Body

Stereotactic vacuum-assisted breast needle biopsy, a common minimally invasive biopsy method used in the US, is more effective with an 11-gauge needle than the 14-gauge needle decreasing a physician's chances of false-negative diagnoses, according to a study performed at the Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, CA.

Nearly two thirds of the states in the US saw a small decrease in mammography utilization between the years 2000 and 2006, according to a study performed at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, GA.

At the current rate of production for new mammography professionals, there will be drastic reductions in the number of mammography professionals per woman age 40 years and older over the next 15-20 years, according to a study performed at the Center for Health and Workforce Studies at the Albany School of Public Health in Rensselaer, NY.

Radiologists who work in breast imaging tend to overestimate their actual risk of medical malpractice lawsuits, according to a study performed at the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine in Seattle, WA.

FAIRFAX, Va. – Common colds typically cause a week of sneezing, aches and pains and then fade away leaving only a sore nose and a few used sick days behind. But what if that cold turned out to be something more?

Human adenovirus type-3 is known as the "uncommon cold" because the infection's symptoms—runny nose, sore throat, cough and fever—are eerily similar to those of the common cold which is caused by the rhinovirus. The difference is that, unlike the common cold, the symptoms of the uncommon cold are typically much more severe and can even be fatal.

Washington, February 2, 2009 -- "The state of America's health care is poor," Jeffrey P. Harris, MD, FACP, president of the American College of Physicians (ACP), reported today at the annual State of the Nation's Health Care briefing. "There are too many uninsured and underinsured people. We have too few primary care physicians."

New Rochelle, NY, February 2, 2009—Since the cloning of Dolly the Sheep over a decade ago, somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) has been considered a promising way to generate human, patient-specific stem cells for therapeutic applications. The shortage of human donor eggs has led to efforts to substitute animal oocytes.

When a child experiences a traumatic event, such as sexual abuse, it may not be until well into adulthood that they remember the incident. It is not known how adults are able to retrieve long-forgotten memories of abuse and there has been some controversy as to the authenticity of these reports.

A research team at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has uncovered a vast new class of previously unrecognized mammalian genes that do not encode proteins, but instead function as long RNA molecules. Their findings, presented in the February 1st advance online issue of the journal Nature, demonstrate that this novel class of "large intervening non-coding RNAs" or "lincRNAs" plays critical roles in both health and disease, including cancer, immune signaling and stem cell biology.

(New York, February 2, 2009) -- While chronic inflammation is widely believed to be a predisposing factor for colon cancer, the exact mechanisms linking these conditions have remained elusive. Scientists at the Melbourne Branch of the international Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR) and the Technical University Munich have jointly discovered a new piece of this puzzle by demonstrating how the Stat3 protein links inflammation to tumor development, a discovery that may well lead to the identification of new therapeutic targets for colon cancer.

New research reveals how a cancer-associated protein enables tumor cells to evade the immune system by both suppressing antitumor influences and promoting tumor-enhancing conditions, in essence turning the immune system to the dark side of the force. The study is published by Cell Press in the February 3rd issue of the journal Cancer Cell.

Recent research from the laboratory of Michael Karin, PhD, at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine – the first researcher to demonstrate a molecular link between inflammation and cancer – has identified two potential targets for the prevention and treatment of colitis-associated cancer (CAC), the most serious complication of inflammatory bowel disease.

University of Michigan Health System researchers have published new data to help answer two dreaded questions: "Is it cancer?" and "What type of treatment should I have?"

Cancer is the primary concern when abnormal skin lesions are detected. Macroscopic and microscopic features of a lesion usually provide clues about whether it is benign or malignant. However, the distinction is not always clear-cut, and doctors are faced with the question of how to best treat such patients.

AMES, Iowa -- In the hours following an outbreak of Salmonella, there are many questions. And answers can be hard to find.

Where did the problem start? Can it be contained? Is the sickness likely to spread?

Iowa State University researchers have developed a technique for testing for the presence of Salmonella that may give investigators better, faster answers.

OAK BROOK, Ill. - A new technique combining computed tomography (CT) with fiber-coated surgical microcoils allows physicians to successfully locate and remove small lung nodules without the need for a more invasive procedure, according to a new study published in the February issue of Radiology.