The adoption of new transparent reporting standards may have contributed to a significant reduction in the percentage of studies reporting positive research findings among large-budget clinical trials funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, a study published in the journal PLOS ONE has found.

The importance of a diet rich in fish oils - now a billion dollar food-supplement industry - has been debated for over half a century. A few large clinical trials have supported the idea that fish oils confer therapeutic benefits to patients with cardiovascular disease. Researchers think that hearts and blood vessels may benefit in part from their anti-inflammatory properties.

Pharmaceutical firms "underinvest" in long-term research to develop new cancer-fighting drugs due to the greater time and cost required to conduct such research, according to a newly published study co-authored by MIT economists. Specifically, drugs to treat late-stage cancers are less costly to develop than drugs for earlier-stage cancers, partly because the late-stage drugs extend people's lives for shorter durations of time.

Pathogenic bacteria develop killer machines that work very specifically and highly efficiently. Scientists from the University of Freiburg have solved the molecular mechanism of a fish toxin that could be used in the future as a medication to treat cancer. The scientists have now published their research in the journal Nature Communications.

A new review published in the Cochrane Library, indicates that eradicating Helicobacter pylori bacterium - the main cause of stomach ulcers - with a short course of therapy comprising two commonly used medicines may help to reduce the risk of gastric cancer. Stomach, or gastric, cancer is the third most common cause of death from cancer worldwide, and people who are infected with the Helicobacter pylori bacterium are more likely to develop the disease.

Canadian researchers have published promising results of the first clinical trial in the world of a genetically-enhanced stem cell therapy for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). This rare and deadly disease mainly affects young women, and is characterized by very high pressure in the arteries supplying blood to the lungs.

A study led by scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has shown that a simple molecule called 14-3-3 sigma could be one answer for explaining cancer metabolism, the chemical process by which a tumor forms, grows or dies.