Breast Cancer Treatment

Researchers from NUI Galway have made a breakthrough in their studies into breast cancer treatment, which could affect a significant segment of sufferers of the disease.

Led by Doctors Sanjeev and Ananya Gupta in NUI Galway, the paper published in Oncogene hones in on a single protein that plays a pivotal role for certain sufferers of breast cancer, those who are ‘oestrogen receptor positive’.
XBP1 is the protein in question, with Sanjeev and his team establishing that it increases the production of NCOA3, which helps the cancer cells avoid anti-oestrogen treatment. Using this information, the suggestion is treatment that uses an XBP1 inhibitor could help oestrogen treatment get the job done.



Oestrogen (and progesterone) are in abundance in women’s bodies, potentially serving as fuel for cancerous cells. Hormone therapy, also called endocrine therapy, adds, blocks, or removes those chemicals to treat the disease.
The NUI Galway team claims one-third of breast cancer patients treated with hormonal therapy suffer a relapse within 15 years, which has proved difficult to understand for scientists. Cancer cells’ reliance on XBP1 as a shield could, therefore, be used against them by allowing tailored inhibitors to pull down the cancer’s defences.
Ananya Gupta said: “The next step is to identify a suitable therapeutic target in the XBP1-NCOA3 pathway. XBP1 is a transcription factor, and transcription factors have been very difficult to target with small molecules. We look forward to developing new ways to target this molecule in breast cancer.”
The project was supported by Breast Cancer Now, with the organisation’s Dr. Richard Berks hopeful of potential improvements to anti-hormone treatments.
“We look forward to further research to find out whether blocking this protein could reduce the risk of a patient’s breast cancer spreading or returning, ultimately helping to stop women dying from the disease. It’s crucial that we continue to find ways to make breast cancer therapies even more effective, and match individual patients with the treatments most likely to work for them.”

New Paediatrics Facility in the Capital!

 

An Bord Pleanála has granted planning permission for the new children's hospital on a campus shared with St James's Hospital in Dublin.
The project will bring together the three existing children's hospitals - Temple Street Children's University Hospital, Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin and the National Children's Hospital, Tallaght.
There has been much controversy of the suitability of the site.
An Bord Pleanála has granted permission, subject to 17 conditions.
No major changes have been sought on the original planning application.

Minister for Health, Leo Varadkar has said receiving the phone call this morning that planning permission had been granted was the best phone call he ever received in politics.
Mr. Varadkar said it "will be the single biggest capital project in the history of Irish healthcare".
He added: "The new Children's Hospital will support regional hospitals across Ireland to ensure that services are provided as close to home as possible. Permission has also been granted for the research centre."
Chief executive Eilísh Hardiman of the Children's Hospital Group said: "This truly is a watershed day for children, young people and their families."

Rugby Rehab Research!

A study of 200 schoolboy rugby players from five Dublin schools hopes to establish more information on the treatment and rehabilitation of concussion.

The €700,000 pilot study, launched today by the Sports Surgery Clinic, aims to collect data from brain testing before and after a concussion.
The five schools involved are Blackrock College, St Michael's College, St Andrew's College, Gonzaga College and St Mary's College.
Students taking part in the study will under go a pre-season brain screening. In the event they do sustain a concussion while playing rugby, they will be subject to a 'concussion passport screening'.
This involves a range of tests including balance, cognitive skills, eye movement, ocular motor
movement and oxygen consumption while on a treadmill.

 

As well as better understanding the affect and treatment of concussion, the screening hopes to eliminate unnecessary tests from concussion rehabilitation.
It also hopes to create a continuity of medical information for those being treated, as the subjects of the study can bring the body of test results with them to their GPs or other medical practitioners.
The Director of Rehabilitation and Research at the Sports Surgery Clinic has said the results of the tests will form a baseline measurement for those treating concussion.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland Dr Andy Franklyn-Miller said this will allow them to improve the care provided to those who have sustained concussion.

Health Risk: Exposure to Radiation

Impacts on Health, for Those Exposed to Radiation - April 1986:

In April 1986 one of the nuclear reactors at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the USSR exploded.

The accident released at least 100 times the radiation of the atom bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
In Moscow, the Soviet government was slow to admit to the accident and only confirmed that there had been a leak two days after one of the reactors exploded.
Tens of thousands of people in the area surrounding the power plant were exposed to the radiation and evacuated to other towns. Most of those never returned to their homes, causing much dislocation to many USSR citizens.


