Body

Women are now spending fewer years with cognitive impairment but more years with disability compared to 20 years ago, new research has revealed.

Experts have shown that between 1991 and 2011 women's life expectancy at age 65 increased by 3.6 years but they identified that the female body doesn't age as well as its mind.

Chapel Hill, N.C. (Embargoed until 5 p.m. ET on Dec. 8, 2015) - Two UNC physicians have joined other leading experts in gynecology and related specialties across the country in asking the Food and Drug Administration to rescind or revise a warning it issued severely restricting use of a device commonly employed in minimally invasive procedures to treat uterine fibroids.

New Haven, Conn.--It is well documented that a healthy diet and exercise are key in cancer prevention and management, but the exact mechanism hasn't been clear. Now, Yale Cancer Center researchers have found an explanation in the tiny protective ends of chromosomes called telomeres. The findings will be presented Dec. 11 at the 2015 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA - What unique health needs will Syrian refugees face, and how can Canadian physicians best provide health care to them and their families? A practice article posted online today in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) provides recommendations on screening and advice for primary care physicians to deal with this specific population's health care needs. The goal of health settlement is to link newly arriving refugees to the primary health care system.

Some infectious diseases are particularly difficult to treat because of their ability to evade the immune system. One such illness, African sleeping sickness, is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma brucei, transmitted by the tsetse fly, and is fatal if left untreated. The trypanosome parasite is transmitted to mammals through fly bites and eventually invades major organs such as the brain, disrupting the sleep cycle, among other symptoms.

Initiatives to eliminate food deserts, low-income geographic areas that lack access to a supermarket or large grocery store, may not have an effect on improving dietary quality or reducing disparities in diet quality according to Jason Block and S V Subramanian from Harvard University, United States, in a Policy Forum article published this week in PLOS Medicine.

Some infectious diseases are particularly difficult to treat because of their ability to evade the immune system. One such illness, African sleeping sickness, is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma brucei, transmitted by the tsetse fly, and is fatal if left untreated. The trypanosome parasite is transmitted to mammals through fly bites and eventually invades major organs such as the brain, disrupting the sleep cycle, among other symptoms.

Measuring the levels of RNA biomarkers in blood may help quickly differentiate sepsis from infection-negative systemic inflammation, according to research published this week in PLOS Medicine. Leo McHugh, Ph.D. of Immunexpress, Seattle, Washington, and colleagues describe the discovery and validation of a molecular classifier consisting of 4 RNA transcripts (SeptiCyte Lab), which in several selected patient cohorts was able to diagnose sepsis more accurately than procalcitonin or clinical parameters, and more quickly than blood culture.

Some of the same gene mutations that cause heart defects in children also lead to neurodevelopmental delays, including learning disabilities. A large study of congenital heart disease (CHD) reveals overlapping genetic influences during early childhood development.

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS - Whether aspirin may help prevent or reduce the risk of breast cancer remains a hotly debated research question. While past studies have indicated a potential benefit, most recently in hormone receptor-positive breast cancers, one new study from Penn Medicine suggests otherwise. Aspirin does not appear to be protective or associated with improved clinical outcomes or survival among breast cancer patients with aggressive disease, the researchers of one study report.

Philadelphia - Many BRCA 1/2-negative patients choose to proceed with comprehensive testing for genetic mutations that increase cancer risk, and when presented with counseling before and after testing, most make informed decisions and experience decreased levels of anxiety, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Basser Center for BRCA in Penn's Abramson Cancer Center. The study will be presented on Thursday, December 10, as part of the 2015 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (Abstract #P2-09-01).

PHILADELPHIA - Combining the new breast cancer drug palbociclib with paclitaxel (Taxol) shrank tumors in nearly half of patient with estrogen-receptor (ER) positive breast cancer, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The results will be presented Saturday at the 2015 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (Abstract P6-13-08). A second study (Abstract P4-13-04), to be presented Friday provides new clues to how breast cancer develops resistance to the palbociclib, a common occurrence among many patients who take the drug.

LA JOLLA--Chronic damage to the liver eventually creates a wound that never heals. This condition, called fibrosis, gradually replaces normal liver cells--which detoxify the food and liquid we consume--with more and more scar tissue until the organ no longer works.

An ongoing phase IIR/III clinical trial presented at the 2015 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium seeks to answer an important question in the treatment of early metastatic breast cancer: Should surgery or stereotactic body radiation be used to "weed the garden" of a few sites of metastasis while continuing treatment that may still be controlling the initial tumor?

OTTAWA, Canada - December 8, 2015 - Scientists from the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) Research Institute participated in several peer-reviewed articles that published today in the International Journal of Obesity Supplements. The series (including 16 original contributions) was prepared by the International Study of Childhood Obesity, Lifestyle and the Environment (ISCOLE) research group, a global collective of leading obesity research experts from 12 countries located on five continents.