Lanreotide (Somatuline® depot | Tercica) has been approved by the US FDA for the treatment of acromegaly as per a notification on August 30, 2007.

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Virtual-Reality (VR) technology, mostly used in high-end computer games allowing the player or user to interact in a computer-simulated environment based on real or imaginary incidences, has been adapted to develop a VR Assessment and Treatment program for combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in military personnel. The treatment uses a virtual battlefield environment in which a war-veteran with PTSD experiences a combat-relevant scenario in a low-threat context, which helps to therapeutically process emotions and reduce the impact of the disorder.

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Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) increases the risk of pancreatic cancer, according to a study by Perrin MC and colleagues at the Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, published in the latest issue of BMC Medicine. Although the association between diabetes and pancreatic cancer has been under surveillance for long, the authors sought to establish a link between the transient, gestational diabetes mellitus, and pancreatic carcinoma.

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3,3′-diindolylmethane (DIM), a natural compound found abundantly in broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables, helps in augmenting the immune system function, according to the findings of research conducted by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley.

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Although Tamoxifen is widely used to treat breast cancer and to prevent its recurrence, half of all recurrent breast carcinomas are resistant to it. A recent study conducted by researchers at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University, Washington DC, has identified a new mechanism that increases the resistance of breast cancer cells to endocrine and antihormonal therapies like Tamoxifen (Nolvadex | AstraZeneca) and Fulvestrant (Faslodex | AstraZeneca).

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Researchers at the Carnegie Mellon University have developed a 200 nanometer diameter, spherical nanogel that facilitates controlled and uniform release of encapsulated carbohydrate-based drugs. Daniel Siegwart, a graduate student working in Professor Krzysztof Matyjaszewski’s laboratory at Carnegie Mellon, presented the research work at the 234th national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston.

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In a recent article in the British Medical Journal, Dr. Andrew Weeks, a practicing obstetrician and scientist from the School of Perinatal & Reproductive Medicine, University of Liverpool, recommends a 3-minute delay in cutting the umbilical cord after birth in both full term and premature babies, and a minutes delay in newborns requiring immediate supportive care.

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Applying low intensity electric fields to the scalp, via insulated electrodes, can increase the survival rates of patients with brain tumor, according to a research article published in the latest issue of Physics Today. Yoram Palti and colleagues, researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel, in a pilot trial, evaluated the safety and efficacy of the novel ‘Tumor Treating Fields’ (TTF) in 10 patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme, one of the most malignant glial brain tumors.

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Researchers at the Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, have demonstrated that a key gene, which codes for secreted Frizzled-Related Protein-1 (sFRP1), is suppressed in nearly all renal cell carcinomas, and restoration of the gene’s activity can reduce the progression of the cancer.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has approved Novartis’s Zoledronic Acid injection (Reclast®), a bisphosphonate class of drug, as a once-a-year treatment for postmenopausal osteoporosis.

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