Six-Organ Transplant Girl Goes Home Today
After 100 days in hospital and undergoing a complicated 6-organ transplant, 9-year-old Alannah Shevenell, from Maine, leaves Boston Children's Hospital today and goes home. Alannah has been treated for a rare form of cancer; an inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor continued to grow after all possible treatments failed, and was compromising her internal organs. A team of surgeons, led by Dr. Heung Bae Kim, the hospital's Pediatric Transplant Center director, performed the transplant procedure of Alannah's liver, spleen, pancreas, stomach, small intestine and esophagus.
Probable Mechanism Underlying Resveratrol Activity Revealed By NIH Study
National Institutes of Health researchers and their colleagues have identified how resveratrol, a naturally occurring chemical found in red wine and other plant products, may confer its health benefits. The authors present evidence that resveratrol does not directly activate sirtuin 1, a protein associated with aging. Rather, the authors found that resveratrol inhibits certain types of proteins known as phosphodiesterases (PDEs), enzymes that help regulate cell energy. These findings may help settle the debate regarding resveratrol's biochemistry and pave the way for resveratrol-based medicines.
Research Highlights New Treatments, Compares Existing Therapies For Prostate Cancer
Research on promising new therapies and data on the relative benefits of established treatments for prostate cancer have been released, in advance of the fourth annual Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, being held February 2-4, 2012, at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis in San Francisco, Calif. The results of five studies were highlighted in a media presscast (press briefing via live webcast): Vigorous Exercise Linked to Expression of Certain Genes in Early-Stage Prostate Cancer: A study shows that men with early-stage prostate cancer who exercise vigorously at least three hours a week have more than 180 genes that are expressed differently in the prostate than those who did not exercise as intensively.