Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center at Scottsdale Healthcare offers free prostate cancer screenings

Recognizing that early detection can save lives, the Virginia G. Piper cancer Center at Scottsdale Healthcare is offering free prostate cancer screenings from 8:30 a.m.-12 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 11.

Urologists from Scottsdale Healthcare will be available to answer questions and talk about prostate treatment options. Free prostate screenings include a Prostate Specific Antigen blood test and digital rectal exam.

The Virginia G. Piper cancer Center at Scottsdale Healthcare is located at 10460 N. 92nd St. on the campus of Scottsdale Healthcare Shea Medical Center.

Researchers complete INX-189 clinical trials for Hepatitis virus C

The first clinical trials on a new investigational drug being developed to treat infections caused by Hepatitis C virus have been successfully completed.

Completion of the initial phase of trials of INX-189, discovered and first prepared by researchers at Cardiff University's Welsh School of Pharmacy in 2008, means the chances of it becoming an approved medicine have significantly improved.

Approximately 170 million people worldwide are affected with hepatitis C, which can lead to liver cancer, cirrhosis and death. It is the leading cause of liver transplantation in western countries. The current treatment involves two drugs - ribavirin and interferon, which has to be given as an injection. Side effects are often severe and lead to patients failing to complete the treatment.

Professor Chris McGuigan of the Welsh School of Pharmacy, academic lead on the project, said: "This is still a very early stage of the trials process but none the less a significant development. Successfully completing phase 1a demonstrates that the drug is safe, with no drug-related side effects at all in a single dose of 100mg.

"The efficiency of drug release in this study has also confirmed that one single dose a day is most likely enough in treating the virus.

"We believe that INX-189 offers the possibility of more potency against Hepatitis, more rapid action in the liver, and fewer side effects than existing treatments."

In 2008, laboratory tests showed INX-189 killed 90 per cent of the virus at very low (nanomolar) concentration, making it the most potent compound of its kind developed to date.

US pharmaceutical company Inhibitex, which owns the licence to INX-189 and has been working with the Cardiff team, has announced it is looking forward to a second trial (phase 1b), which would evaluate the compound's effectiveness in hepatitis C patients.

Cardiff University and Inhibitex filed a patent on INX-189 earlier this year. It has been cleared for human clinical trials by the Food and Drug Administration in the US.

reach 5 million kids uninsured but eligible for government programs

As many as 5 million uninsured kids are eligible for Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program, according to a report published Friday in the journal Health Affairs, reuter reports. "An estimated 7.3 million children were uninsured on an average day in 2008 and 65 percent of them were eligible for Medicaid , the report said. … Thirty-nine percent of eligible uninsured children live in just three states — California, Texas and Florida, the report by the Washington-based Urban Institute Health Policy Center said. It added that more than half of the nation's children live in these states." Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement that the finding would help focus efforts to expand insurance coverage

cancer cells

A basic requirement for growth and life of a multicellular organism is the ability of its cells to divide. Chromosomes in the cells duplicate and are then distributed among the daughter cells. This distribution is organized by a protein complex made up of several hundred different proteins, called the centrosome. In cancer cells, the centrosome often assumes an unnatural shape or is present in uncontrolled numbers. The reasons for this were previously largely unknown. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin, together with colleagues at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg and at the Leibniz Institute for Age Research - Fritz Lipmann Institute in Jena have investigated the functions of the different centrosomal components. The researchers led by Bodo Lange now present their results in the renowned EMBO Journal, detailing the centrosome's components and their functions. Their work extends our knowledge of regulation of cell division and opens the door to new investigations into cancer development. [Müller et al., EMBO J, 03.09.2010, doi:10.1038/emboj.2010.210]

As part of their research, the scientists examined centrosomes of the fruit fly Drosophila as well as those from human cells. "The fruit fly is a terrific system for investigating the centrosome, because the basic mechanisms of cell division are very similar between fly and human", Bodo Lange, the research group leader, explains. The group isolated centrosomes from the eggs of fruit flies and, using mass spectrometry methods, identified more than 250 different proteins making up this complex. These components were then subjected to targeted inactivation through RNA interference (RNAi), to discover their role in the structure of the centrosome and in chromosome distribution. The scientists were able to determine the protein functions quantitatively through use of state-of-the-art automatic and robotic microscopes. They found a whole series of proteins responsible for the separation of chromosomes, number of centrosomes and their structure. As these characteristics are often disrupted in cancer cells, the researchers believe their findings will have a significant impact on the understanding of cell division and the development of cancerous diseases.

