Treatment with the angiogenesis inhibitor bevacizumab improved hearing and alleviated other symptoms in patients with neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2). In a paper to appear in the July 23 New England Journal of Medicine, which is receiving early online release, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) report that bevacizumab treatment successfully shrank characteristic tumors in a smal...

A new study published in The Journal of Nuclear Medicine shows that positron emission tomography (PET) scans in mice can be used to determine whether a novel type of breast cancer treatment is working as intended. Researchers successfully used PET and a specially-developed radioactive compound to image HER2—a protein often associated with aggressive breast cancer—in breast cancer cells...

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) in collaboration with scientists at the University of Louisville and the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis in France, have identified the target antigen PLA2R in patients with idiopathic membranous nephropathy (kidney disease), which has implications for the diagnosis and treatment of this disease. These findings appear in the July 2 i...

A protein used by doctors to indicate a patient`s risk of coronary heart disease may have drug developers barking up the wrong treatment tree, according to the authors of a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Their research suggests that C-reactive protein, an enticing target for scientists working on new treatments for coronary heart disease, may not have a ...

A major new trial recently published in the journal Fertility and Sterility shows that for couples beginning infertility treatments, an accelerated path to in-vitro fertilization (IVF) can offer a shorter time to pregnancy, cost savings of nearly $10,000, and a lowered risk of multiple births.  For the first time, these results demonstrate that the long held treatment combining fertility ...

A new study finds no evidence to suggest that a controversial antidote recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to treat patients poisoned with highly toxic insecticides improves their chance of survival. The results may even add weight to existing concerns about pralidoxime, the treatment recommended by the WHO, by suggesting that it could be harmful in patients who have deliberately p...

A minimally invasive procedure to treat tendonitis in the rotator cuff of the shoulder provides immediate symptom relief to the patient, according to a study published in the July issue of Radiology. The study found that ultrasound-guided nonsurgical therapy significantly reduces pain from calcific tendonitis of the rotator cuff and restores lasting mobility after treatment. "With this treatm...

A Vanderbilt chemist and a biomedical engineer have teamed up to develop a respiratory virus detector that is sensitive enough to detect an infection at an early stage, takes only a few minutes to return a result and is simple enough to be performed in a pediatrician`s office. Writing in The Analyst – a journal published by the Royal Society of Chemistry – the developers report that th...

In a review in Science, a University of Rochester Medical Center researcher sorts out the controversy and promise around a dangerous subtype of cancer cells, known as cancer stem cells, which seem capable of resisting many modern treatments. The article proposes that this subpopulation of malignant cells may one day provide an important avenue for controlling cancer, especially if new treatments t...

Researchers have discover new approaches to the development and treatment of pain. Cancer patients often suffer from severe pain that cannot be effectively treated with conventional medication. Researchers at the Pharmacology Institute of the University of Heidelberg have found the possible reasons for this – tumors release two signal substances that make nerve cells especially sensitive and...