HOUSTON ― An antibody loaded with an anti-cancer agent produced complete or partial remissions in 38 percent of patients with relapsed or therapy-resistant Hodgkin lymphoma enrolled in a phase I clinical trial, investigators report in the Nov. 4 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. "That level of objective responses to a drug is impressive for a Phase I trial," said study lead author Anas Younes, M.D., professor in The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center's Department of Lymphoma/Myeloma. "These encouraging results are being confirmed in a large ...

SAN DIEGO, Nov. 3 – Stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT), a radiation therapy procedure pioneered at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) that precisely delivers a large dose of radiation to tumors, may effectively control and treat head and neck cancers when combined with the chemotherapy Cetuximab, according to researchers from UPCI. The results of the research will be presented today at the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) annual meeting in San Diego. The study, led by Dwight E. Heron, M.D., professor of otolaryngology and vice chairman ...

PITTSBURGH, Nov. 3 – Medicare patients in regions that spend the most on prescription medications are not necessarily getting better quality care, according to a new study of spending practices from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH). The findings, published in the Nov. 3 Online First issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, reveal great variation across the country in both drug spending and the rate of inappropriate prescriptions for the elderly. Lead investigator Yuting Zhang, Ph.D., assistant professor of health economics at GSPH, ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — When Medicare policy changes led to reductions in reimbursement for hormonal treatment of prostate cancer, there was a sharp decline in its use among patients not likely to benefit from the treatment. But among patients for whom the therapy is clearly beneficial, doctors continued to prescribe it at the same rate, according to a new study. This finding suggests that financial reform of health care can reduce unnecessary care without impacting care to those patients most likely to benefit from a treatment. "We found that physicians respond to reimbursement, ...

Flexible smart materials that can manipulate light to shield objects from view have been much-theorised but now researchers in Scotland have made a practical breakthrough that brings the possibility of an invisibility cardigan – or any other item of invisibility clothing - one step closer. Two challenges to the creation of smart flexible materials that can cloak from visible light are making meta-atoms small enough to interact with visible light, and the fabrication of metamaterials that can be detached from the hard surfaces they are developed on to be used in more ...

November 4, 2010 – The autoimmune disease type 1 diabetes (T1D), also known as juvenile diabetes, is diagnosed in approximately 70,000 children worldwide per year. Genetics is increasingly being recognized as playing a significant role in susceptibility to the disorder, but outside a handful of genes, a clear understanding of the genetic architecture that underlies T1D has remained elusive. In a study published online today in Genome Research (www.genome.org), scientists have identified a novel gene associated with diabetes in mice that is revealing new clues about genomic ...

Researchers at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at the University of California, San Francisco, and Pfizer Inc., have determined that two new compounds may be effective in treating both alcohol and nicotine dependence at the same time. In a paper published in the November 3, 2010 issue of Neuropsychopharmacology, the researchers showed that alcohol consumption in rodents was significantly decreased by two compounds that target neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) subtype 34*. nAChRs are proteins found in the brain and broader ...

Remember the Star Wars scene in which R2D2 projects a three-dimensional image of a troubled Princess Leia delivering a call for help to Luke Skywalker and his allies? What used to be science fiction is now close to becoming reality thanks to a breakthrough in 3D holographic imaging technology developed at the University of Arizona College of Optical Sciences. A team led by optical sciences professor Nasser Peyghambarian developed a new type of holographic telepresence that allows the projection of a three-dimensional, moving image without the need for special eyewear ...

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – November 3, 2010—Scientists at the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease (GIND) have offered new information about the events that underlie the "spread" of Alzheimer's disease (AD) throughout the brain. The research, published in the November 4th issue of the journal Neuron, follows disease progression from a vulnerable brain region that is affected early in the disease to interconnected brain regions that are affected in later stages. The findings may contribute to design of therapeutic interventions, as targeting the brain region where AD originates ...

Many gene variants have been linked to autism, but how do these subtle changes alter the brain, and ultimately, behavior? Using a blend of brain imaging and genetic detective work, scientists at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine and Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior are the first to illustrate how genetic variants rewire the brain. Published in the Nov. 3 online edition of Science Translational Medicine, their discovery offers the crucial missing physical evidence that links altered genes to modified brain function and learning. "This is a key ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Humans have long taken advantage of the huge variety of medicinal compounds produced by plants. Now MIT chemists have found a new way to expand plants' pharmaceutical repertoire by genetically engineering them to produce unnatural variants of their usual products. The researchers, led by Associate Professor Sarah O'Connor, have added bacterial genes to the periwinkle plant, enabling it to attach halogens such as chlorine or bromine to a class of compounds called alkaloids that the plant normally produces. Many alkaloids have pharmaceutical properties, ...

Brain research over the past 30 years has shown that if a part of the brain controlling movement or sensation or language is lost because of a stroke or injury, other parts of the brain can take over the lost function – often as well as the region that was lost. New research at the University of California, Berkeley, shows that this holds true for memory and attention as well, though – at least for memory – the intact brain helps out only when needed and conducts business as usual when it's not. These results support the hypothesis that memory is not stored in one place, ...

