Health and Medicine

An experimental drug designed to cut off a tumor’s blood supply showed promising results in patients with advanced colorectal cancer when paired with standard chemotherapy, according to a UCLA Jonsson Cancer Center study published in the Jan. 1 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

The results of this and subsequent studies of the experimental drug Avastin could change the way oncologists treat patients with this devastating form of cancer, said Dr. Fairooz Kabbinavar, a Jonsson C

For newly diagnosed multiple myeloma; Previously scorned thalidomide gives new option for patients with difficult-to-treat cancer

A recent study conducted at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center shows that patients with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow, were more likely to achieve remission when treated with a combination of drugs that included thalidomide, a medicine that had previously been shelved for causing birth defects.

Donna Weber, M.D., a

A beer a day may help keep heart attacks away, according to a group of Israeli researchers. In preliminary clinical studies of a group of men with coronary artery disease, the researchers showed that drinking one beer (12 ounces) a day for a month produced changes in blood chemistry that are associated with a reduced risk of heart attack.

Their study adds to growing evidence that moderate alcohol consumption may reduce the risk of heart disease, the number one killer in the United States. T

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine have determined the molecular machinery that triggers normal cardiac muscle growth and survival, and have linked defects in this complex to an inherited form of human cardiomyopathy, a type of heart failure where an enlarged heart loses its ability to pump blood.

Published in the December 27, 2002 issue of the journal Cell, the study also identifies a subset of German cardiomyopathy patients with a specific gene

Unexplained and severe tinnitus–a ringing or buzzing in the ears–can be temporarily reduced in some patients by “jamming” the brain’s electrical activity with focused magnetic stimulation, according to a preliminary study to be published December 23, 2002 in the online edition of the Annals of Neurology. The results confirm that some phantom sounds are generated by abnormal activity in the brain itself.

“Controlled clinical trials are now necessary to evaluate whether this method can

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have discovered a possible new mechanism for regulating large groups of genes. While conducting yeast research on a potential new anticancer drug, the team identified a mechanism that enables the genome to silence large numbers of genes simultaneously, rather than each gene individually.

The finding emerged during research studying the molecular action of the drug rapamycin. Rapamycin currently is used to suppress the immu