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BETHESDA, Md--Recruiting people from minority groups into clinical cancer trials calls for the biomedical community to be "compassionate, credible, and truthful" in how it portrays the value of those trials, Otis W. Brawley, MD, of the NCI’s Office of Special Populations Research, said at the American Society of Preventive Oncology annual meeting. "Physicians and medical institutions must have a good relationship with the people they serve," he said.

Early in the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic, infection occurred disproportionately among older persons as a result of transmission through receipt of contaminated blood or blood products. Through 1989, receipt of contaminated

ARLINGTON, Va--When Arizona Oncology Associates (AOA), a 25-member group, "walked away" from a "bad" contract with a major local managed care organization (MCO), the practice prospered and the "majority of the patients we were caring for found ways to stay with us," Robert J. Brooks, MD, a medical oncologist in the group, said at the 24th Annual National Meeting of the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC).

Helping Hand: The Resource Guide for People with Cancer, published by Cancer Care, Inc., is designed to “show what kinds of help are available, and where to find that help.” The second edition of A Helping Hand was recently released with updated listings, new sections (eg, using the Internet to find resources), and a myriad of information on national, regional, and local cancer-related organizations that provide important services for people with cancer. Included in the listings of A Helping Hand are the names of support groups, as well as medical information about a specific type of cancer, a second opinion, financial assistance, or hospice care.

NEW ORLEANS--Nutrition is a vital component of cancer management, yet nutritional assessment is still a very inexact science, Abby S. Bloch, PhD, RD, said at the 4th International Symposium on Nutrition and Cancer, sponsored by the Cancer Treatment Research Foundation and the Society for Nutritional Oncology Adjuvant Therapy.

A clinical pathway for pain management, developed by a task force of 18 registered nurses from Fox Chase Cancer Center and its network of community hospitals, was published in the January/February issue of Oncology Issues, the official journal

BETHESDA, Md--Over the next decade, Americans should put more effort into eating better and instituting chemoprevention trials to reduce cancer risks, said Peter Greenwald, MD, DrPH, acting director of the NCI’s Division of Cancer Prevention.

BUFFALO, NY--Whole body hy-perthermia, similar to that of a prolonged mild fever, results in antitumor effects that may be due to increased immune system activity and increased induction of heat shock proteins (HSPs). "These proteins are the primary protectors of cells against further heat exposure and other stresses," said John Subjeck, PhD, of Roswell Park Cancer Institute, at the first meeting of the Regional Cancer Center Consortium for Biological Therapy of Cancer, hosted by Roswell Park.

WASHINGTON--Although once a "very profitable program" for cancer centers, bone marrow transplants now present major financial challenges and risks in today’s managed care environment, said Patricia J. Goldsmith, vice president for Managed Care and Business Development, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Tampa.

Proposed changes in Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement have “enormous implications for appropriate cancer treatment,” according to Joseph S. Bailes, MD, winner of this year’s Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) National Achievement Award. Accepting the prize at the ACCC’s 24th Annual National Meeting, Bailes, chairman of the Clinical Practice Committee of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), added that he’s very concerned about the proposed changes. But he told of plans to streamline and strengthen ASCO’S public policy apparatus by: establishing a “more constant presence” in Congress; bringing all cancer professionals, advocacy groups, and academics under a single “big tent,” and solidifying ties with the patient community.

NEW YORK--Cancer Care, Inc. has just released the second edition of A Helping Hand: The Resource Guide for People with Cancer, with support from Zeneca Pharmaceuticals. The handbook is designed to show newly diagnosed cancer patients the kind of help that is available and where it can be found.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla--Given the existence of the cancer pain guidelines formulated by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR), is there really a need for the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) to develop practice guidelines on cancer pain? Yes, asserted Richard Payne, MD, at the NCCN’s third annual conference.

NEW ORLEANS--All acute pro-myelocytic leukemia (APL) patients who took part in a pilot clinical trial of arsenic trioxide went into remission, according to a paper presented at the 89th annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).

BUFFALO, NY--Animal studies have shown that interleukin-15 (IL-15) effectively protects the host from chemotherapy-induced diarrhea, with maintenance of antitumor activity, said Youcef Rustum, PhD, of Roswell Park Cancer Institute, at the first meeting of the Regional Cancer Center Consortium for Biological Therapy of Cancer, hosted by Roswell Park.

