Glasgow, United Kingdom: New, sophisticated gene sequencing techniques are leading to an increasing understanding of the causes of genetic disease, and can help parents with affected children make informed reproductive choices, according to research presented at the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics. Until now, de novo genetic mutations, alterations in a […]
Non-invasive prenatal foetal testing can detect early stage cancer in mothers
Glasgow, United Kingdom: Non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) for chromosomal foetal disorders is used increasingly to test for conditions such as Down’s syndrome. NIPT examines DNA from the foetus in the mother’s blood, and therefore does not carry the risk of miscarriage involved in invasive testing methods. Now, for the first time, researchers have found another […]
Non-invasive prenatal testing: effective, safe, preferred by parents, and applicable in a range of disorders
Glasgow, United Kingdom: Non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) for Down’s syndrome is feasible, acceptable to parents, and could be introduced into the National Health Service (NHS), UK researchers say. The results of a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) study carried out by the first NHS laboratory to provide NIPT testing were reported to the annual […]
Endurance athletes should be tested for potentially fatal heart condition while exercising rather than at rest
Some athletes who take part in endurance exercise such as marathon running, endurance triathlons or alpine cycling can develop irregularities in their heartbeats that can, occasionally, lead to their sudden death. Now, new evidence published in the European Heart Journal [1] has shown that doctors who try to detect these heartbeat irregularities (known as arrhythmias) […]
World first: researchers quantify the proportion of different genetic mutations contained within individual bowel cancers
Bowel cancer is often driven by mutations in one of several different genes, and a patient can have a cancer with a different genetic make-up to another patient’s cancer. Identifying the molecular alterations involved in each patient’s cancer enables doctors to choose drugs that best target specific alterations. However, it is also becoming clear that […]
Digoxin increases the risk of death in patients with heart problems, according to the largest study of the evidence so far
There is conflicting evidence about whether digoxin, a drug that has been used worldwide for centuries to treat heart disease, might contribute to an increase in deaths in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) or congestive heart failure (CHF). Now, the largest review of all the evidence to date shows that it is associated with an […]
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease increases the risk of sudden cardiac death
People suffering from the common lung disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), have an increased risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD), according to new research published online on Wednesday in the European Heart Journal [1]. When compared with people of the same age and sex who do not have the disease, those with COPD have […]
New proton therapy technique brings hope of more effective treatment for tumours without causing collateral damage
Barcelona, Spain: Radiotherapy using protons can deliver more accurate treatment to a tumour while reducing the dose to surrounding tissue. However, in mobile organs such as the lung, precise targeting of the dose is difficult. Now researchers have succeeded in making a model of breathing movement that allows for the precise measurement of narrow beams […]
Prostate cancer patients who receive permanent radiotherapy implants twice as likely to be free of cancer after five years
Barcelona, Spain: Results from a randomised controlled trial to compare the use of permanent radioactive implants (brachytherapy) with dose-escalated external beam radiotherapy in patients with prostate cancer show that the men who received brachytherapy were twice as likely to be cancer-free five years later. Presenting these results at the 3rd ESTRO Forum in Barcelona, Spain, […]
High radiotherapy dose improves prospects for children with brain cancer
Barcelona, Spain: Two studies presented on Sunday at the 3rd ESTRO Forum in Barcelona, Spain, show that increasing the dose of radiotherapy given to children with an intracranial ependymoma, a form of cancer of the central nervous system, can significantly improve their survival. Malignant ependymoma, which develops in the cells that line the hollow cavities […]