Tanning Salons Now Outnumber McDonald's Outlets in Florida: Study

Indoor tanning has strong ties to skin cancer and Florida has one of the highest rates of the disease

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New cell mechanisms discovery key to stop the metastasis of breast cancer

Researchers from the University of Utah Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) therapy, not only to block the mechanism discovered cellular mechanism to the rest of the spread of breast cancer (metastatic), body. Research results was published in the online journal cell reports 1/2,.

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Lilly forecasts 2014 profit in line with estimates

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Worker wasps grow visual brains, queens stay in dark

Jan. 6, 2014 — A queen in a paperwasp colony largely stays in the dark. The worker wasps, who fly outside to seek food and building materials, see much more of the world around them. A new study indicates that the brain regions involved in sensory perception also develop differently in these castes, according to the different behavioral reliance on the senses. The study is published in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.

"The wasps in different castes within a colony don't differ much genetically. The differences we see show the signature of the environment on brain development," said Sean O'Donnell, PhD, a professor in Drexel University's College of Arts and Sciences who led the study.

O'Donnell's team found that the queen wasps had smaller brain regions for processing visual information than the workers in their own colonies. The pattern held across most of the 12 species of paperwasps they studied.

Most other research in how animals' environments affect their nervous systems -- known as neuroecology -- emphasizes comparisons between the brains of different species with diverse lifestyles and behaviors, such as comparisons between nocturnal and diurnal species of birds or bats.

"The strong behavioral and ecological differences between individuals within insect colonies make them powerful tools for studying how individual brain differences come about, and their functional significance," O'Donnell said.

To test how queen-worker brain differences come about, O'Donnell's team also compared differences in queen and worker wasps' brain development across different wasp species they studied.

In species where adult wasps fight for the queen position, it would make sense for the caste brain differences to be less pronounced than in species where adult wasps emerge with their caste roles already established -- if brain development followed a preordained program for each assigned role.

Instead, the researchers found larger differences between worker and queen wasp brains in species where adult wasps fought for dominance -- a finding that suggests brain plasticity, or development in adulthood in response to environmental and behavioral needs.

O'Donnell noted that sampling juvenile wasps at multiple stages of brain development would help confirm the finding suggested by his study that only looked at adult wasp brains.

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Leave family in peace, Schumacher's wife tells media

By Erik Kirschbaum

BERLIN (Reuters) - Michael Schumacher's wife appealed to the media on Tuesday to leave the French hospital they have staked out since the German was critically injured in a skiing accident nine days ago and to let the doctors do their job.

Corinna Schumacher also asked the media to leave her family in peace after German reports said on Monday there had been a slight improvement in the former driver's condition, hours after Grenoble hospital had issued a bulletin saying he was still stable but critical.

"Please support us in our joint struggle with Michael," Corinna said in a statement. "It is important to me that you relieve the doctors and the hospital so they can work in peace.

"Please trust their statements and leave the hospital. Please also leave our family in peace."

They were Corinna's first public comments since a December 30 statement in which she thanked the medical team for their efforts and expressed gratitude to fans around the world for their outpouring of support.

Schumacher, a seven-times Formula One world champion, suffered brain injuries when his head hit a rock in France on December 27.

He has been in an induced coma since then and has undergone two operations in Grenoble.

The hospital and the German's management have repeatedly asked the media to respect his privacy.

The medical team have held news conferences and issued periodic bulletins on his condition including one on Monday that said: "The clinical state of Michael Schumacher is stable as he's under permanent care and treatment.

"However, the medical team in charge stresses that it continues to assess his situation as critical."

BILD REPORT

Bild, Germany's best-selling newspaper, reported on Tuesday under the headline 'First hopes for Schumi' that the former driver nearly died twice last week.

It added that doctors were now more optimistic he would survive.

"Twice in the last week it looked like Schumi would lose the fight for his life," Bild wrote.

"The brain scan on Friday was 'catastrophic', Bild has learned from medical sources. But after the readings stabilised towards the weekend the doctors are now confident he will make it."

Last week Schumacher's agent Sabine Kehm urged journalists to stay away after security guards said they intercepted a reporter disguised as a priest who was trying to get into his room.

Schumacher, who turned 45 on Friday, is the most successful Formula One driver of all time with 91 race victories.

He left the sport last year after a disappointing three-year comeback with Mercedes following an earlier retirement from Ferrari at the end of 2006.

French newspaper Le Dauphine Libere reported on Tuesday that the camera Schumacher had on his skiing helmet was recording when he crashed.

The newspaper said investigators had footage that will be useful to understand the circumstances of the accident. The prosecutor in Annecy is due to hold a news conference on Wednesday.

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U.S. Panel Backs Routine Lung CT Scans for Older, Heavy Smokers

Yearly testing will prevent some lung cancer deaths, experts conclude

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New technique targets specific areas of cancer cells with different drugs

Jan. 6, 2014 — Researchers have developed a technique for creating nanoparticles that carry two different cancer-killing drugs into the body and deliver those drugs to separate parts of the cancer cell where they will be most effective. The technique was developed by researchers at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

"In testing on laboratory mice, our technique resulted in significant improvement in breast cancer tumor reduction as compared to conventional treatment techniques," says Dr. Zhen Gu, senior author of a paper on the research and an assistant professor in the joint biomedical engineering program at NC State and UNC-Chapel Hill.

"Cancer cells can develop resistance to chemotherapy drugs, but are less likely to develop resistance when multiple drugs are delivered simultaneously," Gu says. "However, different drugs target different parts of the cancer cell. For example, the protein drug TRAIL is most effective against the cell membrane, while doxorubicin (Dox) is most effective when delivered to the nucleus. We've come up with a sequential and site-specific delivery technique that first delivers TRAIL to cancer cell membranes and then penetrates the membrane to deliver Dox to the nucleus."

