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A new cancer drugs significantly slow the spread of deadly recurrent breast cancers

Data presented at the world's biggest cancer conference showed that time without a tumour progressing increased from 15 months to 25 months with palbiciclib. However, fears have been raised that women in the UK will not benefit because of the cost. Most women with breast cancer have tumours that are fuelled by oestrogen. So after treatment, women often take drugs to block the sex hormone and stop the cancer coming back. But sometimes this preventative measure fails and the tumours that come back are difficult to treat. Palbociclib, developed by Pfizer, disrupts a pair of proteins - called CDK4 and CDK6 - which promote tumour growth. The trial on 666 women, presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology, showed the drugs had "significant clinical benefit". Dr Nick Turner, from the Royal Marsden Hospital in London and involved in earlier research on the drug, told . The results are pretty impressive and we hope they will lead to the dru...

Scientists discover gene that causes multiple sclerosis

It affects about one in every thousand MS patients and, according to the Canadian researchers, is proof that the disease is passed down generations. Experts have long suspected there's a genetic element to MS, but had thought there would be lots of genes involved, as well as environmental factors. The finding offers hope of targeted screening and therapy, Neuron reports. The University of British Columbia studied the DNA of hundreds of families affected by MS to hunt for a culprit gene. They found it in two sets of families containing several members with a rapidly progressive type of MS.Although other factors may still be important and necessary to trigger the disease process, the gene itself is a substantial causative risk factor that is passed down from parents to their children, say the researchers. The mutation is in a gene called NR1H3, which makes a protein that acts as a switch controlling inflammation. In MS the body's immune system mistak...

Ebola survived nurse left with permanent weakness in her leg

Pauline Cafferkey, 40, from Cambuslang, South Lanarkshire, was hospitalised three times after contracting the virus while working in Sierra Leone in 2014.She told that she was now "Ebola negative" and her health had come on "leaps and bounds". But she said there were long-term issues, such as numbness and dizziness.Speaking on Radio Scotland's Stephen Jardine programme, Ms Cafferkey revealed that her case was the highest viral load of Ebola ever recorded in a survivor. She said that since being discharged from hospital for a third time in February, she had been doing "great" and had come on "leaps and bounds in the past few months." However, she added: "I've got pins and needles and numbness over various parts of my body. I've still got swelling at the base of my spine, which is very painful and dizziness - my balance isn't too good."Ms Cafferkey said a weakness that developed in her left leg had not improved....

Portuguese drug maker Bial and French laboratory Biotrial are at fault on many counts

Portuguese drug maker Bial and French laboratory Biotrial are at fault "on many counts" for a unsuccessful drug trial that left one person dead and 5 others hospitalized in Gregorian calendar month, French Health Minister Marisol Touraine said on Monday. All trials of the drug, designed to treat mood and anxiety problems as well as coordination disorders coupled to medicine issues, have since been suspended. The victims were given the experimental drug made by Bial throughout a section one trial at a non-public facility in Rennes, Brittany, run by France's Biotrial. "A final investigation report confirms that the conditions under that the check was approved did not breach existing legislation," Touraine told journalists. "Inspectors consider, however, that Bial and Biotrial are accountable on many counts; relating to the dose prescribed and the time taken to alert authorities," she said. An initial inquiry in Gregorian calendar month had...

The price being paid for a massive policy failure on mosquito control, says World Health Organization leader Margaret Chan

Speaking at the agency's annual World Health Assembly, Dr Chan said experts had "dropped the ball" in the 1970s with regards to getting a handle on disease-carrying insects. More than 60 countries and territories now have continuing Zika transmission. Most recently, the infection, spread by mosquito bites, reached Africa. The virus is thought to cause serious birth defects during pregnancy and has been declared a global public health emergency. According to Dr Chan, outbreaks that become emergencies always reveal specific weaknesses in affected countries and illuminate the fault lines in our collective preparedness."Zika reveals an extreme consequence of the failure to provide universal access to sexual and family planning services," she said. Dr Chan added that Latin America and the Caribbean, which have been hit hard by Zika, have the highest proportion of unintended pregnancies in the world.Eradication campaigns were successful in the America...

