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

MRI screening program for individuals at high risk of pancreatic cancer

2015-04-08
(Press-News.org) A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based screening program for individuals at high risk of pancreatic cancer identified pancreatic lesions in 16 of 40 (40 percent) of patients, of whom 5 five underwent surgery, according to a report published online by JAMA Surgery.

Pancreatic cancer is a leading cause of cancer death and can be considered a global lethal disease because incidence and mortality rates are nearly identical. Although treatment has improved, the surgery rate in patients with ductal adenocarcinoma is around 30 percent and the five-year survival rate is less than 20 percent. In about 10 percent of all patients with pancreatic cancer, it is possible to find a family history, according to the study background.

Marco Del Chiaro, M.D., Ph.D., of the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, and coauthors analyzed short-term results from an MRI-based screening program for patients with a genetic risk of developing pancreatic cancer.

The study included 40 patients (24 women and 16 men with an average age of nearly 50). In 38 of the patients, increased risk of the disease was based on family history of pancreatic cancer. BRCA2, BRCA1 and p16 gene mutations were identified in some patients. The average study follow-up was 12. 9 months, with MRI screening repeated after one year if the initial screen was negative or at six months if there were unspecific findings or findings that did not indicate surgery.

According to the results, MRIs found a pancreatic lesion in 16 patients (40 percent): intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasia, which can become invasive cancer, in 14 patients (35 percent) and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma in two patients (5 percent). Five patients (12.5 percent) required surgery (3 for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and 2 for intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasia), the remaining 35 continue under surveillance.

"An MRI-based protocol for the surveillance of individuals at risk for developing pancreatic cancer seems to detect cancer or premalignant lesions with good accuracy. The exclusive use of MRI can reduce costs, increase availability and guarantee the safety of the individuals under surveillance compared with protocols that are based on more aggressive methods. However, because of the small number of patients and the divergent results, this study did not allow evaluation of the efficacy of MRI as a single screening modality," the study concludes.

(JAMA Surgery. Published online April 8, 2015. doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2014.3852. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.com.)

Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.

Commentary: Screening Strategies for Pancreatic Cancer in High-Risk Patients

In a related commentary, Mark S. Talamonti, M.D., of the NorthShore University HealthSystem, Evanston, Ill., writes: "Pancreatic cancer is diagnosed in only 10 percent of patients with syndromic risk factors or a family history of pancreatic cancer. The other 90 percent are considered sporadic cancers with no currently known risk factors. And that is the real challenge for the future of early detection of pancreatic cancer. In current clinical practice, no biomarkers exist for diagnosing early-stage disease. Population screening with radiographic imaging or endoscopic procedures makes no clinical or economic sense for a cancer that represent only 3 percent of estimated new cancers each year; however, with an aging population, this most formidable of human cancers will only increase in incidence and frequency. There is a clear and unequivocal need for affordable screening strategies based on reliable biomarkers and efficient imaging modalities."

(JAMA Surgery. Published online April 8, 2015. doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2015.0391. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.com.)

Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.

INFORMATION:

Media Advisory: To contact corresponding author Marco Del Chiaro, M.D., Ph.D., email marco.del-chiaro@karolinska.se. To contact commentary author Mark S. Talamonti, M.D., call Jim Anthony at 847-570-6132 or email janthony@northshore.org. An author podcast will be available when the embargo lifts on the JAMA Surgery website: http://jama.md/1B7q40F

To place an electronic embedded link to this study in your story: Links will be live at the embargo time: http://archsurg.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?doi=10.1001/jamasurg.2014.3852 and http://archsurg.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?doi=10.1001/jamasurg.2015.0391



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Melanoma surgery delays are common for Medicare patients

2015-04-08
New Haven, Conn. -- One in five Medicare patients with melanoma experience delays in getting surgery, a Yale study found. The research was published April 8 in JAMA Dermatology. Melanoma, a type of skin cancer, is a leading cause of new cancer diagnoses in the United States. A delay between diagnosis and surgery to remove melanomas may cause patients psychological harm and affect health-care quality. Using the national Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Result-Medicare database, the Yale team conducted the first population-based analysis of delay of surgery among Medicare ...

No association between lung cancer risk in women and reproductive history or hormone use

2015-04-08
DENVER - The Women's Health Initiative Studies, a large prospective study of lung cancer, found no strong associations between lung cancer risk and a wide range of reproductive history variables and only revealed weak support for a role of hormone use in the incidence of lung cancer. In the United States 40% of the 160,000 deaths from lung cancer are women. In men 90% of lung cancer deaths are associated with tobacco usage; however in women this number is around 75-80%. Female never-smokers are more likely to develop lung cancer than male never-smokers and the histological ...

Turning to freshwater sources to fight drug-resistant tuberculosis, other infections

2015-04-08
The discovery of antibiotics produced by soil fungi and bacteria gave the world life-saving medicine. But new antimicrobials from this resource have become scarce as the threat of drug resistance grows. Now, scientists have started mining lakes and rivers for potential pathogen-fighters, and they've found one from Lake Michigan that is effective against drug-resistant tuberculosis. Their report on the new compound appears in the journal ACS Infectious Diseases. Brian T. Murphy and colleagues point out that the emergence of drug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis ...