Gu's research team developed nanoparticles with an outer shell made of hyaluronic acid (HA) woven together with TRAIL. The HA interacts with receptors on cancer cell membranes, which "grab" the nanoparticle. Enzymes in the cancer cell environment break down the HA, releasing TRAIL onto the cell membrane and ultimately triggering cell death.

When the HA shell breaks down, it also reveals the core of the nanoparticle, which is made of Dox that is embedded with peptides that allow the core to penetrate into the cancer cell. The cancer cell encases the core in a protective bubble called an endosome, but the peptides on the core cause the endosome to begin breaking apart. This spills the Dox into the cell where it can penetrate the nucleus and trigger cell death.

"We designed this drug delivery vehicle using a 'programmed' strategy," says Tianyue Jiang, a lead author in Dr. Gu's lab. "Different drugs can be released at the right time in their right places," adds Dr. Ran Mo, a postdoctoral researcher in Gu's lab and the other lead author.

"This research is our first proof of concept, and we will continue to optimize the technique to make it even more efficient," Gu says. "The early results are very promising, and we think this could be scaled up for large-scale manufacturing."

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Online colorectal cancer risk calculator

Jan. 3, 2014 — Researchers at Cleveland Clinic have developed a new tool called CRC-PRO that allows physicians to quickly and accurately predict an individual's risk of colorectal cancer, as published in the current edition of the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.

CRC-PRO, or Colorectal Cancer Predicted Risk Online, is designed to help both patients and physicians determine when screening for colorectal cancer is appropriate. Current guidelines recommend patients are screened at the age of 50. However, with this new tool, physicians will be better able to identify who is truly at risk and when screenings for patients are necessary.

To develop the calculator, the researchers -- led by Brian Wells, M.D., Ph.D., of the Department of Quantitative Health Sciences in Cleveland Clinic's Lerner Research Institute -- analyzed data on over 180,000 patients from a longitudinal study conducted at the University of Hawaii. Patients were followed for up to 11.5 years to determine which factors were highly associated with the development of colorectal cancer.

"Creating a risk calculator that includes multiple risk factors offers clinicians a means to more accurately predict risk than the simple age-based cutoffs currently used in clinical practice," said Dr. Wells. "Clinicians could decide to screen high-risk patients earlier than age 50, while delaying or foregoing screening in low-risk individuals. "

Wells and his colleagues hope that their new, user-friendly calculator will help improve the efficiency of colorectal cancer screenings. They also believe prediction tools like this can help lower healthcare costs by cutting down on unnecessary testing.

The Multiethnic Cohort Study comprised a diverse ethnic population. Previously, most research in this area has been performed predominately in Caucasians. Because cancer risk differs drastically in different racial groups, the researchers felt that an ethnically diverse population would more accurately reflect true cancer risk.

"The development of risk prediction calculators like the CRC-PRO is vital for improving medical decision-making," said Michael Kattan, Ph.D., Chair of the Department of Quantitative Health Sciences in Cleveland Clinic's Lerner Research Institute. "Tools like this represent another step toward personalized medicine that will ultimately improve efficiency, outcomes and patient care."

Kattan and his research team are involved in the creation of numerous risk prediction tools, including heart disease and cancers of the breast, prostate and thyroid, that are available at http://rcalc.ccf.org. He is currently working on software that will integrate these tools for automatic calculation in the Electronic Health Record to make this process easier for physicians.

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Newfound planet is Earth-mass but gassy

Jan. 6, 2014 — An international team of astronomers has discovered the first Earth-mass planet that transits, or crosses in front of, its host star. KOI-314c is the lightest planet to have both its mass and physical size measured. Surprisingly, although the planet weighs the same as Earth, it is 60 percent larger in diameter, meaning that it must have a very thick, gaseous atmosphere.

"This planet might have the same mass as Earth, but it is certainly not Earth-like," says David Kipping of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), lead author of the discovery. "It proves that there is no clear dividing line between rocky worlds like Earth and fluffier planets like water worlds or gas giants."

Kipping presented this discovery today in a press conference at the 223rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

The team gleaned the planet's characteristics using data from NASA's Kepler spacecraft. KOI-314c orbits a dim, red dwarf star located approximately 200 light-years away. It circles its star every 23 days. The team estimates its temperature to be 220 degrees Fahrenheit, too hot for life as we know it.

KOI-314c is only 30 percent denser than water. This suggests that the planet is enveloped by a significant atmosphere of hydrogen and helium hundreds of miles thick. It might have begun life as a mini-Neptune and lost some of its atmospheric gases over time, boiled off by the intense radiation of its star.

Weighing such a small planet was a challenge. Conventionally, astronomers measure the mass of an exoplanet by measuring the tiny wobbles of the parent star induced by the planet's gravity. This radial velocity method is extremely difficult for a planet with Earth's mass. The previous record holder for a planet with a measured mass (Kepler-78b) weighed 70 percent more than Earth.

To weigh KOI-314c, the team relied on a different technique known as transit timing variations (TTV). This method can only be used when more than one planet orbits a star. The two planets tug on each other, slightly changing the times that they transit their star.

"Rather than looking for a wobbling star, we essentially look for a wobbling planet," explains second author David Nesvorny of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI). "Kepler saw two planets transiting in front of the same star over and over again. By measuring the times at which these transits occurred very carefully, we were able to discover that the two planets are locked in an intricate dance of tiny wobbles giving away their masses."

The second planet in the system, KOI-314b, is about the same size as KOI-314c but significantly denser, weighing about 4 times as much as Earth. It orbits the star every 13 days, meaning it is in a 5-to-3 resonance with the outer planet.

TTV is a very young method of finding and studying exoplanets, first used successfully in 2010. This new measurement shows the potential power of TTV, particularly when it comes to low-mass planets difficult to study using traditional techniques.

"We are bringing transit timing variations to maturity," adds Kipping.

