Medicine & TechnologyPrenatal exposure to tetrachloroethylene (PCE) in drinking water may increase the risk of stillbirth and placental abruption, according to a new study led by a Boston University School of Public Health researcher.
The New England Journal of Medicine reports positive results of a phase 1 clinical trial of the drug crizotinib against the subset of lung cancer marked by rearrangement of the gene ROS1. In this multi-center study of 50 patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer testing positive for ROS1 gene rearrangement, the response rate was 72 percent, with 3 complete responses and 33 partial responses. Median progression-free survival – the time it takes for the disease to resume its growth after being slowed by treatment – is estimated at 19.2 months with exactly half of patients remaining on observation for disease progression that has not yet occurred.
Researchers at Brown University and the University of Georgia have developed and tested an approach for diagnosing autism in Tanzania, where such clinical assessment and intervention services are rare. The assessment battery combines several existing but culturally adapted techniques into a protocol that the researchers tested with 41 children at two Tanzanian sites.
Next to lung cancer, breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in women, according to the American Cancer Society. That’s why so many medical professionals encourage women to get mammograms, even though the tests are imperfect at best: only a minority of suspicious mammograms actually leads to a cancer diagnosis.
Unexpected results from an ongoing experiment in the lab of Kristi Neufeld, co-leader of the Cancer Biology Program at the University of Kansas Cancer Center, led to a potentially important discovery that could have an effect on how cancer researchers test anti-cancer therapies in mice as well as possibly prevent colon cancer in people.
Research has shown that drinking caffeinated beverages and listening to music are two popular fatigue-fighting measures that drivers take, but very few studies have tested the usefulness of those measures.
UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers seeking novel treatments for anemia found that giving acetate, the major component of household vinegar, to anemic mice stimulated the formation of new red blood cells.