News by Subject Medicine & Health

A web-based tool developed by Jefferson researchers predicts individualized risk for stroke, other grave post-surgical complications.

Early detection could reduce the number of African Americans dying from liver cancer, but current screening guidelines may not find cancer soon enough in this community, according to a study published in Cancer in February.

Scientists at the University of Cambridge have used a technique to grow bile duct organoids - often referred to as 'mini-organs' - in the lab and shown that these can be used to repair damaged human livers. This is the first time that the technique has been used on human organs.

The pandemic has seen a significant, alarming trend of increased alcohol use and abuse - especially among younger adults, males and those who lost jobs - the University of Arizona Health Sciences reports. New research led by William 'Scott' Killgore, PhD, psychiatry professor in the UArizona College of Medicine - Tucson and Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Lab director, found hazardous alcohol use and dependence increased every month for those under lockdowns compared to those not under restrictions.

Researchers have discovered that the use of Cytoglobin (CYGB) as an intravenous drug could delay liver fibrosis progression in mice. CYGB, discovered in 2001 by Professor Norifumi Kawada, is present in hepatic stellate cells, the cells that produce fibrotic molecules such as collagens when the liver has acute or chronic inflammation induced by different etiologies. The enhancement of CYGB on these cells or the injection of recombinant CYGB has the effect of suppressing liver damage and cirrhosis.

A Mayo Clinic team, led by Rahmi Oklu, M.D., Ph.D., a vascular and interventional radiologist at Mayo Clinic, in collaboration with Samir Mitragotri, Ph.D., of Harvard University, report the development of a new ionic liquid formulation that killed cancer cells and allowed uniform distribution of a chemotherapy drug into liver tumors and other solid tumors in the lab. This discovery could solve a problem that has long plagued drug delivery to tumors.

New research has shown that results of blood tests routinely performed by GPs everywhere contain a hidden fingerprint that can identify people silently developing potentially fatal liver cirrhosis. The researchers have developed an algorithm to detect this fingerprint that could be freely installed on any clinical computer, making this a low-cost way for GPs to carry out large scale screening using patient data they already hold.