News Releases

News coverage of aggressive cancer treatments may give the public unrealistic hope that these treatments actually work. Additionally, news about treatment failure, adverse events, and end-of-life care are covered far less by the news media. These are some of the findings of a study by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania. The team looked at news stories about cancer that were reported in major news magazines and large city daily newspapers.

A new report from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine showed that people who followed a low-carbohydrate diet lost more weight in the first year, but tended to regain most of the weight during the next two years. In contrast, people who stuck to a low-fat diet maintained their weight loss over three years.

Louis J. Soslowsky, Ph.D. Fairhill professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and professor of Bioengineering, director of the McKay Orthopaedic Research Laboratory and Penn Center for Musculoskeletal Disorders at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, was named the 2010 winner of the Ann Doner Vaughan Kappa Delta Award by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgery.

Results Bode Well for Treating People with the Disease

New University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine research shows that CPR coaching through a cell phone audio recording is one way to help bystanders overcome their fears and save lives in real time.

Researchers have found that one particularly aggressive type of blood cancer, mixed lineage leukemia (MLL), has an unusual way to keep the molecular motors running. The cancer cells rely on the normal version of an associated protein to stay alive.

Forty-five percent of Americans - 135 million people - are more than an hour away from primary stroke centers, the facilities that are best equipped to care for them if they are stricken by the condition, according to new research led by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Less than a quarter of U.S. residents can reach one of those facilities in less than a half hour. The authors say the identification of these gaps in access is an important step in cutting the deadly toll of stroke, which is the third leading cause of death and the leading cause of long-term disability in the United States.

Penn Physician Offers Lessons From the Medical Response Following Devastating Haiti Earthquake

A new report found that multidisciplinary care teams can reduce the risk of dying in intensive care units, a noteworthy finding given the nationwide shortage of specially trained intensivist physicians, whose presence is also associated with reduced mortaility risk. The study appears in the February 22 edition of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Building on his research indicating that the brain during sleep is fundamentally different from the brain during wakefulness, Marcos Frank, PhD, has found that cellular changes in the sleeping brain may promote the formation of memories. Frank, an associate professor of Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, discussed these topics at the 2010 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.