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Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the second leading cause of cancer-associated death worldwide. These regrettably poor prognoses are due to the difficulty in treating this cancer using conventional chemotherapeutic drugs such as doxorubicin, epirubicin, cisplatin, 5-fluorouracil, etoposide or combinations therein. This may be attributed to that the conventional medicines are not able to reach in a sufficient concentration in the liver tumor cells at levels that are not harmful to the rest of the body.

One of nature's mysteries is how plants survive impact by the huge amounts of energy contained in the sun's rays, while using this energy for photosynthesis. The hypothesis is that the light-absorbing proteins in the plant's blades quickly dissipate the energy throughout the entire protein molecule through so-called protein quakes. Researchers at DTU Physics have now managed to successfully 'film' this process.

They say knowledge is power, and a new UCLA study has shown this is definitely the case when it comes to men making the best decisions about how to treat their prostate cancer.

UCLA researchers found that men who aren't well educated about their disease have a much more difficult time making treatment decisions, called decisional conflict, a challenge that could negatively impact the quality of their care and their long-term outcomes.

Listeria is a dreaded bacterium that can be found in both unprocessed and processed foods. Over the last few weeks, 28 persons in Denmark have been infected with Listeria from processed food, sold in supermarkets. 13 have died.

Researchers from North Carolina State University have found that century-old museum specimens hold clues to how global climate change will affect a common insect pest that can weaken and kill trees – and the news is not good.

"Recent studies found that scale insect populations increase on oak and maple trees in warmer urban areas, which raises the possibility that these pests may also increase with global warming," says Dr. Elsa Youngsteadt, a research associate at NC State and lead author of a paper on the work.

An expedition to Mount Everest by Italian researchers has shown for the first time that blood pressure monitored over a 24-hour period rises progressively as people climb to higher altitudes. The researchers also found that while a drug used for lowering blood pressure, called telmisartan, was effective in counteracting the effects of altitude up to 3400 metres, it was not effective at 5400 metres above sea level – the height of the Everest base camp.

An unusual new fossil discovery of one of the earliest animals on earth may also provide the oldest evidence of muscle tissue – the bundles of cells that make movement in animals possible.

People from low socio-economic positions in Britain still eat more salt than those from higher socio-economic positions, irrespective of where they live.

A paper published in the BMJ Open journal and led by Warwick Medical School suggests social inequalities in salt intake have hardly changed in the period from 2000-01 to 2011. This is despite a national average salt reduction over this time.

This paper is the first to monitor social inequalities following the national salt reduction programme.

"If you imagine stretching Silly Putty or a swimming cap with a picture on it, as you pull, the picture becomes distorted," Boyle said. "This allows us to track how the material responds to an external force."

In one of the experiments described in the paper, Boyle sprayed a pattern of dots on plastic wrap, stretched it and tracked the dots.

Tumor blood vessels supply oxygen and nutrients to cancer cells and provide access to other organs. While tumor vasculature shares many features with normal vessels, their unique characteristics are potential therapeutic targets. A recent study in the Journal of Clinical Investigation identifies a tumor vessel-specific protein, L1 that can be targeted to reduce tumor growth. Using a mouse pancreatic cancer model, Ugo Cavallaro and colleagues at the European Institute of Oncology found that loss of L1 reduced tumor blood vessel formation, which inhibited growth and metastasis.

Binge easting disorder affects approximately 5% of adults in the US. Left unchecked, this disorder leads to health complications, including obesity, hypertension, and diabetes. The cause of this disease is poorly understood and treatment options are limited. A new study in the Journal of Clinical Investigation suggests that estrogen replacement may limit binge-eating behaviors. Using a mouse binge-eating model, Yong Xu and colleagues at Baylor School of Medicine found that estradiol suppressed binge eating behaviors.

• Growth deficiency is a defining feature of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD).
• A new study has found that rates of excess weight/obesity are elevated in adolescents with partial fetal alcohol syndrome (pFAS).
• Females with FASD may be at a greater risk for excess weight/obesity than males during adolescence.

• Chronic drinking is associated with an increased incidence and severity of respiratory infections.
• A reduced CD8 T cell response was previously implicated in increased disease severity due to influenza virus infections.
• New rodent findings indicate that only some CD8 T cell functions are damaged while others remain intact.

Among patients with hypertension at high risk of cardiovascular disease, a program that consisted of patients measuring their blood pressure and adjusting their antihypertensive medication accordingly resulted in lower systolic blood pressure at 12 months compared to patients who received usual care, according to a study in the August 27 issue of JAMA.

Among adolescents with depression seen in primary care, a collaborative care intervention that included patient and parent engagement and education resulted in greater improvement in depressive symptoms at 12 months than usual care, according to a study in the August 27 issue of JAMA.