A British aid charity warns that by 2060 more than a billion people worldwide will live in cities at risk of catastrophic flooding as a result of climate change

A study by Christian Aid says the US, China and India are among the countries most threatened. It says the Indian cities of Kolkata and Mumbai will be most at risk. The eight most vulnerable cities on the list are all in Asia, followed by Miami in the US. The report urges governments to take action to reduce global warming and invest in disaster reduction programmes. "I think it's cities like Kolkata, Dakar, the big mega-cities of the south and the emerging economies where the people are most vulnerable to exposure to sea-level rises and to higher rain events," she said. "Flooding in these cities can cause massive damage, but can also threaten life." Dr Doig warned that Florida was likely to suffer extensive flooding. "The whole of Florida is totally vulnerable," she said. "It is so low-lying, it is virtually swampland reclaimed. So significant climate change... raising water half to a full metre this century, will take out an aw...

HIV-infected organs transplant success

In total, two kidneys and two livers were donated after death to seriously ill people who also had the virus. NHS transplant experts said the breakthrough would help reduce the shortage of donor organs and they hoped more people with HIV would join the organ donor register. About three people a day die waiting for an organ transplant. Prof John Forsythe, associate medical director for organ donation and transplantation at NHS Blood and Transplant, said: "It's exciting that some people with HIV in the UK have helped benefit patients with HIV after their death by donating their organs. "While organ transplants from donors with HIV are limited to recipients with HIV infection, innovations like this open up the possibility of donation where it did not previously exist and will help to reduce the shortage of donor organs." At present, organs from donors with HIV can only be donated to people who also have the HIV infection. All potential donors are test...

An Australian blogger and author who faked terminal brain cancer faces legal action over her deception

Belle Gibson gained fame in Australia after she claimed to have beaten cancer using natural remedies rather than medical intervention. She launched a successful app and cookbook, but later admitted the diagnosis was made up. Consumer Affairs Victoria is aiming to prosecute Ms Gibson for allegedly breaking Australian consumer law. The regulator said it had conducted an in-depth investigation of Ms Gibson's activities and had applied to Australia's Federal Court for leave to pursue legal action. Untrue claims Ms Gibson's claims to have cured her cancer with Ayurvedic medicine, oxygen therapy and a gluten and refined sugar-free diet propelled her to prominence. She capitalised on her fame with a successful app and a cookbook, both called The Whole Pantry, and promised to deliver a share of the profits to several charities. But the money allegedly never reached the charities and cracks began to appear in Ms Gibson's story. She later admitted to...

The world's sleeping patterns revealed by scientists analysing data collected from an app

It showed the Dutch have nearly an hour more in bed every night than people in Singapore or Japan. The study, published in Science Advances, also found women routinely get more sleep than men, with middle-aged men getting the least of all. The researchers say the findings could be used to deal with the "global sleep crisis". The team at the University of Michigan released the Entrain app in 2014 to help people overcome jetlag. But users could choose to share data on their sleeping habits with the research group. Find out what is happening in your body right now The study found people in Japan and Singapore had an average of seven hours and 24 minutes sleep while the people in the Netherlands had eight hours and 12 minutes. People in the UK averaged just under eight hours - a smidgen less than the French. And it was a country's average bedtime that had the biggest impact on the time spent between the sheets. The later a country stays...

Symptoms of depression that steadily increase over time in older age could indicate early signs of dementia, scientists have said

Other patterns of symptoms, such as chronic depression, appear not to be linked, a study found. Dutch researchers looked at different ways depression in older adults progressed over time and how this related to any risk. They concluded worsening depression may signal the condition is taking hold. The research, published in The Lancet Psychiatry , followed more than 3,000 adults aged 55 and over living in the Netherlands. All had depression but no symptoms of dementia at the start of the study. Dr M Arfan Ikram of the Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam said depressive symptoms that gradually increase over time appear to be a better predictor of dementia later in life than other paths of depression. "There are a number of potential explanations, including that depression and dementia may both be symptoms of a common underlying cause, or that increasing depressive symptoms are on the starting end of a dementia continuum in older adults...

