Body

Lung cancer is likely to overtake breast cancer as the main cause of cancer death among European women by the middle of this decade, according to new research published in the cancer journal Annals of Oncology [1] today (Wednesday). In the UK and Poland it has already overtaken breast cancer as the main cause of cancer deaths in women.

High intakes of calcium (corresponding to diet and supplements) in women are associated with a higher risk of death from all causes, but cardiovascular disease in particular, compared with women with lower calcium intake, a study published today on bmj.com suggests.

Experts recommend a high calcium intake (as it plays a pivotal role in human physiology) and as such, more than 60% of middle-aged and older women in the USA now take supplements.

A child can directly influence the attitude and behaviour of their parents towards the environment without them even knowing it.

This is according to a group at Imperial College London who have, for the first time, provided quantitative support for the suggestion that environmental education can be transferred between generations and that it can actually affect behaviour.

Their findings have been published today, 13 February, in IOP Publishing's journal Environmental Research Letters.

Published today by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and University of Cambridge, the study reveals that male hihi birds develop more colourful and attractive breeding feathers if they receive a nest diet rich in carotenoids – natural pigments found mainly in fruit and vegetables.

Scientists looked at the effects of newborn nutrition on male plumage in the rare New Zealand hihi (Notiomystis concta) over the course of a year. The paper was published in Proceedings of The Royal Society B.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Research on promising new therapies and data on the relative benefits of established treatments for genitourinary cancers were released today, in advance of the fourth annual Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, being held February 14-16, 2013, at the Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, FL.

The results of three studies were highlighted in a media presscast (press briefing via live webcast):

A new form of genetic testing of the bacteria that causes tuberculosis can provide better information on TB transmission and also trace TB outbreaks more accurately than the current standard test, according to a study from Germany published in this week's PLOS Medicine.

Diclofenac most commonly used non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug in 15 countries, listed on 74 national drug lists, despite cardiovascular risks

Despite the hundreds of pilot studies using mobile health—also known as 'mHealth'', which describe medical and public health practice supported by mobile devices— there is insufficient evidence to inform the widespread implementation and scale-up of this technology, according to international researchers writing in this week's PLOS Medicine.

In a study that included approximately 85,000 Norwegian children, maternal use of supplemental folic acid from 4 weeks before to 8 weeks after the start of pregnancy was associated with a lower risk of autistic disorder in children, according to a study appearing in the February 13 issue of JAMA.

In an analysis of the results of interventions to eradicate the bacterium Helicobacter pylori (a risk factor for gastric cancer) in seven diverse community populations in Latin America, researchers found that geographic site, demographic factors, adherence to initial therapy and infection recurrence may be as important as the choice of antibiotic regimen in H pylori eradication interventions, according to a study appearing in the February 13 issue of JAMA.

Treatment with a newer antibiotic, tedizolid phosphate, once daily for 6 days was statistically noninferior (no worse than) in efficacy to the antibiotic linezolid twice daily for 10 days for both early (at day 2 to 3) and sustained (at day 11) clinical responses in patients with acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections, according to a study appearing in the February 13 issue of JAMA.

Among pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa, intermittent preventive therapy for malaria with 3 or more doses of the drug regimen sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine was associated with a higher birth weight and lower risk of low birth weight than the current standard 2-dose regimen, according to a review and meta-analysis of previous studies published in the February 13 issue of JAMA.

Parents are more accepting of their teenage daughters using birth control pills than any other form of contraception, including condoms, according to a recent study from UC San Francisco (UCSF). The most effective contraceptive methods, the implant – a matchstick-sized rod that is inserted in the arm to prevent pregnancy – and the intrauterine device (IUD), were acceptable to a minority of parents.

Ants are just about everywhere you look, and yet it's largely unknown how they manage to be so ubiquitous. Scientists have understood the carnal mechanism of ant reproduction, but until now have known little of how successful the daughters of a colony are when they attempt to found new colonies.

For the first time, Stanford biologists have been able to identify specific parent ants and their own children in wild ant colonies, making it possible to study reproduction trends.

SAN FRANCISCO – February 12, 2013 – New findings from a landmark clinical trial show that although certain gene variants may predict whether a person is likely to develop age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a potentially blinding eye disease that afflicts more than nine million Americans, these genes do not predict how patients will respond to Lucentis™ and Avastin™, the two medications most widely used to treat the "wet" form of AMD.