All News

NEW YORK--An international foundation headquartered in New York City hopes to trigger a national debate about death and dying in the United States. The Project on Death in America will be funded by the Open Society Institute, one of the Soros Foundations.

WASHINGTON--Since the first case of AIDS appeared in the United States in 1981, 60,000 women have been diagnosed with the disease, 14,000 of them (25% of the total number of women) in 1994 alone. HIV in women is increasing at the rate of 17% a year, and one in four new cases in 1994 occurred in women under the age of 20.

PRINCETON, NJ--Direct intratumor radioimmunotherapy (RAIT), with multiple courses delivered via indwelling or removable catheters, resulted in prolonged survival in patients with malignant glioma. Observations in newly diagnosed

ROCKVILLE, Md--In February, as part of an FDA pilot program, representatives of consumer groups sat at the table during an Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) meeting. The ad hoc representatives from the Treatment Action Group, a New York organization representing people with AIDS, and the National Breast Cancer Coalition participated in the discussions of New Drug Applications but did not have a vote.

CHICAGO--A pair of large-scale clinical investigations reported at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America is renewing the controversy over the need to perform mammography in young women.

WASHINGTON--According to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), cancer now rivals or surpasses heart disease as the leading cause of death in several European countries and parts of Asia and Latin America. The new report is the most comprehensive look at international death rates ever undertaken by the NCHS. It compares age-adjusted death rates from 41 industrialized countries from 1955 through 1991.

The first volume of Cancer Therapy in the Twenty-First Century provides background information on some of the molecular and immunologic approaches that are becoming increasingly important in the diagnosis and management of cancer

STANFORD, Calif--A new single-cell biological sensor system may someday allow rapid screening of cancer agents for biofunctional activity (see illustration on page 1). The test could be used, for example, to identify compounds that bind to or block receptors for biomolecules such as growth factors or other cytokines, or to highlight potentially harmful metabolites.

WHIPPANY, NJ--Two new forms of Dilaudid (hydromorphone HCL)-- Dilaudid 8 mg tablets and Dilaudid-5 Oral Liquid--are now available from Knoll Pharmaceutical Company.

MILAN, Italy--Opioids are not usually the cause of organic brain syndromes (most often delirium and hallucinations) in patients with chronic cancer pain, when other common medical conditions that develop in advanced cancer are considered,

WASHINGTON--The National Institutes of Health, University of Utah, and Myriad Genetics, Inc. have resolved issues involving patenting of the BRCA1 breast cancer gene by agreeing that scientists from all three institutions should be named as joint inventors in current patent applications. The agreement also ensures that exclusive, worldwide commercial rights are retained by Myriad and its licensees, Eli Lilly and Company and Hybritech Incorporated.

SEATTLE--Receptagen Ltd. has begun formal clinical development of its first "growth blocker" drug, based on promising laboratory studies. The agent, a monoclonal antibody that blocks the B12 carrier protein trans-cobalamin II, triggered apoptosis in cancer cells by depleting vitamin B12, an essential enzyme co-factor for cell proliferation, said Receptagen president A. Charles Morgan Jr., PhD.

PARIS, France--A treatment that even modestly improves survival may be important, but most cancer trials are too small to detect such differences, Professor Richard Peto, of Oxford's ICRF Clinical Trial Service Unit, said at the Fifth International

TARRYTOWN, NY--America's major medical research institutions are failing to conduct the nutritional research needed to make a major public health impact on cancer and other diseases, says Peter Greenwald, MD, director of the division of cancer prevention and control at the National Cancer Institute.

PARIS, France--Cancer vaccines are now coming into their own, in advanced as well as early disease, Malcolm S. Mitchell, MD, said at the Fifth International Congress on Anti-Cancer Chemotherapy. Although vaccines have, to date, been most

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC--Zofran Tablets (ondansetron), from Cerenex Pharmaceuticals, Division of Glaxo Inc., has received FDA approval for a new indication--the prevention of radiation-induced nausea and vomiting. The oral agent, a 5-HT3 antagonist, is currently marketed for prevention of emesis in cancer patients receiving moderately emetogenic chemotherapy.

ROCKVILLE, Md--After hours of heated debate, the FDA's Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) decided there was sufficient evidence of efficacy to recommend approval of DOX-SL (pegylated liposomal doxorubicin) for the treatment of AIDS-related Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) in patients who have failed first-line treatment or who cannot tolerate other treatment. The potential benefits of the drug generally outweigh the risks, the committee said.

BETHESDA, Md--Whaijen Soo, MD, vice president for virology, Hoffmann-La Roche, told the National Task Force on AIDS Drug Development that the company's protease inhibitor, saquinavir (Invirase), is now ready for phase III trials

BETHESDA, Md--Intermittent infusions of interleukin-2 (IL-2, aldesleukin) have led to significant increases in CD4+ T cell counts in HIV-infected patients with early disease, a study from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has found.

A look back at the pre-antibiotic era may uncover ways to deal with immunosuppression and drug resistance in today's patients, Dr. Matthew Scharff said at a recent talk sponsored by the Irvington Institute.

ROCKVILLE, Md--Bruce Chabner, MD, director of the NCI Division of Cancer Treatment, said that over the past decade, NCI's drug discovery and development programs have produced seven new drugs currently being used to treat cancer and AIDS. The program cost about $1.4 billion: $200 million for every New Drug Application filed.

The evaluation and treatment of osteosarcoma have evolved considerably over the past 2 decades, with corresponding dramatic improvements in prognosis. In large part, the improved outlook is attributable to

NEW YORK--"I had curly hair. Look at it now," lamented a young woman who had just taken off a turban. She was attending an "All You Want to Know About Wigs" seminar at Cancer Care, Inc. in Manhattan. Indeed, her curls were gone, and only wisps remained. She passed around a photograph of herself before chemotherapy for comments: "Gorgeous. You were gorgeous." "You're still gorgeous."

NEW YORK--The power of attorney, the health-care proxy, and the living will "are the three simplest things we can do to control our destiny. They're not overly complex, not expensive, and once you arrange for these documents, you can get on with your life," attorney Edward J. Mullen told cancer patients at a legal clinic in the Manhattan office of Cancer Care, Inc., an agency that provides professional social service support to cancer patients and their families.

CHICAGO--A new minimally invasive procedure for treating certain types of primary or metastatic brain cancer offers an alternative to patients who are too ill to undergo standard craniotomy, chemotherapy, or radiotherapy, or who have not

DUARTE, Calif--An oncologist passionate about the advantages of managed care? Oncology News International met just such a physician, Myron H. Goldsmith, who provides medical oncology services on a capitated basis to the City of Hope Oncology Network, while also maintaining his fee-for-service practice. "You have to be passionate about what you believe in," this on-the-go doctor said from his cellular phone.

CHICAGO--Initial experience with a prototype digital mammography system indicates that the new technology has the potential to detect breast tumors much smaller in size than is possible with conventional mammography, and can be manipulated to explore areas of breast tissue that harbor occult cancer.

PARIS, France--Dr. Bernard Fisher, Distinguished Service Professor of Surgery, University of Pittsburgh, was presented with the Third Claude Jacquillat Award for Achievement in Clinical Oncology at the Fifth International Congress of Anti-Cancer Chemotherapy.

NIH chief Harold Varmus has chosen an army physician, Lt. Col. Wayne Jonas, as the new permanent director of the Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM); he will replace temporary acting director Alan Trachtenberg in July. Dr. Jonas earned his

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).