'Nanoshells' simultaneously detect and destroy cancerous cells
...the cells, be able to make a rational choice about whether they need to be destroyed and, if so, proceed immediately to treatment." To this end, Drezek and West collaborated to develop a new imaging and treatment method based on metal "nanoshells" - tiny spheres of silica coated with a thin layer of gold. Na...University of Chicago receives grant to study connections between religious beliefs and health
... They will be asked a range of questions including whether they communicate with a higher being, feel inner p...study called "Something to Live For" that examines whether religious belief diminishes social conflicts, improves sleep and provides for successful aging. A ...Heart valve ring reverses damage from congestive heart failure, easing symptoms
...in a way that forces the left ventricle to remodel whether it wants to or not, and returns the heart to a pointy, or ellipsoid, shape from a rounded shape." He likens the effect to turning a basketball shape into a football shape. Bolling notes that many surgeons are now repairing the mitral valves of heart ...New LASIK research reveals unexpected finding: Key to better-than-20/20 vision is in the flap
...-than-20/20 outcome in LASIK surgery may depend on whether your doctor uses a blade or a laser to create the corneal flap in the first step of the procedure. "It turns out that the flap that we make in LASIK is not an innocent bystander," says Roger F. Steinert, M.D., 2005 ASCRS president, professor of ophth...Study challenges current treatment for mild asthma
...ows that adult asthma sufferers fare about as well whether they take a steroid drug every day or only during asthma attacks. Changes in lung function, overall frequency of symptoms and the number of severe attacks were about the same, whichever regimen was followed. According to one of the study's authors, i...Clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's may be delayed, says major clinical trial
...t vitamin E were each compared to placebo to learn whether either treatment might delay or prevent progressio...ys Petersen. "We have not answered the question of whether donepezil reduces the underlying brain changes in Alzheimer's disease, but now we know that for some...Anxious and pessimistic personalities linked to Parkinson's disease later in life
... the explanation for that link. It remains unclear whether anxiety and pessimism are risk factors for Parkins...on's should not play a leading role in determining whether to seek medical help, he says. "I think the important thing to remember is that if you are question...Scientists identify protein that controls cancer cells
...lls. If effect, transcription factors help control whether the instructions of genes are carried out by the cells. Debinski and colleagues conducted several experiments to learn more about Fra-1's role in glioblastomas. They found that it makes the cancer cells more elongated, which might make it easier for ...Spirituality, religious practice may slow progression of Alzheimer's disease
...said Kaufman. "Our research addressed the question whether this link is also relevant in Alzheimer's disease." Spirituality and private religious practices accounted for 20 percent of the total variance. Kaufman said that further studies are needed to better understand the connection between religiosity and ...Essential tremor associated with increased risk of dementia
...eral Hospital in Madrid, Spain. "We don't yet know whether the dementia is due to the same underlying problem that is causing the essential tremor or whether it is caused by another problem." The study involved a door-to-door survey of elderly people in cent...Ovary removal elevates risk for Parkinson's disease and parkinsonism
...provide the data needed to address the question of whether a woman's risk of parkinsonism after having both ovaries removed is altered by taking estrogen therapy. The Mayo Clinic investigators studied 1,202 women who had both ovaries surgically removed and 1,283 women who had one ovary surgically removed. A...Can hospital data detect poor performing doctors?
...h may not be the outcome. The authors investigated whether routinely collected data from hospital episode statistics could be used to identify the gynaecologist Rodney Ledward, who was suspended in 1996 and was the subject of the Ritchie inquiry into quality and practice within the NHS. The research team com...Prostate cancer therapy - study suggests new molecular screening theory
...ge and that more work is now needed to investigate whether the levels of Smad7 correlate with patients' responses to different therapies. "If we can determine which patients are most likely to benefit from a particular therapeutic approach, we can reduce the possibility that a patient will undergo treatment ...Hormone aids recovery in rats with hemorrhagic stroke
...Beach, Fla., April 9 16, 2005. The study examined whether erythropoietin might have a neuroprotective effect and improve functional recovery in rats following an intracerebral hemorrhage, which is a type of stroke. "This is the first evidence that erythropoietin has a therapeutic effect in hemorrhagic strok...Ibuprofen may lower risk of Parkinson's disease
...f Parkinson's disease. The purpose was to identify whether the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen is associated with a lower risk of Parkinson's disease. "Our previous study for the first time showed that regular users of non-aspirin NSAIDs had a lower risk of Parkinson's dis...College students likely drink much more alcohol than they think they do
...order of french fries per day without telling them whether we mean small or super-sized." White suggested that college itself would be a good place to start, either during freshman orientation or via a school-wide e-mail. He also suggested that manufacturers of alcoholic beverages step up to the proverbial ...Alcohol magnifies the rewarding effects of smoking, even for light smokers
...inforcement. "Human studies might seek to examine whether nicotine replacement products that help people quit smoking are subject to the same interactions with alcohol," he added. King and her colleagues next plan to examine what she calls "chipper" smokers, that is, nondependent smokers who smoke even l...Researchers find that chocolate compound stops cancer cell cycle in lab experiments
...und seems to work on cancer cells, irrespective of whether any of these single genes are mutated, which often...cell cycle. "We don't know at a fundamental level whether a master switch that triggers cell growth is turned off, or whether the chocolate compound exerts mu...Northwestern's cancer genetics program finds gene variants that greatly increase breast cancer risk
...nal. This is the first study aimed at determining whether various combinations of two naturally-occurring variants of the TGF-beta pathway may predict breast cancer risk. It is also the first study assessing a cancer-related pathway by means of two functionally-relevant variants. Blood tests were performed ...Measuring enzymes at end of cancer pathway predicts outcome of Tarceva, Taxol
...nderson Cancer Center have developed a way to test whether the new targeted therapy Tarceva and the widely us...the test may make it possible to accurately assess whether patients are responding to these agents, as well as potentially others, within days of beginning the...