Body

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) -- African-American breast cancer survivors were satisfied with their cancer treatment, but most were never offered clinical trials opportunities or support services during or after their treatment, according to a study by a UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center researcher and her community partner, Rev. Tammie Dynse.

May 1, 2012 (Chevy Chase, MD) – Women going through menopause now have a first-of-its-kind interactive guide to help them better understand their menu of treatment options, including whether hormone therapy may be right for them. The Endocrine Society and its Hormone Health Network today released the "Menopause Map," an online tool to help women and their doctors discuss which hormonal and non-hormonal treatment options would be most effective and safe to relieve the sometimes debilitating symptoms of menopause.

Young patients who undergo chest or abdominopelvic CT are more than 35 times more likely to die of their disease than develop a radiation induced cancer, according to an analysis of 23,359 patients, some of whom were scanned more than 15 times.

BOSTON – Despite longstanding recommendations for children with asthma to avoid tobacco smoke, many youths are still exposed to secondhand smoke and their health suffers because of it, according to a study to be presented Tuesday, May 1, at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Boston.

PHILADELPHIA — Postmenopausal women who were overweight or obese and lost at least 5 percent of their body weight had a measurable reduction in markers of inflammation, according to a study published in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

DARIEN, IL – Toss out another old wives' tale: Sleeping too much does not make you fat. Quite the opposite, according to a new study examining sleep and body mass index (BMI) in twins, which found that sleeping more than nine hours a night may actually suppress genetic influences on body weight.

Children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) have higher rates of hospitalized bacterial infection than children without JIA according to an observational study appearing in Arthritis & Rheumatism, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR). The findings show that the risk of infection among JIA patients was significantly increased with use of high-dose glucocorticoids (steroids). Methotrexate (MTX) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF) inhibitors were not found to increase infection risk in this pediatric population.

The use of a dedicated pediatric imaging department (with dedicated pediatric computed tomography (CT) technologists) for pediatric CT scans significantly reduces the radiation dose delivered to the patient, according to a study in the May issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology.

Experts from Durham University have identified a new gene that could help the development of fertility treatments in humans in the future.

Scientists from Durham University, UK, and Osaka University, Japan, looking at fertility in mice, have discovered for the first time that the gene, which makes a protein called PDILT, enables sperm to bind to an egg, a process essential to fertilisation.

WASHINGTON – A new analysis suggests the benefits of mammography screening every other year outweigh the potential harms for women aged 40 to 49 who are at an increased risk of developing breast cancer -- a finding that could affect one out of every five American women. The researchers also found greater harms from screening done with digital mammography compared to film mammography. These findings, with contributions from three national research groups, are published in the May 1 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine.

KANSAS CITY, MO—When stretched out, the genome of a single human cell can reach six feet. To package it all into a tiny nucleus, the DNA strand is tightly wrapped around a core of histone proteins in repeating units—each unit known as a nucleosome. To allow access for the gene expression machinery the nucleosomes must open up and regroup when the process is complete.

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Two Michigan State University researchers have invented a protein purifier that could help pharmaceutical companies save time and money.

The details of the invention, which appear in a recent issue of the journal Langmuir, demonstrate that MSU chemists Merlin Bruening and Greg Baker's high-performance membranes are highly suitable for protein purification, a crucial step in the development of some new drugs.

CHICAGO – Between 2000 and 2009 in the United States, the annual rate of maternal opiate use increased nearly 5-fold, while diagnosis of the drug withdrawal syndrome among newborns, neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), increased almost 3-fold, accompanied by a substantial increase in hospital charges related to NAS, according to a study published online by JAMA. The study is being released early to coincide with its presentation at the Pediatric Academic Societies Annual Meeting.

A new analysis from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital adds to evidence that equal access to comprehensive treatment and supportive care typically translates into equally good outcomes for most young African-American and white cancer patients.

Researchers found no significant difference in survival rates between African-American and white children treated at St. Jude for virtually all cancers during a 15-year period ending in 2007.

New evidence proves humans are continuing to evolve and that significant natural and sexual selection is still taking place in our species in the modern world.

Despite advancements in medicine and technology, as well as an increased prevalence of monogamy, research reveals humans are continuing to evolve just like other species.