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Do the effects of early caregiving experiences remain or fade as individuals develop? A new study has found that sensitive caregiving in the first three years of life predicts an individual's social competence and academic achievement, not only during childhood and adolescence, but also into adulthood.

Boston, MA -- Women exposed to high levels of fine particulate matter specifically during pregnancy--particularly during the third trimester--may face up to twice the risk of having a child with autism than mothers living in areas with low particulate matter, according to a new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). The greater the exposure, the greater the risk, researchers found. It was the first U.S.-wide study exploring the link between airborne particulate matter and autism.

PITTSBURGH, Dec. 18, 2014 - The high-dose flu vaccine is significantly better than the regular flu shot at boosting the immune response to the flu virus in frail, older residents of long-term care facilities, according to the results of a University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine study.

Long-term survival rates following laparoscopic surgery for bladder cancer are comparable to those of open surgery, according to a study published in BJU International. The findings, which come from the largest study to date with long-term follow-up after this type of minimally invasive surgery, indicate that prospective randomized trials comparing these two bladder cancer surgeries are warranted.

Do electronic cigarettes help smokers to quit? Yes, but....

New Cochrane review finds emerging evidence that smokers who use electronic cigarettes can stop or reduce their smoking.

Turning the tables, Katherine Borden at the University of Montreal's Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) has evoked Star Trek's Borg in her fight against the disease. "Cancer cells rapidly evolve a multitude of defense mechanisms to evade the effects of the oncologist's drug arsenal. Unfortunately, clinical strategies to overcome these lag far behind," Borden explained.

Using combinations of well-known approved drugs has for the first time been shown to be potentially safe in treating a rare disease, according to the results of a clinical trial published in the open access Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases. The study also shows some promising preliminary results for the efficacy of the drug combination.

SEATTLE--People are living much longer worldwide than they were two decades ago, as death rates from infectious diseases and cardiovascular disease have fallen, according to a new, first-ever journal publication of country-specific cause-of-death data for 188 countries.

Global life expectancy increased by 5.8 years in men and 6.6 years in women between 1990 and 2013, according to a major new analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013 (GBD 2013).

DENVER - Next generation sequencing in malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) tumors shows a complex mutational setting with a high number of genetic alterations in genes involved in DNA repair, cell survival and cell proliferation pathways. Increased accumulation of mutations correlates with early progression of the tumor and decreased survival.

DENVER - A prospective nationwide survey on perceptions of lung cancer in the general population of France highlights a need for increased public education on the benefits of lung cancer screening, the good survival rates of early-stage disease and the improved outcomes with new therapeutic strategies, including targeted-therapies.

MINNEAPOLIS - Migraine headache may double the risk of a nervous system condition that causes facial paralysis, called Bell's palsy, according to a new study published in the December 17, 2014, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Bell's palsy affects between 11 and 40 per 100,000 people each year. Most people with Bell's palsy recover completely. Headaches are the most common disorder of the nervous system and affect about 12 percent of the US population.

People with the highest fitness levels are less likely to develop hypertension, according to new research in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

"If you're exercising and you're fit, your chances of developing hypertension are much less than someone else who has the same characteristics but isn't fit," said Mouaz H. Al-Mallah, M.D., senior author of the study and a cardiologist at the Henry Ford Heart and Vascular Institute in Detroit, Michigan. "Increasing exercise and fitness levels probably protects against many diseases."

Airline pilots can be exposed to the same amount of UV-A radiation as that from a tanning bed session because airplane windshields do not completely block UV-A radiation, according to a research letter published online by JAMA Dermatology.

Airplane windshields are commonly made of polycarbonate plastic or multilayer composite glass. UV-A radiation can cause DNA damage in cells and its role in melanoma is well known, according to the article.

Johns Hopkins researchers have developed a sugar-based molecular microcapsule that eliminates the toxicity of an anticancer agent developed a decade ago at Johns Hopkins, called 3-bromopyruvate, or 3BrPA, in studies of mice with implants of human pancreatic cancer tissue. The encapsulated drug packed a potent anticancer punch, stopping the progression of tumors in the mice, but without the usual toxic effects.