7/12/2004 By JOAN LOWY Scripps Howard News Service The Bush administration is using a variety of methods to suppress scientific research, information and viewpoints that are unfavorable to industry, speakers at a national conference on scientific integrity said Monday. Scientific research and regulation related to the environment and public health is also being undermined by an aggressive effort by corporate interests to challenge scientific information, even when that information represents a clear consensus of scientific opinion, scientists and public health advocates said. "Within the scientific community the effects of the administration's (actions) have been chilling and demoralizing," Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., a clinical psychologist and former university professor, told the conference, sponsored by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a public advocacy group. "Researchers are practicing self-censorship or avoiding government careers entirely," Baird said. "Lifetimes of study are being abandoned, international collaborations are being curtailed, studies and data that could lead to valuable life-saving information are being neglected or blocked ... and some of the best scientific talent in the world is starting to leave our country." Eric Schaeffer, who resigned two years ago as chief of enforcement at the Environmental Protection Agency in protest over the administration's air pollution policies, said the agency recently decided to exempt two-thirds of plywood manufacturing plants from an air pollution regulation after determining that the health benefits would be outweighed by the costs of complying with the regulation. The EPA based its decision in part on a new industry study that [...]

7/8/2004 Cleveland, OH The Cleveland Clinic Foundation PRNewswire Hollywood screenwriter Joe Eszterhas has released "One-Hundred-Year-Old Man," the third installment in his trilogy of public service announcements designed to highlight the dangers of smoking. Eszterhas, writer of such films as Basic Instinct, Flashdance and Jagged Edge, wrote and produced all three PSAs, which were directed by Tony Kaye (American History X.) "One-Hundred-Year-Old Man" shatters the myth that anyone is immune to the dangers of smoking. Eszterhas, who began using tobacco at age 12, says he once believed he would be "that hundred-year-old man that you read about who stills smokes." When he was diagnosed with throat cancer, however, his illusion vanished. Eszterhas teamed up with The Cleveland Clinic in 2002 after his successful treatment for cancer to form the "Join Joe Campaign," an award-winning, grass- roots effort that spreads his anti-smoking message. The web-based campaign can be accessed at http://www.clevelandclinic.org/joinjoe . "Hollywood simply has to confront its complicity in the deaths of millions of smokers," Eszterhas said. "For the past year and a half, I have been engaged in a struggle both through the media and behind the scenes to ban smoking in films. By filming this public service announcement, I am hoping that my cancer and my voice will neutralize the pro-smoking message." Eszterhas, whose films have grossed more than a billion dollars at the box office, is the first major Hollywood figure to criticize his own role in the glamorization of smoking on screen and to call for a [...]

7/8/2004 Glasgow, Scotland Doug Gillion The Herald One of the darkest stories in Olympic history was the vilification of the American Indian, Bright Path, otherwise known as Jim Thorpe. The 1912 pentathlon and decathlon winner was congratulated by the King of Sweden as "the most wonderful athlete in the world". Thorpe allegedly replied: "Thanks, King." His twin had died aged eight, and both parents by the time he was 15. Thorpe was educated in an Indian school before winning college colours in 11 different sports. He discovered his athletic talent when walking past a track where the high jumpers were failing to clear 5ft 9in. He cleared it in his working clothes. Five years later he was in the Olympics. Between the pentathlon and decathlon he placed fourth in the high jump and seventh in the long jump. His decathlon total would still have won silver medal in 1948. Within months, however, it transpired that Thorpe had been paid $25 a week for playing baseball. His medals were all forfeit. Avery Brundage, who had finished sixth in the pentathlon (and was president of the International Olympic Committee for 20 years) did nothing to help Thorpe's fight for reinstatement. MGM paid just $1500 for the film rights to Thorpe's life, and when he needed treatment for oral cancer he was a charity patient. He died in 1953. Only in 1982, after Brundage had gone, did the IOC restore his records and give the medals to his family.

