The Food and Drug Administration annouced its approval of a new drug derived from the saliva of a poisonous lizard called the Gila monster.

Byetta, chemically called exenatide, is the newest option for Type 2 diabetics. The drug is the first of its kind, requires injections twice a day, and presently must be taken along with older diabetes treaments

Stanford, California (AHN)- US Scientists have been able to coax the immature brain cells to develop into the insulin-producing islet cells that are lacking in diabetes. The work is not yet ready to be tested on human patients, but there have been promising results in animals. Scientists have already been looking at using stem cells taken from embryos to treat diabetes. Dr. Seung Kim and colleagues looked at whether adult stem cells taken from the brain might work. Dr. Kim's team found that when they added a cocktail of chemicals to brain stem cells, the cells changed and, although they were not identical to islet cells, they were able to produce insulin in response to blood sugar levels. Scientists have already been looking at using stem cells taken from embryos to treat diabetes. Some patients have already received transplants using islet cells taken from living relatives or dead donors. However, the stem cell route would mean the patient themselves could potentially be their own donor. Dr. Angela Wilson, director of research at Diabetes UK said, "We'll certainly be following the progress of this research with interest

A therapy that promises to melt fat away with the help of a syringe has not yet been proven a safe and effective alternative to liposuction, according to a new report. The report, by a committee of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), points to a lack of research data and standardized techniques for the treatment, known as mesotherapy. Mesotherapy breaks down pockets of fat that dwell anywhere from the jaw line to the waistline to the hips. It involves a series of injections into the problem area, with the ingredients of those injections varying from case to case. A mixture of various drugs, plant extracts and other substances may be used. One of the most common ingredients is phosphatidylcholine, or lecithin - a waxy substance found in the cells of plants and animals. Lecithin is added to food and other products as an emulsifier, which means it helps mix fats with liquid. The product may act similarly when used in mesotherapy, emulsifying body fat and allowing natural enzymes to break it down. But whether and how mesotherapy works is still unclear, according to the ASPS report. Other important questions, including the possible effects of the procedure on the liver and other organs, remain unanswered, the authors report in the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. Mesotherapy is also expensive, with charges as high as $1,500 per treated area and practitioners generally recommend three to six rounds of injections over time. Research is ongoing and has shown slight promise in its results equaling that of current liposuction procedures. The main question mark is whether or not mesotherapy has long-term success. The procedure is called mesotherapy because injections are made into the mesoderm, the layer of fat and connective tissue under the skin. The method was developed by a French physician in the 1950s for the treatment of disorders of the blood vessels and lymphatic system. More recently, it has become a popular non-surgical alternative to liposuction in Europe and South America. Advocates say mesotherapy is far safer than the surgery, which, like all invasive procedures, carries some serious risks-including infection, blood clotting and, rarely, death. A major gap with mesotherapy, however, is the lack of standardization in the formulations and dosages used, and of guidelines stating, for instance, which patients are good candidates. It's also unclear where the body fat ends up after it's purportedly melted by mesotherapy. In the U.S., the individual components used in mesotherapy must be approved by the Food and Drug Administration, but their use in the context of mesotherapy has not been shown safe and effective. And the FDA has never approved a drug specifically for the body-contouring procedure

Stanford, California (AHN)- U.S. and Dutch researchers found distinct "healing" gene patterns, which they believe could reflect how aggressive a breast tumor is likely to be. Genes may help predict breast cancer patients' long-term health. But they said more research was needed to see if the find would aid treatment. Cancer charities echoed this caution about the study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Patrick Brown, from Stanford University, working with a team at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, followed what happened to 295 patients with early breast cancer up to 12 years after surgery for their tumors. They also analyzed each patient's tumor to see what gene pattern it had - which genes were active and which were not. Some of the patients' cancers had gene patterns similar to those seen in wounds during healing. These included genes involved with new blood vessel growth. When the researchers compared these patterns with the patients' outcomes they found those patients who fared the worst had similar gene patterns

Scientists have discovered that leukemia in children is frequently engaged by common infections and in some cases may be prevented. According to the journal Nature, in the United Kingdom Childhood Cancer Study researchers presented a link to leukemia in children associated with viruses like measles in the 1920's and in the 1970's found that viruses significantly increased the onset of leukemia in cats and cattle. Mel Greaves of the Institute of Cancer Research, London, said that with the normal immune system process, infections activate a multiplication of white blood cells in the bone marrow, and in children genetically susceptible to leukemia, an infection can cause an uncontrolled multiplication of those cells. Exposure to pathogen's through vaccine in the first year of the child's life may help trigger the immune system to somehow prevent the overflow. Leukemia accounts for a third of all cancers in children under the age of 15 and is treated with chemotherapy. The goal of chemo is the destruction of abnormal, cancerous cells. It commonly attacks infants within the first two to four years after birth. Roughly 80 percent of children affected with leukemia survive the first 5 years after diagnosis