CMSP Cool Image of the Day Blog

Social Isolation Worsens Cancer

Stressed mice grew larger tumors, researchers say. Social isolation may make cancer more deadly, US research on mice suggests. Researchers found the social environment can modify the biology of the disease - and lead to significant differences in outcome.

Female mice stressed because they were separated from their mothers developed more and larger mammary gland tumors than more contented animals. The University of Chicago study appears in the journal Cancer Prevention Research.

Previous research has suggested that social support can improve health outcomes for patients with breast cancer, while social isolation has been linked to an increased risk of death from several chronic diseases. The Chicago team worked with mice genetically predisposed to mammary gland cancer.

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CMSP Cool Image of the Day Blog

Amnesia is a term used to cover the partial or complete loss of memory. It is most often a temporary condition and covers only a part of a person's experience, such as immediate memory.

The causes of amnesia range from psychological trauma to brain damage caused by a blow to the head or conditions such as a brain tumor, a stroke or swelling of the brain. There are many definitions covering the different types of amnesia.

Today's Cool Image displays Purkinje cells or Purkinje neurons located in the cerebellar cortex.

This photomicrograph is by my colleague Mike Peres.

Custom Medical Stock Photo has over 100,000 images on the CMSP.com website available for download and license.

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CMSP Cool Image of the Day

Booze Therapy for Brain Injury Trauma Patients

Administering alcohol may form part of the emergency care.

A dose of alcohol may be a good treatment for people with head injuries, emergency doctors suggest.

Their basis for this is the discovery that people appear less likely to die following brain trauma if they have alcohol in their bloodstream.

It could be that alcohol dampens the body's inflammatory response to injury, the US team told Archives of Surgery. But they stressed that alcohol can cause medical complications and is contributory to many accidents.

Experts cautioned people should not interpret the findings as an excuse to drink more alcohol. Wink wink.

Custom Medical Stock Photo has over 100,000 images on the CMSP.com website available for download and license.

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CMSP Cool Image of the Day

Conservationists have developed a new technique to identify cheetahs in the wild from just their paw prints. The technique works in a similar way to that which allows humans to be identified by fingerprints. By photographing paw prints in the wild researchers can monitor cheetahs without ever seeing them.

It is hoped that this non-invasive technique may aid conservation efforts to protect the cheetah population in the wild. The footprint identification technique (FIT) has already helped researchers study other big cats and endangered species including bengal tigers and polar bears.

Now the method has been developed for the first time with cheetahs in a international collaboration involving conservation organisations N/a'an ku sê sanctuary, Wildtrack, AfriCat and Chester Zoo.

The technique is based on the assumption that every paw print is unique to that cheetah and can be identified similar to a human fingerprint. The local San people in Namibia have been able to identify individual animals from their tracks for many years.

Digital photographs of each cheetah's prints are taken and fed into a computer database. When a new print in sighted and recorded, a bespoke computer program then scans these photographs, recording the distances between specific points on the paw print, until it finds a match.

Custom Medical Stock Photo has over 100,000 images on the CMSP.com website available for download and license.

Small files and royalty free images can be viewed and purchase online at CMSP's sister site: www.cmspRF.com

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CMSP's Cool Image of the Day

Dementia Burden has been Underestimated

The future global burden of Alzheimer's and other types of dementia has been underestimated, say experts. A report from King's College London suggests more than 115 million people across the globe will suffer from dementia by 2050. This prediction is 10% more than previous figures published in 2005, driven mainly by new figures from South Asia and Latin America.

The Alzheimer's Society said the data showed the "scale of the challenge". The rise in dementia fueled by increasing life expectancies in countries around the world is causing widespread concerns. The current investment in research, treatment and care is actually quite disproportionate to the overall impact of the disease on people with dementia, the carers, on health and social care systems, and on society.

The World Alzheimer's Report, published by Alzheimer's Disease International, estimates that there will be 35 million people worldwide with dementia by next year.
That number is set to almost double every 20 years, to 65.7 million in 2030 and 115.4 million in 2050.

Custom Medical Stock Photo has over 100,000 images on the CMSP.com website available for download and license.

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CMSP Cool Image of the Day

New Drug Can Treat More Cancers

A promising new drug may be able to treat more types of cancer than first thought.

PARP inhibitors have shown early promise for treating cancers linked to BRCA gene mutations, including some breast and ovarian cancers. But Breakthrough Breast Cancer research suggests they might also kill cancer cells with a faulty PTEN gene, found in some skin, womb and colon tumours.

The study appears in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine.