The reactor overheated and built-up pressure,
 until its structure failed, causing it to explode 

Report on E-Cigarettes: Royal College of Physicians

E-cigarettes are likely to bring benefits for public health and should be widely promoted to smokers to help them quit tobacco, an influential British doctors group has said.

The report from Britain's Royal College of Physicians (RCP) is likely to further fuel a debate over electronic cigarettes.
While stressing that tobacco smoking is both addictive and lethal, the group concluded that e-cigarettes are "much safer than smoking".
It said e-cigarettes are not a gateway to smoking and do not lead to the normalisation of the habit - two issues often cited by critics who fear the devices can lure children and young people into smoking habits.
"None of these products has to date, attracted significant use among adult never-smokers, or demonstrated evidence of significant gateway progression into smoking among young people," the RCP says in its 200-page report.
E-cigarettes, which heat nicotine-laced liquid into vapour, have rapidly grown into a global market for "vaping" products that was estimated at around €6.1billion in 2015.

 

Tobacco related deaths, predicted to hit one billion
Tobacco smoking kills half of all smokers, plus at least another 600,000 non-smokers annually, via second-hand smoke.
This makes it the world's biggest preventable killer, with a predicted death toll of a billion by the end of the century, according to the World Health Organization.
Many public health experts think e-cigarettes, or vapes, which do not contain tobacco, are a lower-risk alternative to smoking, but some questions remain about their long-term safety.
Professor Linda Bauld, deputy director of the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies and a co-author of the RCP report, said that unlike tobacco, nicotine does not cause cancer, heart and lung diseases.
"The ideal is for people to use nothing," she said, but when the alternative is smoking, people should be encouraged to use nicotine "delivered in a cleaner form than in deadly cigarettes".
"This is what tobacco harm reduction is - it reduces the harm from tobacco while recognising that some people will still use nicotine in other safer forms."
John Britton, chair of the RCP Tobacco Advisory Group which published the report, acknowledged that e-cigarettes were "a topic of great controversy" but said his group's analysis "lays to rest almost all of the concerns over these products".
The anti-smoking group ASH UK welcomed the report, saying it showed "that switching to vaping is a positive and sensible life choice" for smokers.
"Electronic cigarette vapour does not contain smoke, which is why vaping is much less harmful," said Deborah Arnott, ASH's chief executive.

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Cochrane - Update

One of the healthcare databases associated with James Hardiman Library is COCHRANE.
Cochrane consists of a global independent network of researchers, professionals, patients, carers, and people interested in health.
Over the past twenty years COCHRANE is the standard used towards assessing the quality of many articles, to ensure a rigorous critical approach has been adopted.


What Cochrane does?
Cochrane exists so that healthcare decisions get better.
During the past 20 years, Cochrane has helped to transform the way health decisions are made.
We gather and summarize the best evidence from research to help you make informed choices about treatment.

Who is Cochrane for?
Cochrane is for anyone who is interested in using high-quality information to make health decisions. Whether you are a doctor or nurse, patient or carer, researcher or funder, Cochrane evidence provides a powerful tool to enhance your healthcare knowledge and decision making.

Everyone has a role to play so please get involved.

Who are we?
We are a global independent network of researchers, professionals, patients, carers, and people interested in health.
Cochrane contributors - 37,000 from more than 130 countries - work together to produce credible, accessible health information that is free from commercial sponsorship and other conflicts of interest. Many of our contributors are world leaders in their fields - medicine, health policy, research methodology, or consumer advocacy - and our groups are situated in some of the world's most respected academic and medical institutions. Contact us for more information.
Our work is recognized as representing an international gold standard for high quality, trusted information.
How do we do this?
Cochrane's contributors are affiliated to the organization through Cochrane groups: healthcare subject-related review groups, thematic networks, groups concerned with the methodology of systematic reviews, and regional centres. (Learn more about our organizational structure.)
There is no one place or office that is 'Cochrane'. Our contributors and groups are based all around the world and the majority of our work is carried out online. Each group is a 'mini-organization' in itself, with its own funding, website, and workload. Contributors affiliate themselves to a group, or in some cases several groups, based on their interests, expertise, and/or geographical location.
We do not accept commercial or conflicted funding. This is vital for us to generate authoritative and reliable information, working freely, unconstrained by commercial and financial interests.
Why do we do this?
The need for Cochrane's work is even greater than it was when we started 20 years ago. As access to health evidence increases, so do the risks of misinterpreting complex content; meanwhile the likelihood of any one person getting a complete and balanced picture decreases. Our mission to provide accessible, credible information to support informed decision-making has never been more important or useful for improving global health.

