ScienceDaily: Top Health News

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• Promising results with local hyperthermia of tumors
• Robotic-assisted prostate surgery offers better cancer control
• Unexpected findings: 'Promising' drug failed to improve survival in glioblastoma
• Psychiatric nursing specialists played key role in response to Boston Marathon bombing
• Targeting metabolism to develop new prostate cancer treatments
• Possible new target for future brain cancer drugs
• Rare disorder causes bleeding on brain of 3-year-old girl
• New device for treating atrial fibrillation
• Do obesity, birth control pills raise risk of multiple sclerosis?
• Majority of children unaware of cigarette warning labels, international study shows
• Bird's eye view of cellular RNAs could lead to earlier cancer diagnosis
• Physicians' stethoscopes more contaminated than palms of their hands
• Mechanisms cancer cells use to establish metastatic brain tumors revealed by research
• Fruit fly's pruning protein could be key to treating brain injury
• Disease-causing bacterial invaders aided by failure of immune system switch
• Circadian clock in the ear: Time of day of hearing damage affects healing
• Internal logic: Eight distinct subnetworks in mouse cerebral cortex

Promising results with local hyperthermia of tumors Posted: 28 Feb 2014 06:05 PM PST Combined use of iron oxide nanoparticles and an alternating magnetic field can induce local hyperthermia in tumors in a controlled and uniform manner. The results Induced anti-tumor immune response that reduced the risk of recurrence and metastasis. Standard cancer care involves surgery, but surgeons have few tools to guarantee the removal of every cancer cell, especially when there is unrecognized metastases in other anatomic locations. An approach like local hyperthermia one day might be used to kick start the immune system to ward off any cancer cells not removed by surgery to increase the chances of treatment success.

Robotic-assisted prostate surgery offers better cancer control Posted: 28 Feb 2014 01:06 PM PST An observational study has found that prostate cancer patients who undergo robotic-assisted prostate surgery have fewer instances of cancer cells at the edge of their surgical specimen and less need for additional cancer treatments like hormone or radiation therapy than patients who have traditional "open" surgery. While the robotic surgery method has higher upfront costs, these may systemically be offset by a reduction of additional cancer therapy costs after surgery due to better cancer control outcomes.

Unexpected findings: 'Promising' drug failed to improve survival in glioblastoma Posted: 28 Feb 2014 09:14 AM PST A three-year research project on a deadly form of brain cancer has revealed that a 'promising' drug therapy failed to improve survival among patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma. "Bevacizuman had been shown in earlier studies to be an effective drug in the treatment of patients with recurrent disease. But, on newly diagnosed patients, it did not, in fact, prolong survival," state the authors.

Psychiatric nursing specialists played key role in response to Boston Marathon bombing Posted: 28 Feb 2014 07:34 AM PST Psychiatric advanced practice nurses (APNs) played a critical role in supporting psychological recovery after the Boston Marathon bombing -- not only for injured patients, but also for family members and hospital staff, according to an article.

Targeting metabolism to develop new prostate cancer treatments Posted: 27 Feb 2014 04:12 PM PST The next generation of prostate cancer therapies is targeted at metabolism. A cascade of biochemical reactions inside the cell is being observed and reviewed by scientists, with a focus on an enzyme considered a master regulator of metabolism. By doing so, scientists hope that new research will unlock more effective and less harmful treatments. With approximately one out of six American men being diagnosed and nearly a quarter of a million new cases expected this year, prostate cancer is the most common malignancy among men in the U.S.

Possible new target for future brain cancer drugs Posted: 27 Feb 2014 01:45 PM PST A molecule in cells that shuts down the expression of genes might be a promising target for new drugs designed to treat glioblastoma, the most frequent and lethal form of brain cancer. The findings suggest that the protein PRMT5 is a possible prognostic factor and therapeutic target for glioblastoma, and they provide a rationale for developing agents that target PRMT5 in this deadly disease.

Rare disorder causes bleeding on brain of 3-year-old girl Posted: 27 Feb 2014 01:38 PM PST A neurosurgeon used a minimally invasive technique to repair an extremely rare blood vessel problem that caused bleeding on the brain of a three-year-old girl. The bleeding on her brain was caused by a complex and potentially devastating condition that is almost never seen in children. There are only a handful of descriptions in the medical literature. The surgery used to treat the girl used an endovascular techniques that use catheters rather than scalpels.

New device for treating atrial fibrillation Posted: 27 Feb 2014 01:38 PM PST A new high-tech catheter device can improve outcomes of patients treated for atrial fibrillation, the most common irregular heartbeat. The treatment, called catheter ablation, involves burning selected spots of tissue inside the heart with the tip of a catheter. This eliminates the sources of errant electrical signals that are triggering the atrial fibrillation. More than 2 million Americans have atrial fibrillation, also known as a-fib. There are about 160,000 new cases each year. The number is increasing due in part to the aging population and the obesity epidemic.

