Treatment with intravenous bisphosphonates - drugs used to reduce harm done to bones by cancer or cancer therapy - increases the risk of jaw or facial bone disease or infection, a large-scale comparative study by researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) has found. [click link for full article]

A patient’s emotional state plays a significant role in his or her recovery from hip surgery, suggests Saint Louis University research published this month.Orthopaedic surgeons typically use two tests to determine if a patient has recovered from hip surgery: one is a clinical measure of hip function given by the doctor, and the second is a questionnaire patients answer that considers a wide variety of factors in determining the overall success of the surgical procedure. [click link for full article]

Dimitrios Trichopoulos, Vincent L. Gregory Professor of Cancer Prevention at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), was one of three recipients of a medal of honor from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), part of the World Health Organization. The award was presented at the IARC Headquarters in Lyon, France.Trichopoulos has conducted seminal work linking passive or “second-hand” smoking to lung cancer. [click link for full article]

The June issue of Elsevier’s Community Oncology takes an in-depth look at the charge that ESAs, generally considered vital to cancer patients’ quality of life, are overprescribed for profit. Scientists, oncologists, and critics of oncologists are in a heated debate now over the use of ESAs, or erythropoiesis-stimulating agents - drugs that fight anemia by boosting levels of oxygen-carrying red blood cells and the protein hemoglobin. [click link for full article]

Children suffering from pneumonia could be spared the pain of the doctor’s needle, thanks to new research funded by the British Lung Foundation.The study, a world-first carried out by researchers at The University of Nottingham, discovered that children given oral treatment recovered as quickly, suffered less pain, required less oxygen therapy in hospital and were able to go home sooner than those given injections. [click link for full article]

For the first time in history three major European organisations involved in urological malignant disorders - the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ESTRO) and the European Association of Urology (EAU) - have joined forces in setting up a meeting to present and discuss the latest state-of-the-art issues and controversies in this rapidly evolving field. [click link for full article]

We are one day away from the July 1 deadline, when New York restaurants must not use artificial trans fats for frying food. According to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, 83% of restaurants were not using trans fats for frying on June 1, a full month before the deadline. As of July 1, trans fat oils, shortening and margarines may not be used for frying and spreading. [click link for full article]

The first U.S. study to transplant a potent form of purified adult stem cells into the heart muscle of patients with severe angina has provided interesting results. It provided evidence that the procedure is safe and produced a reduction in angina pain as well as improved functioning in patients’ daily lives, reports the lead researcher at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. [click link for full article]

Rickets, which can be easily prevented, could be affecting 2.9 out of every 100,000 children in Canada, say researchers. Rickets weakens the leg bones and can severely stunt a child’s growth. You can read about this study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.Canadian researchers examined reports from 2,325 pediatricians across the country over 24 months. [click link for full article]

Six African governments and the United Nations recently agreed on a road map to tackle the root causes of rising hunger across the drought-plagued Horn of Africa, warning that the next major crisis could force more than 20 million people into needing emergency assistance. [click link for full article]