http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. In their quest to learn more about the variability of cells between and within tissues, biomedical scientists have devised tools capable of simultaneously measuring dozens of characteristics of individual cells. These technologies have led to new challenges, however, as scientists now struggle with how to make sense of the resulting trove of data. Now a solution may be at hand. Researchers at Columbia University and Stanford University have developed a computational method that enables scientists to visualize and interpret "high-dimensional" data produced by single-cell measurement technologies such as mass cytometry. The method, published in the online edition of Nature Biotechnology, has particular relevance to cancer research and therapeutics. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-tool-complex-dimensional-images.html Medical research Sun, 19 May 2013 13:10:01 EST news288172425 Creative arts therapies (CATs) can improve anxiety, depression, pain symptoms and quality of life among cancer patients, although the effect was reduced during follow-up in a study by Timothy W. Puetz, Ph.D., M.P.H., of the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md., and colleagues. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-creative-arts-therapies-patients-cancer.html Cancer Mon, 13 May 2013 16:00:02 EST news287658724 Breast cancers contain many different cell types with different patterns of gene expression, but a new study provides reassurance that this variability should not be a barrier to using gene expression tests to help tailor cancer treatments to individual patients. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-breast-cancer-heterogeneity-barrier.html Cancer Thu, 02 May 2013 09:21:30 EST news286705284 A variety of mutations may give rise to breast cancer, but scientists generally assume that it starts off with just a few. That's because later-stage breast cancers tend to have more mutations—they are more heterogeneous—than early stage cancers. Now, new findings by scientists at Fox Chase Cancer Center demonstrate heterogeneity is prevalent even within legions of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), the most common, earliest stage non-invasive breast cancer (stage 0). The results, to be presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013 on Tuesday, April 9, suggest that a multiple-target approach to diagnosis and therapy may be needed to fight breast cancer from the very start. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-quantifying-heterogeneity-breast-cancer.html Cancer Tue, 09 Apr 2013 13:00:03 EST news284730723 New evidence from Sweden confirms previous studies which suggest that functional outcomes after radical prostatectomy may vary between surgeons, especially in relation to continence. However, the group found no evidence of heterogeneity in potency-related outcomes. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-difference-radical-prostatectomy-outcomes-surgeons.html Cancer Mon, 18 Mar 2013 13:38:09 EST news282832683 Triple-negative breast cancers are more biologically diverse than previously believed and classification should be expanded to reflect this heterogeneity, according to University of North Carolina researchers. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-biological-diversity-triple-negative-breast-cancer.html Cancer Wed, 13 Feb 2013 11:28:24 EST news279977290 (HealthDay)—Statin use is associated with a reduced risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), most strongly in Asian populations, according to a meta-analysis published in the February issue of Gastroenterology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-statin-linked-hepatocellular-cancer.html Cancer Tue, 12 Feb 2013 12:40:01 EST news279891604 (HealthDay)—For patients with spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP), albumin infusion is associated with reduced renal impairment and decreased mortality, according to research published in the February issue of Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-albumin-bacterial-peritonitis-outcomes.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 07 Feb 2013 13:40:01 EST news279464898 (Medical Xpress)—How's this for big data: A whole-slide image of a tumor section can be ten billion pixels. There can be thousands of such images in the tumor cohorts maintained by The Cancer Genome Atlas project, which are collected from a large pool of patients. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-pipeline-tumor-images-response-cancer.html Cancer Fri, 01 Feb 2013 06:22:14 EST news278922122 (HealthDay)—A genetic variant associated with obesity risk (FTO) has a greater effect on body mass index (BMI) in young adults than older adults, according to a study published online Jan. 8 in Diabetes. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-effect-obesity-gene-variant-age.html Diabetes Thu, 31 Jan 2013 15:40:01 EST news278867126 (Medical Xpress)—A virtual heart, developed at The University of Manchester, is revealing new information about one of the world's most common heart conditions. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-virtual-heart-defect.html Cardiology Tue, 15 Jan 2013 19:00:02 EST news277477229 (HealthDay)—For infants, supplementation of formula with long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFAs) correlates with improved visual acuity in the first year of life, according to research published online Dec. 17 in Pediatrics. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-supplementation-formula-lcpufas-ups-infant.html Pediatrics Mon, 17 Dec 2012 20:50:01 EST news274989833 The central skill of cancer is its ability to mutate – that's how it became cancerous in the first place. Once it's started down that path, it's not so difficult for a cancer cell to mutate again and again. This means that different tumors within a single patient or even different areas within the same cancerous deposit may develop different genetic characteristics. This heterogeneity helps cancer escape control by new, targeted cancer therapy drugs. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-lung-cancer-patients-pockets-resistance.html Cancer Sat, 01 Dec 2012 06:12:23 EST news273564734 Liver cancer is the sixth most common cancer worldwide and the third leading cause of cancer-associated deaths. Yet even for such a frequent and deadly disease, the pathogenesis of this cancer remains obscure. Now, a team of scientists in Japan has shown that genes involved in regulating how tightly DNA is wound into chromosomes are commonly mutated in liver tumors. The finding points to potential new and much-needed therapeutic strategies. