http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Researchers from the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences in Japan report today that they have identified a compound that could be used as a new treatment to prevent relapse in acute myeloid leukemia patients. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-compound-acute-blood-cancer-relapse.html Cancer Wed, 17 Apr 2013 14:00:06 EST news285423111 A new study on how the progression of acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) is influenced by the bone marrow environment has demonstrated for the first time that targeting a specialized protein known as osteopontin (OPN) may be an effective strategy to increase the efficacy of chemotherapy in patients with this type of blood cancer. Study data were published online today in Blood, the Journal of the American Society of Hematology (ASH). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-key-bone-marrow-protein-potential.html Cancer Mon, 15 Apr 2013 12:44:09 EST news285248642 Mutations found in individuals with autism block the action of molecules made by the brain that act on the same receptors that marijuana's active chemical acts on, according to new research reported online April 11 in the Cell Press journal Neuron. The findings implicate specific molecules, called endocannabinoids, in the development of some autism cases and point to potential treatment strategies. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-mutations-individuals-autism-endocannabinoid-brain.html Autism spectrum disorders Thu, 11 Apr 2013 12:00:19 EST news284898623 The BRAF mutation believed to drive disease in about half of patients with melanoma was found to occur at a significantly lower frequency in patients with melanoma in Ireland, according to data presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013, held in Washington, D.C., April 6-10. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-braf-mutation-common-patients-melanoma.html Cancer Mon, 08 Apr 2013 08:37:22 EST news284628983 An international research team has identified a new type of deadly intestinal lymphoma that is particularly common in Asia. The team, led by clinician-scientists from the SingHealth Academic Healthcare Cluster, also developed a new diagnostic test to accurately identify these patients. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-deadly-lymphoma.html Cancer Mon, 01 Apr 2013 10:21:21 EST news284030473 President John F. Kennedy's mission in 1960 was to land a man on the moon. President Bill Clinton made cracking the human genome one of his top priorities. Now, President Barack Obama says a detailed map of the human brain is necessary to understand how it works and what needs to be done when it's not working properly. The president is expected to unveil his plans for an estimated $3 billion, decade-long commitment to the Brain Activity Map project next month in his 2014 budget proposal. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-obama-human-brain-equivalent-moon.html Neuroscience Mon, 25 Mar 2013 09:23:30 EST news283422202 Children who avoid situations they find scary are likely to have anxiety a Mayo Clinic study of more than 800 children ages 7 to 18 found. The study published this month in Behavior Therapy presents a new method of measuring avoidance behavior in young children. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-children-scary-situations-likelier-anxiety.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 12 Mar 2013 10:21:33 EST news282302437 An international group of researchers has discovered seven new regions of the human genome—called loci—that are associated with increased risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of blindness. The AMD Gene Consortium, a network of international investigators representing 18 research groups, also confirmed 12 loci identified in previous studies. The findings are reported online today in the journal Nature Genetics. Supported by the National Eye Institute (NEI), a part of the National Institutes of Health, the study represents the most comprehensive genome-wide analysis of genetic variations associated with AMD. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-genetic-factors-common-eye-disorder.html Genetics Sun, 03 Mar 2013 13:00:32 EST news281520412 Studying HIV-1, the most common and infectious HIV subtype, Johns Hopkins scientists have identified 25 human proteins "stolen" by the virus that may be critical to its ability to infect new cells. HIV-1 viruses capture many human proteins from the cells they infect but the researchers believe these 25 proteins may be particularly important because they are found in HIV-1 viruses coming from two very different types of infected cells. A report on the discovery, published online in the Journal of Proteome Research on Feb. 22, could help in building diagnostic tools and novel treatment strategies to fight HIV infection. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-hiv-disguises-human-proteins-crucial.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 27 Feb 2013 10:34:06 EST news281183636 Scientists at the Center for Translational Medicine at the Temple University School of Medicine are inching closer to solving a long-standing mystery in sepsis, a complex and often life-threatening condition that affects more than 400,000 people in the U.S. every year. By blocking the activity of a protein, STIM1, in cells that line the insides of blood vessels in mice, they have halted a cascade of cellular events that culminates in the out-of-control inflammation that marks sepsis, and protected lungs from severe damage. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-strategies-sepsis.html Medical research Fri, 25 Jan 2013 12:00:01 EST news278335012 (Medical Xpress)—Estrogen levels drop dramatically in menopause, a time when the risk of urinary tract infections increases significantly. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-estrogen-urinary-infection-mouse.html Immunology Wed, 23 Jan 2013 06:37:45 EST news278145458 (HealthDay)—Women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) are significantly more likely to receive an emergency cesarean section, have their infant admitted to a neonatal care unit, and incur significantly higher maternity care costs, compared to women without GDM, according to research published online Dec. 28 in Diabetes Care. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-gestational-diabetes-ups-maternity-one-third.html Diabetes Tue, 22 Jan 2013 10:32:59 EST news278073171 Extending steroid treatment for the most common form of kidney disease in children provides no benefit for preventing relapses or side effects, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). The findings challenge previous assumptions about optimal treatment strategies for this disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-steroid-treatment-benefit-children-hard-to-treat.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 20 Dec 2012 17:00:09 EST news275245044 (Medical Xpress)—Many people who have been through cancer and its treatment have trouble with their recovery because of severe, debilitating fatigue that can last for months or even years. But even though a variety of treatments exist for cancer-related fatigue, few doctors are recommending them to patients, according to a recent Mayo Clinic study appearing in Supportive Care in Cancer. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-cancer-patients-adequate-debilitating-fatigue.html Cancer Tue, 18 Dec 2012 17:23:38 EST news275073802 (Medical Xpress)—Low back pain is the highest contributor to disability in the world, according to a pivotal international study released today. