In the News

“Medicine in the 21st Century”

Cancer Treatment Centers of America Purchases Sixth Hyperthermia System from BSD Medical

Type 2 Diabetics May Have Residual Cardiovascular Risk

Using Mathematics To Target Parkinson's Disease Symptoms

“Medicine in the 21st Century”

Jeffrey Bland, Ph.D., FACN, FACB, CNS, Chief Science Officer for Metagenics, Inc., a nutrigenomics and lifestyle medicine company focused on reversing chronic illness and improving health, will address “Medicine in the 21st Century” at the Exchange 2011 conference, in Portland, Oregon, on Friday, November 18, 2011.

Sponsored by the American Academy of Environmental Medicine and the American College for the Advancement in Medicine, the conference will focus on the emerging epidemic of diabetes, the co-morbidities of the disease and the prevalence of pre-diabetes.

 “It is estimated that more than half of American adults suffer from one or more chronic illnesses such as diabetes,” said Dr. Bland, who is internationally known for his pioneering research and education in nutrigenomics—the science of how genes are influenced by nutrition. “We must expand the focus of medicine from primarily treating acute illness to also preventing chronic disease and promoting health.”

Under Dr. Bland’s direction, Metagenics’ scientific staff—among the largest in the nutrigenomics industry—has pioneered research showing how natural substances found in plants, in combination with therapeutic lifestyle changes, are effective in addressing chronic illness, thus offering safe, effective treatment alternatives. To date, this scientific team has published more than 80 articles in peer-reviewed journals and has been awarded more than 50 international or domestic patents.

Earlier this year, the Journal of Clinical Lipidology reported the findings of a 12 week multi-center clinical trial conducted at three universities that showed Metagenics’ UltraMeal® PLUS 360° medical food, combined with a low-glycemic Mediterranean diet and aerobic exercise, is almost twice as likely to lower certain cardiovascular risk factors as this same diet and exercise alone, and is 40 percent more likely to resolve the effects of metabolic syndrome.

Cancer Treatment Centers of America Purchases Sixth Hyperthermia System from BSD Medical

BSD Medical Corporation (the “Company” or “BSD”) announced today that the Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) at Midwestern Regional Medical Center has purchased a BSD-500 Hyperthermia System (BSD-500).

CTCA Midwestern Regional Medical Center, located in the metropolitan Chicago area, is a premier cancer care facility that provides the most advanced therapeutic resources in cancer treatment in one location. CTCA is a network of hospitals that provides an unprecedented level of care to cancer patients, and this will be the sixth BSD Hyperthermia system purchased by CTCA.

The CTCA hospitals were recently recognized by the Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons as "offering the very best in cancer care."

“Clinical studies have shown that hyperthermia delivered using the BSD-500 can significantly increase the effectiveness of radiation therapy without a significant increase in toxicity for certain tumors. This will be the sixth BSD Hyperthermia system purchased by CTCA, and we are excited to have another BSD system placed in these prestigious cancer care facilities," stated Harold Wolcott, BSD's President.

For more information, please visit www.BSDMedical.com.

Type 2 Diabetics May Have Residual Cardiovascular Risk

Recent clinical data suggests that type 2 diabetics with low non-HDL and low LDL cholesterol may carry residual risk of a cardiac event based on high LDL particle numbers. 

The data was presented at the 2011 American Heart Association Scientific Sessions, now underway in Orlando, Florida.

Researchers evaluated 1,970 type 2 diabetics with low non-HDL cholesterol levels and observed that 25 percent of these patients had an LDL particle number (LDL-P) over 1,000 nmol/L, considered to be elevated. Of the patients that had low LDL-C concentrations, normal triglyceride and HDL-C levels, 14 percent had an elevated LDL particle number.

