A UCLA research team has discovered a new hormone called erythroferrone, which regulates the iron supply needed for red blood-cell production. Iron is an essential functional component of hemoglobin, the molecule that transports oxygen throughout the body. Using a mouse model, researchers found that erythroferrone is made by red blood-cell progenitors in the bone marrow in order to match iron supply with the demands of red blood-cell production. Erythroferrone is greatly increased when red blood-cell production is stimulated, such as after bleeding or in response to anemia. The ...

Twenty years after the hormone leptin was found to regulate metabolism, appetite, and weight through brain cells called neurons, Yale School of Medicine researchers have found that the hormone also acts on other types of cells to control appetite. Published in the June 1 issue of Nature Neuroscience, the findings could lead to development of treatments for metabolic disorders such as obesity and diabetes. "Up until now, the scientific community thought that leptin acts exclusively in neurons to modulate behavior and body weight," said senior author Tamas Horvath, the ...

CHICAGO — Molecular sequencing could identify ovarian cancer patients who are most likely to benefit from treatment with bevacizumab (Avastin), a Mayo Clinic-led study has found. Results of the research were presented today at the 2014 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting. The addition of bevacizumab to standard therapy extended progression-free survival more for ovarian cancer patients with molecular subtypes labeled as "proliferative" or "mesenchymal" compared to those with subtypes labeled as "immunoreactive" or "differentiated," says Sean Dowdy, M.D., ...

As targeted therapies become more available, increasing opportunity exists to match treatments to the genetics of a specific cancer. But in order to make this match, oncologists have to know these genetics. This requires molecular testing of patient samples. An education session presented today at the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting 2014 details the challenges in this process and makes recommendations that oncologists can use to ensure their patients' samples are properly tested, helping to pair patients with the best possible treatments. "The ...

CHICAGO — A chemotherapy regimen consisting of procarbazine, CCNU, and vincristine (PCV) administered following radiation therapy improved progression-free survival and overall survival in adults with low-grade gliomas, a form of brain cancer, when compared to radiation therapy alone. The findings were part of the results of a Phase III clinical trial presented today at the 2014 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting by the study's primary author Jan Buckner, M.D., deputy director, Cancer Practice, at Mayo Clinic Cancer Center. "On average, patients who ...

ATLANTA – June 1, 2014 – The number of cancer survivors in the United States, currently estimated to be 14.5 million, will grow to almost 19 million by 2024, according to an updated report by the American Cancer Society. The second edition of Cancer Treatment & Survivorship Facts & Figures, 2014-2015 and an accompanying journal article published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians find that even though cancer incidence rates have been decreasing for ten years, the number of cancer survivors is growing. This is the result of increases in cancer diagnoses driven by the ...

Forget about positioning giant mirrors in space to reduce the amount of sunlight being trapped in the earth's atmosphere or seeding clouds to reduce the amount of light entering earth's atmosphere. Those approaches to climate engineering aren't likely to be effective or practical in slowing global warming. A new report by professors from UCLA and five other universities concludes that there's no way around it: We have to cut down the amount of carbon being released into the atmosphere. The interdisciplinary team looked at a range of possible approaches to dissipating ...

CHICAGO — June 1, 2014 — In the largest clinical trial testing the effectiveness of one versus two drugs to treat HER2-positive breast cancer, lapatinib (Tykerb) did not add benefit to the standard trastuzumab (Herceptin) adjuvant therapy, researchers report at the 50th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). MULTIMEDIA ALERT: Video and audio are available for download on the Mayo Clinic News Network. Results of the phase III clinical trial, ALTTO (Adjuvant Lapatinib and/or Trastuzumab Treatment Optimization study), demonstrated that adding ...

An Emeritus Professor of medical ethics at Imperial College London will deliver a presentation at this year's Euroanaesthesia meeting titled 'Escalating care for the comorbid elderly-where do we stop?". Raanan Gillon, who is President of the UK's Institute of Medical Ethics, will argue that a patient's age should not in itself be considered an ethically relevant criterion for deciding 'where to stop'. Acknowledging that there is a morally plausible counter-argument – known in the UK as 'the fair innings argument'- according to which scarce life prolonging resources should ...

A systematic review and meta-analysis of hospital data worldwide, presented as this year's Euroanaesthesia meeting in Stockholm, adds further evidence that patients admitted to hospital at weekends have higher mortality than those admitted on weekdays. The study is by Dr Hiroshi Hoshijima, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan, and colleagues. The analysis included 72 studies from various world regions, covering 55,053,719 participants. The authors found that weekend admission was associated with increased morality of between 15% and 17% depending on the statistical technique ...

New research presented at this year's Euroanaesthesia show that on weekends, in the afternoons and in February are the times when the risk of death following surgery is the highest. The research is by Dr Felix Kork and Professor Claudia Spies, Charité - University Medicine Berlin, Germany and colleagues. Hospital mortality is subject to day-night, weekly and seasonal variability. This has been shown for various populations, settings, and in different regions of the world. However, a cyclic influence on hospital mortality has not been shown in patients after surgery. ...

With services based on exome sequencing becoming affordable to patients at a reasonable price, the question of the quality of the results provided has become increasingly important. The exome is the DNA sequence of genes that are translated into protein. These protein-coding regions contain most of the currently-known disease-causing genetic mutations. The American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) has recommended the reporting to patients of clinically actionable incidental genetic findings in the course of clinical exome testing. Specifically, mutations ...

