PHILADELPHIA — Researchers have further established that long-term use of statins is unlikely to substantially increase or decrease overall cancer risk, according to study results presented at the Ninth Annual AACR Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research Conference, held Nov. 7-10, 2010, in Philadelphia. Statins are a class of drugs commonly used in the United States to lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. While study results to date have shown that short-term use of statins has little effect on risk of developing cancer, not much is known ...

PHILADELPHIA — Despite strong evidence of its effectiveness, few of the young women who are eligible for the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine take it, according to research presented at the Ninth Annual AACR Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research Conference, held Nov. 7-10. What's more, many of the teens who begin treatment do not complete the recommended three-dose regimen. "Only about one-third of young women who begin the three-dose series actually complete it; this means that large numbers of teenagers are unprotected or under-protected from strains of HPV that ...

An analysis of nationally representative data suggests that being obese in adolescence increases the risk of being severely obese in adulthood, with the risk higher in women, and highest for black women, according to a study in the November 10 issue of JAMA. Individuals with severe obesity (body mass index [BMI] 40 or greater) encounter serious and potentially life-threatening health complications. "In 2000, an estimated 2.2 percent of adults, or 4.8 million individuals, were severely obese, with a disproportionately higher prevalence in women and racial/ethnic minorities. ...

Implementation in Massachusetts of a computer-automated safety surveillance system of clinical outcomes registries for cardiovascular devices resulted in the identification of a drug-releasing stent that had significantly higher rates of major adverse cardiac events than similar stents, according to a study in the November 10 issue of JAMA. The findings indicate that this type of system appears feasible and useful in identifying new cardiovascular devices with early low-frequency potential safety issues that are not observed in premarket approval studies. "Monitoring ...

In England, a country with a universal access health care system, there is wide variation between local populations in the rate of death from coronary heart disease, which is largely explained by population characteristics such as low socioeconomic factors, white ethnicity, levels of smoking, and diabetes, according to a study in the November 10 issue of JAMA. "Although mortality from coronary heart disease (CHD) has been steadily decreasing since the 1970s, it is still responsible for 15 percent of all deaths and nearly half of all circulatory disease deaths in England. ...

The quality of public reporting of bloodstream infection rates among hospitals may be effected by the variation in surveillance methods, according to a study in the November 10 issue of JAMA. "Public reporting of hospital-specific infection rates is widely promoted as a means to improve patient safety. Central line [central venous catheter]-associated bloodstream infection (BSI) rates are considered a key patient safety measure because such infections are frequent, lead to poor patient outcomes, are costly to the medical system, and are preventable. Publishing infection ...

DNA methylation plays an important role in many processes such as animal development, X-chromosome inactivation, and carcinogenesis. Understanding the mechanisms and functions of DNA methylation and how it varies from tissue to tissue and between individuals will have profound implications for human health and disease. A team of Chinese researchers decoded the essentially complete methylome (an inventory of all the bases that are methylated) of the human genome using peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). The results will be published in the online, open access journal ...

Probiotic bacteria given as therapies for diarrhoea reduce the length of time sufferers are affected and lessen the chance of episodes continuing for more than four days. These are the findings of a new systematic review by Cochrane researchers. Every year, diarrhoeal diseases kill nearly two million people in developing countries, mostly young children. The main treatment is rehydration fluids, but these do not tend to reduce the length of illness, which is crucial in reducing the risk of persistent diarrhoea. Probiotics, so-called "good bacteria", may help in a variety ...

Working to change the behaviour of family members may be an effective treatment for people with schizophrenia, according to a new Cochrane systematic review. The researchers reviewed the most up-to-date evidence on the subject and found that patients whose families received the interventions were less likely to relapse. It has long been known that people who have schizophrenia are more likely to relapse if they come from families where they experience high levels of criticism, hostility and over involvement. New psychosocial interventions that aim to reduce levels of ...

A gene thought to be responsible for initiating human cancer has been identified by researchers at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry. The study - published online today (9 November) in the journal Cancer Research - paves the way for developing early cancer diagnostic tests, and finding new treatments that prevent or stop the spread of cancer cells at an early stage. Led by Dr Muy-Tek Teh of the Institute of Dentistry at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry researchers have shown that a gene called FOXM1 exploits the inherent self-renewal ...

BOSTON, MA (Nov. 9, 2010) - With so few Americans consuming the recommended amounts of fruit each day, finding quick and simple ways to add additional fruit servings – and the important nutrients they provide – is more critical than ever. Although USDA recognizes that 4-oz of 100 percent juice supplies one serving (1/2 cup) of fruit, there is still confusion regarding the healthfulness of juice. New research presented today at the American Dietetic Association (ADA) Annual Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo (FNCE) clearly highlights the benefits of 100 percent juice, ...

CLEVELAND – November 9, 2010—Texting while driving can be a deadly combination for anyone. Yet, new data released today reveal that the dangers of excessive texting among teens are not limited to the road. Hyper-texting and hyper-networking are now giving rise to a new health risk category for this age group. Scott Frank, MD, MS, lead researcher on the study and director of the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine Master of Public Health program, presented the findings today at the American Public Health Association's 138th Annual Meeting & Exposition in Denver. Researchers ...

Young children who don't like school are more likely to be involved in underage drinking and sexual activity. A study reported in BioMed Central's open access journal Substance Abuse, Treatment, Prevention and Policy, has found that pupils' general wellbeing and specific satisfaction with school were both associated with the incidence of risky behaviors. Professor Mark Bellis worked with a team of researchers from the Centre for Public Health, Liverpool John Moores University, to carry out the study in more than 3500 11-14 year olds from 15 schools in the North West of ...

