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Scientists are one step closer to developing a targeted therapy for lymphoma. New research, published by Cell Press in the April 13th issue of the journal Cancer Cell, identifies a specific small-molecule inhibitor that was nontoxic in animal experiments and could kill human lymphoma cells.

(Boston) - Pediatric researchers from Boston Medical Center (BMC), in partnership with other Children's HealthWatch investigators in Minneapolis, Little Rock, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, have found that the cumulative effects of crowded and unstable housing and uncertain supplies of food and heat act together to decrease the chances of normal growth and development and good physical health among infants and toddlers.

Until now there were only indirect evidence of the transfer of thyroid hormones from mother to fetus through the placenta during pregnancy. That event is very important because the maternal thyroid hormones appear to play a key role in the development of the nervous system and other organs of the fetus; so it's true that in case of maternal thyroid disease, such hypothyroidism, have a direct bearing on the unborn child with reduction, also significant, to its Q.I..

Since the implementation of anti-smoking legislation, hospital admissions for cardiovascular and respiratory conditions have decreased 39% and 33% respectively, found a research article in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) (pre-embargo link only) http://www.cmaj.ca/embargo/cmaj091130.pdf.

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Children with more body fat and less endurance than their fitter, leaner counterparts have stiffer arteries at a young age, Medical College of Georgia researchers said.

Stiff arteries are a hallmark of atherosclerosis, a typically adult condition in which blood vessels become clogged.

Montréal, Québec, Canada, April 12, 2010 - Some patients with heart muscles seriously affected by coronary heart disease may soon be able to benefit from an innovative treatment. Researchers at the Research Centre of the Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CRCHUM), in collaboration with the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital (MRH) are evaluating the safety, feasibility and efficacy of injecting stem cells into the hearts of patients while they are undergoing coronary bypass surgery. These stem cells could improve healing of the heart and its function.

Palpation continues to be of great value in modern medicine, both practiced by doctors and as a technique for self-examination. However, palpation is limited to a few accessible organs, and the interpretation of the information sensed by the fingers is highly subjective.

Iron overload, a common feature of chronic liver disorders, has been linked with oxidative DNA damage, insulin resistance and liver steatosis, and with triggering of hepatic stellate cells thus inducing liver fibrosis. Recently, a key iron regulatory hormone, hepcidin, was discovered. This hormone has been found to suppress intestinal absorption of iron through its binding to ferroportin. Hepcidin is synthesized in the liver from its precursor protein, prohepcidin.

There are several papers which report the association of GI symptoms with diabetes. Epidemiological data regarding the association of GI symptoms with diabetes are, however, inconsistent, and the reported frequency of upper and lower GI symptoms varies among different ethnic groups/populations.

Atrophic gastritis and intestinal metaplasia are two important precursory lesions in the process of intestinal type gastric cancer. However, the precise mechanism of the progression of these two lesions is still unclear, a few studies have investigated the risk of host gene polymorphism on the atrophic gastritis and intestinal metaplasia, but all of them are limited by their one-time point screen.

A global study of nearly 10,000 women with early breast cancer has found wide variations in how they were treated, despite international consensus on best practice, according to the May issue of the British Journal of Surgery.

Researchers from Europe, Japan and America compared 9,779 women with an average age of 64 from 566 study sites in Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Japan, the Netherlands, the UK/Ireland and the USA.

Paleoindian groups* occupied North America throughout the Younger Dryas interval, which saw a rapid return to glacial conditions approximately 11,000 years ago. Until now, it has been assumed that cooling temperatures and their impact on communities posed significant adaptive challenges to those groups.

LIVERPOOL, UK – 12 April 2010: Scientists at the University of Liverpool have discovered that dangerous strains of Salmonella are beginning to emerge in people infected with HIV in Africa.

Their research has found that, in adults with HIV, new African Salmonellae can cause severe disease by invading cells in the blood and bone marrow, where they can hide away, allowing them to evolve into more dangerous, multi-drug resistant strains over time. This is made possible by the loss of immune cells that occurs in HIV which renders the body vulnerable to attack.

BOSTON – Cancer of the lower esophagus develops almost exclusively in patients with Barrett's esophagus, an otherwise benign complication of esophageal reflux that affects approximately 3 million Americans. Although the prognosis of patients diagnosed with esophageal cancer is poor, the chances of successful treatment increase significantly if the disease is detected at an early dysplastic stage.

An international research team co-led by the Ontario Cancer Institute (OCI) has discovered a compound that kills specific lymphoma cells – a discovery that will accelerate developing targeted drugs to fight the most common form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

The research findings, published online today in Cancer Cell (DOI 0.1016/j.ccr.2009.12.050), show how the scientists used a chemical compound to block protein BCL6, the cancer-causing culprit in about half of all non-Hodgkins lymphoma cases, the fifth most common type of cancer in Canadians.