Body

LUGANO, 06 July 2016 - ESMO, the leading European professional organisation for medical oncology, has released new consensus guidelines for the management of metastatic colorectal cancer that reflect an increasingly personalized approach to treatment, as published online today in Annals of Oncology(1).

Imagine an agriculture field. Most are planted with row upon row of tidy cash crops. Now imagine that same field with rows of trees between the rows of crops. This forested field concept is called alley cropping. Alley cropping helps farmers diversify by growing long-term tree crops alongside short-term cash crops like wheat.

"For so long farmers have been taking trees off farmland," said Josh Gamble, agroforestry researcher at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, "So the idea of putting trees back on is a little bit of a barrier."

JULY 06, 2016, NEW YORK -- Ludwig researchers working in collaboration with colleagues in Australia and the US have shown that fragments of tumor DNA circulating in the blood can be used to gauge the risk of colorectal cancer recurrence and the efficacy of chemotherapy following surgery. The finding, published today in the current issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine, is an important step toward the development of a non-invasive and more effective test for the detection, monitoring and treatment of cancer.

A research team led by Breast Health Fellow Rebecca M. Kwait, MD, at The Breast Health Center at Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, a Care New England hospital, recently presented research indicating that when faced with a decision on the type of surgery to have to remove breast cancer, more women trust their own judgment over the input of their surgeon and even their partner.

• Pelleting, extrusion, and pelleting plus extrusion increased the digestibility of indispensable amino acids.
• Pelleting of low-fiber diets increases digestible energy by 1.9 percent and metabolizable energy by 2.1 percent.
• Pelleting of medium-fiber diets increases digestible energy by 1.9 percent and metabolizable by 2.2 percent.
• Pelleting did not increase digestible energy or metabolizable of high-fiber diets, but extrusion increased digestible energy by 2.0 percent and metabolizable by 2.9 percent

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators have discovered the mechanism by which obesity increases inflammation and desmoplasia - an accumulation of connective tissue - in the most common form of pancreatic cancer. In their report published online in Cancer Discovery the researchers describe how interactions among fat cells, immune cells and connective tissue cells in obese individuals stimulate a microenvironment that promotes tumor progression while blocking the response to chemotherapy. They also identify a treatment strategy that may inhibit the process.

Buck researchers boosted the potency of a broccoli-related compound by ten times and identified it as a possible treatment for age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of vision loss affecting more than 10 million older Americans.

Cancerous tumors must be fed. Their unregulated growth requires a steady stream of blood flow and nutrients. Thus, one way that researchers have tried to wipe out cancer is to target cells undergoing the metabolic shifts that enable a tumor's rapid growth.

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO - Shoulder instability is most common in the young, athletic population, bringing a focus to how these injuries are best treated. Research presented today at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine's (AOSSM) Annual Meeting in Colorado Springs, CO, demonstrated that surgery after a first-time shoulder dislocation lowered the re-injury risks and need for follow-up surgery when compared to those who were initially treated non-operatively and experienced a repeat dislocation prior to surgery.

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO - Ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) injuries in Major League Baseball (MLB) pitchers are high-impact due to player time lost and the resulting effect on teams and an athlete's career, making treatment decisions an even greater challenge for physicians.

BOSTON--May 3, 2016-- Researchers from the Harvard affiliated Hebrew SeniorLife Institute for Aging Research (IFAR), have published a recent article in the Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation which gives evidence that sub-sensory vibrations delivered to the foot sole of older adults significantly augmented the physiologic complexity of postural control and led to improvement in a given mobility assessment. Researchers came to this conclusion by applying vibrating soles to the feet of 12 healthy adults at various sensory thresholds over the course of three visits.

HAMILTON, ON, July 7, 2016 - Researchers at McMaster University have established a way to harness DNA as the engine of a microscopic "machine" they can turn on to detect trace amounts of substances that range from viruses and bacteria to cocaine and metals.

You've heard about physician shortages and physician burnout. But, Catholic priests? According to a researcher at Florida Atlantic University, Catholic priests in the United States are in a similar predicament with even fewer options or opportunities to retire from their diocese. And, unlike medicine, priesthood is not a lucrative profession.

Scientists from The University of Washington have found evidence that ocean acidification caused by carbon emissions can prevent mussels attaching themselves to rocks and other substrates, making them easy targets for predators and threatening the mussel farming industry.

DALLAS, July 5, 2016 -- More adults are living with congenital heart defects in the United States, creating the need for more health services and tracking systems to collect data across all ages, not just at birth, according to new research in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation.

Congenital heart defects are structural problems with the heart present at birth. They are diagnosed in eight to 10 per 1,000 live births in the United States and are the most common type of birth defect, according to researchers.