Brody continues that there are several treatments for fibroids but that many gynecologists are unfamiliar with the newer options and might not inform patients of possibilities other than hysterectomy. Hysterectomy is a major surgery that requires a two- or three-day hospital stay and a six week follow-up visit, "but is unquestionably effective at curing fibroid-caused symptoms," Brody writes. Hysterectomy usually is recommended for women who have completed childbearing.
One option for women who may wish to become pregnant is a myomectomy, in which the fibroids are removed and the uterus tract is left intact. However, there is a significant likelihood that the fibroids will grow back, according to Brody. Another less invasive option is medication, such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs that can be taken on their own or with hormone medicines to reduce bleeding. An intrauterine device containing progesterone is another nonsurgical possibility that can provide temporary relief.
Women who do not wish to become pregnant might opt for embolization, a nonsurgical procedure that involves cutting off the blood supply to the fibroids by inserting tiny particles into the uterine arteries via a catheter. The process causes the fibroids to reduce in size, "though not necessarily disappear," according to Brody. The treatment duration is short, but the "fibroids can regrow or new ones can develop, and in clinical trials one-fifth to one-quarter of patients had to repeat the procedure or have a hysterectomy," Brody writes.
One of the newest treatment options is an MRI-guided ultrasound to "direct high-intensity ultrasound beams to the fibroids, heating them and destroying their outer layers," Brody says. She notes, however, that the procedure is not commonly covered by health insurance and could cost women as much as $10,000 (Brody, New York Times, 10/13).
Reprinted with kind permission from nationalpartnership. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.
© 2009 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.
четверг, 29 декабря 2011 г.
New York Times Examines Alternatives To Hysterectomies For Treatment Of Fibroids
In the New York Times' "Personal Health" column on Tuesday, Jane Brody examined treatment options for women with uterine fibroids -- benign tumors of the reproductive tract that can cause prolonged menstrual periods, chronic pelvic pain or pressure, pressure on the bladder, infertility, miscarriage or other pregnancy complications. Brody reports that as many as 300,000 women undergo hysterectomies to remove the fibroids each year at a cost of more than $21 billion. She notes that this figure "does not include the price millions of women pay in diminished quality of life."
четверг, 22 декабря 2011 г.
Blogs Comment On Definitions Of Feminism, Supreme Court Nomination, Other Topics
The following summarizes selected women's health-related blog entries.
~ "Sarah Palin Is No Susan B. Anthony," Ann Gordon/Lynn Sherr, Washington Post's "On Faith": The mission statement of the Susan B. Anthony List, a group that supports antiabortion-rights female candidates, "proclaims" that Anthony's antiabortion-rights stance is "untold history," according to Gordon, an editor of Anthony's papers, and Sherr, author of a biography on Anthony. They continue, "There's a good reason it's 'untold:' historians and good journalists rely on evidence. Of which there is none." According to Gordon and Sherr, the "only clear reference to abortion in [Anthony's] writings" was a remark in her diary about her sister-in-law's abortion. Although Anthony "[c]learly ... did not applaud her sister-in-law's action," the "notation is ambiguous" and "[a]t most, the quotation amounts to private disapproval within the family, unlikely to be voiced to her beloved relative," Gordon and Sherr write. There is "no hint that this is a social problem or a political matter," but the quote "was quickly fitted into the antiabortion narrative" nonetheless, they add. "Naming [a] lobby for Susan B. Anthony doesn't change her views any more than clicking your heels three times gets you back to Kansas," Gordon and Sherr say (Gordon/Sherr, "On Faith," Washington Post, 5/18).
~ "Susan B. Anthony: Pro-Life Feminist," Marjorie Dannenfelser, Washington Post's "On Faith": In a response to Gordon and Sherr's blog post, SBAL President Dannenfelser writes that their argument is "unfounded on many levels, but foremost, on the credibility issue." Dannenfelser writes that Anthony was "passionate and logical in her arguments against abortion," adding that although the "[l]ife cause isn't the issue that earned [Anthony] her stripes in American history books, historians would be wrong to conclude that Anthony was agnostic on the issue of abortion." She continues that "as one becomes familiar with Anthony's compatriots and their thoughts on the issue, it is clear and consistent that these early women leaders did not believe abortion was a good thing for women." According to Dannenfelser, "Over time, 'feminism' became the label adopted by activists preaching that women's rights and abortion rights were somehow one and the same." Recently, there has been "a shift back to the traditional roots of Susan B. Anthony feminism to give life even in the most difficult and unexpected circumstances," Dannenfelser contends (Dannenfelser, "On Faith," Washington Post, 5/20).
