PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Use of mood-stabilizing drug linked with reduced risk of developing head and neck cancer

2014-03-24
(Press-News.org) A new study indicates that a commonly used mood stabilizing drug may help prevent head and neck cancer. The study is published early online in Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.

Valproic acid (VPA) is currently prescribed as an anti-seizure medication and mood stabilizer, but it is also being studied as an anticancer agent because it inhibits histone acetyl transferases, which help control gene expression by changing DNA structure.

Johann Christoph Brandes MD, PhD, of the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Emory University in Atlanta, led a team that assessed the anticancer effects of VPA in a study of 439,628 veterans, of whom 26,911 were taking the medication for bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, migraines, and seizures.

Veterans who took VPA for at least one year had a 34 percent lower risk of developing head and neck cancer compared with those who did not take the medication. Higher doses and longer duration of VPA use seemed to provide additional benefits. No significant differences were observed for lung, bladder, colon, and prostate cancer incidences.

"A 34 percent risk reduction for the development of head and neck cancer with VPA use could result in the prevention of up to approximately 16,000 new cases and 3,000 to 4,000 annual deaths in the US alone," said Dr. Brandes. "Head and neck cancer is an important global health crisis, and low cost and low toxicity prevention strategies like VPA use have a high potential impact on pain, suffering, costs, and mortality associated with this disease."

INFORMATION:


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

New consensus reached to help tackle multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant TB

New consensus reached to help tackle multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant TB
2014-03-24
New consensus statements have been developed to help tackle the growing threat of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB). Published online today (24 March 2014) in the European Respiratory Journal¸ the statements mark the first time that physicians who treat patients with multidrug- and extensively drug-resistant TB have reached a consensus on important areas of patient management where scientific evidence is inconclusive. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that currently 450,000 new cases with MDR-TB occur ...

The Lancet journals: World TB Day media alert

2014-03-24
To mark the Stop TB Partnerships' World TB Day on Monday 24 March 2014, The Lancet journals will publish a special new collection of Reviews, Comment, and Articles to cast light, and the world's attention, on tuberculosis, in the hope of raising this disease higher up the agendas of international communities. The new publications discuss topics ranging from extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis, to the role of advocacy in tuberculosis, and new anti-tuberculosis drugs, highlighting the key areas and challenges to be met if inroads are to be made into winning the battle ...

New childhood tuberculosis estimates double the number previously thought

2014-03-24
Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) and Harvard Medical School (HMS) in Boston have estimated that around one million children suffer from tuberculosis (TB) annually— twice the number previously thought to have tuberculosis and three times the number that are diagnosed every year. The researchers also estimated that around 32,000 children suffer from multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) annually. These findings are published in The Lancet on March 23, 2014. "Despite children comprising approximately one quarter of the world's population, there ...

Mass. General study identifies path to safer drugs for heart disease, cancer

Mass. General study identifies path to safer drugs for heart disease, cancer
2014-03-23
Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators may have found a way to solve a problem that has plagued a group of drugs called ligand-mimicking integrin inhibitors, which have the potential to treat conditions ranging from heart attacks to cancer metastasis. In a Nature Structural & Molecular Biology paper receiving advance online publication, the researchers provide a structural basis for the design of new and safer integrin inhibitors. Integrins are receptor proteins found on the surface of cells that determine whether or not cells adhere to adjacent cells and ...

Unavoidable disorder used to build nanolaser

Unavoidable disorder used to build nanolaser
2014-03-23
Researchers the world round are working to develop optical chips, where light can be controlled with nanostructures. These could be used for future circuits based on light (photons) instead of electron - that is photonics instead of electronics. But it has proved to be impossible to achieve perfect photonic nanostructures: they are inevitably a little bit imperfect. Now researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute in collaboration with DTU have discovered that imperfect nanostructures can offer entirely new functionalities. They have shown that imperfect optical chips can be ...

Could diamonds be a computer's best friend?

2014-03-23
COLUMBUS, Ohio—For the first time, physicists have demonstrated that information can flow through a diamond wire. In the experiment, electrons did not flow through diamond as they do in traditional electronics; rather, they stayed in place and passed along a magnetic effect called "spin" to each other down the wire—like a row of sports spectators doing "the wave." Spin could one day be used to transmit data in computer circuits—and this new experiment, done at The Ohio State University, revealed that diamond transmits spin better than most metals in which researchers ...

