Newswise MAYWOOD, Il. Several companies sell genetic testing directly to consumers, but little research has been done on how consumers experience such tests. The tests have raised questions about the validity and accuracy of the information provided to consumers especially without the involvement of a qualified health care professional. Now, a study lead by a Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine researcher is providing insight into how a diverse sample of primary care patients experience genetic testing. Lead researcher Katherine Wasson, PhD, MPH, and colleagues conducted in-depth interviews with 20 patients recruited from primary care clinics. Among the findings, published online ahead of print in the Journal of Community Genetics: - Most participants thought results were fairly easy to understand with the help of a genetic counselor (provided by the study, not the testing company). But fewer than half said they might be able to understand results on their own. - Most participants expressed no concern or hesitation about testing. But a few worried about confidentiality especially whether results could affect their health insurance coverage. A few also expressed fears about getting bad results. As one participant explained, I mean, you want to know, but then you dont want … Continue reading →

Public release date: 15-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Jeremy Moore jeremy.moore@aacr.org 215-446-7109 American Association for Cancer Research PHILADELPHIA Scientists at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) have generated a data set of cancer-specific genetic variations and are making these data available to the research community, according to a study published in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. This will help cancer researchers better understand drug response and resistance to cancer treatments. "To date, this is the largest database worldwide, containing 6 billion data points that connect drugs with genomic variants for the whole human genome across cell lines from nine tissues of origin, including breast, ovary, prostate, colon, lung, kidney, brain, blood and skin," said Yves Pommier, M.D., Ph.D., chief of the Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology at the NCI in Bethesda, Md., in an interview. "We are making this data set public for the greater community to use and analyze. "Opening this extensive data set to researchers will expand our knowledge and understanding of tumorigenesis [the process by which normal cells are transformed into cancer], as more and more cancer-related gene aberrations are discovered," Pommier added. "This comes at a great time, because … Continue reading →

Genetic mapping and testing have long been hailed as the future of preventative medicine, but the Royal College of Pathologists is warning Australians should be cautious about embracing it too quickly. Genome mapping advances are on the agenda of the health informatics conference being held in Adelaide, with discussion focused on how technology can improve healthcare. Katerina Andronis of the Health Informatics Society of Australia said efficiencies were possible. "We need to use technology to enable the more efficient way of managing our patients," she said. Professor William Dalton of M2Gen said people's DNA profiles should be held in a national database in conjunction with facts about their medical history and lifestyle. "It's not just knowing the genome, it's putting it in the context of the system," he said. "We can predict how a patient may develop a disease or respond to therapy." National framework needed Professor Graeme Suthers Royal College of Pathologists agreed a DNA test might soon hold the key to revolutionising patient care. "The ability to sequence the entire human genome, an individual's entire genetic code, is now literally within our grasp," he said. Originally posted here: Caution urged as DNA tests and genetic mapping advance … Continue reading →

Medical tourism (also called medical travel, health tourism or global healthcare) is a term initially coined by travel agencies and the mass media to describe the rapidly-growing practice of travelling across international borders to obtain health care. It also refers pejoratively to the practice of healthcare providers travelling internationally to deliver healthcare.[1][2] Services typically sought by travelers include elective procedures as well as complex specialized surgeries such as joint replacement (knee/hip), cardiac surgery, dental surgery, and cosmetic surgeries. Individuals with rare genetic disorders may travel to another country where treatment of these conditions is better understood. However, virtually every type of health care, including psychiatry, alternative treatments, convalescent care and even burial services are available. Over 50 countries have identified medical tourism as a national industry.[3] However, accreditation and other measures of quality vary widely across the globe, and some destinations may become hazardous or even dangerous for medical tourists. In the context of global health, the term "medical tourism" is pejorative because during such trips health care providers often practice outside of their areas of expertise or hold different (i.e., lower) standards of care.[4][5] Greater numbers than ever before of student volunteers, health professions trainees, and researchers from resource-rich … Continue reading →

Life stem cell therapy Purtier 9 years old girl benefited from deer placenta. By: Keith Chew … Continue reading →

STEM CELL TREATMENT Introduction of Guest Speakers in PTV Special Forum (Part 2) Please like the official Facebook page of Philippine Medical Association https://www.facebook.com/PhilippineMedicalAssociation STEM CELL TREATMENT - PTV Spec... By: PhilMedAssociation … Continue reading →

July 2013 Walking Update ~ Medication Change http://msrelief.com/ Two months have passed with out an update! I'm feeling so well right now and I can't miss another one! I switched my disease modifying m... By: findjoymsrelief … Continue reading →

ANN ARBOR A major reason that breast cancer returns after treatment and spreads to other parts of the body is that current chemotherapy and radiation treatments do not kill the cancer stem cells. That premise provides the basis for a clinical trial open at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center and two other sites testing a drug that has been found in laboratory studies to attack cancer stem cells. The drug, reparixin, will be used in combination with standard chemotherapy. This is one of only a few trials testing stem cell directed therapies in combination with chemotherapy in breast cancer, says principal investigator Dr. Anne Schott, associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan. Combining chemotherapy with stem cell therapy has the potential to lengthen remissions for women with advanced breast cancer. Cancer stem cells are the small number of cells within a tumor that fuel its growth and spread. The phase Ib study will test reparixin, which is taken orally, along with the chemotherapy drug paclitaxel in women with HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer. The study is primarily intended to test how patients tolerate this drug combination, but researchers will also look at how reparixin appears to … Continue reading →

If Patti Kennicott had gotten her diagnosis 10 years earlier, she would have had only a few months to live, Joseph McGuirk says. Kennicott, who lives in Ottawa, was 62 when she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in 2010. Ten years before, conventional wisdom among doctors would have been that she was too old to receive a stem-cell transplant to treat her cancer, and her chance of survival would have been slim. But Kennicott, now 65, is still alive. She received a stem-cell transplant at the Kansas University Cancer Centers Blood and Marrow Transplant program in February 2011. And thats no longer a rare outcome for someone her age. The KU BMT program now sees more transplant patients in their 60s, and even their 70s or 80s, than ever before, after recent research has shown that stem-cell transplants can indeed be safe for older people. Things have changed a lot since McGuirk, the medical director for the BMT program, started in his field in the early 1990s. Back then, he said, the two-year survival rate was about 5 percent for a 70-year-old who received Kennicotts diagnosis of AML. It was terrible, every bit as bad as pancreas cancer, McGuirk … Continue reading →