Health and Medicine Archives

Anagrelide: Finding new use as an adjuvant therapy in cancer management

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Dr Richard Franklin, Anagrelide Project Director at SUDA Pharmaceuticals Ltd, is pioneering a radically new application which would see the platelet-lowering drug anagrelide developed as an oromucosal spray formulation. This has the potential to make the most of its recently discovered ability to block cancer cell-stimulated platelet formation and to inhibit cancer cell migration towards platelet precursors (megakaryocytes) while at […]

A daunting challenge for medical schools: The decline of clinical skills

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Dr Fabrizia Faustinella, a faculty member at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, believes that the most significant challenge currently facing medical education is the decline in clinical skills. Dr Faustinella argues that a deterioration in skills such as history-taking and physical examination can have serious consequences, and must be addressed as part of a thorough, patient-centered approach to medical education. Medical […]

Drosophila Fezf found to be essential in neural circuit formation

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Billions of neurons are wired up to into highly organised neural circuits in the brain. The creation of these circuits is a complex process and it is essential that neurons find the correct partners. Matt Pecot and colleagues from Harvard Medical School are interested in understanding this neural circuit formation. In their studies, by using Drosophila, they have identified the […]

Extracellular vesicle DNA: A promising cancer biomarker

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Lung cancer patients could one day receive faster, cheaper and more accurate diagnoses thanks to extracellular vesicle DNA found in liquid biopsies. These were the findings of a research team led by Professors Kye Young Lee and Jae Young Hur of Konkuk University’s School of Medicine. Their work offers an alternative to invasive tissue biopsies which are currently used to detect […]

New innovations in traumatic brain injury research

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traumatic brain injury Dr Lynn Ann Barker Traumatic Brain Injury

Lynne Ann Barker is a pioneer in the field of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Her work aims to understand how trauma to the brain leads to changes in behaviour and cognitive ability in those affected. She has also worked to develop new experimental methods for assessing cognitive ability, including computerised simulations that incorporate real-world tasks such as cooking, with the aim of increasing the speed […]

Reduced PSA Prostate Cancer Screening: Life-threatening consequences?

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In 2012, the United States Preventive Services Task Force issued a grade D recommendation against PSA-based prostate cancer screening. This is because early diagnosis of low-grade cancers can lead to unnecessary overtreatment and patient suffering. However, many epidemiologists are concerned that this could lead to severe unintended consequences. Dr Thomas E. Ahlering, from the University of California, has further explored these concerns […]

Local drug delivery to prosthetic vascular grafts: Preventing failure of prosthetic grafts in haemodialysis patients

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Dr Ronald J. Shebuski, President and CEO of Cylerus, Inc., wants to revolutionise the way vascular grafts work. His company, Cylerus, has an innovative way to deliver an antiproliferative drug, sirolimus, in a consistent and controlled manner. This method of drug delivery, via a porous graft material called ePTFE, has the potential to reduce failure of arterio-venous access grafts crucial for […]

Mending broken hearts: The American Heart Association and its life-saving treatment guidelines

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american heart association research outreach

When someone suffers a cardiac arrest, the first few minutes that follow the attack are crucial and can decide if someone lives or dies. The effective administration of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can greatly improve people’s chances. The American Heart Association have been educating people on CPR, heart health, stroke and heart disease worldwide for nearly 100 years and their latest mission […]

Factors associated with young children exhibiting picky eating behaviour

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Picky eating in preschool children is a well-documented phase when children are reluctant to try new foods and/or show very strong preferences for particular foods. This behaviour can create concern for parents, and this has created a whole market for advice and guidance, not all of which is evidence-based. Dr Pauline Emmett and Dr Caroline Taylor, from the Centre for […]

Lymph nodes targeted in novel cancer therapy

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90% of global deaths caused by cancer are the result of its metastasis. Cancer can spread throughout the body through the blood system or the lymphatic system. With funding from JSPS KAKENHI, Professor Tetsuya Kodama at Tohoku University in Japan and his collaborators established a novel mouse model to study cancer metastasis through the lymphatic system. With this model, they identified lymph node metastasis as […]