December 2, 2010 – (BRONX, NY) – Nearly a quarter of Americans live in rural areas, which consistently report higher cancer mortality rates than urban and suburban areas. Among the complex causes for this disparity is that only 10 percent of physicians practice in rural areas and almost 4 out of 10 rural residents live at least an hour from an urban area.
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NEW YORK (Dec. 2, 2010) -- There is new hope for people with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), a fast-growing cancer of the blood and bone marrow. Research led by Weill Cornell Medical College and published today in the online edition of the journal Cancer Cell reveals a surprising and unexpected cancer-causing mechanism. The investigators discovered that newly identified mutant enzymes in AML create a chemical poison to cause leukemia.
The interest in the biological effects of non-ionizing Electro Magnetic Fields (EMFs) and Static Magnetic Fields (SMFs) on the whole organism, as well on cellular systems, has noticeably increased in recent years in consideration of their increased production (from the generation and transmission of electricity, to domestic appliances and industrial equipment, to telecommunications and broadcasting) and the possible health risk for humans. About one century ago, associated with the wide use of electricity, artificial electric and magnetic fields became a part of our living environment.
Personalized medicine centers on being able to predict the risk of disease or response to a drug based on a person's genetic makeup. But a study by scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests that, for most common diseases, genes alone only tell part of the story.
While questions persist about the best ways to detect breast cancer early, a CT imaging system developed at the University of Rochester Medical Center and first unveiled five years ago is in a better position today to enter the fray -- at least in a supporting role to conventional mammography.
URMC radiologist Avice O'Connell, M.D., was invited to summarize the studies conducted thus far on the Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) scanner, at the Radiological Society of North America Annual Scientific Assembly in Chicago at 8:30 a.m. (EST) on Friday, December 3, 2010.
Mumbai, India – The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the Asia Society launched a new food security report for Asia in Mumbai today, calling for increased investment in rice research.
Could information technology and data mining techniques be used to improve the diagnosis and treatment of depression? That's the question scientists in Australia hope to have answered in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Functional Informatics and Personalised Medicine.
Scientists have discovered that the alteration of a single gene could cause some male embryos to develop as females.
The breakthrough will improve diagnosis and clinical management of patients with disorders of sex development (DSD). These conditions occur when the testis or ovary does not develop properly in the embryo, causing genital abnormalities in one in 4500 babies.
Researchers at the University of Queensland Diamantina Institute in Brisbane, Australia, have found that a form of spinal arthritis is genetically linked to Inflammatory Bowel Disease. The study will be published on December 2 in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics. Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) is a common form of arthritis involving chronic inflammation particularly of the spinal and pelvic joints, which causes pain, stiffness, and often disability. Affecting up to 0.5% of the population, the risk of AS is almost entirely genetically determined.
CHAPEL HILL, NC – A team from UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center has uncovered a clue as to how certain common genetic variants may influence an individual's risk of developing cardiovascular diseases such as stroke or heart attack.
Even with astounding advances in genomic science, genetic analysis of disease remains largely a measure of risk rather than actual disease state. A truer and more immediate measure of health can be obtained by analysis of proteins, especially those that are “biomarkers” of disease state. Until now, proteomic technologies have lacked the sensitivity, scale, and robustness to untangle the vast differences in protein types and concentration levels that underlie complex human biology and disease.
Healthy lifestyle choices and emergency room interventions can help prevent first-time strokes, according to revised American Heart Association/American Stroke Association guidelines.
The guidelines, last updated in 2006, will be published in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.
STANFORD, Calif. — Doctors across the country are still prescribing higher-dose menopausal hormone therapy pills, despite clinical evidence that low doses and skin patches work just as well and carry fewer health risks. That's what researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine found in a study that will be published online Dec. 2 in Menopause: The Journal of the North American Menopause Society.
A new study offers hope for children born with a rare genetic disease, according to a paper published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.