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PORTLAND, Ore. -- Gleevec (imatinib) has led to an overall 60-month survival rate of 95% for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients with who took the tyrosine kinase inhibitor daily, found an international study. Yet the drug doesn't cure the disease.

BURLINGTON, Vt. -- Cutting down on cigarettes may be an effective stepping stone toward eventually kicking the habit, according to researchers here. On the other hand, cutting back in and of itself has no known health benefit.

GENEVA -- Patients in the intensive care unit who give informed consent to participate in a clinical trial may not be capable of making such a decision, according to a small Swiss study.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Low doses of Mifeprex (mifepristone) -- the compound at the heart of the abortion pill -- shrink uterine fibroids and improve quality of life for women with the condition, according to researchers here.

EDINBURGH, Scotland -- For a person at high risk for schizophrenia, a reduction in gray matter in the temporal lobes over time suggests a high likelihood that psychosis will develop, reported investigators here.

GAITHERSBURG, Md. -- There are more questions than answers on the eve of the start of a two-day special FDA advisory panel on drug-eluting stents, such as whether they are safe, who should get get them, and who should not.

ESSEN, Germany -- For colorectal cancer patients, whole-body PET/CT colonography provides a one-stop tumor staging that seemed at least equivalent to CT plus PET, according to a preliminary report.

SEATTLE -- When it comes to mammogram interpretation, the eyes and judgment of radiologists still have it over computer chips, according to researchers here.

DURHAM, N.C. -- Extending dual antiplatelet therapy with aspirin and Plavix (clopidogrel) to six months or longer significantly reduced the risk of death or myocardial infarction for patients given-drug eluting stents, researchers here reported.

COPENHAGEN -- Long-term cell phone users are not at elevated cancer risk, according to a large Danish study.

SAN DIEGO -- When the Marine Corps evaluated thousands of recruits, it found that young men, ages 18 to 20, were significantly more likely to become risky drinkers if they started drinking as children or young teenagers.

EDMONTON, Alberta -- When enthusiastic hockey fans get into it, the sound in an indoor arena can rise to the level of a jet aircraft taking off, with the risk of permanent hearing damage.

ZURICH, Switzerland -- Rare-earth magnets -- now being packaged into necklaces and bracelets -- may have a deadly attraction for patients with pacemakers and implanted defibrillators, warn researchers here.

CLEVELAND -- The abrupt halt to clinical trials of torcetrapib, an investigational HDL-boosting agent, raises questions about any drug that inhibit cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP), according to cardiologist Steven Nissen, M.D., of the Cleveland Clinic.

Porokeratosis is a clonal disorder of keratinization that features patches with raised red rims and atrophic centers. The histologic hallmark of porokeratosis is the cornoid lamella, the pathologic substrate of the ridgelike border.

Blue nevi are a manifestation of dermal melanocytosis.1 They consist of blue, gray-blue, or brown-blue papules that occur most commonly on the head and neck. The blue pigmentation is attributable to the depth of melanin in the dermis and the Tyndall effect (the preferential absorption of long light wavelengths by melanin and the scattering of shorter wavelengths, representing the blue end of the spectrum, by collagen bundles).

Actinic (solar) keratoses are found on sun-exposed skin of elderly white persons-in particular redheaded or blond patients, who tend to burn frequently and tan poorly. Actinic keratoses are the most common sun-related growths in white persons.

A variety of benign lesions in elderly patients involve proliferation of melanocytes. These lesions include dysplastic nevi, which histologically contain somewhat asymmetric nests of melanocytes; compound nevi, which histologically contain more symmetric nests of melanocytes in the dermis and epidermis and intradermal nevi, which histologically contain nests of melanocytes in the dermis.