Vandetanib (trade name: Caprelsa) has been approved in Germany since February 2012 for the treatment of adult patients who have a particular form of aggressive thyroid cancer. On the inclusion of additional study data subsequently provided by the drug manufacturer in the commenting procedure, the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) came to a different conclusion in an addendum: According to the findings, there is a hint of a minor added benefit in people aged under 65 years, but a hint of greater harm (lesser benefit) in older patients in ...

Jerusalem, Oct. 1, 2013 -- A new study by researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University reveals that eating a good breakfast can have a positive impact on women with problems of infertility. In recent years, nutritional research has found that our weight is affected not only by the level of calorie intake, but also by the question of when to consume large amounts of calories. Now, research, conducted by Prof. Oren Froy, director of the Nutrigenomics and Functional Foods Research Center at the Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food ...

How women perceive their bodies during pregnancy and how that impacts on their weight gain has been the subject of a new study by University of Adelaide researchers. Researchers in the University's Robinson Institute and the School of Psychology have studied more than 400 South Australian women to better understand the links between body image and excessive weight gain during pregnancy. The results, published in the journal Women and Birth, show that more than 70% of pregnant women who are overweight or obese under-estimate their weight. Those who under-estimate their ...

University of Adelaide researchers have made advances in the understanding of one of the world's most common medical conditions, gastric reflux, and how patients experience pain from it. Gastric reflux affects as many as one in five people in Western countries and is on the increase in Asia. Diet and lifestyle, as well as genetic and hormonal issues, are commonly considered to be major causes of gastric reflux. In laboratory studies, researchers have identified the nerve pathways in the spinal cord that transmit pain signals associated with gastric reflux to the brain. "This ...

The study, involving emergency ambulance services and teams at seven hospitals across Spain, shows categorically that this simple, low-cost strategy could easily be extended throughout the world, providing significant clinical benefit. This would change current practice for treating heart-attack patients, who currently receive no medication before undergoing angioplasty surgery, the recommended procedure for removing the arterial blockage that caused the infarction. Borja Ibáñez—joint leading investigator on the study with Valentín Fuster—explains that clinical research ...

Arnhem, 30 September 2013- A balance between the activation of the inflammatory macrophages and suppression of the anti-inflammatory macrophages in the kidney may play a pivotal role in kidney stone formation. These macrophage-derived mediators may have potential as biomarkers to reflect the urinary stone risk, according to a new study from Japan, which was recently presented at the recent 2nd Meeting of the EAU Section of Urolithiasis and received Clinical Research Award. Compared to that of control subjects, the urine from individuals with a history of kidney stone formation ...

Efforts to limit the reach of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA), the legislation that banned discrimination in voting, could negatively impact black political representation, according to a new study from researchers at Rice University, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Ohio University. "Are We There Yet? The Voting Rights Act and Black Representation on City Councils, 1981-2006" is one of the first studies to take a "big picture" look at a large sample of city councils over time to see where African-Americans are making gains, where they are adding or losing ...

A pilot study has shown large variations between European countries in patient survival after surgery for oesophageal and gastric cancers. The 2013 European Cancer Congress (ECC2013) [1] will hear today (Tuesday) that the reasons for these differences are not clear and cannot be explained simply in terms of the volume of patients treated at each hospital. Numerous previous studies have shown that hospitals that see and treat the highest numbers of patients for a variety of diseases and conditions ranging from cancer to cardiology tend to have greater expertise, resulting ...

Don't rely on one source of information about your preschoolers' inattention or hyperactivity. Rather, consider how your child behaves at home as well as information from his or her teacher and a clinician. This advice comes from Sarah O'Neill, of The City College of New York, based on research she conducted at Queens College (CUNY), in an article published in Springer's Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology. The study examines how well parent, teacher, and clinician ratings of preschoolers' behavior are able to predict severity and diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity ...

To understand the world's biological diversity, the information included in scientific collections is essential. For this reason, many projects have been focused on computerizing the data from these collections and making them openly available to researchers on biodiversity and conservation. The MGC Herbarium of the University of Malaga (Spain) includes 76000 sheets of vascular plants or cormophyta, 73156 of which have been computerized. The data sheets are accessible through the GBIF data portal in the web page http://data.gbif.org/datasets/resource/8105/. The basic ...

A mutant of an immune cell protein called ADAP (adhesion and degranulation-promoting adaptor protein) is able to block infection by HIV-1 (human immunodeficiency virus 1), new University of Cambridge research reveals. The researchers, who were funded by the Wellcome Trust, believe that their discovery will lead to new ways of combatting HIV. Professor Chris Rudd from the Department of Pathology, who led the research, said: "One exciting aspect about this new target for HIV intervention is that we should be able to fight HIV without compromising the immune system's ability ...

New research has revealed that individuals with the highest metabolic rates within populations should be the least pre-occupied with keeping track of changes in their environments that could lead them to sources of food. Individuals with slower or average metabolisms however should be constantly monitoring their opportunities for higher gain when they are looking for food. The study shows that variation in metabolic rates between individuals can explain dramatic differences in information use when it comes to food. The researchers, from the University of Exeter and the ...

