Researchers have suggested that a gene signature, first identified in mouse colon cancer cells, may help identify patients at risk of colon cancer recurrence.

The study by Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center researchers has been published in the March issue of Gastroenterology.

The findings could help personalize treatments for colon cancer by identifying patients most likely to benefit from chemotherapy.

In its early stages, colorectal cancer is treated with surgery only. However, between 20 percent and 25 percent of patients with Stage II disease (when the tumor has penetrated the muscular wall of the colon) will experience metastatic recurrence after surgical resection alone.

For stage III, when the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes, surgery is generally followed by chemotherapy – despite research showing that about 40 percent of stage III patients treated by surgery alone do not have a recurrence of disease in five years.

This suggests that identifying stage II patients at the greatest risk for recurrence – and targeting adjuvant chemotherapy to them – could decrease recurrences in that group. In addition, those stage III patients at lowest risk, if prospectively identified, could avoid having potentially toxic chemotherapy.

Using a mouse colon cancer cell line, R. Daniel Beauchamp, M.D., the John Clinton Foshee Distinguished Professor of Surgery and chair of the Section of Surgical Sciences, and colleagues identified 300 genes that showed distinct patterns of expression related to their ability to invade into a gel-like matrix, a test that reflects the aggressiveness of cancer cells.

Statistical analysis, led by Yu Shyr, Ph.D., the Ingram Professor of Cancer Research and professor of Biostatistics, helped refine the initial set of 300 genes into a set of 34 genes that were most closely associated with metastasis and death in a set of human colon cancer samples from Vanderbilt patients.

The researchers then examined whether this 34-gene signature could predict recurrence and death in a larger patient population.

In colon cancer tissue samples from 177 patients from the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla., the signature identified in the highly invasive mouse cells – the “high recurrence” (or “poor prognosis”) signature – was associated with increased risk of recurrence and death across all stages of disease.

Among patients with stage II disease, those with the “poor prognosis” signature had a five-year mortality rate of 31 percent. However, no stage II patients with a “low recurrence” (or “good prognosis”) signature died within the five-year period.

In patients with stage III disease, 38 percent of those with a “poor” signature died of their disease within five years, whereas only 10.7 percent of those with a “good” prognosis signature died within that time period.

“Across all stages, if patients had a ‘poor’ prognosis signature, then they would be five times more likely to have a recurrence of cancer than those with a ‘good’ prognosis signature,” said Beauchamp.

But the most interesting finding, Beauchamp says, is the ability of this gene signature to identify the patients most likely to benefit from chemotherapy.

Among stage III patients with a “poor” prognosis signature, those who had received chemotherapy had a 36 percent cancer-related death rate. Those who did not receive chemotherapy had an 86 percent death rate.

“That tells us that patients with the (‘poor’ prognosis signature) probably benefited from chemotherapy,” Beauchamp said. “And (patients with a ‘good’ prognosis signature) appeared to get no benefit from chemotherapy.” DNA India

Childhood stress such as abuse or emotional neglect can result in structural brain changes, a new study has shown.

Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), researchers have shown that childhood stress such as abuse or emotional neglect, in particular when combined with genetic factors, can result in structural brain changes, rendering these people more vulnerable to developing depression.

The study led by scientists at Trinity College Dublin has just been published in the international scientific journal, Neuropsychopharmacology.

Commenting on the significance of the findings, Trinity’s Professor Thomas Frodl at the School of Medicine and Trinity Institute for Neuroscience said: “This improved neurobiological understanding shows how stress and genetic variants interact and affect brain structure and function. In turn it demonstrates how it could affect a person’s propensity for depression. These structural alterations of the brain are associated with a higher vulnerability to depression and a more chronic course of the depression might be associated with further structural changes”.

“Therefore, early intervention in the case of major depression is necessary to increase the chance of a good disease outcome. Fortunately, depression can be treated very well by psychotherapy and antidepressant medication. Moreover, prevention strategies for childhood neglect and misuse are highly important to increase public health and to avoid in later life for these individuals, the burden of major depression.”

The study was conducted on a total of 24 patients (aged 18-65 years) being treated as inpatients for major depression. They were investigated with high-resolution structural MRI and hildhood stress asessments. Special analysis programmes were used to measure brain regions. These patients were compared with 27 healthy control subjects from the local community who were matched for age and gender. Further research is needed in a larger number of patients and controls to identify the underlying causes of depression and stress-gene interaction on brains tructure as well as function. Newstrack India

Well, there is no such best time to camp. Hence, everything depends and is up to you. Yet, anybody can go on camping anytime, of course when the climate is right for you and your group. Moreover, having an outdoor activity once a while is such a good idea, and advantageous for individuals who already have a heated blanket in their possession. For some people, hot summer days are not too bad, but they have to contend with mosquitoes and sleep in uncommon environment. Though some people may not care about the heat, but a lot would also dislike camping in the cold.

