Body

In a small, early clinical trial, researchers at the University of Chicago Medical Center have found that combining eight ounces of grapefruit juice with the drug rapamycin can increase drug levels, allowing lower doses of the drug to be given. They also showed that the combination can be effective in treating various types of cancer.

Remember when the answer to a big question came to you in the shower? Is "sleep on it" really good advice for someone making a big decision? A new study Journal of Consumer Research examines the way distraction affects consumers' product decisions.

Author Davy Lerouge (Tilburg University) wondered whether distracting people from a decision for some moments helps them to evaluate products. He also set out to identify the specific conditions under which distraction is or is not helpful.

More restaurants and vending machines offer healthy choices these days, so why do Americans' waistlines continue to expand? A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research shows that some efforts to control eating may backfire.

Denver, Colo. – Breast cancer cells in the laboratory that don't respond to tamoxifen may be producing high amounts of cholesterol in order to provide a kind of shield against the drug, say researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC).

DENVER, Colo., April 20 – Human lung tumors have the ability to eliminate Vitamin D, a hormone with anti-cancer activity, a new study from the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) suggests. Results of the study, Abstract Number 2402, are being presented at the 100th annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), April 18 to 22, in Denver.

Denver, Colo. – Researchers at Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University Medical Center have demonstrated that naturally-occurring compounds can selectively deplete mutant p53 and restore "wild type" function to p53 in a variety of tumor cells.

In a small, early clinical trial, researchers at the University of Chicago Medical Center have found that combining eight ounces of grapefruit juice with the drug rapamycin can increase drug levels, allowing lower doses of the drug to be given. They also showed that the combination can be effective in treating various types of cancer.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – An experimental agent has shown promising results in people with advanced biliary cancer, according to a multi-institutional clinical trial led by cancer researchers at the Ohio State University.

The agent, known as AZD6244 (ARRY-142886), blocks certain enzymes that cancer cells need to proliferate and survive.

About 100,000 patients are diagnosed with biliary cancer worldwide every year, representing 15-20 percent of all liver cancer cases. Most patients present at later stages of the disease, which has a universally poor outcome.

How do Chinese consumers really feel about Western brands? We often hear that magazines and billboards influence Chinese consumers to imitate Western lifestyles. Meanwhile, Chinese "patriots" are thought to reject Western brands as a symbolic gesture of loyalty to their country. A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research paints a more complex picture.

LOS ANGELES – Researchers from the University of Southern California have taken an important first step toward protecting against Huntington disease using gene therapy.

Huntington Disease is an incurable neurological disorder characterized by uncontrolled movements, emotional instability and loss of intellectual faculties. It affects about 30,000 people in the United States, and children of parents with the disease have a 50 percent chance of inheriting it themselves.

Consumers are attracted to crowds in stores, but they are not likely to buy something from a crowded location, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.

DENVER - Scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have discovered genetic variations in the inflammation pathway that reduce the likelihood of recurrence and increase survival of patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) who are treated with mainstream therapy.

In the medical realm, people sometimes need to make very difficult choices, such as deciding to end life-support for a terminally ill patient. A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research delves into the question of whether it is preferable for patients' families or doctors to make those "tragic choices."

(WASHINGTON, April 20, 2009) - In a recent study, U.S. researchers have reprogrammed cells found in circulating blood into cells that are molecularly and functionally indistinguishable from embryonic stem cells, a revolutionary achievement that provides a readily accessible source of stem cells and an alternative to harvesting embryonic stem cells. The findings were prepublished online in Blood, the official journal of the American Society of Hematology.

St. Louis, April 20, 2009 — The search for the cause of an inherited form of a rare, aggressive childhood lung cancer has uncovered important information about how the cancer develops and potentially sheds light on the development of other cancers.