Research

Laser-guided Malaria Detectors Smart Socks that Predict Heart Attacks Mouse Avatars to Study Ovarian Cancer These are just three of the joint projects now underway ...

Mayo Clinic research results presented in NEJM could change colorectal screening practice A clinical trial of Cologuard shows unprecedented results for finding colorectal cancer with a noninvasive test. “Cologuard detection rates of early stage cancer and high-risk precancerous polyps validated in this large study were outstanding and have not been achieved by other noninvasive approaches,” says the study’s author David Ahlquist M.D., a Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist and co-inventor of the Cologuard test. Colorectal cancer has become the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States, but it is highly treatable if found early. Cologuard uses a self-contained collection kit that allows patients to send stool samples to a high-tech lab for screening. Journalists: Sound bites with Dr. Ahlquist, animation and b-roll of the Cologuard test kit are available in the downloads.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MkoFI5lBvY Journalists: Sound bites with Dr. Cerhan are available in the downloads. ROCHESTER, Minn. — March 12, 2014 — Having a big belly has consequences beyond trouble squeezing into your pants. It’s detrimental to your health, even if you have a healthy body mass index (BMI), a new international collaborative study led by a Mayo Clinic researcher found. Men and women with large waist circumferences were more likely to die younger, and were more likely to die from illnesses such as heart disease, respiratory problems, and cancer after accounting for body mass index, smoking, alcohol use and physical activity. The study is published in the March edition of Mayo Clinic Proceedings. The researchers pooled data from 11 different cohort studies, including more than 600,000 people from around the world. They found that men with waists 43 inches or greater in circumference had a 50 percent higher mortality risk than men with waists less than 35 inches, and this translated to about a three-year lower life expectancy after age 40. Women with a waist circumference of 37 inches or greater had about an 80 percent higher mortality risk than women with a waist circumference of 27 inches or less, and this translated to about a five-year lower life expectancy after age 40.  

ROCHESTER, Minn. — March 11, 2014 — People who develop diabetes and high blood pressure in middle age are more likely to have brain cell loss and other damage to the brain, as well as problems with memory and thinking skills, than people who never have diabetes or high blood pressure or who develop it in old age, according to a new study published in the March 19, 2014, online issue of Neurology. Middle age was defined as age 40 to 64 and old age as age 65 and older. “Potentially, if we can prevent or control diabetes and high blood pressure in middle age, we can prevent or delay the brain damage that occurs decades later and leads to memory and thinking problems and dementia,” says study author and Mayo Clinic epidemiologist Rosebud Roberts M.B., Ch.B. For the study, the thinking and memory skills of 1,437 people with an average age of 80 were evaluated. The participants had either no thinking or memory problems or mild memory and thinking problems called mild cognitive impairment. They then had brain scans to look for markers of brain damage that can be a precursor to dementia. Participants’ medical records were reviewed to determine whether they had been diagnosed with diabetes or high blood pressure in middle age or later.

New York — March 3, 2014 — A new approach to breast reconstruction surgery aimed at helping patients’ bodies get back to normal more quickly cut their postoperative opioid painkiller use in half and meant a day less in the hospital on average, a Mayo Clinic study found. The method includes new pain control techniques, preventive anti-nausea treatment and getting women eating and walking soon after free flap breast reconstruction surgery. It has proved so effective, it is now being used across plastic surgery at Mayo Clinic. The findings were being presented at the Plastic Surgery Research Council annual meeting March 7-9 in New York. Breast reconstruction surgery is common after breast tissue is removed to prevent or treat breast cancer; in free flap breast reconstruction, the plastic surgeon transfers a section of tissue from one part of the body to the chest.  Using traditional care, the hospital stay averaged roughly four and a half days after that procedure. Using a new approach known as an “enhanced recovery pathway,” patients spent an average of three days in the hospital, the researchers found. Opioid painkiller use by patients in the hospital after surgery also declined with the new method, and those patients reported less pain at 24 hours after surgery than those who received the traditional approach. Calculated in oral morphine equivalents, opioid use averaged 142.3 milligrams over the first three days in the hospital, compared with an average of 321.3 milligrams over the same period with traditional care. Patients are giving the changes positive reviews, says senior author Michel Saint-Cyr, M.D., a plastic surgeon in the Breast Diagnostic Clinic at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.  

Patients with dental extractions before cardiac surgery still at risk for poor outcomes, study finds   Rochester, Minn. — Feb. 27, 2014 — To pull or ...

