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Forensic pathologists have shown that over three per cent of all sudden deaths in south-west Spain are related to the use of cocaine. They believe their findings can be extrapolated to much of the rest of Europe, indicating that cocaine use is a growing public health problem in Europe and that there is no such thing as "safe" recreational use of small amounts of the drug.

Chromosomes move faster than we first thought. Research published in BioMed Central's open access journal, Genome Biology, details new findings about the way chromosomes move around the nucleus when leaving the proliferative stage of the cell cycle and entering quiescence – and the unexpected speed at which they move.

Scientists have found what they believe is the "missing link" between heart failure, our genes and our environment. The study could open up completely new ways of managing and treating heart disease.

The Cambridge team compared heart tissue from two groups – patients with end-stage heart failure and those with healthy hearts. The diseased tissue came from men who had undergone heart transplants at Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, and the healthy hearts from age-matched victims of road traffic accidents.

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 12, 2010 -- An expert panel of librarians, library scientists, publishers, and university academic leaders today called on federal agencies that fund research to develop and implement policies that ensure free public access to the results of the research they fund "as soon as possible after those results have been published in a peer-reviewed journal."

Scientists at the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease (GIND) have identified the reason a key protein plays a major role in two neurodegenerative diseases. In the current edition of the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers in the laboratory of GIND Associate Director Steven Finkbeiner, MD, PhD have found how the protein TDP-43 may cause the neurodegeneration associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal lobar degeneration with ubiquitin-positive inclusion bodies (FTLDu).

CORONADO, Calif. — Results of a new study in non-small cell lung cancer showed that patients with specific oncogenic rearrangements of the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene within the short arm of chromosome 2 of their tumors had a much greater response to a new therapy – an ALK-inhibitor.

Findings were presented at the AACR-IASLC Joint Conference on Molecular Origins of Lung Cancer, held here from Jan. 11-14, 2010.

CORONADO, Calif. — Of the nearly 150,000 abnormal chest X-rays performed each year in the United States, 25 percent of patients will display only benign lung pathologies on further surgical examination.

This false-positive rate has important clinical implications in cost and side effects. A recent report in the Annals of Internal Medicine showed that CT scans, often used as a follow-up to X-rays, were linked to cancer because of their high doses of radiation.

CORONADO, Calif. — Drinking green tea could modulate the effect of smoking on lung cancer. Results of this hospital-based, randomized study conducted in Taiwan were presented at the AACR-IASLC Joint Conference on Molecular Origins of Lung Cancer, held here from Jan. 11-14, 2010.

CORONADO, Calif. — Phase II study results of the agent ASA404 showed promise in patients with either squamous or non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Results of this study, which were presented at the AACR-IASLC Joint Conference on Molecular Origins of Lung Cancer, support ongoing Phase III studies of ASA404 in NSCLC.

CORONADO, Calif. — Classifying non-small cell lung tumors by growth patterns had a strong predictive value for measures of survival.

Growth pattern refers to the tumor growth in relation to normal lung tissue and blood vessels within the tumor; tumors need these blood vessels to survive and scientists have been studying these patterns in an effort to individualize therapy.

CORONADO, Calif. — Patients with non-small cell lung cancer in whom treatment with gefitinib is ineffective often have limited options, but results of a new study suggest that retreating patients with the same drug could have a beneficial effect.

CORONADO, Calif. — Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a validated therapeutic target for non-small cell lung cancer. Researchers have now discovered a 93-gene signature that is associated with the presence of EGFR mutations in tumors from lung cancer patients and is a favorable prognostic marker in patients with early stage lung cancer.

CORONADO, Calif. — Although erlotinib is an approved second-line therapy for lung cancer, its management is complicated by side effects that get worse as the dose increases.

"Increased doses may lead to better outcomes, so we are trying to determine how high we can go with this agent without having to stop," said Lynsay Waller, M.D., a fellow at Wake Forest University, who presented her data at the AACR-IASLC Joint Conference on Molecular Origins of Lung Cancer, held here Jan. 11-14, 2010.

CORONADO, Calif. — At least three tumor microRNAs appear to predict when first-line chemotherapy will prove ineffective in some patients with small cell lung cancer, according to data presented at the AACR-IASLC Joint Conference on Molecular Origins of Lung Cancer, held Jan. 11-14, 2010.

January 12, 2010 – (BRONX, NY) – Scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have found that a "longevity gene" helps to slow age-related decline in brain function in older adults. Drugs that mimic the gene's effect are now under development, the researchers note, and could help protect against Alzheimer's disease.

The paper describing the Einstein study is published in the January 13 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association.