First US Zika death reported in Puerto Rico

A 70-year-old man infected with the mosquito-borne virus died in February, Puerto Rico's health secretary said. The US territory has recorded more than 600 Zika cases, with 73 of those involving pregnant women. Zika has been linked to severe birth defects, especially in Latin America, such as babies being born with under-developed brains. Health secretary Ana Rius said all 14 pregnant women infected with Zika who have given birth have healthy babies. Seventeen people on the island have been in hospital, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. Five are thought to have developed a temporary paralysis condition known as Guillain-Barre because of Zika, although that link is unproven."The patient died of complications related to severe thrombocytopenia," the CDC said. "Although Zika virus-associated deaths are rare, the first identified death in Puerto Rico highlights the possibility of severe cases, as well as the need for continued outreach to ...

Suicide rate in the US has surged to its highest level in almost three decades, according to a new report

The increase is particularly pronounced among middle-age white people who now account for a third of all US suicides. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report did not offer an explanation for the steep rise. However, other experts have pointed to increased abuse of prescription opiates and the financial downturn that began in 2008 as likely factors. The report did not break down the suicides by education level or income, but previous studies found rising suicide rates among white people without university degrees. "This is part of the larger emerging pattern of evidence of the links between poverty, hopelessness and health," Robert D Putnam, a professor of public policy at Harvard, told the New York Times. CDC reported on Friday that suicides have increased in the US to a rate of 13 per 100,000 people, the highest since 1986. Meanwhile, homicides and deaths from ailments like cancer and heart disease have declined. In t...

How to spot bed bugs

According to the work in the Journal of Medical Entomology, the blood-sucking insects love black and red but hate yellow and green. This information could help make better traps to lure and catch the bugs. But it is too soon to say if yellow sheets can stop them nesting in your bed, say the US researchers.Bed bugs are tiny and they like to live close to their next meal - your blood. They can hide in the seam of your mattress or a joint in your bed frame. They tend to prefer fabric and wood over plastic and metal. But Dr Corraine McNeill and colleagues wanted to find out if colours affected where bed bugs might dwell. They carried out a series of experiments in their lab, placing bed bugs in dishes with different colour shelters made out of card. Rather than taking cover at random, the bugs appeared to select the shelters according to their colour, showing a preference for black and red.Dr McNeill said: "We originally thought the bed bugs might prefer red...

Scientists developed ultra-thin electronic skin that can measure oxygen levels when stuck to the body

The goal is to develop such "skin" to monitor oxygen levels in organs during surgery, say researchers in Japan. Tests on volunteers found the "skin" provided stable measurements of oxygen concentration in blood. The device contains micro-electronic components that light up in red, blue and green on the surface of the body. Scientists at the University of Tokyo are working on ways to display numbers and letters on the skin for health monitoring purposes. Wearable electronics are a future growth area in research, with interest in medical applications such as contact lenses that monitor glucose levels, or smart glasses. The latest findings are revealed in Science Advances. "The device unobtrusively measures the oxygen concentration of blood when laminated on a finger," said lead researcher Tomoyuki Yokota and colleagues. He added: "Ultimately, flexible organic optical sensors may be directly laminated on organs to monitor the blood ox...

Tumours shrunk dramatically in 11 days

They said the "surprise" findings, reported at the European Breast Cancer Conference, could mean some women no longer need chemotherapy. The drugs, tested on 257 women, target a specific weakness found in one-in-ten breast cancers. Experts said the findings were a "stepping stone" to tailored cancer care. The doctors leading the trial had not expected or even intended to achieve such striking results. They were investigating how drugs changed cancers in the short window between a tumour being diagnosed and the operation to remove it. But by the time surgeons came to operate, there was no sign of cancer in some patients. Prof Judith Bliss, from the Institute of Cancer Research in London, said the impact was "dramatic".The drugs were lapatinib and trastuzumab, which is more widely known as Herceptin. They both target HER2 - a protein that fuels the growth of some women's breast cancers. Herceptin works on the surface of cancerous cells wh...

