell traffic significantly reduces the incidence of a dangerous complication that often follows bone marrow transplants for blood cancer patients, according to research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania that will be published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. The findings represent a new tactic for the prevention of graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), which afflicts up to 70 percent of transplant patients and is a leading cause of deaths associated with the treatment. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-hiv-drug-graft-vs-host-disease-bone.html Immunology Wed, 11 Jul 2012 17:00:04 EST news261241119 An American man whose HIV seemed to disappear after a blood marrow transplant for leukemia may be showing new hints of the disease, sparking debate over whether a cure was really achieved. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-hiv-patient-scientists.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 13 Jun 2012 09:16:28 EST news258797774 An international study found that bone marrow transplants are not the best option for some young patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who fail to attain clinical remission after the initial weeks of intense chemotherapy known as induction therapy. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-chemotherapy-life-saving-leukemia-patients-induction.html Cancer Wed, 11 Apr 2012 17:00:11 EST news253377835 For the first time, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers have isolated egg-producing stem cells from the ovaries of reproductive age women and shown these cells can produce what appear to be normal egg cells or oocytes. In the March issue of Nature Medicine, the team from the Vincent Center for Reproductive Biology at MGH reports the latest follow-up study to their now-landmark 2004 Nature paper that first suggested female mammals continue producing egg cells into adulthood. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-scientists-isolate-egg-producing-stem-cells.html Medical research Sun, 26 Feb 2012 13:00:11 EST news249480547 Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have developed a way to use patients' own cells to potentially cure sickle cell disease and many other disorders caused by mutations in a gene that helps produce blood hemoglobin. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-safe-sickle-cell-disease-genes.html Medical research Wed, 07 Dec 2011 15:56:13 EST news242495746 Bone marrow-derived cells (BMDCs) participate in the growth and spread of tumors of the breast, brain, lung, and stomach. To examine the role of BMDCs, researchers developed a mouse model that could be used to track the migration of these cells while tumors formed and expanded. Their results, published in the November issue of The American Journal of Pathology, strongly suggest that more effective cancer treatments may be developed by exploiting the mechanism by which bone marrow cells migrate to tumors and retard their proliferation. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-bone-marrow-cells-migrate-tumors.html Cancer Fri, 07 Oct 2011 09:38:51 EST news237199123 Identifying a suitable donor for leukemia and lymphoma patients who need bone marrow transplants may be far easier now that results of two clinical trials show transplant results with half-matched bone marrow or umbilical cord blood are comparable to fully matched tissue, thanks in large part to the availability of effective antirejection drugs and special post-transplant chemotherapy. The finding means that nearly all patients in need of a transplant can find donors, according to Johns Hopkins scientists who participated in the trials. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-half-matched-transplants-widen-pool-donors.html Cancer Thu, 07 Jul 2011 11:34:32 EST news229257242 Studies of the small sea squirt may ultimately help solve the problem of rejection of organ and bone marrow transplants in humans, according to scientists at UC Santa Barbara. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-04-marine-animals-aim-transplanted.html Medical research Thu, 14 Apr 2011 17:11:40 EST news222019885