Study shows testosterone improves sexual well-being in post-menopausal women

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WHAT: An international study showed testosterone, when used with no other hormone therapy, is an effective treatment for low libido in postmenopausal women. More than 800 women from 65 centers in the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and Sweden participated in the study, the first to show that testosterone administered by a skin patch can boost sex drive in postmenopausal women.

Top scientific meeting urges coordinated response to economic and environmental crises

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A fix for the economy must address ecological threats, a top international scientific meeting here has urged. Human society is moving dangerously beyond the planet's natural limits in a striking parallel to the financial debt crisis. "We're running the planet like a subprime loan," Dr. Johan Rockström of the Stockholm Resilience Centre said. A coordinated response would reduce the risks of both kinds of crises in the future.

MIT creates tiny backpacks for cells

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CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- MIT engineers have outfitted cells with tiny "backpacks" that could allow them to deliver chemotherapy agents, diagnose tumors or become building blocks for tissue engineering.

Michael Rubner, director of MIT's Center for Materials Science and Engineering and senior author of a paper on the work that appeared online in Nano Letters on Nov. 5, said he believes this is the first time anyone has attached such a synthetic patch to a cell.

Hormone therapy helps short children grow up

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Chevy Chase, MD— Growth hormone treatment may significantly increase final height in children diagnosed with short stature, even in cases where the child is not growth hormone deficient, according to a new study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).

Growth hormone (GH) has been shown to be effective in treating GH deficient children with short stature, but its effect on non GH deficient children with short stature has remained unclear.

Minority patients discouraged from cancer screening by negative messages

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PHILADELPHIA – New behavioral science research published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, found that constantly emphasizing the negative consequences of a lack of cancer screening among minorities can actually make them less likely to go for screening.

Migraines associated with lower risk of breast cancer

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SEATTLE – Women who suffer from migraines may take at least some comfort in a recent, first-of-its-kind study that suggests a history of such headaches is associated with a significantly lower risk of breast cancer. Christopher I. Li, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center report these findings in the November issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.

Multiple sclerosis research charges ahead with new mouse model of disease

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November 6, 2008, Cambridge, UK – A new study highlights the role of a charge-switching enzyme in nervous system deficits characteristic of multiple sclerosis and other related neurological illness.

Coping and copulation behavior may help calculate diabetes risk

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November 6, 2008, Cambridge, UK – Discussion of a man's background, attitude, and sexual history isn't just the fodder of Sex and The City episodes – in the future, it could also be a way of evaluating his risk of diabetes.

XDR-TB: Deadlier and more mysterious than ever

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New research has found that XDR-TB is increasingly common and more deadly than previously known. Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) is a growing public health threat that is only just beginning to be understood by medical and public health officials.

Study finds racial disparities increasing for cancers unrelated to smoking

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ATLANTA— November 6, 2008—A new American Cancer Society study finds that recent progress in closing the gap in overall cancer mortality between African Americans and whites may be due primarily to smoking-related cancers, and that cancer mortality differences related to screening and treatment may still be increasing. The study, appearing in the November issue of Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention, is the first to analyze racial and ethnic differences between the two broad categories of disease.