Researchers at the University of Arizona (UA), Tucson, have developed a holographic system that can transmit a series of 3D images in near-real-time, a precursor to holographic videoconferencing. The system incorporates a novel, photorefractive polymer--one that can rapidly refresh holographic images and is scalable for production--coupled to a unique system for recording and transmitting 3D images of individuals and objects via Ethernet. Lead author Pierre-Alexandre Blanche and his colleagues from the university and Nitto Denko Technical Corp. of Oceanside, Calif., ...

Stroke is the leading cause of adult disability, due to the brain's limited capacity for recovery. Physical rehabilitation is the only current treatment following a stroke, and there are no medications available to help promote neurological recovery. Now, a new UCLA study published in the Nov. 11 issue of the journal Nature offers insights into a major limitation in the brain's ability to recover function after a stroke and identifies a promising medical therapy to help overcome this limitation. Researchers interested in how the brain repairs itself already know ...

Using the Canadian Light Source synchrotron and the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, a team of researchers from the University of British Columbia has shed light on the ryanodine receptor, a structure within muscle cells that has been linked to life-threatening congenital heart conditions. The findings were published online today in the journal Nature. "The ryanodine receptor is a complex molecular machine within muscle cells," says Filip Van Petegem, an assistant professor in UBC's Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and lead author of the study. ...

TORONTO, Ont. — November 1, 2010 — A drug commonly used in Japan and Korea to treat asthma has been found to stop the spread of breast cancer cells traditionally resistant to chemotherapy, according to a new study led by St. Michael's pathologist Dr. Gerald Prud'homme. "Tranilast, a drug approved for use in Japan and South Korea, and not in use in Canada or the U.S., has been used for more than two decades to treat asthma and other allergic disorders including allergic rhinitis and atopic dermatitis," Dr. Prud'homme says. "Now, our study is the first to discover it not ...

VIDEO: Niemann-Pick type C, a fatal genetic disorder that frequently takes years to diagnose, may now be detectable with a simple blood test, according to researchers at Washington University School of... Click here for more information. A fatal genetic disorder that frequently takes years to diagnose may soon be detectable with a simple blood test, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) report this week ...

TEMPE, Ariz. – Volunteering is known to provide health benefits to the person doing the volunteering. Now, a new study finds that older adults with functional limitations (trouble conducting daily tasks like cooking meals) in particular appear to reap the benefits from helping others. The new study addresses the question of whether the impact of volunteering on risk of mortality was stronger for older adults with or without functional limitations. "As functional limitations increase, the risk of dying increases, but not among those who volunteered," said Morris Okun, ...

A gamma-ray burst is an immensely powerful blast of high-energy light thought to be generated by a collapsing star in a distant galaxy, but what this collapse leaves behind has been a matter of debate. A new analysis of four extremely bright bursts observed by NASA's Fermi satellite suggests that the remnant from a long-duration gamma-ray burst is most likely a black hole – not a rapidly spinning, highly magnetized neutron star, or magnetar since such a burst emits more energy than is theoretically possible from a magnetar. "Some of the events we have been finding ...

Farmland birds that are poorer parents and less "brainy" are faring worse than other farmland bird species, a study at the University of Bristol has found. The new research, published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, found that farmland birds are undergoing dramatic decline across the world, but some bird species are suffering more than others. Unexpectedly, the study also found that medium-sized birds, for example, starlings and skylarks in Europe, rather than large birds were found to suffer more in farmland, unlike studies of other animals in other ...

Stock markets react to crisis in a similar way to plants and the human body, according to a major new study that may help to predict future financial down-turns. An extensive analysis of biological and financial data suggests that systems under stress exhibit similar symptoms, whether they be polluted forests, cancer patients or the FTSE 100. There is an uncanny parallel between the way that humans, animals and plants adapt to harsh living conditions and the behaviour under stress of stock market prices and the banking sector, according to a report on the study by a ...

Stone Age humans were only able to develop relatively advanced tools after their brains evolved a greater capacity for complex thought, according to a new study that investigates why it took early humans almost two million years to move from razor-sharp stones to a hand-held stone axe. Researchers used computer modelling and tiny sensors embedded in gloves to assess the complex hand skills that early humans needed in order to make two types of tools during the Lower Palaeolithic period, which began around 2.5 million years ago. The cross-disciplinary team, involving researchers ...

SEATTLE, Wash.—November 3, 2010—Researchers at the Allen Institute for Brain Science and SRI International have published the most systematic study to date of the effects of sleep deprivation on gene expression in the brain. The findings have implications for improving the understanding and management of the adverse effects of sleep deprivation on brain function. The study, available in Frontiers in Neuroscience, has created an extensive and detailed map of gene activity, known as gene expression, in the mouse brain across five behavioral conditions including sleeping, ...

Researchers from the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center observed a statistically significant increase in mean height, weight, and body mass index (BMI) percentiles in patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) who were treated with etanercept or etanercept plus methotrexate (MTX). JIA patients treated with MTX alone did not display an increase in growth percentiles. Results of the 3-year study are available online and in the November issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American College of Rheumatology. ...

A new study by Greek researchers suggests that the biologic drug bortezomib (Velcade), a proteasome inhibitor used to treat multiple myeloma (bone marrow cancer), may represent a promising treatment for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In this study, bortezomib displayed favorable effects in an animal model of inflammatory arthritis that mimics RA, in reducing disease severity and inflammation, and promoting bone healing. Full findings of this study are published in the November issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism, a journal of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR). RA is ...