Drug cuts breast cancer cases
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- Category: Research
Taking the breast cancer drug anastrozole for five years reduced the chances of post-menopausal women at high risk of breast cancer developing the disease by 53% compared with women who took a placebo, according to a study published in the Lancet. The results of the IBIS II trial, funded by Cancer Research UK and led by Queen Mary University of London, could offer a new option for preventing breast cancer in high risk post-menopausal women which is more effective than tamoxifen and has fewer side-effects.
New way to fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria: Target human cells instead
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- Category: Research
As more reports appear of a grim "post-antibiotic era" ushered in by the rise of drug-resistant bacteria, a new strategy for fighting infection is emerging that targets a patient's cells rather than those of the invading pathogens. The technique interferes with the way that the pathogens take over a patient's cells to cause infection.
How 'good cholesterol' stops inflammation
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- Category: Research
High-density lipoprotein (HDL), known colloquially as "good cholesterol", protects against dangerous deposits in the arteries. An important function of HDL is its anti-inflammatory properties. An international research team at the Institute of Innate Immunity at the University Hospital of Bonn and the LIMES Institute at the University of Bonn has identified a central switch by which HDL controls the inflammatory response.
Boosting the immune system to treat brain cancer
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- Category: Research
Researchers at the University of Calgary's Hotchkiss Brain Institute (HBI) have made a discovery that could lead to better treatment for patients suffering from brain cancer. Despite current treatment strategies, the median survival for patients with the most aggressive brain cancer - called glioblastoma, is 15 months. Less than five per cent of patients survive beyond five years.
Coffee or beer? The choice could affect your genome
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- Category: Research
Coffee and beer are polar opposites in the beverage world. Coffee picks you up, and beer winds you down. Now Prof. Martin Kupiec and his team at Tel Aviv University's Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology have discovered that the beverages may also have opposite effects on your genome. Working with a kind of yeast that shares many important genetic similarities with humans, the researchers found that caffeine shortens and alcohol lengthens telomeres - the end points of chromosomal DNA, implicated in aging and cancer.
New research shows obesity is an inflammatory disease
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Scientists have moved a step closer to an "obesity drug" that may block the effects of diets high in sugar and fats. In a new research report published in the December 2013 issue of The FASEB Journal, scientists show that there is an abnormal amount of an inflammatory protein called PAR2 in the abdominal fat tissue of overweight and obese humans and rats. This protein is also increased on the surfaces of human immune cells by common fatty acids in the diet.
New drug cuts risk of deadly transplant side effect in half
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- Category: Research
A new class of drugs reduced the risk of patients contracting a serious and often deadly side effect of lifesaving bone marrow transplant treatments, according to a study from researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.
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