It doesn’t help patients to add Erbitux to FOLFOX chemotherapy after surgery for stage III colon cancer a data monitoring committee for a clinical trial testing the new treatment has decided.
Because the analysis showed that patients were not benefiting from adding Erbitux to FOLFOX chemotherapy, the trial has been closed according to a news release from the National Cancer Institute. Read the rest of this entry »
Today, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced the approval of the first 13* human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines for use in NIH-funded research. Children’s Hospital in Boston developed 11 of the approved lines and Rockefeller University in New York City developed two additional lines.
All of the approved lines were obtained from embryos left over by couples seeking treatment for infertility who consented to their use for research under the NIH’s Guidelines for Human Stem Cell Research. Read the rest of this entry »
The Centers for Disease Control is warning the public about fraudulent emails that appear to come from the CDC and tell people to create a “Personal H1N1 Vaccination Profile” on the CDC website.
Clicking on a link in the email takes the receiver to a site that looks very much like the CDC’s own web pages. Once there, readers are encouraged to download a file which loads a malicious program on their computers which can collect sensitive information and steal identities.
The CDC stresses that they are not sponsoring a personal vaccination profile program requiring registration online. Read the rest of this entry »
Swedish researchers have found a drug that inhibits a dangerous cell pathway while leaving a protective one intact pointing the way to preventing colon polyps from becoming cancerous. In a large study, 8 out of 10 chemotherapy patients experienced symptoms of insomnia or outright insomnia after their first cycle of chemo.
A work team from the United Kingdom will help restore an elementary school in South Africa while simultaneously raising money for colon cancer research.
Connect to a poem by Elspeth Murray asking doctors to communicate clearly but with empathy and to an article about coping with cancer during the holidays. Read the rest of this entry »
Patients with stage III colon cancer didn’t do better or worse if their tumor had mutated KRAS.
Studying KRAS in the tumors of about half the patients in a large clinical trial of chemotherapy for stage III colon cancer, researchers found no differences in disease-free, recurrence-free, or overall survival. This remained true no matter which chemotherapy the patients received. Read the rest of this entry »
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