Body

Given equivalent results with regards to survival, the impact of anastomotic methods on QOL becomes even more important. There is still no consensus on how to choose a reconstruction method for proximal gastrectomy in patients with upper third gastric cancer.

Waste from the textiles industry could with the assistance of earthworms and some animal manure become a rich compost for agriculture, according to a report in the International Journal of Environment and Pollution.

Researchers at Rush University Medical Center are testing a novel regimen of hip-muscle exercises to decrease the load on the knee joints in patients with osteoarthritis. The goal is not only to relieve pain but also, possibly, to halt progression of the disease.

Internationally renowned palaeontologist and Monash University Honorary Research Associate, Dr Anthony Martin has found evidence of a dinosaur burrow along the coast of Victoria, which helps to explain how dinosaurs protected themselves from climate extremes during the Cretaceous period – the final era for dinosaurs before their extinction.

Dr Martin made the discovery of the 2 metre-long burrow in 2006 while researching dinosaur tracks at Knowledge Creek, west of Melbourne, and has had the findings published this week.

To suggest a feasible economic strategy for second primary colorectal cancer screening of cancer survivors in Korea, A research group constructed a decision-analytic model, compared cost-effectiveness results of cancer screening in male cancer survivors. All non-dominant strategies were those using colonoscopy in both cancer survivors and the general population, and more strict and frequent recommendation of colonoscopy, colonoscopy every 5 years and every 3 years, could be considered as economic strategies for male cancer survivors.

DALLAS – July 16, 2009 – A new study by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers sheds light on the challenges involved in identifying which high-risk population would benefit most from bladder-cancer screening.

(Boston) – Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have shown that disclosing genetic risk information to adult children of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) who request this information does not result in significant short-term psychological distress. The report from the REVEAL Study*, which appears in the July 16 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, is the first randomized trial to disclose to participants whether or not they carried the ε4 variant of the APOE gene, a variant that has been found to increase the risk of developing AD.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---When people learn they are predisposed to Alzheimer's disease, any depression or anxiety is not long lasting, a new study indicates.

These findings help address a longstanding debate about whether learning such information might cause lasting psychological harm, at least among those with a family history of Alzheimer's disease, says Scott Roberts, a University of Michigan researcher at the School of Public Health and co-author of the study findings, which appear today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Most children who suffer from chronic daily headaches may outgrow the disabling condition, according to research published in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Nearly 1.5 percent of middle school children are affected by chronic daily headaches, which includes chronic migraines and tension-type headaches.

Scientists have sequenced the genome of the parasite that causes intestinal schistosomiasis (also known as bilharzia or snail fever), a devastating tropical disease that afflicts more than 200 million people worldwide.

Najib El-Sayed, associate professor in the University of Maryland's College of Chemical and Life Sciences, led the transatlantic research team, along with Matthew Berriman of the UK's Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. Their work is published in the July 16, 2009 edition of Nature and featured on the journal's cover.

Dartmouth Medical School immunologists have devised a Trojan horse to help overcome ovarian cancer, unleashing a surprise killer in the neighborhoods of a hard-to-treat tumor.

Using nanoparticles, the team has reprogrammed a protective cell corrupted by ovarian cancers to feed their growth, back from tumor friend to tumor foe. Their research, published for Journal of Clinical Investigation, offers a promising approach to orchestrate an attack against a cancer whose survival rates have barely budged over the last three decades.

Genetics researchers have unveiled a reference standard of deletions and duplications of DNA found in the human genome. Drawn from over 2,000 healthy persons, the study provides one of the deepest and broadest sets of copy number variations (CNVs) available to date, along with a new research tool for diagnosing and identifying genetic problems in patients.

A team from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia published its high-resolution map and analysis of CNVs in the human genome in the July 10 online edition of the journal Genome Research.

DURHAM, N.C. -- An osteoporosis drug proven to save lives after hip fractures may do so by strengthening the body's immune system, according to geriatrics researchers at Duke University Medical Center.

Patrick Lane, age 74, was plagued by recurring aortic aneurysms ten years ago that threatened his survival. His doctor at the time suggested he contact a leading vascular surgeon at UCLA who was pioneering a new treatment technique for high-risk patients who couldn't receive traditional surgery.

Patrick was the first patient at UCLA to receive the novel method in 1998 and is still doing well today. Dr. Quinones-Baldrich performed Patrick's procedure, which is a hybrid method called CESA (combined endovascular and surgical approach).

Two UCSF research papers this week are marking major breakthroughs in the effort to tackle schistosomiasis (bilharzia), a tropical disease that infects more than 200 million people worldwide and causes long-term debilitating illness and occasional paralysis or death.

One paper documents a multinational success, led by a team at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, in England, in sequencing the genome of the Schistosoma mansoni blood fluke, which has taken nearly a decade to achieve, researchers said.