http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. In 2010 malaria caused an estimated 665,000 deaths, mostly among African children. Now, chemists at Indiana University have developed a new synthesis for the world's most useful antimalarial drug, artemisinin, giving hope that fully synthetic artemisinin might help reduce the cost of the live-saving drug in the future. http://phys.org/news266757359.html Chemistry Thu, 13 Sep 2012 12:20:11 EST news266757359 Measured in billionths of a meter, self-assembling nano-sized devices designed to carry drugs and imaging agents into the body are revolutionizing medicine by improving drug solubility and bio-distribution, providing a platform for combining targeting and imaging agents, and enabling membrane barriers to be crossed as well as making drug and imaging agent combination therapies possible. http://phys.org/news226682420.html Nanotechnology Tue, 07 Jun 2011 16:25:51 EST news226682420 A safer and more effective treatment for 10 million people in developing countries who suffer from infections caused by trypanosome parasites could become a reality thanks to new research from Queen Mary, University of London published today (15 April). http://phys.org/news222065909.html Chemistry Fri, 15 Apr 2011 05:58:40 EST news222065909 Elderly patients prescribed combination angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB) had a higher risk of kidney failure and death, according to a study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). http://phys.org/news219930017.html Medicine & Health Mon, 21 Mar 2011 13:30:05 EST news219930017 A recent trial of rituximab in combination with a tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitor and methotrexate (MTX) in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) found the safety profile to be consistent with other RA trials with TNF inhibitors. While the trial reported no new safety risks, clear evidence of an efficacy advantage in RA patients receiving the combination therapy was not observed in this study sample. Results of the trial are published in the March issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism, a peer-reviewed journal of the American College of Rheumatology. http://phys.org/news218800444.html Medicine & Health Tue, 08 Mar 2011 10:30:02 EST news218800444 (AP) -- A massive malaria control program since 2008 has helped reduce infections across Africa and eradicate the disease in Morocco and Turkmenistan, but a slowdown in funding risks undoing those achievements, the World Health Organization said Tuesday. http://phys.org/news211551872.html Medicine & Health Tue, 14 Dec 2010 12:24:40 EST news211551872 A combination therapy for treating cancer discovered at the University of Colorado Cancer Center showed improved survival rates in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to results from a double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 2 trial run by Syndax Pharmaceuticals. http://phys.org/news211538345.html Medicine & Health Tue, 14 Dec 2010 08:39:17 EST news211538345 (PhysOrg.com) -- More than half of laboratory mice with human non-Hodgkin's lymphoma are cured by a treatment involving just two monoclonal antibodies, according to a new study. http://phys.org/news202656612.html Medicine & Health Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:40:01 EST news202656612 In a report published in the July 2010 issue of the American Society for Clinical Oncology Post, new recommendations on the use of the drug cetuximab have been issued after officials halted enrollment in a phase III clinical trial in patients with spread of colon cancer into regional lymph nodes whose tumors had been surgically removed. http://phys.org/news198504297.html Medicine & Health Fri, 16 Jul 2010 13:30:03 EST news198504297 (PhysOrg.com) -- Drugs used to treat the epidemic disease African sleeping sickness must be used prudently to prevent the parasite acquiring resistance to current medicines, a new study at the University of Dundee has shown. http://phys.org/news197551191.html Medicine & Health Mon, 05 Jul 2010 12:30:01 EST news197551191 A study by researchers from the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) identifies a potential new combination therapy to "rescue" treatment sensitivity to fulvestrant in estrogen receptor positive breast cancers. The findings were published on May 15, 2010 as the cover story of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics. http://phys.org/news192727321.html Medicine & Health Mon, 10 May 2010 16:22:13 EST news192727321 The first trial of an important new combination therapy of treatment with the chemotherapy drug pemetrexed concurrent with radiation in lung cancer has delivered promising results, French researchers report at the 2nd European Lung Cancer Conference. http://phys.org/news191834575.html Medicine & Health Fri, 30 Apr 2010 09:20:01 EST news191834575 The new antimalarial combination therapy pyronaridine-artesunate is as effective as the gold standard treatment of artemether-lumefantrine. Furthermore, the new therapy only needs to be taken once daily, compared to twice daily for the gold standard regimen. The findings are reported in an Article in this week's Lancet, written by Dr Isabelle Borghini-Fuhrer, Medicines for Malaria Venture, Geneva, Switzerland, and colleagues. http://phys.org/news191167579.html Medicine & Health Thu, 22 Apr 2010 18:30:01 EST news191167579 A study led by Mayo Clinic suggests remission from Crohn's disease may be more likely if patients get biologic therapy combined with immune-suppressing drugs first instead of immune-suppressing drugs alone. The study, published in the April 15, 2010 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, found treatment of moderate to severe Crohn's disease with infliximab plus azathioprine allows more patients to achieve remission and mucosal healing than therapy with azathioprine alone. http://phys.org/news190486497.html Medicine & Health Wed, 14 Apr 2010 17:56:46 EST news190486497 A new combination drug treatment for parasitic intestinal roundworms shows promise in a test on a common laboratory species. http://phys.org/news187878679.html Medicine & Health Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:00:01 