September 14, 2008, 10:42 PM CT

Extremely exact images from inside the body

It will be the only magnetic resonance tomograph of the modern 7 tesla generation in the world, in which a metrology institute is also involved. Magnetic resonance tomographs, which use a magnetic field of 7 tesla, have not yet been in operation in hospitals and clinics, but have solely served research. For the first time in the world, cardiovascular research carried out on such a device is now also to play an important role. The magnetic resonance tomograph costing approximately seven million Euros and weighing 35 tonnes was delivered to its new location, the Experimental and Clinical Research Center (ECRC) of the Max Delbrück Center (MDC) for Molecular Medicine in Berlin-Buch on 11th September.

In contrast to the 1.5 and 3 tesla devices which have largely been the norm to date, its higher magnetic field will provide sharper images and better insights into the smallest structures of the human body. The aim is to detect the risk or commencement of an illness at a very early stage in heart, brain and cancer research. Above all, heart research by magnetic resonance tomography is viewed as very difficult. As such, a demanding task will be waiting for PTB scientists from January 2009, when the device has been fully installed: as the partner dealing with physics and technical issues in the joint project, they are responsible for making the unique potential of this tomograph useful for applications in clinics. The PTB will, moreover, find the ideal conditions to advance its work on patient safety in high-field tomographs and on the development of new concepts in MRT imaging. The other partners in the project, besides the Max Delbrück Center and the PTB, are Siemens, the constructors of the 7 tesla device, and the Charite hospital. The new ultra-high-field MRT equipment of the ECRC has been completed with a 9.4 tesla small animal MRT of the Bruker company which was supplied three weeks ago......... Posted by: Jessica      Read more         Source

September 11, 2008, 9:03 PM CT

Nano-Sized 'Cargo Ships' to Destroy Tumors

Scientists have developed nanometer-sized 'cargo ships' that can sail throughout the body via the bloodstream without immediate detection from the body's immune radar system and ferry their cargo of anti-cancer drugs and markers into tumors that might otherwise go untreated or undetected.

In a forthcoming issue of the Germany-based chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie, scientists at UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara and MIT report that their nano-cargo-ship system integrates therapeutic and diagnostic functions into a single device that avoids rapid removal by the body's natural immune system. Their paper is now accessible in an early online version here.

"The idea involves encapsulating imaging agents and drugs into a protective 'mother ship' that evades the natural processes that normally would remove these payloads if they were unprotected," said Michael Sailor, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UCSD who headed the team of chemists, biologists and engineers that turned the fanciful concept into reality. "These mother ships are only 50 nanometers in diameter, or 1,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair, and are equipped with an array of molecules on their surfaces that enable them to find and penetrate tumor cells in the body".

These microscopic cargo ships could one day provide the means to more effectively deliver toxic anti-cancer drugs to tumors in high concentrations without negatively impacting other parts of the body......... Posted by: Jessica      Read more         Source

July 22, 2008, 7:40 PM CT

End of life physician-patient communication

Eventhough a growing body of research supports a link between effective communication and patient, family and doctor satisfaction, doctors, including oncologists and other specialists who frequently care for terminal patients, do not routinely receive training in end-of-life conversations during medical school, residency training, or after they start to practice medicine.

A study published in recent issue of the Journal of Psychosocial Oncology measured changes in physician's attitudes and knowledge after training in end-of-life communication using an innovative educational approach entitled "The Four Habits of Highly Successful Clinicians." The scientists observed that participation in a program that fosters communication skills can have a positive and lasting effect on the physician's delivery of end-of-life care.

"We observed that doctors are actually eager to improve their skills in end-of-life communication but don't often have the opportunity to do so. With a framework that makes sense to them, their confidence and competence increases," said study senior author Richard M. Frankel, Ph.D., professor of medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine and a Regenstrief Institute research scientist.

"Anecdotally we learned from family members that they appreciated it greatly when compassionate end-of-life counsel was given to their loved ones," said Dr. Frankel......... Posted by: Jessica      Read more         Source

July 10, 2008, 8:16 PM CT

Cancer drug against graft vs. host disease

A new University of Michigan study in mice suggests that a drug recently approved to fight cancer tumors is also able to reduce the effects of graft-versus-host disease, a common and sometimes fatal complication for people who have had bone marrow transplants.

Plans are under way at U-M for an initial trial of the drug in people as a new way to prevent graft-versus-host disease. Scientists expect to begin a trial within a year.

