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Low levels of LDL cholesterol as well as high levels are associated with cancer in patients with type 2 diabetes, found a prospective cohort study http://www.cmaj.ca/press/pg427.pdf published in CMAJ.

Women may safely discontinue oral anticoagulants (blood thinners) after 6 months of treatment following a first unprovoked venous blood clot (thromboembolism) if they have no or one risk factor, concludes a study of 646 participants in a multicentre prospective cohort study http://www.cmaj.ca/press/pg417.pdf.

Three regulatory warnings of serious adverse events slowed the growth of use of atypical antipsychotic drugs among elderly patients with dementia, but they did not reduce the overall prescription rate of these drugs, found a research analysis of prescription drug claims data in Ontario http://www.cmaj.ca/press/pg438.pdf. The rate of use of these drugs actually increased 20% from the month prior to the first warning in September 2002 to the end of the study period in February 2007.

Chemotherapy drugs often never reach the tumors they're intended to treat, and radiation therapy is not always effective, because the blood vessels feeding the tumors are abnormal—"leaky and twisty" in the words of the late Judah Folkman, MD, founder of the Vascular Biology program at Children's Hospital Boston. Now, Vascular Biology researchers have discovered an explanation for these abnormalities that could, down the road, improve chemotherapy drug delivery. Their findings were published in the August 12 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

New Rochelle, NY, August 25, 2008—Borrowing and sharing of prescription medications is a serious medical and public health concern. A survey of nearly 7,500 women of reproductive age found that this is common practice among more than one-third of this population, according to a report published online ahead of print in Journal of Women's Health, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

Power-generating wind turbines have long been recognized as a potentially life-threatening hazard for birds. But at most wind facilities, bats actually die in much greater numbers. Now, researchers reporting in Current Biology, a Cell Press journal, on August 26th think they know why.

Ninety percent of the bats they examined after death showed signs of internal hemorrhaging consistent with trauma from the sudden drop in air pressure (a condition known as barotrauma) at turbine blades. Only about half of the bats showed any evidence of direct contact with the blades.

Could a substance from the jasmine flower hold the key to an effective new therapy to treat cancer?

Prof. Eliezer Flescher of The Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University thinks so. He and his colleagues have developed an anti-cancer drug based on a decade of research into the commercial applications of the compound Jasmonate, a synthetic compound derived from the flower itself. Prof. Flescher began to research the compound about a decade ago, and with his recent development of the drug, his studies have now begun to bear meaningful fruit.

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Leading child advocates have called for a new approach to tackling child abuse and neglect amid rising rates of abuse notifications and children being brought into State care.

The arguments for a new approach are set out in the latest edition of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.

Report co-authors Melissa O'Donnell, Professor Dorothy Scott and Professor Fiona Stanley say a greater focus is needed on preventing abuse and neglect occurring in the first place.

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