Body

People are significantly more likely to inherit a predisposition to heart attack than to stroke, according to research reported in Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics, an American Heart Association journal.

The study results have implications for better understanding the genetics of stroke and suggest the need for separate risk assessment models for the two conditions.

Mutations in three genes have been identified that are more prevalent in patients with esophageal cancer and Barrett esophagus, a premalignant metaplasia (change in cells or tissue) caused by chronic gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), according to preliminary research reported in the July 27 issue of JAMA.

In a follow-up of extremely low-birth-weight children, the rates of chronic health conditions overall, and asthma specifically, did not change between the ages of 8 and 14 years, although the rate of obesity did increase, according to a study in the July 27 issue of JAMA.

Sentinel lymph node metastases detected with the diagnostic procedure of immunohistochemical staining were not associated with overall survival among women with early-stage breast cancer receiving breast-conserving therapy, according to a study in the July 27 issue of JAMA.

LOS ANGELES (EMBARGOED UNTIL 3 P.M. CT ON TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2011) –A new study shows that removing lymph nodes due to the presence of occult, or microscopic, cancer cells found in the sentinel lymph node – the one closest to the tumor -- has no impact on survival outcomes of women with early-stage breast cancer. The principal investigator of the study is Armando E. Giuliano, MD, of Cedars-Sinai, who already is renowned for his clinical expertise and for his seminal research on lymph node removal in women with early-stage breast cancer.

EMBARGOED UNTIL 4PM EST Tuesday, July 26, 2011, Cleveland: Researchers have identified genetic mutations in patients with Barrett's esophagus (BE) and/or the cancer esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC). None of these mutations were found in patients not affected by BE/EAC, suggesting a previously unknown heritable cause. Identifying genetic markers will allow risk assessment, early detection, improved disease management, and ultimately increased survival.

Cancer patients may view their tumors as parasites taking over their bodies, but this is more than a metaphor for Peter Duesberg, a molecular and cell biology professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

Cancerous tumors are parasitic organisms, he said. Each one is a new species that, like most parasites, depends on its host for food, but otherwise operates independently and often to the detriment of its host.

DURHAM, N.H. – A high school football player's broken neck – from which he's recovered – has yielded breakthrough biomechanical data on cervical spine injuries that could ultimately affect safety and equipment standards for athletes. University of New Hampshire associate professor of kinesiology Erik Swartz collaborated on the study, which appears in a letter in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine.

TORONTO, Ont., July 26, 2011—St. Michael's Hospital today became the first in North America to use a novel blood-cleaning procedure for a kidney patient that will allow him to receive a transplant from a donor with a different blood type.

Transplants involving a donor and recipient with different blood types are rare. Most people have natural antibodies in their blood that would cause their immune system to reject an organ from someone with a different blood type.

UBC researchers have invented a silicone chip that could make genetic analysis far more sensitive, rapid, and cost-effective by allowing individual cells to fall into place like balls in a pinball machine.

The UBC device – about the size of a nine-volt battery – allows scientists to simultaneously analyze 300 cells individually by routing fluid carrying cells through microscopic tubes and valves. Once isolated into their separate chambers, the cells' RNA can be extracted and replicated for further analysis.

A substantial number of people with eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa have a chronic course. They are severely underweight and have a high likelihood of dying from malnutrition. No treatment has been found that helps people who are chronically ill. Now, a new study sheds light on the reason that some people have poor outcome.

With hepatitis B infecting as many as 10% of people of Asian descent, operations researchers collaborated with a liver transplant surgeon to develop mathematical models that verified the cost effectiveness of hepatitis B interventions. These interventions now successfully screen, treat, and vaccinate millions of Asian and Pacific Islander adults in the U.S. and millions of children in China, according to a paper in a journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS®).

Delicate, threadlike protrusions used by cancer cells when they invade other tissues in the body could also help them escape control mechanisms supposed to eliminate them, a research group led by led by Bradley Davidson in the University of Arizona's department of molecular and cellular biology reports in Nature Cell Biology.

PHILADELPHIA — Scientists believe they have identified a role for PTEN, a known tumor suppressor, in removing DNA damage derived from UVB radiation, a known risk factor for non-melanoma skin cancer, according to a study published in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Yu-Ying He, Ph.D., an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, found that laboratory mice with reduced levels of PTEN were more likely to have UVB-induced skin cancers.

PHILADELPHIA — Patients with HER2-positive breast cancer may have an alternative therapy when they develop resistance to trastuzumab, also known as Herceptin, according to a laboratory finding published in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Jacek Capala, Ph.D., D.Sc., an investigator at the National Cancer Institute, and colleagues designed, produced and tested HER2-Affitoxin, a novel protein that combines HER2-specific affibody molecules and a modified bacterial toxin, PE38.