WASHINGTON, D.C., March 30, 2011 –The Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) weighed in on today's FDA announcement to continue to allow pharmacies to compound hydroxyprogesterone caproate, also known as 17P. This FDA announcement comes in response to an outcry from SMFM, ACOG and others regarding the costs of the just-released pharmaceutical version of the drug. The new drug, Makena, made by KV Pharmaceuticals, is being sold at $1,500 per dose as opposed to the pharmacy compound which typically costs $10 to $20 per dose.
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Breast cancer patients who become resistant to tamoxifen may have low levels of a protein called Rho GDI-alpha, according to a study published online March 30 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Women whose tumors have estrogen receptors (ERs) often take tamoxifen after surgery to prevent recurrence of the cancer and keep it from metastasizing to other parts of the body. Some patients, however, become resistant to the drug even though their tumors remain ER-positive.
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — UC Davis cancer researchers have found that older men with early-stage testicular cancer who opt for surveillance with regular CT scans over lymph node removal are at greater risk for secondary cancers. The findings, published online last week in the journal Cancer, indicate that physicians should consider the risk of new cancers with surveillance when discussing treatment options with their patients.
(ST. LOUIS): The Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG) has played a significant role in identifying a new genus, Yasunia, with two confirmed species from Ecuador and Peru, Y. quadrata and Y. sessiliflora.
New species are often found among the samples that are gifted to the Missouri Botanical Garden for identification. While hundreds of new plant species are identified each year, new genera are extremely uncommon, and being coupled with the two new species makes Yasunia very distinctive.
They say the best things in life are free, but when it comes to online scientific publishing, a new research report in The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org) suggests otherwise. In the report, Philip M. Davis from Cornell University shows that free access to scientific journal articles leads to increases in downloads, but not to increases in citations (their use), a key factor used in scientific publishing to assess a research article's relative importance and value.
UCLA researchers have demonstrated that a key regulator of cholesterol and fat metabolism in the liver also plays an important role in the development of liver fibrosis — the build-up of collagen scar tissue that can develop into cirrhosis. Cirrhosis, in turn, is a major cause of premature death and is incurable without a liver transplant.
In a study published online this week in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, an international team of researchers report that a virus that causes respiratory disease in humans infected and contributed to the deaths of mountain gorillas in Virunga National Park. This finding raises questions about the safety of ecotourism for endangered species.
An experimental drug lessens symptoms of a rare form of childhood leukemia and offers significant insight into the cellular development of the disease, according to findings from a new UCSF study. The mouse model research could spearhead the development of new leukemia therapies and paves the way for future clinical trials in humans.
Two U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists may have discovered "the map to El Dorado" for the American elm-a previously hidden population of elms that carry genes for resistance to Dutch elm disease. The disease kills individual branches and eventually the entire tree within one to several years.
NEW YORK (March 30, 2011) -- In the longest study of its kind, bariatric surgery has been shown to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke in patients with diabetes. These results and other groundbreaking research were presented at the 2nd World Congress on Interventional Therapies for Type 2 Diabetes, hosted by NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical College.
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The most recently discovered amino acid, pyrrolysine, is produced by a series of just three chemical reactions with a single precursor – the amino acid lysine, according to new research.
Scientists at Ohio State University used mass spectrometry and a series of experiments to discover how cells make the amino acid, a process that until now had been unknown.
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Last year, a research team at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill discovered one way the protein Tet 1 helps stem cells keep their pluripotency—the unique ability to become any cell type in the body. In two new studies, the team takes a broad look at the protein's location in the mouse genome, revealing a surprising dual function and offering the first genome-wide location of the protein and its product, 5-hydroxymethylcytosine—dubbed the "sixth base" of DNA.
EAST LANSING, Mich. — A lack of equipment and venues – and a lack of motivation even if those were available – are the main barriers to physical activity for adolescent boys, according to recently published research from a Michigan State University nursing researcher.
A study of sixth-grade boys' attitudes led by Lorraine Robbins from MSU's College of Nursing suggests an after-school physical activity program could help overcome the decrease in exercise typically seen in this age group.
CHAMPAIGN, lll. — Researchers have built a computer model of the crowded interior of a bacterial cell that – in a test of its response to sugar in its environment – accurately simulates the behavior of living cells.
The new "in silico cells" are the result of a collaboration between experimental scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Biology in Germany and theoretical scientists at the University of Illinois using the newest GPU (graphics processing unit) computing technology.