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Bayer And Onyx Initiate Phase 3 Trial Of Nexavar In Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ONXX) announced that the companies have begun enrolling patients in an international Phase 3 trial to evaluate Nexavar(R) (sorafenib) tablets in patients with non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have failed two or three previous treatments.
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Blogs Comment On Health Care Reform Legislation, Congressional Funding For D.C., Other Topics
The following summarizes selected women"s health-related blog entries.~ "Just the Facts, Sir: The False Dichotomy of Catholics vs. "Pro-Choice" on Common Ground," Jodi Jacobson, RH Reality Check: In anticipation of the release of the White House"s "common ground" proposal to reduce the need for abortion and help prevent unintended pregnancies, "numerous members of the male pontificator commentariat are trying to spark anxiety by claiming Obama will have to make a choice between "the Catholic vote" and "the pro-choice community,"" Jacobson writes. However, "[n]othing could be further from the truth," she states, noting that Obama received the majority of the Catholic vote in the election and that a "majority of Catholic voters approve of [his] performance to date." There is "no danger" of Obama losing Catholic support "on this particular issue, as long as the administration makes clear its values and principles and goals and objectives, and as long as it sticks to the facts," Jacobson continues. She lists several steps that the White House should take with its proposal, including making it clear that the administration is "committed to evidence-based policies in public health" and that "the best way to reduce unintended pregnancies, and hence the need for abortion, is to provide universal access to prevention services." By focusing on evidence-based public health policies, the Obama administration "can, in the long run, actually bring profound change to this debate," Jacobson writes. She concludes that "evidence-based policies put into practice will achieve many of the goals we seek and take the air out of the ideological fight in which we have been engaged" (Jacobson, RH Reality Check, 7/2).~ "Is Denying Women Abortions the Price of Bipartisanship?" Igor Volsky, Think Progress" "The Wonk Room": Volsky writes that Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Republican colleagues on the Senate Finance Committee reportedly are pushing health care reform legislation that would require insurers participating in a new national health insurance exchange to exclude coverage for abortion services. According to Volsky, the committee"s version of the bill would be the only piece of health care reform legislation "that specifically prohibits -- takes away, rations, if you will -- a medical service." Meanwhile, health care reform legislation being considered by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and the House"s three committees that govern health care "leaves the coverage decisions -- the design of the so-called essential benefit packages" -- to the HHS secretary or an expert committee. Volsky notes that approximately one in three U.S. women will have an abortion by age 45 and that private insurers usually cover the procedure. He writes, "As Republicans often argue, Congress should leave benefits decisions to the medical professionals." He adds that "if denying abortion services to women is the price of bipartisanship, then perhaps winning those one or two Republican votes isn"t worth the price of jeopardizing women"s health and well-being" (Volsky, "The Wonk Room," Think Progress, 7/6).~ "House Moves To Lift Bans On Abortion Funding, Needle Exchange, Domestic Partnership and Medical Marijuana in D.C.," Choice Words: The fiscal year 2010 appropriations bill currently under review in the House "would lift a number of reproductive justice-related funding bans" in the District of Columbia, including a ban on using locally-raised funds for abortion, the blog entry states. "Access to abortion in D.C. has been severely limited by anti-choice Congresspeople playing politics with the district," the blog says, noting that Congress has "supreme authority" over the district"s funding. The bill also would end bans on using funds for certain other purposes, such as domestic partnership registration and benefits, according to the blog. The blog concludes that the "fight to lift these funding bans is just beginning" and is an "important first step towards protecting reproductiv
News of the day
New Strategy Proposed For Designing Antibody-Based HIV Vaccine
Most vaccines that protect against viruses generate infection-fighting proteins called antibodies that either block infection or help eliminate the virus before it can cause disease. Attempts to create a vaccine that induces antibodies that prevent HIV infection or disease, however, have so far been unsuccessful. But several recent studies suggest promising new research directions for the development of an antibody-based HIV vaccine, according to John R. Mascola, M.D., deputy director of the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health, and colleagues.
Diagnostics

Ongoing Study Shows That Endovascular Therapy Is Associated With High Cure Rate For Childhood Eye Cancer

