Analyzing medical records from thousands of patients, statisticians have devised a statistical model for predicting what other medical problems a patient might encounter.
Researchers at NYU School of Medicine have, for the first time, identified a single gene that simultaneously controls inflammation, accelerated aging and cancer.
The Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) today announced that it is close to finalizing a framework proposal for CPT coding of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) assays.
Researchers from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center have begun testing for three new genetic targets and found that together they occur in approximately 50 percent of patients with squamous cell carcinomas of the lung, which affects 40,000 Americans each year. Initial findings of the research will be presented on June 4 at the 2012 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting.
Mayo Clinic has created a comprehensive mobile health application; combining a custom mobile experience with unparalleled expertise and access. Empowering patients with information at their fingertips, this app sets a new standard for health care apps.
With recent advancements in technology and biomedical informatics, a more personalized approach to prescribing cancer treatment and developing these therapies is preferred over “one-size-fits-all” methods. The Cancer Institute of New Jersey has been on the cutting-edge of this movement and is now launching a more concrete effort that is poised to change the way that molecular and genetic information is being used to diagnose and treat cancer – an initiative known as “precision medicine” – also known to many as “personalized medicine.”
Patients see potential benefits from direct-to-consumer genetic testing, but are also concerned about how test results will be used, and generally are unwilling to pay more than $10 or $20 for them.
Through a groundbreaking new gene sequencing technology, researchers have demonstrated that the gene FLT3 is a valid therapeutic target in Acute Myeloid Leukemia, AML, one of the most common types of leukemia.
The technique, developed by Pacific Biosciences, allows for the rapid and comprehensive detection of gene mutations in patients with AML. The findings, published online April 15 in Nature, are a result of collaboration among scientists at the University of California, San Francisco, Pacific Biosciences and Mount Sinai School of Medicine. The discovery may help lead to the development of new drugs to treat AML.
An international consortium of researchers have identified a group of genes associated with the development of osteoporosis, a debilitating bone disease that cripples more than 10 million Americans a year and costs the U.S. healthcare system an estimated $17 billion annually. The study identified 56 genes associated with bone-mineral density (BMD), the measurement used to diagnose osteoporosis.
In November 2011, a National Academy of Sciences committee issued a report calling for the creation of a “Google Maps”-like data network intended to revolutionize medical discovery, diagnosis and treatment. Today, the co-chair of that committee, UCSF Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH, is issuing a call-to-arms to patient advocates to help make that idea a reality.
Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are using powerful DNA sequencing technology not only to identify mutations at the root of a patient’s tumor – considered key to personalizing cancer treatment – but to map the genetic evolution of disease and monitor response to treatment.
Scientists have published the first results from the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia, a freely available resource that marries deeply detailed cancer genome data with predictors of drug response, information that could lead to refinements in cancer clinical trials and future treatments.
A Florida State University researcher is developing technologies to miniaturize the first phase of a process used by pharmaceutical companies to discover new drugs. A breakthrough could ultimately lead to personalized and therefore more effective medical treatments, as well as major health care savings.
Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) scientists have developed a way to recreate an individual’s immune system in a mouse. The “personalized immune mouse” offers researchers an unprecedented tool for individualized analysis of abnormalities that contribute to type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune diseases, starting at the onset of disease. The findings were published today in the online edition of Science Translational Medicine.
The experience of daily positive affect -- a mild, happy feeling -- and self-affirmation helps some patients with chronic diseases, including coronary artery disease, high blood pressure and asthma, make better decisions about their health. These findings are detailed in three studies of 756 patients published online in the Jan. 23 edition of the Archives of Internal Medicine -- the first large, randomized controlled trials to show that people can use positive affect and self-affirmation to help them make and sustain behavior change.
To address the prospects for personalized medicine in diabetes, investigators from Albert Einstein College of Medicine have surveyed the field for existing research and published their findings in the January issue of Health Affairs. The authors are Allen M. Spiegel, M.D., the Marilyn and Stanley M. Katz Dean and former director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at the NIH, and Meredith Hawkins, M.D., director of Einstein’s Global Diabetes Initiative.