Leukaemia caused by chromosome catastrophe

2014-03-23
Researchers have found that people born with a rare abnormality of their chromosomes have a 2,700-fold increased risk of a rare childhood leukaemia. In this abnormality, two specific chromosomes are fused together but become prone to catastrophic shattering. Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, or ALL, is the most common childhood cancer. Scientists previously found that a small subset of ALL patients have repeated sections of chromosome 21 in the genomes of their leukaemia cells. This form of ALL – iAMP21 ALL – requires more intensive treatment than many other types of ALL. ...

Drugs fail to reawaken dormant HIV infection

2014-03-23
Scientists at Johns Hopkins report that compounds they hoped would "wake up" dormant reservoirs of HIV inside immune system T cells — a strategy designed to reverse latency and make the cells vulnerable to destruction — have failed to do so in laboratory tests of such white blood cells taken directly from patients infected with HIV. "Despite our high hopes, none of the compounds we tested in HIV-infected cells taken directly from patients activated the latent virus," says Robert F. Siliciano, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School ...

MIT engineers design 'living materials'

2014-03-23
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Inspired by natural materials such as bone — a matrix of minerals and other substances, including living cells — MIT engineers have coaxed bacterial cells to produce biofilms that can incorporate nonliving materials, such as gold nanoparticles and quantum dots. These "living materials" combine the advantages of live cells, which respond to their environment, produce complex biological molecules, and span multiple length scales, with the benefits of nonliving materials, which add functions such as conducting electricity or emitting light. The new materials ...

Off-rift volcanoes explained

2014-03-23
Potsdam: Rift valleys are large depressions formed by tectonic stretching forces. Volcanoes often occur in rift valleys, within the rift itself or on the rift flanks as e.g. in East Africa. The magma responsible for this volcanism is formed in the upper mantle and ponds at the boundary between crust and mantle. For many years, the question of why volcanoes develop outside the rift zone in an apparently unexpected location offset by tens of kilometers from the source of molten magma directly beneath the rift has remained unanswered. A team of scientists from the GFZ German ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Megalodon’s body size and form uncover why certain aquatic vertebrates can achieve gigantism

A longer, sleeker super predator: Megalodon’s true form

Walking, moving more may lower risk of cardiovascular death for women with cancer history

Intracortical neural interfaces: Advancing technologies for freely moving animals

Post-LLM era: New horizons for AI with knowledge, collaboration, and co-evolution

“Sloshing” from celestial collisions solves mystery of how galactic clusters stay hot

Children poisoned by the synthetic opioid, fentanyl, has risen in the U.S. – eight years of national data shows

USC researchers observe mice may have a form of first aid

VUMC to develop AI technology for therapeutic antibody discovery

Unlocking the hidden proteome: The role of coding circular RNA in cancer

Advancing lung cancer treatment: Understanding the differences between LUAD and LUSC

Study reveals widening heart disease disparities in the US

The role of ubiquitination in cancer stem cell regulation

New insights into LSD1: a key regulator in disease pathogenesis

Vanderbilt lung transplant establishes new record

Revolutionizing cancer treatment: targeting EZH2 for a new era of precision medicine

Metasurface technology offers a compact way to generate multiphoton entanglement

Effort seeks to increase cancer-gene testing in primary care

Acoustofluidics-based method facilitates intracellular nanoparticle delivery

Sulfur bacteria team up to break down organic substances in the seabed

Stretching spider silk makes it stronger

Earth's orbital rhythms link timing of giant eruptions and climate change

Ammonia build-up kills liver cells but can be prevented using existing drug

New technical guidelines pave the way for widespread adoption of methane-reducing feed additives in dairy and livestock

Eradivir announces Phase 2 human challenge study of EV25 in healthy adults infected with influenza

New study finds that tooth size in Otaria byronia reflects historical shifts in population abundance

nTIDE March 2025 Jobs Report: Employment rate for people with disabilities holds steady at new plateau, despite February dip

Breakthrough cardiac regeneration research offers hope for the treatment of ischemic heart failure

Fluoride in drinking water is associated with impaired childhood cognition

New composite structure boosts polypropylene’s low-temperature toughness

[Press-News.org] Use of mood-stabilizing drug linked with reduced risk of developing head and neck cancer