Body

The public oppose the cancer drugs fund but support the new pricing system for branded medicines, according to a new study.

When asked if the NHS should pay more for cancer drugs compared to medicines for an equally serious condition, the majority of 4,118 people surveyed across Britain said it shouldn't.

Cincinnati, OH, September 7, 2012 – Heart defects are the most common form of congenital malformations affecting newborns. Infants who were prenatally diagnosed with congenital heart disease (CHD) are more stable and have better outcomes than infants who were diagnosed after birth. Diagnosing CHD in a fetus also allows mothers to educate themselves on heart malformations, consider their options, and potentially plan for intervention or surgery after birth.

Melanoma, newly diagnosed in more than 76,000 Americans in 2011, is the most common and dangerous form of skin cancer. Melanoma is rare in children, accounting for 1 to 4 percent of all melanoma cases and just 3 percent of pediatric cancers. Just as adult cases of melanoma are increasing, pediatric melanoma is rising at the rate of 1 to 4 percent per year.

Parasitic dinoflagellates of the genus Hematodinium are a big problem for crab, prawn and shrimp fisheries across the world. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Aquatic Biosystems has found that, in wild European brown shrimp (Crangon crangon), these parasites have bacteria-like endosymbionts. The presence of these endosymbionts indicates a previously unknown side to the lifecycle of Hematodinium.

Thyroid nodules are thought to be present in about half of all people, but very few of these are cancerous. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Cancer presents a set of diagnostic biomarkers which are able to distinguish between malignant and benign thyroid nodules.

Women carrying a mutation in the BRCA1- or BRCA2- genes (which control the suppression of breast and ovarian cancer) who have undergone diagnostic radiation to the chest before the age of 30 are more likely to develop breast cancer than those who carry the gene mutation but who have not been exposed, a study published on bmj.com today reveals.

CLEVELAND – Scientists at Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute have discovered that the parasite that causes the most common form of malaria share the same genetic variations – even when the organisms are separated across continents.

The discovery raises concerns that mutations to resist existing medications could spread worldwide, making global eradication efforts even more difficult.

Boston, Mass. - Sepsis, or bacterial infection of the bloodstream, is a grave, hard-to-diagnose threat in premature newborns in the NICU. Even when it's detected and treated with antibiotics, its inflammatory effects can harm fragile babies' development. Now, researchers at Boston Children's Hospital have modeled the effects of sepsis on the unique newborn immune system, using mice. They and others have begun using the model to identify diagnostic markers and better treatments.

A protein called "clathrin," which is found in every human cell and plays a critical role in transporting materials within them, also plays a key role in cell division, according to new research at the University of California, San Francisco.

The discovery, featured on the cover of the Journal of Cell Biology in August, sheds light on the process of cell division and provides a new angle for understanding cancer. Without clathrin, cells divide erratically and unevenly—a phenomenon that is one of the hallmarks of the disease.

Men with high risk for heart disease had lower blood pressure after drinking non-alcoholic red wine every day for four weeks, according to a new study in the American Heart Association journal Circulation Research.

Non-alcoholic red wine increased participants' levels of nitric oxide, which helped decrease both systolic and diastolic blood pressure, researchers said. Nitric oxide is a molecule in the body that helps blood vessels relax and allows more blood to reach your heart and organs.

URBANA – As a college student, you may be happy simply not to have gained the "Freshman 15." But a University of Illinois study shows that as little as 1.5 pounds per year is enough to raise blood pressure in that age group, and the effect was worse for young women.

Crizotinib is effective in shrinking tumors in patients with anaplastic lymphoma receptor tyrosine kinase (ALK) positive non-small cell lung cancer, a cancer commonly found in people who never smoked, and should be the standard of care for advanced stages of this disease, according to research presented at the 2012 Chicago Multidisciplinary Symposium in Thoracic Oncology.

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a protein essential to repairing the intestine's inner lining.

That lining is among the body's busiest highways, trod not only by the food we ingest but also by trillions of microorganisms that aid digestion. Because the intestine plays key roles in absorbing nutrients and containing the microbes, any damage must be fixed promptly.

Treatment with pemetrexed, carboplatin and bevacizumab followed by maintenance pemetrexed and bevacizumab (Pem+Cb+B) is no better than standard therapy with paclitaxel, carboplatin and bevacizumab followed by bevacizumab (Pac+Cb+B) in patients with advanced non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NS-NSCLC), according to research presented at the 2012 Chicago Multidisciplinary Symposium in Thoracic Oncology.

SAN ANTONIO (Sept. 6, 2012) — RSV, a virus that causes respiratory infections in infants and young children, selectively kills cancer cells while leaving healthy cells alone, researchers from the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio said.