Researchers have been struggling for years to find a treatment for patients who have a recurrence of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), an aggressive blood cancer that is one of the most lethal cancers. About 19,520 news cases are diagnosed a year, and about 10,670 people a year die from it, according to the American Cancer Society.

Regular use of aspirin or other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) may help some patients with head and neck cancer survive the disease, according to a study led by Professor Jennifer Grandis at the University of California, San Francisco. The study, published today in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, indicates that NSAIDs are effective in patients with mutations in a gene called PIK3CA, and the researchers suggest this is because NSAIDs lower the levels of an inflammatory molecule called prostaglandin E2.

Nearly two decades after a class of once-promising cancer drugs called MMP inhibitors mysteriously failed in clinical trials, scientists think they may have an explanation for what went wrong. The findings in C. elegans worms could lead to better ways to prevent the first steps of metastasis, the spread of the disease responsible for 90 percent of cancer deaths.

Finasteride, a generic hormone-blocking drug, was found to reduce the risk of prostate cancer by 25 percent in the landmark Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT). Long- term data, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, show that reduction in prostate cancer risk has continued and fewer than 100 men on the trial died from the disease.

A new study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has found that taking aspirin on a regular basis to prevent heart attacks and strokes, can lead to an increase risk of almost 50% in major bleeding episodes. The systematic review from scientists at King's College London and King's College Hospital looked at the overall effects on patients who did not have known cardiovascular disease.

In the largest genetic study of osteoarthritis, an international team of scientists including researchers from the University of Sheffield, have uncovered 52 new genetic changes linked to the disease, which doubles the number of genetic regions associated with the disabling condition. Scientists at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, GSK and their collaborators - including Mark Wilkinson, Professor of Orthopaedics at the University of Sheffield - analysed the genomes of over 77,000 people with osteoarthritis.

One day we may be able to ingest tiny robots that deliver drugs directly to diseased tissue, thanks to research being carried out at EPFL and ETH Zurich. The group of scientists - led by Selman Sakar at EPFL and Bradley Nelson at ETH Zurich - drew inspiration from bacteria to design smart, biocompatible microrobots that are highly flexible.