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ATLANTA-What do 30 doctors, 20 nurses, 100 patients, and one magician have in common? A desire to make VHL stand for “Very Happy Life” as well as von Hippel-Lindau disease. These 150 people, including illusionist The Amazin’ Grayson (Grayson Smith of Memphis), attended the Sixth International Patient/Provider Conference on VHL, a 3-day meeting to build teamwork for management of VHL.

PORTLAND, Oregon-The US Department of Veterans Affairs has opened its new $30 million Northwest Veterans Affairs Cancer Research Center. The Center will house joint research projects of both the Portland VA Medical Center and the Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU). Its primary focus will be the genetic basis and the biologic pathways of cancer.

ATLANTA-As with postmenopausal hormone replacement, tamoxifen (Nolvadex) administration may be associated with reduced lipid levels. In addition, tamoxifen may also have beneficial effects on markers of inflammation considered to be novel cardiac risk factors, according to a poster presentation at the 35th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

NEW ORLEANS-High-resolution ultrasound provides additional information about mammographically identified malignant calcifications and may find malignancies unseen on mammography, Beverly E. Hashimoto, MD, said at the annual meeting of the American Roentgen Ray Society.

NEW ORLEANS-Virtual endoscopy of the gastrointestinal tract is a rapidly advancing technology, Bradford J. Wood, MD, said in an interview with Oncology News International. “Radiologists should become familiar with the virtual endoscopic appearance of a variety of GI pathologies so that they can speak a common language with surgical and gastrointestinal endoscopists,” he said.

NEW ORLEANS-In selected patients with radiographically identified nonpalpable breast abnormalities, ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (FNA) with follow-up mammograms is effective and offers a cost savings over stereotactic mammotomy (directional vacuum-assisted breast biopsy). S.S. Buchbinder, MD, of the Department of Radiology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, reported the results at the American Roentgen Ray Society annual meeting.

LUGANO, Switzerland-Younger patients with histologically aggressive, stage IV non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) might benefit from a dose-intense etoposide-containing regimen, according to late follow-up results from the British National Lymphoma Investigation (BNLI) reported at the VII International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma.

WASHINGTON-What’s good for regulating cigarettes is equally good for cigars, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) argued in a new report to Congress. It recommended that Congress require health warning labels for cigars, ban all cigar advertising on radio and television, and enact measures to restrict the access of underage smokers to cigars.

Nutritional Oncology provides acomprehensive review of the current scientific literature on nutritional factors affecting the prevention and treatment of cancer. The book’s primary objective is to detail findings in the new field of nutritional oncology,

Scientists fear that existing genetic techniques will be misused before the consequences of altering the human blueprint on personal, generational, and societal levels are fully realized. At St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee,

Drs. Pirl and Roth describe various problems that complicate efforts to accurately diagnose and appropriately treat depression in cancer patients. These include the subjective nature of symptoms, multiple possible diagnoses within the spectrum of mood

Pirl and Roth synthesize well the rich literature that now exists on the prevalence, causes, and treatment of depression in patients with cancer. Their review focuses attention on: (1) those factors-patient- as well as disease- and treatment-related

Depression is a common complication of cancer, occurring in about 25% of all patients. If left untreated, depression can contribute to poor treatment compliance, increased hospital stays, and mortality. Medical issues,

WASHINGTON-Last year, tens of thousands gathered on The Mall in front of the US Capitol and in scores of communities nationwide to urge the federal government to make cancer the number one medical research priority. On Sept. 25, a candlelight vigil in front of the Lincoln Memorial will mark the first anniversary of that event, known as The March.

NEW ORLEANS-For the majority of mammographically detected invasive carcinomas with a mean size of 11 mm, stereotactic biopsy obtained with larger gauge needles provides adequate material for establishing a host of prognostic factors, said Michael D. Lagios, MD, medical director of the Breast Cancer Consultation Service, St. Mary’s Medical Center, San Francisco.

BETHESDA, Md-Using new computer software to “mine” existing databases, National Cancer Institute (NCI) scientists have discovered 10,435 possible new variations in human genes. The so-called single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, must still be validated, but NCI said each of the variations met statistical confidence levels of 0.99%.

