Cancer – Page 4

Health Highlights – June 6th, 2011

June 6, 2011 | by Walter Jessen

Health Highlights is an occasionally recurring series focused on particularly interesting articles from credible sources of health and medical information that we follow & read. For a complete list of recommeded sources, see our links page.

"Get Fit" Twitter Campaign by GE Healthcare | ScienceRoll
Berci Mesko reports that GE Healthcare has launched a Twitter-based campaign that focuses on health tips for cancer. People can share their own health tips via Twitter using the #get_fit hashtag.
AAFP Embraces Social Media | Family Medicine Rocks – Mike Sevilla, MD
A big step for the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). Mike Sevilla notes that the medical specialty society, which represents more than 100,000 family physicians and medical students, is seeking a Social Media Manager.
On Huffington Post: Top 10 Medical Research Trends to Watch in 2011 | FasterCures
Margaret Anderson, Executive Director of FasterCures, recently reviewed the top 10 medical research trends to watch for in 2011.
Why Men Should Care About Their Health | HealthTap
Many of men's biggest health risks can be reduced simply by better understanding family health history and making healthier lifestyle choices. Jordanna Joaquina reviews the disease risks from a genetic perspective.
Energy Drinks | Science-Based Pharmacy
Are energy drinks candied caffeine delivery systems or are they skirting drug regulations? Scott Gavura reviews the ingredients, the risks and the regulation.
Social media in healthcare: Who is going beyond the basics? | MedCityNews
With hospitals increasingly turning to social media to connect with patients and get their messages out, here, are a few examples of innovative uses of social media in healthcare.

NIH Investigators Find Link Between DNA Damage and Immunity

April 21, 2011 | by NIH Newsbot

Researchers offer the first evidence that DNA damage can lead to the regulation of inflammatory responses, the body’s reaction to injury. The proteins involved in the regulation help protect the body from infection. The study, performed by scientists at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), which is part of the National Institutes of Health, is one of the first studies to come out of the recently established NIEHS Clinical Research Unit (CRU).

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Biomarker Bulletin: April 19, 2011

April 19, 2011 | by Walter Jessen

Biomarker Bulletin is an occasionally recurring update of news focused on biomarkers aggregated at BiomarkerCommons.org. Biomarkers are physical, functional or biochemical indicators of normal physiological or disease processes. The individualization of disease management — personalized medicine — is dependent on developing biomarkers that promote specific clinical domains, including early detection, risk, diagnosis, prognosis and predicted response to therapy.

Cancer Biomarker Study Data Presented at the 2011 AACR Meeting
A roundup of five research studies on cancer biomarkers that were presented earlier this week at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 102nd Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida.
2010 Australian Biomarker Discovery Conference Summary: Biomarkers in the Next Decade
In the February edition of the journal Pharmacogenomics (Future Medicine), Greg Gibson from the School of Biology at the Georgia Institute of Technology provides a summary of talks and discussion from the Inaugural Australian Biomarker Discovery Conference (BDC 2010) held in Shoal Bay, Australia in December.
Clusterin Not a Potential Early Biomarker for Alzheimer’s Disease Development
According to a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, plasma clusterin levels are significantly associated with prevalence and severity of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), but not with incidence.
Sage Bionetworks Partners with CHDI Foundation, Takeda for Neurobiology
Sage Bionetworks has started projects to build advanced computational models of neurobiological disease through two ongoing partnerships with the CHDI Foundation and Takeda Pharmaceuticals.
Case Western Bioinformatics Spinoff NeoProteomics Signs Licensing Deal
Late last month, NeoProteomics, a bioinformatics spinoff company from Case Western Reserve University, signed an exclusive option agreement to license technology from the university.

New Strategic Plan for NIH Obesity Research Seeks to Curb Epidemic

April 10, 2011 | by NIH Newsbot

To combat the obesity epidemic, the National Institutes of Health is encouraging diverse scientific investigations through a new Strategic Plan for NIH Obesity Research.

More than one-third of adults in the United States and nearly 17 percent of the nation’s children are now obese, which increases a person’s chance of developing many health problems, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, fatty liver disease, and some cancers. Although American obesity rates leveled off in 2007, in 2008, obesity-related medical costs were an estimated $147 billion. Government, nonprofit and community groups, businesses, health care professionals, schools, families, and individuals are taking action to address this public health problem — and research can provide the foundation for these efforts.

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Vitamin D Regulates Genes Associated with Susceptibility to Autoimmune Diseases

March 10, 2011 | by Diana Gitig

Vitamin D is, at this point, probably one of the trendiest vitamins around. Everyone suddenly seems to be getting their vitamin D level tested (specifically vitamin D3 or 25(OH)D, also called calcidiol) and, when levels are found to be deficient, taking supplements. In November 2010, the Institute of Medicine tripled its daily recommendations for vitamin D from 200 International Units to 600 [1]. Severe vitamin D deficiency causes rickets, which leads to a softening and weakening of the bones, so milk has been fortified with vitamin D to prevent rickets. Less dramatic vitamin D deficiency has been implicated in ailments ranging from cancer to heart disease to schizophrenia to autoimmune diseases to colds and the flu. But how does vitamin D act in the body — how can it contribute to so many different physiological processes?