Almost half of all Americans use prescription drugs each monthNearly half of all Americans used at least two prescription drug per month in 2008, acco

Nearly half of all Americans used at least two prescription drug per month in 2008, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, bloomborg reports. That's a 10 percent increase over the preceding decade. Over that time, yearly spending by Americans on drugs doubled to $234 billion. "The two biggest-sellers last year were Pfizer Inc.'s lipitor for high cholesterol and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s clot-buster, Plavix. The rise of such medicines may continue as insurers add as many as 32 million customers through the U.S. health-care overhaul, according to the Congressional Budget Office"

Challenges that Chief Medical Officers face in clinical trial operations

“Bernard Coulie One of the major issues that Chief Medical Officers (CMO) encounter in their day to day practice is the variety of countries that they deal with and the different regulatory issues that they need to solve.”

Having control over clinical trial operations when many countries and regulations are involved is not always so easy, says Bernard Coulie, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Medical Officer at ActoGeniX. Therefore, early interaction with the different authorities is crucial, he says. A speaker at the marcus evans Evolution Summit 2010 taking place in Switzerland, 27 - 29 October, Coulie discusses the steps he follows for overcoming international hurdles and achieving smoother clinical trial operations.

What challenges are Chief Medical Officers dealing with at the moment?

Bernard Coulie: "One of the major issues that Chief Medical Officers (CMO) encounter in their day to day practice is the variety of countries that they deal with and the different regulatory issues that they need to solve.

Childhood cancer survivors 5 times more likely to get cancer again: last Study

children who survive canser are at a higher risk of canser later in life or may die early of other cause. The study included almost 900 young canser survivors treated at Sydney Children's Hospital, from 1972 to 1999, alongside new canser cases and early deaths. The risk of canser was five times higher in childhood canser survivors, the results showed, compared with the overall NSW population, that these survivors were seven and a half times more likely to die earlya as last study.

According to lead researcher Dr Lesley Ashton of the Children's canser Institute, two-thirds of survivors will develop a related chronic health condition linked to earlier radiation-based treatments. “Good follow up and health care” for these patients is thus important. Dr Lesley Ashton is also the head of the Molecular Epidemiology Program at the Children's canser Institute.

In the paper published in the Medical Journal of Australia, Dr Ashton wrote, “Our results highlight that it is important for canser survivors to be aware of the risk factors for complications of treatment and second cancers, and maintain good follow-up health care…we continue to look at how current therapies can be further improved.” Dr. Ashton explained that these survivors may develop new tumors - particularly thyroid, breast, bone or brain cancers - linked to earlier radiation-based treatments. He said the link may be in genes adding, “Previous research has shown there's an underlying genetic basis for the way patients respond to canser treatments…This same genetic variation is likely to contribute to these long-term effects of canser therapy. This is an area we are interested in pursuing…If we can map the genetic factors, we can develop more individualized canser treatments that do not result in long-term health complications.”

Young drug users develop brain abnormalitiesAccording to a new study published in the Australian Medical Journal, 20 percent of users of the drugs ecs

According to a new study published in the Australian Medical Journal, 20 percent of users of the drugs ecstasy, ice and speed in the ER developed signs of brain damage. Two thirds had concentration and mood problems, and half said they had general health problems.

For the study the researchers at Royal Perth Hospital scanned the brains of 30 patients who had been admitted to emergency for problems related to amphetamine use and interviewed them for the study. The average age of the users when they started taking drugs was 18, and out of the 30 studied, 23 were classified as serious drug users, with the remainder deemed recreational users. 14 patients admitted to suffering memory problems when not high on drugs. Six patients showed signs of brain damage, often an “unidentified bright object” on their scan which indicated a point of damage usually in their brain's frontal lobe or the front part of the brain. Young drug users thus developed brain damage usually seen only in the elderly.

Professor of Emergency Medicine, Daniel Fatovich, from the hospital's Centre for Clinical Research in Emergency Medicine said, “Abnormalities on brain MRI scans were identified in six patients, most commonly an unidentified bright object.” This type of brain lesion increases the risk of stroke, dementia and cognitive decline in the elderly. Dr. Fatovich said, “Obviously, we don't know for sure if that happens in young people because this is an evolving problem . . . but it does seem to fit with the general notion that using amphetamines not only ages you on the outside but it probably ages you on the inside as well… The main message is that there are serious long-term effects from using these drugs, particularly on the brain and most users will acknowledge that it is affecting their brain.”