Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota has won the Innovation of the Year in Patient Care Award from the Minnesota Hospital Association for making chemotherapy, CT scans and other medical procedures less frightening for children. Children’s Hospitals and Clinics have been using nitrous oxide, a mild sedative commonly referred to as laughing gas, to relax [...]

A study released by drug manufacturer GTx, Inc (NASDAQ: GTXI) indicates a new version of an old drug called toremifene helps reduce some of the side effects experienced by prostate cancer patients being treated with androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT). ADT, also known as androgen suppression therapy or AST, is a hormone therapy designed to block the [...]

Most cancer patients undergo at least one CT scan during the diagnosis, treatment, or follow-up phases of their disease. A new study conducted by the University of Michigan Health System indicates many of those patients should be taking an inexpensive prescription tablet called N-Acetylcysteine before their scan to protect their kidneys from potentially serious damage. [...]

The list of items consumers can buy over the internet just got longer thanks to a new web portal called Carol. Carol’s innovative site, dubbed The Care Marketplace™, offers patients the opportunity to shop, compare prices, and schedule medical services online in the same way they would purchase clothing or any other retail good. Rather [...]

According to the American Cancer Society, more than 67,000 new cases of bladder cancer and over one million cases of skin cancer were diagnosed last year. And once those patients heard that distressing news, they were each faced with the challenge of choosing the right treatment option for their condition. To help patients and their [...]

The process of conducting cancer research is getting faster for a group of University of Minnesota scientists. Representatives from the Hormel Institute announced they’ve purchased an IBM (NYSE: IBM) Blue Gene supercomputer capable of processing 5-6 trillion operations a second – a speed that’ll allow Hormel to triple the number of research projects it undertakes. [...]

Patients being treated for metastatic colorectal cancer in Europe just got a new treatment option. Capecitabine, which is marketed by Switzerland-based pharmaceutical company Roche under the trade name Xeloda, has been approved by the European Commission for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer. European health officials approved the oral tablets for use in combination with [...]

Weighing the risks and benefits of birth control pills? Here’s a snapshot of some of the new research relating to oral contraceptives and their impact on cancer risk. Birth Control Pill Use Cuts Ovarian Cancer Risk from American Cancer Society News and Features Cancer Risk Among Users of Oral Contraceptives from BMJ Cervical cancer risk [...]

A team at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has successfully installed the world’s most powerful transmission electron microscope. TEAM 0.5, as the device is known, produces high contrast images with half-angstrom, or half a 10-billionth of a meter, resolution. The state-of-the-art microscope continuously adjusts and corrects spherical aberrations so scientists can study detailed 3D images [...]

The US Food and Drug Administration and Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals are withdrawing liquid Leukine® (sargramostim) from US markets after receiving reports the new formula causes patients to faint. Leukine® is prescribed to fight infection in adult acute myelogenous leukemia patients who’ve undergone induction chemotherapy and others experiencing bone marrow transplant graft failure. The withdrawal specifically [...]