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-identification-mutations-common-liver-cancers.html Cancer Fri, 16 Nov 2012 07:14:42 EST news272272473 An important breakthrough could help in the fight against myotonic dystrophy. The discovery, recently published in the prestigious scientific journal Cell, results from an international collaboration between researchers at the IRCM, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Southern California and Illumina. Their findings could lead to a better understanding of the causes of this disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-implications-pathogenesis-myotonic-dystrophy.html Medical research Wed, 12 Sep 2012 10:45:41 EST news266665530 (HealthDay) -- The global prevalence of tuberculosis, hepatitis C virus infection, and HIV is high among homeless people, although significant heterogeneity is seen in prevalence estimates, according to a study published online Aug. 20 in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-prevalence-tb-hepatitis-hiv-high.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 20 Aug 2012 13:43:46 EST news264689016 The presence of multiple ovarian cancer genomes in an individual patient and the absence or downregulation of the gene LRP1B are associated with the development of chemoresistance in women with the high-grade serous cancer subtype of ovarian cancer whose disease recurs after primary treatment. These study results are published in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-mechanisms-chemoresistance-ovarian-cancer.html Cancer Wed, 15 Aug 2012 00:20:02 EST news264166052 Large proportions of European coronary patients are not benefitting from cardiac rehabilitation services, according to results of the third EUROASPIRE survey published today in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.(1) Yet despite the evidence that cardiac rehabilitation is very effective for patients with coronary heart disease, this latest study shows that services in Europe are much underused, with poor referral and a low participation rate. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-coronary-europe-underused.html Cardiology Tue, 19 Jun 2012 09:38:30 EST news259317500 Certain short strands of RNA, known as microRNAs (miRNAs), have been linked to the progression and metastasis of breast cancer and may provide information about prognosis. However, studies of miRNA expression profiles often report conflicting findings. While the potential for using miRNAs in breast cancer diagnosis is promising, scientists report in a new study published online today in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics that differences in the amount and types of miRNA within breast tumors can be misleading. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-sample-multiple-tumor-zones-breast.html Cancer Fri, 15 Jun 2012 00:00:02 EST news258913629 Oral zinc treatments may shorten the duration of symptoms of the common cold in adults, although adverse effects are common, according to a study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-oral-zinc-lessen-common-cold.html Medications Mon, 07 May 2012 12:00:01 EST news255605369 (HealthDay) -- In the past decade there has been an improvement in the accuracy of three-dimensional echocardiography (3DE) for measurement of left ventricular (LV) mass, according to a meta-analysis published online April 30 in The American Journal of Cardiology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-3d-echo-accuracy-lv-mass.html Cardiology Thu, 03 May 2012 15:10:02 EST news255274711 (HealthDay) -- Six longitudinal developmental trajectories have been identified among children with autism, with significant heterogeneity seen in developmental pathways within these trajectories, according to a study published online April 2 in Pediatrics. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-developmental-trajectories-idd-children-autism.html Autism spectrum disorders Mon, 02 Apr 2012 14:10:01 EST news252589850 (HealthDay) -- Extensive intratumor heterogeneity, seen in samples obtained from renal carcinomas, may lead to underestimation of the tumor genomics based on single tumor-biopsy samples, according to a study published in the March 8 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-intratumor-heterogeneity-renal-carcinomas.html Cancer Thu, 08 Mar 2012 05:00:02 EST news250403030 A large-scale trial finds that apixaban, a new anticoagulant drug, is superior to the standard drug warfarin for preventing stroke and systemic embolism in patients with atrial fibrillation. Moreover, apixaban results in substantially less bleeding and also results in lower mortality. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-apixaban-superior-warfarin.html Medical research Sun, 28 Aug 2011 04:57:22 EST news233726229 Mathematical modeling of infectious diseases is an important tool in the understanding and prediction of epidemics. Knowledge of social interactions is used to understand how infectious diseases spread through populations and how to control epidemics. New research published in BMC Medicine shows that a model, which included dynamic information about the heterogeneity of contact length and rate of making new contacts, was as effective as a more complex model which included the order of contacts. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-simple-complexity-necessarily-accuracy.html Medical research Tue, 19 Jul 2011 02:48:16 EST news230262482 A paper published online on June 13 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine identifies new gene mutations in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) -- a disease often associated with lack of response to chemotherapy and poor overall survival. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-decoding-chronic-lymphocytic-leukemia.html Cancer Mon, 13 Jun 2011 13:12:24 EST news227189531 Recent breakthroughs in the analysis of genetic variation in large populations have led to the discovery of hundreds of genes involved in dozens of common diseases. Many of these discoveries were enabled by performing "meta-analysis," which combines information from multiple genetic studies in order to create even larger studies. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-statistical-method-genes-involved-common.html Genetics Tue, 17 May 2011 05:08:21 EST news224827660