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The American Cancer Society recently announced the re-launch of its website, www.cancer.org, with a broad range of new features, including personalized content, interactive health planning tools, and online discussion groups.

WASHINGTON-Life expectancy in the United States reached 76.9 years in 2000, a record high, according to preliminary figures released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC attributed the increase in part to continuing declines in the aged-adjusted death rates for cancer and heart disease, the nation’s two leading causes of death.

RESTON, Virginia-The Society of Nuclear Medicine (SNM) has formed an online collaboration with Medscape, a website for health care professionals and consumers, to release an educational program highlighting key content from the SNM’s 2001 annual conference.

MIAMI BEACH-The combination of exisulind (Aptosyn) and irinotecan (Camptosar) had no dose-limiting toxicity in a phase I trial presented at Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics (abstract 295), a conference sponsored by the American Association for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, and European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer.

CLEVELAND-In research presented at the North American Spine Society, Isador Lieberman, MD, described a new approach to repair of vertebral compression fractures that may offer significant pain relief and other benefits to myeloma patients.

Data presented at the Joint International Congress on Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia and Differentiation Therapy demonstrated that patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) treated with arsenic trioxide achieved an overall survival

NEW ORLEANS-After brachytherapy for prostate cancer, a small proportion of the radioactive seeds migrate into the lungs of more than a third of patients, according to a report from the American College of Surgeons 87th Clinical Congress.

WASHINGTON-He was the man the tobacco industry loved to hate-and for good reason. While serving as Commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from 1990 to 1997, David Kessler, MD, led a long investigation of the tobacco companies.

MIAMI BEACH-Sequential Tri-com vaccines against cancers testing positive for carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) have produced one clinical response and no toxicity among 23 patients in a phase I clinical trial.

BETHESDA, Maryland-Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy G. Thompson has named Alan S. Rabson, MD, deputy director of the National Cancer Institute since 1995, to serve as acting director of the Institute. Dr. Rabson will fill the post formerly held by Richard D. Klausner, MD, until a new director is named. Dr. Klausner resigned to become president of the new Case Institute of Health, Science, and Technology.

TORONTO, Canada-Positron emission tomography (PET) proved superior to both CT and MRI for both diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring of pediatric cancer patients in a study conducted at the University of Munich. Ute Porn, Jr., MD, described the results at the 48th Annual Meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine (abstract 144).

NEW ORLEANS -Updated results from two clinical trials of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) continue to support the use of radiation therapy and tamoxifen (Nolvadex) after lumpectomy in these patients. D. Lawrence Wickerham, MD, associate chairman of the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP), reported the findings at the American College of Surgeons 87th Clinical Congress.

BETHESDA, Maryland-When Richard D. Klausner, MD, became director of the National Cancer Institute in 1995, he took over an agency with low morale and internal conflicts that had angered some influential members of Congress and drawn critical assessments from several outside review panels.

SAN DIEGO--Despite acknowledged oral complications associated with chemotherapy agents, there is nothing in the literature pointing to the causes.

Older individuals are at risk for adverse events in all settings where cancer is treated. Common geriatric syndromes can complicate cancer therapy, and thus, increase patient morbidity and the costs of care. Furthermore,

Dr. Rich and colleagues present a compelling argument for the manipulation of temporal and spatial treatment parameters in chemoradiation programs. In essence, the authors address the shielding of normal tissues from the effects of cytotoxic agents. With respect to radiotherapy, this can be achieved via physical shielding by computer-generated dose algorithms using elaborate new planning technology (eg, intensity-modulated radiation therapy [IMRT]), chemical shielding with radioprotectants (eg, amifostine [Ethyol]), or temporal shielding by altered-fractionation schemes that exploit the differential alpha/beta ratios between tumor and normal tissue (eg, hyperfractionation).

Chronic pain occurs in about one-third of all cancer patients and in about three-quarters of those with advanced disease.[1] A major factor in the undertreatment of cancer pain is inadequate pain assessment.[2] Pain assessment provides the basis for inferred pathophysiology that directs diagnostic evaluation and treatment decisions. Pain syndrome identification plays an important role in this process-much of clinical medicine is based on pattern recognition of symptoms and signs, leading to a specific diagnosis and therapeutic strategy.

Older individuals are at risk for adverse events in all settings where cancer is treated. Common geriatric syndromes can complicate cancer therapy, and thus, increase patient morbidity and the costs of care. Furthermore,

The problem of pain among cancer patients is endemic. Appropriate and effective clinical responses to this problem require that the physician appreciate the cause of the pain, its underlying mechanism, its natural history, and its significance.

Older individuals are at risk for adverse events in all settings where cancer is treated. Common geriatric syndromes can complicate cancer therapy, and thus, increase patient morbidity and the costs of care. Furthermore,

In part 2 of this interview, Benjamin Djulbegovic, MD, PhD, discusses the uncertainty principle in clinical trials. Dr. Djulbegovic is associate professor of medicine, Divisions of Blood and Marrow Transplantation, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute at the University of South Florida, Tampa.

ROCKVILLE, Maryland-Initiation of daily smoking among young people has declined sharply from its peak in 1997, and cigarette use among youths and young adults declined again between 1999 and 2000, according to a new report from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Pressure ulcers are a common problem, with about 1.5 to 3 million individuals in the United Stated affected. Treatment may be costly, requiring lengthy periods of hospitalization. Central to the development of pressure

BETHESDA, Maryland-Two major AIDS studies will increase their enrollments by 60% and the number of minorities participating in them.

SAN DIEGO-The use of electronic chemotherapy documentation templates, developed by the nursing staff of Marshfield Clinic Cancer Care, Marshfield, Wisconsin, has led to improved efficiency and readability, and allows all health care providers immediate access to clinically relevant information.

CHICAGO-Low-grade primary non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) of the breast may be treated with local surgical excision with or without radiation therapy. Intermediate- or high-grade disease requires chemotherapy, however, said William Wong, MD, radiation oncologist, Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, Arizona, at the 86th Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

The Ohio Dental Association (ODA) strongly advocates against the use of smokeless tobacco products because of their harmful effects-particularly the strong link to oral cancer. As a result, the ODA discounts the advertising hype that appears

TORONTO, Canada-An initial clinical trial with a new radionuclide has shown extended survival in patients with glioblastoma multiforme, the most common primary adult central nervous system tumor, according to data presented to the 48th Annual Meeting of the Society for Nuclear Medicine (abstract 454).

WASHINGTON-Major congressional and White House action is needed to revitalize the National Cancer Plan and enable "our nation to capitalize on unprecedented scientific opportunities and surmount barriers" in the battle against cancer, an independent panel has concluded.

SEATTLE-Ultrasound (US)-guided Mammotome biopsy is both effective and safe for sampling breast lesions, Nathalie Duchesne, MD, a staff radiologist at the Hôpital du Saint-Sacrement, Quebec, said at the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Roentgen Ray Society (abstract 19). In fact, for most small lesions, the Mammotome permits complete excision of the lesion.