Use of antibiotics provided no measurable impact on the severity or duration of coughs even if a bacterial infection was present, finds a large, prospective study of people who sought treatment in U.S. primary or urgent care settings for lower-respiratory tract infections.
A third of the nearly 20 million women who participated in a national health survey reports migraines during menstruation, and of them, 11.8 million, or 52.5%, were premenopausal.
A mouse study designed to shed light on memory loss in people who experience repeated head impacts, such as athletes, suggests the condition could potentially be reversed. The research in mice finds that amnesia and poor memory following head injury is due to inadequate reactivation of neurons involved in forming memories.
Using a specialized device that translates images into sound, Georgetown University Medical Center neuroscientists and colleagues showed that people who are blind recognized basic faces using the part of the brain known as the fusiform face area , a region that is crucial for the processing of faces in sighted people.
Georgetown University Medical Center’s Center for Global Health Science and Security (GHSS) today announces the launch of a first-of-its-kind wildlife disease database -- a system for collecting records of viruses, bacteria, fungi, parasites, etc. -- designed to support an early warning system for potential viral emergence.
Reducing health disparities in incidence and mortality for major types of cancers can be aided by sophisticated computer modeling efforts, according to new, wide-ranging perspectives from researchers at Georgetown University’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and colleagues around the country.
“What keeps you up at night?” It’s a question Anthony Fauci, MD, heard repeatedly over the course of his nearly four decades as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. Today, as the COVID-19 pandemic wanes, Fauci describes a new nemesis – lack of “corporate memory.”
Center to provide comprehensive patient navigation services and educational programming to southeast Washington, D.C., where these services have been historically lacking.
Discrimination experienced by Black people can affect their health and increase their frailty, which can be particularly impactful for cancer survivors, according to a new study by researchers at Georgetown University’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and colleagues at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit. The researchers assessed frailty by a number of factors, including whether a participant had several chronic diseases, poor muscle strength and difficulty performing activities of daily living.
Black people living in rural areas of North Carolina were found to have better mental health than white people despite their exposure to various forms of racism and discrimination. This paradoxical finding was reported by researchers at Georgetown University and their colleagues in the journal Social Science & Medicine: Mental Health in March 2023.
Based on data that span the past 120 years, scientists at Georgetown University Medical Center have found that the mosquitoes responsible for transmitting malaria in Africa are spreading deeper into southern Africa and to higher elevations than previously recorded. The researchers estimate that Anopheles mosquito populations in sub-Saharan Africa have gained an average of 6.5 meters (21 feet) of elevation per year, and the southern limits of their ranges moved south of the equator by 4.7 kilometers (nearly 3 miles) per year.
Extreme heat and humidity and other climate-related events have an alarming impact on mental health outcomes in terms of depression and anxiety in Bangladesh, the world’s seventh most vulnerable country to climate change.
While it has long been recognized that drugs that block the cancer-promoting activity of estrogen reduce risk of developing new breast cancers, a new computer modeling study led by researchers at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and colleagues showed that these treatments could also reduce the risk of dying from the disease in women who are at high risk.
In a study using a first-of-its kind mouse model of aging that mimics breast cancer development in estrogen receptor-positive post-menopausal women, investigators at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and colleagues have determined that over-expression, or switching on of the Esr1 gene, could lead to elevated risk of developing estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer in older women.
A guided mindfulness-based stress reduction program was as effective as use of the gold-standard drug -- the common antidepressant drug escitalopram -- for patients with anxiety disorders, according to results of a first-of-its-kind, randomized clinical trial led by researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center.
A clinical trial led by clinicians at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center showed a remarkable 20 percent advantage in the two-year overall survival rate for people with advanced melanoma who first received immunotherapy (72 percent survival rate) versus those who initially got targeted therapies (52 percent survival rate). Progression-free survival, where the cancer is stable or improving, was also trending in favor of those who started on immunotherapy.
A two-pronged approach to imaging breast density in mice, developed by researchers at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, resulted in better detection of changes in breast tissue, including spotting early signs of cancer. The researchers hope that this approach will be translated from mice and improve breast imaging for people; it may also help with prognosis of disease as density can be linked to specific patterns of mammary gland growth, including signs of cancer development.
