Results from a long-term clinical trial conducted by cancer researchers at Houston Methodist Hospital show that combining radiation treatment with "suicide gene therapy," a technique in which prostate cancer cells are genetically modified so they signal a patient's immune system to attack them, provides a safe and effective one-two punch against the disease.
Nothing could be simpler: a drop of blood is placed on a special carrier substance; after a wait of a few minutes, the slide is placed on a device that emits polarised light thanks to an inexpensive polarisation filter. It is covered with a lid containing a second polarisation filter, which blocks the light from all materials except crystalline or materials with directional properties.
A new injectable “biogel” is effective in delivering anti-cancer agents directly into cancerous tumours and killing them. This technology, developed by researchers at the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM), has already been successfully tested in the laboratory. If it works in patients, the therapy could one day revolutionize treatment for many forms of cancer.
As new scientific discoveries deepen our understanding of how cancer develops in children, doctors and other healthcare providers face challenges in better using that knowledge to guide treatment and counsel families and patients. In addition, as more children continue to survive pediatric cancer, that counseling may extend into a patient’s adulthood and old age.
Deep within your DNA, a tiny parasite lurks, waiting to pounce from its perch and land in the middle of an unsuspecting healthy gene. If it succeeds, it can make you sick. Like a jungle cat, this parasite sports a long tail. But until now, little was known about what role that tail plays in this dangerous jumping. Now, scientists report that without a tail, this parasitic gene can’t jump…
Many Western countries including England and the United States have come to rely on nurses trained abroad in times of nurse shortages. Yet little is known about how such practices affect quality of care and patient satisfaction.
Feeling high levels of distress, fear and hostility prior to undergoing an angioplasty or other interventional radiology procedure may lead to a poor outcome, according to new research presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
A new report gives the first ever picture of global investment in Ebola research and development (R&D), reporting that this investment might have come at the expense of efforts to develop drugs, vaccines and diagnostics for other neglected diseases, which collectively cause more than six million deaths every year in developing countries.
UPM participates in the ZOTERAC project, whose technology could replace the conventional X-ray sources in medicine or improve the detection of weapons and explosives.
Findings demonstrate that testosterone is a metabolic hormone as well as a sex hormone, University at Buffalo researchers say.
Additional breast cancers found with MRI are sometimes larger and potentially more aggressive than those found on mammography, according to a study published online in the journal Radiology.
SyntheticMR and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have signed a research agreement to study SyMRI to characterize brain tumors.
Scientists at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow have been working to identify compounds with important anti-infective activity and suitable for treating serious infectious diseases caused by bacteria and parasites, such as Clostridium difficile. Their work has led to the creation of the new drug known as MGB-BP-3 (MGB = minor groove binder). Report: Mark Nicholls
"It's not everyday that one newly discovers parts of the human body," says Roy S. Chuck, MD, PhD, Chairman Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Everyone who has played in a band or orchestra knows that playing in time creates music, while playing out of time creates cacophony. In an orchestra, each player may be out of tune when warming up, but eventually, all players must reach the same pitch, rhythm, and timing to produce a viable piece of music.
One goal of immunotherapy is to rally a patient’s often over-burdened immune cells to effectively attack a tumor. Among foot soldiers on the immune front line is a subpopulation of white blood cells called “patrolling monocytes,” whose job is to cruise the bloodstream, cart off cellular debris, and block invasion of a less benign population of inflammatory cells.
A team of scientists from the University of Michigan Medical School shows that the genetic material in female (but not male) cells makes tiny amounts of a special genetic material called RNA to make one of the two X chromosomes silent. They call this RNA XistAR.
The hormone oxytocin, which has been associated with interpersonal bonding, may enhance the pleasure of social interactions by stimulating production of marijuana-like neurotransmitters in the brain, according to a University of California, Irvine study.
A new world of flexible, bendable, even stretchable electronics is emerging from research labs to address a wide range of potentially game-changing uses.
When a Lake Malawi cichlid loses a tooth, a new one drops neatly into place as a replacement. Why can't humans similarly regrow teeth lost to injury or disease?
A team of researchers from Brown University, ETH Zurich, the Universita da Svizzera Italiana (USI) and Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) is using America’s most powerful supercomputer to help understand and fight diseases affecting some of the body’s smallest building blocks.
The University of Hawai'i Cancer Center discovery could warn patients years in advance allowing for a lifestyle change.
The brain cells of patients with bipolar disorder, characterized by severe swings between depression and elation, are more sensitive to stimuli than other people's brain cells, researchers of the Salk Institute have discovered.
The mammography detection rate of an early-stage but potentially invasive type of breast cancer rises with age, according to a large new study from Germany published online in the journal Radiology.
A nanofiber hydrogel infused with snake venom may be the best material to stop bleeding quickly, according to Rice University scientists.