Body

Researchers from Southhampton and Cambridge Universities in the UK have presented evidence that vigorous physical activity in young children results in stronger hip bones. The results were presented at the World Congress on Osteoporosis (IOF WCO-ECCEO10) in Florence, Italy.

More than 200 six-year olds participated in the study. Using advanced scanning technology, the researchers measured bone mass and analysed the structure of the femoral neck (hip) and thigh bone. Physical activity was assessed for seven continuous days.

Washington, DC – A study by researchers from the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) identifies a potential new combination therapy to "rescue" treatment sensitivity to fulvestrant in estrogen receptor positive breast cancers. The findings were published on May 15, 2010 as the cover story of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics.

A new analysis finds that the costs of treating cancer have nearly doubled over the past two decades and that the shares of these costs that are paid for by private health insurance and Medicaid have increased. The study also reveals that cancer costs have shifted away from inpatient treatments to outpatient care. Published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the information could be used to prioritize future resources for treating and preventing cancer.

A new study indicates that patients aged 75 years or older who have confined kidney tumors do not live longer if they have their entire kidney removed. The research reveals that these patients typically have other medical problems of greater significance and that many should receive more conservative cancer-related care, such as observation or treatments that spare the noncancerous parts of their kidneys. The study is published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.

A team of University of California, San Diego School of Medicine researchers has discovered that common intestinal bacteria appear to promote tumor growths in genetically susceptible mice, but that tumorigenesis can be suppressed if the mice are exposed to an inhibiting protein enzyme.

LA JOLLA, CA – May 7, 2010 – In findings that advance scientists' understanding of a whole class of inherited disorders, a team from The Scripps Research Institute has shed light on a mechanism that enables a potential treatment for Gaucher's disease and other lysosomal storage diseases.

The findings were published in an advance, online edition of the journal Nature Chemical Biology on May 9, 2010.

TORONTO, ON – Researchers at the University of Toronto have discovered a fundamentally new view of how living cells use a limited number of genes to generate enormously complex organs such as the brain.

(PHILADELPHIA) Researchers in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Thomas Jefferson University have found that the level of a single protein in the tiny roundworm C. elegans determines how long it lives. Worms born without this protein, called arrestin, lived about one-third longer than normal, while worms that had triple the amount of arrestin lived one-third less.

Drinking even large amounts of coffee and sugar-sweetened, carbonated soft drinks is not associated with the risk of colon cancer according to a large study published online May 7 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

BOSTON, Mass. - Within cells, an ancient antiviral duo can deliver a one-two knockout to thwart invading viruses, report researchers who have just unmasked the cellular sidekick that throws the first punch. The findings mean scientists must rethink the design of antiviral immunity and how the body fends off viruses of all types, including influenza and HIV.

Pregnancy places competing demands on a mother's physiology: Her body wants to produce a strong healthy baby but not at the expense of her own health. Some of the genes that she passes on to her child therefore try to protect her own body from excessive demands from her child. These so-called "imprinted genes" inherited from the father however do not show the same restraint – their goal is to get as many resources for the fetus as possible.

Vertebral fractures are the most common of all osteoporotic fractures and can have a devastating impact on a person's quality of life.

Research presented today at the World Congress on Osteoporosis 2010 (IOF WCO-ECCEO10) from the ongoing ICUROS study gave an indication of the early results of quality of life effects in relation to vertebral fractures.

Interestingly, patients who were hospitalised as a result of their vertebral fractures had a significantly larger quality of life reduction, than non-hospitalised patients.

CINCINNATI—Post-transplant patients who have been removed from a corticosteroid regimen have fewer cardiovascular events than those patients on steroids, increasing their graft survival rates and reducing early mortality, according to study results being presented this week by University of Cincinnati (UC) transplantation researchers.

Researchers with the division of transplantation and department of internal medicine are presenting the work at the American Transplant Congress (ATC), the annual meeting of the American Society of Transplantation, held May 1-5 in San Diego.

Love handles, muffin tops and stomach tires – white fat tissue forms the typical curves in the notorious problem areas to store energy. Exactly the opposite happens in brown fat tissue: Instead of being stored, energy gets transformed into heat. To the dismay of many people, adults have only small amounts of this energy burner. By contrast, babies and animals in hibernation have lots of it in their bodies where it serves for heat regulation.

Abstract 35P: Markers for risk of pregnancy-associated breast cancerC.B. Agborsangaya, FINLANDAs women delay child-birth to the third and fourth decades, the incidence of pregnancy-associated breast cancer is expected to rise. This paper suggests that identification of p53 autoantibody-positive pregnant women may be useful in predicting outbreak or early detection of pregnancy-associated breast cancer.