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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).

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--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.

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,

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.

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.

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.