Zika Virus No. (2) - WHO and Clinical Features

The World Health Organization has declared the Zika virus a global public health emergency.

The infection is suspected of leading to thousands of babies being born with underdeveloped brains.
Some areas have declared a state of emergency, doctors have described it as "a pandemic in progress" and some are even advising women in affected countries to delay getting pregnant.
But there is much we do not know in this emerging infection.

What are the symptoms?
Deaths are rare and only one-in-five people infected is thought to develop symptoms.

These include:

• mild fever
• conjunctivitis (red, sore eyes)
• headache
• joint pain
• a rash

A rare nervous system disorder, Guillain-Barre syndrome, that can cause temporary paralysis has been linked to the infection.
There is no vaccine or drug treatment so patients are advised to rest and drink plenty of fluids.
But the biggest concern is the impact it could have on babies developing in the womb and the surge in microcephaly.
Zika virus: Special report
 What is microcephaly?

It is when a baby is born with an abnormally small head, as their brain has not developed properly.
The severity varies, but it can be deadly if the brain is so underdeveloped that it cannot regulate the functions vital to life.
Children that do survive face intellectual disability and development delays.
It can be caused by infections such as rubella, substance abuse during pregnancy or genetic abnormalities.
Case study: 'It's not the end of the world'
Brazil had fewer than 150 cases of microcephaly in the whole of 2014.
But more than 4,700 cases have been reported since 22 October 2015, with 404 confirmed and 3,670 still being investigated.
The link with Zika has not been confirmed, but the WHO says it is "strongly suspected".
Some babies who died had the virus in their brain and it has been detected in placenta and amniotic fluid too.

             

Clinical features and neuroimaging findings in presumed Zika virus related congenital infection and microcephaly     

The authors reporting this retrospective study describe the cases of 23 children with a diagnosis of congenital infection presumably associated with the Zika virus during the Brazilian microcephaly epidemic. Severe cerebral damage was found on imaging (CT or MRI) in most of the children.

Oxford Medical Handbooks available - Online!

During the lead up to medical examinations, print-copies become more difficult to acquire.
To address this situation there are also online versions of the Oxford Handbook series, such as the well known -
Oxford Handbook of General Practice (4th edition) and the Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine (9th edition)

There is also online access to other titles such as the current high-demand, Oxford Handbook of Psychiatry (3rd edition);


http://www.library.nuigalway.ie connects you to these Online facilities, provided through the James Hardiman Library

Crohn's Disease Development

An experimental drug may quickly quash symptoms of the digestive disorder Crohn's disease -- at least for the short term, an early clinical trial finds.

The study, of more than 150 adults with Crohn's, found that just two weeks of treatment sent many into remission -- meaning they had few to no symptoms of the inflammatory bowel disease 28 days after the study began.

Experts said the findings are encouraging. For one, the drug is a pill, whereas the current "biologic" drugs for Crohn's -- such as Remicade and Humira -- are given by injection or IV.

And the drug worked quickly. "There was a pretty high remission rate in a short period of time. That's impressive," said Dr. Raymond Cross, a gastroenterologist at the University of Maryland Medical Center, who was not involved in the study.

In theory, the new drug -- dubbed mongersen -- could be safer than existing medications, too, according to Cross. Cross also co-chairs the education committee for the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA).

But time will tell, Cross said. "You can't really assess safety in two weeks," he explained.

And, the study authors wrote that longer-term studies of both the safety and effectiveness of mongersen need to be done, along with studies that compare the new drug to existing therapies.

Results of the study were published March 19 in the New England Journal of Medicine. The trial was funded by Giuliani (an Italian pharmaceutical company), under contract to Nogra Pharma -- a Dublin, Ireland, company that developed mongersen. Nogra Pharma recently struck a licensing agreement with U.S.-based Celgene Corp. to market the drug.

There are already a number of drugs that work well against Crohn's, Cross said -- particularly the biologics, which block specific proteins that trigger the inflammation in Crohn's.

But the existing medications don't work for everyone, Cross explained. And with biologics, he said, some people who do well at first eventually develop antibodies against the drugs.

The medications can also have side effects. Those include infections and other immune-related diseases, such as the skin condition psoriasis, said Dr. Giovanni Monteleone, the lead researcher on the new study and a gastroenterologist at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, in Italy.

The "advantage" with mongersen is that it's taken orally, which allows "maximal release" of the active compound to inflamed sites in the digestive tract, Monteleone said. The drug works by restoring the natural activity of an anti-inflammatory protein called TGF-beta, he explained.

