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Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Drinking alcohol in moderate quantities can reduce the risk of asthma, according to Danish researchers.

The study, which will be presented today (25 September 2011) at the European Respiratory Society's Annual Congress in Amsterdam, found that drinking 1-6 units of alcohol a week could reduce the risk of developing the condition.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Exposure to goats could increase the risk of a certain type of lung cancer, according to French researchers.

The study, which will be presented at the European Respiratory Society's Annual Congress in Amsterdam today (25 September 2011), has linked a professional exposure to goats with a distinct subset of lung cancer, known as pneumonic-type lung adenocarcinoma (P-ADC).

Stockholm, Sweden: Inhibiting a protein involved in bone metabolism can delay the onset of the bone metastases which are common in men with a particular form of prostate cancer, a researcher will tell the 2011 European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress [1] today (Sunday).

Professor Stéphane Oudard, Head of the Oncology Department at the Georges Pompidou Hospital, Paris, France, says that his team's research on the effects of the monoclonal antibody denosumab (XGEVA TM) is the first large-scale clinical trial to show such an effect.

Stockholm, Sweden: A major UK trial has produced firm evidence that giving radiotherapy between or during chemotherapy cycles to women with early breast cancer significantly reduces the risk of the cancer recurring in the breast or chest wall. The treatment, known as synchronous chemoradiation, has minimal adverse side-effects and no detrimental effect on the patients' quality of life.

Stockholm, Sweden: The first randomised trial to investigate the use of trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) – an antibody-guided drug – for the initial treatment of HER2- (human epidermal growth factor receptor-2) positive metastatic breast cancer has shown that it makes a significant difference to the time women live without their disease worsening.

Fresh insight into how viruses such as SARS and flu can jump from one species to another may help scientists predict the emergence of diseases in future.

Researchers have shown that viruses are better able to infect species that are closely related to their typical target species than species that are distantly related.

CHICAGO --- A drug used to treat cancer may also be effective in diseases that cause scarring of the internal organs or skin, such as pulmonary fibrosis or scleroderma.

The drug, with the generic name bortezomib, stopped the production of fibrotic proteins in human cells and the development of fibrous scarring in a mouse model of fibrotic disease, according to a new Northwestern Medicine study published in the journal Thorax.

Stockholm, Sweden: First results from an international comparison of the care of patients with rectal cancer have shown there are substantial differences in the use of chemotherapy and radiotherapy between European countries.

The European Registration of Cancer Care (EURECCA) study, initiated by ECCO – the European CanCer Organisation – compared the treatment of 6,597 patients in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and The Netherlands who were diagnosed with rectal cancer between 2008 and 2009. It also compared the numbers of deaths 30 days after surgery.

Powerful lobby groups opposed to genetically modified (GM) food are threatening public acceptance of the technology in Europe, research suggests.

They are also hampering Europe's response to the global challenge of securing food supplies for current and future generations, researchers claim.

Drawing upon a decade of evidence, researchers from the University of Edinburgh and Warwick University say that Europe's regulation of GM crops has become less democratic and less evidence-based since the 1980s.

Stockholm, Sweden: Two new risk indicators for prostate cancer will be unveiled at the 2011 European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress [1] today (Saturday).

Stockholm, Sweden: Until recently, options for patients with bone metastases from advanced prostate cancer have been very limited. But now the first Phase III study of an alpha-pharmaceutical in these patients has shown that it can prolong survival significantly, according to research reported today (Saturday) at the 2011 European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress [1].

Amsterdam, The Netherlands: A new study has shown that living in a river valley at low altitude can increase the risk of developing lung problems.

The research will be presented tomorrow (25 September 2011) at the European Respiratory Society's (ERS) Annual Congress in Amsterdam. The ERS Congress will officially open today (24 September 2011).

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- Bisphenol A (BPA), a common component of plastic used in many consumer products, has recently become infamous -- and banned in some places -- because it can mimic natural estrogen in the body. A new study by Brown University toxicologists, however, finds that male mice whose mothers were exposed even to high doses of BPA while pregnant developed no signs of harm to their testes as adults.

Johns Hopkins researchers have devised a protein "switch" that instructs cancer cells to produce their own anti-cancer medication.

In lab tests, the researchers showed that these switches, working from inside the cells, can activate a powerful cell-killing drug when the device detects a marker linked to cancer. The goal, the scientists said, is to deploy a new type of weapon that causes cancer cells to self-destruct while sparing healthy tissue.

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) researchers have identified a silver lining in the cloud of red dust that enveloped much of eastern Australia two years ago.

Research fellow Dr Rohan Jayaratne from QUT's International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health (ILAQH) said that data, from what is believed to be the first air quality test undertaken during an Australian dust storm, showed that large dust particles swept up the smaller, potentially fatal ultrafine particles caused by everyday vehicle emissions.