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BOSTON -- Nearly 90% of patients with advanced cancer said in a study that religion and spirituality were important to them, but 72% said their spiritual needs were met only minimally or not at all by the medical system.

NEW YORK -- Breast cancer patients given colony stimulating factors to overcome chemotherapy-driven neutropenia have an increased risk of developing acute myeloid leukemia (AML) or myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), according to researchers here.

CHICAGO -- If physicians have a moral objection to a legal medical procedure such as abortion, it is ethically acceptable for them to explain this to patients, two-thirds of doctors said in a national survey.

SUTTON, England -- After successful treatment of Hodgkin's disease, the excess risk of a myocardial infarction persists for at least 25 years depending on the kind of therapy, British researchers reported.

BOSTON -- A commonly used general anesthetic creates a vicious cycle of cell death and deposits of Alzheimer's disease proteins -- at least in cell culture.

SAN BRUNO, Calif. -- Trasylol (aprotinin), a drug designed to limit operative blood loss, was associated with a 48% increase in risk of dying within five years of coronary artery bypass surgery, according to researchers here.

BALTIMORE -- Men with an aggressive form of benign prostatic hyperplasia, which requires early intervention to stave off bladder complications, can be found with an investigational blood test, reported a multicenter team.

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- The FDA said today it has approved the first microarray genetic analysis designed to aid in predicting the risk of stage I or II breast cancer recurrence or metastasis.

TEMPLE, Tex. -- Only high-volume cardiac interventionalists with meticulous track records should consider performing percutaneous coronary procedures without onsite surgical backup, according to a consensus statement.

NEW YORK -- Low birth weight and child abuse combine synergistically to increase the later risks of depression by 10-fold and social dysfunction by nearly ninefold, researchers here said.

AARHUS, Denmark -- Four common neuropsychiatric disorders of childhood appear on the rise, with Tourette's syndrome, and hyperkinetic disorder joining autism and autism spectrum disorder, researchers here reported.

ST. LOUIS -- Pediatricians who make medical errors would like to report their mistakes to their hospitals but the doctors often fear the recriminations of formal disclosure programs, according to a survey

COLUMBIA, Md., Feb. 2 -- A blood test for pregnant women may be able to diagnose trisomy 21, which leads to Down's syndrome, and other chromosomal abnormalities in the fetus, according to a preliminary study.

MELBOURNE, Australia -- Trying to achieve normal hemoglobin levels in patients with anemia caused by chronic kidney disease increases their risk of dying, according to researchers here.

MILWAUKEE -- When patients with chest pain arrive at the emergency department, they may get profiled, before decisions are made on care, by race, female gender, and insurance coverage, reported researchers here.

MIAMI -- With the Super Bowl upon us, the long-term effects on some former National Football League players of repeated concussions, including premature Alzheimer's disease-like symptoms, have been the subject of two front-page articles in The New York Times this week. Here from the MedPage Today archives is a major 2005 report on football concussions at all levels of competition.

Declining cardiovascular function, poor circulation, diabetes, obesity, cancer, immunodeficiency, renal disease, and thinned, xerotic skin provide the setting for a host of bacterial infections in elderly persons that can involve any level or structure of the skin.

NEW YORK -- Brachytherapy is highly effective at preventing relapse of early-stage prostate cancer, but only when it is properly performed with sufficiently high doses of radiation, investigators in a multicenter study reported.