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The recent massive preparations for a potential bioterrorist smallpox attack may radically change the way the nations health system is expected to respond to public health threats, at the same time ushering in a new wave of dilemmas for hospital ethics committees and administrators, say some policy experts.
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Academic medical centers frequently engage in industry-sponsored research that does not adhere to basic standards needed to protect the independence and objectivity of the investigators and the interests of patients who consent to be subjects, a study by researchers at Duke University in Durham, NC, has found.
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Scientists knowledgeable about the process of cloning animals say they doubt the Canadian-based group Clonaid actually has produced a cloned human baby, as the sect announced Dec. 27. But, some experts say, the publicity generated by the claim may push lawmakers to restrict scientific research into both reproductive and therapeutic cloning
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Delay in treatment to allow for fetal maturity is safe in patients with early stage I cervical carcinoma associated with pregnancy.
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A single fixed dose of pegfilgrastim administered once per cycle of chemotherapy was comparable to multiple daily injections of filgrastim in safely providing neutrophil support during myelosuppressive chemotherapy. Pegfilgrastim may have use in other clinical settings of neutropenia.
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Salvage therapy options for locally recurrent prostate cancer following radiotherapy failure include radical prostatectomy, brachytherapy, and cryotherapy. This study describes the results of the first effort at implementing percutaneous transperineal interstitial photodynamic therapy (PDT) and concludes that local control may be achievable with PDT if better light dosimetry is developed.
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In a retrospective review of treatment of patients with aggressive lymphoma who had relapsed after stem cell transplantation, single-agent rituximab was shown to induce complete or partial responses in close to 50% of patients. This compares favorably to salvage chemotherapy as reported in prior series.
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Type 2 nasopharyngeal carcinoma occurs most commonly in the Far East. However, patients with this tumor are being increasingly treated in North America with the increase in the number of Asian communities, particularly in urban areas. In this trial, patients with recurrent, locally advanced, or metastatic nasopharyngeal cancer who presented to a single institution for a 22-month period were treated with either gemcitabine alone or in combination with cisplatin.
