Body

MOSS LANDING, CA — It sounds like a classic horror story—eyeless, mouthless worms lurk in the dark, settling onto dead animals and sending out green "roots" to devour their bones. In fact, such worms do exist in the deep sea. They were first discovered in 2002 by researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), who were using a robot submarine to explore Monterey Canyon. But that wasn't the end of the story.

This release is available in http://chinese..org/zh/emb_releases/2009-11/jaaj-_1110509.php">Chinese.

Lipid assessment in vascular disease can be simplified by measuring either total and HDL cholesterol levels or apolipoproteins, without the need to fast and without regard to triglyceride levels, according to a study in the November 11 issue of JAMA.

Use of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents is associated with an increased risk of venous thromboembolism, according to study published online November 10 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (i.e., erythropoietin and darbopoietin) stimulate red blood cell production and therefore were approved to reduce the number of blood transfusions required during chemotherapy; however, concerns about the risks of venous thromboembolism (the disease that includes deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism) and mortality exist.

NEW YORK – Medications frequently given to cancer patients to reduce their risk of anemia are associated with an increased risk of deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism, according to new research led by Dawn Hershman, M.D, M.S., co-director of the breast cancer program at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. The findings will be published online on Nov. 10, 2009 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (ahead of the Dec. 2, 2009 print edition).

A potential new drug for lung cancer has eliminated tumours in 50% of mice in a new study published today in the journal Cancer Research. In the animals, the drug also stopped lung cancer tumours from growing and becoming resistant to treatment. The authors of the research, from Imperial College London, are now planning to take the drug into clinical trials, to establish whether it could offer hope to patients with an inoperable form of lung cancer.

When a fetus is smaller than expected for the number of weeks of pregnancy, due to associated problems like a poorly developed heart, health concerns as severe as brain damage can result.

The condition, known as Intra-uterine growth restriction (IUGR), prompts doctors to use ultrasound to track a baby's health and determine the best time for delivery. But these measurements are often incomplete, and obstetricians have had to rely on educated guesses about the strength of a fetus's circulatory system.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Age-related hearing loss is the most common sensory disorder among the elderly. But scientists are still trying to figure out what cellular processes govern or contribute to the loss.

Now a University of Florida team and researchers from University of Wisconsin and three other institutions have identified a protein that is central to processes that cause oxidative damage to cells and lead to age-related hearing loss.