Hidden quota for women in top management: UMD study

2015-04-08
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Companies work fairly hard to place one woman -- but only one -- in a top management position, according to research by Cristian Desz?, an associate professor at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, and two co-authors. The article found evidence of a "quota" effect: Once a company had appointed one woman to a top-tier job, the chances of a second woman landing an elite position at the same firm drop substantially -- by about 50 percent, in fact. The study's design did not allow a conclusion about whether the quota was the result of conscious discrimination ...

How unwanted CDs and DVDs could help cut carbon emissions

2015-04-08
Now that most consumers download and stream their movies and music, more and more CDs and DVDs will end up in landfills or be recycled. But soon these discarded discs could take on a different role: curbing the release of greenhouse gases. In the journal ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, scientists report a way to turn the discs into a material that can capture carbon dioxide, a key greenhouse gas, and other compounds. Mietek Jaroniec and colleagues from Poland and the U.S. note that manufacturers typically use natural sources, such as coal and wood, to make activated ...

A new piece in the 'French paradox' puzzle -- cheese metabolism

2015-04-08
Figuring out why the French have low cardiovascular disease rates despite a diet high in saturated fats has spurred research and many theories to account for this phenomenon known as the "French paradox." Most explanations focus on wine and lifestyle, but a key role could belong to another French staple: cheese. The evidence, say scientists in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, is in cheese metabolism. Hanne Bertram and colleagues note that recent research on some dairy products' positive effects on health has cast doubt on the once-firm rule that saturated ...

UAB researchers develop a harmless artificial virus for gene therapy

2015-04-08
Researchers of the Nanobiology Unit from the UAB Institute of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, led by Antonio Villaverde, managed to create artificial viruses, protein complexes with the ability of self-assembling and forming nanoparticles which are capable of surrounding DNA fragments, penetrating the cells and reaching the nucleus in a very efficient manner, where they then release the therapeutic DNA fragments. The achievement represents an alternative with no biological risk to the use of viruses in gene therapy. Gene therapy, which is the insertion of genes into the ...

Don't blame kids if they do not enjoy school, study suggests

2015-04-08
COLUMBUS, Ohio - When children are unmotivated at school, new research suggests their genes may be part of the equation. A study of more than 13,000 twins from six countries found that 40 to 50 percent of the differences in children's motivation to learn could be explained by their genetic inheritance from their parents. The results surprised study co-author Stephen Petrill, who thought before the study that the twins' shared environment - such as the family and teachers that they had in common - would be a larger factor than genetics. Instead, genetics and nonshared ...

Unraveling the origin of the pseudogap in a charge density wave compound

2015-04-08
The pseudogap, a state characterized by a partial gap and loss of coherence in the electronic excitations, has been associated with many unusual physical phenomena in a variety of materials ranging from cold atoms to colossal magnetoresistant manganese oxides to high temperature copper oxide superconductors. Its nature, however, remains controversial due to the complexity of these materials and the difficulties in studying them. By combining a variety of different experimental techniques and theory, a group led by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne ...

New emotion recognition model

2015-04-08
Philosophers at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum have put forward a new model that explains how humans recognise the emotions of others. According to their theory, humans are capable of perceiving feelings directly via pattern recognition. They do not have to deduce feelings by interpreting other people's behaviour. That model is described by the philosophers Prof Dr Albert Newen and Dr Anna Welpinghus, together with Prof Dr Georg Juckel from the LWL University Hospital for Psychiatry, in the journal Mind & Language. An emotion is a pattern of typical features A key ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

UMaine research examines best methods for growing Atlantic sea scallops

Medical cannabis could speed recovery, especially at community recovery homes

Study assesses U.S. image amid weakening of democracy

Two scientific researchers to receive 2025 Ralph L. Sacco Scholarships for Brain Health

Researchers improve chemical reaction that underpins products from foods to fuels

Texas Tech to develop semiconductor power devices through $6 million grant

Novel genomic screening tool enables precision reverse-engineering of genetic programming in cells

Hot Schrödinger cat states created

How cells repair their power plants

Oxygen is running low in inland waters—and humans are to blame

ACP’s Best Practice Advice addresses use of cannabis, cannabinoids for chronic noncancer pain

Beyond photorespiration: A systematic approach to unlocking enhanced plant productivity

How a small number of mutations can fuel outbreaks of western equine encephalitis virus

Exposure to wildfire smoke linked with worsening mental health conditions

Research uncovers hidden spread of one of the most common hospital-associated infections

Many older adults send their doctors portal messages, but who pays?

Fine particulate matter from 2020 California wildfires and mental health–related emergency department visits

Gender inequity in institutional leadership roles in US academic medical centers

Pancreatic cells ‘remember’ epigenetic precancerous marks without genetic sequence mutations

Rare combination of ovarian tumors found in one patient

AI-driven clinical recommendations may aid physician decision making to improve quality of care

Artificial intelligence has potential to aid physician decisions during virtual urgent care

ACP and Annals of Internal Medicine present breaking scientific news at ACP’s Internal Medicine Meeting 2025

New study reveals polymers with flawed fillers boost heat transfer in plastics

Signs identified that precede sudden arrhythmic death syndrome in young people

Discovery of bacteria's defence against viruses becomes a piece of the puzzle against resistance

Pre-eclampsia is associated with earlier onset and higher incidence of cardiovascular risk factors

Warwick astronomers discover doomed pair of spiralling stars on our cosmic doorstep

Soil conditions significantly increase rainfall in world’s megastorm hotspots

NK cells complexed with bispecific antibody yield high response rates in patients with lymphoma

[Press-News.org] MRI screening program for individuals at high risk of pancreatic cancer