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WASHINGTON-Congressional backers of “The Medicare Cancer Clinical Trials Coverage Act” see its chances of passage improving, in part because of the active support of cancer advocacy groups and the direct involvement of oncologists . The legislation, actually two identical bills introduced in the House and Senate, would create a 5-year demonstration program in which Medicare would pay for patient care during cancer clinical trials and determine the true costs of such coverage.

NEW YORK-Barrie R. Cassileth, PhD, is chief of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center’s new Integrative Medicine Service, which was officially opened April 1 of this year. As a researcher, educator, and planner, she has worked in psychosocial aspects of medicine and alternative and complementary therapies for more than 20 years.

CHICAGO-Although there has been a trend toward organ conservation in the treatment of cancer at many body sites, including the breast, head and neck, and esophagus, bladder sparing has been viewed differently, particularly in the United States.

DENVER-A combination of two investigational HIV vaccines has produced anti-HIV immune responses in more than 90% of volunteers at least 1 year after vaccination, Robert Belshe, MD, of St. Louis University, said at the International Society for Sexually Transmitted Diseases Research meeting. “These preliminary data indicate both vaccines are safe, and side effects associated with the injections are generally mild,” Dr. Belshe said.

Chemoradiation is effective in controlling anal and rectal cancers but causes significant side effects and complications, according to three independent teams of colorectal surgeons in Australia and the United States.

Anyone who remembers the bruising political battle in 1997-1998over how Medicare would develop “resource-based” practice expenses can breathe a sign of relief over what is likely to be the painless shift to resource-based malpractice

PHILADELPHIA-Temozolomide (Temodar) appears to be an effective, well-tolerated oral agent in the setting of recurrent malignant glioma. “Further testing is clearly warranted in this patient population, and it is an attractive candidate to be evaluated in the adjuvant setting for newly diagnosed patients,” said Michael D. Prados, MD, of the Brain Tumor Research Center, University of California, San Francisco.

ATLANTA-What do 30 doctors, 20 nurses, 100 patients, and one magician have in common? A desire to make VHL stand for “Very Happy Life” as well as von Hippel-Lindau disease. These 150 people, including illusionist The Amazin’ Grayson (Grayson Smith of Memphis), attended the Sixth International Patient/Provider Conference on VHL, a 3-day meeting to build teamwork for management of VHL.

PORTLAND, Oregon-The US Department of Veterans Affairs has opened its new $30 million Northwest Veterans Affairs Cancer Research Center. The Center will house joint research projects of both the Portland VA Medical Center and the Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU). Its primary focus will be the genetic basis and the biologic pathways of cancer.

ATLANTA-As with postmenopausal hormone replacement, tamoxifen (Nolvadex) administration may be associated with reduced lipid levels. In addition, tamoxifen may also have beneficial effects on markers of inflammation considered to be novel cardiac risk factors, according to a poster presentation at the 35th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

NEW ORLEANS-High-resolution ultrasound provides additional information about mammographically identified malignant calcifications and may find malignancies unseen on mammography, Beverly E. Hashimoto, MD, said at the annual meeting of the American Roentgen Ray Society.

NEW ORLEANS-Virtual endoscopy of the gastrointestinal tract is a rapidly advancing technology, Bradford J. Wood, MD, said in an interview with Oncology News International. “Radiologists should become familiar with the virtual endoscopic appearance of a variety of GI pathologies so that they can speak a common language with surgical and gastrointestinal endoscopists,” he said.

NEW ORLEANS-In selected patients with radiographically identified nonpalpable breast abnormalities, ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (FNA) with follow-up mammograms is effective and offers a cost savings over stereotactic mammotomy (directional vacuum-assisted breast biopsy). S.S. Buchbinder, MD, of the Department of Radiology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, reported the results at the American Roentgen Ray Society annual meeting.

LUGANO, Switzerland-Younger patients with histologically aggressive, stage IV non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) might benefit from a dose-intense etoposide-containing regimen, according to late follow-up results from the British National Lymphoma Investigation (BNLI) reported at the VII International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma.

