12/13/2003 Los Angeles Torie Osborn Los Angeles Times Every year at this time, news stories appear about needy nonprofits doing God’s work and modern-day good Samaritans-great men and women with names like Kroc, Gates and Annenberg-giving millions to worthy causes. We celebrate our generosity. We affirm that we are good people doing good things. But if you look beyond the rim of your rose-colored glasses, you’ll see a bigger picture this year, one that is neither joyous nor heartwarming. Nonprofits are desperate. Need is up. Giving is down. Nationwide, charitable giving decreased last year, the first drop in 12 years. This year’s numbers aren’t expected to be any better. But the disaster-in-the-making we face is bigger than this. Its magnitude came into focus after I read a story this year about the mayor of Somerville, Mass., going to that city’s nonprofits, pleading with churches, charities and nursing homes to make donations to the city to pay for the police and fire departments. A week later, I read another story about city officials in Pittsburgh doing the same thing. In Los Angeles, we’ve only just put our toe in the water. The city recently began charging nonprofits a $750 fee for park use (tables, clean-up, and utility hook-up not included). This time next year, nonprofits may be asked to adopt a cop. But all the nonprofits in Christendom can’t make up what government increasingly leaves unfunded. Our crisis in public services is not simply a result of the economic downturn. The [...]

12/10/2003 New York, NY By  Jennifer Warner,  Reviewed by Michael  Smith, MD WebMD Medical News Viral Infections Increasingly Implicated in Cancer Growth and Development You can't "catch" cancer like a cold, but new research now shows that infection with any of a number of different viruses may play an important role in the growth and development of cancer. More than a dozen different viruses have been linked to various forms of cancer. In most cases, the presence of a particular virus increases the risk of developing cancer or speeds its progression. For example, HIV and other viruses that affect the immune system make infected individuals prone to a variety of cancers by weakening the body's natural defenses. But in other cases, there is now compelling evidence that certain viruses may also play a critical role in causing cancer. Proving that a particular virus causes cancer, however, is complicated. "One of the things that is complicated about this is that there is a long time between exposure to the virus and development of the cancer," says Bruce Johnson, MD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. "Number two is that it's not a one-to-one thing. There are a lot more people who are exposed [to a virus] than have evidence of a tumor." Johnson moderated a briefing today in New York City on the virus-cancer link sponsored by the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Currently, Johnson says the scientific evidence is strongest for the link between cancer and the human papillomavirus (HPV) and the [...]

12/9/2003 San Diego Amgen Amgen (Nasdaq:AMGN), the world’s largest biotechnology company, today announced additional data from a Phase 3 study demonstrating that treatment with palifermin (recombinant human keratinocyte growth factor or rHuKGF), an investigational product, was associated with a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in mouth and throat soreness as reported by patients with hematological malignancies undergoing high dose chemotherapy and radiotherapy with peripheral blood progenitor cell (PBPC) transplants. Mouth and throat soreness is caused by the severe mouth ulcerations characteristic of oral mucositis, a painful and debilitating side effect of some cancer treatments. The results were presented by the study’s lead investigator, Patrick Stiff, M.D., Director of the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center, Loyola University Health System and Professor of Hematology/Oncology, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, in an oral presentation at the 45th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting. [ASH Abstract # 676] These findings are especially exciting because there are currently no approved therapies for the treatment or prevention of oral mucositis, Stiff said. In this trial, patients given palifermin experienced improvements in their ability to eat, drink, talk, swallow and sleep, as well as their overall functional well being. Patients enrolled in the study (n=212) reported daily how sore their mouths and throats were, as well as their limitation in carrying out daily activities. On average, patients receiving palifermin reported a reduction in soreness of 54 percent compared to the placebo arm of the study (p=0.0001). This reduction in soreness translated into, on average, [...]

12/8/2003 Nairobi William Wallis Financial Times Farmers in Ethiopia, where the drinking of coffee originated 3,000 years ago, have begun cutting down coffee bushes and replacing them with the drug khat, according to research by Oxfam, the British aid group, which says the slump in world coffee prices is boosting the global drugs trade. The research - published on Tuesday to coincide with a crisis meeting of coffee farmers, industry officials and international institutions in Geneva - says production has dropped by 17 per cent since 1998 in the Ethiopian province of Harar, an area reputed by tasters to produce some of the world's finest Arabica beans. According to Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia's prime minister, the trend is spreading, although industry officials say favourable climactic conditions have kept the overall crop steady this year. In the past five years coffee's contribution to Ethiopia's foreign exchange earnings has fallen from 70 to below 40 per cent, while earnings from khat doubled to $58m (£35m, ?48m). A similar phenomenon is occurring in Peru, where "coffee sells at around 65 US cents per pound, while coca, which is processed into cocaine, is around $3 a pound", says the report, which blames the coffee industry for its "half-hearted" efforts to address the world price slump. When chewed for hours, khat produces an amphetamine-like high. It is popular with African truck drivers and is used by 50 per cent of militiamen in Somalia, according to a recent United Nations survey. Long-term use of khat can cause [...]

12/3/2003 Chicago Jonathan S. Batchelor Accurate tumor staging is critical for patient management in clinical oncology. Research conducted by a team from Essen, Germany, suggests stage-adapted therapy (tumor staging (T), lymph node metastasis staging (N), and distant metastasis staging (M) ), may benefit by the use of a mix of modalities. Dr. Gerald Antoch, from the department of radiology at the University Hospital of Essen, presented the results of a study performed to compare the diagnostic accuracy of whole-body dual-modality PET/CT with whole-body MRI for the staging of cancer at the RSNA 2003 on Tuesday. The researchers conducted imaging studies with PET/CT and MRI on patients with different malignant diseases to assess tumor staging. The studies all covered an axial field of view from the head to the upper thighs, said Antoch The team imaged 60 patients using a dual-modality PET/CT (Biograph, Siemens Medical Solutions). PET imaging was performed one hour after the administration of 18-FDG and both intravenous and oral contrast agents were used in the diagnostic CT portion of the scan, he said. MRI imaging was conducted on a 1.5 T scanner (Sonata, Siemens Medical Solutions). Unenhanced T1- and T2-weighted studies of the liver and thorax as well as contrast-enhanced whole-body T1 coverage was conducted by the team. PET/CT and MRI data sets were evaluated by different reader teams who were blinded to the results of the other imaging procedure, reported Antoch. The researchers used histological results and clinical follow-up (mean, 199 days, +/-68) as their standards of [...]

12/3/2003 Illinois JODY NEAL Bluefield Daily Telegraph "People look at me like I'm a freak. I'm not a monster. If you give me a chance, you'll find I'm pretty likable."Those were the words of Gruen Von Behrens, a 26-year-old from Stewardson, Ill. A victim of oral cancer, he now travels the country, speaking to high school students and athletes about the dangers of smokeless tobacco. He was at PikeView High School on Tuesday, after making trips to Montcalm High School and Bluefield Intermediate School. With half of a tongue and a deformed face, it is sometimes difficult to understand Von Behrens when he speaks. "I know I'm hard to understand. That's why you have to listen closely," he told the gathered ninth- and 10th graders. "I went camping with some of my buddies when I was 13, and one of my friends asked me if I wanted a dip," Von Behrens said. "I was 13. I didn't have a care in the world, so I took a dip, and I liked the taste." Von Behrens said he started dipping nearly a can a day until he was 17 years old. That's approximately 1,827 cans. "We would play games to see who could get the biggest chew in their mouth or see who would get sick first. It was fun," the cancer victim said. Then, when he was nearing his 17th birthday, Von Behrens said he noticed a white spot on the side of his tongue, sort of like a fever [...]