ScienceDaily: Latest Science News

Combining targeted drug with chemotherapy offers longer life to b-cell cancer patients

Posted: 30 May 2015 07:25 AM PDT

Because of the significant benefit found in combining the targeted drug ibrutinib with standard chemotherapy for relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukemia or small lymphocytic lymphoma, an interim analysis has closed the international HELIOS phase III clinical trial.

Scale to stratify magnitude of clinical benefit of anticancer medicines

Posted: 30 May 2015 07:25 AM PDT

ESMO, the European Society for Medical Oncology, has announced the publication of the ESMO Magnitude of Clinical Benefit Scale, a tool to assist oncology clinicians in evaluating the most effective anti-cancer medicines for their patients.

Practice-changing study offers new option for tough breast cancer cases

Posted: 30 May 2015 07:22 AM PDT

A new phase 3 study in some of the most difficult-to-treat patients, women with endocrine-resistant disease, showed that the newly approved drug, palbociclib, more than doubled the time to cancer recurrence for women with hormone-receptor (HR+) positive metastatic breast cancer.

Targeted drug can ‘diminish the suffering’ of myelofibrosis

Posted: 30 May 2015 07:22 AM PDT

Use of the targeted agent pacritinib significantly reduced the symptoms and burden of advanced myelofibrosis in patients, says a researcher who co-led PERSIST-1, the worldwide phase 3 clinical trial that tested the therapy. Specifically, pacritinib substantially reduced severe enlargement of the spleen, a typical feature of advanced myelofibrosis, in more than 20 percent of patients and alleviated debilitating side effects in more than 46 percent.

Removing more tissue during breast cancer surgery reduces by half the need for second procedure

Posted: 30 May 2015 07:22 AM PDT

Removing more tissue during a partial mastectomy could spare thousands of breast cancer patients a second surgery, according to a Yale Cancer Center study.

Doctors' checklist could help decrease length of COPD patients' hospital stay

Posted: 29 May 2015 06:45 PM PDT

Patients with worsening chronic obstructive pulmonary disease spend less time in hospital when their doctors manage their care by using a checklist of steps called order sets.

Altered pain processing in patients with cognitive impairment

Posted: 29 May 2015 10:15 AM PDT

People with dementia and other forms of cognitive impairment (CI) have altered responses to pain, with many conditions associated with increased pain sensitivity, concludes a new research review.

Many UK patients with gonorrhea prescribed outdated antibiotics

Posted: 29 May 2015 05:35 AM PDT

Many UK patients with gonorrhea are being prescribed antibiotics that are no longer recommended for treating the infection by their family doctor, reveals research published in the online journal BMJ Open.

End European agreements with tobacco industry designed to curb smuggling, urge experts

Posted: 29 May 2015 05:35 AM PDT

The agreements drawn up between the European Union and the four major transnational tobacco companies, to crack down on cigarette smuggling and recoup lost tax revenues, are failing to meet their stated aims, concludes research.

Carbon nanotubes grown in combustion flames

Posted: 29 May 2015 05:29 AM PDT

An international research team's theoretical simulation of the synthesis of single-walled carbon nanotubes has revealed important details of the mechanisms at play. This could lead to better ways to control the production of carbon nanotubes.