Do obesity, birth control pills raise risk of multiple sclerosis? Posted: 27 Feb 2014 01:38 PM PST The role of the so-called "obesity hormone" leptin and hormones used for birth control in the development of multiple sclerosis (MS) is examined in two new studies. For the obesity study, BMI was calculated for 210 people with MS and 210 people of the same age and sex who did not have MS at ages 15 and 20 and at the time of the study. The study found that people who are obese at age 20 are twice as likely to later develop MS as people who are not obese. For the birth control hormone study, researchers identified 305 women who had been diagnosed with MS or its precursor, clinically isolated syndrome, during a three-year period. Women who had used hormonal contraceptives were 35 percent more likely to develop MS than those who did not use them.

Majority of children unaware of cigarette warning labels, international study shows Posted: 27 Feb 2014 11:26 AM PST An international study of children's perceptions of cigarette package warning labels found that the majority of children are unaware that they exist. Public health researchers found that children in countries where larger warning labels are used that include a compelling graphic image of the negative health impacts of smoking, were more likely to be aware of and understand the health risks of tobacco products.

Bird's eye view of cellular RNAs could lead to earlier cancer diagnosis Posted: 27 Feb 2014 11:26 AM PST A new method has been developed that allows scientists to pinpoint the location of thousands of working copies of genes called mRNAs at once in intact cells -- while simultaneously determining the sequence of letters, or bases, that identify them and reveal their cellular function. Healthy human cells typically turn on nearly half of their 20,000 genes at any given time, and they choose those genes carefully to produce the desired cellular responses. Pinpointing the cellular location of all those mRNAs is a tall order. To do so, researchers used a new method, called fluorescent in situ RNA sequencing. Their findings could lead to earlier cancer diagnosis by revealing molecular changes that drive cancer in seemingly healthy tissue.

Physicians' stethoscopes more contaminated than palms of their hands Posted: 27 Feb 2014 10:48 AM PST Although healthcare workers' hands are the main source of bacterial transmission in hospitals, physicians' stethoscopes appear to play a role. To explore this question, investigators assessed the level of bacterial contamination on physicians' hands and stethoscopes following a single physical examination. Two parts of the stethoscope (the tube and diaphragm) and four regions of the physician's hands (back, fingertips, and thenar and hypothenar eminences) were measured for the total number of bacteria present in a new study. The stethoscope's diaphragm was more contaminated than all regions of the physician's hand except the fingertips. Further, the tube of the stethoscope was more heavily contaminated than the back of the physician's hand.

Mechanisms cancer cells use to establish metastatic brain tumors revealed by research Posted: 27 Feb 2014 10:47 AM PST The biologic mechanisms that individual cancer cells use to metastasize to the brain have been revealed by recent research. Metastasis, the process that allows some cancer cells to break off from their tumor of origin and take root in a different tissue, is the most common reason people die from cancer. Metastatic brain tumors are ten times more common than primary brain cancers. Yet most tumor cells die before they can take root in the brain, which is better protected than most organs against colonization by circulating tumor cells. To seed in the brain, a cancer cell must dislodge from its tumor of origin, enter the bloodstream, and cross densely packed blood vessels called the blood-brain barrier. Until now, little research has been done into how metastatic brain tumors develop.

Fruit fly's pruning protein could be key to treating brain injury Posted: 27 Feb 2014 09:52 AM PST A protein that controls the metamorphosis of the common fruit fly could someday play a role in reversing brain injuries. Cysteine proteinase-1 in the fly directs both the early development and regrowth of dendrites that relay information from neuron to neuron. Researchers are hopeful the mammalian equivalent of this molecule might be used to help regrow dendrites after injury.

Disease-causing bacterial invaders aided by failure of immune system switch Posted: 27 Feb 2014 09:52 AM PST Immune system defenses against dangerous bacteria in the gut can be breached by turning off a single molecular switch that governs production of the protective mucus lining our intestinal walls, according to a study. The walls of the intestine are shielded from potentially harmful bacteria by a thin mucus lining, which has been described as the body's demilitarized zone. The researchers found that production of this mucus lining depends upon a single immune system regulator that controls mucus secretion by cells in the wall of the intestine, just like turning on a faucet. When there is no mucus shield, the mice are unable to fend off invaders, and the intestinal wall becomes infected and inflamed, leaving the mice susceptible to conditions as diverse as inflammatory bowel diseases, colon cancer, Type 2 diabetes, obesity, and fatty liver disease.

Circadian clock in the ear: Time of day of hearing damage affects healing Posted: 27 Feb 2014 09:52 AM PST Researchers have identified a biological circadian clock in the hearing organ, the cochlea. This circadian clock controls how well hearing damage may heal and opens up a new way of treating people with hearing disabilities. By measuring the activity of the auditory nerve, the researchers found that mice exposed to moderate noise levels during the night suffered from permanent hearing damages while mice exposed to similar noise levels during the day did not. The ability to heal after hearing damage was therefore linked to the time of day during which the noise damage occurred, and here the ear's circadian clock played an important role.

Internal logic: Eight distinct subnetworks in mouse cerebral cortex Posted: 27 Feb 2014 09:52 AM PST The mammalian cerebral cortex, long thought to be a dense single interrelated tangle of neural networks, actually has a 'logical' underlying organizational principle. Researchers have identified eight distinct neural subnetworks that together form the connectivity infrastructure of the mammalian cortex, the part of the brain involved in higher-order functions such as cognition, emotion and consciousness.

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