Arnhem, 11 March 2013 - Surgery offers better survival benefit for men with localised prostate cancer, according to a large observational study, conducted by a group of researchers in Sweden and the Netherlands.
The study won the second prize for best abstract in oncology at the 28th Annual EAU Congress which will open in Milan this Friday, 15 March.
Arnhem, 11 March 2013 - A new study by British scientists reveals that motile Escherichia coli isolates demonstrated significant activation of NF-κB signaling suggesting that flagellin plays a key role in up-regulating the host innate defences against urinary tract infections (UTIs).
Arnhem, 14 March 2013 - As part of an EU-supported IMI-PREDECT consortium (http://www.predect.eu), a Dutch study showed that anti-androgenic properties of the drug abiraterone may provide an additional mechanism of action in blocking tumour growth of castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC).
The value of medical treatment can be far greater than the cost of the treatment finds a study in BioMed Central's open access journal Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation. Improved physical function leads to measurable gains in employment, improved household income, and fewer days missed from work. This improvement in employment is matched by a reduction in the necessity of disability benefits.
Working night shifts might increase the risk of developing ovarian cancer, indicates research published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
The risk may be lower for night types ("owls") than for morning types ("larks"), the findings suggest (see accompanying commentary).
The authors base their findings on 1101 women with the most common type (epithelial) of advanced ovarian cancer; 389 with borderline disease; and a comparison group of 1832 women without ovarian cancer.
There is no clear evidence that the decline in the use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is linked to a reported fall in the numbers of new cases of breast cancer, as has been claimed, suggests a study in the Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care.
The stats and time trends neither back up nor refute the claim, so no firm conclusions can be drawn, say the authors in the last of a series of five critiques of the published data in three major studies on HRT.
Highlights
At the end of the last ice age, a population of polar bears was stranded by the receding ice on a few islands in southeastern Alaska. Male brown bears swam across to the islands from the Alaskan mainland and mated with female polar bears, eventually transforming the polar bear population into brown bears.
Brown bears on an Alaskan archipelago are the descendants of an ancient polar bear population rather than being the ancestors of modern polar bears, new research published in PLOS Genetics shows.
Scientists have long struggled to understand the exact nature of the evolutionary relationship between brown bears and their arctic descendants. It is known that these two species can mate successfully in captivity and in the wild, but how much of their genetic histories are the result of past interbreeding has remained a puzzle.
Daejeon, Republic of Korea, March 15, 2013 -- A research team from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) released their results on the structure and molecular details of the neurodegenerative disease-associated protein Ataxin-1. Mutations in Ataxin-1 cause the neurological disease, Spinocerebella Ataxia Type 1 (SCA1), which is characterized by a loss of muscular coordination and balance (ataxia), as is seen in Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and Huntington's diseases.
PHILADELPHIA - Seasonal epidemics of influenza result in nearly 36,000 deaths annually in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Current vaccines against the influenza virus elicit an antibody response specific for proteins on the outside of the virus, specifically the hemagglutinin (HA) protein.
Scientists are a step closer to developing vaccines for a range of diseases that affect 200 million people, mainly in tropical south-east Asia, Africa and Central America.
Researchers studying infections caused by parasitic worms – which can lead to diseases such as elephantiasis and river blindness – have shown how these can shut down a part of the immune system that might otherwise fight sickness. Preventing this immune reaction enables the infection to persist, causing chronic illness.
SAN DIEGO – Three studies released today present possible positive news for people with Parkinson's disease. The studies, which will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 65th Annual Meeting in San Diego, March 16 to 23, 2013, report on treatments for blood pressure problems, the wearing-off that can occur when people have taken the main drug for Parkinson's for a long time, and for people early in the disease whose symptoms are not well-controlled by their main drugs.
OAKLAND, Calif., March 14 — Patients who consume high-fat dairy products following breast cancer diagnosis increase their chances of dying from the disease years later, according to a study by Kaiser Permanente researchers.
The study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, is the first to examine the relationship between high-fat and low-fat dairy consumption following a diagnosis of breast cancer and long-term breast cancer survival.
While poverty and under-education continue to dampen contraception use in Nepal, exacerbating the country's efforts to reduce maternal and child mortality rates, researchers say another, more surprising factor may be more intractable: Deeply held cultural preferences for sons over daughters.