The National Science Foundation has awarded Georgetown University $12.5 million to lead a global team of scientists in establishing a collaborative institute designed to advance research and education around viral emergence -- the process of viruses jumping from animals to humans.
The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) has awarded a Georgetown University Medical Center research team led by Dan Merenstein, MD, professor of family medicine at Georgetown’s School of Medicine, $23.6 million in research funding to study treatments for acute rhinosinusitis.
Telling a child about their mother’s risk of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer does not adversely influence the offspring’s lifestyle or quality of life in the long term, according to a new study led by researchers at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The news out of Uvalde, Texas, where an 18-year-old man gunned down 19 innocent children and two adults and left several critically injured at an elementary school, has left many parents and caregivers wondering how to talk to their children about their safety.
As the earth’s climate continues to warm, researchers predict wild animals will be forced to relocate their habitats – likely to regions with large human populations – dramatically increasing the risk of a viral jump to humans that could lead to the next pandemic.
More people with advanced melanoma survive for two years or more when they receive a combination of two immunotherapy drugs given before a combination of two targeted therapies, if needed, compared to people who start treatment with targeted therapies.
In an unexpected discovery, Georgetown University Medical Center researchers have identified what appears to be a significant vascular defect in patients with moderately severe Parkinson’s disease. The finding could help explain an earlier outcome of the same study, in which the drug nilotinib was able to halt motor and non-motor (cognition and quality of life) decline in the long term.
A survey of dentists in the United States finds that an overwhelming majority of those who responded believe nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID)-acetaminophen combinations are as effective or more effective in managing dental pain as opioids; however, almost half say they still prescribe opioids.
If Black women begin mammography screening every other year starting at age 40, breast cancer deaths could be reduced by 57 percent compared to starting screening 10 years later — as is currently recommended by some organizations — according to analyses conducted by a modeling team that is part of the Cancer Intervention and Surveillance Modeling Network (CISNET), funded by the National Cancer Institute.
A phase II, randomized clinical trial found that the optimal period for intensive rehabilitation of arm and hand use after a stroke should begin 60 to 90 days after the event. The study, conducted by Georgetown University and MedStar National Rehabilitation Network (NRH) researchers, published September 20, 2021, in PNAS.
Georgetown University researchers, looking at the ability of people to sound out words after a stroke, found that knowing which region of the brain was impacted by the stroke could have important implications for helping target rehabilitation efforts.
Today, the US Food & Drug Administration approved the two-dose COVID-19 Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Jesse L. Goodman, MD, MPH, professor of medicine and infectious diseases at Georgetown University Medical Center and former FDA Chief Scientist comments. (Audio file available)
It’s long been believed that advancing age leads to broad declines in our mental abilities. Now new research from Georgetown University Medical Center offers surprisingly good news by countering this view.
Just a small number of cells found in tumors can enable and recruit other types of cells nearby, allowing the cancer to spread to other parts of the body, report Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center scientists. Working with their research collaborators, the scientists found that ‘enabler cells’ comprise about 20 percent or less of the cells in an aggressive tumor; their small numbers may account for why they are often missed when bulk tissue analyses are used to inform therapeutic decisions.
A neurologic pathway by which non-damaging but high frequency brain impact blunts normal brain function and causes long-term problems with learning and memory has been identified. The finding suggests that tailored drug therapy can be designed and developed to reactivate and normalize cognitive function, say neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center.
In a new report commissioned by the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB), Georgetown global health experts say the success of any effort to redress pandemic preparedness failures demonstrated by COVID-19 requires a re-centering of governance that would include greater accountability, transparency, equity, participation and the rule of law.
Individuals who can unconsciously predict complex patterns, an ability called implicit pattern learning, are likely to hold stronger beliefs that there is a god who creates patterns of events in the universe, according to neuroscientists at Georgetown University.
Infants and young children have brains with a superpower, of sorts, say Georgetown University Medical Center neuroscientists. Whereas adults process most discrete neural tasks in specific areas in one or the other of their brain’s two hemispheres, youngsters use both the right and left hemispheres to do the same task. The finding suggests a possible reason why children appear to recover from neural injury much easier than adults.