Expanded results of a study conducted on children with eye cancer (retinoblastoma) shows that chemotherapy delivered through endovascular (through the vessel) means not only successfully cures the cancer in a majority of cases, but achieves this cure with preserved vision. Study outcomes were presented this week at the Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery (SNIS) 6th Annual Meeting in Boca Raton, FL by lead author Pierre Gobin, Professor of Radiology in Neurosurgery and Neurology at the Weill Cornell Medical Center at New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. "This is an exciting development in the neurointerventional community, as results prove that chemotherapy delivered through endovascular techniques is a powerful tool in addressing the most severe forms of retinoblastoma," says Gobin, who says that the study is the product of teamwork between New York Presbyterian Hospital and the Eye Cancer Center of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York City, with support from David Abramson, M.D., Brian Marr, M.D., Ira Dunkel, M.D. And Scott Brodie, M.D. Retinoblastoma, the seventh most common pediatric cancer, is a malignant eye tumor in children that arises in cells in the developing retina. Typically, this cancer is associated with a late diagnosis as one of the only symptoms, a white pupil replacing the normal black, presents when the tumor occupies over one-third of the eye. Conventional therapy for this cancer includes laser treatment, as well as techniques that utilize extreme cold to freeze and destroy abnormal cells or deliver radioactive substances in timed intervals to kill the tumor. If these treatments fail, physicians resort to intravenous chemotherapy or radiation therapy. Despite this wide array of treatment options, however, a late diagnosis often requires the removal of the eye. According to Gobin, the study was initiated in 2006 to determine if chemotherapy delivered through endovascular methods (through a catheter inserted in the groin and threaded up through the vessels to the site of the tumor), otherwise known as chemosurgery, would produce better outcomes for retinoblastoma patients, including preserving the eye and vision as well as avoiding intravenous chemotherapy, which is administered over the course of six months to a year and can be frequently associated with port infections and sickness for the duration of that time. Since the study was initiated, 49 children, ranging in age from 1 month to 10 years, have been treated with this technique. Of this number, all suffered from advanced retinoblastoma and were candidates for removal of the eye. Additionally, half of the patients had already failed prior conventional treatments, including intravenous chemotherapy or radiation therapy; nine patients had already had an eye removed. Study participants were chosen following an eye examination under anesthesia, allowing physicians to confirm the diagnosis and determine the extent of the disease. For those who qualified, chemosurgery was performed soon thereafter, and was repeated every three to four weeks, up to six times. To date, 144 chemosurgeries have been performed, which equates to a mean of three per patient. Results indicate that physicians were able to technically perform the procedure successfully in almost every case. Short-term follow-up, occurring after six or more months of stability after the last treatment, showed that of 27 eyes, 21 are cured (77 percent) and 13 are cured with preserved vision (48 percent). Six eyes could not be saved. Overall, of the population of eyes that were treated, 50 percent of patients would have lost an eye on conventional treatment; of those who kept an eye, a majority would not have experienced useful vision. With chemosurgery, only ten percent of patients lost an eye. In general, patients tolerated the procedure well with minimal side effects that resolved once addressed. In only four out of 46 eyes treated did severe complications occur which eventually led to blindness. All four eyes had received previous extensive treatment consisting of intravenous chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Due to the overwhelming success observed with chemosurgery, Gobin says this treatment option has considerably reduced the number of conventional treatments, including the toxic intravenous chemotherapy, and most significantly, the number of eye losses. "The results really do have the potential to change the entire treatment approach to advanced retinoblastoma. In our center, chemosurgery is now the first line of treatment for this potentially devastating condition." Retinoblastoma occurs in approximately 350 - 400 children each year. Approximately 80 percent of patients are diagnosed under 3 years of age. About SNIS SNIS members are neurointerventional practitioners with backgrounds in neuroradiology, neurosurgery and neurology that come together in the shared discipline of neurointerventional surgery. Our practitioners specialize in minimally invasive and endovascular procedures to treat stroke, aneurysms, carotid stenosis and spine fractures. Over the past two decades, our physicians have made numerous contributions to the neurosciences including: advancing stroke treatment through catheter based therapy; innovating endovascular coiling for aneurysms; pioneering interventional procedures to treat fractures in the spine; and initiating the first-ever stroke registry to track procedural success in the treatment of acute stroke. Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery


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