~ "How Webcams Expand Abortion Access in Rural Iowa," Roxann MtJoy, Change's "Women's Rights": As part of an "innovative, high-tech solution to the lack of abortion access in rural Iowa," Planned Parenthood of the Heartland has "set up a system wherein doctors videoconference with their patients and abortion drugs can be prescribed via remote control," MtJoy writes. The technology "could impact thousands of women's lives," she continues, noting that 86% of U.S. counties do not have an abortion provider. "Of course, more women having access to safe abortions early in their pregnancies has its critics," including Operation Rescue President Troy Newman, who "thinks that it puts the patient's life at risk, though he offers nothing in the way of proof to support that claim," MtJoy continues. "Telemedicine has been used for years in a variety of medical fields," she writes, adding, "Yet, only when this technology is expanded to women's reproductive health are people crying foul." MtJoy "applaud[s] Planned Parenthood's efforts to make sure that all women, not just those in urban areas, have access to safe abortion care" (MtJoy, "Women's Rights," Change, 5/20).
~ "Is Sarah Palin Really a Feminist?" Tracy Clark-Flory, Salon's "Broadsheet": Clark-Flory notes that when former Alaska Gov. and 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin referenced feminism during a recent speech at a SBAL fundraiser, "she was talking about 'the pioneering spirit of our foremothers, who went in wagon trains across the wilderness, and they settled in homesteads,'" Clark-Flory writes, "When Palin talks about gender equality, she's really talking about the equal importance of men's and women's traditional gender roles. The emphasis isn't on personal freedoms, but how mothers are just as important as fathers." Clark-Flory continues that Palin "sees pro-choice activism as denying women's capacity to have it all and fancies herself a supporter of women's rights -- to a family and a career -- by shunning abortion." However, the "label ['feminism'] doesn't belong to me any more than it does to Palin," Clark-Flory writes, adding, "Besides, I'm less concerned with labels than I am with actual arguments about what is truly best and just for all women." She concludes, "I say, let Palin hide behind her favorite new buzzword; we all know she's better with catch phrases than actual policy" (Clark-Flory, "Broadsheet," Salon, 5/20).
~ "Elena Kagan: Aggressive and Abrasive?" Christine Mathias, Salon's "Broadsheet": "It always comes back to choice of words when discussing powerful women," a "point [that] was driven home" by a recent Associated Press article on Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan's management style during her time as dean of Harvard Law School, Mathias writes. She continues, "Women tend to use different descriptors than men when evaluating other women, so we might have been spared the series of painfully stereotypical comments unleashed by law professor Detlev Vagts," who describe Kagan as "aggressive," "abrasive" and "dismissive." Mathias adds, "The reason Vagts' comments stick in my craw so profoundly ... is the simple fact that he went on record with a legitimate news source to slag off his former boss in terms that befit a pissy child who was sent to bed without dessert" (Mathias, "Broadsheet," Salon, 5/20).
~ "Ten Better Things To Do With $30,000 Than Hire Bristol Palin To Speak," Patrick Malone, RH Reality Check: According to news reports this week, Bristol Palin, the daughter of Sarah Palin, "is now available for speaking events such as 'conferences, fundraisers, special events and holidays, as well as women's, youth, abstinence and pro-life programs' for the low, low price of $30,000 a pop," Malone writes. "Bristol is famous, of course, for becoming pregnant and having a baby as a teenager," Malone notes. Malone questions whether $30,000 is a worthwhile fee to hire Palin as a speaker, determining that the "answer is an unqualified and unmitigated 'no.'" He adds, "There is no reason to think that listening to Bristol Palin's story is going to inform, educate, enrich or stimulate" audiences in any way. Malone proposes 10 alternate ways to spend $30,000 -- including investing in a local community, donating to a state organization or paying for 30 teen mothers to travel to Congress to speak with lawmakers about their experiences (Malone, RH Reality Check, 5/20).
~ "Abstinence-Only Congressman Can't Keep it in His Pants," Mike Larsen, Huffington Post blogs: "[O]ne sure tip-off that a married congressman is getting some on the side is that he can't stop talking about family values," comedian, writer and former congressional staffer Larsen writes. He notes that Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.) -- "Congress' leading advocate of abstinence-only sex education" -- resigned recently after admitting an extramarital affair with an aide. "Souder made a name for himself as an evangelical Christian who embraces family values, such as fighting AIDS prevention programs that include information on safe sex," Larsen says, adding that he considers it "wonderfully ironic that a man who preached abstinence-only for AIDS prevention was brought down by his inability to abstain from his aide." Souder also appeared in a video with the staffer to promote abstinence-only education programs, despite the fact that their "effectiveness was unproven, at best," Larsen writes. He asks, "[D]o we all get it now that the moralists are not to be trusted?" (Larsen, Huffington Post, 5/21).
