Documents medical treatment 61 results

"Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a rare and aggressive tumour type arising from the mesothelial surface of the pleural space. MPM is difficult to treat and commonly associated with asbestos exposure, which is its main risk factor. In Europe, the incidence is about 20 per million, with large inter-country variation. As a ban on the use of asbestos was proposed quite recently in most countries, and the median latency between asbestos exposure and MPM onset is about 40 years, incidence rates in some European nations are still rising, with peak incidences expected around 2020 and beyond. Moreover, asbestos continues to be used in many developing and emerging countries of the world, suggesting a potential mesothelioma epidemic in the future. The clinical signs are usually late and nonspecific. Chest computed tomography scanning, a key imaging procedure in MPM, usually shows unilateral pleural effusion, sometimes combined with pleural thickening …"

"In Pink Ribbons, Inc., Samantha King traces how breast cancer has been transformed from a stigmatized disease and individual tragedy to a market-driven industry of survivorship. In an unprecedented outpouring of philanthropy, corporations turn their formidable promotion machines on the curing of the disease while dwarfing public health prevention efforts and stifling the calls for investigation into why and how breast cancer affects such a vast number of people. Here, for the first time, King questions the effectiveness and legitimacy of privately funded efforts to stop the epidemic among American women.
Pink Ribbons, Inc. grapples with issues of gender and race in breast cancer campaigns of businesses such as the National Football League; recounts the legislative history behind the breast cancer awareness postage stamp—the first stamp in American history to raise funds for use outside the U.S. Postal Service; and reveals the cultural impact of activity-based fund-raising, such as the Race for the Cure. Throughout, King probes the profound implications of consumer-oriented philanthropy on how patients experience breast cancer, the research of the biomedical community, and the political and medical institutions that the breast cancer movement seeks to change. Highly revelatory -at times shocking- Pink Ribbons, Inc. challenges the commercialization of the breast cancer movement, its place in U.S. culture, and its influence on ideas of good citizenship, responsible consumption, and generosity."

"Taxol is arguably the most celebrated, talked-about and controversial natural product in recent years. It is celebrated because of its efficacy as an anti-cancer drug and because its discovery has provided powerful support for policies concerned with biodiversity; talked about because in the late 1980s and early 1990s the American public was bombarded with news reports and special programmes about the molecule and its host, the Pacific yew; and controversial because during the early 1990s the drug and the tree became embroiled in a number of very sensitive political issues with wide implications for the conduct of public policy. The Story of Taxol tells this story."

"Longtemps, les savants ont tâtonné pour expliquer les causes du cancer, ne pouvant que constater leur impuissance à en interrompre le cours. Si une nouvelle branche de la médecine naît avec la cancérologie au XIXe siècle, la situation, au début du siècle suivant, reste alarmante : alors que la science remporte victoire sur victoire sur la maladie, seul le cancer semble encore invincible et prend la dimension d'un fléau social. Il occupe alors une place considérable dans les politiques de santé et l'imaginaire des populations. Ce recueil, auquel ont participé quelques-uns des meilleurs spécialistes mondiaux - médecins, historiens, sociologues - propose de suivre cette évolution jusqu'au seuil des années 1960, marquées par la découverte de l'ADN et les programmes de protocoles de chimiothérapie. Il présente ici, dans une vaste perspective internationale (France, Angleterre, Espagne, Canada, États-Unis...), les nombreux aspects de l'histoire de la lutte contre le cancer."

"The past 10?years have witnessed a remarkable rise in the visibility of the field of global mental health, which applies the core principles of global health (improving health and equity in health for all people worldwide) to mental health. The stated goal of global mental health is to reduce the burden of mental disorders using an evidence-based and human rights approach with a focus on low and middle income countries (LMIC) as this is where inequity in mental health treatment and care is the greatest. ..."

"The endogenous transport mechanisms which occur in living organisms have evolved to allow selective transport and processing operate on a scale of tens of nanometers. This presents the possibility of unprecedented access for engineered nanoscale materials to organs and sub-cellular locations, materials which may in principle be targeted to precise locations for diagnostic or therapeutic gain. For this reason, nano-architectures could represent a truly radical departure as delivery agents for drugs, genes and therapies to treat a host of diseases. Thus, for active targeting, unlike the case of small molecular drugs where molecular structure has evolved to promote higher physiochemical affinity to specific sites, one aims to exploit these energy dependant endogenous processes. Many active targeting strategies have been developed, but despite this truly remarkable potential, in applications they have met with mixed success to date. This situation may have more to do with our current understanding and integration of knowledge across disciplines, than any intrinsic limitation on the vision itself. In this review article we suggest that much more fundamental and detailed control of the nanoparticle-biomolecule interface is required for sustained and general success in this field. In the simplest manifestation, pristine nanoparticles in biological fluids act as a scaffold for biomolecules, which adsorb rapidly to the nanoparticles' surface, conferring a new biological identity to the nanoparticles. It is this nanoparticle-biomolecule interface that is 'read' and acted upon by the cellular machinery. Moreover, where targeting moieties are grafted onto nanoparticles, they may not retain their function as a result of poor orientation, and structural or conformational disruption. Further surface adsorption of biomolecules from the surrounding environment i.e. the formation of a biomolecule corona may also obscure specific surface recognition. To transfer the remarkable possibilities of nanoscale interactions in biology into therapeutics one may need a more focused and dedicated approach to the understanding of the in situ (in vivo) interface between engineered nanomaedicines and their targets."

"Treatment and diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases and other CNS disorders are nowadays considered some of the most challenging tasks in modern medicine. The development of effective strategies for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of CNS pathologies require better understanding of neurological disorders that is still lacking. The use of nanomaterials is thought to contribute to our further understanding of the CNS and the development of novel therapeutic and diagnostic modalities for neurological interventions. Even though the application of nanoparticles in neuroscience is still embryonic, this article attempts to illustrate the use of different types of nanomaterials and the way in which they have been used in various CNS applications in an attempt to limit or reverse neuropathological processes."

"The health of British workers is giving us serious cause for concern. Up to a quarter of the workforce is not healthy enough to drive the improvements in productivity which the UK needs to thrive in an increasingly globalised, knowledge-based economy. Despite record levels of employment and job growth, over 2.6 million people of working age are claiming Incapacity Benefit (DWP, 2007). There is overwhelming evidence that worklessness is, itself, bad for health and that rehabilitation back into work can positively affect physical health, psychological well-being and raise people out of poverty. Of all the causes of work-related ill-health, 'stress' grabs the headlines because it results in the loss of over 10 million working days each year at a cost to UK employers of in excess of