UT Southwestern specialist leads effort to craft first professional guidelines for regarding earwax

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DALLAS – Aug. 29, 2008 – The age-old advice to routinely clean out earwax is discouraged under the first published guidelines from health care professionals about removing wax from the ear.

TGen and Washington University researchers discover new approach to treating endometrial cancer

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PHOENIX, Ariz. – Sept. 1, 2008 – Researchers at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) today announced a new approach to treating endometrial cancer patients that not only stops the growth of tumors, but kills the cancer cells.

In a potentially major breakthrough, TGen scientists and collaborators at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis discovered that introducing a particular inhibitor drug can turn "off'' receptors responsible for the growth of tumors in a significant number of patients with endometrial cancer.

Sex hormones link to heart risk

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Men are more prone to – and likely to die of - heart disease compared with women of a similar age – and sex hormones are to blame, according to a new University of Leicester led study

The findings of a study by Dr Maciej Tomaszewski, New Blood Lecturer in Cardiovascular Medicine in the Department of Cardiovascular Sciences at the University of Leicester, suggest that this "male disadvantage" may be related to the sex-specific effects of naturally occurring sex hormones.

New genes found for inflammatory bowel disease in children

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Researchers have discovered two new genes that increase the risk of developing inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in childhood.

Landmark study opens door to new cancer, aging treatments

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(PHILADELPHIA)—Researchers at The Wistar Institute have deciphered the structure of the active region of telomerase, an enzyme that plays a major role in the development of nearly all human cancers. The landmark achievement opens the door to the creation of new, broadly effective cancer drugs, as well as anti-aging therapies.

New approach, old drug show promise against hepatitis C, Stanford research shows

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STANFORD, Calif. - The fight against the liver disease hepatitis C has been at something of an impasse for years, with more than 150 million people currently infected, and traditional antiviral treatments causing nasty side effects and often falling short of a cure. Using a novel technique, medical and engineering researchers at Stanford University have discovered a vulnerable step in the virus' reproduction process that in lab testing could be effectively targeted with an obsolete antihistamine.

The ECNP consensus statement on bipolar depression

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Bipolar disorder is one of the most important psychiatric diseases, often associated with considerable treatment needs and tremendous social and occupational burden for both the individual and family (Pini et al., 2005). Previously also labelled manic-depressive illness, bipolar disorder is typically referred to as an episodic, yet lifelong and clinically severe mood (or affective) disorder.

Global study shows telmisartan reduces outcome of cardiovascular death, heart attack or stroke

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HAMILTON – August 31, 2008 -- An international study led by Canadian researchers has found that telmisartan, a medication used to lower blood pressure, reduced the outcome of cardiovascular death, heart attack or stroke in people who are unable to tolerate a widely available and effective standard treatment.

'Superbug' breast infections controllable in nursing mothers, UT Southwestern researchers find

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DALLAS – Aug. 31, 2008 – Many nursing mothers who have been hospitalized for breast abscesses are afflicted with the "superbug" methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, but according to new research by UT Southwestern Medical Center physicians, conservative treatment can deal with the problem.

The study focused on hospitalized women with mastitis, and showed that MRSA was much more likely to be found in those who had both mastitis (an inflammation of the milk glands) and abscesses (pockets of infection).

Researchers devise means to create blood by identifying earliest stem cells

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Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered the earliest form of human blood stem cells and deciphered the mechanism by which these embryonic stem cells replicate and grow. They also found a surprising biological marker that pinpoints these stem cells, which serve as the progenitors for red blood cells and lymphocytes.