New Vaccine, Research Shows Hope Against Deadliest Brain Tumors by Gina Shaw Over the past few decades, many types of cancer have been transformed from diagnoses that meant certain death to often-chronic diseases, manageable if not curable. From the 1960s through the 1990s, survival rates have climbed dramatically for cancers such as childhood leukemia, Hodgkinís disease, testicular cancer, melanomas and prostate cancer. One type of cancer that remains almost 100 percent fatal, however, is brain cancer. The most deadly, and most common, type of brain tumor is the malignant gliomaóa family of cancers that originate in the glial cells, supportive tissue that surrounds and insulates the brainís nerve cells. Of the approximately 17,000 new brain cancers diagnosed each year in the United States, about half are malignant gliomas. more... Charities Helping to Treat Children With Heart Defects by Gina Shaw Deborah was 3 years old but she looked much younger. Her twin brother, almost twice her size, could race around the room, but it took all of Deborahís effort just to walk. The tiny girl, from a small village in Uganda, was born with a congenital heart abnormality called tetralogy of Fallot, a combination of defects that includes a hole between the two bottom chambers of the heart and a narrowing near the pulmonary valve, called pulmonary stenosis. Instead of normal, oxygenated red blood pumping to her body, her heart pumped a mixture of oxygen-rich and oxygen-poor blood, leaving her weak and sickly. more...

Fibromyalgia: Real Disorder With Phantom Symptoms by Carolyn Cosmos ìSome doctors donít believe it exists,î said rheumatologist Dr. Sarah Cochran of fibromyalgia, a chronic and often disabling disorder that can torment patients with diffuse pain in the muscles, ligaments, joints and tendons, causing sleep disturbances and flu ctuating fatigue. Not currently curable, fibromyalgia is one of the three most common rheumatic conditions specialists such as Cochran see. And yet it can take years for patients to have their fibromyalgia identified. more... Reseachers Explore Connections Between Mind, Body in Health by Carolyn Cosmos The mind-body connection in health care is a hot topic these days. A Jan. 19, 2004, Time magazine article on the power of love and sex says that happily married people live longer, and just a year earlier, Time also devoted its January issue to exploring ìHow Your Mind Can Heal Your Body.î Itís not just a matter of media hype either: Noting that ìnumerous studiesî have linked psychological stress to health outcomes, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 1999 provided $10 million to fund five mind-body research centers, including one at the University of Pittsburgh and another at the University of Michigan. more... Directory of U.S. Hospitals Serving International Patients