News • MedTech
Stroke: Faster treatment via hybrid device?
Cheap and compact instrument based on two near-infrared light techniques diagnoses poor blood flow quickly and noninvasively.
Video • Equipment
Hygiene committed: Pentax Medical addresses the challenges in endoscopy
Recent publications have stated that several outbreaks have been caused by insufficient drying of duodenoscopes. Due to their complex design, duodenoscopes have been long recognized to require thorough processes and precise execution to properly disinfect. Read more to understand how Pentax Medical is tackling hygiene as both a challenge and priority within endoscopy.
News • Cardiology
White Coat Hypertension: Untreated increases risk of dying
People with untreated White Coat Hypertension are twice as likely to die from heart disease. Researchers at Penn Medicine say findings underscore the need for increased out-of-office blood pressure monitoring
News • Quality Assurance
A unique environment for cancer patient QA in proton therapy
IBA (Ion Beam Applications S.A.) announces the launch of myQA iON at the 2019 PTCOG conference. myQA iON significantly reduces the time needed for patient QA: The use of PT machine log files, process automation, task-based workflows, and the latest web technologies significantly increase QA efficiency while ensuring patient treatment safety. Compared to conventional detector measurements (at…
News • CRISPR
New genetic weapons challenge sickle cell disease
Help for patients with sickle cell disease may soon come from gene editing to fix the mutation that causes the disease and boost the patient's own protective fetal hemoglobin.
News • Oncology
Killing the unkillable cancer cells
We all know someone affected by the battle against cancer. And we know that treatments can be quite efficient at shrinking the tumor but too often, they can’t kill all the cells, and so it may come back. With some aggressive types of cancer, the problem is so great that there is very little that can be done for the patients.
News • Oncology
Radio-wave therapy proves effective against liver cancer cells
A new targeted therapy using non-thermal radio waves has been shown to block the growth of liver cancer cells anywhere in the body without damaging healthy cells, according to a study conducted by scientists at Wake Forest School of Medicine, part of Wake Forest Baptist Health.
News • Premiere
First-ever in-utero surgery to treat spina bifida
A team of specialists at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital and UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh have performed UPMC's first in-utero surgery to close an open neural tube defect in a baby months before her birth.
News • CRISPR
Could gold be the key to making gene therapy for HIV?
A proof-of-principle study shows that gold nanoparticles loaded with CRISPR and other gene-editing tools safely and effectively edited blood stem cells.
News • Virtual reality
VR spots navigation problems in early Alzheimer’s disease
Virtual reality (VR) can identify early Alzheimer’s disease more accurately than ‘gold standard’ cognitive tests currently in use, suggests new research from the University of Cambridge. The study highlights the potential of new technologies to help diagnose and monitor conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, which affects more than 525,000 people in the UK. In 2014, Professor John…
News • Sexually transmitted infections
New findings could improve STI vaccinations
In a new study, researchers from King’s College London have shown how skin vaccination can generate protective CD8 T-cells that are recruited to the genital tissues and could be used as a vaccination strategy for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), such as HIV or herpes simplex virus.
News • Fake pills
'Decoy' antibiotics dupe bacteria’s defences
Imperial medical students have helped to devise a new type of ‘decoy’ drug to tackle infections that are resistant to antibiotics. In lab tests on bacterial cultures, the new drug successfully killed a strain of drug-resistant bacteria. It works by delivering two antibiotics, one of which is effectively hidden. When the bacteria fight against the first ‘decoy’ antibiotic, this action…
News • Brain tumor
Scorpion venom makes tumor surgery even better
A novel imaging technique that uses a synthesized form of scorpion venom to light up brain tumors has shown promise in a clinical trial. The imaging system enables neurosurgeons to better see malignant growths that often are difficult to fully eliminate.
News • Myocardial infarction
Genetic therapy heals damage caused by heart attack
Researchers from King's College London have found that therapy that can induce heart cells to regenerate after a heart attack.