Misconceptions about the way climate and weather impact exposure and transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, create false confidence and have adversely shaped risk perceptions, say a team of Georgetown University researchers.
An online COVID-19 symptom tracking tool developed by researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center ensures a person’s confidentiality while being able to actively monitor their symptoms. The tool is not proprietary and can be used by entities that are not able to develop their own tracking systems.
A brain imaging study of veterans with Gulf War illness (GWI) and patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) (sometimes called myalgic encephalomyelitis), has shown that the two illnesses produce distinctly different, abnormal patterns of brain activity after moderate exercise. The result of the Georgetown University Medical Center study suggests that GWI and CFS are distinct illnesses, an outcome that could affect the treatment of veterans with Gulf War illness.
Education appears to protect older adults, especially women, against memory loss, according to a study by investigators at Georgetown University Medical Center, published in the journal Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition.
Approximately three quarters of the deaths associated with COVID-19 in the nation’s capital have been among the African American community. A new Georgetown University report illuminates entrenched health and socioeconomic disparities that explain one reason this is occurring. Main points: • 15-year difference in the life expectancy between residents in Ward 3 and Ward 8; • Residents from Wards with more Black residents (5, 7, and 8) more likely hospitalized for preventable health conditions; • Number of Blacks who are obese is 3x higher than Whites; • Number of Blacks with diabetes is 7x higher than Whites; • Number of Blacks who die from heart disease is 2.5 times higher than Whites; • Median household income is 3x less for Blacks; and • Blacks have the lowest percentage of bachelor degree attainment.
A Georgetown University Medical Center clinical trial investigating the cancer drug nilotinib in people with Alzheimer’s disease finds that it is safe and well-tolerated, and researchers say the drug should be tested in a larger study to further determine its safety and efficacy as a potential disease-modifying strategy.
Global health scholars have issued a clarion call about the needless loss of life expected because of a foreseeable prospect of “slow and inadequate access to supplies” to control COVID-19 in sub-Saharan Africa. They say what is unfolding now is similar to when lifesaving diagnostics and treatments came to the region long after they were available elsewhere.
As governments from countries including the U.S., Germany, Italy and the U.K., explore the possibility of issuing so-called “immunity passports,” a leading global health and legal scholar warns that such action poses significant practical, equitable, and legal issues. In contrast, if and when a vaccine is developed, vaccination certificates will likely play an important role in ending the pandemic and protecting global health.
Misuse of prescription benzodiazepines (such as alprazolam or Xanax, and diazepam or Valium) has been linked to nicotine use. Evidence of how nicotine “sets up” a craving for benzodiazepines — often called “benzos” — in animal laboratory studies has been published in the open access journal eNeuro.
An online survey of nearly 500 veterans with Gulf War illness (GWI) suggests a high burden of disease almost three decades after the conflict.
A bacteria typically linked to periodontal disease, Fusobacterium nucleatum (F. nuc), could play an important role in the rising incidence of colorectal cancer in people under the age of 45. Another type of bacteria, Moraxella osloensis, has been found in colorectal cancer tumors at a nearly four-fold higher rate in people over 75 than in those under 45 years of age, pointing out how differences in the bacteria that comprise what is known as the body’s microbiome could affect cancer outcomes to varying degrees. These are the preliminary findings of an ongoing study that will be presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium in San Francisco from January 23-25, 2020.
Mice given a new drug targeting a key gene involved in lipid and glucose metabolism could tolerate a high-fat diet regimen (composed of 60% fat from lard) without developing significant liver damage, becoming obese, or disrupting their body’s glucose balance.
Adding a medication used to treat epilepsy, bipolar disorder and migraines to a blood pressure medicine reversed some aspects of breast cancer in the offspring of mice at high risk of the disease because of the high fat diet fed to their mothers during pregnancy. Conversely, this treatment combination increased breast cancer development in the offspring whose mothers had not been fed a high fat diet during pregnancy.
A clinical trial investigating the repurposed cancer drug nilotinib in people with Parkinson’s disease finds that it is reasonably safe and well tolerated. Researchers also report finding an increase in dopamine, the chemical lost as a result of neuronal destruction, and a decrease in neurotoxic proteins in the brain among study participants. Finally, they say nilotinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, potentially halts motor and non-motor decline.
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