News Releases - March 2012 Archives

PHOENIX — March 29, 2012.  An emerging fungal infection of the gastrointestinal tract that mimics cancer and inflammatory bowel disease appears to be emerging in the Southwestern United States and other desert regions, according to Mayo Clinic researchers in Arizona investigating the disease. The invasive fungus, Basidiobolus ranarum, is typically found in the soil, decaying organic matter and the gastrointestinal tracts of fish, reptiles, amphibians, and bats. VIDEO ALERT: Click here to watch. Mayo researchers studied 44 cases of human gastrointestinal basidiobolomycosis reported from around the world, including 17 from Arizona, one from southern Utah and one from elsewhere in the U.S. Eight of the 44 patients died. Mayo's review of the cases is published online in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. Basidiobolomycosis is usually a subcutaneous infection in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world that develops following traumatic inoculation of the fungus under the skin. The emergence of gastrointestinal involvement with Basidiobolus in arid regions has been considered unusual. "The exact mode of acquisition of this gastrointestinal infection is unclear, although consumption of contaminated food or dirt is the favored hypothesis," says lead author H.R. Vikram, M.D., an infectious diseases physician at Mayo Clinic, where seven of the 19 U.S. cases studied were treated. "The infection is still considered so rare that no one had put together a complete description." He adds that more study needs to be done to determine how this infection is contracted, what underlying diseases might predispose patients to this infection and how best to treat it. He emphasizes that early recognition is key to successful treatment. The first U.S. case of gastrointestinal Basidiobolus infection was reported in 1986. The CDC subsequently investigated six cases in Arizona between 1994 and 1999. This sparked the interest of researchers at Mayo Clinic in Arizona to study this infection.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Most patients undergo a colonoscopy with the expectation that any suspicious lesions that may signal evidence of colorectal cancer will be detected. ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — A delegation from the Health Ministry of the Czech Republic, led by Minister Leos Heger, M.D., will visit Mayo Clinic in Rochester ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — The Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media will hold its first conference in New York City May 17–18, 2012, at Roosevelt Hospital, ...

Phoenix — Mayo Clinic in Arizona and the American Cancer Society have announced that construction is projected to begin in the fall of 2012 for ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — March 26, 2012.  Even as the rates of some cancers are falling, Mayo Clinic is seeing an alarming trend: the dramatic rise ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Spring has only just arrived, but tick season is well under way. Physicians are seeing new cases of tick-borne illness several weeks earlier than usual, likely because a mild winter in much of the country made life easier for ticks and their offspring. That means it's time for gardeners, hikers, pet owners and others who spend time outdoors to take steps to protect themselves — and to watch for symptoms of tick-borne illness if they do come in contact with the tiny bloodsuckers. "We've already started getting positives for tick-borne disease such as Lyme disease, anaplasmosis and babesiosis," says Bobbi Pritt, M.D., a Mayo Clinic microbiologist and director of the Clinical Parasitology and Virology Laboratories. That is a month or two earlier than normal for Minnesota and other states with unusually warm weather in recent months are likely seeing the same. Dr. Pritt says there are several things people can do to protect themselves from ticks. "The first thing is just tick avoidance — staying out of areas where ticks are going to be present: tall grasses, shrubs, leaf litter," Dr. Pritt says. "Also using insect repellant, such as DEET. You can also buy clothing that has been impregnated with pyrethroids, which is another type of insect repellant, and there are certain types of insect repellants for pets." Other countermeasures Dr. Pritt suggests: Keep grass short in yards and avoid ungroomed areas. Wear long clothing to prevent ticks from getting to your skin. Check yourself, your children and your pets after spending time outdoors. To reduce risk on hikes, stay on trails. If you leave the path, wear long pants tucked into your socks. If you find ticks, remove them right away. Use force and pinch the tick near its mouth parts, pulling the tick out slowly in a continuous motion. Don't twist it, which may leave mouth parts embedded in the skin. If you've been exposed to ticks, be alert for fever, headache and muscle pains, and if you experience them, see a physician and mention you've been exposed to ticks, Dr. Pritt says. A hallmark of Lyme disease is a bull's-eye-patterned rash. If you do not recall getting a tick bite but have been working outdoors or visited other tick habitats and develop such symptoms, it is important to tell your doctor, she says. One tick-related illness Dr. Pritt plans to keep special watch for this year is ehrlichiosis. She and other researchers in Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Centers for Disease Control announced last year they had found a new tick-borne bacterium causing ehrlichiosis in humans.