Sponsored • Progressing with a strong partner
Xenios and Fresenius Medical Care take the next step to multi-organ support
In October 2016, Xenios became a part of Fresenius Medical Care (FME), the world’s leading provider of products and services for people with chronic kidney failure. The integration of the expertise from FME and Xenios and thus the combination of the companies’ competences strongly enhances treatment options in critical care within the intensive care unit (ICU) of hospitals across the world.…
News • Be prepared
This 3D printed baby dummy could improve resuscitation training
Two millions: this is, worldwide, the number of babies which suffer suffocation during birth every year. A resuscitation procedure is sometimes the key to avert irreparable damages for the baby. And, for successful outcomes, promptness of action and preparation are vital. Researcher Mark Thielen (Industrial Design) from the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) developed a 3D printed baby…
News • ctDNA vs. HGSOC
Taking 'molecular snapshots' of ovarian cancer
High-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) is the most common and aggressive subtype of ovarian cancer. The HGSOC tumors consist of several heterogeneous cell populations with a large number of mutations. This genetic variability makes it difficult to find drugs that would kill all the cancer cells, and to which the cells would not become resistant during treatment. Over half of the patients…
News • Transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy
New treatments for rare disease ATTR-CM approved
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Vyndaqel (tafamidis meglumine) and Vyndamax (tafamidis) capsules for the treatment of the heart disease (cardiomyopathy) caused by transthyretin mediated amyloidosis (ATTR-CM) in adults. These are the first FDA-approved treatments for ATTR-CM. Vyndaqel and Vyndamax have the same active moiety, tafamidis, but they are not substitutable on a…
News • Women's health
Endometriosis: Antibiotic could be key to treatment
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found, in mice, that treatment with an antibiotic reduces the size of lesions caused by endometriosis. The researchers are planning a large, multicenter clinical trial to test the drug metronidazole in women who have the painful condition. The study is published online April 30 in the journal Human Reproduction.…
News • More than a symptom
Chronic pain: a real disease after all?
For the first time ever, chronic pain will be classified as a diagnosis in line with other diseases when the World Health Organization (WHO) approves the next catalogue of recognised diseases in May. According to Professor Peter Svensson from the Department of Dentistry and Oral Health, this is very significant for the approx. 20% of the population who suffer from chronic pain. Working with top…
News • Quality assurance
1,500 radiation therapy centers choose myQA
IBA (Ion Beam Applications S.A.), the world’s leading provider of proton therapy solutions and radiation therapy integrated quality assurance (QA) for the treatment of cancer, announced at the ESTRO 38 congress, that it has reached the milestone of 1,500 myQA customers worldwide. Since the first release of myQA in 2015, IBA has rapidly expanded its customer base across the global radiation…
News • Brachytherapy
Single dose of targeted radiotherapy: safe and effective for prostate cancer
A single high dose of radiation that can be delivered directly to the tumour within a few minutes is a safe and effective technique for treating men with low risk prostate cancer, according to a study presented at the ESTRO 38 conference. Radiotherapy traditionally involves a series of lower dose treatments that take place over several days or week. The new treatment is called high dose-rate…
News • Acute myeloid leukaemia
AML's Achilles’ heel opens door for new treatments
New findings about a fatal form of blood cancer could aid the development of new drugs with significantly less harmful side effects than existing chemotherapy. The discovery could lead to novel treatments that efficiently eliminate blood cancer cells in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), without harming healthy blood cells. Researchers have discovered how a protein in the body plays a key role in AML…
News • Ten-year trial results
Radiotherapy reduces recurrence of early, hormone-driven breast cancer
Women with early, low risk, hormone-driven breast cancer are less likely to have a recurrence of their disease if they have radiotherapy after surgery, as well as anti-hormone treatment, according to results from a trial that has followed 869 women for ten years. New findings from the 8 A trial of the Austrian Breast and Colorectal Cancer Study Group (ABCSG), presented at the ESTRO 38 conference,…
Video • Personalized treatment
Genome analytics become affordable for daily hospital use
Today, on the occasion of the international DNA day, imec, a world-leading research and innovation hub in nanoelectronics and digital technologies, and its partners revealed their Genome Analytics Platform (GAP) platform, a unique platform that can perform a full genome analysis of 48 samples in only 48 hours and at an acceptable cost. The platform paves the way to genome sequencing as a daily…