WASHINGTON-What’s good for regulating cigarettes is equally good for cigars, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) argued in a new report to Congress. It recommended that Congress require health warning labels for cigars, ban all cigar advertising on radio and television, and enact measures to restrict the access of underage smokers to cigars.

Nutritional Oncology provides acomprehensive review of the current scientific literature on nutritional factors affecting the prevention and treatment of cancer. The book’s primary objective is to detail findings in the new field of nutritional oncology,

Scientists fear that existing genetic techniques will be misused before the consequences of altering the human blueprint on personal, generational, and societal levels are fully realized. At St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee,

Drs. Pirl and Roth describe various problems that complicate efforts to accurately diagnose and appropriately treat depression in cancer patients. These include the subjective nature of symptoms, multiple possible diagnoses within the spectrum of mood

Pirl and Roth synthesize well the rich literature that now exists on the prevalence, causes, and treatment of depression in patients with cancer. Their review focuses attention on: (1) those factors-patient- as well as disease- and treatment-related

Depression is a common complication of cancer, occurring in about 25% of all patients. If left untreated, depression can contribute to poor treatment compliance, increased hospital stays, and mortality. Medical issues,

WASHINGTON-Last year, tens of thousands gathered on The Mall in front of the US Capitol and in scores of communities nationwide to urge the federal government to make cancer the number one medical research priority. On Sept. 25, a candlelight vigil in front of the Lincoln Memorial will mark the first anniversary of that event, known as The March.

NEW ORLEANS-For the majority of mammographically detected invasive carcinomas with a mean size of 11 mm, stereotactic biopsy obtained with larger gauge needles provides adequate material for establishing a host of prognostic factors, said Michael D. Lagios, MD, medical director of the Breast Cancer Consultation Service, St. Mary’s Medical Center, San Francisco.

BETHESDA, Md-Using new computer software to “mine” existing databases, National Cancer Institute (NCI) scientists have discovered 10,435 possible new variations in human genes. The so-called single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, must still be validated, but NCI said each of the variations met statistical confidence levels of 0.99%.

LUGANO, Switzerland-Although a decade’s worth of phase II studies in advanced large-cell lymphoma have suggested that new, multidrug regimens could nearly double both the complete response rate and the proportion of long-term survivors, appearances can be deceiving, Richard Fisher, MD, Coleman Professor of Oncology, Loyola University Medical Center, Maywood, Illinois, said at the VII International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma.

NEW YORK-Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center’s new Laurance S. Rockefeller Outpatient Pavilion provides advanced programs for outpatient cancer diagnosis and treatment in a calm and beautiful environment. “We believe this facility will serve as a national model for the delivery of outpatient cancer care in the new millennium,” said Paul A. Marks, MD, president and CEO.

ROCKVILLE, Md-The Agency for Health Care Policy Research (AHCPR) plans to spend up to $11 million to fund two or three research centers to conduct studies of the health care market and managed care. The aim is to help policy makers understand, monitor, and anticipate how changes in the nation’s market-driven health care system affect costs, access to services, and quality of care. Interested researchers have until Sept. 2 , 1999, to submit letters of intent.

ORLANDO-“Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) confer protection against the common GI cancers, not only against colon and rectal cancer, which we’ve known about, but also in the esophagus and stomach, where the protection was at least as strong,” Michael Langman, MD, said at the Digestive Disease Week meeting.

WASHINGTON-Amid the artworks and antiques of the Diplomatic Rooms of the US State Department, the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation presented its awards to four scientists for their work related to cancer.

The City of Hope National Medical Center and Beckman Research Institute received the largest individual gift in the cancer center’s 86-year history from Irwin Helford, chairman of Viking Office Products and vice chairman of Office Depot. The

ORLANDO-A French study is “the first to quantify the frequency of anal cancer in HIV patients,” Iradj Sobhani, MD, said at the Digestive Disease Week meeting. “Anal carcinoma is rare in the general population, but relatively common in HIV-positive patients,” said Dr. Sobhani, of the Gastroenterology Service, Hopital Bichat, Paris.