In this News Digest: Summary of a study being published online April 8, 2013 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, reports that adding cetuximab (Erbitux) to chemotherapy enabled previously inoperable patients to undergo surgery, tripling the rates of successful surgery for liver metastasis. The combination of cetuximab and chemotherapy extended median overall survival for this population of patients by 10 months compared with chemotherapy alone. Quote for attribution to Neal Meropol, MD, American Society of Clinical Oncology Cancer Communications Committee member ...

Newborn babies' immune system development and levels of vitamin D have been found to vary according to their month of birth, according to new research. The research, from scientists at Queen Mary, University of London and the University of Oxford, provides a potential biological basis as to why an individual's risk of developing the neurological condition multiple sclerosis (MS) is influenced by their month of birth. It also supports the need for further research into the potential benefits of vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy. Around 100,000 people in the ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Tumor suppression, the family business of the sibling genes p53, p63 and p73, is undermined from within by the split personalities of p63 and p73, which each produce protein forms that not only block the work of the other two genes but also shut down its own cancer-stifling fraternal twin. In a presentation at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013, scientists from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center demonstrate that tumor suppression can be restored in mice that lack p53 by knocking out the ∆N isoforms of p63 and p73 that interfere with tumor ...

The novel c-MET and VEGFR2 inhibitor, XL-184 (Cabozantinib), resulted in a significant decrease in tumor growth in 12 out of 12 colorectal cancer (CRC) patient-derived explants, with 8 of the explants exhibiting stable disease. The results of this preclinical work are presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013. "With molecularly targeted agents, we typically see 3 or 4 CRC explant models with a significant decrease in tumor growth. Here we have a drug that was active in every explant we tested. It's really exciting," says John Arcaroli, PhD, investigator at the University ...

The process of autophagy cleans cells – they wrap up the bad stuff and then dispose of it. And so it stands to reason that inhibiting autophagy would make cancer cells less able to cleanse themselves of chemotherapy and so more susceptible to the drugs. That's what the traditional anti-malaria drug, chloroquine, does – it inhibits autophagy. Existing clinical trials are testing chloroquine/chemotherapy combinations against breast cancer. Research presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013 shows that some breast cancer subtypes depend on autophagy more than others – and ...

WASHINGTON, DC – Autophagy, the process by which cells that are starved for food resort to chewing up their own damaged proteins and membranes and recycling them into fuel, has emerged as a key pathway that cancer cells use to survive in the face of assault by chemotherapy and radiation. Using drugs to shut down that survival mechanism shows great promise, especially when combined with targeted agents and standard chemotherapies, but until recently, it has been unclear which patients' cancers would respond to that combination therapy. A team led by researchers from the ...

Controlling the shapes of nanometer-sized catalytic and electrocatalytic particles made from noble metals such as platinum and palladium may be more complicated than previously thought. Using systematic experiments, researchers have investigated how surface diffusion – a process in which atoms move from one site to another on nanoscale surfaces – affects the final shape of the particles. The issue is important for a wide range of applications that use specific shapes to optimize the activity and selectivity of nanoparticles, including catalytic converters, fuel cell ...

Older adults who categorise themselves as old and frail encourage attitudinal and behavioural confirmation of that identity. This is the conclusion of a study conducted by Krystal Warmoth and colleagues at University of Exeter Medical School, which is being presented today, 9th April 2013, at the British Psychological Society Annual Conference in Harrogate, UK. Krystal Warmoth interviewed 29 older adults in the South West of England face-to-face. Interviews conducted asked about their experiences of ageing and frailty. Self-perception and identification related to ...

When small particles flow through thin capillaries, they display an unusual orientation behaviour. This has recently been discovered by a research team led by Prof. Stephan Förster and Prof. Walter Zimmermann (University of Bayreuth, Germany) at the X-ray sources DORIS III and PETRA III of the research centre DESY in Hamburg, Germany. The discovery is of major importance for spinning processes designed for the production of synthetic fibres, and for the understanding of vascular stenosis. The scientists of Bayreuth University, the Radboud University Nijmegen (Netherlands), ...

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown they can coax cells to move toward a beam of light. The feat is a first step toward manipulating cells to control insulin secretion or heart rate using light. Their research is published April 8 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Online Early Edition. "We have succeeded in using light as a kind of on-off switch to control cells' behavior," says principal investigator N. Gautam, PhD, a professor of anesthesiology. "Much of the way cells behave is due to their ability to ...

The Gulf of Mexico may have a much greater natural ability to self-clean oil spills than previously believed, according to Terry Hazen, University of Tennessee-Oak Ridge National Laboratory Governor's Chair for Environmental Biotechnology. The bioremediation expert presented his Deepwater Horizon disaster research findings at the 245th National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society. Hazen conducted research following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, which is estimated to have spilled 210 million gallons ...

