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Therapy Technique Cuts Divorce/Separation Rate By Nearly 50 Percent
Four simple questions on well-being asked at the start of each session of ongoing couples therapy can greatly increase chances for reconciliation and improved relationships, according to a newly published study. The largest clinical trial with couples to date, it shows that divorce and separation rates for couples that used this feedback technique were 46.2 percent less than that of couples who received therapy as usual. The findings, published in the August 3, 2009, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, are the results of a 2-year study conducted at the Vestfold Family Counseling Center in Norway by a U.S.-Norwegian team of researchers.
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Majority Of U.S. Residents Support Confirming Supreme Court Nominee Sotomayor, Poll Finds
Sixty-two percent of U.S. residents want Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor to be confirmed, and 55% say she is "about right" on a liberal-to-conservative scale, according to a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll, the Post reports. For the survey, pollsters randomly surveyed a national sample of 1,001 adults by telephone between June 18 and June 21. The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.The poll found that about three-fourths of abortion-rights supporters want Sotomayor to be confirmed, compared with less than half of abortion-rights opponents. According to the poll, six in 10 U.S. residents would want the new Supreme Court justice to vote to uphold Roe v. Wade. Most Republican men would want the next Supreme Court justice to vote to overturn Roe, while Republican women were split about evenly on the issue, the poll found. The poll also found that support for Sotomayor"s confirmation was equal between men and women. In addition, nearly eight in 10 Democrats and about two-thirds of independents said they supported Sotomayor"s confirmation, compared with 36% of Republicans. The poll found that most Republicans deemed Sotomayor a "more liberal" nominee than they would prefer. Among Republicans, those self-identifying as conservative Republicans were largely opposed to Sotomayor"s confirmation, with more than seven in 10 conservative Republicans saying she is too liberal. Sotomayor received support from Republicans self-identifying as moderate or liberal, with fewer than four in 10 saying she is too liberal. However, about one in five who opposed Sotomayor"s confirmation said that she is not liberal enough. The poll also found that among the 33% of U.S. residents who said that Sotomayor"s gender plays a role, more than twice as many said that is a positive attribute as opposed to a negative attribute (Cohen/Barnes, Washington Post, 6/28).Sessions Requests More InformationSenate Judiciary Committee ranking Republican Jeff Sessions (Ala.) on Friday sent a letter to the White House requesting additional information on Sotomayor, the New York Times" "The Caucus" reports. According to Sessions, the Obama administration has yet to provide members of the committee with information about a number of cases that Sotomayor brought to trial while working as a district attorney in New York. In addition, Sessions requested information regarding a case that Sotomayor argued on appeal. He also requested information about her work with Latino Justice PRLDEF, formerly known as the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund. Sotomayor"s confirmation hearing is scheduled to begin July 13. Republicans have criticized the schedule, saying it gives them insufficient time to review Sotomayor"s record. Democrats have said that Republicans are seeking to create unnecessary delays and noted that the timeline is similar to that of past nominees (Herszenhorn, "The Caucus," New York Times, 6/26).
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Sleep Apnea Widely Undiagnosed Among Obese Type 2 Diabetics
Sleep apnea has long been known to be associated with obesity. But a new study published in the June issue of Diabetes Care finds that the disorder is widely undiagnosed among obese individuals with type 2 diabetes - nearly 87 percent of participants reported symptoms, but were never diagnosed.
