ScienceDaily: Health & Medicine News

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• Clinical trial studies vaccine targeting cancer stem cells in brain cancers
• Scientists develop powerful new animal model for metastatic prostate cancer
• Do patient decision support interventions lead to savings? A systematic review
• Maternal-fetal medicine professionals identify ways to reduce first cesarean
• Patient participation in surgical safety checklist a win-win
• System leads to 47 percent more 'on-time' surgeries
• Researchers developing new approach for imaging dense breasts for abnormalities
• New prostate cancer drugs may not target root cause of disease, scientists warn
• Diabetes: Having a spouse with diabetes is a risk factor for diabetes yourself
• Simple protein test could improve prediction of survival rates for patients with head, neck cancer
• Birch helps wounds heals faster
• Dietary treatment shows potential in mouse model of Alzheimer's disease
• Patients receiving ADT should be counseled to improve mental, emotional well-being
• Ultrasound training should be implemented early into medical education programs
• Almost 200 years later, are we living in the final days of the stethoscope?
• Would criminalizing guilty healthcare professionals improve patient care?
• Small size in early pregnancy linked to poor heart health later in life
• Putting a Brake on Tumor Spread
• New clues may link hereditary cancer genes to increased risk of cancer from alcohol
• Moms favor daughters in dairy study
• Sickle cell trait in African-American dialysis patients affects dosing of anemia medications
• Better eating habits, not bad economy, stabilized obesity rates
• The $125 billion question: How will the ACA affect cancer survivors?
• Experiments show hypothesis of microtubule steering accurate
• To stay a step ahead of breast cancer, make a map of the future

Clinical trial studies vaccine targeting cancer stem cells in brain cancers Posted: 25 Jan 2014 02:22 PM PST An early-phase clinical trial of an experimental vaccine that targets cancer stem cells in patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme, the most common and aggressive malignant brain tumor, has been launched.

Scientists develop powerful new animal model for metastatic prostate cancer Posted: 24 Jan 2014 01:12 PM PST Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer in men, yet research has been stymied by imperfect animal models of the disease. Now, scientists have developed a new method to rapidly create much better mouse models for the most lethal, terminal events of metastatic prostate cancer. This discovery allows scientists to investigate the causes of the disease while at the same time testing new therapeutics to treat it.

Do patient decision support interventions lead to savings? A systematic review Posted: 24 Jan 2014 01:12 PM PST Publicity surrounding the implementation of patient decision support interventions traditionally focuses on two areas of improvement: helping patients make better decisions AND lowering health care spending. The use of patient decision support interventions as a means to generate health care savings has been widely advocated, but the extent and quality of evidence is unclear. A systematic review found that the evidence for savings was not as broad or deep as suspected.

Maternal-fetal medicine professionals identify ways to reduce first cesarean Posted: 24 Jan 2014 01:12 PM PST A recently published article outlines a collaboration of specialists providing obstetrical care in helping to identify opportunities to reduce unnecessary first cesarean deliveries.

Patient participation in surgical safety checklist a win-win Posted: 24 Jan 2014 01:12 PM PST Patients feel safer – and likely are safer – when they receive a surgical safety checklist and request that their health care providers use it, suggests a pilot study.

System leads to 47 percent more 'on-time' surgeries Posted: 24 Jan 2014 01:12 PM PST Implementing a system to ensure the surgical team uses the most effective practices resulted in significant improvements in operating room performance, suggests research.

Researchers developing new approach for imaging dense breasts for abnormalities Posted: 24 Jan 2014 08:11 AM PST Engineers and radiologists develop new approach for diagnostic imaging of dense breasts with suspicious lesions. MRI/near-infrared spectroscopy technique offers greater flexibility, speed, and accuracy. Technology shows promise for improving MRI's ability to distinguish cancer from benign abnormalities.

New prostate cancer drugs may not target root cause of disease, scientists warn Posted: 24 Jan 2014 08:07 AM PST New drugs being developed for the treatment of prostate cancer may not be targeting the root cause of the disease, according to research published.

Diabetes: Having a spouse with diabetes is a risk factor for diabetes yourself Posted: 24 Jan 2014 05:27 AM PST Living in a household implies sharing duties and responsibilities but it could also imply sharing your diabetes. Medical researchers have shown, through combined analyses of several studies, evidence that spousal diabetes is a diabetes risk factor.

Simple protein test could improve prediction of survival rates for patients with head, neck cancer Posted: 24 Jan 2014 05:26 AM PST Scientists used a simple protein test that could prove more useful in predicting survival chances for patients with head-and-neck cancer compared to existing methods. The team believes the test could allow doctors to choose more appropriate and tailored treatments. Oral cancers, including the tongue and tonsils, are usually associated with tobacco and alcohol intake. However, increasing numbers of cases are instead linked to human papillomaviruses (HPV).