7/8/2004 Irlam, UK Rebecca Eames Salford Adertiser A Irlam teenager inspired to hold a charity walk by her mother’s battle against cancer was joined by a nine-year-old boy paying a tribute to his beloved late grandad, who lost his battle with the disease. Nathan Lynch, whose grandad Arthur died of throat cancer, aged 74, last year, teamed up with more than 100 walkers who lined up alongside 15-year-old Kate Gowland for a three-mile hike around Irlam. The walk, held last weekend, was all in aid of Cancer Research UK. Nathan, a Cadishead Primary School pupil, joined in the walk after reading the Advertiser’s report about Kate’s sponsored walk. She organised the trek because her mum, Kay, was diagnosed with mouth cancer. And Nathan was eager to sign up and took part in the walk proudly bearing a T-shirt with a picture of his granddad on it. His mum, Angela Lynch, of Devon Road, was thrilled the walk had been organised and that her son had decided to take part. Angela said: "We were talking about doing something to raise funds for Cancer Research, but just didn’t really know how to go about it. So when we saw the walk advertised, it was just right, and Nathan really wanted to do it. It was a great idea as there are not that many things like this to do in Irlam and Cadishead. "Nathan really enjoyed it. When he got back he said that he had done the walk not only for [...]

7/8/2004 Hershey, PA Valerie Gliem Penn State College of Medicine Penn State College of Medicine researchers have discovered the first molecular therapy to target cancer-causing components and thereby destroy a bona fide human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. "Our results suggest that targeting therapies to the RNA that encodes a specific pair of proteins in HPV may break a chain that, left unhindered, promotes cellular proliferation and, potentially, cervical cancer," said Gary Clawson, M.D., Ph.D., professor of pathology, and biochemistry and molecular biology, Penn State College of Medicine. "Until now, there have been no effective and specific molecular treatments reported for HPV infections or for related papillomavirus infections." The study, titled "The Inhibition of papilloma progression by antisense oligonucleaotides targeted to HPV11 E6/E7 RNA" was published July 1, 2004, in the online version of the journal Gene Therapy. HPV is one of the most common causes of sexually-transmitted infection in the world. Types of HPV can cause fast-growing lesions such as genital and planter warts, and a number of HPV types are considered to be "high-risk" for development of cervical dysplasia, a known precursor to cervical cancer. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 20 million Americans are already infected with HPV. To survive and proliferate, HPV-infected cells require continued production of two proteins called E6 and E7, which are created according to the instructions of RNA, or ribonucleic acid, templates. Clawson and his team supposed that by destroying RNAs used for production of E6 and E7 proteins, the [...]

7/7/2004 Toni Baker Medical College of Georgia A vaccine that appears to protect against four common strains of human papillomavirus virus – two that cause cervical cancer and two that cause genital warts – is under study at the Medical College of Georgia in women age 24-45. "We have studied this vaccine in younger women and in children, who will be the primary target for vaccination in the future. However, there are millions of older women who may also want to be vaccinated against HPV," said Dr. Daron G. Ferris, family medicine physician, director of the MCG Gynecologic Cancer Prevention Center and a principal investigator on the vaccine study. HPV, one of the most common sexually transmitted infections in the country, is the biggest risk factor for cervical cancer and a cause of penile cancer and genital warts. MCG has been involved in several national trials pursuing the efficacy of different HPV vaccines in different populations. The quadrivalent vaccine currently under study protects against types 6 and 11, the top two wart-causing strains, and types 16 and 18, the two most-common cancer-causing strains. Dr. Ferris and his colleagues are concluding studies of the vaccine in women age 16-23 and in boys and girls age 10-15. Many of the mothers with children in the previous study have expressed interest in participating in this latest study. "It's only natural now to look at the moms," Dr. Ferris said. "Although the greatest risk for HPV infection is in the 15- to 25-year-old age [...]

7/7/2004 Washington, DC by Sarah L. Zielinski Journal of the National Cancer Institute A new study reports that head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs) that harbor transcriptionally active human papillomaviruses (HPV) have a different pattern of genetic changes than tumors without HPV. These patterns suggest that infection with HPV may play a role in the development of HNSCC, according to the study, which appears in the July 7 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. HPV is known to cause most cases of cervical cancer. Some studies have suggested that the virus may also play a role in the development of HNSCCs, and HPV DNA has been detected in the tumors of 10% to 20% of HNSCC patients. In addition, active HPV DNA can be found in the tumors of HNSCC patients who do not drink or smoke-factors that have been associated with an increased risk of HNSCC. It is believed that HPV infection is an independent risk factor, but an interaction with exposure to tobacco smoke can not be excluded. The mechanism by which HPV might cause HNSCC is not known. To find a possible mechanism of HPV carcinogenesis, Boudewijn J. M. Braakhuis, Ph.D., of the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and colleagues looked at HPV DNA and RNA and genetic alterations in the tumors of 143 patients with HNSCC. HNSCCs that had transcriptionally active HPV DNA (i.e., specific viral genes were expressed in the tumor cells) had a distinct genetic pattern in which [...]

