Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 29 December 2000 — Page 32

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FRIDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2000 ■ PAGE 08

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Study finds no overall link between cell phones and brain cancer

ByliNDSEYTANNER

studies on animals and humans.

' CHICAGO (AP)—A U.S. study of people who used cell phones for P^vjsrage of less than three years found no evidence the devices cause

Htencftncer.

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research does not answer the question of whether longer-term

pe is dangerous.

r The study, funded by the industry group Wireless Technology and the National Cancer Institute, appeared in the Journal of

Anprican Medical Association.

Tba study of 891 people did find a slightly increased risk for a rare (rf brain cancer, but the researchers said it was not statistically

it

While they acknowledge that longer-term studies are needed, the said the overall results should reassure cell phone users. “Wefeel confident that the results reflect that cell phones don ’ t seem > Cauiq brain cancer,” said epidemiologist Joshua Muscat, a scientist at hip American Health Foundation who helped lead the study. [ • Publication of Muscat’s research prompted the New England Journal if MetUcine to release a study showing similar results. The study, led by National Cancer Institute researchers and set for publication on Jan. 11, ookcd at 782 brain cancer patients and 799 people without cancer.. Maximum cell phone use was at least an hour per day for five or more eirs/itndno brain-cancer link was found even at that level. The authors the second study said longer-term use needs more study. Unlike regular telephones, handheld cell phones contain an antenna (he receiver, which puts the user’s brain close to the electromagradio waves the antenna emits. Since cell phones were introduced the United States in 1984, conflicting data have emerged from safety

The Food and Drug Administration has said there is no evidence that the phones are unsafe, but it has joined with the wireless industry in sponsoring research on the devices. Some cell phone makers have also started disclosing their products’ radiation levels. The JAMA study, co-written by Dr. Mark Malkin of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, involved phone-use questionnaires given to 469 men and women ages 18 to 80 with brain cancer and a 422-member cancer-free control group. Cell-phone use was slightly more common among the cancer-free participants, though average cell-phone use for both groups was under three hours monthly for less than three years. The amount and duration of cell-phone use were not related to an increased brain cancer risk except for a type of neuron-cell tumors called neuroepitheliomatous cancer. Of the 35 patients with these rare tumors, 14 — 40 percent — used cell phones. “An isolated result like that can occur entirely due to chance,” said Russell Owen, chief of the FDA’s radiation biology branch. He said the overall findings are in line with previous research and “certainly not cause for concern.”

The Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association said in a statement that it welcomes the JAMA findings and noted that its collaboration with the FDA will produce additional research into safety questions. Professor Henry Lai of the University of Washington, whose animal research linked cellular phone signals with cell damage in rat brains, called the JAMA study “very preliminary and inconclusive.” “Since most solid tumors take 10 to 13 years to develop, it is probably too soon to see an effect,” Lai said.

lancer treatment center could open at III by 2003

BLpOMINGTON, Ind. (AP)— atists at a former nuclear physlab at Indiana University arc wnyerting it into what they hope will become a premier cancer treatjment center. } ' Th^ Midwest Proton Radiation which will harness the rteains'ttiil&troy ( u dWfc4foilk'(tettW, , is I to treat its first patient in

After overcoming funding conthat forced planners to scale ik the institute’s size, they got OK from a state commission in august to begin the conversion oik. Earlier this fall, construction

crews and nuclear scientists began converting the IU Cyclotron’s obsolete nuclear pfiysics equipment into turtlW-Masting medical equipment. Meanwhile, Dr. Allan Thornton, an oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, is set become the clinics medical director by the When completed, the scaleddown proton therapy center will join the Boston facility Thornton is departing and another in Loma Linda, Calif., as the only three such centers in the United States. Thornton said the technicians and engineers at the IU cyclotron arc top-notch and will be able to

work with their cohorts at Mass General to fine-tune the equipment. “We’re actually anxious to merge the Mass General and Indiana University clinical programs to some degree such that Indiana would share the clinical protocols and Mass General would share some of the engineering support,” • tj 'm i ; J i. " v ‘ he said. The clinic will have two proton therapy treatment rooms, doctor’s offices, nursing stations and patient areas. One of the two treatment rooms will treat seated patients with eye, neck or head tumors. The second will house a90,000pound gantry designed to direct

the proton beam to any part of a patient’s body. The original plans that had to be shelved due to insufficient funding had called for two such gantry treatment rooms. Each of those rooms costs about $4 million. John Cameron, the IU Cyclotron’sdirector, said the clinic should be able to treat 500 to 6d0 patients a year, roughly half the load originally envisioned. Medicare reimbursement rates set by the federal government should more than cover the operating costs of the clinic, he said. The center will be an independent nonprofit organization.

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Report highlights need for more Child care money

By NANCY ZUCKERBROD

■'-I-Southern institute on Children and Families.

