Feature Channels: Respiratory Diseases and Disorders

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Implementing lung cancer screening as a high-quality preventive health service in a community setting is feasible, but comes with several key challenges, according to a scientific presentation at the 53rd Annual Meeting of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Unbalanced signaling by two molecules that regulate breathing leads to sleep apnea in mice and rats. Injection of a substance that reduces production of one of those signals can prevent apneas. This approach may help people suffering from multiple forms of sleep-disordered breathing.

• share
• favorite_border

Children with asthma may be more likely to become obese later in childhood or in adolescence, according to new research published online ahead of print in the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

• share
• favorite_border

EGFR mutations is associated with a longer median overall survival (almost double) compared with those without EGFR mutations when treated with specific targeted agents.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at Mayo Clinic have identified a genetic promoter of cancer that drives a major form of lung cancer. In a new paper published this week in Cancer Cell, Mayo Clinic researchers provide genetic evidence that Ect2 drives lung adenocarcinoma tumor formation.

• share
• favorite_border

The Council advises on matters relating to the cause, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of heart, blood vessel, lung and blood diseases; the use of blood and blood products and the management of blood resources; and on sleep disorders.

• share
• favorite_border

In a clinical trial in Nigeria that replaced biomass and kerosene cookstoves with clean-burning ethanol stoves, researchers were able to reduce by two-thirds the risk of high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease in pregnant women.

• share
• favorite_border

New research from scientists at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah uncovered distinct types of tumors within small cell lung cancer that look and act differently from one another. Scientists also identified a targeted drug combination that worked well with one specific tumor type. The study was published today in Cancer Cell. The findings suggest small cell lung cancer should not be treated as a uniform disease.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers who developed a safe and effective procedure to remove thick clogs in children’s airways are now reporting similar success in adult patients. In this rare condition, called plastic bronchitis, patients develop thick, caulk-like casts that form in the branching paths of their airways.

• share
• favorite_border

African Americans may be less responsive to asthma treatment and more likely to die from the condition, in part, because they have a unique type of airway inflammation, according to a study led by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine. The study is one of the largest and most diverse trials conducted in the U.S. on race and asthma, with 26 percent of the patients self-identifying as African American. Researchers found that black patients were more likely to exhibit eosinophilic airway inflammation than whites, despite taking comparable doses of asthma medication, such as inhaled corticosteroids.

• share
• favorite_border

A new Yale study suggests that patients with a common form of lung cancer may still benefit from delayed chemotherapy started up to four months after surgery, according to the researchers.

• share
• favorite_border

Results of an initial study of tumors from patients with lung cancer or head and neck cancer suggest that the widespread acquired resistance to immunotherapy drugs known as checkpoint inhibitors may be due to the elimination of certain genetic mutations needed to enable the immune system to recognize and attack malignant cells.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at McMaster University and St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton have demonstrated that physiotherapists can safely start in-bed cycling sessions with critically ill, mechanically ventilated patients early on in their ICU stay.

• share
• favorite_border

Emergency rooms in communities with indoor smoking bans reported a 17 percent decrease in the number of children needing care for asthma attacks, according to new research from the University of Chicago Medicine.

• share
• favorite_border

The researchers said this study might help shed light on sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in human babies, which is thought to be associated with dysfunctional airway sensory neurons.

• share
• favorite_border

Using an array of nanoscale sensors, researchers have identified distinct “chemical signatures” in breath samples, for several diseases (including lung cancer, ovarian cancer, Crohn's disease, Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis).

• share
• favorite_border

For critically ill patients with heart or lung failure that does not respond to conventional treatments, extracorporeal life support (ECLS) can provide a bridge to survival. Updated analysis of a worldwide database finds that ECLS technologies are becoming more widely available and more frequently used at centers around the world, according to a report in the ASAIO Journal, published by Wolters Kluwer.

• share
• favorite_border

The Penn Center for Precision Medicine (PCPM) Accelerator Fund awarded eight research teams from Penn Medicine in their inaugural support of the implementation of personalized medicine projects across a gamut of clinical specialties. The projects cover a range of clinical applications, from lung cancer to infectious disease to knee surgery.