Texas cervical cancer vaccine battleground

BEIJING, Feb. 26 (Xinhuanet) – U.S. Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s mandate that all of the state’s middle-school-aged girls be vaccinated against a virus that causes cervical cancer angered Texas lawmakers who pushed a bill through committee to rescind the executive order, and Friday the unidentified parents of three Texas girls sued Perry for overstepping his authority and illegally requiring the vaccine.The whirlwind of controversy is a setback for public health advocates in the first state to require the vaccine for school admission, starting in 2008.Measures introduced by lawmakers in at least 31 states also have triggered negative fallout, said James Colgrove, a medical historian at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.“I would be surprised to see a lot of bills passed in the coming year,” Colgrove said of legislation requiring the vaccine. “The majority public health opinion is we really should be moving a little slower than this.”The vaccine, called Gardasil, protects women against two strains of the human papilloma virus that cause 70 percent of cervical cancers. At 360 U.S. dollars for a series of three shots, it is the most expensive vaccine yet. Medicaid and the federal Vaccines for Children Program will help cover costs. Large private insurers are also expected to pay for the vaccine.Legislators in Michigan, the first state to introduce bills on the vaccine last fall, narrowly defeated legislation mandating HPV vaccinations in December. A Maryland bill was withdrawn last month over concerns that children have trouble getting the shots already required.Virginia legislators have passed a bill mandating the vaccine, but Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, a Democrat, hasn’t decided whether to sign it.In California, a bill that would require school girls to get the shots has not been assigned to a committee. Assemblyman Ed Hernandez (D-Baldwin Park), lead author of the bill, said the row in Texas hadn’t diminished his support for mandating the vaccinations.“We plan on moving forward with our bill because I believe mandating this vaccination is the right thing to do,” he said. “The cervical cancer vaccine provides us the ability to significantly diminish a disease that needlessly kills and permanently maims thousands of women every year.”Merck & Co., the maker of Gardasil, this week suspended its lobbying campaign aimed at getting states to require the vaccine for middle-school-aged girls.“It distracted from the real issue, the importance of the vaccine and the ability to save lives,” spokesman Chris Loder said.Colgrove said Merck’s lobbying efforts undermined its cause.“People felt like they were just doing it to make money, and it looked suspicious,” he said. “It’s such a new vaccine and people hadn’t had a chance to be educated about it, but it was really being pushed through. I think Merck’s aggressive efforts created a lot of resistance, even from supporters.”

CT Scans May Not Lower Lung Cancer Death Rate

Feb. 27 (HealthDay News) -- The future of lung cancer detection may involve a simple, inexpensive breath test that can pick up the chemical "signature" of patients with the disease, a new study suggests."Think of it as a proof of principle study," said Dr. Peter Mazzone, lead author of the study and director of the lung cancer program at the Cleveland Clinic. "But there's still quite a bit more work to be done, and I would put it in the five-to-10-year range." People have a variety of different chemicals, called volatile organic compounds (VOCs), present in their breath. Different diseases are thought to alter the production or processing of these chemicals in a way that can be detected. The earliest studies looking at this phenomenon compared the chemicals and their concentrations in lung cancer patients and healthy patients. "That equipment was expensive and difficult to use and interpret," Mazzone said. "It would be nice, in order to bring it right to the patient, if you had simple-to-use devices that were equally accurate." The sensor that's the focus of the new study, a colorimetric sensor array, is related to other sensors used for sniffing out bombs at airports or checking to see if vegetables are going bad in a grocery store. Rather than determine the exact chemicals and their concentrations, this sensor changes color depending on the pattern of chemicals. The device is about the size of a nickel and has 36 dots, each made up of a different chemical. "The color of that dot changes based on what chemicals are absorbed into it," Mazzone explained. "So, the pattern of chemicals in the breath is represented by patterns of color changes on the sensor." Lung cancer remains the No. 1 cancer killer of both men and women in the United States. A main reason for the high death toll: About 70 percent of lung cancers are diagnosed in the late stages."The most useful part of any new test would be if we're able to accurately and inexpensively detect very early stage lung cancer when it could be cured," Mazzone said. "That would be the holy grail." For the new study, published online Feb. 26 in the journal Thorax, the sensor was used to test the breath of 122 people with different types of respiratory disease, including small cell lung cancer, and 21 healthy volunteers. The test accurately predicted the presence of cancer in just under 75 percent of cases. Dr. Len Horovitz, a pulmonary specialist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, said, "I think it's a preliminary, promising technique that obviously has the ability to identify patients who aren't identified by other routine means at this time. But it does not have the specificity and sensitivity that we would like it to have at this particular time."According to the study authors, the most accurate sensor to detect the presence of lung cancer from a patient's breath is a dog. The canines' accuracy rate is 99 percent, according to preliminary research. "The dogs are very promising and very interesting, but it's not ready either," Mazzone said. "It also provides promise to us. As our technology gets better, we should be able to do what the dogs do." Other breath tests to detect lung cancer are in various stages of development, including one that finds cancer "markers." SOURCES: Peter Mazzone, M.D., staff member, department of pulmonary allergy and critical care medicine, and director of the lung cancer program, The Cleveland Clinic; Len Horovitz, M.D., pulmonary specialist, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City; Feb. 26, 2007, online edition, Thorax Publish Date: February 27, 2007