Sexual transmission of the Zika virus is more common , WHO

After an emergency committee meeting on Tuesday, the UN health agency also said there was increasing evidence of links between Zika and various birth defects. Zika is most commonly spread by mosquitoes but several countries have reported cases of sexual transmission. The WHO last month said the outbreak constitutes a global emergency. WHO Director General Dr Margaret Chan said "reports and investigations in several countries strongly suggest that sexual transmission of the virus is more common than previously assumed". She called the development "alarming". Dr Chan also said that microcephaly - a birth defect strongly linked to the Zika outbreak in Brazil - was just one of several conditions that the WHO had linked to Another is Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS). Nine countries have now reported an increase in cases of GBS, a rare condition that can cause temporary paralysis and death. Dr Chan said problems linked to Zika were now being seen not ...

The paralysed Darek learns to cycle again

In 2014, surgeons in Poland announced they had reversed Darek Fidyka's paralysis using cells taken from his nose to repair his spinal cord. The former fireman says he has noticed a gradual return of feeling and muscle control below his injury. The surgical team are now launching a search for two more paralysed patients who they will try to help walk again. Mr Fidyka told me: "I can tell that sensation is coming back and I am getting stronger. A year ago I would not have been able to ride a tricycle. Now I can feel each muscle and each press of the foot on the pedals."The medical team are now launching the worldwide search as they are looking for patients with an uncommon type of injury, where the spinal cord has been completely severed, which can happen after a knife injury. The head of the project, surgeon Dr Pawel Tabakow said: "If we can bridge the gap between two spinal cord stumps then there will be no doubt that our technique works and this will be ...

The emotional stress can cause heart attact, a Swiss study suggests

Three-quarters of cases of takotsubo cardiomyopathy, a change in the shape of the heart's left ventricle, which can be fatal, are caused by stress. The University Hospital Zurich study, in the European Heart Journal, suggests about one in 20 cases is caused by joy. The condition is normally temporary and people are generally fine afterwards. In the study of 1,750 patients, researchers discovered heart problems caused by: a birthday party a son's wedding meeting a friend after 50 years becoming a grandmother a favourite rugby team winning a game winning a casino jackpot a computerised tomography (CT) scan giving the all-clear from another condition The study also suggested most cases were in post-menopausal women. Dr Jelena Ghadri, one of the researchers, said: "We have shown that the triggers for takotsubo syndrome can be more varied than previously thought. "A takotsubo syndrome patient is no longer the classic 'broken-hearted' p...

Grey hair gene discovered by scientists

Hair dyes can cover up greying but gene manipulation may, in future, banish it altogether. The international team collected DNA samples from "a diverse melting pot" of more than 6,000 volunteers of European, Native American and African ancestry. The gene IRF4 regulates a natural hair, skin and eye pigment called melanin. It sits on chromosome six and while it is unlikely to be the only gene controlling greying, it provides a new target for researchers. Lead author Dr Kaustubh Adhikari, from University College London, said: "We already know several genes involved in balding and hair colour but this is the first time a gene for greying has been identified in humans, as well as other genes influencing hair shape and density."It was only possible because we analysed a diverse melting pot of people, which hasn't been done before on this scale." Hair gets its colour from pigments produced by cells called melanocytes that sit in the hair follicle - ...

Three British researchers won a prize worth one million euros for outstanding contribution to European neuroscience

Tim Bliss, Graham Collingridge and Richard Morris revealed how strengthened connections between brain cells can store our memories. Our present understanding of memory is built on their work, which unpicked the mechanisms and molecules involved. This is the first time the Brain Prize has been won by an entirely UK team. It is awarded by a Danish charitable foundation and the 2016 winners were announced in London on Tuesday. Speaking to journalists at a media conference, Prof Morris explained it was the "chemistry of memory" that he and his colleagues had managed to illuminate."Before this team got going, we had some idea about particular areas of the brain that might be involved in memory… but what we didn't have was any real understanding of how it worked," explained the professor, who works at the University of Edinburgh. The "team" of three winners never worked together in the same laboratory, but they have collaborated over the years....