The U-M researchers tested the effects of the drug SAHA, as well as another member of a group of drugs known as HDAC inhibitors, on key immune system cells called dendritic cells. In mice, both drugs were able to significantly diminish the destructive inflammatory effects that these cells cause in graft-versus-host disease.

Graft-versus-host disease occurs when immune cells in the transplanted bone marrow mount a misguided attack on body tissues. If HDAC inhibitors turn out to be safe and effective in people, they might offer a therapy option preferable to the immunosuppressant drugs used now to treat the disease. These leave people vulnerable to infection and have other significant side effects.

"To make bone marrow transplants more effective, we need better control of the very powerful reactions between the immune systems of the donor and recipient. This study shows how drugs like SAHA regulate those reactions, and takes us a major step closer to bringing this new approach to patients who need transplants," says James L.M. Ferrara, M.D., director of the U-M Combined Bone Marrow Transplant Program and a senior author on the study. Ferrara is also professor of internal medicine and pediatric and communicable diseases at U-M......... Posted by: Jessica      Read more         Source

Sat, 24 May 2008 22:23:18 GMT

Perspectives In Brain Cancer

The other day, news broke out that doctors found malignant brain tumor in Senator Edward Kennedy.

From The Washington Post:

Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), the liberal icon who has spent more than four decades at the forefront of social-change efforts in Congress, has a cancerous brain tumor, physicians at Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital said yesterday.

A biopsy of a portion of Kennedy's brain identified a malignant glioma as the cause of the seizure that hospitalized him Saturday, according to a statement by Lee H. Schwamm, the hospital's vice chairman of neurology, and Larry Ronan, the 76-year-old senator's primary-care physician.

A glioma is the most common type of brain tumor, accounting for more than half of the 20,000 or so diagnosed in the United States each year. The prognosis for patients is poor, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Though his tumor cannot be removed he's back home from the hospital and that there is hope even how life sentencing brain cancer sound. The Senator is reportedly in high spirits, however grim the news can be.



On the happier front, David Cook is the newly-crowned American Idol. Yey! What has he got to do with brain cancer? Read on, from The Associated Press:

Or maybe being rebellious turned out to be worth the gamble for Cook; it's been suggested that a poor showing with the judges can drum up support from indignant or sympathetic voters.

Cook was overcome with emotion when he won, bending down toward the stage, his eyes filled with tears when he stood back up. It was the second time in as many nights that the scruffy, grainy-voiced belter had broken down.

And a few weeks earlier, when he seemed edgy and distracted, he acknowledged that he had "things going on," perhaps a vague reference to the struggles of his older brother, Adam, who is battling advanced brain cancer.

That's right, David Cook's older brother is battling advanced brain cancer.

Brain cancer sounds scary, indeed. But there is always hope, right? So we keep hoping. As long as treatments are available, there is always hope of surviving.

[In Photo: Damn The Statistics, I Have a Life to Live!: Coping with a Brain Tumor My Personal Story (Paperback) by Charles Wolf from Amazon] Posted by: Gloria Gamat      Read more     Source

May 22, 2008, 10:27 PM CT

U of T research supports Ontario ban on cigarette displays

Toronto, ON. Just weeks before Ontario implements a ban on the retail display of all tobacco products, new research from the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit at the University of Toronto shows that consumers have been bombarded by extensive tobacco promotion at point of sale.

Places where tobacco is sold have become important environments for the tobacco industry to communicate with current, former and potential smokers through large tobacco product displays, countertop displays and signs advertising tobacco.

The research conducted by Joanna Cohen, a professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Toronto and Principal Investigator with the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit, involved an examination of over 480 establishments including convenience stores, gas stations and grocery stores in 20 Ontario cities.

The provinces upcoming ban on displaying tobacco products couldnt come sooner, says Cohen. Our research shows tobacco promotions were extensive in stores across Ontario. The vast majority of chain convenience stores had large displays of cigarettes with shelf gliders (98%), shelf liners (97%), and a top display panel (89%) colour-coded to complement various cigarette brands, and 89% had tobacco products placed within one foot of candy......... Posted by: Jessica      Read more         Source

May 19, 2008, 8:30 PM CT

New guidelines for hypertension treatment

A study based at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston provides added justification that a thiazide-type diuretic is the best first-choice drug for hypertensive patients. The findings, reported in the American Heart Associations Circulation, Volume 117, Issue 20, evaluate the results of a prior trial coordinated by scientists at The University of Texas School of Public Health, along with other recent studies.