Findings May Help Make Immunizations More Effective  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KC4eyi8h1UA ROCHESTER, Minn. — Feb. 27, 2014 — Somali Americans develop twice the antibody response to rubella from the current vaccine compared to Caucasians in a new Mayo Clinic study on individualized aspects of immune response. A non-Somali, African-American cohort ranked next in immune response, still significantly higher than Caucasians, and Hispanic Americans in the study were least responsive to the vaccine. The findings appear in the journal Vaccine.  “This is fascinating,” says Gregory Poland, M.D., Mayo Clinic vaccinologist and senior author of the study. “We don’t know why these groups reacted so differently to the vaccine — that’s a subject for further studies — but this new information will help us as we design the vaccines of the future. It will ultimately change how we practice medicine.”

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Feb. 24, 2014 — Mayo Clinic researchers have fashioned a new key to unlocking the secrets of the human genome. The Binary Indexing Mapping Algorithm, version 3 (BIMA V3) is a freely available computer algorithm that identifies alterations in tumor genomes up to 20 times faster and with 25 percent greater accuracy than other popular genomic alignment programs. BIMA results are published this month in the journal Bioinformatics. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uFyCYtoFck Journalists: Sound bites with Dr. Vasmatzis are available in the downloads. BIMA is a next-generation sequencing mapping and alignment algorithm, customized to process mate pair library sequencing. Mate pair sequencing is a comprehensive and cost-effective method for detecting changes throughout the entire genome. “BIMA allows us to evaluate tumor genomes in a fraction of the time it takes many popular technologies,” says George Vasmatzis, Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic molecular biologist, director of the Biomarker Discovery Program in the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine, and senior author of the paper. “We believe this tool will lead to a better understanding of tumor genomics, and ultimately better therapy for patients with cancer.”

It's not too late to register for The 26.2 with Donna Finish Breast Cancer Marathon if you're in the Jacksonville, Fla. area this weekend! It's the only marathon in the country where all race proceeds and donated funds go to breast cancer research and care for those with the disease.  Running any marathon certainly takes time and dedication ... and no matter how much you train, you do need to pay attention to your health. That’s why the 'medical tent' is a key element of every marathon. In this report Vivien Willimas covers health issues unique for endurance runners.  [TRT 1:36] (Previously aired on MCNN Feb. 2013) Get more stories and information at: Sharing Mayo Clinic - The Donna Series 26.2 with Donna The National Marathon to Fight Breast Cancer Journalists: Video pkg. is available in the downloads. Click here for script. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiXoS3UQhtE

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Feb. 19, 2014 — Researchers say the discovery of how sodium ions pass through the gill of a zebrafish may be a ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic researchers have shed light on a new mechanism by which prostate cancer develops in men. Central to development of nearly all prostate cancer cases are malfunctions in the androgen receptor — the cellular component that binds to male hormones. The research team has shown that SPOP, a protein that is most frequently mutated in human prostate cancers, is a key regulator of androgen receptor activity that prevents uncontrolled growth of cells in the prostate and thus helps prevent cancer. The findings appear in the journal Cell Reports. “By uncovering this new and important pathway of androgen receptor destruction, we may one day be able to develop more effective treatments for a substantial proportion of prostate cancer patients who have developed resistance to standard antiandrogen therapy,” says Haojie Huang, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic biochemist and senior author of the paper. SPOP mutations have been detected in approximately 15 percent of prostate cancer cases. In addition, it has been shown that in about 35 percent of prostate cancers, the SPOP protein is expressed at abnormally low levels. Despite its prevalence in prostate cancer, it was not known whether or how SPOP defects contributed to tumor development. What the research team discovered is that SPOP is an enzyme that selectively destroys androgen receptor protein. Failure to do so due to alterations in SPOP results in overabundance of androgen receptor, a master regulator of prostate cancer cell growth.   The Mayo Clinic research team made four major discoveries: The antiandrogen receptor is a bona fide degradation substrate of SPOP. Androgen receptor splicing variants are resistant to SPOP-mediated degradation. Prostate cancer-associated SPOP mutants cannot bind to and promote androgen receptor degradation. Androgens antagonize, but antiandrogens promote SPOP-mediated degradation of androgen receptor.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Patients with a common form of lung cancer — lung squamous cell carcinoma — have very few treatment options. That situation may soon change. A team of cancer biologists at Mayo Clinic in Florida is reporting in the Feb. 10 issue of Cancer Cell the discovery of two oncogenes that work together to sustain a population of cells in lung squamous cell carcinoma, which may be responsible for the lethality of the disease. When these cells, termed cancer stem cells, are inhibited, tumors cannot develop. Journalists: Sound bites with Dr. Fields are available in the downloads. http://youtu.be/ZdSIwoL0i80 “Cancer stem cells are a small population of cells in a tumor that can self-renew and grow indefinitely. They resist most treatments and are thought to be responsible for relapse,” says the study’s senior author, Alan P. Fields, Ph.D., the Monica Flynn Jacoby Professor of Cancer Studies at Mayo Clinic in Florida. “If you can shut down cancer stem cells, you may be able to stop relapse after therapy,” he says.