News by Subject Medicine & Health

Mountaineers and winter sports enthusiasts know the dangers of frostbite -- the tissue damage that can occur when extremities, such as the nose, ears, fingers and toes, are exposed to very cold temperatures. However, it can be difficult to get treated quickly in remote, snowbound areas. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering have developed a convenient gel that could be sprayed onto frostbite injuries when they occur, helping wounds heal.

Investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute have uncovered a novel pathway that may explain why skin thickens in psoriasis and suggests new strategies for developing therapies for the condition.

A new clinical guideline from the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) provides recommendations on the use of radiation therapy to treat patients diagnosed with the most common types of skin cancers. The guideline details when radiation treatments are appropriate as stand-alone therapy or following surgery for basal and cutaneous squamous cell carcinomas (BCC, cSCC), and it suggests dosing and fractionation for these treatments. ASTRO's first guideline for skin cancer published in Practical Radiation Oncology.

A new study reports the first guidelines for treating sebaceous carcinoma, a cancer of the oil glands. If not removed and treated promptly, it can spread to other organs and cause grave harm to patients, including death. But up until now there was no commonly agreed method to treat it.

An analysis published in the Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology revealed considerable sex differences when considering links between psoriasis and metabolic disorders.

Several diseases have been linked for the first time with exposure to short-term air pollution. The associations between air pollution exposure and hospital admissions for a host of diseases remained consistent even when daily air pollution levels were below the current guideline from the World Health Organization. Air-pollution related illnesses and deaths are linked with substantial economic costs in the US.

Adults with atopic eczema could face a raised risk of fracture, with the risk increasing the more severe the condition, according to a new study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.