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Underage drinking is a national concern that led the US surgeon general to issue a "Call to Action to Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking" last year. Now, a new report assesses the effectiveness of underage drinking prevention programs and provides a better idea of how to achieve key goals outlined by the surgeon general.

Scientists report they have blocked the development of prostate tumors in cancer-prone mice by knocking out a molecular unit they describe as a "powerhouse" that drives runaway cell growth. The researchers say the growth-stimulating molecule called p110beta -- part of a cellular signaling network disrupted in several common cancers -- is a promising target for novel cancer therapies designed to shut it down.

Lack of both the fragile X syndrome gene and one that is related could account for sleep problems associated with the disorder, which is the common cause of inherited mental impairment.

A novel electronic device designed to "zap" away migraine pain before it starts has proven to be the next form of relief for those suffering from the debilitating disease, according to a study conducted at the Ohio State University Medical Center.

Pregnancy seems to confer some protection against bladder cancer in mice, scientists have found. Female mice that had never become pregnant had approximately 15 times as much cancer in their bladders as their counterparts that had become pregnant, according to new findings by investigators at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Their work appears online as a rapid communication in the journal Urology.

People who have never smoked but whose cells cannot efficiently repair environmental insults to DNA are at higher risk of developing lung cancer than those with effective genomic repair capability.

Gun-related homicide among young men rose sharply in the United States in recent years even though the nation's overall homicide rate remained flat, according to a new study. Between 1999 and 2005, homicide involving firearms increased 31 percent among black men ages 25 to 44 and 12 percent among white men of the same age.

Researchers have succeeded in further unraveling and manipulating the glycosylation of proteins in plants. The scientists expect that this knowledge will allow plants to be applied more often in the production of therapeutic proteins, an important type of medicine.

Adults with type 2 diabetes who eat unhealthy, high-fat meals may experience memory declines immediately afterward, but this can be offset by taking antioxidant vitamins with the meal, according to new research from Baycrest.

Expression of the CHD5 gene is frequently down-regulated in neuroblastomas, and patients whose tumors lacked CHD5 expression were more likely to have shorter event-free and overall survival compared with patients whose tumors expressed CHD5, according to a study in the June 24 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.