Proper nutrition is important for all children, but especially for those undergoing treatment at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Some treatments for cancer and other pediatric catastrophic diseases can affect appetite by causing nausea, unusual allergies, changes to the sense of taste and mouth sores. Nutritional care that helps patients achieve normal growth and weight gain, continue normal activities and prevent problems is central to recovery. St.

Cell cycle checkpoints act like molecular tripwires for damaged cells, forcing them to pause and take stock. Leave the tripwire in place for too long, though, and cancer cells will press on regardless, making them resistant to the lethal effects of certain types of chemotherapy, according to researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Their findings, published in the Aug.

A UK study presented at a conference last weekend found no evidence to support the idea that a daily dose of aspirin protects people who do not have artery or heart disease from developing it in the future any better than a placebo, and experts suggest given the higher risk of internal bleeding from taking aspirin routinely, for healthy people such a precaution may do more harm than good.

Springer, one of the leading publishers in the fields of science, technology and medicine, has signed an agreement with The Endocrine Society to co-publish a new journal, Hormones & Cancer, starting in January 2010. Hormonal cancers include two of the most deadly cancer subtypes, cancers of the breast and prostate.

A pilot study of a system for harvesting kidneys from non-heart-beating donors where attempts of resuscitation after a witnessed out-of-hospital cardiac arrest have failed (uncontrolled NHBDs) resulted in 21 successful kidney transplants - a 10% increase in the transplantation rate - over 17 months.

The mainstay immune system protein TRAF6 plays an unexpected, key role activating a cell signaling molecule that in mutant form is associated with cancer growth, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the Aug. 28 edition of Science. “The mechanism that we discovered activates Akt and also contributes to hyperactivation of a mutant form of Akt found in breast, colon and other cancers,” said senior author Hui-Kuan Lin, Ph.D.

QRS duration (QRSd) is one of several measures of heart function recorded during a routine electrocardiogram (ECG). It is a composite of waves showing the length of time it takes for an electrical signal to get all the way through the pumping chambers of the heart. Prolonged QRSd is a sign of an abnormal electrical system of the heart and is often found when the heart isn’t pumping efficiently.

“Africa is mismanaging its water resources,” according to scientists who are in Kenya at the Sustainable Water Conference, which is organized by the Pan Africa Chemistry Network, VOA News reports.

Researchers presented data in Paris at the World Congress of the International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity and Metabolic Disorders claiming that people with Type 2 diabetes benefit from weight loss surgery (bariatric surgery). The study of more than 135,000 people with Type 2 diabetes showed that 86.6 per cent achieved normal or improved blood glucose levels after surgery. The research also showed that these improvements were maintained two years after surgery.

A small molecule earlier found to have both anti-fat and anti-cancer abilities works as a literal turnoff for fat-making genes, according to a new report in the August 28th issue of the journal Chemistry and Biology, a Cell Press journal. The chemical blocks a well known master controller of fat synthesis, a transcription factor known as SREBP. That action in mice that are genetically prone to obesity causes the animals to become leaner.