As per the American Heart Association, about one in three U.S. adults has high blood pressure. Uncontrolled hypertension can lead to stroke, heart attack, heart failure or kidney failure. A joint national committee (JNC) on the prevention, detection and evaluation of hypertension meets on a regular basis to summarize suggested guidelines for doctors on treating high blood pressure based on medical research. The study, titled Thiazide-type diuretics and beta-adrenergic blockers as first-line drug therapys for hypertension, analyzes the guidelines of the committee based on prior and recent research.

The findings of the JNC are based on information stemming from a landmark investigation at the UT School of Public Health, which in 2002 established that diuretics were as good or better than three other classes of medications for high blood pressure. The original investigation was called ALLHAT - Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial......... Posted by: Jessica      Read more         Source

April 22, 2008, 9:09 PM CT

Mechanism of Epigenetic Inheritance

Eventhough letters representing the three billion pairs of molecules that form the "rungs" of the helical DNA "ladder" are routinely called the human "genetic code," the DNA they comprise transmits traits across generations in a variety of ways, not all of which depend on the sequence of letters in the code.

In some cases, rather than the sequence of "letters," it is the physical manner in which DNA is spun around protein spools called histones and tightly packed into chromosomes that determines whether or with what intensity specific genes are expressed. A team of researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) has solved another in a series of mysteries about this critical mechanism of gene expression, described in a paper in the April 8 issue of Current Biology.

Inherited Clumping

As per CSHL professor Rob Martienssen, Ph.D., who led the research team, about a tenth of our DNA stands aloof, spending its time in tightly packed clumps called heterochromatin, and unwinding only to replicate when a cell divides. After copying, both of the resulting DNA molecules - to the surprise of a number of - have been observed to form reclusive clumps in the same places as the original one did.

This inherited clumping of DNA, which causes genes to be expressed in distinctive ways, is one of a series of phenomena that researchers call epigenetic. The same sequence of nucleotides in two people can produce different patterns of gene expression if the way the DNA is clumped happens to be different......... Posted by: Jessica      Read more         Source

April 17, 2008, 8:11 PM CT

Ovarian cancer stem cells identified

Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have identified, characterized and cloned ovarian cancer stem cells and have shown that these stem cells may be the source of ovarian cancers recurrence and its resistance to chemotherapy.

These results bring us closer to more effective and targeted treatment for epithelial ovarian cancer, one of the most lethal forms of cancer, said Gil Mor, M.D., associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at Yale School of Medicine.

Mor presented his findings recently at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Meeting in San Diego, California.

Cancerous tumors are made up of cells that are both cancerous and non-cancerous. Within cancerous cells, there is a further subclass referred to as cancer stem cells, which can replicate indefinitely.

Present chemotherapy modalities eliminate the bulk of the tumor cells, but cannot eliminate a core of these cancer stem cells that have a high capacity for renewal, said Mor, who is also a member of the Yale Cancer Center. Identification of these cells, as we have done here, is the first step in the development of therapeutic modalities.

Mor and colleagues isolated cells from 80 human samples of either peritoneal fluid or solid tumors. The cancer stem cells that were identified were positive for traditional cancer stem cell markers including CD44 and MyD88. These cells also showed a high capacity for repair and self-renewal......... Posted by: Jessica      Read more         Source

April 13, 2008, 9:40 PM CT

MRI to detect prostate cancer

The use of MRI without endorectal coil can detect prostate cancer and provide undistorted images with diagnostic image quality and accurate tumor localization, as per a recent study conducted by scientists from The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH.

The 3T MRI datasets were acquired without an endorectal coil and were used during robotic surgery, said Steffen Sammet, MD, PhD, lead author of the study. Since the use of an endorectal coil leads to deformation of the prostate and potentially altered microcirculation, our goal was to assess the capability of detecting prostate cancer areas by dynamic contrast enhanced MRI without endorectal coil at 3T validated by correlation with surgical pathology, he said.

The study included 13 prostate cancer patients who were scheduled for prostatectomy and were imaged on a 3T MRI. The scientists noted suspicious areas, tumor location, extracapsulation (the extent of the tumor outside the capsule of the prostate and is a linked to a unfavorable prognosis), and seminal vesicle involvement. Once this was complete, 3D reconstruction of the prostate, tumor neurovascular bundle and surrounding tissue waccording toformed and used as an intra-operative roadmap.

As per the study, cancer was correctly localized in 11 of the 13 patients. There was an agreement with pathology in 10 of the 13 patients regarding extracapsulation and 11 of 13 regarding seminal vesicle involvement. The study showed that 3D reconstruction was useful for the surgical roadmap in all 13 cases......... Posted by: Jessica      Read more         Source