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Merck Serono Initiates Phase III Study Of Stimuvax In Breast Cancer

Merck Serono, a division of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, announced the initiation of its global Phase III clinical study of the therapeutic cancer vaccine Stimuvax® (BLP25 liposome vaccine, L-BLP25) in patients with advanced, inoperable breast cancer. The STRIDEa study will determine if Stimuvax can extend progression-free survival in patients treated with hormonal therapy who have hormone receptor-positive, locally advanced, recurrent or metastatic breast cancer. Overall survival, quality of life, tumor response and safety will also be assessed in this study. The STRIDE study will be supervised by an expert Steering Committee and is sponsored by Merck Serono, which is leading the development of Stimuvax. STRIDE will enroll more than 900 patients with advanced breast cancer at an estimated 180 sites in over 30 countries - within North America, Europe, Asia and Australia; the Principal Investigator is Dr Lawrence Shulman, Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, USA. "Advanced-stage breast cancer remains an ultimately fatal and challenging disease and we urgently need new treatment options," said Dr Shulman. "If the results from the Phase III STRIDE study prove positive, this could make a difference for patients with hormone receptor-positive metastatic breast cancer." Stimuvax is an investigational therapeutic cancer vaccine designed to stimulate the body"s immune system to identify and target cancer cells that express MUC1, an antigen commonly expressed in breast cancer as well as in other common cancer types such as non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), multiple myeloma, and colorectal, prostate and ovarian cancers.1 "The initiation of the STRIDE study is an enormous step forward in clinical breast cancer research and represents our continued commitment to developing Stimuvax within a robust clinical trial program across several cancer types. We are very excited that Stimuvax will now be tested in two different cancer types in Phase III," said Dr Oliver Kisker, Senior Vice-President, Global Clinical Development Unit Oncology, Merck Serono. The Phase III program for Stimuvax was initiated following results from a randomized Phase IIb study* of 171 patients with inoperable stage IIIb NSCLC, in which Stimuvax showed a trend towards extending median overall survival from 13.3 months for patients receiving best supportive care (BSC) to 30.6 months for patients receiving Stimuvax plus BSC.2,3 Reported side effects included mild-to-moderate flu-like symptoms, gastrointestinal disturbances and mild injection-site reactions. A further long-term safety analysis in 16 patients receiving prolonged treatment with Stimuvax from 2.0 to 8.2 years showed the most common treatment-related adverse events were injection-site reactions (ISRs) with no evidence of autoimmune reactions. These data also show that the occurrence of ISRs decreased with long-term therapy (>1 year).4 Stimuvax was the first investigational cancer vaccine to enter Phase III clinical testing in NSCLC with the February 2007 launch of the START study, which will involve more than 1,300 patients with unresectable stage III NSCLC, who were stable or responding after chemoradiotherapy. Breast Cancer Facts - Worldwide, more than a million women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year, including 430,000 women in Europe and 212,920 in the U.S.5 - Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in women worldwide, resulting in approximately 519,000 deaths per year, globally6 - Despite improved breast cancer survival rates, it is currently estimated that 28% of women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in Europe and the U.S. will not live longer than 10 years7,8 - On average, 30% of patients with early-stage breast cancer suffer a recurrence and in most cases, the cancer will have spread beyond the breast9 - Approximately 70% of breast cancer patients are hormone receptor-positive and hormone therapy is a widely accepted treatment modality for these patients10 aSTRIDE: STimulating immune Response In aDvanced brEast cancer bSTART: Stimulating Targeted Antigenic Responses To NSCLC *The study was initially conducted by Oncothyreon Inc. The long-term follow-up was done by Merck Serono. References 1. Ho SB, et al. Cancer Res 1993;53(3):641-51. 2. Butts C, et al. J Clin Oncol 2005;23:6674-81. 3. Butts C, et al. J Thorac Oncol 2007;2(Suppl. 4):S332-3. Abstract No: B1-01. 4. Butts C, et al. ASCO Congress 2009; Abstract No: 3055. 5. Cancer Research UK. Breast cancer incidence statistics. http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/cancerstats/types/breast/incidence. 6. World Health Organization. Factsheet No 297. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs297/en/ 7. Peto R, et al. Lancet 2000;355:1822. 8. Cancer research UK. Predicted improvements in breast cancer survival. http://www.cancerhelp.org.uk/help/default.asp?page=15070. 9. Gonzalez-Angulo AM, et al. Adv Exp Med Biol 2007;608:1-22. 10. Anderson WF, et al. Breast Cancer Res Treat 2002;76:27-36. For more information on Stimuvax, please visit: http://www.globalcancernews.com. About Stimuvax Merck is investigating the use of Stimuvax® (BLP25 Liposome Vaccine) in the treatment of NSCLC. The vaccine was granted fast-track status in September 2004 by the FDA. Merck obtained the exclusive worldwide licensing rights from Oncothyreon Inc., Seattle, Washington, USA. Stimuvax is being developed in Europe by Merck KGaA and in the United States by its affiliate, EMD Serono Inc. START is a multi-center, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study that will evaluate patients with documented unresectable stage IIIA or IIIB NSCLC who have had a response or stable disease after at least two cycles of platinum-based chemo-radiotherapy. The study will involve more than 1,300 patients in approximately 30 countries. STRIDE is a randomized, double-blind, controlled, multi-center Phase III study designed to determine if Stimuvax® can extend progression free survival in patients treated with hormonal therapy who have inoperable, locally advanced, recurrent or metastatic breast cancer. Overall survival, quality of life, tumor response and safety will also be assessed in this study. Merck Serono Merck


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