Tumor progression can now be mapped less to mathematical standards and more to individual patients according to a new study by researchers at Harvard and Johns Hopkins Universities. The study, publishing in PLoS Computational Biology on November 9, 2007, provides a new paradigm in calculating tumor development, showing that it appears to be driven by mutations in many genes. [click link for full article]

Among children of mothers with low education levels, those who receive regular care from other adults during preschool years may be less likely to have problems with physical aggression, according to a report in the November issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Hitting, kicking, biting and other forms of physical aggression are central features of a severe conduct disorder, according to background information in the article. [click link for full article]

“NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” on Tuesday reported on programs in Rwanda and Tanzania that are being funded by the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. The segment is the first of three reports examining the impact of PEPFAR, which was proposed by Bush in 2003 to fight global HIV/AIDS.Mark Dybul, U.S. [click link for full article]

The House voted 269-142 to pass an appropriations bill that combines the fiscal year 2008 Labor-HHS-Education (HR 3043) and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs (HR 2642) appropriations bills, the [click link for full article]

The XP Family Support Group will be holding the 3k “Walk by the Light of the Moon” on November 10 in Ladera Ranch, Calif. to raise funds to help cure Xeroderma Pigmentosum (XP) disease. This devastating disease causes severe 3rd degree burns on the skin if exposed to sunlight, daylight or any ultraviolet light for even a moment. One child that is living with XP is Riley Elizabeth, a beautiful 7-year-old girl in Orange County. [click link for full article]

It was thought that tezosentan would benefit in the treatment of acute heart failure. However, it has been found that tezosentan does not reduce fatal or non-fatal cardiovascular events, neither does it help with breathlessness, according to an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), November 7th issue. People with heart failure have elevated plasma concentrations of vasoconstrictor peptide endothelin-1. [click link for full article]

The only practical way of making sure children do not die or develop severe complications as a result of becoming infected with chickenpox (varicella) is to routinely vaccinate them against the virus, according to an article in Archives of Disease in Childhood (British Medical Journal). [click link for full article]

Judith Giuliani, the wife of presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R), and Elizabeth Kucinich, the wife of presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), on Tuesday discussed health care issues at a breast cancer research summit in Lebanon, N.H., the [click link for full article]

The Gamida Cell-Teva Joint Venture announced that the first patient in the international, pivotal registration ExCell study has undergone a StemEx(R) transplant at the Ireland Cancer Center of University Hospitals Case Medical Center. StemEx(R) is a graft of expanded stem/progenitor cells, derived from a single unit of umbilical cord blood and transplanted in combination with non expanded cells from the same unit. [click link for full article]

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) have announced a Wednesday deadline to reach an agreement on revisions to a bill to reauthorize and expand SCHIP, CongressDaily reports. A group of House Republicans on Tuesday met with Baucus, Hoyer, [click link for full article]