In an early trial, an experimental breast cancer drug stopped disease growth and shrank tumors by more than 30 percent in some patients. The pill was safe and well-tolerated by women with breast cancer that had spread, or metastasized, to other parts of the body. If these results are replicated in future trials, it's conceivable that the pill might extend survival for women with terminal breast cancer. The drug was particularly effective for the most common type of breast cancer.
Although it still feels like winter in many parts of the United States, it's time to prepare for spring allergies. Even with snow still on the ground, trees have started budding and are the first to produce pollen, creating major problems for people with allergies. About 50 million Americans have pollen allergies, commonly known as hay fever. Symptoms include sneezing; stuffy or runny nose; itchy nose, throat and eyes and watery eyes.
Your scent may affect your dog's brain in the same way a fragrance used by a loved one triggers a reaction in you. Learning more about how dogs' brains work could improve selection and training of service dogs. The results showed that a reward area in the dogs' brains responded more strongly to the scents of familiar people than to the scents of other people or even of familiar dogs. The study is thought to be the first to use brain scans to examine the response of dogs to biological odors.
A new DNA test can identify prostate cancer patients at high risk for a return of their cancer. The test uses DNA from biopsy samples taken before patients undergo surgery or radiation therapy for their cancer. The test is about 80 percent accurate in predicting which men have a high or low risk of their cancer returning within two years. The test was assessed in 276 prostate cancer patients with an intermediate risk of cancer recurrence.