An analysis of more than 30,000 cancer patients has shown that blood clots are a more common complication than doctors may realize, causing additional hospitalizations and driving up the cost of care, according to a study led by a Duke Cancer Institute researcher. The study, which will be reported Sept. 26 at the 2011 European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress in Stockholm, found that as many as one in five patients risk developing a blood clot called venous thromboembolism, or VTE, within a year of getting treatment for some types of cancers.

New genomic analyses suggest that the most common genetic variants in the human genome aren’t the ones most likely causing disease. Rare genetic variants, the type found most often in functional areas of human DNA, are more often linked to disease, genetic experts at Duke University Medical Center report. The study was published in the American Journal of Human Genetics on March 31.

Basel, January 21 , 2011 – The European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) adopted a positive opinion for Gilenya ® (fingolimod) 0.5 mg daily as a disease modifying therapy in patients with highly active relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) despite treatment with beta interferon, or in patients with rapidly evolving severe relapsing-remitting MS. The CHMP opinion was based on the largest clinical trial program submitted to date for a new MS drug, and included data from clinical studies showing significant efficacy in reducing relapses, the risk of disability progression, and the number of brain lesions detected by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a measure of disease activity[1],[2]

A study conducted in four American Indian communities in the Pacific Northwest presents an effective strategy to convince mothers to switch young children from drinking sweetened soda to water and shows that eliminating these sugary drinks from the diets of the youngest members of the tribe significantly decreased tooth decay. The results of the dental arm of “The Toddler Overweight and Tooth Decay Prevention Study” (TOTS), which targeted American Indians from birth to 30 months of age, appear in the current issue (Volume 20, Number 4) of the peer reviewed journal Ethnicity & Disease . The arrival of Europeans brought diseases such as measles, influenza and smallpox to the Americas.

Johns Hopkins researchers say failure to consider existing evidence is both unscientific and unethical The vast majority of already published and relevant clinical trials of a given drug, device or procedure are routinely ignored by scientists conducting new research on the same topic, a new Johns Hopkins study suggests.

While every cell of an comanism contains the same genes only a proportion are expressed in any tissue at a given stage in development. Knowing the extent of gene transcription is valuable and a team of European researchers has generated an atlas of gene expression for the developing mouse embryo