While policy and research traditionally have focused on universities' contributions to technology transfer - such as patents, licences and spin-outs - the findings show that the impact from knowledge exchange is much more wide-ranging. Survey data revealed that business motivations to enter into partnerships with researchers include service development, human resource management, training and marketing. "Our findings show that technology transfer is important, but this presents an incomplete representation of the wide process of knowledge exchange that takes place between ...

Your postcode could affect your risk of dying from a heart attack, a new study from the University of Leicester has discovered. Medical researchers from the University set out to determine why death rates from coronary heart disease (heart attacks) varied around the country and found that living in a deprived area contributed to your risk. The study has for the first time established an association at national level between detection of hypertension and death rates from coronary heart disease. The Leicester team, from the Department of Health Sciences, analysed whether ...

Researchers at the University of Derby and colleagues at the University of Cambridge believe they have found which species has the largest testicles in relation to body weight on the planet – and why! Yet the research team also discovered that large testes did not necessarily relate to a larger amount of sperm produced – which goes against traditional thinking in the science world. Biologists at the University of Derby, which led the research project, say that the Tuberous Bushcricket (Platycleis affinis) produces testes which are 14% of the male body mass, according ...

Carotenoid pigments are the source of many of the animal kingdom's most vivid colours; flamingos' pink feathers come from eating carotenoid-containing shrimps and algae, and carotenoid colours can be seen among garden birds in blackbirds' orange beaks and blue tits' yellow breast feathers. These pigments play a crucial role in sexual signals. According to the study's lead author Dr Tom Pike of the University of Exeter: "Females typically use carotenoid colours to assess the quality of a potential mate, with more colourful males generally being regarded as the most attractive." This ...

A simple "how are you" delivered weekly through cell phone text messaging (SMS) increases the likelihood that Kenyans with HIV will stay healthy and follow their medication regimen, while reducing the spread of the disease, according to a new study led by a University of British Columbia researcher. Published online today in The Lancet, the study found that patients in Kenya who received weekly SMS “check-ins” were 12 per cent more likely than a control group to have an undetectable level of the HIV virus a year after starting antiretroviral (ART) treatment. Undetectable ...

(GLASGOW, 9 November 2010) – Results from a European Observational Study, which included 1,294 antiretroviral (ARV)-experienced patients presented today at the Tenth International Congress on Drug Therapy in HIV Infection (HIV10), demonstrated a low rate of discontinuation and sustained virologic suppression with REYATAZ® (atazanavir)/ritonavir-based regimens over a follow-up period of up to five years.1 The aim of this study was to investigate the long-term outcomes of REYATAZ/ritonavir-containing regimens in ARV-experienced patients in a real-life clinical setting. ...

In a study of more than 9,600 adolescent and young adult women in the Baltimore area, researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have found that fewer than 30 percent of those eligible to receive the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine to prevent cervical cancer actually chose to get it. And only about a third of those who began receiving the vaccine completed the three doses recommended for maximum protection. The research, which was led by J. Kathleen Tracy, Ph.D., an assistant professor of epidemiology, will be presented on Nov. 9, 2010, at a cancer ...

Washington, D.C. (November 9, 2010) -- Current medical techniques for monitoring the heart rate and other vital signs use electrodes attached to the body, which are impractical for patients who want to move around. Plasma physicist Atsushi Mase, a scientist at Kyushu University in Japan, and colleague Daisuke Nagae have developed a new technique to disconnect people from their electrodes by using microwaves. The work, which could lead to the development of non-invasive, real-time stress sensing in a variety of environments, is described in a recent issue of the journal ...

Washington, D.C. (November 9, 2010) -- A switch to wind energy will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions -- and reduce the global warming they cause. But there's a catch, says climate researcher Diandong Ren, a research scientist at the University of Texas at Austin in a paper appear in the AIP's Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy: rising temperatures decrease wind speeds, making for less power bang for the wind turbine buck. The prevailing winds in the "free" atmosphere about 1,000 meters above the ground are maintained by a temperature gradient that decreases ...

Washington, D.C. (November 9, 2010) -- Microscopically porous polymer membranes have numerous applications in microfluidics, where they can act as filters, masks for surface patterning, and even as components in 3D devices in which the perforations in stacked membranes are aligned to form networks of channels for the flow of fluids. In the AIP journal Biomicrofluidics, Hongkai Wu, a chemist at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and his colleagues describe a simple new method using just one photolithographic step to fabricate free-standing polymer membranes ...

Washington, D.C. (November 9, 2010) -- Researchers at the University of Maryland have proposed a scheme for detecting a concealed source of radioactive material without searching containers one by one. Detection of radioactive material concealed in shipping containers is important in the early prevention of "dirty" bomb construction. The concept, described in the Journal of Applied Physics, is based on the gamma-ray emission from the radioactive material that would pass through the shipping container walls and ionize the surrounding air. The facilitated breakdown of ...

Washington, D.C. (November 9, 2010) -- Walk into nearly any science museum worth its salt and you're likely to see a Foucault pendulum, a simple but impressive device for observing the Earth's rotation. Such pendulums have been around for more than 150 years, and little about how they work remains a mystery today. The only problem, according to Argentinean researcher Horacio Salva, is that the devices are generally large and unwieldy, making them impractical to install in places where space is at a premium. This limitation was something he and his colleagues at the Centro ...