Body

1. Survey: Unfounded fear of recurrence prompts young breast cancer patients to remove healthy breasts

About half of smokers seeking treatment for smoking cessation have a history of depression. Compared with smokers who are not depressed, those who suffer from a major depressive disorder (MDD) have greater difficulty quitting.

In a Pfizer-sponsored clinical trial to assess the effect of varenicline (Chantix®) on smoking cessation, as well as mood and anxiety levels in smokers with current or a history of depression, researchers concluded that the drug does help some of these patients to quit smoking without worsening symptoms of depression or anxiety.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have discovered a reason why people with disorders of the thyroid gland may be more sensitive to environmental temperature. According to the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a previously unknown link has been found between the effects of thyroid hormone on blood vessels, and how this in turn affects body temperature.

Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have for the first time found an association between living in proximity to high-density livestock production and community-acquired infections with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, commonly known as MRSA. Their analysis concluded that approximately 11 percent of community-acquired MRSA and soft tissue infections in the study population could be attributed to crop fields fertilized with swine manure.

Consuming five or more alcoholic drinks in a row is common among high school seniors, with some students engaging in extreme binge drinking of as many as 15 or more drinks, according to a study published by JAMA Pediatrics, a JAMA Network publication.

The overall cost of childhood food allergies was estimated at nearly $25 billion annually in a study of caregivers that quantified medical, out-of-pocket, lost work productivity and other expenses, according to a report published by JAMA Pediatrics, a JAMA Network publication.

Threats from overfishing can be detected early enough to save fisheries-- and livelihoods --with minimal adjustments in harvesting practices, a new study by researchers in the University of Minnesota's College of Biological Sciences shows.

The work indicates that a healthy fishery can be maintained the way a skillful captain steers an oil tanker: by small course corrections that prevent disaster far ahead.

CHICAGO – High exposure to swine manure spread in crop fields and proximity to high-density swine livestock operations appear to be associated with increased risk of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and skin and soft-tissue infection in humans, according to a study published by JAMA Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication.

An estimated 30,800 fewer invasive methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections occurred in the United States in 2011 compared to 2005, according to a study by Raymund Dantes, M.D., M.P.H., of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, and colleagues.

MRSA is one of the most common antimicrobial-resistant pathogens causing infections, especially in the skin and soft tissues.

Scientists at the University of Leeds have solved a 300-year-old riddle about which direction the centre of the earth spins.

The Earth's inner core, made up of solid iron, 'superrotates' in an eastward direction – meaning it spins faster than the rest of the planet – while the outer core, comprising mainly molten iron, spins westwards at a slower pace.

Biologists at the University of California, San Diego have developed a revolutionary new method for identifying and characterizing antibiotics, an advance that could lead to the discovery of new antibiotics to treat antibiotic resistant bacteria.

The researchers, who published their findings in this week's early online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, made their discovery by developing a way to perform the equivalent of an autopsy on bacterial cells.

BOSTON -- Young women with breast cancer often overestimate the odds that cancer will occur in their other, healthy breast, and decide to have the healthy breast surgically removed, a survey conducted by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute investigators indicates. The survey also shows that many patients opt for the procedure -- known as a contralateral prophylactic mastectomy, or CPM -- despite knowing it will be unlikely to improve their chance of survival.

When a person has cancer, some of the cells in his or her body have changed and are growing uncontrollably. Most cancer drugs try to treat the disease by killing those fast-growing cells, but another approach called immunotherapy tries to stimulate a person's own immune system to attack the cancer itself.

Hospitalizations for endocarditis, a deadly heart infection that disproportionately affects older heart patients, have declined in recent years despite recommendations for limited use of antibiotics to prevent the illness. These findings were recently published by Yale School of Medicine researchers in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

HOUSTON – (Sept. 16, 2013) – A "vicious cycle" produces mucus that protects uterine and pancreatic cancer cells and promotes their proliferation, according to researchers at Rice University. The researchers offer hope for a therapeutic solution.

They found that protein receptors on the surface of cancer cells go into overdrive to stimulate the production of MUC1, a glycoprotein that forms mucin, aka mucus. It covers the exposed tips of the elongated epithelial cells that coat internal organs like lungs, stomachs and intestines to protect them from infection.