Scientists found that cells with faulty PTEN genes were up to 25 times more sensitive to PARP inhibitors than cells with normal PTEN. Faults in the PTEN gene account for 30%-80% of breast, prostate, melanoma (skin), womb and colon cancers.

Custom Medical Stock Photo has over 100,000 images on the CMSP.com website available for download and license.

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CMSP Cool Image of the Day

September 11, 2001, - Al Qaeda terrorists hijacked airplanes and crashed them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, twin symbols of America's financial and military might. Another hijacked plane crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania; its intended target was the White House or the Capitol.

The attacks killed 2,752 people.

Today's Cool Image was taken by me, Henry, on a trip to the Statue of Liberty in 1995.

Custom Medical Stock Photo has over 100,000 images on the CMSP.com website available for download and license.

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CMSP Cool Image of the Day

Washington DC, President Obama on Wednesday made a passionate call for Congress to fix the nation's ailing health care system in the same spirit that created Social Security and Medicare in difficult times.

President Obama told a joint session of Congress that the "time for bickering" over health care is over.

In a joint speech to Congress heralded as vital to his push for a health care overhaul, Obama offered his most detailed outline for legislation while challenging Republican opponents to build on issues of agreement rather than play politics to exploit differences.

Today's Cool Image comes from Joe the Patient. He says, "WHAT? I DON'T HAVE INSURANCE?"

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CMSP Cool Image of the Day

New Malaria Poses Human Threat

Malaria is spread by mosquitoes. Malaria, from the Medieval Italian words mala aria or “bad air,” infects more than 500 million people a year and kills more than a million— one person dies about every 30 seconds. An emerging new form of malaria poses a deadly threat to humans, research has shown.

It had been thought the parasite Plasmodium knowlesi infected only monkeys.

But it has recently been found to be widespread in humans in Malaysia, and the latest study confirms that it can kill if not treated quickly. The work, by an international team, appears in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

So just to get this straight, the Swine Flu has killed a few people here and there and the governments make a huge deal of it. Malaria on the other hand kills a million people EACH year and not much is said of it. Go figure.

Custom Medical Stock Photo has over 100,000 images on the CMSP.com website available for download and license.

Small files and royalty free images can be viewed and purchase online at CMSP's sister site: www.cmspRF.com

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CMSP Cool Image of the Day

Virus Linked to Prostate Tumors

Scientists have produced compelling evidence that a virus known to cause cancer in animals is linked to prostate cancer in humans. The researchers from the University of Utah and Columbia University medical schools found the virus in 27% of the 200 cancerous prostates they looked at.

The finding raises the prospect of one day producing a vaccine.

XMRV is a retrovirus like HIV which works by inserting a copy of its own DNA into the chromosomes of a cell they infect. Where this occurs next to a gene that regulates cell growth it can disrupt the normal development of the cell. XMRV is known to cause leukaemia and other tumours in animals.

Dr Ila Singh, who led the study from the pathology department at the University of Utah, said: "We still don't know that this virus causes cancer in people, but that is an important question we are going to investigate.

"One of the things peculiar about this virus is that it has an androgen response element - it grows better in the presence of testosterone and possibly other steroid hormones.

"This is particularly interesting because if we can prove that it responds to oestrogen it could have a role in other cancers.

"We are already looking at the bodies of 100 women and 100 men, who died from other causes, to see if any other organs carry the virus."

It is Tuesday. The summer is pretty much over, now get back to work!!!!

Custom Medical Stock Photo has over 100,000 images on the CMSP.com website available for download and license.

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CMSP Cool Image of the Day

Today's Cool Image is from CMSP photographer Todd Bannor.

What is it a picture of?

FLY LARVA. Maggot. Seen on a leaf with water. As Johnny Carson would have said, " Weird stuff."

Custom Medical Stock Photo has over 100,000 images on the CMSP.com website available for download and license.

Small files and royalty free images can be viewed and purchase online at CMSP's sister site: www.cmspRF.com

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CMSP Cool Image of the Day

New details are emerging about the life-forms that survive in one of the world's most inaccessible places. Scientists have published descriptions of a range of jelly-like animals that inhabit the deep oceans of the Arctic.

The animals were originally filmed and photographed during a series of submersible dives in 2005.

One of the biggest surprises is that one of the most common animals in the Arctic deep sea is a type of jellyfish that is completely new to science.

The deep Arctic ocean is isolated from much of the water elsewhere on the globe.

I'm off for a swim and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich!!!!
Custom Medical Stock Photo has over 100,000 on the CMSP.com website available for download and license.

Small files and royalty free images can be viewed and purchase online at CMSP's sister site: www.cmspRF.com

Any questions, contact CMSP at research@cmsp.com