A study presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting 2014 reports the results of a first-in-human, phase 1 dose escalation trial of crizotinib (XALKORI) in 14 patients with advanced, MET-amplified non-small cell lung cancer (NCT00585195). In 2011, the drug crizotinib earned accelerated approval by the US FDA to target the subset of advanced non-small cell lung cancers caused by rearrangements of the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene, and subsequently was granted regular approval in 2013. The drug also has shown dramatic responses in ...

At the 50th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO), University of Colorado Cancer Center researchers reported results of a Phase I trial of OMP-54F28 (FZD8-Fc), an investigational drug candidate discovered by OncoMed Pharmaceuticals targeting cancer stem cells (CSCs). The drug was generally well tolerated, and several of the 26 patients with advanced solid tumors experienced stable disease for greater than six months. Three trials are now open for OMP-54F28 (FZD8-Fc) in combinations with standard therapy for pancreatic, ovarian and liver cancers, ...

Results of a University of Colorado Cancer Center study presented at the 50th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) show that a test of organic compounds in exhaled breath can not only distinguish patients with lung cancer from patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but can also define the stage of any cancer present. "This could totally revolutionize lung cancer screening and diagnosis. The perspective here is the development of a non-traumatic, easy, cheap approach to early detection and differentiation of lung cancer," ...

A University of Colorado Cancer Center study presented at the 50th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) draws a line from mutation of the gene NTRK1, to its role as an oncogene in non-small cell lung cancer, to treatment that targets this mutation. The current study reports the prevalence of the NTRK1 mutation in an unselected population of 450 lung cancer samples, with >1% percent of patients testing positive. This and other work from Dr. Doebele's group forms the basis of a phase 1 clinical trial targeting NTRK1 mutations in advanced solid ...

CHICAGO — In an aggressive disease known for poor response rates, researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center found patients with advanced colorectal cancer responded well to a combination therapy of the drugs vermurafenib, cetuximab and irinotecan. The Phase I trial, presented Saturday, May 31 in a poster discussion at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's 2014 Annual Meeting in Chicago, examines a specific mutation in the BRAF gene, which is present in 5 to 10 percent of colorectal cancer patients. Previous research identified this mutation ...

New Haven, Conn. — A multi-center phase I study using an investigational drug for advanced bladder cancer patients who did not respond to other treatments has shown promising results in patients with certain tumor types, researchers report. Yale Cancer Center played a key role in the study, the results of which will be presented Saturday, May 31 at the 2014 annual conference of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago. The trial included 68 people with previously treated advanced bladder cancer, including 30 patients identified as PD-L1 positive. PD-L1 ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – In a head-to-head comparison of two Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs for the treatment of relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), ibrutinib significantly outperformed ofatumumab as a second-line therapy, according to a multicenter interim study published in the OnLine First edition of the New England Journal of Medicine. Ibrutinib (Imbruvica) is the first drug designed to target Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK), a protein essential for CLL-cell survival and proliferation. CLL, the most common form of leukemia, causes a gradual increase ...

(New York – UNDER EMBARGO May 31, 2014) Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai researchers will present several landmark studies at the 2014 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting May 30-June 3, 2014 in Chicago, including data on new treatment approaches for thyroid, head and neck, and recurrent ovarian cancers; and new biomarkers for bile duct cancers. Highlights of Mount Sinai research at ASCO: Phase II Trial on the Combination of Bevacizumab and Irinotecan in Recurrent Ovarian Cancer (Under Embargo Until SATURDAY, MAY 31, 8:00 – 11:45 AM) In a study ...

A new target that may be critical for the treatment of osteoporosis, a disease which affects about 25% of post-menopausal women, has been discovered by a group of researchers in The Netherlands and in Germany. Professor Brunhilde Wirth, Head of the Institute of Human Genetics, University of Cologne, Germany, will tell the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics tomorrow (Sunday) that new studies in zebrafish and mice have shown that injection of human plastin 3 (PLS3) or related proteins in zebrafish where PLS3 action has been suppressed can replace ...

Results from the first study of the clinical application of next generation DNA sequencing (NGS) in screening embryos for genetic disease prior to implantation in patients undergoing in-vitro fertilisation treatments show that it is an effective reliable method of selecting the best embryos to transfer, the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics will hear tomorrow (Sunday). Dr Francesco Fiorentino, from the GENOMA Molecular Genetics Laboratory, Rome, Italy, will say that his team's research has shown that NGS, a high throughput sequencing method, has ...

Exposing infants to a new vegetable early in life encourages them to eat more of it compared to offering novel vegetables to older children, new research from the University of Leeds suggests. The researchers, led by Professor Marion Hetherington in the Institute of Psychological Sciences, also found that even fussy eaters are able to eat a bit more of a new vegetable each time they are offered it. The research, involving babies and children from the UK, France and Denmark, also dispelled the popular myth that vegetable tastes need to be masked or given by stealth in ...

Boston, MA – The tangled highway of blood vessels that twists and turns inside our bodies, delivering essential nutrients and disposing of hazardous waste to keep our organs working properly has been a conundrum for scientists trying to make artificial vessels from scratch. Now a team from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) has made headway in fabricating blood vessels using a three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting technique. The study is published online this month in Lab on a Chip. "Engineers have made incredible strides in making complex artificial tissues such as ...

What should resource managers do when the eradication of an invasive species threatens an endangered one? In results of a study published this week in the journal Science, researchers at the University of California, Davis, examine one such conundrum now taking place in San Francisco Bay. The study was led by UC Davis researcher Adam Lampert. "This work advances a framework for cost-effective management solutions to the conflict between removing invasive species and conserving biodiversity," said Alan Tessier, acting deputy division director in the National Science ...