EST news187878679 Like any successful team effort, the best qualities of two drugs commonly prescribed for enlarged prostate yielded better results than either of the medicines alone, according to a new study from UT Southwestern Medical Center. http://phys.org/news186758550.html Medicine & Health Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:00:02 EST news186758550 Results of a new study reveal that a seven-day course of LOAD therapy is superior to LAC at eliminating the H. pylori bacterium in patients with gastritis and peptic ulcers. http://phys.org/news175776846.html Medicine & Health Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:00:02 EST news175776846 With the goal of tailoring cancer interventions for the individual, researchers at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown have published the results of a prospective study that validates the use of a simple blood test to help doctors more reliably assess treatment effectiveness for patients with metastatic breast cancer. These findings were released on-line today in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. http://phys.org/news172166750.html Medicine & Health Mon, 14 Sep 2009 17:06:30 EST news172166750 (PhysOrg.com) -- Malaria parasites in western Cambodia have become resistant to artemisinin-based therapies, the first-line treatment for malaria, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine today. Resistance to the drugs makes them less effective and could eventually render them obsolete, putting millions of lives at risk. http://phys.org/news168106555.html Medicine & Health Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:16:53 EST news168106555 A new subsidy designed to increase access to life-saving antiretrovirals must remain focused on quality patient care if it is to succeed, argues Tido von Schoen-Angerer and colleagues in this week's open access journal PLoS Medicine. http://phys.org/news167380613.html Medicine & Health Tue, 21 Jul 2009 08:10:02 EST news167380613 Current combination malaria therapies recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) provide adequate treatment for mild malaria, according to a Cochrane Systematic Review of the evidence. However, selected trials had high failure rates for some combinations and evidence for the effectiveness of anti-malarial therapies is lacking in some vulnerable groups. http://phys.org/news166252160.html Medicine & Health Wed, 08 Jul 2009 06:10:09 EST news166252160 Patients undergoing treatment for advanced head and neck cancers may respond well to the addition of gefinitib to chemotherapy, according to a study sponsored by the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group and chaired by Ethan Argiris, M.D., associate professor of medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and co-leader of the Head and Neck Cancer Program of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI). The results will be disclosed at the 45th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) on May 30 in Orlando, Fla. http://phys.org/news162994786.html Medicine & Health Sun, 31 May 2009 13:21:28 EST news162994786 A new study, carried out in primary care units in Zanzibar and published in this week's issue of PLoS Medicine, evaluates the impact of rapid malaria tests on prescribing practice and clinical outcomes. The findings suggest that routine use of such tests may reduce the number of people who are inappropriately given antimalarial drugs. http://phys.org/news160129126.html Medicine & Health Tue, 28 Apr 2009 09:20:24 EST news160129126 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new analysis of more than 45,000 people with HIV in Europe and North America suggests that the minimum CD4-cell count threshold for initiation of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) should be 350 cells per µL of blood. This is at the upper limit of levels for starting cART currently recommended in many countries. http://phys.org/news158508470.html Medicine & Health Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:08:53 EST news158508470 The combination of two drugs produces a critical improvement in the treatment of certain brain tumours. This has been demonstrated by researchers at Bonn University working in co-operation with German and Swiss colleagues in a current study. They treated 39 patients who had been diagnosed with a so-called gliablastoma. The patients survived on average 23 months; with the standard therapy the mean would have been 14.6 months. Glioblastomas are the most aggressive and the commonest brain tumours. Left untreated, they prove fatal within just a few weeks. The study has been published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. http://phys.org/news155556774.html Medicine & Health Fri, 06 Mar 2009 10:13:16 EST news155556774 A team of cancer researchers from several Boston academic medical centers has discovered a potential treatment for a group of tumors that have resisted previous targeted therapy approaches. http://phys.org/news147272893.html Medicine & Health Sun, 30 Nov 2008 13:08:13 EST news147272893 Extended treatment with Alzheimer's disease drugs can significantly slow the rate at which the disorder advances, and combination therapy with two different classes of drugs is even better at helping patients maintain their ability to perform daily activities. Results from the first long-term study of the real-world use of Alzheimer's drugs, published by researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital in the July/September issue of Alzheimer Disease and Associated Disorders, support a level of effectiveness that may not be immediately apparent to patients or their family members. http://phys.org/news141301231.html Medicine & Health Mon, 22 Sep 2008 11:20:31 EST news141301231 A drug commonly used in the developing world to prevent transmission of HIV from mother to child persists in the breast milk and blood of the mothers, putting them and their babies at risk for developing drug-resistant strains of the virus, according to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. http://phys.org/news137164431.html Medicine & Health Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:13:51 EST news137164431