NF1 Linked To More Than 25% Of Breast Cancers

Cancerous tumors contain hundreds of mutations, and finding these mutations that result in uncontrollable cell growth is like finding the proverbial needle in a haystack. As difficult as this task is, it's exactly what a team of scientists from Cornell University, the University of North Carolina, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York have done for one type of breast cancer. In a report appearing in the journal GENETICS, researchers show that mutations in a gene called NF1 are prevalent in more than one-quarter of all noninheritable or spontaneous breast cancers...
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Hypertension During Pregnancy Linked To Low IQ In Offspring

High blood pressure in mothers while they are pregnant can lead to negative effects in her offspring's thinking skills which may carry through until they are much older, according to a study published online in Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Katri R?¤ik?¶nen, PhD, from the University of Helsinki in Finland explained: "High blood pressure and related conditions such as preeclampsia complicate about 10 percent of all pregnancies and can affect a baby's environment in the womb...
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Deprivation Linked To Maternal Mental Health

The issue of perinatal mental illness among women in deprived socio-economic groups is highlighted in the October edition of the British Journal of General Practice (BJGP). The BJGP article highlights a UK-wide study in which researchers studied more than 100,000 women with antenatal and postpartum depression and other mental health problems. They found that the poorest patients, particularly those aged over 35 years, were almost three times as likely to develop depression as women from affluent backgrounds...
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