~ "Male Birth Control: Not Sex Standing Up," Alex DiBranco, Change's "Women's Rights": Change editor DiBranco highlights a new public service announcement from the National Campaign To Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy that aims to dismantle the myth that having sex standing up is an effective form of contraception. According to DiBranco, one in five men ages 18 through 29 believe having sex standing up will prevent pregnancy. She writes, "I guess this is what happens with abstinence-only education and a refusal to provide youth with proper comprehensive sex education," adding that "if this is what men think of as good birth control, no wonder we have such high rates of youth pregnancy." DiBranco says there is "some good news" about men and contraception, as "progress is being made on research to use ultrasound waves or testosterone gels to temporarily stop the production of pregnancy-producing sperm." She concludes, "Until then, if you're having sex -- standing up, lying down, or any other position out of the Kama Sutra -- the best form of male birth control is a condom. Suit up" (DiBranco, "Women's Rights," Change, 5/18).
Reprinted with kind permission from nationalpartnership. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families.
© 2010 National Partnership for Women & Families. All rights reserved.
четверг, 15 декабря 2011 г.
Fertility & IVF Experts: Don't Bet All On Late Motherhood
In the wake of a new record
for becoming the world's oldest mother, fertility experts are encouraged by
recent research showing that older moms are as capable of good parenting as
younger women -- but are increasingly concerned about women naively
postponing pregnancy till later in life.
"Thanks to technology and the improved health of today's 40- and
50-year-olds, it is more possible than ever to facilitate their desires for
pregnancy," said Dr. Ramie Hinckley of Reproductive Science Center of the
Bay Area, in vitro fertilization (IVF) specialist. "But no one should take
that as reason enough to put off giving birth past the normal reproductive
years."
Women's focus on career development -- combined with advances in
fertility medicine -- has produced higher-than-ever increases in the birth
rates for older mothers. The birth rate for American women aged 40-44 years
has more than doubled in the last 25 years, according to the Centers for
Disease Control, a greater increase than in any other age group.
But there is a down side, Dr. Hinckley said: "The media spotlight on
women giving birth in their 50s and 60s, especially among celebrities, can
create the fallacy that there is no ticking clock and ultimately create
heartache for women who wait too long to try to conceive."
In December, a 67-year-old Spanish woman became the world's oldest
mother, after having undergone IVF in the United States. Meanwhile, results
of a study announced in October by University of Southern California
researchers showed that women in their 50s and 60s are just as capable of
being good parents as women in their 30s and 40s. The research was based on
the mental and physical health of 150 women, a third of whom had become
parents in their 50s after receiving IVF with donor eggs.
In accordance with American Society for Reproductive Medicine
guidelines, the age limit for women who seek fertility treatment at RSC is
currently 51 (52 for a gestational carrier). Fertility decline begins at
age 28. Although women older than 35 run greater risk of complications
during pregnancy and delivery, the study clearly states that once their
children are born, older women are just as good at raising them.
The study also reinforces the use of assisted reproductive technology
such as egg freezing for those who wish to begin parenting later in life.
In just the last year, scientists at RSC have begun offering such "egg
banking" to qualified patients for fertility preservation.
About Reproductive Science Center
Established in 1983, the Reproductive Science Center of the San
Francisco Bay Area was one of the earliest IVF facilities in the United
States, begun just two years after the nation's first successful IVF
treatment. RSC was among the first in the United States to report a
successful pregnancy from an egg donated from one woman to another for
gestation and delivery, and was also responsible for the nation's second
successful transfer of a previously frozen embryo into a mother's uterus.
Today, RSC boasts a staff of six infertility physicians with a collective
85 years' experience with offices in San Ramon, Orinda, San Jose, Fremont,
Modesto, Brentwood, and Monterey. RSC is a member of IntegraMed, a national
network of 30 fertility centers in 95 locations across the United States.
One of every five IVF procedures in the United States is performed in an
IntegraMed practice. For more information, visit rscbayarea.
Reproductive Science Center of the Bay Area
rscbayarea
for becoming the world's oldest mother, fertility experts are encouraged by
recent research showing that older moms are as capable of good parenting as
younger women -- but are increasingly concerned about women naively
postponing pregnancy till later in life.
"Thanks to technology and the improved health of today's 40- and
50-year-olds, it is more possible than ever to facilitate their desires for
pregnancy," said Dr. Ramie Hinckley of Reproductive Science Center of the
Bay Area, in vitro fertilization (IVF) specialist. "But no one should take
that as reason enough to put off giving birth past the normal reproductive
years."
Women's focus on career development -- combined with advances in
fertility medicine -- has produced higher-than-ever increases in the birth
rates for older mothers. The birth rate for American women aged 40-44 years
has more than doubled in the last 25 years, according to the Centers for
Disease Control, a greater increase than in any other age group.