NEW ORLEANS--An extract derived from the seeds of red grapes, currently available as a dietary supplement (Activin), has been shown to reduce tumor cell growth in human breast, lung, and gastric cancer cell lines, S. S. Joshi, PhD, of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, reported at the American Association of Cancer Research 89th annual meeting. (See Figure showing the effects in breast cancer cells.)

SANTA MONICA, Calif--Just as physicians carry malpractice insurance for protection, managed care organizations also purchase insurance to protect against lawsuits. An insurance industry executive suggests that managed care plans may now need to increase their malpractice coverage, as risk liability appears to be shifting from the physicians who provide health care to the insurance plans that pay the medical bills.

BETHESDA, Md--The Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) has recommended approval by the Food and Drug Administration of a new anticancer agent and favors a new indication for a previously approved agent.

ARLINGTON, Va--How do managed care organizations (MCOs) choose the physicians for their lists? The MCO’s ideal physician, as sketched by Melinda Privette, MD, JD, director of medical affairs for Blue Cross/Blue Shield of North Carolina:

BUFFALO, NY--Vaccines in bananas? The idea may not be farfetched, as researchers at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute have successfully tested transgenic plants that express a hepatitis B virus (HBV) antigen.

WASHINGTON--The mood in Washington is to press ahead with comprehensive anti-tobacco legislation with or without the participation of the tobacco industry.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla--The combination of topotecan (Hycamtin) and cytarabine (ara-C) has shown promising results in patients with myelodys-plastic syndrome (MDS), especially those with abnormalities of chromosomes 5 and/or 7 (-5/-7), but the findings for the combination are too preliminary to be included as standard of care in the NCCN’s practice guidelines for MDS.

NEW ORLEANS--In 1955, a man dies at age 45 of a hereditary type of colon cancer, yet his wife is told he had a bowel obstruction, not cancer. Now, 27 years later, the man’s daughter is your patient and you have diagnosed her with multiple polyposis and colon carcinoma. In constructing the daughter’s medical history, you discover the history of hereditary cancer in the father.

ARLINGTON, Va--The proposed regulations of Medicare reimbursement have "gone from providing the dollars for care to making the clinical decisions," James L. Wade III, MD, president of the Association of Community Cancer Centers, said at the ACCC’s 24th Annual National Meeting.

BETHESDA, Md--"Will an aspirin a day keep the oncologist away?" John Baron, MD, PhD, asked at a colon cancer prevention workshop held in conjunction with the American Society of Preventive Oncology (ASPO) annual meeting. "Absolute benefits and absolute risks are small," he said, "which means it’s a close call."

NEW YORK--Advances in immunotherapy are opening a wide array of potential uses in combination with chemotherapy in advanced cancers. Speaking at the Chemotherapy Foundation XV Symposium, Ezra M. Greenspan, MD, referred to the "mind-boggling" number of variables--optimum timing, dosing, and route of administration, for example--involved in putting together experimental combination regimens.

Dr. Charles H. Mayo performed one of the first successful operations to remove a tumor from the adrenal glands in 1927. After 187 days in the hospital, the patient recovered completely.

NEW YORK--An outbreak of tuberculosis (TB) in a stone-age Brazilian Indian tribe is producing mortality rates 100 times higher than were reported in New York City at the peak of the multidrug-resistant TB epidemic in 1994.

David E. Fisher, MD, PhD is the recipient of the sixth Gertrude B. Elion Cancer Research Award, sponsored by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). Since 1993, the award has been presented annually to one nontenured

WASHINGTON--The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has announced its support of "The March . . . Coming Together to Conquer Cancer," which will take place in the nation’s capital, and in dozens of US communities, on Saturday, September 26.

SAN DIEGO--With the explosion of the hospice movement, the creation of pain management teams, and the use of pain ladders to guide treatment, "pain management is becoming a trendy area of medicine," said Daniel B. Carr, MD, Saltonstall Professor of Pain Research, New England Medical Center. "We didn’t hear much about treating cancer pain 20 years ago; it was on the fringes."