Medicine & Health

Holidays and tables full of delicious food usually go hand-in-hand, but for nearly half of the children in the United States, this is not guaranteed, says Mark R. Rank, Ph.D., poverty expert at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work.

School of Medicine researhers have shown that highly targeted radiation therapy improves survival and lessens treatment-related complications in cervical cancer patients. The technique, called intensity-modulated radiation therapy, is widely accepted for treating many cancers of the pelvic region, head and neck, and central nervous system, but its for cervical cancer is not as common.

Washington University has been awarded nearly $80 million in funding from the 2009 American Recovery and Re-investment Act (ARRA) to support research across a broad range of projects, including cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, renewable energy, diabetes and climate change.

The Prevention Research Center (PRC) in St. Louis is launching a multinational research project focused on preventing the leading causes of death in Hispanics in the United States and Latin America.

The School of Medicine will be one of seven institutions creating a new national network for sharing information between scientists. A $12.2 million grant from National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) will establish the network, which has been described as “Facebook for scientists.”

Holidays and tables full of delicious food usually go hand in hand, but for nearly half of the children in the United States, this is not guaranteed. “49 percent of all U.S. children will be in a household that uses food stamps at some point during their childhood,” says Mark R. Rank, Ph.D., poverty expert at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. “Food stamp use is a clear sign of poverty and food insecurity, two of the most detrimental economic conditions affecting a child’s health.” Rank’s study, “Estimating the Risk of Food Stamp Use and Impoverishment During Childhood,” is published in the current issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. Video available.

Researchers at the School of Medicine have linked mutations in a gene to a benign pediatric brain tumor, a finding that will help scientists seek drug treatments that block growth of the tumors, they report in the journal Neurology.

Intensive lifestyle changes aimed at modest weight loss reduced the rate of developing type 2 diabetes by 34 percent over 10 years in people at high risk for the disease, researchers at the School of Medcine report online in The Lancet.

Bernard Becker, who headed the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences for more than 30 years, received the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s highest honor.

MeyersBryan F. Meyers has been named the Patrick and Joy Williamson Endowed Chair in Cardiothoracic Surgery at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and the School of Medicine.