But there is a down side, Dr. Hinckley said: "The media spotlight on
women giving birth in their 50s and 60s, especially among celebrities, can
create the fallacy that there is no ticking clock and ultimately create
heartache for women who wait too long to try to conceive."
In December, a 67-year-old Spanish woman became the world's oldest
mother, after having undergone IVF in the United States. Meanwhile, results
of a study announced in October by University of Southern California
researchers showed that women in their 50s and 60s are just as capable of
being good parents as women in their 30s and 40s. The research was based on
the mental and physical health of 150 women, a third of whom had become
parents in their 50s after receiving IVF with donor eggs.
In accordance with American Society for Reproductive Medicine
guidelines, the age limit for women who seek fertility treatment at RSC is
currently 51 (52 for a gestational carrier). Fertility decline begins at
age 28. Although women older than 35 run greater risk of complications
during pregnancy and delivery, the study clearly states that once their
children are born, older women are just as good at raising them.
The study also reinforces the use of assisted reproductive technology
such as egg freezing for those who wish to begin parenting later in life.
In just the last year, scientists at RSC have begun offering such "egg
banking" to qualified patients for fertility preservation.
About Reproductive Science Center
Established in 1983, the Reproductive Science Center of the San
Francisco Bay Area was one of the earliest IVF facilities in the United
States, begun just two years after the nation's first successful IVF
treatment. RSC was among the first in the United States to report a
successful pregnancy from an egg donated from one woman to another for
gestation and delivery, and was also responsible for the nation's second
successful transfer of a previously frozen embryo into a mother's uterus.
Today, RSC boasts a staff of six infertility physicians with a collective
85 years' experience with offices in San Ramon, Orinda, San Jose, Fremont,
Modesto, Brentwood, and Monterey. RSC is a member of IntegraMed, a national
network of 30 fertility centers in 95 locations across the United States.
One of every five IVF procedures in the United States is performed in an
IntegraMed practice. For more information, visit rscbayarea.
Reproductive Science Center of the Bay Area
rscbayarea
четверг, 8 декабря 2011 г.
Horseback Riding: Impact On Sexual Dysfunction And Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms In Men And Women
Does Persistent Perineal Impact Increase Likelihood of LUTS and Sexual Dysfunction?
UroToday - Bicycle riding has been reported to be related to male sexual dysfunction. Dr. Shaheen Alanee and colleagues from Minneapolis hypothesized that similar force impacts might be seen in equestrian sports. They sought to evaluate the effect of horseback riding on urinary symptoms and sexual dysfunction in men and women. Swimmers were used as a control group.
Twelve hundred and fifty surveys were sent to equestrian clubs and 750 surveys were sent to swim clubs and over 300 questionnaires were distributed by hand. Responders (15% by direct mail and 31% from manual distribution) filled out the American Urologic Association Symptom Index, the abridged International Inventory of Erectile Dysfunction, and a sexual questionnaire developed by the authors for women.
Horseback riding was not significantly associated with sexual dysfunction in males. Age and the years of bicycling were significantly associated with sexual function in males. Age was another factor affecting the incidence of sexual function in males. In women, horseback riding was not associated with urinary symptoms, though greater age increased the risk and marriage seemed to decrease the risk of LUTS. No aspect of female sexual dysfunction was associated with horseback riding.
Based on this study, one can surmise that horseback riding need not be contraindicated in patients with BPS nor is it likely to be a risk factor based on current available information.
Alanee S, Heiner J, Liu N, Monga M
Urology. 2008 Oct 22. Epub ahead of print.
doi:10.1016/j.urology.2008.07.058
UroToday Contributing Editor Philip M. Hanno, MD, MPH
UroToday - the only urology website with original content global urology key opinion leaders actively engaged in clinical practice.
To access the latest urology news releases from UroToday, go to:
www.urotoday
Copyright © 2008 - UroToday
UroToday - Bicycle riding has been reported to be related to male sexual dysfunction. Dr. Shaheen Alanee and colleagues from Minneapolis hypothesized that similar force impacts might be seen in equestrian sports. They sought to evaluate the effect of horseback riding on urinary symptoms and sexual dysfunction in men and women. Swimmers were used as a control group.
Twelve hundred and fifty surveys were sent to equestrian clubs and 750 surveys were sent to swim clubs and over 300 questionnaires were distributed by hand. Responders (15% by direct mail and 31% from manual distribution) filled out the American Urologic Association Symptom Index, the abridged International Inventory of Erectile Dysfunction, and a sexual questionnaire developed by the authors for women.
