Why do so many postmenopausal women who are treated for oestrogen-sensitive breast cancer stop using aromatase inhibitors that help prevent the disease from recurring? The first study to actually ask the women themselves, as well as the largest, most scientifically rigorous study to examine the question, carried out at Northwestern University, USA reports that 36 percent of women stop treatment early because of the medications

Varian Medical Systems and Siemens Healthcare announce global collaboration to advance clinical capabilities and offerings in radiotherapy and radiosurgery.

Varian Medical Systems and Siemens Healthcare have announced the signing of a strategic global partnership to provide advanced diagnostic and therapeutic solutions and services for treating cancer with image-guided radiotherapy and radiosurgery. The collaboration covers the mutual marketing and representation of products for imaging and treatment in the global radiation oncology business. This collaboration further comprises the development of software interfaces between Siemens and Varian treatment systems. The two companies will also investigate opportunities for joint development of new products for image-guided radiotherapy and radiosurgery.

Under the agreement that was signed this week, Varian will represent Siemens diagnostic imaging products such as CT, PET/CT or MRI to radiation oncology clinics around the world beginning immediately in most international markets and expanding to North America later this year. Siemens Healthcare will similarly represent Varian equipment and software for radiotherapy and radiosurgery within its offerings to its healthcare customers. This will enable the companies to offer comprehensive solutions to support the entire clinical workflow from imaging to treatment. Siemens will continue to service and support its global installed base of approximately 2,000 medical linear accelerators. The agreement will give Siemens customers more choices for therapy equipment, including smooth transition and interface to Varian equipment, as aging accelerators are due for replacement.

Furthermore, Varian and Siemens will develop interfaces that will enable connecting Varian

In a new study, researchers used mice to identify a combination six naturally occurring bacteria that eradicate a highly contagious form of Clostridium difficile, an infectious bacterium associated with many hospital deaths. Three of the six bacteria have not been described before. This work may have significant implications for future control and treatment approaches.
The researchers found that this strain of C. difficile, known as O27, establishes a persistent, prolonged contagious period, known as super-shedding that is very difficult to treat with antibiotics. These contagious

Robot avatars have got a step closer to being the real world doubles of those who are paralysed or have locked-in-syndrome. Scientists have made a robot move on a human’s behalf by monitoring thoughts about movement.
The man-machine link joined a man in a brain scanner in Israel and a robot wandering a laboratory in France. The person controlling the robot could also see through the eyes of his electronic surrogate. The researchers are now working on ways to make the man-machine link more sensitive and to let people speak via the robot.
The research project connected a robot to a man having his brain scanned using fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging). This monitors blood flowing through the brain and can spot when areas associated with certain actions, such as movement, are in use.
Using brain scanners is a step beyond current efforts to link up men and machines. Much recent work involved teleoperated robots in which humans manipulate controls, such as joysticks, to make a robot move.
By contrast, the scanning approach is more subtle and attempts to fool the human subject into thinking that they are embodied in the robot.
Eventually the small robot will be swapped for one the size of an average human The experiment helping to prove the technology works linked up student Tirosh Shapira who was in a lab at Bar-Ilan University, Israel, with a small two-legged robot thousands of kilometres away at Beziers Technology Institute in France.
Prior to connecting the two, researchers made Mr Shapira think about different sorts of movements and developed software that could quickly spot his intention.
The result was that he could control the robot in almost real time.
The illusion of embodiment was tested by surprising Mr Shapira with a mirror so he could see his robot self – a test that convinced him he was present in the French lab.
The next step for the research is to refine it to use a different type of scanning that can work using a skull cap rather than an fMRI machine that a person has to lie in. The robot used to represent a human is to be upgraded to a version that has a similar stature and gait to a real person.
The research is part of an international project called Virtual Embodiment and Robotic Re-Embodiment that aims to refine ways to link people and surrogates in both virtual environments and the real world.
Work is being done on medical applications of the technology but the researchers warned that it was a long way from being able to help anyone yet. BBC