Children with a rare type of cancer called Wilms' tumor who are at low risk of relapsing can now be given less intensive treatment, avoiding a type of chemotherapy that can cause irreversible heart problems in later life.

The move follows the results of a Cancer Research UK trial, published in the Lancet, showing that the drug doxorubicin can be safely omitted from treatment without affecting patients' chances of survival.

Athletes who've had lower extremity surgeries before going on to play in college, might be at a higher risk for another surgery independent of gender and sport, say researchers presenting their work today at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine's (AOSSM) Annual Meeting in Orlando, FL.

"This is the first study to look at the relationship between precollegiate surgery and future injury requiring surgery in collegiate athletes. Our results suggest that athletes injured before college might be left with a functional deficit that puts them at risk for future injury," said lead author, Dean Wang, MD from the University of California at Los Angeles.

Chronic pain caused by the nerve damage of type 2 diabetes, surgical amputation, chemotherapy and other conditions is especially intractable because it resists painkilling medications.

But in a study on mice, a Duke University team has shown that injections of stem cells from bone marrow might be able to relieve this type of neuropathic pain. The researchers say their findings, which appear July 13 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, may also advance cell-based therapies in chronic pain conditions, lower back pain and spinal cord injuries.

The team used a type of stem cell known as bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs), which are known to produce an array of healing factors and can be coaxed into forming most other types of cells in the body.

After examining decades of data, researchers from the University of Colorado Denver have found that a lack of education may be as deadly as smoking.

The study, which included researchers from New York University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, examined population data going back to 1925 to determine how education levels affected mortality over time.

They found a direct link between education levels and death, noting that higher education is a strong predictor of longevity due to factors that include higher income, healthier behaviors and improved social and psychological well-being.

The error-free distribution of genetic material during cell division is important for preventing the development of tumor cells. Prof. Erich Nigg’s research group at the Biozentrum, University of Basel, has uncovered a new important function of the human enzyme Plk1. It plays a significant role in monitoring chromosome segregation.

Taking a combination of antidepressants and common painkillers is associated with an increased risk of bleeding soon after starting treatment, finds a study in BMJ.

The researchers say their results may have been affected by other unmeasured or unknown factors and should be interpreted with caution. However, they suggest special attention is needed when patients use both these classes of drugs together.

Depression produces the greatest decrement in health of all common chronic conditions and depression in older people is an important public health problem.