http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) or primary liver cancer forms in the epithelial tissue of the liver and is most commonly caused by the hepatitis B virus (HBV) or hepatitis C virus (HCV). In the U.S., the National Cancer Institute (NCI) estimates that 15,000 men and 6,000 women are diagnosed with HCC each year. Worldwide, HCC accounts for 632,000 cases with the highest regions being Western Pacific and Africa according to a 2004 World Health Organization (WHO) report. http://www.physorg.com/news175261820.html Medicine & Health Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:20:04 EST news175261820 Patients with chronic hepatitis C and advanced liver disease who drink three or more cups of coffee per day have a 53% lower risk of liver disease progression than non-coffee drinkers according to a new study led by Neal Freedman, Ph.D., MPH, from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). http://www.physorg.com/news175261769.html Medicine & Health Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:00:01 EST news175261769 A recent study maps the pathway that leads from infection with Hepatitis B and C virus (HBV and HCV) to chronic hepatitis and liver cancer and proposes a new therapeutic strategy for treating liver diseases with chronic inflammation. The research, published by Cell Press in the October issue of the journal Cancer Cell, describes a signaling pathway that can be beneficial during liver regeneration, but can lead to chronic hepatitis and severe liver damage when chronically activated. The research was performed in the Department of Pathology, Institutes of Clinical Pathology and Neuropathology at the University Hospital in Zurich. http://www.physorg.com/news173968463.html Medicine & Health Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:10:08 EST news173968463 (AP) -- Federal health advisers voted 6-4 on Monday that the potential benefits of a Schering-Plough drug outweigh its toxic risks as a treatment for late-stage skin cancer. http://www.physorg.com/news173965069.html Medicine & Health Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:50:02 EST news173965069 One of the most common reasons for needing a liver transplant is liver failure or liver cancer caused by liver cell infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV). However, in nearly all patients the new liver becomes infected with HCV almost immediately. But now, Hideki Ohdan, Kazuaki Chayama, and colleagues, at Hiroshima University, Japan, have developed an approach that transiently keeps HCV levels down in most treated HCV-infected patients receiving a new liver. http://www.physorg.com/news173640457.html Medicine & Health Thu, 01 Oct 2009 22:00:01 EST news173640457 (PhysOrg.com) -- Viruses like Hepatitis C proliferate by tricking cellular machinery into manufacturing the parts for duplicate viral particles. http://www.physorg.com/news173549327.html Chemistry Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:09:14 EST news173549327 Walter and Eliza Hall Institute researchers are part of an international team that has discovered a genetic variation that could identify those people infected with hepatitis C who are most likely to benefit from current treatments. http://www.physorg.com/news172918443.html Medicine & Health Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:20:12 EST news172918443 More than seventy percent of people who contract Hepatitis C will live with the virus that causes it for the rest of their lives and some will develop serious liver disease including cancer. However, 30 to 40 percent of those infected somehow defeat the infection and get rid of the virus with no treatment. In this week's Advanced Online Publication at Nature, Johns Hopkins researchers working as part of an international team report the discovery of the strongest genetic alteration associated with the ability to get rid of the infection. http://www.physorg.com/news172337905.html Medicine & Health Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:00:03 EST news172337905 As a result of dominant media coverage of new epidemic threats such as swine influenza, other infection risks receive less public attention than they deserve. http://www.physorg.com/news172306933.html Medicine & Health Wed, 16 Sep 2009 08:02:36 EST news172306933 Sexual impairment is common among men with chronic hepatitis C undergoing antiviral therapy, according to a new study in Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute. http://www.physorg.com/news171005964.html Medicine & Health Tue, 01 Sep 2009 06:50:01 EST news171005964 It is still unknown why the natural history of chronic disease caused by hepatitis C virus (HCV), which currently infects 3% of the world's population, varies from mild in some patients to rapidly progressing in others. http://www.physorg.com/news170518579.html Medicine & Health Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:20:01 EST news170518579 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have for the first time captured elusive nanoscale movements of ribosomes at work, shedding light on how these cellular factories take in genetic instructions and amino acids to churn out proteins. http://www.physorg.com/news170004991.html Biology Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:37:33 EST news170004991 Researchers at the University of Leeds have discovered a previously unknown mechanism that allows the hepatitis C virus (HCV) to remain in the body for decades. http://www.physorg.com/news169741163.html Medicine & Health Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:19:51 EST news169741163 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have identified the first genetic marker that predicts response to hepatitis C treatments, and a single letter of DNA code appears to make a huge difference. Duke University Medical Center scientists says the biomarker not only predicts who is most likely to respond to treatment and who isn't, but also may explain why there are such different rates of response among racial and ethnic groups, a phenomenon that has puzzled physicians for years. http://www.physorg.com/news169650092.html Medicine & Health Sun, 16 Aug 2009 14:02:08 EST news169650092 Viruses need living cells for replication and production of virus progeny. Thus far, antiviral therapy primarily targets viral factors but often induces therapy resistance. New improved therapies attempt to targets cellular factors that are essential for viral