Who gets heart cancer?
Over the last quarter of a century, I’ve written about a lot of different aspects of science and medical research. Cancer features a lot, the Big C is prominent in human misery and more common than many other diseases. Often I’ll use a phrase such as “treating liver, bowel, lung, breast, prostate and other cancers”. One phrase I don’t think I’ve ever written, until today is “heart cancer”.
Heart cancer? Do people even get heart cancer? Almost every other organ from skin to brain from gonads to liver, from head and neck to bone and blood, there’s a cancer. Experts repe...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - September 2, 2016 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Science Source Type: blogs
TWiV 400: Harold ‘ 400 ’ Varmus, a scientist for all seasons
The TWiV team is together in New York City for a conversation with Nobel Laureate Harold Varmus about his remarkable career in science.
You can find TWiV #400 at microbe.tv/twiv, or listen/watch below.
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Download TWiV 400 (101 MB .mp3, 139 min)
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Become a patron of TWiV! (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - July 31, 2016 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: This Week in Virology cancer Harold Varmus Michael Bishop Nobel Prize oncogene ras rous sarcoma virus src tyrosine kinase viral viruses Source Type: blogs
It is as simple as saying “Hello, my name is…”
< div class= " separator " style= " clear: both; text-align: center; " > < a href= " https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-T2iuzuc0Pc0/V5YTWdua7mI/AAAAAAABbJ8/f5EePf0RoKwVVvasrs0Tvg6ZASpfYkSbwCLcB/s1600/hello-my-name-is-logo-square3.PNG " imageanchor= " 1 " style= " clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; " > < img border= " 0 " height= " 291 " src= " https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-T2iuzuc0Pc0/V5YTWdua7mI/AAAAAAABbJ8/f5EePf0RoKwVVvasrs0Tvg6ZASpfYkSbwCLcB/s320/hello-my-name-is-logo-square3.PNG " width= " 320 " / > < /a > < /div > by Christian Sinclair < br / > < br / > This weekend I was on-call for our in...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - July 25, 2016 Category: Palliative Care Tags: communication The profession tribute Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, July 25th 2016
This study builds on preliminary findings from the first phase of the INTERSTROKE study, which identified ten modifiable risk factors for stroke in 6,000 participants from 22 countries. The full-scale INTERSTROKE study included an additional 20,000 individuals from 32 countries in Europe, Asia, America, Africa and Australia, and sought to identify the main causes of stroke in diverse populations, young and old, men and women, and within subtypes of stroke.
To estimate the proportion of strokes caused by specific risk factors, the investigators calculated the population attributable risk for each factor (PAR; an esti...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 24, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Chemistry Technique Concentrates Chemo at Sarcoma Tumor Sites
Today’s chemotherapy delivery is poorly targeted, leading to lots of systemic side effects while often doing too little to attack the cancer itself. Researchers at State University of New York at Albany have now developed a way of encapsulating chemo agents within special shells that concentrate and open up around a special pre-positioned material next to a tumor.
The technique, dubbed “local drug activation,” relies on so-called “bioorthogonal chemistry” to gather near an implanted complementary biomaterial and have it trigger the shells to open up. In a proof of concept, the researchers t...
Source: Medgadget - July 20, 2016 Category: Medical Equipment Authors: Editors Tags: Nanomedicine Oncology Source Type: blogs
Matching Fund Donors Sought for SENS Universal Cancer Therapy Crowdfunding
There is a month left to go in the SENS crowdfunding campaign that aims to accelerate development of an important component of a universal cancer therapy, a way to block the mechanisms of telomere lengthening that every type of cancer depends upon. The SENS Research Foundation and Lifespan.io volunteers are looking for donors to put up matching funds of a few thousand dollars or more, in order to take that news and that inducement to a number of conferences and other events over the next few weeks. More than 150 people have donated to the campaign to date, and we'd like to triple that number in the next 30 days.
To ...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 18, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Activism, Advocacy and Education Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, May 16th 2016
In this study the authors demonstrate that, as in many other cases, the methodology of delivery matters just as much as the details of the cells used:
Retinal and macular degenerative diseases affect millions of people worldwide. Similar to other neurodegenerative diseases, there are no effective treatments that can stop retinal degeneration or restore degenerative retina. Recent advances in stem cell technology led to development of novel cell-based therapies, some are already in phase I/II clinical trials. Studies from our group and others suggest that human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hBM-MSC) m...
Source: Fight Aging! - May 15, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Help to Crowdfund More Progress Towards DRACO Universal Antiviral Therapies
A new crowdfunding effort is running to gather funds and support to push forward with DRACO antiviral technology. DRACO stands for double-stranded RNA activated caspase oligomerizer, a class of designer molecules that can selectively destroy cells that are hosting viruses. Viruses hijack cellular machinery in order to replicate, and that process has a distinctive signature: all known viruses produce double-stranded RNA during replication, and that double-stranded RNA is not not otherwise found in our cells. Thus any cell containing these molecules is fair game. Since DRACO therapies don't target any of the other highly var...
