Doctors and patients are often out of sync with each other when it comes to what patients believe about their illnesses, including to what extent the patient is to blame and what's the best way to manage the problem, new research shows.

The underlying cause of the disconnect is a lack of communication, researchers said. Patients who were "active participants" in their care -- by asking questions, voicing opinions and sharing concerns -- were better understood by their doctors, according to the study.

The genetic makeup of breast cancer tumors may be a better predictor of how well a woman will fare than a tumor's size and appearance, which has been the traditional way of looking at cancers, new research suggests.

A European team of researchers analyzed the genetic makeup of 595 breast cancer tumors and compared the results to non-cancerous breast tissue. They then used algorithms to separate the tumors into eight types based on changes in the structure of the chromosomes, including deletions or amplifications of DNA, the study authors said.

Children with brain injuries tend to be able to acquire the same language abilities as other children but have greater difficulty developing story-telling skills, a new study shows.

"Our findings suggest that there may be limitations to the remarkable flexibility for language functions displayed by children with brain injuries," study author and University of Chicago researcher Ozlem Ece Demir said in a university news release.

Following a federal health panel's endorsement of the new blood thinner Brilinta Wednesday, cardiologists say the drug could be a welcome addition to treatments for heart patients.

In a 7-to-1 vote, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Cardiovascular and Renal Drugs Advisory Committee recommended approval of the drug for heart patients undergoing angioplasty or stenting to open blocked arteries, and for those not requiring such interventions but being managed with drug therapy alone.

Weight loss has been noted among patients who've had a knee or hip replacement, a new study says.

The research focused on 196 patients, mean age 67 years, who had knee or hip replacement surgery (arthroplasty) at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City between 2005 and 2007.