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SEATTLE--Receptagen Ltd. has begun formal clinical development of its first "growth blocker" drug, based on promising laboratory studies. The agent, a monoclonal antibody that blocks the B12 carrier protein trans-cobalamin II, triggered apoptosis in cancer cells by depleting vitamin B12, an essential enzyme co-factor for cell proliferation, said Receptagen president A. Charles Morgan Jr., PhD.

PARIS, France--A treatment that even modestly improves survival may be important, but most cancer trials are too small to detect such differences, Professor Richard Peto, of Oxford's ICRF Clinical Trial Service Unit, said at the Fifth International

TARRYTOWN, NY--America's major medical research institutions are failing to conduct the nutritional research needed to make a major public health impact on cancer and other diseases, says Peter Greenwald, MD, director of the division of cancer prevention and control at the National Cancer Institute.

PARIS, France--Cancer vaccines are now coming into their own, in advanced as well as early disease, Malcolm S. Mitchell, MD, said at the Fifth International Congress on Anti-Cancer Chemotherapy. Although vaccines have, to date, been most

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC--Zofran Tablets (ondansetron), from Cerenex Pharmaceuticals, Division of Glaxo Inc., has received FDA approval for a new indication--the prevention of radiation-induced nausea and vomiting. The oral agent, a 5-HT3 antagonist, is currently marketed for prevention of emesis in cancer patients receiving moderately emetogenic chemotherapy.

ROCKVILLE, Md--After hours of heated debate, the FDA's Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) decided there was sufficient evidence of efficacy to recommend approval of DOX-SL (pegylated liposomal doxorubicin) for the treatment of AIDS-related Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) in patients who have failed first-line treatment or who cannot tolerate other treatment. The potential benefits of the drug generally outweigh the risks, the committee said.

BETHESDA, Md--Whaijen Soo, MD, vice president for virology, Hoffmann-La Roche, told the National Task Force on AIDS Drug Development that the company's protease inhibitor, saquinavir (Invirase), is now ready for phase III trials

BETHESDA, Md--Intermittent infusions of interleukin-2 (IL-2, aldesleukin) have led to significant increases in CD4+ T cell counts in HIV-infected patients with early disease, a study from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has found.

A look back at the pre-antibiotic era may uncover ways to deal with immunosuppression and drug resistance in today's patients, Dr. Matthew Scharff said at a recent talk sponsored by the Irvington Institute.

ROCKVILLE, Md--Bruce Chabner, MD, director of the NCI Division of Cancer Treatment, said that over the past decade, NCI's drug discovery and development programs have produced seven new drugs currently being used to treat cancer and AIDS. The program cost about $1.4 billion: $200 million for every New Drug Application filed.

The evaluation and treatment of osteosarcoma have evolved considerably over the past 2 decades, with corresponding dramatic improvements in prognosis. In large part, the improved outlook is attributable to

NEW YORK--"I had curly hair. Look at it now," lamented a young woman who had just taken off a turban. She was attending an "All You Want to Know About Wigs" seminar at Cancer Care, Inc. in Manhattan. Indeed, her curls were gone, and only wisps remained. She passed around a photograph of herself before chemotherapy for comments: "Gorgeous. You were gorgeous." "You're still gorgeous."

NEW YORK--The power of attorney, the health-care proxy, and the living will "are the three simplest things we can do to control our destiny. They're not overly complex, not expensive, and once you arrange for these documents, you can get on with your life," attorney Edward J. Mullen told cancer patients at a legal clinic in the Manhattan office of Cancer Care, Inc., an agency that provides professional social service support to cancer patients and their families.

CHICAGO--A new minimally invasive procedure for treating certain types of primary or metastatic brain cancer offers an alternative to patients who are too ill to undergo standard craniotomy, chemotherapy, or radiotherapy, or who have not

DUARTE, Calif--An oncologist passionate about the advantages of managed care? Oncology News International met just such a physician, Myron H. Goldsmith, who provides medical oncology services on a capitated basis to the City of Hope Oncology Network, while also maintaining his fee-for-service practice. "You have to be passionate about what you believe in," this on-the-go doctor said from his cellular phone.

CHICAGO--Initial experience with a prototype digital mammography system indicates that the new technology has the potential to detect breast tumors much smaller in size than is possible with conventional mammography, and can be manipulated to explore areas of breast tissue that harbor occult cancer.

PARIS, France--Dr. Bernard Fisher, Distinguished Service Professor of Surgery, University of Pittsburgh, was presented with the Third Claude Jacquillat Award for Achievement in Clinical Oncology at the Fifth International Congress of Anti-Cancer Chemotherapy.

NIH chief Harold Varmus has chosen an army physician, Lt. Col. Wayne Jonas, as the new permanent director of the Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM); he will replace temporary acting director Alan Trachtenberg in July. Dr. Jonas earned his

CHICAGO--The first long distance, computer-generated anatomy lesson was conducted via satellite as biologists from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, fed three-dimensional digital images of the human male body to participants at the annual scientific meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

CHICAGO--Echoplanar magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was introduced in the late 1970s to scan parts of the body that exhibit rapid movement, such as the heart and brain. At the annual scientific meeting of the Radiological Society of North

DENVER--Coram Healthcare Corp. has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Caremark International's home infusion therapy business. Under the agreement, Caremark will receive approximately $310 million in cash and securities.

WASHINGTON--The National Coalition for Cancer Research (NCCR), a Washington coalition of more than 20 cancer-related organizations founded in 1986, unveiled its new series of six 30-second television public service announcements at a

WASHINGTON--According to a report issued by the General Accounting Office (GAO), federal agencies have insufficient scientific knowledge to take regulatory action on the use of portable cellular telephones.

WASHINGTON--In the short term, protease inhibitors are quite effective at stopping replication of HIV, thus permitting recovery of the immune system, but, as with other anti-HIV agents, resistance eventually develops and effectiveness wanes, researchers reported at the 2nd National Conference on Human Retroviruses and Related Infections.

Radiation Therapy Oncology Group Study 91-11 offers patients with stage III and IV squamous cell carcinoma of the glottic and supraglottic larynx a chance to save their voice box.

WASHINGTON--HHS Secretary Donna Shalala has appointed Paul Marks, president, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute, to chair the search committee for a director of the National Cancer Institute, to replace Dr. Samuel Broder, who now plans to leave in March instead of April as originally announced.

Part 1 of this three-part series on the Medicare fraud and abuse laws reviewed the laws prohibiting self-referrals (ONI, Jan, 1995, ). Part 2 (Feb, 1995) looked at the false claims laws and how to avoid exposure to such claims. This final article discusses the Medicare and Medicaid anti-kickback statute.

PITTSBURGH--Early research into umbilical cord blood (UCB) transplantation for cell reconstitution indicates that unrelated UCB transplantation is feasible in children.

NEW YORK--As reported last month in ONI , 13 of the leading cancer centers in the United States have formed a national alliance-- the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN)--to develop and institute standards of care for the

NEW YORK--Immunotherapy approaches have been used successfully to treat and even cure a very small subset of patients with advanced solid cancers. The challenge is to increase the types of cancer that are responsive to immunotherapy,