‘ (AP) — States need more federal money to pay for child care, an advocacy group argues in a new report that focuses on the South but highlights problems across the country. * “There ought to be sufficient funds to serve all families who need and seek it,” said Sarah Shuptrine, president of the

*•-* But Shuptrine said the Southern task force, which spent a year studying the issue, was unable to estimate how many

children need child care and arc not getting it. * . . The Department ofHealth and Human Services reported ‘ recently that just 12 percent of U.S. children who are *;' eligible for federally subsidized child care got it last year, ri* ’ - ' But that report also did not attempt to estimate the actual ‘ nded. It did not say whether the families without subsidies . were paying forchild care on theirown, didn’t need it or had

‘ made other arrangements.

7** ; : A - “The data have got to be collected so we’re more in- * formed about what kind of decisions to make,” Shuptrine The report also recommends that states make it easier for families to apply for child care help, noting the trouble jnograms such as Medicaid have had signing up children '■r who qualify for aid. That, of course, would not become a

significant problem unless there becomes more money

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*v The federal government sent states $5.2 billion last year

,^'ttf help subsidize child care. States spent another $1.6

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of their own money, which was required to get the

; ‘fddenl dollars.

• Nationally, more than 14.7 million low-income children pere eligible for child care subsidies last year using federal " Standards, but fewer than 1.8 million children got the help, ' y ing 10 ^ ^ e P artment Health and Human Ser- .*'• "S' ’ In the South, about 5.5 million children were eligible for

[<>■ Subsidies and about619,000received them, Shuptrine said. ItrvtfM- fosim-nl stanHarric families ar»* fnr

« Under federal standards, families are eligible for the . subsidies if their incomes fall below 85 percent of their state’s median income. But most of the states in the report ’■-'' -tot more stringent eligibility rates due to the shortage of

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available funding, Shuptrine said.

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CAUSES CANCER ]

New medicines are in the pipeline for AIDS

By LARRY LUCAS

Despite all the progress that’s been made against AIDS, it’s still a terrible problem in the minority community. Among African-American men ages 25-44, AIDS accounts on average, for one in every three deaths.

Among African-American women in the same age group, it accounts for one in every five deaths. In fact, the AIDS epidemic has increased most dramatically among women of color.

African-American and Hispanic women together represent less than one-fourth of all U.S. women, yet they account for more than threefourths of AIDS cases reported to date among women in the U.S. The good news is that U.S. pharmaceutical companies are working on the next generation of medicines for AIDS, while continuing to improve existing treatments and medicines for AIDS-related condi-

tions. A recent survey found 103 new medicines in testing that may bolster the current arsenal of 64 approved medicines. All of the medicines are either in clinical trials or

awaiting approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The 103 medicines in development underline the continuing and relentless efforts by the pharmaceutical industry to conquer AIDS. Only three years after the virus that causesAIDS was identified, a pharmaceutical company made the first medicine for AIDS available. Since the mid-1990s, when the first protease inhibitor drugs were launched and combination drug therapy was introduced, the U.S. death rate from AIDS has dropped about 80

percent. Now, pharmaceutical scientists are opening new fronts in die war against AIDS. They are improving on existing classes of drugs developing new formulations that have simpler dosing regimens and fewer side effects.

virus from entering the cells. Existing drugs work by blocking key enzymes the vims needs to reproduce. Phaqn^ceutical company ^searchers are also looking into innovative Ways to use tfid body’s immune sySleni to defend against the vims. Thirteeq vaedmes are in.development* including one currently in Phase III clinical'trials in Europe, Thailaridand North America. The trials are scheduled to conclude at the end of 2002. In AIDS patients, the immune system doesn’t produce the cells needed to fight off the AIDS vims. A medicine currently used to fight melanoma and kidney cancer is being tested to see if it can boosts the number of disease-fighting! T-cells in patients who are also; undergoing combination drug!

therapy.

Companies are also working: on new versions of medicines thatj have already proven effective; against AIDS. For example, one; company is testing the first in a; new class of protease inhibitors,; with a different stmeture than cur-; tently available protease inhibitors. Laboratory tests suggest that the new drug is active against; strains of HIV resistant to existing; medicines. - , ; In addition, companies are developing medicines to combat opportunistic infections and other AIDS-related conditions. These include 22 medicines for AIDS-related cancers, seven for fungal infections that frequently^ infect the weakened immune systems of AIDS patients, and several medicines to prevent and treat AIDS-related pneumonia and diarrhea and to manage severe pain. v. .| Despite the remarkable progress made against AIDS in the past 15years, die disease is far from beaten. Pharmaceutical companies are' committed to conriaumg the fight against AIDS and tofinding new ways, to thwart the disease. For more information about medicines in development for AIDS, see www.phrma.org. Lorry Lucas is utsociate vice president of the Pharmaceutical,

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