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The hotter our body temperature, the more our bodies speed up a key defense system that fights against tumors, wounds or infections Date: May 21, 2018 Source: University of Warwick Summary: The hotter our body temperature, the more our bodies speed up a key defense system that fights against tumors, wounds or infections, new research has found. The hotter our body temperature, the more our bodies speed up a key defence system that fights against tumours, wounds or infections, new research by a multidisciplinary team of mathematicians and biologists from the Universities of Warwick and Manchester has found. The researchers have demonstrated that small rises in temperature (such as during a fever) speed up the speed of a cellular 'clock' that controls the response to infections -- and this new understanding could lead to more effective and fast-working drugs which target a key protein involved in this process. Biologists found that inflammatory signals activate 'Nuclear Factor kappa B' (NF-κB) proteins to start a 'clock' ticking, in which NF-κB proteins move backwards and forwards into and out of the cell nucleus, where they switch genes on and off. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180521095606.htm

A tumour weighing as much as a teenager is removed from a woman's abdomen by doctors in the US, who say she will recover fully. The woman had noticed herself rapidly gaining weight. Pic: Danbury Hospital A woman has had a 132-pound (60kg) tumour removed from her abdomen by doctors in the US. The 38-year-old had been gaining weight at a rate of about 10 pounds a week for two months before she first went to her doctor seeking help. She was malnourished because part of the ovarian tumour was on her digestive tract and she used a wheelchair because of the weight and the swelling in her legs. It was also on a major blood vessel, prompting fears for her heart. Dr Vaagn Andikyan assembled the 25 highly-skilled clinical specialists to plan the tumour's removal at Danbury Hospital in Connecticut in February. He said: "I might expect to see a 25-pound ovarian tumour, but a 132-pound tumour is very rare. "When I met the patient, she was extremely malnourished because the tumour was sitting on her digestive tract, and she used a wheelchair because of the tumour's weight." Dr Karl Kulikowski, vice chairman of the hospital's anaesthesia department, said that the team had practised different surgery scenarios to prepare. Read more: https://news.sky.com/story/woman-has-60kg-tumour-removed-from-abdomen-11359087