Categories
Cardiovascular
Diagnostics
Endocrinology
Health Insurance
Medical Devices
Mental Health
Nutrition
Oncology
Public Health
Sexual Health
Popular Articles

Brazil's Scientific Research On The Rise, Thomson Reuters Study Finds
Thomson Reuters today announced the results of a study documenting Brazil"s steady rise during the last two decades in both the volume and impact of its scientific work. According to Science Watch, these findings underscore Brazil"s standing among the emergent "BRIC" nations. BRIC -- an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India and China -- are the countries possessing the res and economic potential to capture a significant share of the world"s future economic growth.
generic viagra online
London Health Service Begins Offering Rapid HIV Tests
Barts and the London NHS Trust has become the first National Health Service provider in the United Kingdom to offer rapid, oral HIV tests, BBC News reports. Officials hope that the service will increase the number of people who seek testing because requirements of giving blood and waiting for test results are eliminated with the rapid tests. Barts will offer the rapid, oral tests in non-health care settings such as outreach centers. In addition, sexual health workers hope to be able to offer the test in night clubs in the future. About 200 people in Barts clinics have received rapid tests since March, and officials hope to test 250 people monthly. Merle Symonds, the sexual health adviser at the trust, said the message that HIV is a treatable disease has not "filtered through and stigma does remain around HIV, even if it is waning." Lisa Power of the Terrence Higgins Trust -- an HIV/AIDS organization that also offers rapid, oral tests -- said that a major problem surrounding HIV/AIDS in the United Kingdom is that many people are not aware of their status. She added, "Anything we can do to increase the take-up of testing is welcome, and we think what Barts is doing is fantastic."According to BBC News, the United Kingdom has the largest number of people living with HIV in Western Europe, with men who have sex with men accounting for 41% of new cases. BBC News reports that approximately one-third of HIV-positive people in the country are not aware of their status (BBC News, 5/20).
News of the day
Smear Tests For Under 25s Have Little Impact On Cancer Rates
Cervical screening in women aged 20-24 has little or no impact on rates of invasive cervical cancer up to age 30, concludes a study published on bmj.com.
Diagnostics

Smoking Increases Potential For Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer

Smoking has once again been implicated in the development of advanced cancer. Exposure to nicotine by way of cigarette smoking may increase the likelihood that pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma will become metastatic, according to researchers from the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson. Their study was published in the August edition of the journal Surgery. The culprit behind the increased metastasis potential appears to be an isoform (variant type) of a protein called osteopontin, according to Hwyda Arafat, M.D. Ph.D., an associate professor of Surgery at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University and a member of the Jefferson Pancreatic, Biliary & Related Cancers Center. Nicotine promotes the expression osteopontin, and high levels of osteopontin have been reported in pancreatic ductal carcinoma (PDA). Dr. Arafat and her research team analyzed PDA samples and confirmed that the isoform, called OPNc, was also expressed on invasive PDA lesions. Previous studies have shown that OPNc is expressed in several invasive cancers, and supports metastatic behavior. The researchers correlated OPNc expression with the patients" smoking history. OPNc expression was found on 87 percent of the invasive PDA lesions analyzed, of which 73 percent were from smokers. The OPNc expression also correlated with higher expression levels of osteopontin. Premalignant lesions expressed no OPNc. "This is the first time a relationship between nicotine and OPNc expression has been identified," Dr. Arafat said. "These data are very exciting because now we can evaluate OPNc as a prognostic and diagnostic marker of invasive PDA lesions. "Because of the lower expression levels of OPNc in non-smokers, OPNc may be regulated by nicotine, which is another novel finding of this study. The exact role of OPNc in PDA remains to be defined, but it could provide a unique potential target to control pancreatic cancer aggressiveness, especially in people who smoke cigarettes." Pancreatic cancer is the fourth-leading cause of cancer death in the country, taking 34,000 lives a year. Only four percent of individuals with pancreatic cancer live for five years after diagnosis. Thomas Jefferson University


Add your comment:
Name:
Site address: http://
Your message:
Enter today\\\\'s date, 2 digits
(spam protection):

© Copyright 2009