Medical News

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As the vaccination of older adults against COVID-19 begins across the country, new poll data suggests that many of them don’t yet have access to the “patient portal” online systems that could make it much easier for them to schedule a vaccination appointment. In all, 45% of adults aged 65 to 80 had not set up an account with their health provider’s portal system.

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DALLAS – Jan. 15, 2021 – Kenneth Altshuler, M.D., a professor emeritus and longtime chair of psychiatry at UT Southwestern who helped to advance mental health causes in Dallas, died Jan. 6. He was 91.

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American dairy consumers are often influenced by a variety of factors that can affect their buying habits. These factors include taste, preference, government information, cultural background, social media, and the news.

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Researchers have developed a DNA test to quickly identify secondary infections in COVID-19 patients, who have double the risk of developing pneumonia while on ventilation than non-COVID-19 patients.

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In a mouse study, researchers used nanotechnology and previous knowledge of a protein pathway to significantly reduce knee cartilage degeneration and pain

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The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics commends the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for developing the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

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Researchers at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and UW Health have developed a tool that incorporates a person’s age and socioeconomic status to prioritize vaccine distribution among people who otherwise share similar risks due to their jobs.

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A team of neuroscientists and engineers at McMaster University has created a nasal spray to deliver antipsychotic medication directly to the brain instead of having it pass through the body.

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In a large study of pediatric cancer patients, researchers from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have analyzed the frequency, fusion partners, and clinical outcome of neurotrophic tyrosine receptor kinase (NTRK) fusions, which are clinical biomarkers that identify patients suitable for treatment with FDA-approved TRK inhibitors. The researchers found that NTRK fusions are more common in pediatric tumors and also involve a wider range of tumors than adult cancers, information that could help prioritize screening for NTRK fusions in pediatric cancer patients who might benefit from treatment with TRK inhibitors.

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AACI was invited last summer to join the Vaccine Consultation Panel (VCP) alongside other leading health and science organizations in the U.S. Through the VCP, AACI has received periodic updates on the development and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and participated in efforts to educate the cancer center community and the general public on the importance of widespread vaccine uptake.

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Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers are looking at ways to combine imaging and biomarkers to predict prostate cancer progression more accurately.

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The NEJM paper actually states that the efficacy between the first and second doses was found to be 52 percent when given 21 days apart. After the second dose, the efficacy raises to 95 percent.

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A new Houston Methodist study found males are more likely to test positive for COVID-19, have complications and die from the virus than females, independent of age. The peer-reviewed observational study appears in PLOS ONE, a multidisciplinary journal published by the Public Library of Science.

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NIH Revises Treatment Guidelines for Ivermectin for the Treatment of COVID-19 Ivermectin is Now a Therapeutic Option for Doctors & Prescribers

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The Catalyst Award will be presented to Ramin Valian of Allergan, an AbbVie Company, in recognition of Allergan's ongoing leadership and commitment to the development of innovative treatments to advance glaucoma care.

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Researchers find that CRY-1, a regulator of circadian rhythms, promotes tumor progression by altering DNA repair.

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The CDC is funding a Rush-led effort in which 8 academic medical centers will track the clinical, physical and mental functioning -- including neuro-cognition and fatigue – of nearly 5000 COVID patients for two years to better assess the long-term outcomes of the disease.

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Drs. Armando Sardi, Vadim Gushchin, and Kurtis Campbell, Surgical Oncology Department at Mercy Medical Center, are regarded for their training and skills in utilizing HIPEC to treat advanced stages of abdominal cancer (peritoneal surface malignancies). New findings by a prestigious organization of clinicians adds to this reputation, placing Mercy’s program among the nation’s best.

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A new potential therapy for COVID-19 developed by researchers at Rush University Medical Center has shown success in preventing the disease’s symptoms in mice.

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New research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis indicates that allergens in the environment often are to blame for episodes of acute itch in eczema patients, and that the itching often doesn’t respond to antihistamines because the itch signals are being carried to the brain along a previously unrecognized pathway that current drugs don’t target.

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Waldenström macroglobulinemia (WM), a rare form of lymphoma, does not have any known cure and only one FDA-approved treatment making it challenging to treat patients. Researchers at the University of New Hampshire took the novel approach of targeting specific cell proteins that control DNA information using inhibitors, or drugs, that were effective in reducing the growth of the cancer cells and when combined with a third drug were even more successful in killing the WM cancer cells which could lead to more treatment options.

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A survey of Californians finds that exposure to violence has pervasive social and emotional impacts on people, especially when firearms are involved.

