Terminally ill cancer patients discuss end-of-life care with physician but often late

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BOSTON--The vast majority of patients with incurable lung or colorectal cancer talk with a physician about their options for care at the end of life, but often not until late in the course of their illness, according to a new study by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute investigators published in the Feb. 7 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Piranha vs. Arapaima: Engineers find inspiration for new materials in piranha-proof armor

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Meyers is an expert in biomimetics, the study of natural materials from living organisms and the processes that produce them. He says that engineers are pursuing biomimetics because "we are hitting a wall, so to speak" with conventional materials and syntheses.

"We have used our ingenuity to the maximum, but one way to overcome that is to look at nature," Meyers suggested. "The materials that nature has at its disposal are not very strong, but nature combines them in a very ingenious way to produce strong components and strong designs."

New treatment for chronic pain after spinal cord injury

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Rare subset of diseases involving the lymphatic system

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New Rochelle, NY, February 8, 2012—A clinically challenging and under-studied subset of diseases affecting the lymphatic system and grouped under the disease spectrum lymphangiomatosis and Gorham's disease is the focus of a special issue of Lymphatic Research and Biology, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.. The issue is available free online at www.liebertpub.com/lrb

Pitt study: Drug costs, not volume, cause regional differences in Medicare drug spending

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PITTSBURGH, Feb. 8 – The cost of medications through Medicare's subsidized prescription drug program varies from region to region across the United States largely due to the use of more expensive brand-name drugs and not because of the amount of drugs prescribed, according to a study led by researchers from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH). The authors said that more efficient prescribing practices could have saved the Medicare program and its beneficiaries $4.5 billion.

Scientists sound alarm over threat of untreatable gonorrhea in United States

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Researchers are continuing to sound the alarm on the growing threat of multi-drug resistant gonorrhea in the United States, according to a Perspective commentary in the Feb. 9 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

In July 2011, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released "Cephalosporin Susceptibility Among Neisseria gonorrhoeae Isolates - United States, 2000-2010," which signaled the potential for resistance to the cephalosporins, the last line of defense for treating gonorrhea.

Fruit fly turn-on: A sexy, youthful smell may make up for advancing age

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Ann Arbor, Mich. – Beauty is more than skin deep, at least for fruit flies studied in new research that demonstrates how age-related changes in pheromone production can reduce sexual attractiveness.

How the zebra got its stripes

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If there was a 'Just So' story for how the zebra got its stripes, I'm sure that Rudyard Kipling would have come up with an amusing and entertaining camouflage explanation. But would he have come up with the explanation that Gábor Horváth, Susanne Åkesson and colleagues from Hungary and Sweden have: that zebra's stripes stave off blood-sucking insects? The team publishes their discovery that zebra stripes is the least attractive hide pattern for voracious horsefiles in the Journal of Experimental Biology at http://jeb.biologists.org/.

Study finds some medications may interact with common anti-recurrent preterm birth medication

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DALLAS (February 9, 2012) — In a study to be presented today at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting ™, in Dallas, Texas, researchers will report findings that indicate that prescription medications may affect the body's ability to metabolize 17-alpha-hydroxyprogesterone caproate (17-OHPC), the only FDA approved medication for the prevention of recurrent preterm birth.

Study finds in utero surgery preferable to surgery

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DALLAS (Feb. 9, 2012) — In a study to be presented today at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting ™, in Dallas, Texas, researchers will report findings that show that, for children with spina bifida, surgery conducted while the fetus is still in utero as opposed to surgery on a newborn is more cost effective due to the costs associated with caring for a child with significant deficits.