Tag: "therap" at medical news

Cancer Doctors Okays Controversial Prostate Therapy

A controversial treatment for prostate cancer in which radioactive seeds are implanted in the prostate to destroy the tumor received support Friday from doctors writing therapy guidelines for the prestigious 17-hospital National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) meeting in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. This type of therapy is known as brachytherapy, the procedure has been performed for years by researc...

New Way to "See" Genes, Evaluate Effectiveness of Gene Therapies Discovered

This technology essentially renders the body transparent and will allow physicians to determine whether gene therapies reach targeted cells and work as they should. .. .."The technology is expected to help patients with cancer and other illnesses, such as cardiovascular disease. The discovery is outlined in the August 2000, issue of the journal Nature Medicine. UCLA researchers plan to test the t...

Consensus on "Combination Therapy" for Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is the commonest cancer among women in the world. There has been some on going controversy on certain aspects of treatment modalities of this cancer. Besides surgery there are other options to treat the cancer including radiation, chemotherapy and hormonal therapy. Now at a three-day conference at the National Institutes of Health doctors have agreed to a consensus on the combinati...

Acupuncture May Help Chemotherapy Side Effects

Oriental medical practice of Acupuncture along with commonly used medications may help ease the distressing and disabling side effects of chemotherapy for breast cancer patients, if researchers at National Institute of Health (NIH) are to be believed. .. .. ..According to Dr. Joannieshen MD, MPH, research associate at NIH, electro-acupuncture was more effective in controlling vomiting than just m...

Antioxidants protect health tissue in people undergoing radiation therapy.

A recent finding by Indian scientists revealed that two antioxidants in black pepper and turmeric- piperine and curcumin were found to help protect the bacterial DNA from damage by irradiation in test organism. ..Spices with antioxidants property have radio protective effect and protecting organisms like Escherichia role and Bacillus megaterium organisms (taken for study) against of gamma radiati...

Distraction therapy found very effective in postoperative patients

Controlling pain in patients following surgeries has been effectively taken care of by a new therapy called distraction therapy. Doctors at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in the US have distracted patients with images and sounds from nature and have successfully controlled pain in patients following a painful procedure called bronchoscopy, which involves inserting the tube into the nose...

Gene Therapy shows promise in treating Hemophilia

Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center reported in the current New England Journal of Medicine that an experimental Gene Therapy method has safely introduced new genes into six men suffering from hemophilia. This method shows signs of helping these men fight the disease by producing the blood clotting protein they lack. None of the patients suffers side effects even after one year...

"Make AIDS Therapy affordable" - Physicians demand

AIDS in developing countries is a threeat to the globe as 95% of the AIDS victims dwell in here. In the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS, physicians demanded to bring down the cost of anti retroviral therapy that would cater the AIDS victims in developing countries. ..Dr. Anne-Valerie Kaninda, medical advisor for Doctors without borders (commonly known as Medicines San...

Acupuncture superseeds massage therapy for short term relief of pain

Chronic neck pain often remains a therapeutic challenge for many practising allopathic medicine. so now the alternative forms of medicine has taken its stride. Acupuncture vs massage for treating pain has been widely debated with some practitioners. ..Dr. Dominik Irnich of Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich has done a study on this basis and found that when it comes to chronic neck pain, acu...

Hormone replacement Therapy a headache

Researchers from Sweden warn women undergoing hormone replacement therapy against the risk of uterus cancer. ....Hormone Replacement Therapy is advised for women to reduce menopausal side effects like hot flushes and night sweats, and to protect them from osteoporosis and heart disease.// ..Research has shown the drugs, which replace natural hormones that decrease with menopause, cause a sligh...

Simple Therapy

In an experiment once thought impossible, lab mice with full blown versions of of Type 1 Diabetes are regrowing their own islets, the cells responsible for producing insulin. .. .. In addition Denise Faustman and colleagues at the Massachusetts General Hospital have rid the mice of the immune cells that attack the pancreas and the islets in the first place.// .. .. Once the mutinous...

Ovarian cancer in relationship with Hormone therapy

A major US study has found that women who have taken postmenopausal oestrogens for ten years or more are at substantially greater risk of fatal ovarian cancer. ....The risk persists for many years after therapy is discontinued, researchers from the American Cancer Society report// in the Journal of the American Medical Association.The study followed 201,681 postmenopausal women from 1982 to 1996...

New therapy better at increasing bone density

According to researchers, adding vitamin D to oestrogen and progesterone therapy for older women increases their bone density.It is already well established that hormone replacement therapy - oestrogen plus progesterone helps prevent osteoporosis in women past the menopause. According to researchers at Creighton University in the US, a new study covering 400 women, that this blend of hormones inc...

