Latest Health News

Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company today announced the presentation of safety, pharmacokinetic and efficacy data from the Phase I portion of a Phase I/II clinical trial evaluating TAK-700 in patients with metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). These data were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Genitourinary Cancers Symposium (ASCO GU), held March 5-7, 2010 in San Francisco, CA...

ImmunoGen, Inc. (Nasdaq: IMGN), a biotechnology company that develops targeted anticancer products using its antibody expertise and Targeted Antibody Payload (TAP) technology, announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted orphan drug designation to its IMGN901 compound when used for the treatment of Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC). Through a separate process, the European Union (EU) Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products (COMP) concurrently also granted IMGN901 orphan medicinal product designation for the treatment of MCC...

BG Medicine, Inc. announced that it has entered into an agreement with Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) to extend its current development and commercialization collaboration to include the development of a galectin-3 test for Abbott Point of Care's i-STAT® System. Galectin-3 is a novel biomarker that may play a role in detecting the development and progression of heart failure...

The European Parliament has voted 618 votes to 17 for an extension to the transitional arrangements contained within the regulation on the non-commercial movement of pet animals (Reg. 998/2003) which afford the UK additional protection against rabies, ticks and tapeworms. The British Veterinary Association (BVA) and British Small Animal Veterinary Association (BSAVA) have been lobbying MEPs to support the extension and have strongly welcomed this decision...

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society today announced the appointment of Helen Gordon as Chief Executive of the new Professional Leadership Body. Mrs Gordon will join the Society on the 1st of July. Mrs Gordon comes to the Society from her current position as Chief Executive of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Prior to leading the RCOG for the past five years, Mrs Gordon was Chief Executive of Queen Mary's Sidcup NHS Trust from 2000-2005. RPSGB President, Steve Churton said: "I am delighted to welcome Helen to the Society at this pivotal time in its history...

Scientists in Australia found that when they studied insulin resistance in people with Hepatitis C little or none of it was in the liver and nearly all the insulin resistance occured in muscle, which surprised them because Hepatitis C is a liver disease that not only leads to cirrhosis and cancer, but also makes people three to four times more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes. You can read about the study that led to these findings in the March 2010 issue of the journal Gastroenterology, which is also available online...

The BDA is proud to announce that the respected clinical expert Dr Avijit Banerjee has been confirmed to join the prestigious panel of speakers appearing at the 2010 British Dental Conference and Exhibition, to be held on the 20 - 22 May 2010 at the Liverpool Arena and Convention Centre (ACC). Dr Banerjee, Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in Restorative Dentistry at King's College London (KCL) Dental Institute at Guy's Hospital, will be delivering a presentation titled Revolutions in caries management - minimal invasive dentistry in practice...

Tickets are now available for the BDA's British Dental Conference and Exhibition, which takes place at Liverpool's Arena and Convention Centre (ACC) from 20-22 May 2010. The conference features a wide selection of both clinical and motivational speakers who are guaranteed to inspire delegates with new ideas. The conference will feature speakers and topics that are relevant to the full dental team and will be full of information and techniques that can be implemented in practise...

Evaluating children for underlying heart problems before prescribing stimulant medications can identify children at risk for sudden cardiac death, but electrocardiogram (ECG) screening is of borderline cost-effectiveness compared to current practice, according to research reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association...

A long-acting ACE inhibitor used to reduce blood pressure significantly decreased the risk for cardiovascular disease, including stroke, in normal weight, overweight and obese patients, according to research reported in Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association. In the Perindopril Protection Against Recurrent Stroke Study (PROGRESS), the rate of cardiovascular disease declined by more than 25 percent in normal weight, overweight and obese patient groups...

The DASH diet, combined with exercise and calorie restriction, improved mental functioning by 30 percent in overweight adults with high blood pressure compared to those who didn't diet or exercise, researchers reported in Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association. The DASH diet emphasizes eating low-fat dairy products, foods low in cholesterol and high in carbohydrates, and fruits and vegetables. The DASH diet comes from the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension trial, conducted by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute...

Children with a parent who had a stroke, particularly by age 65, have an increased risk of stroke, suggesting parental stroke as an important new risk marker, according to a study in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. Researchers focused on 3,443 initially stroke-free subjects, all second-generation participants in the Framingham Heart Study. The participants' parents had reported 106 strokes by age 65, and subjects reported 128 strokes over the 40-year study...

An already promising initiative to assist start-up firms that commercialize technologies associated with the Quality of Life Technology (QoLT) Center is now expanding thanks to a three-year, $1.5 million Innovation Award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Engineering Education and Centers. The QoLT Center, an NSF Engineering Research Center jointly run by Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, develops intelligent systems to improve daily living, particularly for those people whose capabilities have diminished because of age or disability...

An award from the National Science Foundation will boost a Kansas State University professor's contribution to the study of proteins while also helping college and high school science teachers learn more about computational and structural biology. Jianhan Chen, an assistant professor of biochemistry, is receiving more than $670,000 as a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation...

A new mental health outreach programme set up after the 2005 London bombings has successfully identified and treated hundreds of survivors. After the 7/7 bombings in 2005 a group of clinical psychologists targeted nearly a thousand survivors of the attacks by painstakingly compiling hospital treatment records, police witness files and referrals from GPs. The need for this new method of reaching potential patients was evident after results showed that only 4% of patients contacted by the programme had been referred for treatment by their GPs - the traditional pathway to mental heath care...

Currently, foreign-born people make up approximately 13 percent of the total U.S. population. As the immigrant population grows, understanding its disability status and employment characteristics becomes increasingly important. People, both native and foreign-born, with disabilities make important contributions to our society, and many individuals continue to work despite a wide range of impairments...

Physicians would be better prepared for the accelerating rate of scientific discovery - and more in step with the latest in patient-care - if they added an important tool to their medical bags: a plan for how to keep pace with emerging health-care advances. That is the finding of a national study published online in the journal Academic Pediatrics which examines whether pediatric residents know how to develop plans to ensure they'll keep abreast of current medical practice...

A new method of growing arteries could lead to a "biological bypass" - or a non-invasive way to treat coronary artery disease, Yale School of Medicine researchers report with their colleagues in the April issue of Journal of Clinical Investigation. Coronary arteries can become blocked with plaque, leading to a decrease in the supply of blood and oxygen to the heart. Over time this blockage can lead to debilitating chest pain or heart attack. Severe blockages in multiple major vessels may require coronary artery bypass graft surgery, a major invasive surgery...

Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have discovered that exposure during pregnancy to Bisphenol A (BPA), a common component of plastics, causes permanent abnormalities in the uterus of offspring, including alteration in their DNA. The findings were reported in the March issue of Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB J.). Led by Hugh S. Taylor, M.D., professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at Yale, the study is the first to show that BPA exposure permanently affects sensitivity to estrogen...

The Johns Hopkins Hospital has again received the 2010 American Alliance of Healthcare Providers' (AAHCP) American Hospital of Choice Award. Johns Hopkins has been selected for this award seven times since the award's inception in 2002. The award is designed to find America's most customer-friendly hospitals based either on an extensive application process, or by a review of a facility's public communication and staff interaction with customers...