A drug candidate that overstimulates proteins crucial for tumor growth shows promise as a new strategy to treat a wide range of cancers. The demands of rapid cell division put a strain on cancer cells, and the approach works by tipping cell stress over the edge. In the August 10 issue of Cancer Cell, American researchers show that the drug candidate inhibits tumor growth in a mouse model of breast cancer and efficiently kills a broad range of human cancer cells.

Simply put, cancer is caused by mutations to genes within a cell that lead to abnormal cell growth. Finding out what causes that genetic mutation has been the holy grail of medical science for decades. Researchers at the Texas A&M Health Science Center Institute of Biosciences and Technology believe they may have found one of the reasons why these genes mutate and it all has to do with how stem cells talk to each other.

A study led by researchers at McMaster University has found that that trans fats are associated with greater risk of death and coronary heart disease, but saturated fats are not associated with an increased risk of death, heart disease, stroke, or Type 2 diabetes. The findings were published by the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

A drug which has already been in use for decades to treat liver disease could be an effective treatment to slow down progression of Parkinson's disease, scientists from the University of Sheffield have discovered. The pioneering research led by academics from the Sheffield Institute of Translational Neuroscience (SITraN), in collaboration with scientists from the University of York, supports the fast-tracking of the drug ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) for a clinical trial in Parkinson's patients.

Researchers have packaged a widely used cancer drug into nanoparticles, more than doubling its effectiveness at destroying tumors. The drug paclitaxel has been used for decades to fight breast, ovarian, lung and other cancers. But its effectiveness has been limited by its small molecular size and insolubility in water - properties that allow the body to clear the drug too quickly, reducing its accumulation in tumors.

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.