Birch helps wounds heals faster Posted: 24 Jan 2014 05:26 AM PST Pharmaceutical researchers elucidate the effect of a natural extract -- from birch trees.

Dietary treatment shows potential in mouse model of Alzheimer's disease Posted: 24 Jan 2014 05:25 AM PST According to current understanding, Alzheimer's disease develops slowly and it may take up to 20 years before the first obvious symptoms occur. With the development of early diagnostics of the disease, the question of which treatments to offer to completely healthy people with an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's becomes of key importance in the field of medicine. Various dietary treatments seem a promising alternative.

Patients receiving ADT should be counseled to improve mental, emotional well-being Posted: 23 Jan 2014 07:23 PM PST A new study reports that prostate cancer patients treated with androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) experienced changes in mental and emotional well-being during treatment, although there was no meaningful decline in emotional quality of life two years after treatment. Investigators recommend counseling men about the potential adverse effects of ADT as well as the interventions to improve mental and emotional health such as exercise programs and diet.

Ultrasound training should be implemented early into medical education programs Posted: 23 Jan 2014 07:20 PM PST A new paper advocates including ultrasound in medical education programs to realize the full benefits of the technology as early as possible.

Almost 200 years later, are we living in the final days of the stethoscope? Posted: 23 Jan 2014 07:20 PM PST New research suggests the world of medicine could be experiencing its final days of the stethoscope due to the rapid advent of point-of-care ultrasound devices that are becoming increasingly accurate, smaller to the point of being hand-held and less expensive as the years pass.

Would criminalizing guilty healthcare professionals improve patient care? Posted: 23 Jan 2014 07:20 PM PST The UK government is considering whether to adopt a recommendation to introduce a new criminal sanction in cases where healthcare workers are "unequivocally guilty of willful or reckless neglect or mistreatment of patients." A discussion on asks whether this will improve patient care.

Small size in early pregnancy linked to poor heart health later in life Posted: 23 Jan 2014 07:20 PM PST Poor growth in the first three months of pregnancy is associated with a range of cardiovascular risk factors in childhood, finds a study published.

Putting a Brake on Tumor Spread Posted: 23 Jan 2014 07:19 PM PST A team of scientists has found that a protein involved in promoting tumor growth and survival is also activated in surrounding blood vessels, enabling cancer cells to spread into the bloodstream.

New clues may link hereditary cancer genes to increased risk of cancer from alcohol Posted: 23 Jan 2014 07:19 PM PST In laboratory experiments conducted on human cell lines, scientists have shown that people carrying certain mutations in two hereditary cancer genes, BRCA2 and PALB2, may have a higher than usual susceptibility to DNA damage caused by a byproduct of alcohol, called acetaldehyde.

Moms favor daughters in dairy study Posted: 23 Jan 2014 07:19 PM PST Sorry, boys. In the end, mothers favor daughters –- at least when it comes to Holstein dairy cows and how much milk they produce for their offspring, according to a new study. The research may have implications for humans.

Sickle cell trait in African-American dialysis patients affects dosing of anemia medications Posted: 23 Jan 2014 07:19 PM PST African-American dialysis patients with sickle cell trait received about 13% more of the medications used to treat anemia than other African-American patients to reach the same level of hemoglobin. The sickle cell trait was slightly more common in African-American patients on dialysis (10%) than in the general African-American population (6.5% to 8.7%).

Better eating habits, not bad economy, stabilized obesity rates Posted: 23 Jan 2014 09:59 AM PST A study says that it wasn't the economic downturn that created a leveling of U.S. obesity rates. Rather, it is likely a result of more information and efforts aimed at producing healthier food choices and eating habits.

The $125 billion question: How will the ACA affect cancer survivors? Posted: 23 Jan 2014 09:58 AM PST Researchers are currently examining the effects of the ACA on cancer survivor by studying the ACA's impact on Medicaid-eligible populations, employment-based insurance, health benefit exchanges and safety net providers.

Experiments show hypothesis of microtubule steering accurate Posted: 23 Jan 2014 09:55 AM PST Tiny protein motors in cells can steer microtubules in the right direction through branching nerve cell structures, according to researchers who used laboratory experiments to test a model of how these cellular information highways stay organized in living cells.

To stay a step ahead of breast cancer, make a map of the future Posted: 23 Jan 2014 09:55 AM PST Cancer isn't a singular disease, even when talking about one tumor. A tumor consists of a varied mix of cells whose complicated arrangement changes all the time, especially and most vexingly as doctors and patients do their best to fight it. Researchers have now developed a tool to help them predict which direction a tumor is most likely to go and how it might respond to chemotherapy.

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