Waiting to board the plane to your next medical conference? You might want to check out this editorial about medical meeting mania from infectious disease specialist Kent Sepkowitz. Maybe the ticket is still refundable. Source: MEDICAL EXAMINER from Slate Tags: NPR; Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

A team of scientists from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee have been seeing promising results during their testing of single-walled carbon nanohorns. Nanohorns are specially engineered nanoparticles designed to facilitate targeted drug delivery. In addition to their possible medical uses, the tiny devices have been shown to have potential commercial [...]

Scientists from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the international Pediatric Preclinical Testing Program have been busy trying to unlock the healing secrets of an unusual bacteria discovered in soil samples taken from the volcanic regions of Easter Island. The bacteria produced a substance known as rapamycin, which was initially shown to be an effective [...]

A routine visit to your local dentist may soon include a quick test for oral cancer. University of Texas researchers have developed a simple and inexpensive test which dentists can use to detect cancerous cells in the mouth in as little as 10 minutes. A small acrylic testing device strains cells taken from the patient’s [...]

Colleagues from the University of Michigan and the University of Florida have teamed up to identify proteins in urine which may signal the presence of bladder cancer. Using technological advances, the scientists were able to isolate 186 proteins in the urine of patients with and without bladder cancer. Five of the proteins identified were found [...]

The national electronic prescription drug network now extends to all 50 states thanks to this month’s addition of the last holdout, Alaska. After some initial hesitation, Alaskan officials decided to follow suit with West Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia who joined the voluntary federal program earlier this year. Some physicians and smaller pharmacies had expressed [...]

Governor Bill Richardson has directed the New Mexico Department of Health to continue plans for a state-run medical marijuana program despite worries that his actions could lead to federal prosecutions for drug trafficking. New Mexico’s state laws allow the use of medical marijuana by patients who are undergoing treatment for chronic conditions such as cancer, [...]

Emory University researchers want to know more about the hormone leptin and how it influences the development of breast cancer. A recent grant from the Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation may help them get their answers. Leptin has long been recognized to play an important role in obesity, but new information has also been linking [...]

A study conducted by researchers at the Yale School of Medicine showed many chronically ill people over age 60 refuse medical and surgical treatments recommended by their doctors. To arrive at their conclusions, the researchers conducted in-home interviews with patients in the advanced stages of cancer, congestive heart failure and other chronic diseases. They found [...]

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center have discovered the presence of a molecule that could improve a doctor’s ability to predict whether prostate cancer will return or progress in patients being treated for the disease. The molecule under scrutiny is identified as B7-H3. Mayo’s scientists were able to demonstrate that B7-H3 was present in [...]