Ann Conkle
Feb 24, 2012
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Medical Nova Weekly: Top five trends for 2/20-2/24

Here's the weekly roundup of medical innovation trends and developments that are making headlines!

Women have increased risk of in-hospital death following a heart attack

New research shows that women, particularly younger women, are less likely to experience chest pain when having a heart attack. Additionally, women also have a higher rate of in-hospital death following a heart attack than men in the same age group. This video explores these finding, recently published in JAMA, and their implications for treating heart disease.

Colonoscopy prevents deaths from colon cancer

For the first time, a study has shown that removing polyps by colonoscopy not only prevents colorectal cancer from developing, but also prevents deaths.  In fact, the the detection and removal of precancerous polyps during colonoscopy resulted in a 53 percent reduction in colorectal cancer mortality.

Melanoma drug nearly doubles survival times

Investigators have found that a new drug for patients with metastatic melanoma nearly doubled median survival times. “This study confirms what we have discovered in our earlier trials. Many of our patients are exhibiting a strong, immediate response to this drug and some are living significantly longer, with manageable side effects,” said Sosman, professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Drug combination destroys pancreatic cancer cells

Cancer Research UK scientists have revealed how a combination of two very different drugs amplifies the destruction of pancreatic cancer cells. The team at Cancer Research UK’s Cambridge Research Institute showed in mice that combining a chemotherapy drug called gemcitabine with an experimental drug called MRK003  sets off a chain of events that ultimately kills cancer cells – multiplying the effect of each drug on its own.

Training rats to detect tuberculosis

A multidisciplinary, international team of researchers is bringing together behavior analysis, engineering, public health and microbiology to teach rats how to detect tuberculosis, a disease that kills 1.3 million million people a year.

 

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