Culture

Three major types of smoking cessation therapies don't increase the risk of heart attack, stroke or heart-related death, according to research published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.

Cardiovascular complications and hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) were common nonfatal complications in adults 60 years of age and older with diabetes, according to a study published by JAMA Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication.

An increase in the number of lenders specializing in loans for fertility treatments enables more people to afford the treatments, but it also raises ethical concerns, concludes a commentary in the Hastings Center Report. Among the concerns, doctors are marketing the loans to their patients, and some of these doctors have financial ties to specific lenders.

For the past two years, warnings regarding the possible link between a commonly used anti-nausea and vomiting drug ondansetron and heart arrhythmias have been a source of uncertainty in emergency departments. New research from The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and the University of Calgary's Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute helps to clarify the actual risk of ondansetron administration and cardiac arrhythmias in both children and adults. The study is published in the December issue of Annals of Emergency Medicine.

NEW ORLEANS— In nearly one-third of patients with Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia, a specific genetic mutation switches on the disease, and a new drug that blocks the defective gene can arrest the disease in animal models, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and allied institutions will report at the 2013 annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH). The finding may open the way to clinical trials of the drug in Waldenstrom's patients whose tumor cells carry the mutation.

BOSTON (Dec. 9, 2013) – For nearly half a century, contact lenses have been proposed as a means of ocular drug delivery that may someday replace eye drops, but achieving controlled drug release has been a significant challenge.

PHILADELPHIA (December 8, 2013) – According to Gertrude Stein, "A rose is a rose is a rose," but new research indicates that might not be the case when it comes to the rose's scent. Researchers from the Monell Center and collaborating institutions have found that as much as 30 percent of the large array of human olfactory receptor differs between any two individuals. This substantial variation is in turn reflected by variability in how each person perceives odors.

The addition of a monoclonal antibody called gemtuzumab combined with standard chemotherapy has been shown to significantly reduce the risk of relapse and increase rates of disease-free survival in pediatric patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Post-treatment relapse rates are a major indicator of potential for long-term survival in children with the disease.

DETROIT – The majority of epilepsy patients who have brain surgery to treat their disorder are satisfied with the results in reducing epilepsy-related seizures and improving their psychological and social well-being.

Those were the conclusions of a new study by Henry Ford Hospital researchers who examined the medical records of epilepsy surgery patients and conducted a telephone survey to determine their satisfaction with the results of the procedure.

NEW ORLEANS— Adding bortezomib (Velcade) to standard preventive therapy for graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD) results in improved outcomes for patients receiving stem-cell transplants from mismatched and unrelated donors, according to researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

NEW ORLEANS— Patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) who were as old as 74 fared as well with stem cell transplantation as did patients in the 60-to-65 age range, according to a study from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology.

ATLANTA — Certain genetic alterations to the PAX gene family may be responsible for survival disparities seen between African-American and non-Latino white men with head and neck cancer, according to results presented here at the Sixth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved, held Dec. 6-9.

(NEW ORLEANS, December 7, 2013) – Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), once considered an effective yet risky alternative to drug therapy for blood cancer, has become more accessible and successful in a wide range of patients as a result of major advances in transplant strategies and technologies. Several studies representing these advances were presented today during the 55th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition in New Orleans.

(NEW ORLEANS, December 7, 2013) – A series of advancements in genetically engineered cell therapies demonstrate early efficacy and safety in patients with blood disorders for whom standard treatments have been unsuccessful, according to data showcased today during the 55th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition in New Orleans.