The planet was discovered by chance by the team as they scoured the Kepler data not for exoplanets, but for exomoons. The Hunt for Exomoons with Kepler (HEK) project, led by Kipping, scans through Kepler's planet haul looking for TTV, which can also be a signature of an exomoon.

"When we noticed this planet showed transit timing variations, the signature was clearly due to the other planet in the system and not a moon. At first we were disappointed it wasn't a moon but then we soon realized it was an extraordinary measurement," says Kipping.

This research was funded by NASA and the National Science Foundation. A paper detailing the findings has been submitted to The Astrophysical Journal. Its authors are Kipping (CfA), Nesvorny (SwRI), Lars Buchhave (Niels Bohr Institute), Joel Hartman and Gaspar Bakos (Princeton University), and Allan Schmitt (Citizen Science).

Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) is a joint collaboration between the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Harvard College Observatory. CfA scientists, organized into six research divisions, study the origin, evolution and ultimate fate of the universe.

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Gene therapy target tumor blood vessels.

Working with mice, St. Louis （ Alvin j. Siteman Cancer Center home) of long gene delivery method is required in the field of gene therapy, Washington University School of Medicine researchers reported development: carry a gene of interest can be deactivated virus to inject into the blood stream, making its way to the cell the. You can target the tumor blood vessels in mice without affecting healthy tissue they are scientists in this early concept study, shows.

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New fossils shed light on the origins of lions, tigers, and bears

Jan. 6, 2014 — New fossils from Belgium have shed light on the origin of some of the most well-known, and well-loved, modern mammals. Cats and dogs, as well as other carnivorous mammals (like bears, seals, and weasels), taxonomically called 'carnivoraformes', trace their ancestry to primitive carnivorous mammals dating back to 55 million years ago (the beginning of the time period called the Eocene). A study, published in the most recent issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, discusses the origins of this group and describes new specimens of one of the earliest of these primitive taxa.

The species, dubbed Dormaalocyon latouri, had previously been found at the Belgian locality of Dormaal (thus the name of the genus). New specimens found by lead author Floreal Sole and his colleagues, allow for a better characterization of the animal, and its placement in the evolutionary history of carnivores. "Its description allows better understanding of the origination, variability and ecology of the earliest carnivoraforms," says Sole.

The new specimens include over 250 teeth and ankle bones. More teeth allow for a description of the entire tooth row of Dormaalocyon, while previous finds only included two upper molars. The new finds even include the deciduous teeth (or 'baby teeth'). The fact that these teeth are very primitive looking, and from a very early time, implies that Dormaalocyon is close to the origin of carnivoraforms, and that this origin may have been in Europe.

The ankle bones suggest that Dormaalocyon was arboreal, living and moving through the trees. Previous reconstructions of the environment at Dormaal 55 million years ago inferred a warm, humid, and wooded area. This was a time soon after an event called the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (or PETM). This extremely warm period affected the evolution of many mammal groups, including carnivoraforms. Dr. Sole believes that the fact that Dormaalocyon was arboreal, and that carnivoraforms made their way to North America around this time, "supports the existence of a continuous evergreen forest belt at high latitudes during the PETM."

Although close to the origin of carnivoraforms, the fossils suggest there were even more primitive species in the group in an earlier time period, the Paleocene. Says Sole, "The understanding of the origination of the carnivoraforms is important for reconstructing the adaptation of placental mammals to carnivorous diet. Therefore, Dormaalocyon provides information concerning the evolution of placental mammals after the disappearance of the largest dinosaurs (at the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event). Our study shows that the carnivoraforms were very diversified at the earliest Eocene, which allows hypothesizing that they were probably already diversified during the latest Paleocene." This means there are more fossils out there to be found that can answer the question of the origin of this beloved modern group.

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Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Sole, F., R. Smith, T. Coillot, E. De Bast, T. Smith. Dental and Tarsal Anatomy of 'miacis' Latouri and a Phylogenetic Analysis of the Earliest Carnivoraforms (mammalia, Carnivoramorpha). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 34(1): 1-21; 2014

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

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Experimental Treatment for Rare Soft-Tissue Cancer Shows Promise in Mice

Study looked at method for blocking key growth protein in malignant nerve sheath tumors

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Tongue cancer strikes surgery chemotherapy

Less significantly more patients with tongue carcinoma underwent the first University of Michigan comprehensive cancer started their course of patients with chemotherapy treatment according to new research from the Center for study of. You elected a little better help the single administration of Larynx Cancer, chemotherapy patients chemotherapy or radiation and surgery for which patients it must determine the Protocol. Laryngeal cancer pioneer and widely research U M in, this approach leads to patient survival and functional outcomes. However, describes the JAMA society of Otorhinolaryngology Head and neck surgery displayed in this new study, a clear error.

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Recurrent ovarian cancer "" corresponds to the decitabine and reprogramming after cancer vaccines.

Chemotherapy and cancer vaccines administered prior to treatment with the drug decitabine is Journal of the American Association for cancer research, cancer immunology, Research Institute at Roswell Park cancer published was obtained for women with recurrent ovarian cancer is suggested to provide a treatment option for patients with this disease combination vaccine research Institute, this new clinical effects.

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'Ardi' skull reveals links to human lineage

Jan. 6, 2014 — One of the most hotly debated issues in current human origins research focuses on how the 4.4 million-year-old African species Ardipithecus ramidus is related to the human lineage. "Ardi" was an unusual primate. Though it possessed a tiny brain and a grasping big toe used for clambering in the trees, it had small, humanlike canine teeth and an upper pelvis modified for bipedal walking on the ground.

Scientists disagree about where this mixture of features positions Ardipithecus ramidus on the tree of human and ape relationships. Was Ardi an ape with a few humanlike features retained from an ancestor near in time (between 6 and 8 million years ago, according to DNA evidence) to the split between the chimpanzee and human lines? Or was it a true relative of the human line that had yet to shed many signs of its remote tree-dwelling ancestry?

