Heavens

NASA completes critical design review of Landsat data continuity mission

Posted By News On June 1, 2010 - 9:50pm

GREENBELT, Md. -- The Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) reached a major milestone last week when it successfully completed its Mission Critical Design Review (CDR).

Agatha drenches Guatemala and El Salvador, remnants now in Caribbean

Posted By News On June 1, 2010 - 9:10pm

Tropical Storm Agatha was the first tropical storm of the Eastern Pacific hurricane season, and took an inland route, drenching El Salvador and Guatemala this past weekend.

Planetary scientists solve 40-year-old mysteries of Mars' northern ice cap

Posted By News On May 28, 2010 - 8:50pm

A team of planetary scientists has used radar and a high-resolution camera to reveal the subsurface geology of Mars' northern ice cap.

NASA sees strong thunderstorms in potential tropical cyclone near Hong Kong

Posted By News On May 27, 2010 - 9:10pm

NASA and other satellite data is helping forecasters get a bead on a tropical low that looks prime for development over the weekend in the Western Pacific Ocean. Infrared imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite showed System 93W has some high, cold thunderstorm cloud tops, indicating strong convection.

Community interventions and in-home visits may slow excess weight gain in American Indian children

Posted By News On June 2, 2010 - 1:50pm

Community intervention can help American Indian families change behavior related to early childhood weight gain and obesity, according to a new Kaiser Permanente and Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board (NPAIHB) study.

Targeted immunotherapy shows promise for metastatic breast, pancreatic cancers

Posted By News On June 1, 2010 - 4:50pm

CHICAGO – Early trials using targeted monoclonal antibodies in combination with existing therapies show promise in treating pancreatic cancer and metastatic breast cancer, according to research that will be presented by investigators from the University of Pennsylvania's Abramson Cancer Center at the 2010 meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology June 4 through 8. One study uses an antibody to enhance the effectiveness of a breast cancer vaccine developed at Penn to treat women with advanced breast cancer, while a pancreatic cancer trial uses an immune-enhancing antibody to increase the effectiveness of a current standard drug used to treat pancreatic cancer.

Patients who refuse prostate cancer surgery have worse long-term survival

Posted By News On June 1, 2010 - 3:10pm

DETROIT – Men who refuse surgery for prostate cancer and instead opt for "watchful waiting" – monitoring cancer progression without undergoing treatment – have a significantly worse long-term survival rate than those patients that choose radiotherapy, according to researchers at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

Study finds cancer information on Wikipedia is accurate, but not very readable

Posted By News On June 1, 2010 - 3:10pm

(PHILADELPHIA) It is a commonly held that information on Wikipedia should not be trusted, since it is written and edited by non-experts without professional oversight. But researchers from the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson have found differently, according to data being presented at the 2010 ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago. (Abstract #6058)

Researchers find papillary renal cell carcinoma unresponsive to sunitinib

Posted By News On May 28, 2010 - 7:50pm

CHICAGO, IL. (May 28, 2010)––Of the more than 38,000 Americans diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) each year, approximately 20 percent have non-clear cell forms of the disease. New findings shows that a non-clear cell form of kidney cancer known as papillary RCC, which accounts for 12 percent of all RCC, responds differently to sunitinib – a standard frontline treatment for RCC. In a small but decisive Phase II trial, the researchers found that sunitinib was not effective in patients with this form of the disease. The terms clear- and non-clear cell refer to the general appearance of the cancer cells under a microscope.