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-pain-world-highest-contributor-disability.html Health Fri, 14 Dec 2012 06:47:20 EST news274690031 Encouraging safety and efficacy data on novel and emerging therapies presented at the 54th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) signal an important step forward in the development of treatment strategies for patients with hard-to-treat leukemia, myeloma, and myelofibrosis. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-therapeutic-agents-patients-hard-to-treat-blood.html Cancer Sun, 09 Dec 2012 11:50:04 EST news274274478 Research identifying genetic factors that affect survival of patients with blood cancers and evaluating the effectiveness of modified treatment strategies to improve outcomes while reducing toxicity will be presented today at the 54th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-genetics-treatment-outcomes-toxicity.html Cancer Sun, 09 Dec 2012 03:30:02 EST news274244343 Cancer is a complex disease and only thanks to advances in genomic techniques have researchers begun to understand, at a cellular and molecular level, the mechanisms which are disrupted in cancer cells. This knowledge is a key prerequisite for developing effective treatment strategies. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-genome-packaging-key-breast-cancer.html Cancer Thu, 22 Nov 2012 10:25:38 EST news272802331 Scientists for the first time have evidence showing how a widely used type of "targeted" cancer drug can be dangerous to the heart. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-temple-cancer-drug-stunt-heart.html Cardiology Tue, 06 Nov 2012 11:37:55 EST news271424198 Alzheimer's disease is a severe neurodegenerative disease that affects 45% of people over 85 years of age. The research teams of Prof. Jin-Moo Lee at Washington University in Saint Louis, USA, and Prof. Milos Pekny at Sahlgrenska Academy in Gothenburg, Sweden, have identified astrocytes as a novel target for the development of future treatment strategies. The results have just been published in the FASEB Journal. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-astrocytes-alzheimer-disease.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Thu, 11 Oct 2012 08:16:30 EST news269162182 A sugar-loving protein drives the growth of Kaposi sarcoma (KS) tumors, according to a study published on October 1st in The Journal of Experimental Medicine. Interfering with these sugary interactions inhibited growth of Kaposi sarcomas in mice, hinting at the potential for new treatment strategies in humans. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-sugar-free-approach-kaposi-sarcoma.html Cancer Mon, 01 Oct 2012 12:00:04 EST news268308218 Two new studies presented at the ESMO 2012 Congress in Vienna, Austria show how improvements in breast cancer treatments are making it possible for more women to conserve their breasts following therapy, but raise concerns about whether enough women are being offered these approaches. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-women-breast-conserving-treatment.html Cancer Sun, 30 Sep 2012 06:27:50 EST news268205243 Cannabis users have a greater chance of relapse to cannabis use when they experience certain withdrawal symptoms, according to research published Sep. 26 in the open access journal PLOS ONE led by David Allsop of the National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre (NCPIC) at the University of New South Wales. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-cannabis-symptoms-clinical-importance.html Addiction Wed, 26 Sep 2012 17:00:04 EST news267895124 The German Aortic Valve Registry (GARY) was started in July 2010 and is the only registry so far to include both transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) and conventional aortic valve replacements and repair.(1) The intention is to deliver a complete picture of current and future practice of treating aortic valve disease and to deliver reliable data on the short and long-term outcome of different treatment strategies. This specifically includes data about quality of life before and after treatment besides numerous medical variables. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-valve-disease-treatmenttavi-conventional-replacementis.html Cardiology Mon, 27 Aug 2012 12:30:01 EST news265287743 A new clinical trial designed to study how worm eggs may relieve symptoms of ulcerative colitis (UC) will begin enrolling patients at NYU School of Medicine's Clinical and Translational Science Institute. This unusual therapy has been used in previous clinical trials on patients with inflammatory bowel diseases, but the mechanism of action is unclear. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-nyu-school-medicine-clinical-trial.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 07 Aug 2012 10:59:36 EST news263555701 Patients with the most common type of lung cancer are notoriously insensitive to chemotherapy drugs, including cisplatin. New findings related to the cellular pathways that regulate responses to cisplatin have now been published by Cell Press on July 26th in the journal Cell Reports. The findings reveal a potential biomarker that can be used to predict how these patients will respond to chemotherapy, as well as the patients' overall prognosis, paving the way for personalized treatment strategies. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-biomarker-common-lung-cancer-responses.html Cancer Thu, 26 Jul 2012 12:20:09 EST news262519571 (HealthDay) -- Older Americans see better than their parents did in old age, according to a new study that finds visual impairment among the U.S. elderly has declined 58 percent since the 1980s. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-older-americans-today.html Ophthalmology Fri, 20 Jul 2012 15:10:01 EST news262008625 Eleven integrated health systems, with more than 16 million members, have combined de-identified data from their electronic health records to form the largest, most comprehensive private-sector diabetes registry in the nation. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-health-largest-private-sector-diabetes-registry.html Diabetes Thu, 07 Jun 2012 15:11:53 EST news258300705 An observational study that examined the comparative effectiveness of rhythm control vs. rate control drug treatment on mortality in patients with atrial fibrillation (a rapid, irregular heart beat) suggests there was little difference in mortality within four years of treatment, but rhythm control may be associated with more effective long-term outcomes, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Internal Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-effectiveness-rhythm-drug-treatment.html Cardiology Mon, 04 Jun 2012 16:00:01 EST news258037407 According to new research, a multidisciplinary approach to treating tinnitus that combines cognitive behaviour therapy with sound-based tinnitus retraining therapy is significantly more effective than currently available treatments at reducing symptoms of this common debilitating disorder and improving quality of life. The findings published in this week's Lancet show that the new specialised care programme is beneficial in both mild and severe tinnitus, suggesting it could be implemented widely. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-compelling-evidence-effective-treatment-tinnitus.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 24 May 2012 18:30:01 EST news257094256