PHILADELPHIA — New insight into the aggressive behavior of certain adult B-acute lymphoblastic leukemias has provided researchers with a potential new prognostic biomarker and a promising new therapeutic target. The research, conducted by Ari Melnick, M.D., associate professor of medicine and director of the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Center for Biomedical and Physical Sciences at Weill Cornell Medical College and a hematologist-oncologist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, and colleagues, was published in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the ...

Neutron scattering experiments have provided new insights into the origin of the side effects of an antifungal drug prescribed all over the world. The analysis conducted by scientists at King's College London and the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble, and published in Scientific Reports, follows 40 years of debate and could help drug developers reduce these harmful complications. Wherever you are in the world, indoors or outdoors, the air you breathe contains fungal spores. Though occasionally linked with allergies, asthma or skin irritations, the majority are easily ...

NEW YORK (Oct. 28, 2012) -- A team of national and international researchers, led by Weill Cornell Medical College scientists, have decoded the key "software" instructions that drive three of the most virulent forms of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). They discovered ALL's "software" is encoded with epigenetic marks, chemical modifications of DNA and surrounding proteins, allowing the research team to identify new potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets. The research, published in Cancer Discovery, is the first study to show how these three different forms of ...

An international team of researchers has shed new light on the natural feeding behaviour of domestic dogs and demonstrated that they will naturally seek a daily dietary intake that is high in fat. The study also showed that some dogs will overeat if given excess food, reinforcing the importance of responsible feeding to help ensure dogs maintain a healthy body weight. The research was conducted by the WALTHAM® Centre for Pet Nutrition – the science centre underpinning Mars Petcare brands such as PEDIGREE®, NUTRO® and ROYAL CANIN. It was undertaken in collaboration with ...

SAN DIEGO — Non-Hispanic black women diagnosed with breast cancer, specifically those with estrogen receptor-positive tumors, are at a significantly increased risk for breast cancer death compared with non-Hispanic white women. "This difference was greatest in the first three years after diagnosis," said Erica Warner, M.P.H., Sc.D., a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Mass., who presented the data at the Fifth AACR Conference on The Science of Cancer Health Disparities, held here Oct. 27-30, 2012. Prior research has shown that non-Hispanic ...

SAN DIEGO — A study comparing how physicians discuss clinical trials during clinical interactions with black patients versus white patients further confirms racial disparities in the quality of communication between physicians and patients. Oncologists provided black patients with less information overall about cancer clinical trials compared with white patients, according to data presented at the Fifth AACR Conference on The Science of Cancer Health Disparities, held here Oct. 27-30, 2012. "Minority patients tend to receive less information, which could, in part, ...

SAN DIEGO — Women in socioeconomically disadvantaged and less affluent areas of Chicago were less likely to live near a mammography facility with various aspects of care compared with women in less socioeconomically disadvantaged and more affluent areas. This finding could be a contributing factor to the association between disadvantaged areas and late-stage breast cancer diagnosis, according to data presented at the Fifth AACR Conference on The Science of Cancer Health Disparities, held here Oct. 27-30, 2012. "Other research has found that women living in disadvantaged ...

SAN DIEGO — An extreme body mass index or high waist-to-hip ratio, both measures of body fat, increased risk for mortality among patients with breast cancer, but this association varied by race/ethnicity, according to recently presented data. Marilyn L. Kwan, Ph.D., a research scientist in the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research in Oakland, Calif., presented these results at the Fifth AACR Conference on The Science of Cancer Health Disparities, held here Oct. 27-30, 2012. Prior research has shown racial/ethnic differences in survival after a ...

SAN DIEGO — Women with aggressive breast cancer were more likely to receive adjuvant chemotherapy, but at the expense of completing locoregional radiation therapy, according to recently presented data. This was especially true in minorities, who were the most likely to present with moderate- to high-grade and symptomatically detected tumors. "Radiation treatment decreases the risk for breast cancer recurring and improves survival from the disease," said Abigail Silva, M.P.H., Susan G. Komen Cancer Disparities Research trainee at the University of Illinois in Chicago, ...

SAN DIEGO — Language barriers and the immigration status of caregivers appear to impact the care of Hispanic children with cancer and affect the experience of the families within the medical system, according to data presented at the Fifth AACR Conference on The Science of Cancer Health Disparities, held here Oct. 27-30, 2012. "Ensuring good communication with patients and their families is as important as the actual therapy we give, regardless of what language is spoken," said Mark Fluchel, M.D., assistant professor in the department of pediatrics, division of hematology-oncology ...

Physicists have proposed an experiment that could force us to make a choice between extremes to describe the behaviour of the Universe. The proposal comes from an international team of researchers from Switzerland, Belgium, Spain and Singapore, and is published today in Nature Physics. It is based on what the researchers call a 'hidden influence inequality'. This exposes how quantum predictions challenge our best understanding about the nature of space and time, Einstein's theory of relativity. "We are interested in whether we can explain the funky phenomena we observe ...

Researchers have identified several genes that are linked to one of the most lethal forms of uterine cancer, serous endometrial cancer. The researchers describe how three of the genes found in the study are frequently altered in the disease, suggesting that the genes drive the development of tumors. The findings appear in the Oct. 28, 2012, advance online issue of Nature Genetics. The team was led by researchers from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health. Cancer of the uterine lining, or endometrium, is the most ...

