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VANCOUVER, BC-More than 4,000 pain experts from all over the world attended the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) 8th World Congress on Pain, at the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre.

VIENNA, Austria-Daily doses of controlled-release oral oxycodone (OxyContin, Oxygesic) exceeding 80 mg are as safe as lower doses when therapy is individualized, researchers from Purdue Pharma L.P. reported at the 9th World Congress on Pain.

VANCOUVER, BC-The use of pharmacoeconomics in cancer pain management is not about "decreasing the drug budget," but rather about evaluating the cost and outcomes of drug therapy, Stephen L. Huber, MS, RPh, said at a symposium held in conjunction with the 8th World Congress on Pain.

HOUSTON-Unscheduled hospital admissions for treatment of pain represent a significant cost-$4.7 million annually in a study from The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

GLASGOW-Pain specialists continually stress the message that clinicians should not fear prescribing adequate doses of opioids for pain patients, since such patients are not at risk of becoming "addicted."

The Federal Trade Commission(FTC) released a consumer alert regarding home-use test kits for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). According to the FTC, some of the kits being marketed and sold on the Internet are giving users false information about their HIV status.

BETHESDA, Md-Nearly $8 million in grants will help 17 organizations establish 18 Biomarkers Developmental Laboratories, part of the National Cancer Institute’s new Early Detection Research Network. The laboratories are charged with identifying, characterizing, and refining techniques for finding molecular, genetic, and biologic biomarkers.

The 10th edition of Wintrobe’s Clinical Hematology is a two volume, multiauthored work that spans the ever-expanding discipline of hematology in over 2,600 pages. The book is appropriately introduced by an excellent short chapter written previously by Dr. Wintrobe on “The Diagnostic and Therapeutic Approach to Hematologic Problems.” There follows a valuable series of six chapters totaling 133 pages devoted to laboratory hematology, including blood and bone marrow examination, immunodiagnosis, clinical flow cytometry, cytogenetics, clusters of differentiation, and molecular genetics. These chapters contain ample illustrations, diagrams, tables, and references.

LONDON, Ontario-For a child with cancer, the pain related to the disease, its therapy, and required procedures is quite often the worst pain that the child has ever encountered, said Patricia A. McGrath, PhD, in her presentation at the World Health Organization workshop session on cancer pain.

NEW YORK-Rituximab (Rituxan) used in combination with standard chemotherapy may prolong the duration of response for patients with B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL), Myron S. Czuczman, MD, said at the Chemotherapy Foundation Symposium VII.

NEW YORK-Patients may talk about many treatment issues with their doctors but keep mum about treatment-related nausea. “When they go to their chemotherapy nurse, that’s when they say, ‘It was awful. I was sick for 3 days after chemotherapy,’” Terri Maxwell, RN, MSN, said at a teleconference sponsored by Cancer Care Inc.

HOUSTON-A male cancer patient receiving opioids for pain is reluctant to tell the female pain specialist at the clinic about his constipation until she hands him a small computer and shows him how to use a pen device to indicate his side effects from a list on the screen

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, (UCSD) Cancer Center report success inusing a new technology to develop a sustained-release formulation of cytarabine (ara-C). The new formulation, called DepoCyt, produced a significantly better response rate than the standard ara-C formulation in patients with lymphomatous meningitis. Results of the open, multicenter, controlled study were reported at the 35th meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

NEW YORK-An implanted epidural catheter can be a safe and effective means of providing analgesia in the home setting for patients with advanced cancer, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center researchers found in a retrospective review.

MADISON, Wis--The World Health Organization (WHO), which first published its analgesic ladder in the original 1986 version of Cancer Pain Relief, has now issued an updated 2nd edition of the book that includes additional alternative opioids such as hydromorphone, oxycodone, and transdermal fentanyl, David E. Joranson, MSSW, said at the WHO workshop on cancer pain at the 8th World Congress on Pain.

