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Significant Milestone Marks The Beginning Of FDA-Authorized Breast Cancer Trial
Quantum Immunologics, Inc. (QI), a Tampa, Florida company focusing on the research and development of cancer immunotherapies, announces that the first patient in its breast cancer trial has begun to receive its dendritic cell therapy.
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L.A. Times, NYT Opinion Pieces Discuss International Women's Health Issues
The Los Angeles Times and the New York Times recently published opinion pieces examining issues related to international women"s health. Summaries appear below.~ Michelle Goldberg, Los Angeles Times: The solution to addressing issues of over-population and under-population in various parts of the world is "giving women more control over their fertility and their lives," Goldberg, author of "The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power and the Future of the World," writes in a Times opinion piece. Goldberg says that both problems are "symptoms of countries" failures to meet women"s needs." Citing United Nations data, Goldberg writes that the world"s population is growing at an "unsustainable" rate of 78 million people annually, and it will probably continue to increase by 70 million or 75 million annually through 2020. Almost all of that growth will occur in developing countries, she says. "The ethical and effective way to counter rapid population growth is to bolster women"s rights and improve their access to family planning," as well as access to education, Goldberg writes, adding that "study after study has found that girls who go to school marry later and have fewer, healthier children." Meanwhile, some developed countries -- including Japan, Russia, Italy and Spain -- are seeing a decline in birth rates, a fact that some social conservatives are using "to argue for restrictions on women"s rights." According to Goldberg, "Fertility is reaching dangerously low levels in countries where social attitudes and institutions haven"t caught up with women"s desire to combine work and family. When faced with men who are unwilling to share domestic burdens, inflexible workplaces and day-care shortages, many women respond by having fewer children." However, "when societies make it possible for women to combine having children with pursuing their other ambitions, fertility rates are fine," Goldberg says. She adds, "Give women freedom and support, and they will find reproductive equilibrium, so that when societies do shrink or grow, they do so in a manageable way" (Goldberg, Los Angeles Times, 5/17).~ Nicholas Kristof, New York Times: About 500,000 women "die annually from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth without attracting much interest because the victims are typically among the most voiceless people in the world: impoverished, rural, uneducated and female," Kristof writes in a Times opinion piece. He adds, "It"s no mystery how to save the lives of pregnant women; what"s lacking is the will and res." Kristof writes that Sierra Leone, which has the highest maternal mortality rate in the world, "is now making progress with the help of the United Nations Population Fund." Former President George W. Bush cut off U.S. funding for UNFPA, but President Obama has restored the funding. Kristof adds that a bill (H.R. 1410) that would "establish American leadership in this area ... has attracted pathetically little attention." He continues that if the lives of women in West Africa "were a priority, there would be many simple ways to keep them alive," such as providing them with bed nets to help protect against malaria or iron tablets to fight anemia at a cost of "just a few dollars" (Kristof, New York Times, 5/17).
News of the day
Depression May Increase Risk Of Alzheimer's Disease In People With Memory Problems
People with memory problems who are depressed are more likely to develop Alzheimer"s disease compared to people who are not depressed, according to a study published in the June 16, 2009, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. However, the research also shows that the popular Alzheimer"s drug donepezil may delay the progression to Alzheimer"s disease for depressed people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or memory problems.
Mental Health

Study Finds Cancer Is The Second Most Frequent Cause Of Death In Individuals With Schizophrenia

People with schizophrenia are four times as likely to die from all causes and are 50 percent more likely to die from cancer compared to people in the general population. That is the conclusion of a new study published in the August 1, 2009 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. The study"s results suggest that extra efforts should be made to improve cancer prevention and early detection in patients with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is associated with an increased incidence of premature death, in part due to a high rate of suicide among individuals with the disease. However, suicide alone does not account for the shortened life expectancy seen in schizophrenia patients. Some studies have indicated that cancer mortality may play a role, but other data suggest that cancer rates are actually lower among individuals with schizophrenia compared with the general population. To more precisely determine the prevalence of cancer in patients with schizophrenia, Prof. Frédéric Limosin of the University of Reims, Robert Debré Hospital, in Reims, France and colleagues prospectively studied 3,470 patients with schizophrenia and tracked cancer incidence beginning in 1993. The investigators also sought to identify characteristics that might help predict which schizophrenic patients are likely to develop cancer. The researchers found that 476 (14%) patients died during the eleven years of the study, a death rate was nearly four-fold higher than in the general population. Seventy-four patients died of cancer, making it the second most frequent cause of death behind suicide. In men with schizophrenia, the risk of death due to lung cancer was significantly higher than that in the general population, but the risk of overall cancer death was not significantly higher. In women, the risk of overall mortality was significantly higher than among the general population. The proportion of patients who were smokers was significantly higher in the study population than in the general population (56.3 vs. 33.0%). In female schizophrenic patients, the risk of death due to breast cancer was significantly higher than in the general population. The authors say possible explanations include is a delay in diagnosis due to patients paying less attention to symptoms; the difficulty for schizophrenic patients to benefit from optimum treatment; and less compliance to treatment. Prof. Limosin and his collaborators noted that additional studies should further examine cancer rates in individuals with schizophrenia and should better define the characteristics of tumors that arise in these patients. Notes> Article: "Cancer mortality in patients with schizophrenia: 11-year prospective cohort study." Eric Tran, Frédéric Rouillon, Jean-Yves Loze, FranÃýoise Casadebaig, Alain Philippe, Fabien Vitry, and Frédéric Limosin. CANCER; Published Online: June 22, 2009 (DOI: 10.1002/cncr.24383); Print Issue Date: August 01, 2009. The information contained in this release is protected by copyright. Free abstracts of these articles will be available via the CANCER News Room upon online publication. Claire Greenwell American Cancer Society


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