New research led by Arizona State University paleoanthropologist William Kimbel confirms Ardi's close evolutionary relationship to humans. Kimbel and his collaborators turned to the underside (or base) of a beautifully preserved partial cranium of Ardi. Their study revealed a pattern of similarity that links Ardi to Australopithecus and modern humans, but not to apes.

The research appears in the Jan. 6-10 online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Kimbel is director of the ASU Institute of Human Origins, a research center of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change. Joining ASU's Kimbel as co-authors are Gen Suwa (University of Tokyo Museum), Berhane Asfaw (Rift Valley Research Service, Addis Ababa), Yoel Rak (Tel Aviv University) and Tim White (University of California at Berkeley).

White's field-research team has been recovering fossil remains of Ardipithecus ramidus in the Middle Awash research area, Ethiopia since the 1990s. The most recent study of the Ardi skull, led by Suwa, was published in Science in 2009, whose work (with the Middle Awash team) first revealed humanlike aspects of its base. Kimbel co-leads the team that recovered the earliest known Australopithecus skulls from the Hadar site, home of the "Lucy" skeleton, in Ethiopia.

"Given the very tiny size of the Ardi skull, the similarity of its cranial base to a human's is astonishing," says Kimbel.

The cranial base is a valuable resource for studying phylogenetic, or natural evolutionary relationships, because its anatomical complexity and association with the brain, posture and chewing system have provided numerous opportunities for adaptive evolution over time. The human cranial base, accordingly, differs profoundly from that of apes and other primates.

In humans, the structures marking the articulation of the spine with the skull are more forwardly located than in apes, where the base is shorter from front to back and the openings on each side for passage of blood vessels and nerves are more widely separated.

These shape differences affect the way the bones are arranged on the skull base, such that it is fairly easy to tell apart even isolated fragments of ape and human basicrania.

Ardi's cranial base shows the distinguishing features that separate humans and Australopithecus from the apes. Kimbel's earlier research (with collaborator Rak) had shown that these human peculiarities were present in the earliest known Australopithecus skulls by 3.4 million years ago.

The new work expands the catalogue of anatomical similarities linking humans, Australopithecus and Ardipithecus on the tree of life, and shows that the human cranial base pattern is at least a million years older than Lucy's species, A. afarensis.

Paleoanthropologists generally fall into one of two camps on the cause of evolutionary changes in the human cranial base. Was it the adoption of upright posture and bipedality that caused a shift in the poise of the head on the vertebral column? If so, does the humanlike cranial base of Ar. ramidus confirm postcranial evidence for partial bipedality in this species? Or, do the changes tell us about the shape of the brain (and of the base on which it sits), perhaps an early sign of brain reorganization in the human lineage? Both alternatives will need to be re-evaluated in light of the finding that Ardi does indeed appear to be more closely related to humans than to chimpanzees.

"The Ardi cranial base fills some important gaps in our understanding of human evolution above the neck," adds Kimbel. "But it also opens up a host of new questions . . . just as it should!"

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Costs for complications from cancer surgical care extremely high

Jan. 6, 2014 — Although complications from surgical care for cancer patients may seem infrequent, the costs associated with such outcomes are extremely high, according to researchers from Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Their findings were reported in the Dec. 30 online edition of the journal Cancer.

The authors' findings come against the backdrop of rising cancer care costs in the United States, which were estimated at $124.6 billion in 2010 and could rise by 66 percent to $207 billion by 2020.

"It is widely known that outcomes after cancer surgery vary widely, depending on interactions between patient, tumor, neoadjuvant therapy and provider factors," said Marah Short, a senior research analyst for the Baker Institute's Health Policy Forum. "An area of cancer care that has received little attention is the influence of complications on medical outcomes and costs of care. In our study, we found consistently higher costs associated with cancer surgery complications. Improved patient outcomes and substantial health care savings could be achieved by targeting these complicating factors for quality improvement."

Short co-authored the article with Vivian Ho, the chair in health economics at the Baker Institute, a professor of economics at Rice and a professor of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, and Thomas Aloia, an associate professor in the MD Anderson Cancer Center's Department of Surgical Oncology. The authors' findings come against the backdrop of rising cancer care costs in the United States, which were estimated at $124.6 billion in 2010 and could rise by 66 percent to $207 billion by 2020.

In cancer treatment, unlike many benign conditions, there tends to be a higher threshold of tolerance for complications, the authors said. In addition, the direct cause of complications is more difficult to determine as there are complex interactions between patient, tumor, multimodality therapy and provider factors that contribute to adverse outcomes.

In their study, the authors used the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's Patient Safety Indicators' (PSIs) definitions to identify patient safety-related complications in Medicare claims data. PSIs are a set of transparent outcome measures that provide information on potential in-hospital complications and adverse events after surgeries, procedures and childbirth. They analyzed hospital and inpatient physician claims from all 50 U.S. states for the years 2005 through 2009 for six cancer resections: colectomy, rectal resection, pulmonary lobectomy, pneumonectomy, esophagectomy and pancreatic resection.

They found overall PSI rates for complications arising from the six procedures ranged from a low of 0.01 percent for postoperative hip fracture to a high of 2.58 percent for respiratory failure. Rates of postoperative respiratory failure, death among inpatients with serious treatable complications, postoperative thromboembolism and accidental puncture/laceration were more than 1 percent for all six cancer operations. Several PSIs -- including decubitus ulcer, postoperative thromboembolism and death among surgical inpatients with serious treatable complications -- raised hospitalization costs by more than 20 percent for most types of cancer surgery. Postoperative respiratory failure resulted in a cost increase of more than 50 percent for all cancer resections.

