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Acancer treatment has shown astounding results in a small clinical trial. All of the treated patients, who had a specific form of mid-stage rectal cancer, have since experienced complete remission. Though the findings are based on a sample size of just 18 people, they could hold important implications for treating these particular cancers. The results of the Phase II trial were published over the weekend in the New England Journal of Medicine . The study involved researchers at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center as well as Yale University, and it was sponsored by the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline. The trial...

WASHINGTON (AP) — With Congress deadlocked over how to address racism and excessive use of force, President Joe Biden plans to sign an executive order on policing Wednesday, the second anniversary of George Floyd’s death, according to three people familiar with the matter. The decision reflects Biden’s struggle to use the limited powers of his office to advance his campaign promises, as well as his attempt to strike a balance between police and civil rights groups at a time when rising concerns about crime are eclipsing calls for reform. The order would require federal law enforcement to review and revise...

The drug gabapentin, currently prescribed to control seizures and reduce nerve pain, may enhance recovery of movement after a stroke by helping neurons on the undamaged side of the brain take up the signaling work of lost cells. Results showed that daily gabapentin treatment for six weeks after a stroke restored fine motor functions in the animals' upper extremities. Functional recovery also continued after treatment was stopped, the researchers found. The team previously found that gabapentin blocks activity of a protein that, when expressed at elevated levels after an injury to the brain or spinal cord, hinders re-growth of axons,...

Antimicrobial resistance stewardship programs have to be prioritized, keeping the demands of the continuing Covid-19 pandemic in context On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, a pandemic. Two years later, the shadow of the Covid pandemic is still looming over us. While the world is making valiant attempts to move into the post-pandemic phase, the situation is akin to “one step forward, two-step backward”, as new variants of this virus are still emerging. Covid-19 has taken center stage in every facet of life. Policymakers and medical personnel are still...

A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) shows that the number of fatal overdose deaths among teenagers rose from 492 in 2019 to 954 in 2020, an increase of 94%. "For decades, we've seen overdose rates rising among adults, and teens have been insulated from that," said Joe Friedman, a public health researcher at the University of California-Los Angeles, as reported by NPR. "And now, for the first time, the overdose crisis is reaching teens as well." The problem fueling the overdoses apparently is fentanyl, according to the study, in the form of counterfeit prescription...

Authorities in Louisiana said they have busted a career drug peddler for the fourth time in less than a year. Madelyn Payne, 24, was arrested during an underground operation on March 14 after information reached investigators, police said. According to the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office, PAYNE has been receiving bulk quantities of heroin and fentanyl which she was then distributing in and around East Baton Rouge Parish.

Avocados are wildly important in the U.S., and most are imported from Mexico. This week, the U.S. briefly banned Mexican avocados after a U.S. inspector in the state of Michoacan reported receiving threats. But avocados and limes have long been used by drug cartels to help finance their violent business plans. Emily Green reports for VICE News from Mexico and joins us from Mexico City. Thanks so much for being with us. EMILY GREEN: Thanks so much for having me on. SIMON: How would you describe the role cartels have in the agricultural business, specifically avocados and limes? GREEN: Well,...

A drug that was approved by U.S. regulators more than 70 years ago may help protect against two major COVID-19 symptoms, according to a new study.Disulfiram, approved to treat alcoholism, protected rodents infected with COVID-19 from lung injury in the preclinical study done by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.Certain white blood cells called neutrophils form inside some people suffering from COVID-19, damaging the lungs. No drugs have yet been found to prevent this from happening, researchers said.Disulfiram, though, dramatically reduced the formation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NET), which cause fluid to accumulate in the lungs...

The December 2010 murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry exposed the bungled “Fast and Furious” investigation, in which agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowed criminals to buy guns with the intention of tracking the weapons. But the agency lost most of the guns, including two that were found at the scene of Terry’s death in southern Arizona. The U.S. government has heavily pursued prosecution of the men involved in the killing. Mexico says Mexican drug gangs and former officials also participated in or failed to stop the weapons trafficking. Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office...

Moloch is preparing for the end of his bacchanalia of child-killing.Last week, a clear majority of the Supreme Court signaled that it was finished dipping its hands into the blood of millions of legally slaughtered Americans (see Supreme Court Humiliates Biden, Refuses to Stop Texas Heartbeat Law, and Gorsuch and the Wise Latina Have a Public Spat). By leaving in place a Texas law that outlaws abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, five justices essentially ruled that a state has the right to regulate abortion much as it can regulate tattooing and acupuncture.The assumption that the illegal Roe abortion...

18.6% increase compared with 2019... The UK recorded its highest ever year-on-year increase of alcohol-related deaths during 2020, with COVID-19 lockdowns playing a huge role in the rise. Figures released today by the the Office of National Statistics (ONS) show that there were 8,974 deaths “from alcohol-specific causes,” an 18.6% increase compared with 2019. That represents the highest year-on-year increase since records began being collected in 2001. In an attempt to deflect the elephant in the living room, the ONS insisted that there are “many complex factors” to consider in explaining the deaths. However, the Alcohol Change charity warned last...

