The US Food and Drug Administration has announced the recall of two herbal supplements because they contain high levels of aristolochic acid, a potent carcinogen and nephrotoxin found in certain plants and botanicals. Aristolochic acid has been linked with kidney cancer and kidney failure. Both of the carcinogen-containing products, Tou Tong San (Headache Formula) and [...]

A study conducted at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital has shown that some kids with kidney cancers classified “inoperable” may actually be able to keep normal kidney function with the help of a surgical procedure called nephron-sparing surgery. Between 1999 and 2006, St Jude conducted nephron-sparing surgery, otherwise known as partial nephrectomy, on 10 kidney [...]

Dr Mihir Desai, a urological surgeon at Cleveland Clinic, has performed the world’s first single-port laparoscopic surgeries in the field of urology. The innovative procedures were completed by inserting all the necessary instruments through a single incision in the patient’s navel. Laparoscopic surgeries traditionally require 3 to 6 abdominal incisions. Dr Desai’s single-port surgeries included [...]

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 [...]

Debate over the safety of aspartame has reignited as a result of a second Italian study linking the artificial sweetener to several cancers in rats. The controversial research, conducted by the European Ramazzini Foundation in Bologna, Italy, showed an increased instance of leukemia, lymphoma and renal cancers in a population of Sprague Dawley rats who [...]

Not so long ago, only medical professionals and sedated patients were allowed inside the operating room while surgery was taking place…not anymore! An amazing web site called ORlive is now giving anyone with internet access the chance to view detailed footage of actual operations. screenshot from or-live.com video This innovative site’s search engines allow users [...]

Researchers in Sweden have found that women with endometriosis have a 37 percent greater chance of developing ovarian cancer than women in the general population, regardless of the number of times they have given birth. Additionally, they have documented an increased rate of malignant melanoma, endocrine and brain tumors, and kidney, breast and thyroid cancers [...]

Research at the Postgraduate Medical School at the University of Surrey has led to a new drug, HXR9, which shows promise for treating malignant melanoma as well as lung, prostate, and kidney cancers. This new drug therapy is designed to stop processes that normally occur in the embryo from being mistakenly reactivated in adult cells. [...]