Body

Binge eating is a disorder which affects both men and women, yet men remain underrepresented in research. A new study published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders has found that the medical impact of the disorder is just as damaging to men as it is to women, yet research has shown that the number of men seeking treatment is far lower than the estimated number of sufferers.

It is known that a high proportion of dense breast tissue, as seen with a mammogram, is associated with a high risk of breast cancer. But the role of non-dense fat tissue in the breast is less clear. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Breast Cancer Research separates the breast cancer risks associated with dense, fibroglandular tissue, and fat, and shows that large areas of either are independently associated with an increased risk.

An independent review of the NHS breast cancer screening programme is under way, Professor Sir Mike Richards, National Cancer Director, told the BMJ today.

His announcement follows an open letter from Professor Susan Bewley, Consultant Obstetrician at King's College London, urging Professor Richards to initiate a review of the evidence in light of growing uncertainty over the benefits and harms of breast screening.

A new British Medical Journal study confirms previous findings that certain oral contraceptive pills are more likely to cause serious blood clots (venous thromboembolism - VTE ) than others.

The authors, led by Dr Øjvind Lidegaard from the University of Copenhagen, say that women on pills containing one of the newer types of progestogen hormone (drospirenone, desogestrel or gestodene) have double the risk of VTE than women on pills containing an older progestogen (levonorgestrel).

While smoking remains legal, the number of smokers is never going to fall significantly, argues public health doctor in a letter to this week's BMJ.

Dr Paul Jepson suggests the tabloid press publish a list of the names of the more than 250 people killed by smoking related disease each day, as part of a "fundamental re-think" on smoking. "Any other drug causing a fraction of the morbidity and mortality of tobacco would have been outlawed long ago," he says.

Just over one in five (21%) of articles published in six leading medical journals in 2008 have evidence of honorary and ghost authorship, finds a study published on http://www.bmj.com today.

These results demonstrate that inappropriate authorship remains a problem in high impact biomedical publications, say the authors.

Using Mendelian randomization, Roman Pfister of the University of Cambridge, UK and colleagues demonstrate a potentially causal link between low levels of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), a hormone released by damaged heart tissue, and the development of type 2 diabetes. The findings, published in this week's PLoS Medicine, suggest that BNP may be a potential target for interventions designed to prevent type 2 diabetes, particularly since the feasibility of altering BNP levels with drugs has already been proposed.

A new study has shed light on the process by which fruit flies develop with their body proportions remaining constant. The study, conducted by the research group of Professor Markus Affolter at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel and Sven Bergmann's group at the Department of Medical Genetics, University of Lausanne, has demonstrated that the morphogen Dpp and the feedback regulator Pentagone are key factors responsible for proportional tissue growth in wings of a fruit fly. This process keeps the body plan of the fruit fly Drosophila constant.

New guidelines that provide an easy-to-use checklist for the accurate and ethical reporting of epidemiological studies involving molecular markers have been proposed by a group of international researchers and are published in this week's PLoS Medicine.

CHICAGO – Patients with certain genes or specific factors related to use of the anti-clotting drug clopidogrel are more likely to experience a blood clot within a coronary stent shortly after placement, according to a study in the October 26 issue of JAMA.

CHICAGO – Among men who were current or former heavy smokers, undergoing lung cancer screening with computed tomography (CT) scanning identified a substantial proportion who had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), suggesting that this method may be helpful as an additional tool in detecting COPD, according to a study in the October 26 issue of JAMA.

Changes in North American ecosystems over the past 150 years have caused coyotes to move from their native habitats in the plains and southwestern deserts of North America to habitats throughout the United States.

It's a moment burned into the minds of Red Sox and Yankee fans alike – sitting inches away from the television, fists clenched, tightness in the chest and the unbearable urge to look away…

More patients with ovarian carcinoma carry cancer-predisposing mutations, and in more genes, than previously thought.

A rapid experimental method for screening genomes has located mutations in 12 genes for inherited cancers of the ovary, fallopian tubes and peritoneum (the thin tissue lining the lower abdomen).

PITTSBURGH, Oct. 25 – A panel of blood proteins can predict which patients with the progressive lung disease idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) are likely to live at least five years or to die within two years, say researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Centocor R&D. The findings, published online last week in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, could help doctors determine those patients in imminent need of a lung transplant and those who can wait a while longer.