Be that as it may, however, if you truly want a camping experience, then better camp in all climates at least several times. This is of course, the more you camp, the more you will adapt the environment and learn more. Towards this point, if you have the electricity at your camp site, then at least one problem is already solved. As such, you can probably bring a fan to keep you cool while sleeping on those hot nights. And in the cooler weather, at least you have no more worries as several ways to keep cool or stay warm already exists.

Thousands of ducks and chickens have been slaughtered in Vietnam as the government tries to contain an outbreak of bird flu ahead of the Lunar New Year, the government said Wednesday.

Poultry is a favored dish for feasts during Tet, the Vietnamese new year that begins Sunday, and authorities are moving to try to stop the potentially deadly disease spreading to people in six of the country’s provinces.

In the worst-affected province of Ha Tinh, in central Vietnam, more than 14,000 chickens and ducks have been slaughtered after almost 3,600 were found contaminated, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said on its website.

The outbreak in Ha Tinh began on January 15, it said. Five other provinces across the country have also recorded cases.

Cao Duc Phat, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, asked local authorities last week to reinforce measures against the H5N1 virus before, during and after Tet, the website said.

The state Vietnam News on Wednesday quoted another ministry official as saying there is a high risk of bird flu’s spreading in the centre of the country and the southern Mekong Delta around Tet because more animals would be transported and slaughtered.

Vietnam’s last human fatality from bird flu, the fifth of 2009, came in December.

According to the World Health Organization, Vietnam’s human bird flu death toll of 57 is the world’s second-highest after Indonesia. Inquirer

A moment on the lips, forever on the hips? A bad figure is hardly the worst of it. Eating a lot of fat can significantly raise the risk of stroke for women over 50, a large new study finds.

We already know that diets rich in fat, particularly artery-clogging trans fat, are bad for the heart and the waistline.

The new study is the largest to look at stroke risk in women and across all types of fat. It showed a clear trend: Those who ate the most fat had a 44 percent higher risk of the most common type of stroke than those who ate the least.

“It’s a tremendous increase that is potentially avoidable,” said Dr. Emil Matarese, stroke chief at St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne, Pa. “What’s bad for the heart is bad for the brain.”

Matarese reviewed but did not help conduct the research, which was presented Wednesday at an American Stroke Association conference. It involved 87,230 participants in the Women’s Health Initiative, a federally funded study best known for revealing health risks from taking hormone pills for menopause symptoms.

The study found a 30 percent higher risk of stroke among women eating the most trans fat, which is common in stick margarine, fried foods, crackers and cookies. Denver Post

Within the past few weeks there has been a salmonella outbreak linked to a sausage and salami facility in Rhode Island, a recall of chewy chocolate chip granola bars in California also potentially contaminated with salmonella and a recall of cheese in Washington state potentially contaminated with listeria monocytogenes, which can cause serious, sometimes fatal, infections. While the sausage contamination resulted in 225 people becoming ill in 44 states, the other two recalls didn’t involve any illnesses. Without stricter food-safety enforcement, though, consumers may not be so lucky.

A growing number of Americans have been sickened by foodborne illness—in many cases from food they never considered risky. While most of the 76 million reported foodborne illnesses a year are mild, 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths are related to tainted food each year. Foodborne illness outbreaks appear to be increasing, the Food and Drug Administration says.

That’s partly due to better surveillance and detection methods. But it’s also because new disease-causing organisms have emerged and imports of food from countries without the same safety standards as the U.S. are on the rise. What’s more, consumers are demanding less-processed foods such as raw milk and fresh juices that aren’t cooked or pasteurized to kill bacteria.

Pending food-safety legislation would give the FDA sweeping new powers to police food safety and focus its efforts on preventing food contamination. The House passed a food-safety bill in July, and a similar bill is awaiting a full vote in the Senate. Food-safety advocates are hoping that a compromise measure will become law this year, which would allow the FDA to heighten its inspection of imported food, set safety standards for fresh produce, force companies to recall tainted products, and require companies to keep better production records.

Food industry groups have taken a number of steps to make food safer, including creating industry guidelines to minimize bacterial contamination on farms and meat-processing facilities. Food processors are also working on programs to better trace products through the supply chain. They also point out that while Americans consume about one billion servings of fresh produce every day, according to the United Fresh Produce Association, illness outbreaks are rare.