Gene therapy - Aim to improve blood flow

Heart disease often means that areas of the heart muscle become poorly supplied with blood - this can lead to both painful angina attacks, and to heart attacks. If blood vessels could be encouraged to grow to reinforce the supply to the heart muscle, this could drastically improve quality of life. In diabetes, this is a frequent complication, and can lead to tissue death, and wounds which either...

Gene therapy restores sight

US scientists report they have successfully used gene therapy to restore sight to animals with a rare inherited form of blindness. ....A team of scientists led by Jean Bennett, at the University of Pennsylvania, reported their success in this month's Nature Genetics.Their experiment involved dogs with Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), a form of blindness, that also affects human infants and for w...

Alternative therapies popular with Parkinson's patients

Nearly half of people with Parkinson's disease are using one or more type of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), such as vitamins, message or acupuncture. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in the US have carried out a survey of more than 200 people with Parkinson's disease. Forty per cent use one or more forms of CAM - and 12 per cent use five or more different ones. There's no li...

Therapy for stopping the spread of cancer cells

An enzyme that affects the spread of cancer cells could provide a new target for therapy, say researchers in the US. Cancer cells spread through the body by hanging on to carbohydrate molecules on other, normal cells, and then letting go and moving on to the next cell. The composition of carbohydrates on the cells affects the balance between hanging on to neighbouring cells and letting go.// .......

Heat therapy relieves back pain

Have you ever applied a hot water bottle to an aching back? Heat treatment has always proved effective in lower back ache. This treatment delivered with needlepoint accuracy leads to dramatic improvement of a certain common type of lower back pain. Heat is a long-established method of bringing relief in lower back pain. But now researchers at the Louieville Clinic in the US have developed a high-...

Radiotherapy helps in colon cancer

According to new analysis, it is better to give radiation therapy before surgery rather than afterwards. Hitting colon cancer with radiation as well as surgery can reduce the risk of recurrence. Generally the timing of radiotherapy varies when it comes to practice. In Scandinavia and the Netherlands, the therapy is given before surgery while doctors in the UK and the US wait until afterwards.//...

Gene Therapy Destroys Pancreatic Cancer Cells

Pancreatic cancer is among the deadliest of cancers, affecting many people a year and having an extremely low survival rate. Pancreatic cancer is the most aggressive cancer and there are few palliative treatments. Using a new two-pronged attack, researchers were able to destroy deadly pancreatic cancer cells in the test tube and in lab animals. // ....The work was led by Dr. Paul B. Fisher, a pr...

New therapy for pimples

According to a research reported in the British Journal of Dermatology, a blue and red light mixture seems to be most effective treatment for acne - reducing the number of spots by three-quarters...As many as one in 18 adults have persistent pimples, which can prove stubbornly resistant to both creams and antibiotics. Some acne does clear up significantly when exposed to UV light. ....The new t...

Support therapy helps breast cancer patients

Group therapy can help breast cancer patients feel better, but it won't help them live longer. Patients who got support therapy in addition to their medical treatment lived an average// of 18 months longer. The 158 women assigned to group therapy did not live any longer than the 77 who got only medical treatmen. However, women in the therapy groups did report less pain and emotional distress -- e...

Letrozole Beats Tamoxifen in Breast Cancer Therapy

Novartis' Femara (letrozole), one of a new class of breast cancer drugs, worked better than standard therapy with tamoxifen in treating breast cancer in women// with advanced disease. Femara is a member of a new class of drugs called aromatase inhibitors, which work differently to prevent certain kinds of breast cancer than does tamoxifen. ....This new drug, Letrozole shrank tumors better and hel...

Garlic Supplements Impede HIV Therapy

Researchers have found garlic supplements can cause harmful side effect when combined with a type of medication used to treat AIDS. Garlic supplements reduced// blood levels of the saquinavir, one of a class of drugs called protease inhibitors that are effective at slowing the progression of HIV infection. In the presence of garlic supplements, blood concentrations of saquinavir decreased by abo...

Hormone replacement therapy helps women

Women who take hormone replacement therapy appear to restore their cognitive function better as they age. The evidence on whether hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can protect against dementia// is conflicting - some studies do believe while others have failed to demonstrate benefit.A new report, from researchers, is therefore of especial interest. They followed a group of over 1,000 women from...

Gene Therapy For Cystic Fibrosis

Cystic fibrosis is an inherited disease in which the body's mucus becomes so thick and sticky that it prevents normal functioning. Treatment with new antibiotics now allows many children to reach adulthood, but there is no cure.// New research is moving us slightly closer to a treatment for cystic fibrosis that modifies the abnormal gene that causes the disease. ....Working with mice, scientists...

A new study surpasses Gene Therapy Hurdle

According to researchers at Hopkins University, they have found a way to use blood stem cells to make genetic changes in the immune system, surpassing an obstacle to certain forms of gene therapy. The implications, biologist Lingho Chengh range from improving the body's immune response to developing cancer vaccines to reducing the danger of rejecting transplanted organs. Blood stem cells form th...