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A new year brings a new opportunity to focus on health, and Loyola Medicine Men's Health Center Director Kevin McVary, MD is offering tips for a healthier 2021.

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New probes allow scientists to see four-stranded DNA interacting with molecules inside living human cells, unravelling its role in cellular processes.

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A new computational technique that uses heat map data to reverse engineer highly detailed models of chromosomes. Through this work, researchers have uncovered new information about the close spatial relationships that chromatin folding creates between genes that can be highly distant from one another along DNA strands.

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As a new, apparently more transmissible version of the virus that causes COVID-19 has appeared in several countries, new research finds that the transmissibility of viral strains and the population density of a region will play big roles in how vaccination campaigns can help towns and cities return to more normal activities. The findings suggest that directing vaccines toward densely populated counties would help to interrupt transmission of the disease.

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A new type of stem cell - that is, a cell with regenerative abilities - could be closer on the horizon, a new study led by UNSW Sydney shows.

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The Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation (PFF) has announced United Therapeutics' sponsorship of the PFF Registry, a research resource that tracks clinical data, blood samples and patient-reported outcomes from individuals living with pulmonary fibrosis nationwide.

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Exposure to discrimination plays a significant role in the risk of developing anxiety and related disorders, even – in a first – after accounting for potential genetic risks, according to a multidisciplinary team of health researchers led by Tufts University and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

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In research published today in Integrative Biology, a team of engineers from Rensselaer developed an in vitro — in the lab — lymphatic vessel model to study the growth of tumor emboli, collections of tumor cells within vessels that are often associated with increased metastasis and tumor recurrence.

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We laugh when we see Homer Simpson falling asleep while driving, while in church, and while even operating the nuclear reactor.

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Orthopaedic surgeons have traditionally been taught that certain types of knee symptoms indicate damage to specialized structures called the menisci. But these “meniscal” and “mechanical” symptoms do not reflect what surgeons will find at knee arthroscopy, reports a study in The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio in partnership with Wolters Kluwer.

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In one of the first studies to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer diagnoses, researchers at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center document a substantial decline in cancer and precancer diagnoses at the Northeast’s largest health care system during the first peak of the pandemic because of a drop in the number of cancer screening tests performed.

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Making doctors opt out from prescribing cardiac rehabilitation instead of opting in increased referrals by roughly 70 percent

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A wide breadth of behaviors surrounding oral sex may affect the risk of oral HPV infection and of a virus-associated head and neck cancer that can be spread through this route, a new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center suggests. These findings add nuance to the connection between oral sex and oropharyngeal cancer — tumors that occur in the mouth and throat — and could help inform research and public health efforts aimed at preventing this disease.

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Restricting the sale of malt liquor beer can help reduce crime in some communities, according to a new study. Malt liquor beer — high in alcohol content, low cost, and widely sold in liquor stores and convenience stores — is linked to heavy drinking, public inebriation, disorderly conduct, drug activity and other crimes. Consequently, since the 1990s, some cities have restricted its sale. In Washington state, certain urban neighborhoods were designated Alcohol Impact Areas and targeted with policies including restrictions on sales of malt liquor and similar products. Unpublished evaluations of these interventions have suggested positive social and health effects, but the research on crime impacts has been limited, with mixed findings. The study in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research found that malt liquor sales restrictions are associated with declining urban crime.

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People who’ve been provoked to anger are willing to purchase alcohol at higher prices, but may not be aware of their increased urge to drink, according to a new study. Anger, hostility, and aggression are known to relate to drinking, with anger a risk factor for heavy alcohol use. Building on previous studies that have deliberately manipulated emotional states to explore their effects on substance use, researchers at Wayne State University, Michigan, designed an experiment that could help clarify whether anger can motivate people to drink . For the study in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, the investigators sought to induce anger in participants and measure the effect of that anger on the desire to drink. They used two measures of drinking urges: self-reported alcohol craving and a behavioral task that assesses people’s motivation to drink.

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Researchers at McGill University have identified a new cellular pathway that limits the growth and spread of brain tumors by controlling the recycling of cell surface receptor proteins. The study, which will be published January 14 in the Journal of Cell Biology (JCB), suggests that the pathway, which involves a protein called Rab35, is defective in many patients with glioblastoma and that restoring Rab35’s activity could be a new therapeutic strategy for this deadly form of brain cancer.

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In experiments in mouse tissues and human cells, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they have found that removing a membrane that lines the back of the eye may improve the success rate for regrowing nerve cells damaged by blinding diseases. The findings are specifically aimed at discovering new ways to reverse vision loss caused by glaucoma and other diseases that affect the optic nerve, the information highway from the eye to the brain.