Body

Limb-sparing surgery, which has been taking the place of amputation for bone and soft tissue sarcomas of the lower limb in recent years, may not provide much or even any additional benefit to patients according to a new review. The analysis, published in the September 15, 2009 issue of Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, indicates that patients and physicians should rethink the pros and cons of limb-sparing surgery and amputation.

SALT LAKE CITY, Aug. 10, 2009 – University of Utah scientists developed a new kind of "molecular condom" to protect women from AIDS in Africa and other impoverished areas. Before sex, women would insert a vaginal gel that turns semisolid in the presence of semen, trapping AIDS virus particles in a microscopic mesh so they can't infect vaginal cells.

SAN FRANCISCO — Americans continue to pull away from organized religion, but the rate of departure previously reported may not have been as abrupt as originally thought, according to research to be presented at the 104th annual meeting of the American Sociological Association.

The Stowers Institute's Conaway Lab has uncovered a previously unknown function of a gene product called Amplified in Liver Cancer 1 (Alc1), which may play a role in the onset of cancer. The work was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science Early Edition.

From a health-care system perspective, it may be more efficient to use the drug cetuximab only in colorectal cancer patients whose tumors have a wild-type KRAS gene, according to a study published online August 7 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Earlier, patients whose tumors harbored wild-type KRAS were found to have a higher survival advantage when treated with cetuximab in a randomized trial by the National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- In recent years, the motivations of business leaders such as financier Bernard Madoff and former Enron CEO Ken Lay have come under increased scrutiny as a result of behavior that caused both their employees and the public considerable distress. Unquestionably, many of the documented lapses in judgment can be traced to selfishness and a failure to check one's ego.

A chemical found in blueberry leaves has shown a strong effect in blocking the replication of the Hepatitis C virus, opening up a new avenue for treating chronic HCV infections, which affect 200 million people worldwide and can eventually lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer.

Incorrectly treated fractures in children are one of the errors most frequently confirmed in the arbitration process. This was the conclusion reached by Heinrich Vinz and Johann Neu of the Arbitration Board of the North German Medical Associations, Hanover, in the current edition of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2009; 106(30): 491-8).

The three treatment combinations for treating the most common form of the hepatitis C virus work equally well with similar side effects, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers and colleagues from 13 other institutions have found. Hepatitis C affects nearly 4 million Americans and leads to cirrhosis and liver cancer but can be arrested permanently in many patients.

Results of the two-year study, called the Individualized Dosing Efficacy vs. Flat Dosing to Assess Optimal Pegylated Interferon Therapy (IDEAL) Trial, are available in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Two studies conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Northwestern University have found that commonly used botanicals do not have an effect on hot flashes or on cognitive function in menopausal women. The studies appear online and will be published in an upcoming issue of Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society.

In the first study, the botanicals, black cohosh and red clover, were compared to the standard of care -- hormone therapy -- and to placebos for the treatment of hot flashes.

Japanese research group led by Prof. Makoto Tominaga and Dr. Takaaki Sokabe (National Institute for Physiological Sciences: NIPS), and Prof. Masayuki Takeda, Dr. Isao Araki and Dr. Tsutomu Mochizuki (Yamanashi Univ.), found that bladder urothelial cells have a sensor for stretch stimulation. Their finding was reported in the Journal of Biological Chemistry published on Aug 7, 2009.

In findings that add to the prospects of regenerating insulin-producing cells in people with type 1 diabetes, researchers in Europe have shown that insulin-producing beta cells can be derived from non-insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.

Threshold Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: THLD) and the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center at Scottsdale Healthcare today announced clinical trial results related to Threshold's clinical stage hypoxia-activated prodrug, TH-302. The results were presented at the World Conference on Lung Cancer being held July 31 to August 4, 2009, at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, CA.

Psychosocial therapy combined with medication can effectively improve depression and recovery in stroke patients, according to a new study reported in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.

In the first long-term study of psychosocial/behavioral therapy in combination with antidepressants, researchers found that adding psychosocial therapy improved depression scores short term and those improvements were sustained long term. At one year:

Stroke survivors have about twice the risk of breaking a hip or femur compared to those without stroke — and the risk is even greater for younger patients, women, and those with recent strokes, researchers report in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.

"Our findings imply that it is important to conduct fracture risk assessment immediately after a patient is hospitalized for stroke," said Frank de Vries, Ph.D., senior author of the study and assistant professor of pharmacoepidemiology at the Utrecht University in Utrecht, the Netherlands.