Body

NEW ORLEANS—A new three-drug combination has shown in a phase 1/2 clinical trial that it is a "highly effective regimen" in the treatment of patients newly diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer of white blood cells in bone marrow, say researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — A new study has found that the amount of vitamin D (http://www.mayoclinic.org/news2008-mchi/4904.html) in patients being treated for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (http://www.mayoclinic.org/non-hodgkins-lymphoma/)was strongly associated with cancer progression and overall survival.

Pediatric oncologists have identified specific genes, dubbed partner genes, that fuse with another gene to drive an often-fatal form of leukemia in infants. By more accurately defining specific partner genes, researchers expect to better predict which infants may benefit from particular treatments.

Case Western Reserve University researchers, from the School of Medicine's Department of Nutrition, discovered two new metabolic pathways by which products of lipid peroxidation and some drugs of abuse, known as 4-hydroxyacids, are metabolized. The pathways were identified by a combination of metabolomics and mass isotopomer analysis.

Late recurrence is a risk for some pediatric cancers, particularly Ewing sarcomas and tumors of the central nervous system, according to a new study published online December 4 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

This study was undertaken because there is limited research on late recurrence (after 5 years and up to 20 years) for pediatric cancer patients.

Working with mice, scientists at Johns Hopkins publishing in the December issue of Neoplasia have shown that a protein made by a gene called "Twist" may be the proverbial red flag that can accurately distinguish stem cells that drive aggressive, metastatic breast cancer from other breast cancer cells.

Building on recent work suggesting that it is a relatively rare subgroup of stem cells in breast tumors that drives breast cancer, scientists have surmised that this subgroup of cells must have some very distinctive qualities and characteristics.

The body is a battle zone. Cells constantly compete with one another for space and dominance. Though the manner in which some cells win this competition is well known to be the survival of the fittest, how stem cells duke it out for space and survival is not as clear. A study on fruit flies published in the October 2 issue of Science by Johns Hopkins researchers describes how stem cells win this battle by literally sticking around.

STANFORD, Calif. — A new study shows that muscle cells grown in the lab can restore an intestine's ability to squeeze shut properly. The work, performed in dogs and rats, might ultimately help treat patients with conditions such as gastric reflux and fecal incontinence.

People who have had an ischemic stroke are at higher lifetime risk for another stroke, but several types of medication can reduce that risk. One of the simplest regimens involves antithrombotic medications, otherwise known as blood thinners, of which the most common is aspirin.

UVALDE – Dr. Daniel Leskovar, a Texas AgriLife Research plant physiologist at the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Uvalde, has been investigating ways to help vegetable plants make a less stressful transition from the greenhouse to the field.

DALLAS – Dec. 4, 2009 – New findings by UT Southwestern researchers suggest that a drug already used to treat autoimmune disorders might also help slow the destruction of insulin-producing cells in patients recently diagnosed with insulin-dependent (type 1) diabetes.

In type 1 diabetes, formerly known as juvenile diabetes, cells in the pancreas called beta cells, which produce insulin, are destroyed by an autoimmune process.

Using a new mathematical model of heart cells, University of Iowa investigators have shown how activation of a critical enzyme, calmodulin kinase II (CaM kinase), disrupts the electrical activity of heart cells.

The study, which also involved Columbia University, was published online Dec. 3 in the journal PLoS Computational Biology.

A recent research article published in the journal Scientometrics by a team from the University of Extremadura (UEX) has proved something that was already obvious to its scientific community – the extreme imbalance between the visibility of its male and female scientists. Only 20% of the university's articles studied had female lead authors, while the percentage of male lead authors stood at 50%. The remaining articles were led by authors from other universities.

By measuring the total gene activity in organs relevant for coronary artery disease (CAD), scientists at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet have identified a module of genes that is important for the recruitment of white blood cells into the atherosclerotic plaque. The findings, which are to be published in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics, suggest that targeting the migration of white blood cells in the development of atherosclerosis may help to reduce the risk for adverse clinical effects such as ischemia and myocardial infarction.