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BETHESDA, Md-Thalidomide could be increasingly used off-label to treat several cancers and other diseases if the Food and Drug Administration takes the advice of an advisory committee and, for the first time, approves the agent for marketing in the United States.

ATLANTA-Is there any value to yet another debate on screening mam-mography for women aged 40 to 49? Maybe so when one of the speakers is a breast cancer survivor whose disease was diagnosed mammographically at age 39. Especially since that speaker-Frances M. Visco, JD-spoke against universal mammographic screening for younger women.

BETHESDA, Md-The low-fat message isn’t reaching America’s children. A National Cancer Institute analysis finds that, on average, children consume 35% of their calories as fat and that this figures holds across age, sex, ethnic, and income categories.

RAHWAY, NJ-To help serve an increasingly health-conscious public, Merck & Co. has launched its first consumer reference, The Merck Manual of Medical Information-Home Edition.

BETHESDA, Md-Richard D. Klausner, MD, became the 11th director of the National Cancer Institute on Aug. 1, 1995. He took over a troubled organization, one torn by accusations of scientific misconduct against several of its researchers and grantees and the target of two critical evaluations.

The usefulness of doxorubicin (Adriamycin) in the treatment of a variety of malignancies is limited by its concomitant toxicity. The encapsulation of chemotherapeutic agents, including doxorubicin, in

SAN FRANCISCO-Most patients with squamous cell carcinoma (SqCC) of the head and neck are elderly, and this group has been well represented in studies of the disease, which generally include few patients under the age of 40, said Peter Lacy, MB, FRCSI, a fellow at the Clinical Outcomes Research Office, Washington University Medical Center (WUMC), St. Louis.

WASHINGTON-Does President Clinton’s stand on the tobacco settlement threaten to scuttle the agreement between the tobacco industry and the attorneys general of 40 states?

BOSTON-Two reports have confirmed the value of the so-called HIV cocktail, three-drug combinations that appear to restore immune function in people infected with HIV, at least temporarily. With such treatments available, many believe that the time has come to push for more HIV testing and reporting, so that people can get treatment early when it is most likely to be effective.

BETHESDA, Md-For the second time in as many meetings, the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) has recommended that the FDA approve a paclitaxel-based drug for the treatment of AIDS-related Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS).

PITTSBURGH-Bernard Fisher, MD, Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, has accepted an apology and cash settlement from the University of Pittsburgh, and withdrawn his defamation suit against the University and the federal government.

WILMINGTON, Del-The FDA has cleared an alternative method of administration of the pellets contained in Zeneca’s Kadian (morphine sulfate sustained release) capsules.

MENLO PARK, Calif-Researchers have cloned a critical component of the human telomerase gene-the catalytic protein subunit. Some scientists view the finding as the “holy grail” of cell aging research.

The fiscal year (FY) 1998 Balanced Budget Act contains several important changes in the Medicare program that affect physicians, including a go-ahead for provider-sponsored organizations (PSOs) (closed networks run by hospitals, doctors, and other providers instead of insurance companies) and new opportunities for the private sector to compete in the Medicare+Choice plans.

Albert H. Owens, Jr, MD, President of the National Coalition for Cancer Research (NCCR), urged the National Cancer

GLASGOW-Gamma camera molecular coincidence detection (MCD) technology allows imaging of positron-emitting radiotracers such as FDG without the need for a dedicated PET scanner, and thus should make FDG imaging much more widely available, Henry N. Wagner, Jr., MD, professor of radiation health sciences at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, told Oncology News International.

SAN FRANCISCO-Treatment practices often vary in the United States between physicians and across geographic regions, and such variation may be more likely when definitive comparisons of treatment modalities are lacking, as is the case with the management of early laryngeal carcinoma.

Researchers at The M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and Memorial Sloan-Kettering are embarking on a study that may evolve

IDYLLWILD, Calif-Actor Dustin Hoffman joined “Ronald McDonald,” the McDonald’s restaurant clown, and nearly 100 campers and their families in celebrating the 15th anniversary of Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times-one of the nation’s oldest and largest year-round recreational camping programs for children with cancer.

WASHINGTON-The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is proposing a new set of measurements to gauge the tar and nicotine yields of cigarettes.

LOS ANGELES-The Lymphoma Research Foundation of America launched its second annual National Lymphoma Awareness Week on October 12. Actress Kelly Lynch, whose sister Robyn Lynch is a lymphoma survivor, served as honorary chair of the week, which featured a slate of events to inform the public about this cancer.

Clinical data supporting the use of leukocyte-reduced blood indicates a significant decrease in the risk of infection and cost of recovery in surgical patients, according to a panel of experts.

NEW YORK-A strong belief in the healing power of creative activity spurred Geraldine Herbert to establish a place where women with cancer could go to express themselves through the visual, performing, literary, and domestic arts-The Creative Center for Women With Cancer, located in New York City.

Researchers may be close to developing an additional weapon for treating a type of rapidly growing, fatal brain tumor that

ROCHESTER, NY-The Eastman Kodak Company has been selected to receive the 1997 R&D 100 Award for its development of the Kodak EC-L film system for oncology imaging. The award-winning system provides high-contrast images for use in monitoring radiation treatment of cancer patients.

HOUSTON-The first clinical study in the United States of green tea as an anticancer agent is underway at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. If this trial and future studies show a benefit, the next step would be to get Americans to switch from their usual “black” tea to the Asian green variety, which has a milder flavor.

SAN FRANCISCO-Photodynamic therapy (PDT), using light tuned to specific wavelengths in order to activate a previously administered photosensitizing drug, holds significant promise as a new treatment modality for malignancies of the oral cavity and larynx, said Vanessa Schweitzer, MD, clinical professor of otolaryngology at the University of Michigan and senior staff physician at Henry Ford Health Care Systems, Detroit. [See page 64 for more on new uses of PDT.]

WASHINGTON-New cases of AIDS in the United States have fallen for the first time in the 16 years of the epidemic, dropping by 6% in 1996 from 1995 levels. The main reason for the fall, most experts believe, is the use of combination regimens including protease inhibitors that prevent HIV infection from progressing to AIDS. It is also possible that fewer individuals are becoming infected with the AIDS virus.

FREDERICK, Md-Mutations in two genes that produce chemokine receptors-CCR5 and CCR2-account for about 30% of long-term survivors of HIV infection, that is, patients whose disease has not progressed to AIDS within 10 to 20 years of infection, said Stephen J. O’ Brien, PhD, of the NCI’s Laboratory of Genomic Diversity.

WASHINGTON-The Administration’s demand that Congress strengthen areas of the proposed tobacco agreement (see article above) won praise from a number of organizations that had criticized the initial settlement as too weak. “The opportunity to enact the right tobacco policy has never been greater,” said John R. Seffrin, PhD, chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society.