Finding a reliable blood marker could offer help to doctors and parents, study suggests COLUMBUS, Ohio – A blood test may have the potential to speed accurate diagnosis – and proper treatment – of bipolar disorder in children, new research suggests. Researchers at The Ohio State University found that children with bipolar disorder had higher...
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Brain-stimulation trials get personal to lift depression – brain training
Before playing a guitar, musicians tune the strings to particular frequencies to get the pitch they want. Starting this week, a team of neuroscientists in Australia will apply a similar tuning process to human brains as part of a study to recalibrate abnormal neural patterns to a healthy state. The group, at Monash University in...
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At 88, this doctor won’t give up on a long-ignored treatment for strokes and heart attacks
Dr. Victor Gurewich at his office in Cambridge, Mass.KAYANA SZYMCZAK FOR STAT ofessor at Harvard Medical School, but in many ways, Dr. Victor Gurewich is an outsider. His research is funded by a small family foundation, and he hasn’t tried for a federal grant in decades. He’s a primary care doctor whose work tramples on...
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Incyte’s cancer drug fails trial, marking major blow for immunotherapy combination treatment
KRISTOFFER TRIPPLAAR/SIPA/AP The first real clinical test of the cancer immunotherapy combination thesis has come back negative. Incyte said Friday that its experimental drug epacadostat failed to improve the efficacy of Merck’s checkpoint inhibitor Keytruda when the two drugs were used together to treat patients with newly diagnosed melanoma. The negative outcome of the Incyte Phase...
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New discovery explains why cells with identical genes perform unique jobs
Scientists have made a significant discovery that explains how and why the billions of different cells in our bodies look and act so differently despite containing identical genes. The discovery, made by a team from the Smurfit Institute of Genetics at Trinity College Dublin, applies to all complex animals, including humans. The team has discovered...
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New health benefits discovered in berry pigment
Naturally occurring pigments in berries, also known as anthocyanins, increase the function of the sirtuin 6 enzyme in cancer cells, a new study from the University of Eastern Finland shows. The regulation of this enzyme could open up new avenues for cancer treatment. The findings were published in Scientific Reports. Sirtuins are enzymes regulating the expression...
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Smartphone ‘scores’ can help doctors track severity of Parkinson’s disease symptoms
Parkinson’s disease, a progressive brain disorder, is often tough to treat effectively because symptoms, such as tremors and walking difficulties, can vary dramatically over a period of days, or even hours. To address this challenge, Johns Hopkins University computer scientists, working with an interdisciplinary team of experts from two other institutions, have developed a new...
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Allina study shows patients with very small breast tumors may forgo lymph node biopsies
Study examined the outcomes of 294 patients, found only 1.5 percent had positive lymph nodes How to treat patients who have microinvasive breast cancer – tumors that are 1 mm or less in size (the thickness of a dime) — is somewhat controversial. Can these tiny tumors affect the lymph nodes and spread cancer to...
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Animal study suggests common diabetes drug may also help with nicotine withdrawal
In a mouse study, a drug that has helped millions of people around the world manage their diabetes might also help people ready to kick their nicotine habits. In a report published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), investigators say metformin, an inexpensive drug commonly...
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Big pharma’s cash flood is drowning seniors
(CNN)A new report from Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, confirms a deep-seated fear for many seniors: the prices of the 20 brand-name drugs that are most prescribed to them have skyrocketed. Over the past five years, the cost of these medications has risen an average of 12% per year, with some doubling in price. Earlier this month,...