replication. http://www.physorg.com/news169473882.html Medicine & Health Fri, 14 Aug 2009 13:20:01 EST news169473882 A chemical found in blueberry leaves has shown a strong effect in blocking the replication of the Hepatitis C virus, opening up a new avenue for treating chronic HCV infections, which affect 200 million people worldwide and can eventually lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer. http://www.physorg.com/news168864255.html Medicine & Health Fri, 07 Aug 2009 11:44:49 EST news168864255 The three treatment combinations for clearing the most common form of the hepatitis C virus work equally well with similar side effects, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers and their colleagues in 13 other institutions have found. Hepatitis C affects nearly 4 million Americans and leads to cirrhosis and liver cancer but can be arrested permanently in many patients. http://www.physorg.com/news168857842.html Medicine & Health Fri, 07 Aug 2009 09:57:45 EST news168857842 A team of researchers from The Wistar Institute has identified a protein that could serve as a target for reprogramming immune system cells exhausted by exposure to chronic viral infection into more effective "soldiers" against certain viruses like HIV, hepatitis C, and hepatitis B, as well as some cancers, such as melanoma. http://www.physorg.com/news168792252.html Medicine & Health Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:30:01 EST news168792252 Building upon a series of successful preclinical studies, researchers at MassBiologics of the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) today announced the beginning of a Phase 1 clinical trial, testing the safety and activity of a human monoclonal antibody they developed that can neutralize the Hepatitis C virus (HCV). http://www.physorg.com/news168778307.html Medicine & Health Thu, 06 Aug 2009 11:52:16 EST news168778307 The structure of an entire HIV genome has been decoded for the first time by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The results have widespread implications for understanding the strategies that viruses, like the one that causes AIDS, use to infect humans. http://www.physorg.com/news168697337.html Medicine & Health Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:23:14 EST news168697337 Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a blood-borne disease that causes inflammation of the liver and to which there is currently no vaccine available. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 3% of the world's population, approximately 170 million people, are infected with HCV and it is a leading cause of liver cirrhosis, end stage liver disease, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and liver transplantation. http://www.physorg.com/news168179353.html Medicine & Health Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:51:09 EST news168179353 Schistosoma haematobium (S. haematobium) is a parasitic flatworm that infects millions of people, mostly in the developing world, and is associated with high incidence of bladder cancer although why is not clear. Now, however, two works by Portuguese researchers just out in The Journal of Experimental Pathology 1 and  the International Journal of Parasitology 2 reveal that cells infected in laboratory with S. haematobium, acquire cancer-like characteristics and, when injected into mice develop into tumours. http://www.physorg.com/news168156930.html Medicine & Health Thu, 30 Jul 2009 07:16:04 EST news168156930 (AP) -- A patient infected with hepatitis C has been found at a second Colorado hospital that employed a surgery technician accused of swapping her dirty syringes for ones filled with painkillers meant for patients. http://www.physorg.com/news167721073.html Medicine & Health Sat, 25 Jul 2009 07:00:01 EST news167721073 Findings from the largest study to date comparing the efficacy of competing treatments for chronic hepatitis C infection (HCV) show that the regimens are similar when it comes to safety and their ability to provoke long-term viral eradication, according to researchers at Duke University Medical Center. Still, subgroup analysis reveals provocative data suggesting some approaches might be better than others for women and minorities. http://www.physorg.com/news167502970.html Medicine & Health Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:36:53 EST news167502970 (AP) -- Another hepatitis C case has been linked to a Denver hospital where an infected surgery technician is accused of swapping her dirty syringes for ones filled with a powerful painkiller meant for patients. http://www.physorg.com/news167062558.html Medicine & Health Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:16:56 EST news167062558 (AP) -- Hundreds more patients have been advised to get tested for hepatitis C as health officials in two more states launched investigations into an infected Colorado surgery tech who allegedly swapped clean needles for dirty ones to feed her painkiller addiction. http://www.physorg.com/news167028038.html Medicine & Health Fri, 17 Jul 2009 06:00:02 EST news167028038 (AP) -- A hospital in New York state is notifying about 2,800 patients of possible exposure to hepatitis C after learning that a former employee is suspected of exposing nearly 6,000 patients in Colorado to the disease. http://www.physorg.com/news166941080.html Medicine & Health Thu, 16 Jul 2009 05:31:58 EST news166941080 (AP) -- Kimberly Spencer's 9-year-old son went to Audubon Ambulatory Surgery Center last month for what was supposed to be a routine surgery. The rambunctious child stuck a BB in his ear and doctors had to operate to remove it. http://www.physorg.com/news166596067.html Medicine & Health Sun, 12 Jul 2009 05:41:47 EST news166596067 (AP) -- A Denver hospital said Monday it has asked every patient who had surgery there over a six-month period to come in for a blood test amid allegations that a former technician exposed up to 6,000 people to hepatitis C as she fed her painkiller addiction. http://www.physorg.com/news166164113.html Medicine & Health Tue, 07 Jul 2009 06:30:10 EST news166164113 (AP) -- A former surgery technician may have exposed thousands of Colorado patients to hepatitis C when she swapped her own dirty syringes for ones filled with a powerful narcotic, federal authorities said Thursday. http://www.physorg.com/news165805194.html Medicine & Health Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:00:25 EST news165805194