One of every four teenage girls took the medically prescribed vaccine for four types the human papillomavirus and cervical cancer last year, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed.

The ratio was based on the agency's 2007 phone survey of 1,500 girls aged 13 to 17, though the health officials' recommendation is for girls to start the Gardasil vaccination as early as age 11 or 12, before sexual activity starts

Overweight men with elevated levels of insulin are at a higher risk of developing prostate cancer than other patients, a new Canadian study says.

Researchers at Montreal-based McGill University, in collaboration with Harvard University, analyzed data from 2,546 American men who were diagnosed with prostate cancer during 24 years of follow-up

A large-scale clinical trial combining two popular lung cancer drugs Tarceva and Avastin has showed no increase in survival rates.

However, the combination treatment kept the disease from progressing for a longer period than Tarceva alone, the study found. Tarceva is marketed by Genentech and Avastin by Roche. Roche Holding AG sells both drugs in Europe

Three European scientists have shared the 2008 Nobel prize for medicine.

Two French scientists Luc Montagnier, director of the World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention, and Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, of the Institut Pasteur, discovered the AIDS virus. They won half the prize of 10 million Swedish crowns (US$1.4-million) for discovering the deadly virus

Two French savants and a German scientist are this year's Nobel Prize for Medicine awardees.

Frenchmen Luc Montagnier, the director of the World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention, and Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, from the Institut Pasteur were recognized Monday for their discovery of the fatal Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome virus, which had killed million of people. For their valuable scientific contribution, the two were awarded half of the $1.39 billion (800,000 pound) prize money