Constrained by a critical lack of funds, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said today it would be forced from the beginning of April to cut by half food rations for nearly 1.5 million displaced people and refugees in Uganda. Though more than 230,000 displaced people returned home in northern Uganda in 2006 with WFP assistance, 1. [click link for full article]

Many researchers are developing ways in which to harness the immune response to treat patients with cancer. However, many results have not been as successful as hoped, largely because tumors develop ways in which to suppress the immune system. For example, before immune cells known as CD8+ T cells can destroy tumors cells they must receive signals through 2 receptors on their cell surface and many tumors do not express the molecules that trigger the second signal, through CD28. [click link for full article]

Older Americans are convinced that a good night’s sleep is necessary to maintaining their health. A survey by the Gallup Poll found that seventy-two percent of seniors have discussed poor sleep with their doctors. The study also found no clear consensus on the safety of sleep medications such as Ambien and Lunesta - also known as hypnotics. [click link for full article]

Patients in Liverpool are to trial a new therapy for pancreatic cancer - a disease which sees most sufferers die within a year of diagnosis.One of the 10 most common cancers in the UK, it is among the most difficult to diagnose and treat and kills around 7,000 people each year. There are very few early symptoms so most patients present late and only around 15% are suitable for surgery. [click link for full article]

The protein cytochrome c oxidase (CcO) is the ultimate enzyme responsible for all aerobic life on Earth, from bacteria to people. It is also a crucial component of the cellular machinery that generates energy in our body. With such impressive credentials, you might expect that scientists would have a clear understanding of how CcO works. But they don’t, according to James P. Collman, professor emeritus of chemistry at Stanford University. [click link for full article]

Alternative medicine has become extremely popular in recent years. In fact, people now spend more money on all forms of alternative medicine than on traditional medicine. More people are seeking…

The following highlights recently released journal articles on women’s health issues. ” [click link for full article]

The cause of one notorious childhood disease, poliovirus, could be used to treat the ongoing threat of another childhood disease, neuroblastoma. In Cancer Research, researchers from Stony Brook University report that an attenuated — or non-virulent — form of poliovirus is effective in obliterating neuroblastoma tumors in mice, even when the mice had been previously vaccinated against the virus. [click link for full article]

UroToday.com- Direct vision internal urethrotomy (DVIU) and urethral dilation have low long-term success rates with some studies reporting DVIU failure rates of 61% at 2 years and second and third DVIU’s having a 100% failure rate. The stricture recurrence rate after urethral dilation has been reported to be 88%. With this in mind, many patients who present for definitive management of urethral strictures with open urethroplasty have undergone multiple failed procedures. [click link for full article]

UroToday.com- Much has been made of the inadequacies of the 2002 TNM staging system in predicting outcome for patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Some studies have suggested that tumor size may be more important than identified pathologic features such as fat invasion (perinephric or renal sinus) in predicting outcome. Here, Siddiqui and colleagues out of the Mayo Clinic examine the importance of fat invasion, relative to tumor size, as a predictor of outcome in patients with RCC. [click link for full article]