A new study reveals that radiotherapy for brain tumors is less dangerous than previously assumed.
The treatment consists of bombarding tumors with high-energy radiation, which destroys cancer cells. However, this can also cause harm to good tissue and, in rare situations, increase the risk of second cancer arising.
However, researchers from the University of Birmingham discovered that the chance of a second brain tumor is eight times lower than was previously believed.
The study examined radiotherapy and other treatments administered to 3,679 patients with benign brain tumors.
Over the course of 20 years, 4% of individuals who had had radiotherapy and 2.1% of those who had received an alternate treatment developed secondary tumors. Dr. Niki Karavitaki of the university stated, “Although there is an enhanced danger, it is little.”
Warning signs in the thighs
The presence of adipose tissue in the thighs may indicate an increased risk of heart failure in the future.
Researchers measured the thigh fat of 2,300 research participants and monitored their health for 12 years.
Those with the highest thigh fat were a third more likely to get heart failure than those with thinner thighs, according to an analysis.
Being overweight increases the risk of hypertension and cardiovascular disease — conditions in which fatty deposits collect in the arteries and cause blockages.
Additionally, patients may acquire type 2 diabetes.
Using living cells, scientists have created a human heart replica that beats much like the real thing.
The model is of a human left ventricle, the chamber of the heart that pumps freshly oxygenated blood into the aorta. The model is one millimeter in length and half that in width.
The scientists inserted rat heart cells into a flexible plastic scaffold. Once the cells began to grow together, the scaffold was rolled into a cone form.
After five days, the ventricle started beating and can now pump blood like a genuine heart.
This model might be used to research the effects of medications without using animals as test subjects, according to the team’s publication in the journal Advanced Biology.
