A new paper in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute finds that testing for cervical cancer using HPV testing in addition to the Pap smear is unlikely to detect cancer cases that wouldn’t be found using HPV testing alone. The main goal of cervical screening programs is to detect and treat precancer before cancer develops. Cytology-based...
Category: <span>Diagnostic</span>
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LRRK2 variants linked to lower age at onset of Parkinson’s
(HealthDay)—The presence of multiple LRRK2 risk variants is associated with a younger age at onset (AAO) of Parkinson’s disease (PD), according to a research letter published online Nov. 13 in JAMA Neurology. Bin Xiao, M.D., Ph.D., from the National Neuroscience Institute in Singapore, and colleagues assessed 1,284 patients with PD for the LRRK2 risk variants S1647T, R1628P, and G2385R. The...
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Investigating patterns of degeneration in Alzheimer’s disease
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is known to cause memory loss and cognitive decline, but other functions of the brain can remain intact. The reasons cells in some brain regions degenerate while others are protected is largely unknown. In a paper to be published in Stem Cell Reports, researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital have found that factors...
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Under New Guidelines, Millions More Americans Will Need to Lower Blood Pressure
Under New Guidelines, Millions More Americans Will Need to Lower Blood Pressure Thyleb Ramadhan got his blood pressure checked at a mobile medical clinic in Olean, N.Y., in June. The nation’s leading heart experts on Monday issued new guidelines for high blood pressure that mean tens of millions more Americans will meet the criteria for...
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Inexpensive skin cancer detector takes out 2017 James Dyson Award
sKan, a device designed to quickly and easily detect melanomas, has won this year’s international James Dyson Award A new device called the sKan has won the 2017 international James Dyson Award. The sKan makes heat maps of the skin to identify anomalies associated with melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer, to...
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New technologies can SMELL sickness: Groundbreaking breath tests could detect up to 17 diseases
Scientists are developing new diagnostic technologies that can detect diseases by the smell of your breath The diagnostic tests rely on the premise that everyone’s healthy breath has a profile of chemical compound that give it its smell Diseases have their own chemical compound signatures, that animals like dogs and mosquitoes can smell The scientists hope...
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Smell test challenge suggests clinical benefit for some before development of Alzheimer’s
PET scan of a human brain with Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) and the New York State Psychiatric Institute (NYSPI) may have discovered a way to use a patient’s sense of smell to treat Alzheimer’s disease before it ever develops. Having an impaired sense of smell is recognized as one...
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Smear tests could be cut to three in a lifetime: Women could soon be spared regular ordeal of a check due to more sensitive tests being rolled out
At the moment women in England are invited for cervical cancer screening 12 times between the ages of 25 and 64 The frequency of the tests is thought to be contributing to falling uptake And in future, women who have received the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine at school might only need to be screened three...
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Deadly combination in neurodegenerative diseases revealed
Nagoya, Japan – Neurodegenerative diseases are incurable and debilitating conditions that result in progressive degeneration and death of nerve cells, which leads to problems with movement or mental functioning. Examples include Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). ALS is characterized by degeneration of motor neurons, while FTD is characterized by progressive...
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Test could diagnose oesophageal cancer 8 years earlier
A new genetic test could help diagnose oesophageal cancer up to 8 years before symptoms appear in people at a high risk of the disease, according to new research presented at the National Cancer Research Institute’s (NCRI) Cancer Conference in Liverpool. University of Cambridge researchers Sarah Killcoyne and Eleanor Gregson looked at tissue samples from people with...