Body

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – A new study reveals the first-ever genetic link between obesity and colon cancer risk, a finding that could lead to greater accuracy in testing for the disease, said a researcher at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

The discovery also may improve efforts to ward off colon cancer with obesity-fighting activities like exercise, weight loss and healthy eating.

The findings are published in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The level of knowledge and understanding of children with food allergies varies significantly across three key groups: pediatricians and family physicians, the general public and families who have a child with food allergies. The article describing the new findings was published in the September issue of BioMed Central Pediatrics.

Young adults without a family history of bowel disease are unlikely to develop adenomas, the colorectal polyps most likely to lead to cancer, according to new research directed by scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. The finding supports current cancer screening guidelines recommending adults in general undergo screening colonoscopies starting at age 50.

The findings from a study by a team based at the London School of Hygiene &Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) are published today in PLoS Medicine.

Associations between birth size, perhaps as a marker of the pre-natalenvironment, and subsequent breast cancer risk have been identified before,but the findings from epidemiological studies have been inconsistent.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Research out of Wake Forest University School of Medicine suggests that a surgical technique not traditionally used in advanced abdominal cancer may be a viable treatment option for some patients previously thought to be untreatable, offering the real possibility of extending survival for those patients.

A paper published in the current issue of the International Journal of Environment and Pollution, explains how a DNA test can be used to detect harmful algal blooms across the globe. The approach outlined could help reduce the economic impact on fisheries, recreational activities, and aquaculture sites, such as salmon and shellfish farms, and pearl oyster farms. It could also help decrease the outbreaks of food poisoning due to contamination of seafood by the toxins some of these algae produce.

With childhood obesity expanding to epidemic proportions in the United States, educators, researchers and health practitioners are actively seeking to identify effective means of addressing this public-health crisis.

NEW YORK (SEPTEMBER 30, 2008) – Black bears that live around urban areas weigh more, get pregnant at a younger age, and are more likely to die violent deaths, according to a study by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

New research published online in The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org) suggests that pregnant women should think twice about high-fat foods. In a study from the University of Cincinnati and the Medical College of Georgia, scientists found that female mice fed high fat diets were more likely to have oversized offspring (a risk factor for overweight and obesity) because fat causes the placenta to go into "overdrive" by providing too many nutrients to the fetus.

A genetic fingerprint identified in patients with a gynecologic cancer may reveal candidates for targeted therapy. In a study in the journal Gynecologic Oncology, investigators from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Obstetrics and Gynecology Service report that women with vulvar carcinoma whose tumors have extra copies of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene are at increased risk of dying from their cancer. The EGFR pathway is known to be critical in several types of cancer, but this is the first association of an EGFR gene alteration with this tumor.

Scientists are finding that particles that are barely there – tiny objects known as nanoparticles that have found a home in electronics, food containers, sunscreens, and a variety of applications – can breech our most personal protective barrier: The skin.

The particles under scrutiny by Lisa DeLouise, Ph.D., are almost unfathomably tiny. The particles are less than one five-thousandth the width of a human hair. If the width of that strand of hair were equivalent to the length of a football field, a typical nanoparticle wouldn't even belly up to the one-inch line.

INDIANAPOLIS –While obstetrical care providers are doing a good job working with their patients on smoking cessation, they are not doing as well on abuse of other substances that can harm a woman's unborn baby. A new study appearing in the September 2008 issue of the journal Patient Education and Counseling reports that patients don't volunteer information about substance abuse unless specifically queried.

A 10-year outlook for innovative and forward-looking glaucoma management, and the future of research into the condition: key topics put under the spotlight in a new supplement to International Glaucoma Review (IGR).

About the Supplement:

Much like a dashboard gives a good read on how your car is doing, researchers hope they'll soon give physicians a better idea of how they are doing with patients.

Reporting in Biology Letters, Steve Brusatte, Professor Michael Benton, and colleagues at the University of Bristol show that dinosaurs did not proliferate immediately after they originated, but that their rise was a slow and complicated event, and driven by two mass extinctions.