7/6/2004 STEWARDSON, IL by Stan Grossfeld, Globe Staff The Boston Globe As a teenager, Gruen Von Behrens was a handsome lad who hit .400 for the local Comets and wanted to play for the Chicago Cubs. Ryne Sandberg was his hero. "The only things I cared about were baseball, food, and women, in that order," he said. At the high school field he still can point out the houses in the neighborhood beyond the center-field fence that he hit with home runs. But hitting homers was not his biggest habit. Spit tobacco was, and it almost cost him his life. Von Behrens was on an overnight camping trip when a friend offered him some spit tobacco. It was stolen from his friend's father's dresser drawer. "I thought, `Why not?' " he said. "I was 13. I had not a care in the world. So I took a dip. "At first it made me kind of sick and real dizzy. Next thing I knew I was addicted. I had to have it in my lip when I was playing baseball. I liked it. I liked the way it made me feel. I liked the way it tasted. "It was a game at first to see who could take the biggest dip and hold it in their mouth the longest and get the most juice out of it. To see who it would make get sick and then make fun of that person. And then entice them to chew more. That game [...]

7/6/2004 Bostaon, MA By Stan Grossfeld, Globe Staff Boston Globe For Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling it is harder than firing a split-fingered fastball past Alex Rodriguez. Harder than beating the Yankees. "It's obviously the hardest thing I've ever tried to do. Quit," said Schilling about his greatest opponent, smokeless tobacco. "And I still haven't done it yet." It is an uncomfortable subject. Schilling has battled the demons of smokeless or spit tobacco since he was 15, when a high school classmate dared him to try it. He liked it and was hooked. Smokeless tobacco contains 28 cancer-causing agents, according to the National Cancer Institute. It has been linked to oral cancer, tooth and gum decay, and possibly heart disease, according to the American Cancer Society. The Surgeon General has testified before Congress that "smokeless tobacco does cause cancer." It also contains highly addictive nicotine. In March 1998, Joe Garagiola, the former major league catcher and current chairman of Oral Health America's National Spit Tobacco Education Program (NSTEP), brought an oral health team to the spring training site of the Phillies, for whom Schilling was plying his trade at the time. "Schilling was in a line to get checked," said Garagiola. "I could see that he was getting very edgy because he was thinking about the exam. I practically held him by the hand making sure he wouldn't leave. We were talking umpires and Yogi [Berra] stories, anything I could to keep him there. He comes out and he's as [...]

7/5/2004 Liverpool, UK By Mark Hookham Liverpool Daily Post A father who died of cancer before he could be reunited with his daughter features in a hard-hitting NHS anti-smoking advert launched today. Anthony Hicks, from Bootle, Merseyside, was filmed from his hospital bed talking about the impending visit of his daughter, Alexandra, who lives in the United States. The father-of-two is barely audible, and with a visible hole or stoma in his throat following a laryngectomy operation to remove his voicebox. His final words to camera are: "I will be alive to see that" - but the subtitles reveal he died 10 days after filming in September last year and never got to see his daughter. Mr Hicks was a 20 to 40-a-day smoker and developed three independent cancers in his larynx, mouth and lung, all of which were caused by smoking. The advert is part of the Department of Health's Don't Give Up Giving Up campaign, and aims to raise awareness of head and neck cancer. It will launch on television today and on radio from next week. Mr Hicks's consultant, Shaun Jackson, head and neck cancer surgeon at University Hospital in Aintree, said: "There is some public awareness of throat and oral cancer, but few people realise that cancer can actually occur in any of the tissues and organs in the head and neck. "Often the symptoms can be gradual and can take many months to become apparent, lying virtually dormant until your 40's or 50's". "Smoking is [...]