HOUSTON - Doxorubicin, a 50-year-old chemotherapy drug still in widespread use against a variety of cancers, has long been known to destroy heart tissue, as well as tumors, in some patients. Scientists have identified an unexpected mechanism via the enzyme Top2b that drives the drug's attack on heart muscle, providing a new approach for identifying patients who can safely tolerate doxorubicin and for developing new drugs. A team led by scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reports its findings about the general DNA-damaging drug today in the ...

The idea of taking a mature cell and removing its identity (nuclear reprogramming) so that it can then become any kind of cell, holds great promise for repairing damaged tissue or replacing bone marrow after chemotherapy. Hot on the heels of his recent Nobel prize Dr John B. Gurdon has published today in BioMed Central's open access journal Epigenetics & Chromatin research showing that histone H3.3 deposited by the histone-interacting protein HIRA is a key step in reverting nuclei to a pluripotent type, capable of being any one of many cell types. All of an individual's ...

US CO2 emissions from domestic energy have declined by 8.6% since a peak in 2005, the equivalent of 1.4% per year. However, the researchers warn that more than half of the recent emissions reductions in the power sector may be displaced overseas by the trade in coal. Dr John Broderick, lead author on the report from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, comments: "Research papers and newspaper column inches have focussed on the relative emissions from coal and gas. "However, it is the total quantity of CO2 from the energy system that matters to the climate. ...

Atrial fibrillation, whose prevalence continues to rise, was described last year as the "new epidemic" in cardiovascular disease, even though AF can be successfully controlled by the detection and management of risk factors, by rhythm control treatments, and by the use of antithrombotic therapies.(1) These therapies have been improved in the past few years by the introduction of new anticoagulant drugs, such that AF - like high blood pressure or smoking - may now be considered a "modifiable" risk factor for stroke, whose treatment can reduce the degree of risk. Professor ...

With greenhouse warming, rainfall in the South Pacific islands will depend on two competing effects – an increase due to overall warming and a decrease due to changes in atmospheric water transport – according to a study by an international team of scientists around Matthew Widlansky and Axel Timmermann at the International Pacific Research Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa. In the South Pacific, the study shows, these two effects sometimes cancel each other out, resulting in highly uncertain rainfall projections. Results of the study are published in the 28 October ...

Primates' brains see the world through triangular grids, according to a new study published online Sunday in the journal Nature. Scientists at Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, have identified grid cells, neurons that fire in repeating triangular patterns as the eyes explore visual scenes, in the brains of rhesus monkeys. The finding has implications for understanding how humans form and remember mental maps of the world, as well as how neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's erode those abilities. This is the first time grid cells have ...

STANFORD, Calif. — Researchers have learned how a man-made molecule destroys complexes that induce allergic responses — a discovery that could lead to the development of highly potent, rapidly acting interventions for a host of acute allergic reactions. The study, which will be published online Oct. 28 in Nature, was led by scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the University of Bern, Switzerland. The new inhibitor disarms IgE antibodies, pivotal players in acute allergies, by detaching the antibody from its partner in crime, a molecule called ...

STANFORD, Calif. — Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also called Lou Gehrig's disease, is a devastatingly cruel neurodegenerative disorder that robs sufferers of the ability to move, speak and, finally, breathe. Now researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and San Francisco's Gladstone Institutes have used baker's yeast — a tiny, one-celled organism — to identify a chink in the armor of the currently incurable disease that may eventually lead to new therapies for human patients. "Even though yeast and humans are separated by a billion years of evolution, ...

Scientists have developed a prototype ultra-sensitive sensor that would enable doctors to detect the early stages of diseases and viruses with the naked eye, according to research published today in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. The team, from Imperial College London, report that their visual sensor technology is ten times more sensitive than the current gold standard methods for measuring biomarkers. These indicate the onset of diseases such as prostate cancer and infection by viruses including HIV. The researchers say their sensor would benefit countries where ...

Using peer mentors to enhance school-day physical activity in elementary aged students has been given an A+ from Nova Scotia researchers. And the increased physical activity levels got top grades for significantly improving both academic test scores and cardiovascular fitness levels. Funded principally by the Nova Scotia Research Foundation and supported by community partners including the Heart and Stroke Foundation, research by principal investigator Dr. Camille Hancock Friesen and her team at the Maritime Heart Center (MHC) found that peer mentors can significantly ...

Kids born to moms who have lost a substantial amount of weight after undergoing bariatric surgery have fewer cardiovascular risk factors than their siblings who were born before the weight loss surgery. This is because the metabolic changes and weight loss that occur after the surgery have a positive effect on inflammatory disease-related genes in the offspring, according to a new study presented at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress, co-hosted by the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society. "Our research found that maternal obesity affects ...

A regular exercise routine can make you fitter than ever – mentally fit. In a new study, previously sedentary adults were put through four months of high-intensity interval training. At the end, their cognitive functions – the ability to think, recall and make quick decisions – had improved significantly, says Dr. Martin Juneau, director of prevention at the Montreal Heart Institute. "If you talk to people who exercise, they say they feel sharper. Now we've found a way to measure that," says Dr. Juneau. Blood flow to the brain increases during exercise. The more fit ...

It's a tragic news story that often makes headlines – a young, healthy, fit athlete suddenly collapses and dies of cardiac arrest while playing sports. Dr. Andrew Krahn of the University of British Columbia, presenting a study at the 2012 Canadian Cardiovascular Congress about sudden cardiac death in Ontario, suggests this is a problem that warrants attention, but says don't blame the sports. Reviewing coroners' reports, Dr. Krahn and a team of researchers found there were 174 cases of presumed sudden death in Ontario in 2008 in people aged two to 40 years. Heart ...