"These data indicate that even in the complex cancer care environment, in which many controllable and uncontrollable variables may contribute to complications, improvements in patient safety indicators are highly likely to reduce costs," Short said. "We may not have identified all of the complication measures that are important determinants of surgeon and hospital costs. However, because we know so little about the links between provider volume, care processes, complications and costs, this analysis represents an important first step in examining these relations."

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Scientists make advance in cancer research

Jan. 3, 2014 — A protein that has been at the center of cancer drug design for the last 20 years should not be given up on according to new research from the University of East Anglia (UEA).

The most advanced version of αvβ3-integrin antagonists failed clinical trials to treat aggressive forms of brain cancer.

But research published today in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation Research shows that targeting the protein in question could still be vital in stopping the growth of tumors. Not least because the drugs targeting it cause minimal side effects compared to other drugs -- which can cause bleeding in the gut and high blood pressure.

tumors must recruit their own blood supply to grow beyond a very small size. The research team studied the cells that line blood vessels (endothelial cells) in mice, and in particular the role of a widely expressed protein called beta3-integrin.

Dr Stephen Robinson, from UEA's school of Biological Sciences, said: "This protein has been the focus of drug design over the last two decades because its expression is vastly increased in endothelial cells during blood vessel recruitment.

"The most advanced of these drugs, however, has recently failed a phase III clinical trial to treat an aggressive form of brain cancer. In line with other clinical work, patients respond to treatment for a short while but then their cancers escape the treatment.

"This research helps to explain why these very promising drugs aren't meeting with the success that was anticipated and it suggests a way forward -- how to make them work better.

"We have shown how tumors continue to grow despite treatment which should block blood vessel recruitment. They modulate how they are recruiting their blood vessels by using a different pathway from the one that is being targeted. We have identified some molecular changes in endothelial cells that occur with long-term inhibition of beta3-integrin that might help the cells escape the beta3-integrin blockade.

"Our research also shows that timing is critical when targeting the protein beta3-integrin.

"Importantly, these findings have re-established the expression of beta3-integrin as a valid clinical target when treating cancer. Efforts must now be re-focused to either develop new drugs to target beta3-integrin, or figure out how to more effectively use the drugs that already exist."

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Big Cigarette Tax Hikes Might Prevent 200 Million Deaths in a Century

Study authors suggest that nations triple tobacco taxes

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Lilly issues 2014 forecast in line with estimates

(Reuters) - U.S. drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co on Tuesday forecast a decline in earnings this year in line with Wall Street estimates, with results hurt by cheaper generic forms of its Zyprexa schizophrenia drug and Cymbalta depression treatment.

Lilly expects earnings, excluding special items, of $2.77 to $2.85 per share this year. Analysts, on average, expected $2.78 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The Indianapolis drugmaker forecast revenue this year between $19.2 billion and $19.8 billion, also in line with analysts' expectations. The company early last year had projected revenue of $20 billion for 2014, but in October said it would be hard-pressed to achieve that goal because of devaluation of the yen and slower growth in emerging markets.

Lilly said it expects to achieve its goals of 2014 net income of $3 billion and operating cash flow of $4 billion.

(Reporting by Ransdell Pierson; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

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Meditation for anxiety, depression?

Jan. 6, 2014 — Some 30 minutes of meditation daily may improve symptoms of anxiety and depression, a new Johns Hopkins analysis of previously published research suggests.

"A lot of people use meditation, but it's not a practice considered part of mainstream medical therapy for anything," says Madhav Goyal, M.D., M.P.H., an assistant professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and leader of a study published online Jan. 6 in JAMA Internal Medicine. "But in our study, meditation appeared to provide as much relief from some anxiety and depression symptoms as what other studies have found from antidepressants." These patients did not typically have full-blown anxiety or depression.

The researchers evaluated the degree to which those symptoms changed in people who had a variety of medical conditions, such as insomnia or fibromyalgia, although only a minority had been diagnosed with a mental illness.

Goyal and his colleagues found that so-called "mindfulness meditation" -- a form of Buddhist self-awareness designed to focus precise, nonjudgmental attention to the moment at hand -- also showed promise in alleviating some pain symptoms as well as stress. The findings held even as the researchers controlled for the possibility of the placebo effect, in which subjects in a study feel better even if they receive no active treatment because they perceive they are getting help for what ails them.

To conduct their review, the investigators focused on 47 clinical trials performed through June 2013 among 3,515 participants that involved meditation and various mental and physical health issues, including depression, anxiety, stress, insomnia, substance use, diabetes, heart disease, cancer and chronic pain. They found moderate evidence of improvement in symptoms of anxiety, depression and pain after participants underwent what was typically an eight-week training program in mindfulness meditation. They discovered low evidence of improvement in stress and quality of life. There was not enough information to determine whether other areas could be improved by meditation. In the studies that followed participants for six months, the improvements typically continued.

They also found no harm came from meditation.

Meditation, Goyal notes, has a long history in Eastern traditions, and it has been growing in popularity over the last 30 years in Western culture.

"A lot of people have this idea that meditation means sitting down and doing nothing," Goyal says. "But that's not true. Meditation is an active training of the mind to increase awareness, and different meditation programs approach this in different ways."

Mindfulness meditation, the type that showed the most promise, is typically practiced for 30 to 40 minutes a day. It emphasizes acceptance of feelings and thoughts without judgment and relaxation of body and mind.

He cautions that the literature reviewed in the study contained potential weaknesses. Further studies are needed to clarify which outcomes are most affected by these meditation programs, as well as whether more meditation practice would have greater effects.

"Meditation programs appear to have an effect above and beyond the placebo," Goyal says.

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Survey identifies the incurable, a rare type of soft tissue cancers of a potential therapeutic target.

