Tag Archives: single

Half of smokers using Liverpool Stop Smoking Services used e-cigs

The data — presented at the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) Cancer Conference in Liverpool — also highlights that smokers are more likely to try e-cigarettes if they feel more confident that the products are safer than tobacco smoking. Researchers from the University of Liverpool quizzed more than 320 smokers from the Roy Castle FagEnds study to understand the number of people who used e-cigarettes and what smokers thought about the products. Smokers appear undecided towards e-cigarettes, possibly due to the widely documented uncertainties about safety and effectiveness in helping smokers to successfully break their addiction. Some also viewed using e-cigarettes as an extension of smoking and perceived them as an inferior tool for helping to quit smoking…

‘Normal’ bacteria vital for keeping intestinal lining intact

The research involved the intestinal microbiome, which contains some 100 trillion bacteria. The role of these microorganisms in promoting or preventing disease is a major emerging field of study. Einstein scientists found that absorption of a specific bacterial byproduct is crucial for maintaining the integrity of the intestinal epithelium — the single-cell layer responsible for keeping intestinal bacteria and their toxins inside the gut and away from the rest of the body…

Mutation discovery may improve treatment for rare brain tumor type

The discovery, reported in Nature Genetics, is encouraging, because it may be possible to attack the tumors with targeted drugs already in use for other kinds of tumors, said the investigators from Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. The mutated gene, known as BRAF, was found in almost all samples of tumors called papillary craniopharyngiomas. This is one of two types of craniopharyngiomas — the other being adamantinomatous — that develop in the base of the brain near the pituitary gland, hypothalamus, and optic nerves. The papillary craniopharyngiomas occur mainly in adults; adamantinomatous tumors generally affect children. …

Recommended treatment for bone metastases not widely used

“Palliative radiotherapy, comprising l or more fractions (i.e., treatments) of daily radiation, is the mainstay of treatment for painful bone metastases. In 2005, a U.S.-based randomized trial demonstrated no difference in pain relief between single- and multiple-fraction radiotherapy for uncomplicated bone metastases, confirming results from international trials,” according to background information in the article appearing in the October 9 issue of JAMA…

First-ever view of gene activity, transcript patterns in single human cells

Whenever cells activate a gene, they produce gene specific transcript molecules, which make the function of the gene available to the cell. The measurement of gene activity is a routine activity in medical diagnostics, especially in cancer medicine. Today’s technologies determine the activity of genes by measuring the amount of transcript molecules. …