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The findings suggest that family doctors may not be picking up the signs of lung cancer and investigating them as appropriately as they might, or promptly enough, say the researchers.

The UK lags behind other countries in survival rates for lung cancer, a gap that has largely been attributed to late diagnosis of the disease.

In a bid to find out more about the factors in primary care associated with these figures, the researchers analysed family doctors' (GPs') investigation of lung cancer between 2000 and 2013.

1. Experts urge cautious use of experimental Ebola drugs

Philadelphia, October 14, 2014 -- High Value Care sub-scores from the Internal Medicine In-Training Examination (IM-ITE) reflect the importance of training medical residents to understand the benefits, harms, and costs of tests and treatments, according to a study published today in Annals of Internal Medicine.

MINNEAPOLIS – A new guideline from the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) and the American Association of Neuromuscular & Electrodiagnostic Medicine (AANEM) recommends guidance on how doctors should evaluate the full picture—from symptoms, family history and ethnicity to a physical exam and certain lab test results—in order to determine what genetic tests may best diagnose a person's subtype of limb-girdle or distal muscular dystrophy. The guideline is published in the October 14, 2014, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Bottom Line: Adults in the United States suffered from approximately 14 million major medical conditions attributable to smoking.

Author: Brian L. Rostron, Ph.D., M.P.H., of the Center for Tobacco Products, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, Md., and colleagues.

Background: Smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease in the United States. Cigarette smoking harms nearly every organ and organ system in the body. The authors estimated major medical conditions (morbidity) attributed to smoking in 2009.

Bottom Line: A study of teenagers suggests there is no association between physical activity (PA) and the development of depressive symptoms later in adolescence.

Author: Umar Toseeb, Ph.D., of the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, and colleagues.

Results of a small clinical trial suggest that a chemical derived from broccoli sprouts — and best known for claims that it can help prevent certain cancers — may ease classic behavioral symptoms in those with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs).

The study, a joint effort by scientists at MassGeneral Hospital for Children and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, involved 40 teenage boys and young men, ages 13 to 27, with moderate to severe autism.

A small study led by investigators at MassGeneral Hospital for Children (MGHfC) and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine has found evidence that daily treatment with sulforaphane – a molecule found in foods such as broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage – may improve some symptoms of autism spectrum disorders. In their report being published online in PNAS Early Edition, the investigators describe how participants receiving a daily dose of sulforaphane showed improvement in both behavioral and communication assessments in as little as four weeks.

The discovery of a "maternal age effect" by a team of Penn State scientists that could be used to predict the accumulation of mitochondrial DNA mutations in maternal egg cells -- and the transmission of these mutations to children -- could provide valuable insights for genetic counseling. These mutations cause more than 200 diseases and contribute to others such as diabetes, cancer, Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's disease. The study found greater rates of the mitochondrial DNA variants in children born to older mothers, as well as in the mothers themselves.

Excessive and often lethal blood levels of bilirubin can result from mutations in a single gene that are the cause of the metabolic disease known as Crigler-Najjar syndrome type 1 (CNS1).

Even if they don't show signs of infection, college athletes who play football, soccer and other contact sports are more likely to carry the superbug methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), suggests RESEARCH presented at IDWeek 2014. This puts them at higher risk for infection and increases the likelihood of spreading the bug, which can cause serious and even fatal infections. The study is the first to observe college athletes who are not part of a larger MRSA outbreak.

BOSTON – Increased consumption of table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup has been linked to rising rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes in the United States and throughout the world. Both sweeteners are commonly found in processed foods and sugar-sweetened beverages, and both are made up of nearly equal amounts of two basic sugars, glucose and fructose.

Long assumed to be destructive to tissues and cells, "free radicals" generated by the cell's mitochondria—the energy producing structures in the cell—are actually beneficial to healing wounds.

That's the conclusion of biologists at UC San Diego who discovered that "reactive oxygen species"—chemically reactive molecules containing oxygen, such as peroxides, commonly referred to as free radicals—are necessary for the proper healing of skin wounds in the laboratory roundworm C. elegans.

Scientists at Imperial College London have developed a new cancer drug which they plan to trial in multiple myeloma patients by the end of next year.

In a paper published today in the journal Cancer Cell, the researchers report how the drug, known as DTP3, kills myeloma cells in laboratory tests in human cells and mice, without causing any toxic side effects, which is the main problem with most other cancer drugs. The new drug works by stopping a key process that allows cancer cells to multiply.

Scientists from the Department of Life Science, National Taiwan Normal University and the Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica described a new endemic land snail species. The new species Aegista diversifamilia was long confused for the widely distributed A. subchinensis. The study was published in the open access journal ZooKeys.