NEW YORK-“There are no minimum standards for the quality of the psychosocial care given at institutions,” said Jimmie C. Holland, MD, leadoff speaker at the Pan-American Congress of Psychosocial and Behavioral Oncology. “We would never let that happen with infectious disease,” said Dr. Holland, Wayne Chapman Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

WASHINGTON-The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has issued a final rule that defines what research data the public can demand to see under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). To the relief of many in the biomedical sciences, the White House agency did not include data from research in progress or any information that could be used to identify particular persons in a research study.

Approximately 35,000 stem (progenitor)-cell transplants are performed annually worldwide, with an estimated yearly growth rate of between 10% and 20%.[1] Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma remains the second most common indication for stem-cell transplantation, and Hodgkin’s disease ranks approximately seventh overall.[1]

Cervical cancer has a high incidence and is a rapidly progressive illness among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected women. This cancer has received increasing attention since 1993 following its addition to the list of AIDS-defining illnesses monitored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).[1] With increased heterosexual transmission of HIV and frequent co-infection with the human papillomavirus (HPV),[1] invasive cervical cancers will appear more often among HIV-infected women.

BALTIMORE-Johns Hopkins Medicine has dedicated a new $125 million home for its comprehensive clinical cancer services. A decade in the planning, the half-million square foot Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Building is the largest structure on the East Baltimore medical campus. It was designed from the ground up to meet the complex and exacting specifications of cancer specialists and their patients, Johns Hopkins said in a press release.

WASHINGTON-By imposing taxes on tobacco products and mandating health warnings on cigarette pack-ages, did the federal government, in effect, collaborate with the tobacco industry in causing smoking-related diseases in millions of Americans?

BETHESDA, Md-The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has announced plans for a large-scale, randomized phase III trial of a patient-specific therapeutic vaccine against B-cell lymphoma. The decision came as the result of findings from a recently completed phase II study at the NCI.

MINNEAPOLIS-Medtronic, Inc. and the National Comprehensive Cancer network (NCCN) have announced that they are partnering in an effort to shed light on a key concern of cancer patients and their families: the best way to control cancer pain while preserving patients’ quality of life.

A three-day interdisciplinary cancer conference will be held March 2 through 4, 2000, at the Best Western Gateway Grand in Gainesville, Florida. The seminar will emphasize the latest advances in radiation therapy techniques and results. It will include refresher courses by senior faculty, panel discussions, and new departmental research results. Visiting Professor will be Professeur Jean-Pierre Gerard, Service de Radiotherapie-Oncologie, Hôpitaux de Lyon, France. Other presentations will be made by clinicians from the University of Florida Department of Radiation Oncology.

WASHINGTON-The Congressional Families Action for Cancer Awareness honored three individuals for their dedication to cancer prevention outreach at its Seventh Annual Awards Luncheon.

VIENNA, Austria-The substantial drop in breast cancer incidence reported in the NSABP P-1 trial of prophylactic tamoxifen (Nolvadex) contrasted sharply with the negative findings of the earlier Royal Marsden and Italian trials. Whether the P-1 results can be confidently and routinely applied to all high-risk women was the focus of a debate between Royal Marsden investigator Trevor Powles, MD, and NSABP investigator Bernard Fisher, MD, at the 10th European Cancer Conference (ECCO 10).

MINNEAPOLIS-Of the many possible reasons why cancer patients choose not to enter clinical trials, worries about whether the cost will be reimbursed by their health plan may actually rank low on the list, or so the experience of Minneapolis-based UnitedHealth Group suggests.

WASHINGTON-Cancer survivors, their families, and friends gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial for “Rays of Hope,” a candlelight vigil to mark the first anniversary of The March. That event brought tens of thousands to Washington last September to a rally aimed at making cancer the nation’s leading research priority.

SAN FRANCISCO-A clinical trial reported at the 39th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) suggests that people infected with HIV who are taking complicated protease-inhibitor-containing regimens to suppress the virus may be able to safely switch to a simplified maintenance regimen requiring only two pills twice a day.

BETHESDA, Md-In a rare public confrontation with the media, the National Cancer Institute denied a report in the Wall Street Journal that its scientists had failed to replicate the work of Judah Folkman, PhD, showing that endostatin, an antiangiogenesis compound, dramatically shrinks tumors in mice.