For the current study, Monteleone's team randomly assigned 166 Crohn's patients to one of four groups: three that received different daily doses of mongersen for two weeks; and one that was given placebo pills for comparison.

By the end of treatment, two-thirds of patients on the highest drug dose had gone into remission. The same was true for 55 percent of those on the next-highest dose.

As for adverse events, the researchers reported, most were related to the disease itself -- including worsening symptoms among patients on the lowest drug dose.

According to Cross, it's possible that with mongersen's mode of action, the drug could avoid the side effects of existing Crohn's drugs -- but that's unproven for now.

Monteleone said further studies are needed to figure out the optimal drug dose, and see how well it works in the longer term.Cross agreed. "These findings are exciting, but they're preliminary," he said.

http://www.webmd.com/ibd-crohns-disease/crohns-disease/news/20150318/new-drug-for-crohns-disease-shows-early-promise

London Diabetes Trial: Diabetes (1)

The development of MultiPepT1De, and the science behind it, has been funded by the Wellcome Trust, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) and Diabetes UK.
The primary goal of the study is to assess the safety of the treatment, but researchers will also be looking at its effectiveness, including whether any protective effect continues after the injections have stopped.
Professor Peakman said laboratory and animal model research had produced promising results, and early studies in patients showed some potentially important immune and metabolic changes.
Jack Meaning, aged 29, an economist, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in October 2014. He was on a trial of an earlier, simpler version of the immunotherapy, MonoPepT1De, which has now been completed, although the results have yet to be published.

Protective response:
All the volunteers will receive six injections, four weeks apart.
In healthy people the immune system has a complex system of checks and balances to enable it to destroy harmful pathogens - but not healthy tissue. Part of the regulation is done by T regulatory cells, which suppress the immune response from attacking the body.
The injections contain peptides - small fragments of protein molecules found in the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas.
It is hoped these will prompt T regulatory cells in the immune system to mount a protective response to the beta cells, so re-training the immune system.


The hormone insulin is used to control blood sugar levels.

Diabetes:
There are two main types of diabetes -

• Type 1 - where the pancreas does not produce any insulin
• Type 2 - where the pancreas does not produce enough insulin - or the body's cells do not react to insulin

Type 1 diabetes can develop at any age, but usually appears before the age of 40, particularly in childhood.
Around 10% of all diabetes is type 1, but it is the most common type of childhood diabetes, so it is sometimes called juvenile diabetes or early-onset diabetes
In type 2 diabetes, the body either fails to produce enough insulin to function properly, or the body's cells do not react to insulin. Around 90% of adults with diabetes have type 2, and it tends to develop later in life than type 1.

Team from Sligo, make MRSA breakthrough

A team of scientists, led by Professor Suresh C Pillai from IT Sligo, have made a breakthrough which will allow everyday items such as smartphones and door handles to be protected against deadly bacteria including MRSA and E Coli.
The group’s research was published today in the journal Scientific Reports.
The nanotechnology has a 99.9% kill rate and uses an agent that kills micro-organisms or inhibits their growth.
Anything made from glass, metallic surfaces and ceramics can be protected, including computer or tablet screens, smartphones, ATMs, door handles, TVs, toilet seats and fridges.

The Sligo researchers said it will be of particular use in hospitals and medical facilities.
It could also be used in swimming pools, on public transport, and on sneeze guards protecting food in delis and restaurants, as well as in clean rooms in the medical sector.
The discovery is the culmination of almost 12 years of research by a team of scientists led by Pillai, initially at the Centre for Research in Engineering Surface Technology in DIT and then at IT Sligo’s Nanotechnology Research Group.
DCU, the University of Surrey and Kastus Technologies were also involved in the research.
“It’s absolutely wonderful to finally be at this stage. This breakthrough will change the whole fight against superbugs. It can effectively control the spread of bacteria,” Pillai said.

Every single person has a sea of bacteria on their hands. The mobile phone is the most contaminated personal item that we can have.

“Bacteria grows on the phone and can live there for up to five months. As it is contaminated with proteins from saliva and from the hand, it’s fertile land for bacteria and has been shown to carry 30 times more bacteria than a toilet seat.”
   

UV light
As there is nothing that will effectively kill antibiotic-resistant superbugs completely from the surface of items, scientists have been searching for a way to prevent the spread.
This has been in the form of building or ‘baking’ antimicrobial surfaces into products, during the manufacturing process.
However, until now these materials were toxic or needed UV light, in order to make them work.