Horseback riding was not significantly associated with sexual dysfunction in males. Age and the years of bicycling were significantly associated with sexual function in males. Age was another factor affecting the incidence of sexual function in males. In women, horseback riding was not associated with urinary symptoms, though greater age increased the risk and marriage seemed to decrease the risk of LUTS. No aspect of female sexual dysfunction was associated with horseback riding.
Based on this study, one can surmise that horseback riding need not be contraindicated in patients with BPS nor is it likely to be a risk factor based on current available information.
Alanee S, Heiner J, Liu N, Monga M
Urology. 2008 Oct 22. Epub ahead of print.
doi:10.1016/j.urology.2008.07.058
UroToday Contributing Editor Philip M. Hanno, MD, MPH
UroToday - the only urology website with original content global urology key opinion leaders actively engaged in clinical practice.
To access the latest urology news releases from UroToday, go to:
www.urotoday
Copyright © 2008 - UroToday
четверг, 1 декабря 2011 г.
How Cow Warts, Clergy Sex Surveys Moved Along Cancer Vaccine
The creation of a successful vaccine against cervical cancer, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, is the culmination of research that occurred thanks not only to scientists and physicians, but also to generous farmers and veterinarians, priests and nuns willing to tell all - and some very patient cows.
At the University of Rochester Medical Center, the initial research more than 20 years ago included visits to veterinarians and meat-packaging plants in Upstate New York to collect scrapings from "prized" cow warts, and surveys of people unlikely to be infected with a sexually transmitted disease - priests and nuns who had taken a vow of celibacy.
The work with the cows, the warts, the nuns and the priests illustrates how basic research can pay off in big and unexpected ways. The research by a trio of University of Rochester virologists - William Bonnez, M.D., Richard Reichman, M.D., and Robert Rose, Ph.D. - helped bring about the cervical cancer vaccine, poised to prevent cancer in thousands of people. The University is one of several institutions in whose laboratories work on an HPV vaccine blossomed. Rochester's contribution is recognized with a patent issued by the European Patent Office and by royalty agreements with the companies commercializing the vaccine.
The research project in Rochester began with an effort to develop a blood test to detect infection by a class of viruses known as human papillomaviruses or HPV, which cause warts as well as cervical cancer. To do so, the researchers needed large amounts of papillomavirus - and while there are plenty of warts in this world, finding people willing to collect and analyze them is quite a different story. So as a starting point the team turned to bovine papillomavirus or BPV in cows, and Bonnez found himself visiting veterinarians and others with access to cows with warts, seeking samples.
In the world of warts, cows offer a particularly plentiful lode of papillomavirus, Bonnez said, because they are particularly rich in viral particles. Many other warts, such as genital warts in humans, don't provide enough viral particles.
The trips to the countryside were successful - Bonnez ultimately collected enough cow warts and still keeps a stash in his laboratory freezer - and the research moved ahead. The next step involved assessing the test, and doctors needed a large control group of adults who were unlikely to have been infected with genital HPV. So the group turned to area nuns and priests who allowed themselves to be polled about their sex lives and who donated blood samples. (Clergy have been crucial to other Rochester research projects as well; several have volunteered to test HIV vaccines, for instance.)
A few years into the project, the scientists faced difficulty improving their blood test using BPV, so they scrapped the cow warts and learned to grow human HPV in the laboratory. Soon after that they discovered that the three-dimensional outer shell of the virus was crucial to creating an immune response that could prevent infection.
The scientists then turned their attention to determining how to make a safe, non-infectious form of the viral coating, and that led them to figure out how to make harmless virus-like particles (VLPs) to trigger the same immune response. They did this by putting an HPV gene into insect cells using a virus called baculovirus, which infects insects; the HPV gene then produces VLPs that mimic the shape of real HPV particles. The team made VLPs of the specific cancer-causing strains of HPV and showed that they protected against the disease. VLPs are crucial to the vaccine approved today by the FDA, as well as another cervical cancer vaccine in development; both protect against multiple strains of the virus.
The new vaccine is given as a series of three shots administered a few months apart. Most doctors say the vaccine needs to be given before a person becomes sexually active to do the most good.
HPV causes about 9,700 new cases of cervical cancer in women in the United States annually, and about 3,900 women in the nation die of the disease every year. The toll is much worse in other parts of the world, where Pap smears to detect the disease in its earliest stages are not widely available. In some parts of the world, cervical cancer is the leading cause of death by cancer in women - doctors estimate that more than 230,000 women around the globe every year die from the disease.
In the United States, more than 15,000 people every day, or about 5.5 million people a year, get sexually transmitted HPV infections from their partners. About three out of every four sexually active people will get an HPV infection at some point during their lifetime; in some age groups, such as sexually active men and women under the age of 30, doctors estimate that 40 percent of people are currently infected.
