Cancer Research

In a follow-up to research showing that psilocybin, a substance contained in "sacred mushrooms," produces substantial spiritual effects, a Johns Hopkins team reports that those effects appear to last more than a year. Writing in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, the Johns Hopkins researchers note that most of the 36 volunteer subjects given psilocybin, under controlled conditions in a Hopkins study published in 2006, continued to say 14 months later that the experience increased their sense of well-being or life satisfaction. Psilocybin, a plant alkaloid, exerts its influence on some of the…

Here we go again, this time it is Stuart Kauffman’s turn to write silly things about science and religion. Kauffman is a serious and brilliant scientist, best known for his work on complexity theory and its application to evolutionary biology. But he has now joined an increasingly long and embarrassing list of scientists who write really silly things about religion and how it relates to science. Kauffman’s latest book is entitled Reinventing the Sacred: A New View of Science, Reason, and Religion. It is a view that is bound to fail on a variety of levels, but I think it is…

LONDON, June 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Smokers wishing to quit would be wasting their money if they use complementary therapies such as hypnotherapy or acupuncture - smoking cessation experts claim today (Monday, June 30). This and other issues around the most effective ways to help smokers quit will be discussed at the UK National Smoking Cessation Conference in Birmingham on 30 June & 1 July 2008. Dr Andy McEwen, assistant director of tobacco studies at Cancer Research UK's Health Behaviour Research Centre and programme director for the conference, said: "There is no good research evidence to…

Caffeine has been found to protect mice from a disease similar to Multiple Sclerosis (MS), according to a new study. As if we needed another excuse to drink coffee. MS is disorder of the central nervous system marked by weakness, numbness, a loss of muscle coordination, and problems with vision, speech and bladder control. Believed to be an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system attacks nerves in the brain and spinal cord, MS affects approximately 400,000 Americans and 2.5 million people worldwide. The research appears in the early online edition of the June 30, 2008…

Scientists at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center are about to embark on a human trial to test whether a new cancer treatment will be as effective at eradicating cancer in humans as it has proven to be in mice. The treatment will involve transfusing specific white blood cells, called granulocytes, from select donors, into patients with advanced forms of cancer. A similar treatment using white blood cells from cancer-resistant mice has previously been highly successful, curing 100 percent of lab mice afflicted with advanced malignancies. Zheng Cui, Ph.D., lead researcher and…

LONDON, June 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Physician experts at the British Association of Urological Surgeons' (BAUS) annual meeting this week heard how discussions with NICE have opened the way for patients with prostate cancer to have continued access to cryotherapy - a promising therapy threatened by earlier NICE guidance published in February. At a session discussing the NICE Clinical Guideline on Prostate Cancer, urologists reiterated their concern that its recommendations will harm survival rates. In the UK, prostate cancer survival rates are below the European average. The NICE Guideline…

NERVIANO, Italy, June 27 /PRNewswire/ -- - Accelera Recognised as Key Partner in the Development of a New Therapy The development of fexinidazole for the treatment of African trypanosomiasis, commonly known as "sleeping sickness", by DNDi (Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative), along with Accelera, a business unit of Nerviano Medical Sciences (NMS), is to be honoured as one of DNDi's Success Stories of the Year. The award will be conferred today in New York, at the prestigious headquarters of the New York Academy of Sciences, during the first annual Stakeholders' Meeting of DNDi. Accelera…

GALASHIELS, Scotland, June 27 /PRNewswire/ -- ProStrakan Group plc (LSE: PSK), the international specialty pharmaceutical company, announces that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) has issued a positive opinion recommending approval of Abstral (formerly branded as Rapinyl), the fast-acting tablet for breakthrough cancer pain. ProStrakan plans to launch Abstral in Sweden in Q3 2008 and, as a result of today's announcement, across Europe from the end of 2008. Abstral is a fast-dissolving tablet for sub-lingual (under the tongue)…

California and New York regulators have been in the news lately (such as here and here), with their attempts to crack down on the nascent direct-to-consumer genetic testing industry. These states argue that companies like 23andMe, Navigenics, and several others, are offering unproven and unlicensed clinical tests directly to consumers. Are the services offered by these companies clinical tests, subject to the normal regulations of other clinical tests? Should the government be able to stop you from getting your DNA sequenced? The answer to the second question is a flat-out no. The government…

Liver cancer is the third most common global cause of cancer death and a new study may be good news for drinkers and growers. The large, prospective population-based study confirms an inverse relationship between coffee consumption and liver cancer risk. The study also found that higher levels of gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) in the blood were associated with an increased risk of developing the disease. Researchers led by Gang Hu at the University of Helsinki set out to examine the associations between coffee consumption and serum GGT with the risk of liver cancer in a large prospective…