Body

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Researchers have identified potential genetic alterations in penile cancer that could pave the way for targeted treatments.

For many patients with this rare cancer, surgery is all that's needed. But in aggressive forms of penile cancer, few therapeutic options exist, particularly targeted therapies.

The new study, led by researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, describe a complex landscape that could suggest potential clinical trials of targeted therapies - and potential limitations in some patients.

A rigorous evaluation of survival rates has shown that cancer patients with localised prostate cancer -- the most common form of prostate cancer -- have a better chance of survival if treated by surgery than by radiotherapy. These findings hold true even after accounting for type of radiation and the aggressiveness of cancer. This is the most robust analysis (meta-analysis) to date of published literature comparing surgery and radiotherapy for localised prostate cancer. The study is published in the peer-reviewed journal, European Urology1.

Better funding and cooperation by the international community is needed to prevent a zombie apocalypse, argues a US expert in the Christmas issue of The BMJ.

Tara Smith, Associate Professor at Kent State University in Ohio says emerging zombie infections have been identified around the globe and, though sporadic, are becoming a source of greater concern to the medical and public health community.

The number of articles citing the lyrics of Bob Dylan in the biomedical literature has increased exponentially since 1990, according to a study in the Christmas issue of The BMJ.

In 2014, it was revealed that a group of scientists at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden had been sneaking the lyrics of Bob Dylan into their papers as part of a long-running bet.

So, another group of Karolinska researchers decided to investigate how the lyrics of Bob Dylan are cited in the titles of published biomedical papers.

It has been estimated that if every nutritional measure known to be helpful were applied to every child in the world, global malnutrition would be decreased by only a third. New research from the University of Virginia School of Medicine, the University of Vermont and the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research in Bangladesh sheds light on why: Damage to the gut from infection explains why food alone is not a solution to malnutrition. To be effective, nutritional therapy will need to include measures to prevent or treat the damage to the gut of infants.

For more than a decade, researchers studying the newest anticancer drugs have taken extra biopsies solely for the purpose of trying to understand the pharmacodynamics -- what the drug does to the tumor -- of a new anticancer drug. Such biopsies have been incorporated into studies sponsored by both the pharmaceutical industry and the National Cancer Institute. They are often mandatory in government-sponsored phase 1 clinical trials.

They say we can't escape our past--no matter how much we change, we still have the memory of what came before; the same can be said of our cells.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- A social and emotional skills intervention developed to help children recover from the trauma of natural disasters is being adapted to help young Syrian refugees heal their psychological wounds.

Journey of Hope, a school-based psychosocial intervention co-developed by University of Illinois social work professor Tara M. Powell to help young victims of Hurricane Katrina, is being used with young people in the Ukraine and is being adapted to help Syrian refugees in Turkey as well, Powell said.

A team of researchers have discovered a new way for early detection of a potentially deadly fungal infection in patients with suppressed immune systems such as those being treated for leukemia or have had an organ transplant.

A multidisciplinary research group led by Allan Brasier of The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, in tandem with several collaborating research institutions and the Aspergillosis Technology Consortium, published their findings in PLOS ONE.

(BOSTON) - It's estimated that as many as 1,000,000 Americans suffer from inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, which cause mild to severe symptoms that at best can be managed and at worst can lead to life-threatening complications. While abnormal immune responses are largely responsible for these diseases, issues relating to gut microbiome, intestinal epithelial cells, immune components and the gut's rhythmic peristalsis motions can also contribute to and exacerbate symptoms.

San Francisco--Some of the natural gas harvested by hydraulic fracturing operations may be of biological origin--made by microorganisms inadvertently injected into shale by oil and gas companies during the hydraulic fracturing process, a new study has found.

The study suggests that microorganisms including bacteria and archaea might one day be used to enhance methane production--perhaps by sustaining the energy a site can produce after fracturing ends.

A team at Griffith University's Institute for Glycomics has made a scientific discovery that will change the way scientists explore vaccine development and drug discovery for infectious diseases.

In a paper published today in prestigious American journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, the team led by senior authors Professor Michael Jennings, Professor Victoria Korolik and Associate Professor Renato Morona (University of Adelaide) shows an entirely new way that cells and macromolecules interact together.

EUGENE, Ore. -- Dec. 14, 2015 -- Evolution is usually thought of as occurring over long time periods, but it also can happen quickly. Consider a tiny fish whose transformation after the 1964 Alaskan earthquake was uncovered by University of Oregon scientists and their University of Alaska collaborators.

SAN FRANCISCO (December 14, 2015) -- Scientists have discovered a universal human truth about our bodies: they all, without exception, have mites. A landmark new study, led by scientists at Bowdoin and the California Academy of Sciences, explores the fascinating, little-known natural history of the face mite species Demodex folliculorum, using genetic testing to link the microscopic animal's evolution to our own ever-evolving human story.

LOS ANGELES - While targeted cancer treatments have reduced side effects and improved efficacy, chemotherapy remains the backbone of combination therapies for many forms of cancer. Unfortunately, cancer patients may suffer from several side effects from chemotherapy, including infertility and a weakened defense system that makes them susceptible to life-threatening infections.

A study recently published by the journal, Endocrinology Today, holds hope for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy to avoid two of the serious side effects and to stop cancer's growth.