As 2007 comes to a close, UNICEF is looking back at the work achieved for children and preparing for the challenges and opportunities ahead in 2008 in the Latin America and Caribbean regions. For UNICEF, 2007 was a milestone, marking the 18 th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. [click link for full article]

A cost-effectiveness study of the value of digital mammography breast cancer screening has found that digital mammography screening does not result in sufficient health gains to warrant its increased cost unless its use is limited to younger women or to women with dense breasts (Article, p. 1). This article appears in Annals of Internal Medicine. [click link for full article]

Early-stage breast cancer that has not yet invaded the surrounding tissues may already contain highly motile cells, bringing the tumor one step closer to metastasis, report researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Their study, published in the Dec. 30 issue of the Journal of Cell Biology, suggests that these cells, although not yet invasive, could wander off along milk ducts and seed new tumors within the same breast. [click link for full article]

A new award, the “Hope Now Award for Lung Cancer Research,” was announced to honor outstanding research efforts in lung cancer research. The award is established by Chawla Hope Initiatives, a philanthropic fund established by a Lung Cancer survivor and a retired CEO, Mr. Prem Chawla and is offered through Joan’s Legacy. The annual Hope Now Award is intended for the research lab and its leader showing the most progress in lung cancer research in a particular year. [click link for full article]

Scientists at Jefferson’s Kimmel Cancer Center in Philadelphia have found that a signaling protein that is key to prostate cancer cell growth is turned on in nearly all recurrent prostate cancers that are resistant to hormone therapy. If the findings hold up, the protein, called Stat5, may be a specific drug target against an extremely difficult-to-treat cancer. In addition, the researchers, led by Marja Nevalainen, M.D., Ph.D. [click link for full article]

New research from Johns Hopkins specialists suggests that obese kidney disease patients face not only the usual long odds of a tissue match and organ rejection, but also are significantly less likely than normal-weight people to receive a kidney transplant at all. [click link for full article]

Catathrenia, or sleep related groaning, is an uncommon feature of a sleep-related breathing disorder that can be successfully treated with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). The study, authored by Christian Guilleminault, MD, of Stanford University, focused on seven consecutive female patients between the ages of 20 and 34, all of whom had a chief complaint of involuntary groaning during sleep that was brought to their attention by family members. [click link for full article]

Bad dreams in pre-schoolers are less prevalent than thought. However, when they do exist, nightmares are trait-like in nature and associated with personality characteristics measured as early as five months. The study, led by Valérie Simard, under the direction of Tore Nielsen, PhD, of the University of Montreal, sampled 987 children in the Province of Quebec, who were assessed by their parents at the 29-month, 41-month, 50-month, five-year and six-year mark. [click link for full article]

The duration of a child’s sleep can vary, depending on the time of day, week and year. Further, children who don’t get enough nightly sleep are more likely to be overweight and have behavioral problems. [click link for full article]

Zolpidem extended-release 12.5 mg, taken three to seven nights per week for up to six months, provided sustained and significant improvements in sleep onset and maintenance, and also improved next-day concentration and morning sleepiness in people with insomnia. The study focused on 1,018 patients between 18 and 64 years of age with chronic primary insomnia, who had difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep or experiencing non-restorative sleep for three months or greater. [click link for full article]