Ulsan, S. Korea, Oct. 1 – A new common mechanism in Fragile X and Down syndrome has been identified by scientists at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Korea and published in the world leading science journal, Trends in Neurosciences (Cell Press). (Title : Meeting at the crossroads: Common mechanisms in Fragile X and Down syndrome, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tins.2013.08.007) Emerging evidence shows that the regulation of local protein synthesis in dendritic spines plays a crucial role in controlling synaptic morphogenesis and synaptic efficacy. ...

DARIEN, IL -- A new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) links too little sleep (six hours or less) and too much sleep (10 or more hours) with chronic diseases -- including coronary heart disease, diabetes, anxiety and obesity -- in adults age 45 and older. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) encourages patients suffering from these common chronic conditions to speak with a sleep medicine physician who can evaluate their sleep patterns. "It's critical that adults aim for seven to nine hours of sleep each night to receive the health ...

A study conducted at the University of Strathclyde investigating the presence of Legionella in compost, has found that the bacteria exist in a significant number of commercial products. The research, the first substantial analysis of Legionella in UK composts, suggests that the bacteria are a common part of the microflora found within the composts tested. It is widely recognised that Legionella bacteria are commonly present in the environment and the researchers have found that compost could be a potential source of infection. Dr Tara K. Beattie, of the University ...

Researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas have taken a step toward developing a new treatment to aid the recovery of limb function after strokes. In a study published online in the journal Neurobiology of Disease, researchers report the full recovery of forelimb strength in animals receiving vagus nerve stimulation. "Stroke is a leading cause of disability worldwide," said Dr. Navid Khodaparast, a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences and lead author of the study. "Every 40 seconds, someone in the U.S. has a stroke. Our results ...

All of the absences from work for depression, certified by doctors, were recorded as well as many questionnaires measuring depressive moods. The results, which will be published in The American Journal of Epidemiology, do not indicate any significant association between a person experiencing the symptoms of depression during their lifetime and their subsequently contracting cancer. The continuing increase in incidences of cancer in France is a subject that concerns healthcare professionals, patients and their families. Although research has not yet solved all of the enigmas ...

A new American Chemical Society (ACS) video focuses on the world's most sensitive explosive detector to date. Known as FIDO, the handheld detector has been used to detect roadside bombs in Iraq, as well as in homeland security operations and airport security. The video, the latest episode in ACS' Prized Science series, is available at http://www.acs.org/PrizedScience and on DVD. "Dogs are the gold standard [for explosive detection]… but they have some limitations," explains Tim Swager, Ph.D., winner of the 2013 ACS Award for Creative Invention for his work on the device. ...

Early treatment of heart attack patients with an inexpensive beta-blocker drug called metoprolol, while in transit to the hospital, can significantly reduce damage to the heart during a myocardial infarction, according to clinical trial study results published Oct. 1 in the journal Circulation. The study was a collaboration between Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III (CNIC) in Spain and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. The study, involving emergency ambulances and seven hospitals across Spain, shows this simple, low-cost ...

For most women, childbirth is an intense experience, culminating in the joy of delivering a newborn, swaddled and sweet, resting in the mother's arms within hours. Yet for those who deliver their babies prematurely, the experience is bereft of such bonding, laden with anxiety, confusion, and doubt. "Having a prematurely born baby is like a nightmare for the mother," explains Lisa Segre, assistant professor in the University of Iowa College of Nursing. "You're expecting to have a healthy baby, and suddenly you're left wondering whether he or she is going to live." These ...

Washington, DC, October 1, 2013 – Administration of antibiotics may have caused successive outbreaks of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) in a Greek neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), according to a study in the October issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC). A team of physicians at the Aristotle University School of Medicine in Greece responded to two occurrences of VRE in their 44-bed NICU with a bundled intervention of active surveillance, ...

Montreal, October 1, 2013 – October is Canada's Healthy Workplace Month, but how does one stay mentally fit after the 40-hour workweek is traded in for the gold watch? The more you want to use your brain — and the more you enjoy doing it — the more likely you are to stay sharp as you age. This is according to findings recently published in the Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences by a team of Concordia University researchers. The new study has three major findings that can help forecast cognitive ability in one's golden years: The more one seeks out ...

What does the assistive robot of the future look like? It depends. A new study from the Georgia Institute of Technology finds that older and younger people have varying preferences about what they would want a personal robot to look like. And they change their minds based on what the robot is supposed to do. Participants were shown a series of photos portraying either robotic, human or mixed human-robot faces and were asked to select the one that they would prefer for their robot's appearance. Most college-aged adults in the study preferred a robotic appearance, although ...

Philadelphia, Pa. (October 1, 2013) – A new study released today shows that among patients undergoing surgery for chronic wounds related to diabetes, the risk of wound-related complications is affected by how well the patient's blood sugar levels are controlled before surgery. These findings appear in the October issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). The risk of serious wound complications is more than three times higher for patients who have high blood glucose before and after surgery, ...

Controversy about the risks of measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines has been rumbling in the United States for years -- and now it's Israel's turn. After finding traces of the polio virus in sewage, Israel's Ministry of Health launched a national vaccination campaign that reached more than half a million children. Surprisingly, dissenting voices flooded social media and the mainstream news, calling for a halt to the campaign. Endorsements by public figures, like Israel's president Shimon Peres, did little to calm the storm. Now a study led by researchers at Tel Aviv University ...