Source: Fight Aging! - May 10, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Activism, Advocacy and Education Source Type: blogs
Young Adult Cancer Survivor and LIVESTRONG Leader: Valerie
LIVESTRONG Leaders are individuals that make a yearly significant commitment to those in their community affected by cancer by spreading the message of LIVESTRONG. They do this by fundraising, hosting events, bringing LIVESTRONG resources to their local hospitals and more. One of our amazing leaders from France, Valérie Sanja, talks about why she is involved with LIVESTRONG and what she is doing in her community to help spread the LIVESTRONG message.
What is your name, where are you from?
My Name is Valérie Sanja, a french national currently living in Germany following my recent surgery and medical follow up treatment.
...
Source: LIVESTRONG Blog - April 21, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: LIVESTRONG Staff Source Type: blogs
Another young woman with cancer, lured into quackery by Ty Bollinger
It sucks to be diagnosed with cancer at any age, but it especially sucks to be young and diagnosed with cancer. The prompt application of science-based cancer treatment is important for anyone with cancer, but it’s especially important for young people with cancer, because they have the most life-years to lose if they dawdle or… (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - April 19, 2016 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking Carissa Gleeson chemotherapy infrared sauna ozone therapy surgery synovial cell sarcoma Ty Bollinger Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, April 18th 2016
This study confirms that having an apple-shaped body - or a high waist circumference - can lead to heart disease, and that reducing your waist size can reduce your risks."
The results of the new research expands on the results of a previously published study called FaCTor-64, which showed that the greater a person's body mass index, the greater their risk of heart disease. FaCTor-64 enrolled patients with diabetes who were considered to be at high risk for heart attacks, strokes, or death but had no evidence of heart disease as of yet. Study participants completed randomized screening for coronary artery disease by ...
Source: Fight Aging! - April 17, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
The Rider Institute Seeks Funding for DRACO Research
Double-stranded RNA activated caspase oligomerizer, DRACO is an antiviral technology that works by destroying infected cells rather than directly attacking viral particles themselves, thus disrupting viral replication. It has proven effective against numerous viruses, and should in principal work against near all viral infections in a broad range of species, including the many persistent viral infections that presently lack any effective treatment. The technology finds itself in a similar position to SENS rejuvenation research however, with little support from the funding mainstream, and needing to raise funds from philant...
Source: Fight Aging! - April 11, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Intro to Class Blending
I thought I'd devote the next few blogs to a concept that has gotten much less attention than it deserves: blended classes. Class blending lurks behind much of the irreproducibility in "Big Science" research, including clinical trials. It also is responsible for impeding progress in various disciplines of science, particularly the natural sciences, where classification is of utmost importance. We'll see that the scientific literature is rife with research of dubious quality, based on poorly designed classifications and blended classes. For today, let's start with a definition and one example. We'll discuss many more spe...
Source: Specified Life - March 26, 2016 Category: Information Technology Tags: classification complexity data science irreproducible results ontologies ontology Source Type: blogs
There They Go Again - the New England Medical Journal Publishes another Rant, this Time about Power Morcellation
In 2015, we noted (here and here) that the New England Journal of Medicine seemed to have been reduced to publishing rants about "pharmascolds" who are paranoid about conflicts of interest. Now there they go again.... BackgroundThe sad story about the risks of power morcellation for the treatment of fibroids has received considerable media attention. The state of play through July, 2014 was described in a series of articles in the Cancer Letter of July 4, 2014. (Look here.) Uterine fibroids are a common affliction of women. Their preferred surgical management had changed from open surgery to minimally invasive ...
Source: Health Care Renewal - March 20, 2016 Category: Health Management Tags: cancer FDA logical fallacies New England Journal of Medicine Partners Healthcare Source Type: blogs
“For International Childhood Cancer Day, we’re sharing...
"For International Childhood Cancer Day, we're sharing this case of a 10-year-old boy with Ewing's Sarcoma who underwent limb salvage therapy. Here is the patient's femur. It was removed, treated with liquid nitrogen to kill remaining tumor cells, and then reimplanted. After surgery, recovery in the ICU, and chemotherapy, the patient is now able to ride his bike again. Thank you to all the healthcare professionals who treat and support children and adolescents with cancer like this every day." By figure1 on Instagram Posted on infosnack. (Source: Kidney Notes)
Source: Kidney Notes - February 15, 2016 Category: Urology & Nephrology Authors: Joshua Schwimmer Source Type: blogs