Most people fight off the virus and never even know they were infected. Others have warts or abnormal cell growth known as dysplasias. In the most serious cases, it progresses to cervical cancer. Two types of HPV, type 16 and type 18, cause about 70 percent of cervical cancers, and those are the types that the new vaccine is designed to prevent.
While the new vaccine is certainly great news, there are still millions of people infected with the virus. That's why Reichman, Rose, Bonnez and many other researchers continue to do research on HPV. Bonnez, for instance, is part of a federally funded network of research centers that tests drugs against viruses. In the last 15 years he has evaluated more than two dozens drugs to treat HPV. Rose is exploring new methods to treat a person once he or she is infected.
The Rochester team, based in the Infectious Diseases Division of the Department of Medicine, makes up one of several laboratories whose work helped bring about such a vaccine. In addition to pharmaceutical giant Merck, which received approval from FDA to market its vaccine product, GlaxoSmithKline also has a product in development. Other institutions that have contributed include the National Institutes of Health, Georgetown University, and the University of Queensland in Australia.
Contact: Tom Rickey
University of Rochester Medical Center
At the University of Rochester Medical Center, the initial research more than 20 years ago included visits to veterinarians and meat-packaging plants in Upstate New York to collect scrapings from "prized" cow warts, and surveys of people unlikely to be infected with a sexually transmitted disease - priests and nuns who had taken a vow of celibacy.
The work with the cows, the warts, the nuns and the priests illustrates how basic research can pay off in big and unexpected ways. The research by a trio of University of Rochester virologists - William Bonnez, M.D., Richard Reichman, M.D., and Robert Rose, Ph.D. - helped bring about the cervical cancer vaccine, poised to prevent cancer in thousands of people. The University is one of several institutions in whose laboratories work on an HPV vaccine blossomed. Rochester's contribution is recognized with a patent issued by the European Patent Office and by royalty agreements with the companies commercializing the vaccine.
The research project in Rochester began with an effort to develop a blood test to detect infection by a class of viruses known as human papillomaviruses or HPV, which cause warts as well as cervical cancer. To do so, the researchers needed large amounts of papillomavirus - and while there are plenty of warts in this world, finding people willing to collect and analyze them is quite a different story. So as a starting point the team turned to bovine papillomavirus or BPV in cows, and Bonnez found himself visiting veterinarians and others with access to cows with warts, seeking samples.
In the world of warts, cows offer a particularly plentiful lode of papillomavirus, Bonnez said, because they are particularly rich in viral particles. Many other warts, such as genital warts in humans, don't provide enough viral particles.
The trips to the countryside were successful - Bonnez ultimately collected enough cow warts and still keeps a stash in his laboratory freezer - and the research moved ahead. The next step involved assessing the test, and doctors needed a large control group of adults who were unlikely to have been infected with genital HPV. So the group turned to area nuns and priests who allowed themselves to be polled about their sex lives and who donated blood samples. (Clergy have been crucial to other Rochester research projects as well; several have volunteered to test HIV vaccines, for instance.)
A few years into the project, the scientists faced difficulty improving their blood test using BPV, so they scrapped the cow warts and learned to grow human HPV in the laboratory. Soon after that they discovered that the three-dimensional outer shell of the virus was crucial to creating an immune response that could prevent infection.
The scientists then turned their attention to determining how to make a safe, non-infectious form of the viral coating, and that led them to figure out how to make harmless virus-like particles (VLPs) to trigger the same immune response. They did this by putting an HPV gene into insect cells using a virus called baculovirus, which infects insects; the HPV gene then produces VLPs that mimic the shape of real HPV particles. The team made VLPs of the specific cancer-causing strains of HPV and showed that they protected against the disease. VLPs are crucial to the vaccine approved today by the FDA, as well as another cervical cancer vaccine in development; both protect against multiple strains of the virus.
The new vaccine is given as a series of three shots administered a few months apart. Most doctors say the vaccine needs to be given before a person becomes sexually active to do the most good.
HPV causes about 9,700 new cases of cervical cancer in women in the United States annually, and about 3,900 women in the nation die of the disease every year. The toll is much worse in other parts of the world, where Pap smears to detect the disease in its earliest stages are not widely available. In some parts of the world, cervical cancer is the leading cause of death by cancer in women - doctors estimate that more than 230,000 women around the globe every year die from the disease.
In the United States, more than 15,000 people every day, or about 5.5 million people a year, get sexually transmitted HPV infections from their partners. About three out of every four sexually active people will get an HPV infection at some point during their lifetime; in some age groups, such as sexually active men and women under the age of 30, doctors estimate that 40 percent of people are currently infected.
