http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Duke University School of Medicine has received approval from the Food and Drug Administration to market DUCORD, a stem cell product derived from umbilical cord blood, for use in transplants between unrelated donors and recipients. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-fda-ducord-product-stem-cell.html Medical research Tue, 09 Oct 2012 07:33:44 EST news268986813 (HealthDay)—In survivors of childhood hematologic malignancies who have received allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (alloHSCT), body mass index (BMI) decreases significantly, mainly due to a reduction in lean, not fat, body mass, according to research published online Oct. 1 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-bmi-body-mass-decline-allogeneic.html Cancer Thu, 04 Oct 2012 15:40:01 EST news268581295 Two studies in the current issue of Cell Transplantation (21:6), now freely available on-line, demonstrate how the use of magnetic particles are a factor that can positively impact on the targeted delivery of transplanted stem cells and to also provide better cell retention. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-therapeutic-impact-cell-transplantation-aided.html Medical research Mon, 24 Sep 2012 12:41:19 EST news267709267 (HealthDay) -- Patients with hematologic malignancies undergoing an HLA-mismatched unrelated donor (MMUD) reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC) hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) may benefit from a prophylactic, short-course, bortezomib-based regimen to reduce the incidence of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), according to research published online Aug. 6 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-bortezomib-beneficial-graft-versus-host-disease-prophylaxis.html Cancer Wed, 08 Aug 2012 13:40:04 EST news263651987 (HealthDay) -- For patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (MM), induction treatment with a combination of bortezomib, doxorubicin, and dexamethasone (PAD) followed by bortezomib maintenance therapy improves complete response (CR), progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS) rates, according to a study published online July 16 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-bortezomib-ups-response-survival-multiple.html Cancer Mon, 23 Jul 2012 19:40:01 EST news262286111 Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Massey Cancer Center's Bone Marrow Transplant Program have demonstrated that the use of antibodies derived from rabbits can improve the survival and relapse outcomes of leukemia and myelodysplasia patients receiving a stem cell transplant from an unrelated donor. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-antibodies-rabbits-survival-relapse-outcomes.html Medical research Fri, 06 Jul 2012 18:46:28 EST news260819182 Eltrombopag, a drug that was designed to stimulate production of platelets from the bone marrow and thereby improve blood clotting, can raise blood cell levels in some people with severe aplastic anemia who have failed all standard therapies. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-platelet-drug-clinical-benefits-severe.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 04 Jul 2012 17:00:01 EST news260626514 Growth factors shown to cure Alzheimer's disease in a mouse model and administered to cancer patients as part of their treatment regimen were linked to significant improvements in the patients' cognitive function following stem cell transplantation, a preliminary clinical study reports. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-gmcsf-treatment-cognition-cancer-patients.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Fri, 22 Jun 2012 09:48:27 EST news259577239 Initial results from an international, investigator-initiated, open label phase III trial were presented at EULAR 2012, the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism. Data indicate that haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) results in better long term survival than conventional treatment for patients with poor prognosis early diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-haematopoietic-stem-cell-transplantation-survival.html Arthritis & Rheumatism Thu, 07 Jun 2012 07:41:45 EST news258273688 Breast cancer stem cells wear a cell surface protein that is part nametag and part bull's eye, identifying them as potent tumor-generating cells and flagging their vulnerability to a drug, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center report online in Journal of Clinical Investigation. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-scientists-marker-breast-cancer-stem.html Cancer Wed, 16 May 2012 09:18:34 EST news256378708 Multiple myeloma is a form of cancer where the plasma cells in the bone marrow grow out of control, causing damage to bones as well as predisposing patients to anemia, infection and kidney failure. A medical procedure called autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, commonly known as a stem cell transplant, is frequently an important treatment option for many patients. