Avastin, or Bevacizumab, has been shown to increase survival from bowel cancer in around ten to 15 per cent of patients, but it has been impossible to predict who will benefit. Avastin works by targeting and blocking the VEGF-A protein, two major forms of which are VEGF165 and VEGF165b. VEGF165...
Researchers at Rice University report that referring cancer patients to hospitals with better track records for surgery could save lives and not raise the cost to patients. The study was reported online in the journal Forum for Health Economics and Policy. The researchers reviewed data on two...
A new clinical study published in BioMedCentral's open access journal Arthritis Research and Therapy provides preliminary evidence that vitamin D supplementation could be considered an immunomodulatory agent for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), a debilitating autoimmune disease characterized...
Researchers at Boston Medical Center (BMC) have shown that patient navigation services help decrease the time to diagnosis for female patients who have received an abnormal result from a breast or cervical cancer screening. The study demonstrates the importance of patient navigation in helping...
NPR reported today that surgeon-distributed restaurant discount cards are becoming super popular for patients who've gotten gastric bypass surgery. They point out that the Weight Loss Surgery cards–which earn customers smaller portion sizes at a discount in some restaurants–aren't necessarily...
A new study from Karolinska Institutet demonstrates that a change in the ECG wave called the QRS prolongation is associated with a higher rate of heart-failure mortality. According to the team that carried out the study, which is published in the scientific periodical The European Heart Journal...
An older medication originally approved to treat heart problems eases the symptoms of a very rare muscle disease that often leaves its sufferers stiff and in a good deal of pain, physicians and researchers report in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The findings are good news not...
Nearly 20 percent of people who underwent low back fusion surgery developed post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms associated with that surgery, according to a recent Oregon Health & Science University study published in the journal Spine. Past studies have noted PTSD symptoms in some trauma...
Compassion in Dying and the award-winning patient information website http://www.healthtalkonline.org are holding a seminar Towards shared decision making at the end of life on Thursday 20th September. New research entitledHow do people approach decision making at end of life? will be launched...
For patients undergoing neurosurgery at teaching hospitals, there's no "July phenomenon" of increased death and complication rates when new residents start their training, reports a study in the September issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The...
The cost of sequencing the entire human genome, or exome - the regions of the genome that are translated into proteins that affect cell behavior - has decreased significantly, to the point where the cost of looking at the majority of a patient's genomic data may be less expensive than...
The clot-inhibiting drug apixaban (trade name: Eliquis®) was approved in May 2011 for the prevention of thrombosis (blood clots) after operations to replace a hip or knee joint. In an early benefit assessment pursuant to the "Act on the Reform of the Market for Medicinal Products" (AMNOG), the...
According to a study carried out by experts at the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center in Baltimore, which will be presented at the 2012 Chicago Multidisciplinary Symposium in Thoracic Oncology, locally advanced lung cancer patients who are married are more likely...
The first trial to study the effect of platelet inhibition in patients with acute coronary syndromes managed medically without revascularisation has found no significant difference between prasugrel and clopidogrel in the prevention of death, myocardial infarction or stroke. The findings, from...
A new study, published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN), reveals that Cytomegalovirus (CMV), which is the most common virus to infect organ transplant patients, should not be treated immediately after surgery - and waiting until the patients reach a certain point of...
The University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, has developed a pioneering surgical blood salvage technology that will transform the way major surgery is carried out by decreasing patients' loss of blood. After receiving Canadian national approval and gaining the CE mark, following very successful...
An investigational drug currently under FDA review for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis has now shown positive results in patients with moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis, according to researchers at the University of California San Diego, School of Medicine. The study will appear in the...
According to a study published online in the journal Diabetes, life expectancy significantly increased among individuals with type 1 diabetes during a 30-year, long-term prospective study. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh found that study participants diagnosed with type 1 diabetes...
According to a study published online in the journal Psychiatry Research, individuals with bipolar disorder who used cannabis showed higher neurocognitive performance than patients who did not use cannabis. Researchers at The Zucker Hillside Hospital in Long Island, NY, in collaboration with a...
Nurse-centred care of HIV patients can be just as safe and effective as care delivered by doctors and has a number of specific health benefits, according to a new study led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the University of Cape Town (UCT). Published today in The Lancet, the research...