LUGANO, Switzerland-Although a decade’s worth of phase II studies in advanced large-cell lymphoma have suggested that new, multidrug regimens could nearly double both the complete response rate and the proportion of long-term survivors, appearances can be deceiving, Richard Fisher, MD, Coleman Professor of Oncology, Loyola University Medical Center, Maywood, Illinois, said at the VII International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma.

NEW YORK-Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center’s new Laurance S. Rockefeller Outpatient Pavilion provides advanced programs for outpatient cancer diagnosis and treatment in a calm and beautiful environment. “We believe this facility will serve as a national model for the delivery of outpatient cancer care in the new millennium,” said Paul A. Marks, MD, president and CEO.

ROCKVILLE, Md-The Agency for Health Care Policy Research (AHCPR) plans to spend up to $11 million to fund two or three research centers to conduct studies of the health care market and managed care. The aim is to help policy makers understand, monitor, and anticipate how changes in the nation’s market-driven health care system affect costs, access to services, and quality of care. Interested researchers have until Sept. 2 , 1999, to submit letters of intent.

ORLANDO-“Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) confer protection against the common GI cancers, not only against colon and rectal cancer, which we’ve known about, but also in the esophagus and stomach, where the protection was at least as strong,” Michael Langman, MD, said at the Digestive Disease Week meeting.

WASHINGTON-Amid the artworks and antiques of the Diplomatic Rooms of the US State Department, the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation presented its awards to four scientists for their work related to cancer.

The City of Hope National Medical Center and Beckman Research Institute received the largest individual gift in the cancer center’s 86-year history from Irwin Helford, chairman of Viking Office Products and vice chairman of Office Depot. The

ORLANDO-A French study is “the first to quantify the frequency of anal cancer in HIV patients,” Iradj Sobhani, MD, said at the Digestive Disease Week meeting. “Anal carcinoma is rare in the general population, but relatively common in HIV-positive patients,” said Dr. Sobhani, of the Gastroenterology Service, Hopital Bichat, Paris.

WASHINGTON-An extensive review of the medical literature finds that women with silicone breast implants are no more likely to develop cancer and several other major ailments than women in the general population. The new report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) concludes, however, that implants commonly lead to often-painful complications that may require surgery or other treatment.

PHILADELPHIA-Intranasal delivery of an adenoviral vector containing the murine interleukin-12 (IL-12) gene has been shown to inhibit osteosarcoma lung metastases in mice. IL-12 is a molecule that activates the immune system and has recently been shown to have antiangiogenic activity. “Our hypothesis is that IL-12 interfered with tumor angiogenesis,” Laura L. Worth, MD, PhD, said at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.

NEW YORK- The law “need not be a barrier to good decisions at the end of life,” Carl H. Coleman, JD, executive director of the New York State Task Force on Life and the Law, said at a panel discussion on legal issues and end of life care sponsored by the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

LUGANO, Switzerland-The impact of radiotherapy on disease control and toxicity in patients with advanced Hodgkin’s disease remains controversial. In fact, a 1998 meta-analysis suggested that combined-modality therapy results in worse long-term survival than does chemotherapy alone.

LUGANO, Switzerland-ChlVPP/EVA hybrid chemotherapy proved more effective than both MVPP and VAPEC-B as first-line treatment for advanced Hodgkin’s disease (HD) in two collaborative studies, Dr. John A. Radford, of Christie Hospital, Manchester, UK, reported at the VII International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma. The hybrid regimen consists of chlorambucil, vinblastine, procarbazine, and prednisone plus etoposide, vincristine, and doxorubicin (Adriamycin).

Peaceful Dying is a work of considerable effort and organization. Dr. Tobin has painstakingly analyzed his experience as a physician caring for patients with terminal illness and compiled a step-by-step guide to help both patients and their families

ROCKVILLE, Md-Doxil (doxorubicin HCl liposome injection, ALZA Corporation) has won accelerated FDA approval of its supplemental New Drug Application for the treatment of metastatic ovarian cancer refractory to both paclitaxel (Taxol)- and platinum-based chemotherapy regimens. Accelerated approval requires the company to conduct additional research to demonstrate that the drug is associated with clinical benefit. Doxil, a liposomal formulation of doxorubicin, is currently approved for use in AIDS-related Kaposi’s sarcoma.