Research published in the online mobile report, UT Southwestern Medical Center （ Harold, C, Simmons Cancer Center home ） from scientists discovered that inhibits the action of a protein known as BRD4 cancer cells in a mouse model of malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNSTs) caused the death. MPNSTs are formed around an aggressive Sarcoma nervous. About half of the cases in patients with a genetic disorder called these tumors can develop sporadically, but with 1 to 3,500 people affect nerve fiber of the types （ NF1 ） 1.

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Motor racing-Leave family in peace, Schumacher's wife tells media

By Erik Kirschbaum

BERLIN, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Michael Schumacher's wife appealed to the media on Tuesday to leave the French hospital they have staked out since the German was critically injured in a skiing accident nine days ago and to let the doctors do their job.

Corinna Schumacher also asked the media to leave her family in peace after German reports said on Monday there had been a slight improvement in the former driver's condition, hours after Grenoble hospital had issued a bulletin saying he was still stable but critical.

"Please support us in our joint struggle with Michael," Corinna said in a statement. "It is important to me that you relieve the doctors and the hospital so they can work in peace.

"Please trust their statements and leave the hospital. Please also leave our family in peace."

They were Corinna's first public comments since a Dec. 30 statement in which she thanked the medical team for their efforts and expressed gratitude to fans around the world for their outpouring of support.

Schumacher, a seven-times Formula One world champion, suffered brain injuries when his head hit a rock in France on Dec. 27.

He has been in an induced coma since then and has undergone two operations in Grenoble.

The hospital and the German's management have repeatedly asked the media to respect his privacy.

The medical team have held news conferences and issued periodic bulletins on his condition including one on Monday that said: "The clinical state of Michael Schumacher is stable as he's under permanent care and treatment.

"However, the medical team in charge stresses that it continues to assess his situation as critical."

BILD REPORT

Bild, Germany's best-selling newspaper, reported on Tuesday under the headline 'First hopes for Schumi' that the former driver nearly died twice last week.

It added that doctors were now more optimistic he would survive.

"Twice in the last week it looked like Schumi would lose the fight for his life," Bild wrote.

"The brain scan on Friday was 'catastrophic', Bild has learned from medical sources. But after the readings stabilised towards the weekend the doctors are now confident he will make it."

Last week Schumacher's agent Sabine Kehm urged journalists to stay away after security guards said they intercepted a reporter disguised as a priest who was trying to get into his room.

Schumacher, who turned 45 on Friday, is the most successful Formula One driver of all time with 91 race victories.

He left the sport last year after a disappointing three-year comeback with Mercedes following an earlier retirement from Ferrari at the end of 2006.

French newspaper Le Dauphine Libere reported on Tuesday that the camera Schumacher had on his skiing helmet was recording when he crashed.

The newspaper said investigators had footage that will be useful to understand the circumstances of the accident. The prosecutor in Annecy is due to hold a news conference on Wednesday. (Additional reporting by Gregory Blachier in Paris, editing by Tony Jimenez)

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When experience fewer side effects from breast cancer patients with anti-cancer drugs receive acupuncture treatment

University of Maryland greenebaum cancer new analysis by researchers from the Center for real and fake acupuncture treatment was found to reduce the side effects of the medications commonly used to treat breast cancer. In published early online cancer peer review journal of the American Cancer Society may help to improve clinical cancer patient care. The results also have beneficial effects such as real acupuncture, do raise the question of Sham acupuncture is truly inert.

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New cell mechanism discovery key to stopping breast cancer metastasis

Jan. 2, 2014 — Researchers from Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah discovered a cellular mechanism that drives the spread of breast cancer to other parts of the body (metastasis), as well as a therapy which blocks that mechanism. The research results were published online in the journal Cell Reports on January 2.

"Genetic mutations do not drive this mechanism," said Alana Welm, PhD, senior author of the study, associate professor in the Department of Oncological Sciences, and an investigator at Huntsman Cancer Institute. "Instead, it's improper regulation of when genes turn on and off." The new discovery focuses on a protein called RON kinase (RON), which signals some areas of tumor cell DNA to become active. Normally, RON operates mostly during embryonic development and is not highly expressed in healthy adults. But in about 50 percent of breast cancer cases, RON becomes re-expressed and reprograms genes responsible for metastasis, making them active.

"If there's an entire program in the tumor cell that's important for metastasis, blocking one small part of that program, for example, the action of a single gene, will probably not be an effective strategy," said Welm. "But if you could find a way to turn off the entire program, you're more likely to have the desired effect. We found that inhibiting RON turns off the entire metastasis program in these tumor cells.

"No one has ever described a specific pathway driving this kind of reprogramming in metastasis, much less a way to therapeutically block it,' Welm added. "Also, RON has not previously been known to be involved in reprogramming gene expression."

Future work will include investigating the potential of detecting the RON-dependent program in tumor cells as a way to identify patients that are more likely to develop metastases and as a predictor of therapeutic response to drugs that inhibit RON.

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Internally displaced people in South Sudan are at great risk of disease outbreaks

31 December 2013 | Juba - The humanitarian situation in South Sudan has further deteriorated in the past 2 weeks. Since the outbreak of violence in South Sudan on 15 December 2013, the humanitarian needs have quickly been growing with a total of 195 416 persons have been displaced from the 4 states of South Sudan, namely; Central Equatoria, Jonglei, Unity and Upper Nile, and 75 171 of them taking shelter in the UN peace keeping bases in Juba, Bor, Malakal, Bentiu, while an estimated 58 000 others are displaced in Aweriel County Lakes state.

As a result of this population displacement, there is a looming risk of disease outbreaks especially for water borne diseases, warns WHO. “The poor water, sanitation and hygiene conditions in the camps, coupled with a shortage of health workers\healthcare providers, poses health risks to thousands of displaced persons in the UN camp bases,” says Dr Abdi Aden Mohammed, the WHO Country Representative in South Sudan.