The authors conclude that the subset of patients with very low LDL-C or non-HDL-C and high LDL-P levels may still carry residual risk for developing cardiovascular disease (CVD). They also suggest that using LDL-P values to gauge the adequacy of LDL lowering may be a more effective approach to optimize management of diabetic and other high-risk patients.*

“A growing body of clinical research and expert opinions suggests that for patients at intermediate-to-high risk of cardiovascular disease, including type 2 diabetics, LDL particle number is more closely associated with cardiac events than LDL and non HDL-cholesterol,” said Hector Malave, M.D., a practicing cardiologist in Atlanta and investigator in this study. “Using LDL particle number may allow for optimal management of LDL-associated CVD risk in this patient population.”

A panel of experts in the field of clinical lipidology, convened by the National Lipid Association, published a consensus statement in the October 2011 issue of the Journal of Clinical Lipidology which states that the use of LDL particle number is reasonable for initial clinical risk assessment and on-treatment management of cardiovascular disease for many patient populations, including those to be considered at intermediate risk.

In March 2011, clinical data was published in the Journal of Clinical Lipidology suggesting that in many people, LDL cholesterol is a less accurate predictor of cardiovascular disease events than LDL particle number.

In 2008, the American College of Cardiology and American Diabetes Association jointly issued a consensus statement recognizing that “even with adequate cholesterol lowering, many patients on statin therapy have significant cardiovascular disease risk” and “many cross-sectional and prospective studies show that particle number is a better discriminator of risk than cholesterol.”

LDL particle levels were measured using LipoScience’s NMR LipoProfile test, a laboratory test that utilizes nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to measure LDL and other lipoprotein particles. LDL particle information can help clinicians personalize and refine LDL management decisions, particularly to minimize residual risk in patients with low LDL cholesterol levels.

For further information on the Company, please visit www.liposcience.com and www.theparticletest.com.

* Use of LDL-P to manage the treatment of diabetic patients has not been cleared by the FDA.

Using Mathematics To Target Parkinson's Disease Symptoms

University of Pittsburgh mathematicians have been collaborating with Pitt's School of Medicine to find ways to stop the symptoms of Parkinson's disease.

Pitt mathematicians, working with neurobiology researchers, are using computational models, experiments, and analysis of models and data to study the way that signals are transferred between the basal ganglia, a collection of nuclei found in the brain that helps with motor control, and the thalamus, its downstream target in the brain. Although scientists can't yet prevent the cell death associated with Parkinson's, their study of mathematical patterns could guide the development of less invasive treatments that block the motor symptoms of the disease.

"For Parkinson's patients, there are more spurts and pauses in neural activity, and the firing of groups of neurons becomes more coordinated, leading to tremor and other symptoms," said Jonathan Rubin, Pitt professor of mathematics and one of the principal investigators on the project. "The neuronal activity is like a woodpecker knocking on a tree outside your window; it distracts you when it first starts pecking, and then the silence grabs your attention when the pecking suddenly stops.  Similarly, the starts and stops in the neuronal activity can become disruptive to signal processing in the brain."

Rubin said this firing pattern may be what leads those with Parkinson's to experience shaking, rigid muscles, and difficulty in making quick movements. Currently, if side effects of drug treatments become too strong, surgeons fight these symptoms with deep brain stimulation (DBS), an aggressive but commonly used surgical treatment in which an implanted electrode literally penetrates the brain and sends out electrical impulses.

Pitt researchers are trying to understand the neuronal activity patterns so they can improve the deep brain stimulation procedure, making it more individualized and efficient. 

Along with Rubin, the principal investigators of the NSF award for the study of complex biological systems across multiple space and time scales are G. Bard Ermentrout, Distinguished University Professor of Computational Biology and professor of mathematics at Pitt; David Swigon, Pitt associate professor of mathematics; and Ivan Yotov, professor and chair in Pitt's Department of Mathematics. The NSF grant partially funded the work of mathematics graduate student Pamela Reitsma, who carried out preliminary computational studies on the flow of signals from the basal ganglia under the supervision of Rubin and Brent Doiron, Pitt assistant professor of mathematics.

The principal investigators of the NIH grant are Pitt researchers Robert Turner, associate professor of neurobiology at Pitt; Brent Doiron, assistant professor of mathematics; and Rubin.