Combination therapy to treat breast cancer

The combination of two targeted drug therapies results in dramatic reduction in breast cancer cell growth in vitro, indicating a potentially powerful new approach to treating the condition.// The two drug agents – trastuzumab and ZD1839 were found to work synergistically to inhibit the action of two different growth factors receptors, HER2 and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). ....Previous...

New therapy for bone cancer

According to doctors at the research center the radioactive drug samarium destroys bone tumours. Osteosarcoma is an unusual tumour of the bone which is usually treated by surgery or chemotherapy. However, one case in ten proves resistant to these therapies.// ..A new radioactive drug, samarium, was tested on 21 patients with bone cancer, ranging in age from 15 to 50. All had failed to benefit fr...

New swift therapy limits stroke damage

Paramedics can direct a treatment to people who have had a stroke within an hour of onset of symptoms and help limit the damage to the brain. Magnesium sulphate is a neuroprotective drug in that it dilates// the blood vessels that serve the brain and prevents a damaging build-up of calcium in brain cells. ..According to researchers at University of Texas, they have shown for the first time that...

Foremost gene therapy for chest pain

Based on a study on angina patients, it was found that transferring growth factor genes into the heart is safe and improves exercise tolerance.// In angina, the blood supply to the heart is limited, leading to pain on exertion. Initially the body tries to compensate by growing new blood vessels to bypass the restricted area. But, for some unknown reason, this process, known as angiogenesis, soon...

Additional Radiotheraphy for Breast Cancer

Research says that giving extra radiotherapy to patients with early breast cancer significantly reduces the risk of cancer recurring in the breast. //The results were so clear that clinical practice should be changed immediately, particularly for younger women. ....Nearly five thousand patients took part in the study. The majority of patients had undergone complete removal of their tumor. All the...

Attacking therapy with electricity

The holes in the cell membranes which is being punched by electrical pulses could give better delivery of drugs. The effectiveness of many potentially powerful treatments //including cancer therapy and gene therapy are limited by the difficulty of getting drug molecules in through cell membranes. Researchers in San Diego, California, have been developing a new way of delivering drugs called elec...

Chemotherapy Pill Has Fewer Side Effects Than IV

A chemotherapy pill is as effective for treating advanced colorectal cancer as intravenous treatment with a similar drug...Patients taking the pill capecitabine survived just as long as those on standard chemotherapy, but the pill caused fewer side effects.// Capecitabine is the oral form of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), the chemotherapy regimen most commonly used to treat advanced colorectal cancer. .....

Light therapy decreases depression during pregnancy

Yale researchers found that radiant-light therapy may be an effective treatment for depression in pregnant women. Dr. Dan Oren, an associate professor of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine in New Jersy, felt that the availability of an easy-to-use, potentially non-toxic antidepressant light therapy in pregnancy is a clinically attractive option.// ....The researchers conducted a pilot expe...

Possible benefits of Hormone Replacement Therapy

According to a study, estrogen replacement therapy does not reduce post-menopausal women's risk of having a second stroke. The Women's Estrogen for Stroke Trial (WEST) is the recent study to counter long-held notions// about the benefits of hormone replacement therapy, or HRT, on the heart and blood vessels. Catherine Viscoli, a research scientist University of Yale, said that a lot of people th...

Gene therapy - Aim to improve blood flow

Heart disease often means that areas of the heart muscle become poorly supplied with blood - this can lead to both painful angina attacks, and to heart attacks. If blood vessels could be encouraged to grow to reinforce the supply to the heart muscle,// this could drastically improve quality of life. In diabetes, this is a frequent complication, and can lead to tissue death, and wounds which eithe...

Gene therapy restores sight

US scientists report they have successfully used gene therapy to restore sight to animals with a rare inherited form of blindness. A team of scientists led by Jean Bennett, at the University of Pennsylvania, reported their success in this month's Nature Genetics.Their experiment involved dogs with Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), a form of blindness, that also affects human infants and for which...

Hormone replacement therapy improves sexual function

According to a few researchers, Hormone replacement in patch form improves mood and libido in postmenopausal women.Women often report low libido, slow arousal, difficulty reaching orgasm and painful intercourse. They assume it's just part and parcel of the menopause//and, there is no licensed treatment for these symptoms. ....But a new study from researchers at the University of Southern Californ...

The advantages of oxygen therapy

According to a new research, oxygen therapy at home reduces hospitalisation in those with lung disease. Researchers at the University Hospital of Denmark, have studied the effects of oxygen on 200 patients with smoker's lungs// - where the blood becomes deficient in oxygen. The oxygenation was begun in an outpatient clinic, then continued at home. ....Having oxygen therapy, for at least 15 hours...