Body

The human papillomavirus (HPV) allows infected cervical and head and neck cancer cells to maintain internal molecular conditions that make the cancers resistant to therapy and more likely to grow and spread, resulting in a poor prognosis for patients, researchers with UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center found.

SALT LAKE CITY—Researchers at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) believe they may be one step closer to understanding how certain forms of colon cancer develop.

In a study using siblings who have been diagnosed with colon cancer, scientists discovered similarities on a region of a particular chromosome, referred to as 7q31. Researchers believe that piece of genetic material may be causing a subset of colon cancers that run in families.

Take a close look at that cheap piece of scrap iron before you toss it in the trash.

Wei-xian Zhang has a good use for it. Someday soon, much of the world might also.

Zhang, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, recently concluded a five-year research project in which he and his colleagues at Tongji University in Shanghai used two million pounds of iron to detoxify pollutants in industrial wastewater.

Being nervous, socially isolated, anxious or neurotic during childhood protects young men from becoming criminal offenders until they enter adulthood, but the protective effect seems to wear off after the age of 21. These are the findings of Dr. Georgia Zara, from the University of Turin in Italy, and Dr. David Farrington, from the University of Cambridge in the UK, who explored whether or not certain childhood factors delay the onset of criminal behavior until adulthood. Their research has just been published online in Springer's Journal of Youth and Adolescence.

Cone-beam CT which is believed to deliver less radiation than MDCT is just as useful when evaluating patients before and after percutaneous vertebroplasty according to a study performed at the Department of Clinical Radiology, Kyushu University, Fukoka, Japan. Percutaneous vertebroplasty is a minimally invasive cement augmentation technique to relieve pain in the back that is non-responsive to conservative treatment.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists have discovered a mechanism by which intracellular pathogens can shut down one of the body's key chemical weapons against them: nitric oxide. The researchers found that the microbes block nitric oxide production by subverting the biochemical machinery used by immune cells called macrophages to produce the chemical.

An entomologist at the Illinois Natural History Survey, a division of the new UI Institute for Natural Resource Sustainability, says smaller mosquitoes are more likely to be infected with viruses that cause diseases in humans. These findings can be found in the November issue of the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

Multidetector CT (MDCT) scans are highly accurate in detecting airway stent complications according to a recent study performed at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA.

MDCT correctly identified 29 (97%) of 30 complications in 21 patients, including all cases of intraluminal narrowing, migration, invasion by neoplasm and tracheal perforation; MDCT also identified three of four cases of stent fracture," according to Vandana Dialani, MD, lead author of the study.

CHICAGO—Hip resurfacing is often seen as a modern alternative to the more conventional total hip replacement, but new data from a study led by Rush University Medical Center suggest that a patient's age and gender are key to the operation's success.

Alexandria, VA - As Americans prepare for a day without cigarettes and tobacco products as part of the American Cancer Society Great American Smokeout (R) (November 21), new research gives them more reasons to extend that break to a lifetime, according to the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF).

Pre-treatment MRI can eliminate unnecessary diagnostic or surgical procedures for children with suspected musculoskeletal infections (septic arthritis and osteomyelitis) according to a study performed at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital in Nashville, TN.

Boston, MA—Scientists at Schepens Eye Research Institute have found that reducing the levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which is best known as a stimulator of new blood vessel growth, in adult mice causes the death of photoreceptors and Muller glia - cells of the retina that are essential to visual function. This finding, published in the November 3, 2008 PLoS ONE, holds implications for the chronic use of promising new anti-VEGF drugs such as Lucentis, which eliminate abnormal and damaging blood vessel growth and leakage in the retina by neutralizing VEGF.

A new model that would allow interventional radiologists (radiologists who specialize in fine needle aspiration, fine needle biopsy and radiofrequency ablation) to better estimate patient radiation skin doses during CT guided interventional procedures has been developed according to a study performed at the Agios Savvas and Konstantopoulio Hospitals in Athens, Greece.

Polypectomy (the surgical removal of polyps by colonoscopy) of small polyps found during CT colonography is costly and unnecessary according to a study performed at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison, WI.

SAN FRANCISCO (November 3, 2008) – New clinical data show antiviral activity of TMC435, an investigational protease inhibitor (PI) being developed by Tibotec BVBA for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Tibotec will present findings from three TMC435 studies, including a late-breaker poster on the proof-of-principle phase IIa trial, OPERA-1 (TMC435-C201), at the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease's (AASLD) Liver Meeting 2008 in San Francisco.