International study findings link acne-like rash to effectiveness of new targeted cancer treatment
... very important," he said. "While no rash does not mean no tumour response, it does mean there is a lower chance of response from these treatments and that may have future implications for ...New study indicates arsenic could be suitable as first-line treatment in type of leukaemia
... Center. 88.5% of patients were still alive with a mean survival time to date of nearly 34 months. Of 11 patients who relapsed, eight went back into remission after a third cycle of treatment. Six patients in the trial have died. APL accounts for around 10% of acute myeloid leukaemias and affects an esti...Phase II trials of second-generation antisense cancer drug planned following successful early study
...g the clusterin messenger RNA (mRNA) was down to a mean 8% level as compared to historical controls. The drug was well tolerated by patients. Said Dr. Chi: "We designed the Phase I trial in such a way that we could identify the biologically active dose in the tumour tissue. Being able to identify the acti...Trial shows which brain cancer patients benefit from temozolomide
...an important issue. If implemented widely it would mean that temozolomide would become a targeted treatment. Dr. Monika Hegi told the EORTC-NCI-AACR[1] Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Geneva today (Wednesday 29 September) that the key to predicting which patients will gain from t...Hidden diversity: DNA 'barcoding' reveals a common butterfly is actually 10 different species
...multiple species like this one and what that might mean to wildlife conservation," said Daniel Janzen, co-author of the study and professor in the Department of Biology in Penn's School Arts and Sciences. "We might lament the local extinction of a plant or animal but take comfort in the notion that the ...Alaska scientists find Arctic tundra yields surprising carbon loss
...the atmosphere, the loss of deep-soil carbon could mean an even greater increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations than is caused by fossil fuel burning. "The paradigm is that decomposers (microbes) are always limited by carbon availability and almost never limited by nitrogen availability, bu...The book opens on the first tree genome
...longevity, seasonal growth and hardiness patterns, mean that Populus now can be used to study many fundamental biological questions." Joining Jansson in leading the Swedish poplar team are Jan Karlsson, Gran Sandberg, and Fredrik Sterky. "The sequencing is extremely valuable because attributes found in t...DuPont scientist named one of the world's top young innovators by MIT's 'Technology Review' Magazine
...es and business opportunities, examining what they mean for three companies, including DuPont, in different but intersecting fields. The 2004 TR100's panel of judges includes senior executives from the following organizations: Boston University, Caltech, Cambridge University, CombinatoRx, Concept2Compan...Certain genes boost fish oils' protection against breast cancer
... population. The differences between the genes can mean the difference between GST that clears substances efficiently out of the body and GST that works a little slower. The researchers looked at the genetic makeup of study participants and grouped them according to which polymorphisms they had. They foun...USC study links historical increases in life span to lower childhood exposure to infection
... environment may be reaching a maximum which would mean that further increase in life expectancy will depend on interventions other than public health such as this new generation of drugs." ...Researchers identify distinctive signature for metastatic prostate cancer
...he tumors. "We interpreted the finding in mice to mean that we had probably killed tumor stem cells responsible for propagating the cancers," said Beachy. "This finding led us to explore the role that the Hedgehog pathway might play in the function of normal progenitor cells." To study the relationship ...New treatment for fibromyalgia
... 87 percent of the subjects were Caucasian and the mean age was 49. Just over a third of the patients--38 percent--had been diagnosed with depression. On a random basis, the patients were prescribed one of two treatments for a course of 12 weeks. About half, 104 individuals, received 60 milligrams of dul...Skin stem cells give hairless mice hair
...air follicles when grafted onto mice. The findings mean that the human equivalent of these stem cells, which scientists are also trying to isolate, could ultimately be used to regenerate skin and hair, the researchers said. Stem cells -- isolated from embryos or from adult tissue -- are immature progenit...Modest climate change could lead to substantially more and larger fires
...e, with the models predicting a 5-fold increase in mean area burned over the observed range in climate, the authors write. In Washington and Oregon, the effects will be intermediate because precipitation and temperature are both associated with fire extent in these states, rather than temperature alone. ...Two warbler species find the West isn't big enough for both of them
...rests only extend so far, and current trends would mean the hermit warbler probably will become extinct in another 5,000 years or so, said Luke Butler, a University of Washington doctoral student in biology. "The hermits have slowly been pushed out of Alaska and British Columbia, and now they are being p...The insect police: Why social insects punish cheating comrades
...ing that kin selection is unimportant--but it does mean that the harmony and regulation of reproduction in social insects is much more complex than expected from simple theoretical expectations based solely on relatedness....Innovative 'ceramic-on-metal' hip replacements to undergo clinical trials
...s. The limitations of conventional artificial hips mean that many patients are advised to wait as long as possible, often in considerable discomfort, before having an artificial hip put in place. The research is being carried out by engineers, medical researchers and biologists at the University of Le...Restoring sweetgrass to the South Carolina lowcountry
...dest respondent was 78 and the youngest 41, with a mean age of 44. "We identified seven views and practices common to all of the basket makers," says Halfacre. "Most had purchased sweetgrass from collectors, and they all identified residential development as the reason the grass has become unavailable." T...Genes can influence both alcohol consumption and dependence
...c differences between them." These findings do not mean individuals are predetermined to have an alcohol problem," said Conigrave. "The situation is similar to that of coronary heart disease, where genes influence lipid levels and tendency to high blood pressure, and so increase risk of heart attack. In......al numbers of affected and unaffected infants. The mean birth weight of the unaffected infants born to affected mothers was 20 percent below average. Three of these infants had birth weights below the World Health Organization's criteria for low birth weight. "This suggests," the authors note, that high...