Scientists with UCLA’s Jonsson Cancer Center and the Department of Urology have showed that lowering intake of the type of fat common in a Western diet helps prevent prostate cancer in mice, the first finding of its kind in a mouse model that closely mimics human cancer, researchers said.

The study, which appears in the April 15, 2008 issue of the journal Cancer Research, focused on fat from corn oil, which is made up primarily of omega-6 fatty acids, or the polyunsaturated fat commonly found in the Western diet. Omega-6 fats are found in high levels in baked and fried goods, said William Aronson, a Jonsson Cancer Center researcher and the study’s senior author.

Researchers fed one group of mice a diet with about 40 percent of calories coming from fat, a percentage typical in men eating a Western diet. The other group received 12 percent of their calories from fat, a figure considered to be a very low fat diet. Researchers found there was a 27 percent reduced incidence of prostate cancer in the low-fat diet group. Aronson also studied cells in the prostate that were precancerous, or would soon become cancer, and found that the cells in the mice eating the low-fat diet were growing much more slowly than those in the high-fat group.

A study investigating aging in mice has found that hormonal changes that occur when mice eat significantly less may help explain an already established phenomenon: a low calorie diet can extend the lifespan of rodents, a benefit that even regular exercise does not achieve.

A new approach to estimating tumor growth based on breast screening results from almost 400,000 women is published today in Breast Cancer Research. This new model can also estimate the proportion of breast cancers which are detected at screening (screen test sensitivity). It provides a new approach to simultaneously estimating the growth rate of breast cancer and the ability of mammography screening to detect tumors.

The results of the study show that tumor growth rates vary considerably among patients, with generally slower growth rates with increasing age at diagnosis. Understanding how tumours grow is important in the planning and evaluation of screening programs, clinical trials, and epidemiological studies. However, studies of tumour growth rates in people have so far been based mainly on small and selected samples.

The electromagnetic fields produced by incubators alter newborns’ heart rates, says a small study published in the Fetal and Neonatal Edition of Archives of Disease in Childhood.

Results from a one-year prospective, observational study conducted to determine the impact of beginning treatment with AVONEX on MS patients’ overall quality of life (QoL) were announced today. The data showed that patients receiving treatment with AVONEX experienced statistically significant improvements in QoL, as measured by the EuroQol questionnaire (EQ-5D), compared to baseline. In addition, the study demonstrated the negative impact of disability progression (as measured by the expanded disability status scale (EDSS)) on employment status and QoL. These data were presented today as a poster presentation at the 60th American Academy of Neurology annual meeting in Chicago, Illinois.

If clumps of your hair start to fall out from a common form of baldness, a new review of existing research unfortunately offers little comfort.

Patients who are afflicted by the condition known as alopecia areata — patchy hair loss — should understand that there is “no reliable, safe, effective, long-term treatment,” said review co-author Dr. Mike Sladden, a dermatologist and senior lecturer at the University of Tasmania in Australia.

Alopecia areata accounts for an estimated one in every 50 dermatologist visits in the United States and the United Kingdom, and one study suggests that 1.7 percent of people will be afflicted by it during their lives.

The condition often causes patchy hair loss; meaning hair in some parts of the body falls out while remaining in others. In some cases, however, affected patients can lose all of their scalp hair or even all of their body hair.

Most affected people begin developing bald spots before the age of 20. Many cases of alopecia areata get better over time, although hair loss often returns.

Research suggests that alopecia areata is caused when the immune system attacks the hair follicle. Some cases are linked to physical or emotional stress, but others do not have an apparent trigger.

In the new review, Sladden and colleges examined 17 randomized controlled trials of treatments for alopecia areata.

The amount of oxygen available to a baby in the womb can affect their susceptibility to developing particular diseases later in life. Research presented at the annual Society for Endocrinology BES meeting in Harrogate shows that your risk of developing cardiovascular disease can be predetermined before birth, not only by your genes, but also by their interaction with the quality of the environment you experience in the womb.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge, led by Dr Dino Giussani, examined the role that oxygen availability in the womb plays in programming your susceptibility to different diseases. His group found that babies that don’t receive enough oxygen in the womb (e.g. due to pre-eclampsia or placental insufficiency) are more likely to suffer from cardiovascular disease when they are adult.

What do you learn by looking at the spines of hundreds of Finnish twins? If you are the international team of researchers behind the Twin Spine Study, you find compelling proof that back pain problems may be more a matter of genetics than physical strain.

The findings of the Twin Spine Study, an ongoing research program started in 1991, have led to a dramatic paradigm shift in the way disc degeneration is understood. Last month a paper presenting an overview of the Twin Spine Study’s multidisciplinary investigation into the root causes of disc degeneration received a Kappa Delta Award from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, arguably the most prestigious annual award in musculoskeletal research.

There's no question that air superiority made a huge difference in the Allied victories of World War II but because flight was still very much in its infancy, and high speed aerial combat was previously unknown, a lot of physiological issues had to be addressed in order to keep pilots as safe as possible before going into even more dangerous combat.

Physiology is the study of how molecules, cells, tissues and organs function to create health or disease. World War II-era research came up with a number of advancements that made that possible, according to Jay B. Dean, of the University of South Florida College of Medicine.

Thanks to physiologists then, Ways were developed to safely provide pressurized oxygen to air crews, helping them avoid hypoxia and decompression sickness. They were able to develop better fitting oxygen masks to avoid fogging and freezing of goggles, common problems for pilots early in the war and they developed ways to prevent blood from pooling in the lower extremities using a G-suit during violent dog-fighting maneuvers, thereby preventing “blackout” and loss of consciousness due to lack of blood flow to the brain.

Some early highlights of World War II Aviation Research:

On March 26, 2008, surgeons at UC San Diego Medical Center removed an inflamed appendix through a patient’s vagina, a first in the United States.

Following the 50-minute procedure, the patient, Diana Schlamadinger, reported only minor discomfort. Removal of diseased organs through the body’s natural openings offers patients a rapid recovery, minimal pain, and no scarring. Key to these surgical clinical trials is collaboration with medical device companies to develop new minimally-invasive tools.

The procedure, called Natural Orifice Translumenal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES), involves passing surgical instruments through a natural orifice, such as the mouth or vagina, to remove a diseased organ such as an appendix or gallbladder. Only one incision is made through the belly button for the purpose of inserting a two millimeter camera into the abdominal cavity so the surgeons can safely access the surgical site.