April 8, 2013, New York, NY and San Diego Calif. – Proteins that control cell growth are often mutated in cancer, and their aberrant signaling drives the wild proliferation of cells that gives rise to tumors. One such protein, the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), fuels a wide variety of cancers—including a highly malignant brain cancer known as glioblastoma. Yet drugs devised to block its signaling tend to work only for a short while, until the cancer cells adapt to evade the therapy. So far, much of the research examining such drug resistance has focused on how ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – April 8, 2013— A team of researchers, led by Marc Freeman, PhD, an early career scientist with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and associate professor of neurobiology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School have discovered a gene in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster that, when mutant, blocks the self-destruction of damaged axons, which could hold clues to treating motor neuron diseases, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). A neuron has a very distinctive form – a bush of dendrites that receive signals, an incredibly long axon, ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Although no exact formula for marital bliss exists, a University of Missouri researcher has found that husbands and wives are happier when they share household and child-rearing responsibilities. However, sharing responsibilities doesn't necessarily mean couples divide chores equally, said Adam Galovan, a doctoral student in the MU Department of Human Development and Family Studies. "Sharing can mean something different to every couple," Galovan said. "It could be taking turns changing diapers or one parent watching the children while the other prepares ...

Several studies have examined the impact of stress on a pregnancy – both chronic stress, such as workload, and acute stress associated with traumatic events like the 9/11 terrorist attacks. They conclude that stress can lead to adverse birth outcomes, including miscarriage and premature birth. Few studies, however, assess the impact of continuous military or political stress throughout a pregnancy, says Prof. Liat Lerner-Geva of Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Women and Children's Health Research Unit at The Gertner Institute for Epidemiology ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- A multidisciplinary team of researchers at Mayo Clinic has developed a new software tool to noninvasively characterize pulmonary adenocarcinoma, a common type of cancerous nodule in the lungs. Results from a pilot study of the computer-aided nodule assessment and risk yield (CANARY) are published in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology. "Pulmonary adenocarcinoma is the most common type of lung cancer and early detection using traditional computed tomography (CT) scans can lead to a better prognosis," says Tobias Peikert, M.D., a Mayo Clinic pulmonologist ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A new study by a Rhode Island Hospital researcher has found that traumatic brain injury (TBI) can significantly increase the odds of having major depression, personality impulsivity and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in patients with psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES). The paper, by W. Curt LaFrance Jr., M.D., M.P.H., director of neuropsychiatry and behavioral neurology, is published online in advance of print in the journal Epilepsia. "Some patients who sustain a TBI develop seizures," LaFrance said. "Very often, these seizures are believed ...

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., APRIL 8, 2013 – A study published today in Obstetrics & Gynecology shows that multistate, hospital-based quality improvement programs can be remarkably effective at reducing early elective deliveries of babies. The rate of elective early term deliveries (i.e., inductions of labor and Cesarean sections without a medical reason) in a group of 25 participating hospitals fell significantly from 27.8 percent to 4.8 percent during the one-year project period, an 83 percent decline. The March of Dimes, which partly funded the study, calls the findings ...

Computer scientists at the University of California, San Diego, have developed an immersive, first-person player video game designed to teach students in elementary to high school how to program in Java, one of the most common programming languages in use today. The researchers tested the game on a group of 40 girls, ages 10 to 12, who had never been exposed to programming before. They detailed their findings in a paper they presented at the SIGCSE conference in March in Denver. Computer scientists found that within just one hour of play, the girls had mastered some of ...

Fear of public speaking tops death and spiders as the nation's number one phobia. But new research shows that learning to rethink the way we view our shaky hands, pounding heart, and sweaty palms can help people perform better both mentally and physically. Before a stressful speaking task, simply encouraging people to reframe the meaning of these signs of stress as natural and helpful was a surprisingly effective way of handling stage fright, found the study to be published online April 8 in Clinical Psychological Science. "The problem is that we think all stress is ...

Patients with type 2 diabetes who tailor their own treatment in cooperation with their doctor can reduce their risk of complications such as heart attack with up to 20 percent. This is the result of a new Danish study from the Research Unit for General Practice, University of Copenhagen. Patients who cooperate with their general practitioner and set personal goals for treatment while receiving continuous feedback from their doctor can reduce their risk of complications with up to 20 percent. This is one of the research results of a Danish study just published, "Diabetes ...

The World Heart Federation has published a new position statement outlining the five key strategic targets required to meet its strategic goal for rheumatic heart disease (RHD) – a 25% reduction in premature deaths from rheumatic fever (RF) and RHD among individuals aged END ...

This press release is available in Spanish. The study analyzes the potential of social networks such as Twitter and Facebook to coordinate people. In recent years there have been a number of examples of how social networks have served to mobilize volunteers during natural disasters, political campaigns, health emergencies, etc. But can we really depend on the use of social networks to carry out these tasks? And if it is possible, what is the risk that this strategy will fail? Using recent results of the spacio-temporal structure of social networks and experimental ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio—When renowned explorer Richard E. Byrd returned from the first-ever flight to the North Pole in 1926, he sparked a controversy that remains today: Did he actually reach the pole? Studying supercomputer simulations of atmospheric conditions on the day of the flight and double-checking Byrd's navigation techniques, a researcher at The Ohio State University has determined that Byrd indeed neared the Pole, but likely only flew within 80 miles of it before turning back to the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen. Gerald Newsom, professor emeritus of astronomy at ...

A study at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine has identified a chicken-killing virus as a promising treatment for prostate cancer in humans. Researchers have discovered that a genetically engineered Newcastle disease virus, which harms chickens but not humans, kills prostate cancer cells of all kinds, including hormone-resistant cancer cells. The work of Dr. Elankumaran Subbiah, an associate professor of virology in the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology at Virginia Tech, along with Dr. Siba Samal, associate dean and chairman ...