A drug that slows the growth of cancer in women with metastatic breast cancer will soon be tested in newly diagnosed patients across the country to determine if it will have a similar effect. Kathy Miller, M.D., associate professor of medicine and the Sheila D. [click link for full article]

Medical Ventures Corp. (TSXV: MEV), a medical devices company specializing in products for the vascular and surgical markets, has completed filing of its pre-market approval (PMA) application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its Metricath Gemini® catheter system. The company has submitted the third and final module of a three-module submission. [click link for full article]

Bioengineers at Yale and Cornell have created a modified chemotherapy that more effectively reaches and remains at the site of brain tumors - by adding a water-soluble polymer to the anti-cancer drug, according to a report in the November-December issue of Bioconjugate Chemistry. [click link for full article]

The results are in and the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology has been awarded three MarCom Creative Awards for its work on ASTROnews, the Annual Meeting Guide and ASTRO’s first-ever Annual Report. [click link for full article]

The Department of Health and Children and the Health Service Executive today (26th November 2007) published a report on influenza pandemic preparedness in Ireland. This report was prepared following a thorough assessment undertaken by a specialist team from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). The assessment visit took place between February 28th and March 1st 2007. [click link for full article]

Prostate cancer patients often receive treatment that is contraindicated by pre-existing conditions, like urinary or bowel dysfunction, according to a new study. Dr. James Talcott of the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and co-investigators found that patients with certain pretreatment dysfunctions often receive contraindicated or “mismatched” therapies, which can lead to worse outcomes. [click link for full article]

Researchers are searching for dog owners with Type 1 diabetes to take part in a study investigating if dogs can detect diabetes in their owners. The study is funded by Diabetes UK, and researchers from Queen’s University Belfast and University of London are looking for 100 people to take part in the project. Dr Deborah Wells, from the School of Psychology at Queen’s, says there are anecdotal stories of dogs detecting a drop in blood glucose in their owners. [click link for full article]

If Israeli fashion photographer Adi Barkan has anything to say about it, Israel will soon be as famous in the international modeling world for its revolutionary commitment to health as it is for its up and coming models, Bar Refaeli and Esti Ginzburg. Barkan, the renowned owner of a Tel Aviv modeling agency, has spent the last few years bringing the problem of eating disorders in the modeling community to light. [click link for full article]

For a moment, Dr. Shai Yarkoni, president and CEO of biotechnology start-up Target-In, appears to veer off on a tangent. “There’s something very interesting in the terms we take from the military to the medical world and vice versa,” he says contemplatively. “Surgical strike, magic bullets, these are all phrases that pass from one industry to the other. [click link for full article]

HealthLinx Limited (ASX:HTX), has reached an agreement with The University of Liverpool (UK) to in-license additional patented biomarker technology and antibodies that has shown efficacy in detecting grade I & II ovarian cancer. HealthLinx and The University of Liverpool (UK) have been jointly developing this technology over the past twelve months which has potential to be the world’s first commercially available, multi-marker early stage ovarian cancer diagnostic. [click link for full article]