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MIAMI, Fla--Public support of physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia stems from multiple medical, social, and economic factors, Kathleen Foley, MD, said at the annual meeting of the American Pain Society. (See table for a list of some of these factors.)

WASHINGTON--The AZT alone arm has been dropped from a large ongoing federal study of children with HIV infection, because it proved less effective in preventing disease progression than the other arms and had significant adverse effects.

The median survival time of adults with supratentorial malignant glioma treated in clinical studies with surgery, 6 weeks of external-beam radiotherapy, and carmustine (BiCNU) is approximately 1 year. This poor survival time

NASHVILLE--Health-care costs may not yet be taking a large enough chunk out of national expenditures to inspire drastic health-care reform, Mark Chassin, MD, said at a forum on health-care reform at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting (see "ASH Panel: How many Hemotologists/Oncologists Are Enough?").

BETHESDA, Md--An expert advisory committee to the President's Cancer Panel believes that the method of testing levels of tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide in cigarettes is inadequate, as is the system used by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to inform consumers about these levels and what they mean to the smoker's health.

NEW YORK--An interdisciplinary approach is key to helping American medicine face the "analgesic dilemma,"

NEW YORK--Neupogen, Amgen's recombinant granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF, filgrastim) has received FDA approval for use in treating severe chronic neutropenia.

WASHINGTON--The US Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) wants more money to study the possible associations between occupation and the incidence of cancer.

NEW YORK--Physicians and patients contribute to undertreatment of both cancer-related and acute noncancer pain because of unwarranted fear of addiction to pain medications, according to an expert on pain management.

NASHVILLE--The independence of hematologists/oncologists, including the specialty's right to determine the size of its residency programs, is being threatened by the changes occurring in health care, Daniel Rosenblum, MD, said at a forum on health-care reform at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH).

ROCKVILLE, Md--By the year 2003, the FDA hopes to be settled into its new 539-acre home in Clarksburg, Md, a small farming community about 15 miles north of the agency's main Rockville headquarters.

NASHVILLE--In the last year, at least four groups have reported cloning proteins that appear to be the long-elusive megakaryocyte colony-stimulating growth factor thrombopoietin, which acts via the mpl cell surface receptor.

NEW YORK--Thirteen of the nation's leading cancer centers have announced the creation of a national alliance that will develop and institute standards of care and clinical guidelines for the treatment of cancer and perform outcomes research.

PHILADELPHIA--Pain from skeletal metastasis has a major impact on quality of life in patients with prostate cancer, Mary Layman-Goldstein, RN, OCN, said at the American Cancer Society's National Conference on Prostate Cancer. Ms. Layman-Goldstein, a clinical nurse specialist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, served on a panel discussion on how to manage complications of prostate cancer.

NASHVILLE--Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have seen objective responses in some of the 15 patients treated to date in the first clinical trial of gene therapy in brain tumors, Michael Blaese, MD, said at the scientific subcommittee session on gene therapy at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting.

ANNAPOLIS, Md--Last year, a Maryland court placed on indefinite hold a proposed ban on smoking in all public places, including bars, restaurants, and every workplace in the state.

According to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, as of 1993, 124 cancer drugs were in some stage of development at 49 pharmaceutical companies and the National Cancer Institute. The report was based on an NCI survey.

ROCKVILLE, Md--The FDA has denied a request by CellPro, Inc. (Bothell, Wash) to approve its cell sorting device Ceprate SC, used investigationally to purify bone marrow or peripheral blood autografts by concentrating CD34+ stem cells. The FDA has asked the company to provide additional information on the device.

NEW YORK--Two new studies show that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) wages a constant, near steady-state battle with the immune system--from the onset of infection throughout the course of the disease.

ROCKVILLE, Md--The FDA Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee has recommended approval of two agents: Hoffmann-La Roche's Vesanoid (tretinoin, all-trans-retinoic acid) and Pharmacia Inc.'s Zinecard (dexrazoxane for injection).

NASHVILLE--An experimental high-speed clinical cell selection device has been shown to be capable of isolating a pure population of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), essentially free from cancer cells, and the machine's developer (SyStemix, Inc., Palo Alto, Calif) has received FDA allowance for an active IND (investigational new drug) for clinical testing of HSCs purified by cell selection in cancer patients who are undergoing transplantation.

WILMINGTON, Del--Zeneca Group PLC, London, the parent company of Zeneca Pharmaceuticals, has entered into an agreement to purchase a 50% interest in Salick Health Care, Inc., Los Angeles, a provider of health-care services to patients with cancer and other complex illnesses. It may be the first time a pharmaceutical company has purchased a health-care provider.

SAN ANTONIO--Gynecologic evaluation of women taking prophylactic tamoxifen (Nolvadex) should be restricted to patients with endometrial thickening that exceeds 8 mm and possibly to premenopausal women with amenorrhea, a British study suggests.

WASHINGTON--Samuel Broder, MD, director of the National Cancer Institute since 1989, has announced his resignation effective in April. He will become senior vice president and chief scientific officer at IVAX Corp., Miami.

CHICAGO--By creating a virtual reality environment, physicians in the not-too-distant future will be able to move through, around, and into a patient's airways to search for tumors, enlarged lymph nodes, and abnormal masses in the walls of the bronchi and surrounding tissue on a computer screen, David J. Vining, MD, predicted at the annual scientific meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.

BETHESDA, Md--Dr. Harold Varmus, director of the National Institutes of Health, has pooled $13.4 million from the budgets of all of the institutes to fund projects at five of them.

PHILADELPHIA--Urinary incontinence probably occurs as a complication of radical prostatectomy more often than series reported in the literature suggest, said Jerry G. Blaivas, MD, in a panel discussion of complications of prostate cancer held at the American Cancer Society's National Conference on Prostate Cancer.

The second part of this three-part series discusses the various types of fraud and abuse laws, reviews the laws on false claims, and provides suggestions for limiting a physician's exposure to fraud and abuse claims. Part 1, which appeared in the January, 1995, issue of Oncology News International (page 18), discussed the Stark statute, which prohibits self-referrals for certain services covered by Medicare and Medicaid, while the final article will review the Medicare and Medicaid anti-kickback statute.

Approximately one third of patients with epithelial ovarian cancer present with localized or early-stage disease. Prognostic features identify certain subsets of patients with good risk characteristics who do not require adjuvant

ELK GROVE VILLAGE, Ill--SoloPak Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has signed an agreement with Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research to acquire the exclusive worldwide rights to gallium nitrate (Ganite), which was FDA approved in 1991 for the treatment of acute hypercalcemia in cancer patients and had been manufactured by Fujisawa USA (Deerfield, Ill).