News on and About Social Media

Reports on mobile etiquette and mobile messaging and Health News Review’s recent picks of great writing on healthcare in this edition of Blog Buzz…

For those interested in social media, mobile technologies and changing social norms, the Pew Research Center released two reports last month that are worth checking out. On August 19th, a report on Mobile Messaging and Social Media – which looks at various social media platforms, the growth of specific platforms, along with the demographics of users and their frequency of use – was released. On the 26th came Americans’ Views on Mobile Etiquette.

Health News Review has a feature called Five Star Friday which highlights great news stories covering healthcare and related issues. Among other things, this week’s linked to Science Isn’t Broken by Christine Aschwanden, an older post that has gotten a good deal of attention and is worth a look. Other items in this roundup cover a building boom in cancer centers and a discussion on precision medicine.

New Partnership, Blog Post, and News About MSK Staff

Posted on September 2, 2015 by Donna

A selection of news items about MSK and staff!

Lehigh Valley Health Network of Salisbury joined the MSK Cancer Alliance. Dr. Craig Thompson, President and CEO of MSK is quoted.

From the MSK Blog, Neurologist Gavril Pasternak’s lab has developed an opioid derivative that works as well as traditional opioids for pain management.

Lightpoint Medical, a device company specializing in imaging technologies announced that it has received an R01 grant of $2.6 million from the US National Cancer Institute. The funding will support clinical trials of Lightpoint’s EnLight™ molecular imaging technology in lymph node cancer and a range of gynecologic cancers at MSK.

The Cancer Research Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the discovery and development of immunotherapies for all forms of cancer will be honoring three scientists for their contributions at an upcoming awards dinner scheduled for Wednesday, September 17, 2015, in New York city. One of the researchers to receive the 2015 William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic Immunology is Alexander Rudensky, Ph.D., Chairman of the Immunology Program and Director of the Ludwig Center at MSK. Continue reading →

Some of the stories that caught my attention:

Researchers supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation have discovered how aggressive cells can invade healthy tissue in the early stage of tumor development. The scientists used genetically modified fruit fly pupas and found that they carried an artificially activated gene called Myc, which is known to be involved in tumor formation. The results have been published in Nature.
A phase I randomized clinical trial carried out by thirteen leading cancer centers in the United States and Canada for a medication, guadecitabine (SGI-110), for treatment of patients with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) and myelodyplastic syndromes (MDS) yielded promising results. The findings are reported in The Lancet Oncology.
A study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology found that music therapy reduces anxiety in women undergoing breast biopsies. The two-year study was conducted at the University Hospitals Case Medical Center and involved 207 patients.
A NIH-funded study conducted by researchers at Case Western Reserve University have found that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) combined with the injection of a chemical solution (a protein of five amino acids) can lead to the detection of the earliest signs of breast cancer recurrence and fast-growing tumors. The results were published in Nature Communications.