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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).

NEW YORK--Yogi Berra had the last word at a panel discussion on health-care reform sponsored by the Medical Society of the State of New York. Television talk show host Larry King moderated the discussion and fielded the caustic remarks of doctors, pharmacists, and medical students who packed a Waldorf-Astoria ballroom to debate whether quality medical care can be maintained under health-care reform.

DALLAS--Two pediatricians at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have established the Umbilical Stem Cell Project to procure, test, and store human umbilical cord and placental blood for use as an alternative to bone marrow in allogeneic transplant patients who lack a related compatible marrow donor.

WEST CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa--The Medicines Control Agency, the regulatory agency for the United Kingdom, has granted a product license for the marketing of Ethyol (amifostine), manufactured by U.S. Bioscience, Inc.

NEW YORK--Health-care professionals treating pain are hindered by the lack of an objective way to measure pain, says Johns Hopkins researcher Fannie Gaston-Johansson, DrMedSc, who has introduced a new device that may help the situation (see figure).

NEW YORK--Despite its aim of cost containment, health-care reform threatens to increase the economic toll of pain because it may encourage undertreatment, Daniel Carr, MD, said at a media briefing on pain, sponsored by the American Medical Association and Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical Corp.

WASHINGTON--Samuel Broder, MD, head of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) for the past 5 years, says that he will resign his post in April of this year. He will join IVAX Corporation (Miami), a manufacturer of generic drugs and IV drug delivery devices, where he plans to work on developing new drugs.

LISBON, Portugal--Doxorubicin coupled with cisplatin (Platinol) confers a distinct survival edge over the anthracycline alone in women with advanced inoperable or recurrent endometrial carcinoma, according to the latest findings of the Gynaecological Cancer Cooperative Group (GCCG) of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC).

BETHESDA, Md--As expected, the number of reported AIDS cases increased substantially in 1993 due to the expansion of the surveillance case definition in January of that year, but an adjusted analysis shows only a slight overall increase.

LISBON, Portugal--Recent evidence linking low-grade gastric lymphoma with chronic Helicobacter pylori infection, which is said to trigger antigenic stimulation and lymphoid cell invasion of the stomach mucosa, has raised the provocative question of whether eradication of H. pylori infection can cure gastric lymphoma.