News by Subject Medicine & Health

A new study in Nature has identified a potential strategy for treating multiple forms of cancerous tumors: targeting a protein that maliciously rewires immune cells and impedes cancer therapies. The researchers showed that inhibiting the protein with an existing compound helped slow or even reject tumors stemming from four cancers.

UC San Francisco scientists have designed a large-scale screen that efficiently identifies drugs that are potent cancer-killers when combined, but only weakly effective when used alone. The effort, a cross-disciplinary collaboration between UCSF researchers, is described in a study published April 9 in the journal Cell Reports.

Measurements of hazardous air pollutant concentrations near oil and natural gas extraction sites have generally failed to capture levels above standard health benchmarks; yet, the majority of studies continue to find poor health outcomes increasing as distance from these operations decreases.

The well-established link between cancer and tobacco may provide a way to help communicate the links between moderate levels of alcohol and cancer, and raise public awareness of alcohol-associated cancer risks, according to a study published in the open access journal BMC Public Health.

In an intervention study, aimed at addressing high exposures among gymnasts to toxic flame retardant chemicals, researchers show that replacing the foam cubes in the landing pits with flame retardant-free alternatives can significantly reduce their exposures.

It has been known for decades that cancer cells have an altered metabolism and it is seen in several biochemical pathways and in particular, in the way they get energy for their survival. Now, a new article describes an epigenetic injury found in human tumours which created this altered path to take energy from the cancer.

As the FDA looks for more information on e-cigarettes and e-juice flavors, a new Dartmouth study shows that adolescents and young adults cite appealing flavors as a main reason for using e-cigarettes, that they are more likely to turn to fruit- and candy-flavored cigarettes than adult smokers trying to quit who more commonly prefer tobacco flavors, and that the younger population are likely to use multiple e-cigarette flavors at the same time.

SDSU researchers found at least some smokers with kids will modify their behavior with an electronic push.