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-benefit-maintenance-therapy-multiple-myeloma.html Cancer Fri, 11 May 2012 15:13:34 EST news255968004 High-dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplantation (HDC-ASCT), for previously untreated patients with advanced follicular lymphoma (FL) does not improve overall survival compared with conventional-dose chemotherapy alone, according to an online study published December 21 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-autologous-stem-cell-transplantation-os.html Cancer Wed, 21 Dec 2011 16:00:01 EST news243694806 An HIV drug that redirects immune cell traffic appears to significantly reduce the dangerous complication graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) in blood cancer patients following allogeneic stem cell transplantation (ASCT), according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania that will be presented today at the 53rd American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting. Standard GvHD treatments suppress the immune system, reducing – but not eliminating – the risk of developing the common problem. In the current trial, treatment with the HIV drug maraviroc dramatically reduced the incidence of GvHD in organs where it is most dangerous -- without compromising the immune system and leaving patients more vulnerable to severe infections. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-hiv-drug-graft-versus-host-disease-stem.html Medical research Tue, 13 Dec 2011 11:43:45 EST news242999007 In a study that seems to pivot on a paradox, scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have used an immune system stimulant as an immune system suppressor to treat a common, often debilitating side effect of donor stem cell transplantation in cancer patients. The effect, in some cases, was profound. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-approach-graft-versus-host-treatment-results-patients.html Medical research Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:20:01 EST news241898425 For the first time, researchers have combined gene therapy and stem cell transplantation to successfully reverse the severe, crippling bleeding disorder hemophilia A in large animals, opening the door to the development of new therapies for human patients. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-gene-therapy-hemophilia-treatment-animal.html Medical research Thu, 03 Nov 2011 05:50:01 EST news239516650 Age alone no longer should be considered a defining factor when determining whether an older patient with blood cancer is a candidate for stem cell transplantation. That's the conclusion of the first study summarizing long-term outcomes from a series of prospective clinical trials of patients age 60 and over who were treated with the mini-transplant, a "kinder, gentler" form of allogeneic (donor cell) stem cell transplantation developed at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. The findings are published Nov. 2 in JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-age-longer-barrier-stem-cell.html Cancer Tue, 01 Nov 2011 16:26:21 EST news239383555 A team of researchers led by Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), has found treatment of selected immunoglobulin light chain (AL) amyloidosis patients with high-dose melphalan and autologous stem cell transplantation (HDM/SCT) resulted in a high organ response rate and increased overall survival (OS), even for those patients who did not achieve a hematologic complete response (CR). These findings appear in the current issue of Blood. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-high-dose-melphalan-autologous-stem-cell.html Cancer Wed, 26 Oct 2011 13:33:19 EST news238854783 (Medical Xpress) -- A new long-term study of women with Stage IV breast cancer at the Stanford University School of Medicine is likely to revive a decade-old debate about high-dose chemotherapy as a treatment option. Specifically, researchers found that a greater proportion of patients who received the aggressive treatment 12 to 14 years ago, followed by a rescue with their own, specially purified blood stem cells that had been purged of cancer, survived compared with those who were rescued with unmanipulated blood grafts. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-survival-stage-iv-breast-cancer.html Cancer Mon, 25 Jul 2011 09:09:44 EST news230803769 A team of researchers from Spain and Switzerland have developed a new model for studying the development of testicular germ cell tumors by transplanting embryonic stem cells into the seminiferous tubules in mouse models, resulting in the development of testicular germ cell tumors (TGCT) that mimic the early stages of TGCT development. The study, published in Cell Transplantation (20:5), is now freely available on-line. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-germ-cell-tumors-embryonic-stem.html Cancer Mon, 11 Jul 2011 12:14:41 EST news229605253 A 59-year-old Houston man became the first individual in the United States to enroll in a study using stem cell transplantation during cardiac bypass to treat severe heart failure. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-patient-enrolled-stem-cell-transplantationcardiac.html Cardiology Thu, 12 May 2011 15:08:58 EST news224431602 Many patients who undergo bone marrow or blood stem cell transplantation to treat blood cancers or a "pre-leukemic" condition called myelodysplasia experience a decline in mental and fine motor skills due to the toll of their disease and its treatment. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-patients-recover-chemo-brain-years-stem.html Cancer Tue, 03 May 2011 11:08:12 EST news223639658 Periodontal ligament stem cells (PDLSCs) have been found to be the most efficacious of three kinds of clinically tested dental tissue-derived stem cells, reports a study published in the current issue of Cell Transplantation (20:2). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-04-periodontal-stem-cell-transplantation.html Medical research Mon, 11 Apr 2011 11:16:30 EST news221739381