CHICAGO — A research network led by a Mayo Clinic physician found that stem cells derived from heart failure patients' own bone marrow and injected into their hearts improved the function of the left ventricle, the heart's pumping chamber. Researchers also found that certain types of the stem cells were associated with the largest improvement and warrant further study. The results were presented today at the 2012 American College of Cardiology Meeting in Chicago. They will also be published online in the Journal of the American Medical Association. This Phase II clinical trial, designed to test this strategy to improve cardiac function, is an extension of earlier efforts in Brazil in which a smaller number of patients received fewer stem cells. For this new network study, 92 patients received a placebo or 100 million stem cells derived from the bone marrow in their hips in a one-time injection. This was the first study in humans to deliver that many bone marrow stem cells. "We found that the bone marrow cells did not have a significant impact on the original end points that we chose, which involved reversibility of a lack of blood supply to the heart, the volume of the left ventricle of the heart at the end of a contraction, and maximal oxygen consumption derived through a treadmill test," says Robert Simari, M.D., a cardiologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. He is chairman of the Cardiovascular Cell Therapy Research Network (CCTRN), the network of five academic centers and associated satellite sites that conducted the study. The CCTRN is supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, which also funded the study. "But interestingly, we did find that the very simple measure of ejection fraction was improved in the group that received the cells compared to the placebo group by 2.7 percent," Dr. Simari says. Ejection fraction is the percentage of blood pumped out of the left ventricle during each contraction. Study principal investigators Emerson Perin, M.D., Ph.D., and James Willerson, M.D., of the Texas Heart Institute, explain that even though 2.7 percent does not seem like a large number, it is statistically significant and means an improvement in heart function for chronic heart failure patients who have no other options. "This was a pretty sick population," Dr. Perin says. "They had already had heart attacks, undergone bypass surgery, and had stents placed. However, they weren't at the level of needing a heart transplant yet. In some patients, particularly those who were younger or whose bone marrows were enriched in certain stem cell populations, had even greater improvements in their ejection fractions." The average age of study participants was 63. The researchers found that patients younger than 62 improved more. Their ejection fraction improved by 4.7 percent. The researchers looked at the makeup of these patients' stem cells from a supply stored at a biorepository established by the CCTRN. They found these patients had more CD34+ and CD133+ type of stem cells in their mixture.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Could blocking a testosterone receptor lead to a new way to treat an aggressive form of breast cancer? That's a question researchers at Mayo Clinic in Arizona and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) are exploring. Preliminary results of a Mayo Clinic — TGen collaborative study shows the testosterone receptor may be a potential target to attack in treating triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). VIDEO ALERT: Click here to watch Dr. Barbara Pockaj explain the study. Lead researcher Barbara Pockaj, M.D., a surgical oncologist at Mayo Clinic in Arizona will present the results of the study at the 65th annual Society of Surgical Oncology conference on March 23 in Orlando, Fla. TNBC is highly aggressive and affects approximately 10 to 20 percent of breast cancer patients. The disease is characterized by larger, faster-growing tumors than other types of breast cancer and has limited treatment options. Unlike other forms of breast cancer in which treatments are tailored to specifically target hormone receptors such as estrogen and progesterone or the HER-2 proteins that promote the growth and spread of cancer cells, triple negative cancer cells do not possess markers for estrogen, progesterone or HER-2, Dr. Pockaj says. There are no targeted therapies for TNBC, just chemotherapy, she says. Researchers at Mayo Clinic and TGen say that could change if the androgen (testosterone) receptor shows potential as a therapeutic target. "The goal of the study was to define what may be fueling TNBC, thereby identifying new potential options for effective targeted treatment," says co-lead researcher Heather Cunliffe, Ph.D., Associate Professor and head of TGen's breast and ovarian cancer research unit. "The team discovered that the androgen receptor is expressed in a significant proportion of these tumors, and moreover, the androgen-receptive positive tumors shared a unique clinical behavior."

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Research on kidney stones in fruit flies may hold the key to developing a treatment that could someday stop the formation of ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — March 22, 2012.  It's a natural laboratory for studying heart disease, lung problems, muscle loss, sleeping disorders and new medical technologies. It's also the highest mountain in the world. Mount Everest's extreme altitude puts climbers under the same conditions experienced by patients suffering from heart disease, obesity or advanced age. To take advantage of that, Mayo Clinic researchers are joining an expedition to Everest with National Geographic, The North Face and Montana State University. The Mayo group will monitor up to nine climbers from base camp for the duration of the climb, which will run from mid-April to mid-May. VIDEO ALERT: Additional audio and video resources, including excerpts from an interview with Dr. Johnson describing the research, are available on the Mayo Clinic News Blog. "We can simulate some conditions in oxygen tents and hyperbaric chambers, but only for short periods," says Bruce Johnson, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic physiologist and leader of the scientific expedition. "We're studying the effects of extreme altitude on healthy, active individuals as well as these extreme athletes because what they experience mimics aspects of heart disease." Dr. Johnson, who has conducted research at the South Pole and other mountain ranges, will be joined by three other Mayo investigators: physician-researcher Doug Summerfield, M.D., and scientists Bryan Taylor, Ph.D., and Amine Issa, Ph.D. Mayo Clinic also will send its own reporter to cover the research expedition. Joel Streed of the Mayo Clinic News Network will blog and shoot video from base camp. The coverage can be followed at www.MayoCliniconEverest.com, and on Twitter at #MayoClinic #onEverest. The expedition and other research initiatives are part of Mayo's work to transform medical care. The data generated by the expedition is expected to provide new insights into aging patients and heart disease, and help Mayo develop high-quality, affordable options for patients who need cardiac monitoring.

WHAT: Mayo Clinic's Complementary and Integrative Medicine team will provide free back and hand massages, aromatherapy samples, and yoga and tai chi lessons. Take this ...