Create your own free news widgets.

Gene therapy researchers have safely given new, functional genes to patients with a hereditary defect that can lead to fatal lung and liver diseases, according to clinical trial findings. Three patients, apparently for the first time in their lives, produced trace amounts of the protective form of a protein called alpha-1 antitrypsin for up to one year, a potential step toward a gene therapy for about 100,000 Americans with alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.

Limb-sparing surgery, which has been taking the place of amputation for bone and soft tissue sarcomas of the lower limb in recent years, may not provide much or even any additional benefit to patients according to a new review.

Study: Colon Cancer Patients who took Drug Reduced their Risk of Death by Nearly 30%

Array BioPharma Inc. announced yesterday positive top-line data from a Phase 1 clinical trial in patients with Type 2 diabetes with its novel small molecule glucokinase activator (GKA), ARRY-403. The drug met its primary and secondary endpoints of safety, pharmacokinetics and glucose control. ARRY-403 was evaluated in a Phase 1 single ascending dose study.

Tony Huesman, who survived with a single transplanted heart longer than any other transplant patient, died Aug. 9 at his home in Washington Township, Ohio. Huesman received his heart in August 1978 at Stanford Hospital & Clinics, one of the early beneficiaries of the hospital's heart transplant program. He died of complications from cancer, said his wife, Carol Huesman. He was 51. 'His heart held up to the end,' she said.

A new online service that allows patients to rate and compare hospitals on issues such as car parking and waiting times was launched today by health secretary Andy Burnham. As patients now have the right to choose when and where they receive hospital treatment, a new web-based scorecard is now available at www.nhs.

Washington - A US man who held the world record for living the longest after a single heart transplant has died of cancer at the age of 51, according to a report on Tuesday. Tony Huesman of Washington Township, Ohio, died Sunday from melanoma, a form...

Aspirin taken regularly after (MedPage Today) -- but not before -- the diagnosis of colorectal cancer appears to reduce the likelihood of recurrence and the risk of death from colon cancer, at least for those patients whose cancer overexpressed cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2).

University of Florida researchers have safely given new, functional genes to patients with a hereditary defect that can lead to fatal lung and liver diseases, according to clinical trial findings slated to appear this week in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Background: Current guidelines on the management of urinary tract infection recommend treating febrile urinary tract infection or acute pyelonephritis with antimicrobials for at least 14 days. Few randomized trials showed the effectiveness of treatment durations of 5 to 7 days but this has only been studied in young previously healthy women. Methods: A randomized placebo-controlled double-blind multicenter non-inferiority trial in which 400 patients with community acquired febrile urinary tract infection will be randomly allocated to a short treatment arm (7 days of ciprofloxacin or 7 days of empirical beta-lactams +/- gentamicin intravenously with early switch to oral ciprofloxacin followed by 7 days of blinded placebo) or standard treatment arm (7 days of ciprofloxacin or 7 days of empirical beta-lactams +/- gentamicin intravenously with early switch to oral ciprofloxacin followed by 7 days of blinded ciprofloxacin). The study is performed in the Leiden region in which one universi