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Obama, Pope Focus On Abortion, 'Life' Issues In First Meeting
In their first meeting, President Obama and Pope Benedict XVI on Friday discussed their views on abortion, embryonic stem cell research and the rights of health care workers to object to procedures and services that go against their beliefs, the Los Angeles Times reports. During a 30-minute discussion, the pope expressed to Obama his beliefs about "the defense and promotion of life and the right to abide by one"s conscience," according to the Vatican. The Times reports that the statement was a "clear reference" to debates over abortion rights, embryonic stem cell research and "conscience" protections for health care providers who refuse care on moral or religious grounds (Chu, Los Angeles Times, 7/11).According to Time, Benedict showed "no intention of papering over differences on what the Vatican calls "life" issues," including abortion rights. Vatican spokesperson the Rev. Federico Lombardi said that the pope told him how Obama "explicitly expressed his commitment to reducing the number of abortions and to listen to the Church"s concerns on moral issues" (Israely, Time, 7/10). According to White House deputy national security aide Denis McDonough, Obama was "eager to find common ground on these issues and to work aggressively to do that" (Simpson/Feller, AP/Boston Globe, 7/11). However, "[I]t may just be that there"s issues that you can"t come to agreement on," McDonough added, noting that Obama believes that "you can disagree without being disagreeable" (Los Angeles Times, 7/11).Montsignor Georg Ganswein, the pope"s personal secretary, said that Obama was given a copy of "Dignitas Personae," or "The Dignity of a Person," a Vatican document released in December detailing the Roman Catholic Church"s most recent stance on bioethics issues (Time, 7/10). The document "hardened" the Church"s opposition to embryonic stem cell research, cloning and in vitro fertilization (AP/Boston Globe, 7/11). Obama assured the pope he would read the document that day on his flight from Italy to Ghana. Ganswein said that the document "can help the president better understand the position of the Catholic Church." Lombardi noted that it "would be ambiguous to hide or minimize what we believe," adding, "It"s not meant to be divisive or polemical" (Time, 7/10).
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Oncology

The Risk Factors For Sporadic Colorectal Cancer

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common cancers in China. Although the association between the epidemiological factors and sporadic colorectal cancer has been studied, the relation between smoking, alcohol drinking, family history of cancer, body mass index (BMI) and sporadic colorectal cancer still remains uncertain. So it is important to investigate the role of these factors in the development of sporadic colorectal cancer. A research team led by Professor Jian-Ping Wang from the Gastrointestinal Institute of Sun Yat-Sen University addressed this question. Their study was published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology. They conducted a hospital-based case-control study from July 2002 to December 2008 in Guangzhou city. There were 706 cases and 723 controls with their sex and age (within 5 years) matched. An unconditional logistic regression model was used to analyze the association between smoking, alcohol drinking, family history of cancer, BMI and sporadic colorectal cancer. They found that current alcohol drinking and greater BMI (ò‰¥ 24.0 kg/m2) are the independent risk factors for colon and rectal cancer, while former alcohol drinking and positive family history of cancer are the independent risk factors for colon cancer in southern Chinese. Their findings may contribute to the prevention and control of sporadic colorectal cancer. However, because of the uncontrolled bias in selection participants and retrospective design, their findings need to be further evaluated in well-designed larger epidemiological studies with different ethnic populations. Reference: Wei YS, Lu JC, Wang L, Lan P, Zhao HJ, Pan ZZ, Huang J, Wang JP. Risk factors for sporadic colorectal cancer in southern Chinese. World J Gastroenterol 2009; 15 (20): 2526-2530. Correspondence to: Jian-Ping Wang, Professor, MD, Gastrointestinal Institute of Sun Yat-Sen University, Department of Colorectal Surgery, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Yuancunerheng Road 26, Guangzhou 510655, Guangdong Province, China. Lai-Fu Li World Journal of Gastroenterology


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