Health

Gene discovery may help guide breast cancer care

An abnormality in two genes can make a common class of chemotherapy drugs used to fight breast cancer less effective, U.S. researchers said on Sunday in a finding that could help doctors better tailor treatments.

“This is useful because it helps select who might be resistant to anthracyclines,” said Dr.

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New Test Catches Most Pancreatic Cancers Early

Researchers report theyve developed a test that detects early-stage pancreatic cancer by measuring levels of a protein thats present in 90 percent of cancerous and precancerous lesions.

The researchers were to report their findings Saturday in Orlando, Fla., at the Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, which is co-sponsored by the American Gastroenterological Association Institute, the American Society for Clinical Oncology, the American Society for Radiology Oncology and the Society of Surgical Oncology.

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Blood Test Spots Colon Cancer, Polyps

The first blood test to reliably detect early-stage colorectal cancer and polyps may help identify patients who would gain most from colonoscopy, say Israeli researchers who developed the screen.

“Screening is effective for early colorectal cancer detection and prevention, but for a range of reasons, many people are reluctant to undergo colonoscopy.

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New Test Catches Most Pancreatic Cancers Early

Researchers report theyve developed a test that detects early-stage pancreatic cancer by measuring levels of a protein thats present in 90 percent of cancerous and precancerous lesions.

The researchers were to report their findings Saturday in Orlando, Fla., at the Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, which is co-sponsored by the American Gastroenterological Association Institute, the American Society for Clinical Oncology, the American Society for Radiology Oncology and the Society of Surgical Oncology.

Continue reading New Test Catches Most Pancreatic Cancers Early…

Blood test tells fetal sex in early pregnancy

Normally, parents who want to know the sex of their baby before its born find out through ultrasound done in the second trimester. A blood test that can be done early in pregnancy is highly accurate at determining the sex of the fetus, however, a new study finds.

Consequently, maternal blood tests that pick up certain markers of fetal sex have been developed and put into use in recent years.

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Women with high breast cancer risk refuse MRIs

As many as 42 percent of women who are at intermediate or high risk of getting breast cancer decide not to get recommended MRI screening, even if it is offered for free, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

Some said they simply could not spare the time.

A quarter of the women in the study who were offered the free screening test decided not to get it because they feel claustrophobic in the tunnel-like scanners.

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Chemotherapy boosts breast cancer survival: study

Chemotherapy helps improve breast cancer survival in post-menopausal women, adding to a long-standing debate about how best to treat these women, U.S. researchers said Thursday.

The main study proves that adding chemotherapy to treatment with the estrogen-blocking drug tamoxifen can help prevent cancer from coming back in women with estrogen-receptor positive breast cancers, the most common kind in which a hormone is driving the cancer.

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Urine Sample May Reveal Sleep Disorder in Kids

A simple urine test could be developed to detect whether a child has obstructive sleep apnea, U.S. researchers say.

He and his colleagues studied 90 children referred to a sleep clinic for evaluation of breathing problems during sleep and 30 children who didnt snore. All the children underwent standard overnight sleep tests.

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Most take news of genetic Alzheimer’s risk well

Adult children who have a parent with Alzheimers disease may want to know if they carry a gene that raises their risk of getting the mind-robbing disease. But can they handle the test result, psychologically? Findings from a study released today hint that most can handle the information.

In the REVEAL study, researchers found that disclosing APOE test results to adult children of patients with Alzheimers disease “did not result in significant short-term psychological risks.

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Many can cope with news of higher Alzheimer’s risk

People who learn through genetic testing that they have a higher than average risk for Alzheimer’s disease are able to handle the bad news pretty well, results from the first major study of this suggest.

“Our participants were able to understand the risk and manage it,” said Green, a researcher at the Boston University School of Medicine.

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