“Even with the tremendous efforts made by health partners, sanitation conditions are still inadequate largely due to the large number of people sheltering in UN bases which have insufficient space to house these numbers. Coupled with poor water and sanitation conditions, overcrowding in the camps may create conditions ripe for disease outbreaks,” added Dr Abdi.

In order to minimize the risks of potential outbreaks, WHO is working closely with health authorities and other health partners including the UNMISS medical team, to identify health workers in the displaced camps who can provide primary health care services, as well as support health education and promotion to all displaced persons.

To immediately respond to the ongoing crisis, WHO has provided trauma management and emergency health kits to the UNMISS clinics and to other partners engaged in management of trauma cases in the four states. WHO has also provided essential drugs and medical supplies to UNMISS clinics to help them in the management of common illnesses. Over 894 wounded people have been treated at Bor, Malakal and Unity UNMISS clinics and other major referral hospitals in the past two weeks. Besides trauma, diarrhoea and malaria are the most common illnesses reported from the IDP camps.

A shortage of health care workers in states affected by conflict makes provision of quality primary health care a challenge. Many health care workers and NGO partners supporting health services have fled their homes for safety. For example Bor State Hospital in Jonglei State is closed\non functional due to insecurity and displacement of all health workers. There is now a significant gap in health service delivery for communities in conflict areas especially for those patients requiring acute care for their survival, such as trauma patients, pregnant women, young, children\under five and the elderly. WHO is working hard to cover the existing gaps in collaboration with health cluster partners including UNMISS medical teams. The agency calls for more health partners to deploy and support the displaced and needy persons in South Sudan.

WHO also calls on donor agencies to provide more financial resources to health partners to ensure that all vulnerable populations in the Republic of South Sudan can live in a safe and healthy environment and continue to receive lifesaving health care services.

For more information, please contact:

Dr Abdi Aden Mohammed
The WHO Country Representative, South Sudan
Email : mohameda@who.int

Ms Pauline Ajello
Communication and Advocacy Officer
WHO, Republic of South Sudan
Email : ajellopa@who.int
Tel : +211955873055

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Girl declared brain dead moved to unnamed facility

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The 13-year-old California girl who was declared brain dead after suffering complications from sleep apnea surgery is being cared for at a facility that shares her family's belief that she still is alive, her uncle said Monday.

Jahi McMath's family and their lawyer would not disclose where the 8th grader was taken on Sunday night after a weekslong battle to prevent Children's Hospital Oakland from removing her from the breathing machine that has kept her heart beating for 28 days.

The uncle, Omari Sealey, told reporters Monday that Jahi traveled by ground and that there were no complications in the transfer, suggesting she may still be in California. Nurses and doctors are working to stabilize her with intravenous antibiotics, minerals and supplements while she remains on the ventilator, but her condition is too precarious for additional measures, lawyer Christopher Dolan said.

The new facility has "been very welcoming with open arms. They have beliefs just like ours," Sealey said. "They believe as we do...It's a place where she is going to get the treatment she deserves."

The nearly $50,000 in private donations the family has raised since taking the case public helped cover the carefully choreographed handoff to the critical care team and transportation to the new location, Sealey said. The facility, where Jahi is expected to remain for some time, is run by a charitable organization that so far hasn't sought payment, Dolan said.

Both men refused to name the facility or reveal where it was located, saying they wanted to prevent staff members and the families of other patients from being harassed.

While the move ends what had been a very public and tense fight with the hospital, it also brings new challenges: caring for a patient whom three doctors have said is legally dead because, unlike someone in a coma, there is no blood flow or electrical activity in either her cerebrum or the brain stem that controls breathing.

The bodies of brain dead patients kept on ventilators gradually deteriorate, eventually causing blood pressure to plummet and the heart to stop, said Dr. Paul Vespa, director of neurocritical care at the University of California, Los Angeles, who has no role in McMath's care. The process usually takes only days but can sometimes continue for months, medical experts say.

"The bodies are really in an artificial state. It requires a great deal of manipulation in order to keep the circulation going," Vespa said.

Jahi underwent surgery at Children's Hospital on Dec. 9 to treat severe sleep apnea, a condition where the sufferer's breathing stops or becomes labored while sleeping. Surgeons removed her tonsils and other parts of her nose and throat to widen the air passages.

While recovering in the Intensive Care Unit, she bled heavily from her mouth and nose and eventually went into cardiac arrest. Doctors at the hospital declared her brain dead three days later and moved on Dec. 20 to remove her from the ventilator.

Her mother, Nailah Winkfield, refusing to believe her daughter was dead as long as her heart was beating, went to court to stop the machine from being disconnected and twice won injunctions prohibiting the hospital from acting. On Friday, the two sides reached an agreement allowing Jahi to be transferred if Winkfield assumed responsibility for further complications.

An Alameda Superior Court judge who had granted the injunctions refused, however, to force Children's Hospital to fit Jahi with the breathing and feeding tubes that Dolan said are necessary to get her placed in a long-term care facility. Under the judge's order, the hospital released Jahi directly to the coroner, who then released her into the custody of Winkfield.

A federal judge cancelled a hearing on the case scheduled for Jan. 7 after the family and the hospital reached an agreement to transfer Jahi, saying the request for the hearing was now moot.

Sealey, the girl's uncle, said Monday that his sister is relieved her persistence paid off and "sounds happier." He criticized Children's Hospital for repeatedly telling Winkfield they did not need her permission to remove Jahi from the ventilator because the girl was dead.

"If her heart stops beating while she is on the respirator, we can accept that because it means she is done fighting," he said. "We couldn't accept them pulling the plug on her early."

Dolan, the family's lawyer, said Jahi's condition suffered because the hospital refused to feed her once she was declared brain dead. The family plans to pursue a federal court lawsuit alleging that Children's Hospital violated their religious and privacy rights. Winkfield has described herself as a devout Christian. A hearing in the case is scheduled for Tuesday, although the hospital has moved to have it canceled on the grounds that it has become moot with the move.

