The hospital and med school news offices in town have been busy this week . Here’s a little of what they have to report:
Harvard:
When a Bad Cut-and-Paste Is Good
New research from the lab of Robin Reed, HMS professor of cell biology, sheds light on cellular gene-processing machinery known as the spliceosome and its role in cancer, and advances a promising front in the search for new cancer drugs.
Paper chase: Harvard’s roundup of med school papers.
- From the Brigham: Research Shows Rapid Adoption of Newer, More Expensive Prostate Cancer Treatments
Boston, MA – With 180,000 men diagnosed with prostate cancer each year, it is one of the most common types of cancer in the country. For this reason, it has been cited as a good marker for health care spending in general, reflective of the greater trends across the United States. New research from the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center (DF/BWCC) shows that newer, more expensive treatment options for prostate cancer were adopted rapidly and widely during 2002 – 2005 without proof of their cost-effectiveness, and may offer explanations for why health care spending accounts for 17 percent of the nation’s GDP. This research is published online March 14 and will appear in an upcoming print edition of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Malaria drug slows pancreatic cancer growth in mouse models: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists report that they have shrunk or slowed the growth of notoriously resistant pancreatic tumors in mice, using a drug routinely prescribed for malaria and rheumatoid arthritis.
- MGH:
Mathematical model projects almost double the cases estimated by U.N., supports additional public health measures
Current projections regarding the eventual size and extent of the cholera epidemic in Haiti may greatly underestimate the potential number of cases, according to a report that will appear in The Lancet and has been released online. A mathematical model based on current knowledge about the transmission and course of the diarrheal disease arrives at estimates of new cases through November 2011 that almost double those currently projected by the United Nations. The model also reflects the probable impact of public health measures designed to combat the epidemic.