Breath Test Helps Spot Lung Cancer

Feb. 27 (HealthDay News) -- The future of lung cancer detection may involve a simple, inexpensive breath test that can pick up the chemical "signature" of patients with the disease, a new study suggests."Think of it as a proof of principle study," said Dr. Peter Mazzone, lead author of the study and director of the lung cancer program at the Cleveland Clinic. "But there's still quite a bit more work to be done, and I would put it in the five-to-10-year range." People have a variety of different chemicals, called volatile organic compounds (VOCs), present in their breath. Different diseases are thought to alter the production or processing of these chemicals in a way that can be detected. The earliest studies looking at this phenomenon compared the chemicals and their concentrations in lung cancer patients and healthy patients. "That equipment was expensive and difficult to use and interpret," Mazzone said. "It would be nice, in order to bring it right to the patient, if you had simple-to-use devices that were equally accurate." The sensor that's the focus of the new study, a colorimetric sensor array, is related to other sensors used for sniffing out bombs at airports or checking to see if vegetables are going bad in a grocery store. Rather than determine the exact chemicals and their concentrations, this sensor changes color depending on the pattern of chemicals. The device is about the size of a nickel and has 36 dots, each made up of a different chemical. "The color of that dot changes based on what chemicals are absorbed into it," Mazzone explained. "So, the pattern of chemicals in the breath is represented by patterns of color changes on the sensor." Lung cancer remains the No. 1 cancer killer of both men and women in the United States. A main reason for the high death toll: About 70 percent of lung cancers are diagnosed in the late stages."The most useful part of any new test would be if we're able to accurately and inexpensively detect very early stage lung cancer when it could be cured," Mazzone said. "That would be the holy grail." For the new study, published online Feb. 26 in the journal Thorax, the sensor was used to test the breath of 122 people with different types of respiratory disease, including small cell lung cancer, and 21 healthy volunteers. The test accurately predicted the presence of cancer in just under 75 percent of cases. Dr. Len Horovitz, a pulmonary specialist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, said, "I think it's a preliminary, promising technique that obviously has the ability to identify patients who aren't identified by other routine means at this time. But it does not have the specificity and sensitivity that we would like it to have at this particular time."According to the study authors, the most accurate sensor to detect the presence of lung cancer from a patient's breath is a dog. The canines' accuracy rate is 99 percent, according to preliminary research. "The dogs are very promising and very interesting, but it's not ready either," Mazzone said. "It also provides promise to us. As our technology gets better, we should be able to do what the dogs do." Other breath tests to detect lung cancer are in various stages of development, including one that finds cancer "markers." SOURCES: Peter Mazzone, M.D., staff member, department of pulmonary allergy and critical care medicine, and director of the lung cancer program, The Cleveland Clinic; Len Horovitz, M.D., pulmonary specialist, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City; Feb. 26, 2007, online edition, Thorax Publish Date: February 27, 2007

Firms can open drug rehabilitation centers

CHINA'S enterprises and other social organizations may open drug rehabilitation centers under the supervision of local governments, China News Service Center said today, citing a conference by the country's Ministry of Public Security. "Anti-drug commissions at all levels may cooperate with enterprises and other institutions to build drug rehabilitation centers," Zhang Xinfeng, Vice Minister of the Public Security Ministry and the Vice Director of the National Narcotics Control Commission, said yesterday in Beijing. Public security authorities at all levels shall try their best to win the support of local governments to facilitate these institutes with tax cuts, offering financial aid, providing land at a low price and by giving the green light to market developments, Zhang said. Until 2008, a total of 350 million yuan (US$44.30 million) will be invested in the construction of basic facilities for anti-drug use, especially for building rehabilitation centers, the report said. Zhang emphasized that the country needs more administrators with a strong sense of responsibility and good management skills in its narcotics control sector, which will then lead the patients to participate in the administration of the rehabilitation centers. Leaders of the centers have to balance the social impact and the economic profits of daily operations, Zhang said. The country's public security ministry will further enhance supervision upon the rehabilitation centers, Zhang said. The centers will be checked in aspects of construction scale, profits and the number of patients they can host. Chinese story