"She's in very bad shape," he said. "You would be too, if you hadn't had nutrition in 26 days and were a sick little girl to begin with."

___

Associated Press writer Alicia Chang in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Copyright c 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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RAMBO a small but powerful magnet: System allows high-magnetic-field experiments on a tabletop

Jan. 6, 2014 — Rice University scientists have pioneered a tabletop magnetic pulse generator that does the work of a room-sized machine -- and more.

The device dubbed "RAMBO" -- short for Rice Advanced Magnet with Broadband Optics -- will allow researchers who visit the university to run spectroscopy-based experiments on materials in pulsed magnetic fields of up to 30 tesla. (A high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging system is about 10 tesla in strength.)

The Rice lab of physicist Junichiro Kono created RAMBO in collaboration with Hiroyuki Nojiri at the Institute for Materials Research at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan. Details appeared online recently in the American Institute of Physics journal Review of Scientific Instruments.

The advantages of such a small machine are many, said Timothy Noe, a postdoctoral research associate in Kono's group and lead author of the paper. Aside from its size and powerful performance, RAMBO has windows that allow researchers to directly send a laser beam to the sample and collect data at close range.

"We can literally see the sample inside the magnet," Kono said. "We have direct optical access, whereas if you go to a national high magnetic field facility, you have a monster magnet, and you can only access the sample through a very long optical fiber. You cannot do any nonlinear or ultrafast optical spectroscopy.

"RAMBO finally gives us the ability to combine ultrastrong magnetic fields and very short and intense optical pulses. It's a combination of two extreme conditions."

The device's unique configuration allows for the best access ever in a powerful magnetic field generator meant for scientific experimentation. Researchers can collect real-time, high-resolution data in a system that couples high magnetic fields and low temperatures with direct optical access to the magnet's core, Kono said.

In addition, the unit can run a new experiment in a 30-tesla field every 10 minutes (or less for smaller peak fields), as opposed to waiting the hours often required for field generators to cool down after each experiment at large laboratories.

The device has already paid dividends for Kono's group, which studies superfluorescence by hitting materials with femtosecond laser pulses to trigger quantum effects. RAMBO allows the laser pulse, the magnetic field pulse and the spectrometer to work in sync.

RAMBO is possible, he said, because of Nojiri's development of a small and light mini-coil magnet. A little bigger than a spool of thread, the magnet allows Rice researchers to perform on campus many of the experiments they once carried out at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Florida State University or at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The Florida State facility has produced continuous magnetic fields of 45 tesla; Los Alamos has produced pulses over 100 tesla.

"I would say we've been able to do 80 percent of the experiments here that we used to have to do elsewhere," Kono said. "And that's not all. There are things that only we can do here. This is a unique system that doesn't exist anywhere else in the world.

"High magnetic fields have been around for many years. Ultrafast spectroscopy has been around for many years. But this is the first combination of the two," he said.

Kono's group built the system to analyze very small, if not microscopic, samples. A sample plate sits on a long sapphire cylinder that passes through the coil's container and juts through one end of the magnet to place it directly in the center of the magnetic field.

The cylinder provides one direct window to the experiment; a port on the other side of the container looks directly down upon the sample. The coil is bathed in liquid nitrogen to keep it cool at around 80 kelvins (-315 degrees Fahrenheit). The sample temperature can be independently controlled from about 10 K to room temperature by adjusting the flow of liquid helium to the sapphire cylinder.

Kono said he expects RAMBO to make Rice one center of an international network of researchers working on modern materials. "This opens up all kinds of possibilities," he said. "Scientists working in different areas will come up with new ideas just by knowing such a thing is possible."

He said the team has already collaborated with Jean Leotin, a co-author of the paper and a professor at the Laboratoire National des Champs Magnetiques Intenses in Toulouse, France, to perform one of the first time-domain terahertz spectroscopy experiments in high magnetic fields.

Co-authors include Joseph Lee, a student at Clements High School, Sugar Land, Texas, who works in Kono's lab, and Gary Woods, a professor in the practice of computer technology and electrical and computer engineering.

The National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy and the Robert A. Welch Foundation supported the research.

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Research proposes alternative therapy against lung cancer

Jan. 6, 2014 — Research from the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases (INER) informs that besides smoking, there are other factors associated to the development of lung cancer such as the smoke from burning lumber and coal, as well as pollutant particles.

"It has been considered that the upturn in cases of lung cancer is possibly related to this particles," explains Patricia Gorocica from the INER, who, alongside her research team, has been working in an alternative therapy to boost the immune system of patients with this disease.

The specialist adds that since several years ago is known that the immune system has all the mechanism to watch and destroy tumor cells as they develop, but sometimes this mechanisms are not effective for reasons associated to the tumor or alterations of the patients organism.

Based in this principle, research at INER is directed to regulate the immune system against tumors. The tumor that can be more easily eliminated are the ones that express specific antigens.

Patricia Gorocica, chief of the Department of Biochemical Research at INER, details that with current technology is possible to manipulate the immune response against tumors. "We are developing at the lab a system of cell activation from the patient's own blood so it can eliminate its tumors."

This is a starting research, but it could be consolidated as an alternative therapy for the patients with lung cancer. The labor is being done with the support of the institutes of Biotechnology and Chemistry of the Autonomous National University of Mexico (UNAM), hoping that others will add to the cause, since this research requires a multi-disciplinary team for succeeding.

Gorocica adds that manipulating the immune system could be a new complementary therapy to chemo and radiotherapy usually used for treating lung cancer.

The research at INER is mainly focused in patients with lung adenocarcinoma, a type of cancer that has the most alterations in its tumor cells. It usually affects people of various ages, accentuated in people over 40, but has been known to affect the 20-something population.

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