Fat grafting technique improves results of breast augmentation
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In women undergoing breast augmentation, a technique using transplantation of a small amount of the patient’s own fat cells can produce better cosmetic outcomes, reports a study in the April issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).
In particular, the fat grafting technique can achieve a more natural-appearing cleavage—avoiding the “separated breasts” appearance that can occur after breast augmentation, according to the report by Dr. Francisco G. Bravo of Clinica Gomez Bravo, Madrid.
Fat Grafting Adds to Cosmetic Results of Breast Augmentation
Dr Bravo analyzed the outcomes of breast augmentation surgery in 59 women. Thirty-eight women underwent conventional surgery using breast implants only. In the remaining 21 patients, Dr. Bravo used a combination technique using breast implants plus “selective para-sternal fat grafting.”
In this approach, a small amount of the patient’s own fat was harvested from elsewhere in the body - such as the thighs or abdomen. After processing, the fat cells were carefully placed along the inner (medial) borders of the breasts. The goal was to achieve a more natural shape, and particularly to soften the “medial transition zone” between the sternum (breastbone) and the implant edges.
Germline TP53 mutations in patients with early-onset colorectal cancer
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In a group of patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer at 40 or younger, 1.3 percent of the patients carried germline TP53 gene mutations, although none of the patients met the clinical criteria for an inherited cancer syndrome associated with higher lifetime risks of multiple cancers, according to a study published online by JAMA Oncology.
Li-Fraumeni syndrome is an inherited cancer syndrome usually characterized by germline TP53 mutations in which patients can develop early-onset cancers and have an increased risk for a wide array of other cancers including colorectal. The gene’s contribution to hereditary and early-onset colorectal cancer is needed for clinicians to counsel patients undergoing TP53 testing as part of a multigene risk assessment, according to the study background.
Sapna Syngal, M.D., M.P.H., of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, and coauthors estimated the proportion of patients with early-onset colorectal cancer who carry germline TP53 mutations. Participants were recruited from the Colon Cancer Family Registry from 1998 through 2007 and were those individuals who were diagnosed with colorectal cancer at 40 or younger and lacked a known hereditary cancer syndrome.
Among 457 eligible patients, six (1.3 percent) of them carried germline missense TP53 alterations and none of the patients met the clinical criteria for Li-Fraumeni syndrome, according to the results.
Repairing the cerebral cortex: It can be done
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A team led by Afsaneh Gaillard (Inserm Unit 1084, Experimental and Clinical Neurosciences Laboratory, University of Poitiers), in collaboration with the Institute of Interdisciplinary Research in Human and Molecular Biology (IRIBHM) in Brussels, has just taken an important step in the area of cell therapy: repairing the cerebral cortex of the adult mouse using a graft of cortical neurons derived from embryonic stem cells. These results have just been published in Neuron.
The cerebral cortex is one of the most complex structures in our brain. It is composed of about a hundred types of neurons organised into 6 layers and numerous distinct neuroanatomical and functional areas.
Brain injuries, whether caused by trauma or neurodegeneration, lead to cell death accompanied by considerable functional impairment. In order to overcome the limited ability of the neurons of the adult nervous system to regenerate spontaneously, cell replacement strategies employing embryonic tissue transplantation show attractive potential.
A major challenge in repairing the brain is obtaining cortical neurons from the appropriate layer and area in order to restore the damaged cortical pathways in a specific manner.
Clinical trial suggests combination therapy is best for low-grade brain tumors
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New clinical-trial findings provide further evidence that combining chemotherapy with radiation therapy is the best treatment for people with a low-grade form of brain cancer. The findings come from a phase II study co-led by a researcher at Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC - James) and researchers at the University of Maryland and at London Regional Cancer Program in Ontario, Canada.
The study shows that patients with low-grade gliomas and at high risk for tumor recurrence have an overall survival of 73 percent after three years when treated with radiation plus temozolomide, a chemotherapy drug. This is compared with a three-year survival of 54 percent for historical controls treated with radiation alone.
The findings are published in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics.
Two-step treatment improved function and decreased pain severity in veterans
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Although U.S. military veterans who have returned from Iraq or Afghanistan are more likely to suffer chronic pain than veterans of any other conflict in American history, little headway has been made in helping them manage the often debilitating effects of chronic pain. A new study by researchers from the Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center in Indianapolis, the Regenstrief Institute and the Indiana University School of Medicine reports that a stepped-care strategy improved function and decreased pain severity, producing at least a 30 percent improvement in pain-related disability.
“Pain is disabling and interferes with daily living as well as the ability to work,” said Matthew Bair, M.D., the VA and Regenstrief Institute investigator and IU associate professor of medicine who led the randomized controlled ESCAPE trial - short for Evaluation of Stepped Care for Chronic Pain. “It is a critical health issue among veterans, many of whom had multiple, often lengthy deployments.
“Many have significant long-term pain. We know that medications alone are only modestly successful in helping them; current pain treatments haven’t made much of a dent. The decrease in pain severity and 30 percent improvement in pain-related disability we achieved in the ESCAPE study are clinically significant, and we found that improvement lasted for at least nine months.”
Online health information - keep it simple!
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Australian health websites are too difficult for many people to read.
This is the finding from a study published in Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.
Matthew Dunn and Christina Cheng from Deakin University evaluated Australian online health information to see if it matched the reading level of Australians.
“Limited availability of ‘easy-to-read’ health materials suggests that many Australians may not be benefiting from the convenience of the internet,” Dr Dunn said.
Quitting smoking has favorable metabolic effects
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People who quit smoking have improved metabolic effects, a new study finds. The results will be presented in a poster Thursday, March 5, at ENDO 2015, the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society in San Diego.
“In general, people think that when they stop smoking, they are going to gain weight and their diabetes and insulin resistance are going to get worse, but we didn’t find that,” said principal investigator Theodore C. Friedman, MS, MD, PhD, chair of the Department of Internal Medicine of Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles, California. “Our study showed that insulin resistance was basically the same and some of the fat redistribution seemed to be better. Initially fat might have gone into the abdomen, but later, it went back to the thigh, which is more benign.”
In this study, researchers enrolled healthy, ½-to-2 pack-per-day smokers into an 8-week smoking cessation program of behavioral counseling plus oral bupropion (Phase I), followed by a 16-week maintenance period without counseling or bupropion wherein subjects either remained abstinent or naturally resumed/increased smoking (Phase II).
Before and after Phase 1, the researchers measured the subjects’ number of cigarettes per day, breath carbon monoxide, urine nicotine metabolites, weight, body composition, fat distribution, free fatty acids, and rate of glucose release from the liver and overall glucose utilization.
