Body

An extraordinary breakthrough in understanding what stops a common form of skin cancer from developing could make new cancer treatments and prevention available to the public in five years.

In research published today in the leading international cancer journal, Cancer Cell, an international team of scientists led by Professor Stephen Jane and Dr Charbel Darido of Monash University's Department of Medicine at the Alfred Hospital, has discovered a gene that helps protect the body from squamous cell cancer (SCC) of the skin.

CHICAGO – Among patients with sub-optimal low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) or high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels, use of the drug evacetrapib alone or in combination with statin medications was associated with significant increases in HDL-C levels and decreases in LDL-C levels, according to a study appearing in the November 16 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on cardiovascular disease. The study is being released early online to coincide with its presentation at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions.

PASADENA, Calif. -- The use of multiple medications is associated with increased severity of erectile dysfunction, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published online in the British Journal of Urology International.

This study surveyed 37,712 ethnically diverse men from Southern California and found that men taking various medications are likely to have more severe ED. This was part of the California Men's Health Study, a multiethnic cohort of men ages 46 to 69 who are members of Kaiser Permanente in California.

Beer could stand up alongside wine regarding positive effects on cardiovascular health. This is the conclusion of a study conducted by Research Laboratories at the Fondazione di Ricerca e Cura "Giovanni Paolo II", in Campobasso, Italy. Both for wine and beer the key is moderate and regular drinking.

Use of the contraceptive pill is associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer around the globe, finds research published in BMJ Open.

Prostate cancer is the most common male cancer in the developed world and the use of the contraceptive pill has soared over the past 40 years, say the authors.

Whole-body-vibration, a popular exercise which uses a vibrating platform, is sometimes advertised as being able to boost bone density. However, a one-year-study on healthy postmenopausal women has shown that it has no such effect.

Researchers at UC San Diego Health System's Department of Reproductive Medicine and the National Latino Research Center (NLRC) at Cal State San Marcos University recently presented data at the American Public Health Association Conference in Washington D.C., demonstrating the impact of text4baby, a free mobile service that provides pregnant women and new mothers in San Diego with maternal, fetal and newborn health information via text messages and connects them to national health resources.

Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have discovered the therapeutic benefit of fetal stem cells in helping the maternal heart recover after heart attack or other injury. The research, which marks a significant advancement in cardiac regenerative medicine, was presented today at the American Heart Association's (AHA) Scientific Sessions 2011 in Orlando, Florida, and is also published in the current issue of Circulation Research, a journal of the AHA.

A catastrophic landslide 22,500 years ago dammed the upper reaches of northern California's Eel River, forming a 30-mile-long lake which has since disappeared. It left a living legacy found today in the genes of the region's steelhead trout.

Using remote-sensing technology known as airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and hand-held global-positioning-systems (GPS) units, scientists recently found evidence for a late Pleistocene, landslide-dammed lake along the river.

Nearly a fifth of all Americans 12 years or older have hearing loss so severe that it may make communication difficult, according to a new study led by Johns Hopkins researchers and published in the Nov. 14 Archives of Internal Medicine. The findings, thought to be the first nationally representative estimate of hearing loss, suggest that many more people than previously thought are affected by this condition.

HOUSTON -- Results of a study by Baylor College of Medicine physicians underscore the important role that clinical genetic evaluation can have in the management plan of patients with retinoblastoma, a childhood cancer of the eye.

The report documents the success of using a multi-disciplinary team approach to achieving the goal of providing genetic evaluation and testing of all retinoblastoma patients at Texas Children's Cancer Center over an eight-year period. Results were published in the Archives of Ophthalmology.

CHICAGO – Integrating genetic testing into the management of retinoblastoma by using a multidisciplinary team approach is associated with more timely evaluation of patients and ensuring that all members of the patient's health care team are aware of genetic implications with regard to cancer risk, according to a report in the November issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

A targeted, nanoparticle gelatin-based clot-busting treatment dissolved significantly more blood clots than a currently used drug in an animal study of acute coronary syndrome presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2011.

The new drug-delivery system used gelatin to deactivate the clot-busting drug tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA, to treat acute coronary syndrome. Soundwaves were then used to reactivate tPA once it reached the blood clot. It is considered a stealth approach because tPA doesn't act until it has reached its target.

EUGENE, Ore. -- (Nov. 14, 2011) -- A catastrophic landslide 22,500 years ago dammed the upper reaches of northern California's Eel River, forming a 30-mile-long lake, which has since disappeared, and leaving a living legacy found today in the genes of the region's steelhead trout, report scientists at two West Coast universities.

DURHAM, N.C. and SINGAPORE – A commonly held theory says that flu virus originates every year in Southeast and Eastern Asia, making this region the source of seasonal flu epidemics in other parts of the world.

However, researchers at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore have found that influenza virus in tropical areas isn't the only global source of flu epidemics. The international team of scientists involved in the work found that any one of the urban centers they studied could act as a source for a flu epidemic in any other locality.