But while the U.S. food supply is still among the safest in the world, “there are many gaps in our country’s food safety net that could result in serious adverse public health consequences,” says Michael Doyle, director of the University of Georgia’s Center for Food Safety.

Among the most serious concerns: a rise in imports to meet consumer demand for year-round fresh produce and fish, among other items. The FDA currently lacks oversight of food from countries that don’t have the same level of sanitary practices as required in the U.S., Dr. Doyle says. That’s one reason why disease outbreaks have been linked to imported green onions and jalapeno peppers from Mexico, white pepper from Southeast Asia and dried vegetable powder from China used on potato chips. Consumers may also ignore warnings about unsafe food habits because of preferences for foods such as raw oysters, rare hamburgers, fresh juices, unpasteurized cheese and runny egg yolks, which all carry higher risks of contamination.

Last May, College of Charleston student Margo Moskowtiz says she took a small bite of raw Nestle Toll House chocolate chip cookie dough before baking the entire batch—and ended up in the hospital for a week with an e.Coli 0157 infection—a strain of a bacteria that can cause severe illness, kidney failure and even death. Though the Nestle label carries warnings to bake the product before consuming it, Ms. Moskowitz admits, “I’ve eaten raw cookie dough a million times” without incident. Nestle recalled the refrigerated dough products in June after illnesses were reported in 28 states. In January, however, the company found e. coli in two samples of dough in a Virginia factory. After determining that flour was the likely source, it halted production to reformulate the dough with a form of heat-treated flour to kill bacteria. The FDA subsequently put out a warning reminding consumers to avoid eating raw cookie dough.

While flour hasn’t been considered a risk factor in the past, bulk raw commodities like flour and pepper may be contaminated during processing by bacteria carried in rodent droppings in factories, or in processing facilities near farm animals, says Sam Beattie, a food science specialist at Iowa State University.

“We live in a microbial world, where we are going to consume a certain amount of microorganisms no matter what we do,” says Dr. Beattie. “For most people the risks of illness are low.” However, he says, it’s wise for pregnant women, the elderly, children, and those with compromised immune systems to take extra precautions.

The FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provide advice for consumers on their Web sites about how to avoid foodborne illness and prepare food safely. MakeOurFoodsSafe.org, a coalition of public health organizations, consumer organizations, and groups representing the families of victims of foodborne illness includes members such as Safe Tables Our Priority, which allows consumers to sign up for email alerts on food outbreaks.

Donna Rosenbaum, the group’s executive director says consumers don’t always have the information they need to make safe choices. For example, safety questions have been raised about fish from countries such as Thailand and China grown in ponds in which raw animal manure and human sewage are used as nutrients. But if fish imported from Southeast Asia stops in San Francisco and is dredged in flour or marinated before being sent to the grocery store in a package, the fish’s origin may not be labeled. Safety advocates say taking precautions in buying and preparing food can only go so far.

“We have to provide the FDA with the tools it needs to prevent problems” says Sandra Eskin, director of the food safety campaign at the nonprofit Pew Charitable Trusts. “Without a modernized law there is only so much we can do as consumers to protect ourselves.” By Laura Landro, Wall Street Journal

Diabetes and its complications — such as strokes and heart disease — will place an enormous financial burden on poorer countries in years to come, researchers warned in a report.

“Diabetes is moving from being a disease of developed countries to a disease in developing countries like India and China, and this could put pressure on healthcare systems through rising healthcare costs,” said Philip Clarke, associate professor at University of Sydney’s School of Public Health.

Clarke and his colleagues examined records of 11,140 patients with severe diabetes in 20 countries, including the complications they suffered, money spent and length of hospital stays; and they found diabetes hit healthcare costs more severely in poorer countries.

“Patients in Asia and Eastern Europe had higher incidence of some events (eg. stroke) than patients in established market economies, lower rates of hospitalization and longer lengths of stay,” according to the report.

While average per capita spending on healthcare in China was around USD 216 (international dollars) a year, health expenditure for a diabetic who ends up with stroke would be 10 times more, or USD 2,166, according to the study, which was published in the latest issue of PLoS Medicine.

International dollar is the equivalent of the US dollar but adjusted for purchasing power across countries.

“We know there are efficient ways of reducing these rates of complications. If you can stop people having strokes through blood pressure control, you can clearly reduce these patients’ healthcare costs,” Clarke told reporters by telephone.

Nearly 250 million people worldwide have diabetes and this number is increasing, with three quarters of all people with diabetes living in the developing world.

The 20 countries involved in the study are China, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Britain. Zeenews