Researchers in China have discovered that a drug used to treat diabetes could be effective against a form of deadly breast cancer.

More than 70,000 people die from breast cancer in China every year, according to the national cancer center.

Triple-negative breast cancer is particularly aggressive among the four clinical subtypes of breast cancer, said Dong Chenfang, a professor at Zhejiang University School of Medicine. It has a tendency to quickly spread or metastasize to the brain and lungs. There are currently no effective targeted therapies for this form of breast cancer, which is therefore often fatal, according to Dong.8 Dong and his colleagues found that the levels of a metabolic enzyme called AKR1B1 were significantly elevated in triple-negative breast cancer cells and that this was associated with increased rates of metastasis and shorter survival times.

The researchers also found epalrestat, a drug that inhibits AKR1B1 and is approved in Japan to treat diabetic complications, was able to block the growth and metastasis of the cancer cells.

Dong said the finding is still in the experimental stage. Whether epalrestat can be applied to the clinical treatment still needs further tests.

A detailed research article was published on March 7 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Thirteen of the 37 people infected with H7N9 avian flu have died since January in east China’s Jiangxi Province, the provincial health and family planning commission announced Saturday.

The province has stepped up monitoring of the epidemic as well as efforts to halt the operation of live poultry markets and carry out disinfection and quarantine to prevent infection.

The public are advised to avoid contact with dead and live poultry and to seek medical treatment in the event of any suspicious symptoms.

According to the National Health and Family Planning Commission, 79 people died nationwide in January from the virus.

H7N9 is a bird flu strain first reported to have infected humans in China in March 2013. Infections usually occur in winter and spring.

Following is the Text of Speech of Minister of State (I/C) for Youth Affairs and Sports Shri Vijay Goel at the Global Millennium Summit, Dubai on 18 March 2017:

PM congratulates Trivendra Singh Rawat on taking oath as Uttarakhand CM

The Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri Radha Mohan Singh has said the Government is working on a concrete plan to link the farmers with the markets.