The new method designed by the team, described in the journal Science, identified these variants in the under-explored regions of DNA that do not code for proteins, but instead influence activity of other genes. As even more whole genome sequences become available, this approach can be applied to find any potential disease-causing variant in the non-coding regions of the genome…
It was published early online October 4, 2013 in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, and Prevention. …
Data analysis showed cancer survivors in rural areas who were aged 65 or older were 66 percent more likely to forgo medical care and 54 percent more likely to forgo dental care because of cost, compared with their urban counterparts. "This is the first population-based study to examine whether cancer survivors in rural and urban areas are equally likely to forgo health care as a result of concerns about cost," said Nynikka Palmer, Dr.P.H., M.P.H., postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Social Sciences and Health Policy at Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C. "We found a disparity among older survivors, for whom health insurance coverage through Medicare is almost universal, while no disparity was found for younger survivors after controlling for various factors. This suggests that health insurance coverage alone may not ensure equal access to health care…
Published in the Oct. 4 issue of the journal Cancer, the study also found considerable geographic variation in the cost of prostate cancer screening…
“Local delivery of therapeutic agents into the breast, through intra-nipple injection, could diminish the side effects typically observed with systemic chemotherapy—where the toxic drugs pass through all of the tissues of the body,” said Dr. Silva Krause, one of the researchers behind the experiment, “It also prevents drug breakdown by the liver, for example, which can rapidly reduce effective drug levels.” According to Silva, she and her colleagues have already begun experimentation in applying the method. “The authors have utilized this technique to inject a new nanoparticle-based therapeutic that inhibits a specific gene that drives breast cancer formation,” said Silva, “This targeted treatment was shown to prevent cancer progression in mice that spontaneously develop mammary tumors, [and] is currently in review in Science Translational Medicine.” In order to better communicate their procedure, Silva and her colleagues decided to publish with JoVE. …
In the study, Spanish-speaking parents whose daughters were not fully vaccinated said their providers either did not encourage the vaccine or didn’t explain that three shots were necessary for full protection. Parents also noted that the vaccine undermined the "no sex before marriage" message they were trying to convey. …
Reuben Kapur, Ph.D., the Frieda and Albrecht Kipp Professor of Pediatrics at the IU School of Medicine and a researcher at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center, and colleagues discovered in pre-clinical and pharmacological models that cancer cells with a mutation in the KIT receptor — an oncogenic/cancerous form of the receptor — in mast cell leukemia and acute myeloid leukemia can be stopped. Their findings were published online Sept…
A new method developed by researchers at Princeton University and the University of Michigan called "in silico nano-dissection" uses computers rather than scalpels to separate and identify genes from specific cell types, enabling the systematic study of genes involved in diseases. The team used the new method to successfully identify genes expressed in cells known as podocytes — the "work-horses" of the kidney — that malfunction in kidney disease. The investigators showed that certain patterns of activity of these genes were correlated with the severity of kidney impairment in patients, and that the computer-based approach was significantly more accurate than existing experimental methods in mice at identifying cell-lineage-specific genes…
That’s according to research presented to the 2013 European Cancer Congress in Amsterdam. The team of scientists is led by an investigator at University of Colorado Cancer Center. An analysis of 20,034 patients in 24 phase III clinical trials showed that the youngest and oldest patients had the highest risk of disease progression and death, compared to middle-aged patients…
But unlike in women, neither soy protein nor a common antidepressant provides relief for men, according to researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. Hot flashes occur in approximately 80 percent of men who are undergoing hormone manipulation as treatment for prostate cancer. Hormone therapy reduces the levels of male hormones, called androgens, to prevent them from reaching prostate cancer cells and stimulating their growth. "Changing hormone levels cause hot flashes in both women and men, so we hoped that using soy supplements and/or an antidepressant would help reduce them in men as it does in many women," said Mara Vitolins, Dr…