The large-scale drug trafficking operation of an infamous cartel just got busted in a mountain state some 1,400 miles from its Mexican headquarters and only one U.S. official, a local prosecutor, has dared to acknowledge the obvious; “This poison is coming over from our southern border unchecked,” said the elected prosecutor of Colorado’s largest district. “It will not stop coming over the border from Mexico into our communities until the federal government takes that porous border seriously.” His name is John Kellner, district attorney in the state’s 18th Judicial District which serves a population of about 1.3 million and covers...

An absolutely gutting statistic on its face, which also plays into other flashpoint issues facing the country – including the COVID pandemic and the ongoing border crisis. We'll address both of those points below, but no matter how you analyze or slice it, this "top line" number – which offers partial quantification of suffering and addiction in our country – is just heartbreaking and appalling: ... More than 100,000 Americans died of drug overdoses during the 12 months following the COVID-19 lockdowns, the most overdose deaths ever recorded in a one-year span, according to the Centers for Disease Control and...

The CDC announced in July that there were 93,331 overdose deaths in the US in 2020. Provisional data from CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics indicate that there were an estimated 93,331 drug overdose deaths in the United States during 2020, an increase of 29.4% from the 72,151 deaths predicted in 2019.Advertisement - story continues belowThe data features an interactive web data visualization. The new data documents that estimated overdose deaths from opioids increased from 50,963 in 2019 to 69,710 in 2020. Overdose deaths from synthetic opioids (primarily fentanyl) and psychostimulants such as methamphetamine also increased in 2020 compared to...

Former Pfizer employee Karen Kingston told Dr. Bryan Ardis that the Food and Drug Administration‘s (FDA) emergency use authorization of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine was part of a conspiracy to harm children. She made this claim during the Nov. 3 episode of “The Dr. Ardis Show” on Brighteon.TV. Ardis had strong words for the FDA advisers who voted in favor of allowing the vaccine to be injected into children aged five to 11. “Shame on the FDA committee members who voted yes to inject five- to 11-year-old Americans. I actually am so disgusted. I think you’re all complicit in...

Another piece of anti-Ivermectin puzzle may have emerged. On Monday, Pfizer announced that it's launching an accelerated Phase 2/3 trial for a COVID prophylactic pill designed to ward off COVID in those may have come in contact with the disease.Coincidentally (or not), Pfizer's drug shares at least one mechanism of action as Ivermectin - an anti-parasitic used in humans for decades, which functions as a protease inhibitor against Covid-19, which researchers speculate "could be the biophysical basis behind its antiviral efficiency."Lo and behold, Pfizer's new drug - which some have jokingly dubbed "Pfizermectin," is described by the pharmaceutical giant as...

Pfizer Inc said on Monday it has started a large study testing its investigational oral antiviral drug for the prevention of COVID-19 infection among those who have been exposed to the virus. The drugmaker and its rivals, including U.S.-based Merck & Co Inc and Swiss pharmaceutical Roche Holding AG , have been racing to develop an easy-to-administer antiviral pill for COVID-19. The mid-to-late-stage study will test Pfizer's drug, PF-07321332, in up to 2,660 healthy adult participants aged 18 and older who live in the same household as an individual with a confirmed symptomatic COVID-19 infection. In the trial, PF-07321332, designed...

Orlando Police Department officers exchanged gunfire Tuesday afternoon with three people, one of whom was wounded but survived, police Chief Orlando Rolón said. Rolón said two officers in an unmarked car approached the three people, who were standing on a sidewalk about 1 p.m. at Jacobs Place and South Lakeland Avenue, a few blocks from Camping World Stadium. Before the officers could exit the car, they got into a shootout with the three. Rolón said it wasn’t immediately clear who fired the first shots, but said officers on OPD’s Special Enforcement Division fired from within their vehicle. He said one...

A new class of drug successfully targets treatment-resistant prostate cancers and prolongs the life of patients. The treatment delivers beta radiation directly to tumor cells, is well tolerated by patients and keeps them alive for longer than standard care, found a phase 3 trial to be presented at the European Association of Urology congress, EAU21. Despite progress in medicine in recent years, metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer remains untreatable and fatal. The new treatment, known as Lu-PSMA-617, takes a new approach, targeting a molecule called PSMA, which is known to be increased on the surfaces of the tumor cells, destroying them...

Forensic scientists have for the first time shown that DNA can be recovered from the surface of capsules after just 15 seconds of contact by drug manufacturers and dealers—making it possible for law enforcement agencies to track down criminal syndicates around the world. In a new study published in Forensic Science International: Genetics, Flinders University researchers have demonstrated that DNA from criminals who may have handled the capsules during production, assembly and distribution of illegal drugs can be identified if matched to a profile of a suspect, or one already on a DNA database. Ph.D. candidate Amy Griffin from the...