Most people fight off the virus and never even know they were infected. Others have warts or abnormal cell growth known as dysplasias. In the most serious cases, it progresses to cervical cancer. Two types of HPV, type 16 and type 18, cause about 70 percent of cervical cancers, and those are the types that the new vaccine is designed to prevent.
While the new vaccine is certainly great news, there are still millions of people infected with the virus. That's why Reichman, Rose, Bonnez and many other researchers continue to do research on HPV. Bonnez, for instance, is part of a federally funded network of research centers that tests drugs against viruses. In the last 15 years he has evaluated more than two dozens drugs to treat HPV. Rose is exploring new methods to treat a person once he or she is infected.
The Rochester team, based in the Infectious Diseases Division of the Department of Medicine, makes up one of several laboratories whose work helped bring about such a vaccine. In addition to pharmaceutical giant Merck, which received approval from FDA to market its vaccine product, GlaxoSmithKline also has a product in development. Other institutions that have contributed include the National Institutes of Health, Georgetown University, and the University of Queensland in Australia.
Contact: Tom Rickey
University of Rochester Medical Center
четверг, 24 ноября 2011 г.
Longer Term Breast Feeding Protects Mother From Risk Of Developing Rheumatoid Arthritis
Breast feeding for a period of thirteen months or more has been shown to reduce the mother's the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis (RA), according to new data presented today at EULAR 2007, the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology in Barcelona, Spain. In the study, the longer the breast feeding period, the lower the mother's risk of developing RA in later life. Comparable use of oral contraceptives (OCs) or hormone replacement therapy (HRT) did not show a significant effect on the risk of developing RA.
Lead researcher Dr Mitra Keshavarz, of Malm?¶ Hospital University, Sweden, said of the study, "Whilst other studies suggest that hormonal factors play a part in the development of RA, and we know that pregnancy can result in an improvement in RA symptoms, we wanted to investigate the long term effect of breast-feeding. This study specifically highlights the potential of naturally-induced hormones in protecting individuals from developing RA in the future. Furthermore, it adds to the growing body of evidence in favour of breast feeding and its positive health implications this time demonstrating its protective benefits for the mother."
The study found that breast feeding for 13 or more months was associated with a reduced risk of developing RA (odds ratio 0.46; confidence interval 95% 0.24-0.91). For women with between 1 and 12 months history of breast feeding, the odds ratio was 0.74, with a 95% confidence interval (0.45-1.20) compared directly to those who had never breast fed.
The data was taken from a community-based health study incorporating information from the Swedish National Hospital Discharge and the National Cause of Death Register between 1991 and 1996, comparing health information from 136 women who later developed RA with that of 544 controls. Information on the use of OCs, HRT and other lifestyle factors was derived from a self-administered questionnaire and analysed by a team from Malm?¶ University Hospital, Sweden.
All females with RA utilised in the case control group of the study were diagnosed according to the 1987 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria for RA. Individuals were matched with four female controls for every case. Controls were identified as those alive and free from diagnosed RA when the index individual was diagnosed with RA. The median age of the onset of RA in the sample population was 63.3 years, with an average length of 5.5 years between enrolment in the study and onset of RA.
EULAR CONGRESS PRESS OFFICE
30 Orange Street
eular
Lead researcher Dr Mitra Keshavarz, of Malm?¶ Hospital University, Sweden, said of the study, "Whilst other studies suggest that hormonal factors play a part in the development of RA, and we know that pregnancy can result in an improvement in RA symptoms, we wanted to investigate the long term effect of breast-feeding. This study specifically highlights the potential of naturally-induced hormones in protecting individuals from developing RA in the future. Furthermore, it adds to the growing body of evidence in favour of breast feeding and its positive health implications this time demonstrating its protective benefits for the mother."
The study found that breast feeding for 13 or more months was associated with a reduced risk of developing RA (odds ratio 0.46; confidence interval 95% 0.24-0.91). For women with between 1 and 12 months history of breast feeding, the odds ratio was 0.74, with a 95% confidence interval (0.45-1.20) compared directly to those who had never breast fed.
The data was taken from a community-based health study incorporating information from the Swedish National Hospital Discharge and the National Cause of Death Register between 1991 and 1996, comparing health information from 136 women who later developed RA with that of 544 controls. Information on the use of OCs, HRT and other lifestyle factors was derived from a self-administered questionnaire and analysed by a team from Malm?¶ University Hospital, Sweden.
All females with RA utilised in the case control group of the study were diagnosed according to the 1987 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria for RA. Individuals were matched with four female controls for every case. Controls were identified as those alive and free from diagnosed RA when the index individual was diagnosed with RA. The median age of the onset of RA in the sample population was 63.3 years, with an average length of 5.5 years between enrolment in the study and onset of RA.