“The challenge was the preparation of a solution that was activated by indoor light rather than UV light and we have now done that,” Pillai said.
The new water-based solution can be sprayed on to any glass, ceramic or metallic surface during the production process, rendering the surface 99.9% resistant to superbugs like MRSA, E coli and other fungi. The solution is sprayed on the product — such as a smartphone glass surface — and then ‘baked’ into it, forming a surface that is transparent, permanent and scratch-resistant.

Linking Alcohol to Cancer - Recent Survey

People lack awareness of link between alcohol and cancer, BMJ Survey 2016; 

  

Lustrous Wooden Cabinet with Health..

#10872771

 http://alcoholireland.ie/facts/alcohol-and-costs/

Lustrous Wooden Cabinet with Health..

#10872771

Anne Gulland - Author affiliations

1. London

Most people do not link the consumption of alcohol with an increased risk of cancer, a report by Cancer Research UK has found.1

In a survey of 2100 adults in England, just 13% of respondents identified cancer when asked, “Which, if any health conditions, do you think can result from drinking too much alcohol?”

The survey also highlighted a lack of understanding of the link between drinking alcohol and the risk of developing certain types of cancer. When asked about seven different cancer types, 80% of respondents said that they thought that alcohol caused liver cancer, but only 18% were aware of alcohol’s link with breast cancer.

The study showed that only one in five people could correctly identify the previous recommended maximum number of units that should not be exceeded in a day, as recommended at the time the survey was carried out, in 2015.

Among drinkers, just one in 10 men (10.8%) and one in seven women (15.2%) correctly identified these recommended limits and used them to track their drinking habits.

Alison Cox, Cancer Research UK’s director of cancer prevention, said, “The link between alcohol and cancer is now well established, and it’s not just heavy drinkers who are at risk. This is reflected in the new guidelines issued by the UK’s chief medical officers that stated that the risk of developing a range of illnesses, including cancer, increased with any amount of alcohol you drink.”

In January this year the United Kingdom’s chief medical officers introduced new drinking guidelines,2 which recommended that men and women should drink no more than 14 units of alcohol a week, spread evenly over three days or more. They also recommended that people abstain from alcohol for several days a week.

Ian Gilmore, chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance UK, said that the public’s lack of awareness of the link between alcohol consumption and cancer was “extremely concerning.”

Gilmore said, “The chief medical officers have been clear in their new alcohol guideline that there is no level of drinking which can be considered ‘safe’ from these risks. As the CMOs emphasise, the public have a right to know about the link between alcohol and cancer and other health risks, so that they can make an informed choice about their drinking habits.”

View Abstract

Recommended Articles:

1. Effect of policy, economics, and the changing alcohol marketplace on alcohol related deaths in England and Wales.
   Nick Sheron et al., The BMJ, 2016
2. Review of moderate alcohol consumption and reduced risk of coronary heart disease: is the effect due to beer, wine, or spirits.
   E B Rimm et al., The BMJ, 1996
3. Estimating the population at risk
   Philip Sedgwick et al., The BMJ, 2012
4. Science commentary: Why wine might be less harmful than beer and spirits
   Abi Berger et al., The BMJ, 1998
5. Alcohol and blood pressure: the INTERSALT study.
   M G Marmot et al., The BMJ, 1994

 

1. Alcohol Plays A Huge Role In Cancer Deaths In The U.S.
   Medical News Today, 2013
2. Reduce alcohol consumption, say new guidelines
   Yvette Brazier, Medical News Today
3. Coffee Linked To Reduced Liver Cancer Risk
   Catharine Paddock PhD, Medical News Today, 2007
4. Alcohol and the Brain: Healthy or Harmful?
   Bret S. Stetka, MD, Medscape, 2015
5. Just one or two drinks a day could increase risk for certain cancers
   Honor Whiteman, Medical News Today, 2015

  

 

 

Some Medical Resources from OVID

See WWW.OVID.COM

To test drive your complimentary access to databases and journals for the month of April, click on the link and fill out the form. You will receive a confirmation email with a user name and password. You can then log into Ovid® and access the resource until the end of the month. Amirsys Anatomy Reference Center This unique reference offers a combination of high-quality images and evidence-based diagnoses spanning a wide range of topics.   Visible Body Anatomy & Physiology This interactive 3D teaching resource is comprised of 50 modules to present core content of basic anatomy and physiology courses.     Spine Broken down into 100 conditions, bulleted text and helpful illustrations provide a clinical roadmap for diagnosing and treating spine disorders.   The Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions This quarterly journal publishes articles relevant to theory, practice, and policy development.