A new cancer research centre established at the University of Adelaide will focus on treatment options tailored to the individual, taking into account DNA and genetic variations between people.
GeneKey Corp. announced today that it has launched a personalized cancer service that empowers patients and their oncology team to develop treatment strategies based on insight into the biology of individual tumors.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have shown that it is safe to cut and paste together different viruses in an effort to create the ultimate vehicle for gene therapy.
The Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) today announced the AMP Council’s unanimous approval of a strategic plan intended to guide the organization over the next four years.
The embryonic enzyme pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2) has a well-established role in metabolism and is highly expressed in human cancers. Now, a team led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reports in advance online publication of the journal Nature that PKM2 has important non-metabolic functions in cancer formation.
A research team led by scientists from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have discovered four new "ZIP codes" in their quest to map the vast blood vessel network of the human body.
In a paper published in the September 30 issue of the journal Cell, researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine and colleagues offer an explanation, and a framework that could lead to dietary supplements designed to treat obesity at the molecular level.
Research published today focuses on patients and shows that acute myeloid leukemia (AML) contains rare cells with stem cell properties, called leukemia stem cells (LSC), that are better at predicting clinical outcome than the majority of AML cells, showing for the first time that LSCs are significant not just in experimental models but also in patients.
Mount Sinai School of Medicine has been awarded a $3.4 million grant over four years from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to begin the largest study of its kind, in which a patient’s genomic risk for disease is revealed in a lab, and then entered into an electronic medical record for use in determining treatment in the clinical care setting.
Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have devised a gene therapy cocktail that has the potential to treat some inherited diseases associated with “misfolded” proteins.
Researchers seeking rare gene variants in ADHD found that one patient had causative mutations in an unrelated disorder. The finding has implications about how to best return such information to research subjects.
The 3rd Annual Consumer Genetics Conference, a yearly forum designed to spark meaningful conversation on the current state of direct-to-consumer genetics and shape the future of the field, will convene June 7 through June 9 at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, Massachusetts.
Customizing targeted therapies to each tumor’s molecular characteristics, instead of a one-size-fits-all approach by tumor type, may be more effective for some types of cancer, according to research conducted by The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) today highlighted seven studies in a press briefing from among more than 4,000 abstracts publicly posted online at www.asco.org in advance of ASCO’s 47th Annual Meeting. An additional 17 plenary, late-breaking and other major studies will be released in on-site press conferences at the Annual Meeting.
Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have made a critical discovery that may lead scientists to abandon the use of broad conventional ethnic labels—African-American, Hispanic, and Caucasian—to estimate a patient’s genetic risk for disease. This first-of-its kind study conducted with diverse patients receiving care at a single urban academic medical center, marks an important step in the clinical application of personalized medicine. The data are published online in the peer-reviewed journal PLoS ONE.
Cancer survival rates could improve soon with whole-genome sequencing, according to two studies published in the April 20, 2011, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association that describe the first clinical applications of the high-tech process in patients with cancer.
Two new studies in the Journal of the American Medical Association highlight the power of sequencing cancer patients’ genomes as a diagnostic tool, helping doctors decide the best course of treatment and researchers identify new cancer susceptibility mutations that can be passed from parent to child.
In one of the largest cancer genomics investigations reported to date, scientists have sequenced the whole genomes of tumors from 50 breast cancer patients and compared them to the matched DNA of the same patients’ healthy cells. This comparison allowed researchers to find mutations that only occurred in the cancer cells.
In the single largest cancer genomics investigation reported to date, scientists have sequenced the whole genomes of tumors from 50 breast cancer patients and compared them to the matched DNA of the same patients’ healthy cells. They uncovered incredible complexity in the cancer genomes, but also got a glimpse of new routes toward personalized medicine.