EULAR CONGRESS PRESS OFFICE
30 Orange Street
eular
четверг, 17 ноября 2011 г.
Los Angeles Times Examines Lawsuits Alleging HRT Causes Breast Cancer, Blood Clots
The Los Angeles Times on Monday examined lawsuits alleging that hormone replacement therapy causes side effects including breast cancer and blood clots and the "challenge" plaintiffs' attorneys face because HRT is approved by FDA and remains on the market. More than 3,600 lawsuits have been filed against Wyeth, Upjohn, Pfizer and other companies since a July 2002 study showed the risks associated with HRT. However, physicians last year wrote more than 40 million prescriptions for the therapy, and many women consider HRT "a godsend," the Times reports. Robert MacCoun, a professor at the University of California-Berkeley School of Law, said HRT's continued availability "implies that it must be pretty safe," making the job of plaintiffs' attorneys more difficult. The lawyers will "have to tell a more complicated story of why regulators haven't done their job," MacCoun said. However, plaintiffs' attorney Howard Snyder said, "The scientific evidence is substantial, and it indicates that hormone replacement therapy causes breast cancer." Most of 3,000 suits filed in federal district courts have been gathered before U.S. District Judge William Wilson in Little Rock, Ark., for pretrial discovery, and the first federal trial could begin in July 2006. Several hundred other cases are before state court judges, according to the Times (Selvin, Los Angeles Times, 11/7).
"Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
"Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
четверг, 10 ноября 2011 г.
Nventa Completes Evaluation Of Second Cohort In HspE7 Phase 1 Cervical Dysplasia Trial
Nventa
Biopharmaceuticals Corporation (TSX:NVN) announced the completion of
the safety and tolerability assessment in its second cohort of patients in
a Phase 1 clinical trial of new HspE7 in patients with cervical
intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN). HspE7's safety data were normal and met
the limits prescribed in the trial protocol, allowing advancement to the
third cohort of patients in the study.
The evaluation by the Safety Review Committee was performed after the
second cohort reached five weeks of treatment (two doses plus one week of
follow-up). The dosing of the third cohort of patients is expected shortly.
At the end of each cohort, Nventa is also collecting immunological data
that may provide an early indication of potential efficacy of the compound.
All patients are being typed for class I and II human leukocyte antigen
(HLA) subtypes, and are being evaluated for cytokine responses, anti-HspE7
antibodies and cellular (T-cell) immunology.
The trial is expected to dose up to 5 cohorts comprising twenty-four
patients. The first cohort of patients was administered 500 mcg of HspE7
and 50 mcg of adjuvant containing Poly-IC, a toll-like receptor-3 (or TLR3)
agonist. The second cohort was administered 500 mcg of HspE7 and an
escalated dose of 500 mcg of adjuvant. The third cohort will be
administered 500 mcg of HspE7 and 1,000 mcg of adjuvant, and the fourth
cohort will be administered 500 mcg of HspE7 and 2,000 mcg of adjuvant. An
additional cohort of six patients administered 1,000 mcg of HspE7 and 2,000
mcg of adjuvant may be added if deemed appropriate based on data from the
previous four cohorts.
Following successful completion of this Phase 1 trial, the Company
anticipates launching a Phase 2 clinical trial with new HspE7 in patients
with high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN 2/3). The Company
is also in discussions with clinical investigators regarding the design and
implementation of a second Phase 2 trial with new HspE7 in patients that
are HIV-positive with low-grade CIN.
Affiliations and investigators in this trial currently include the
Montefiore Medical Center; William D. Kolton, M.D. of San Diego,
California; Linda Roman, M.D. of the University of Southern California
(USC); Michael L. Twede, M.D. of the Salt Lake Women's Center in Sandy,
Utah; and Mark T. Saunders, M.D. at the Mt. Timpanogos Women's
Healthcare/Physician's Research in Pleasant Grove, Utah.
About HspE7, Lead Product Candidate:
HspE7 is a novel therapeutic vaccine candidate for the treatment of
diseases caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV), one of the most common
sexually transmitted diseases in the world. HspE7 is derived from Nventa's
proprietary CoVal(TM) fusion platform, which uses recombinant DNA
technology to covalently fuse stress proteins to target antigens, thereby
stimulating cellular immune system responses. Heat shock proteins (Hsps),
also known as stress proteins, are naturally present in the human body and
play important roles in the immune system, including transporting
substances within cells and activating cells of the immune system.
About Nventa Corporation:
Nventa is developing innovative therapeutics for the treatment of viral
infections and cancer, with a focus on diseases caused by the human
papillomavirus (HPV). The corporation is publicly traded on the Toronto
Stock Exchange under the symbol NVN. For more information about Nventa,
please visit nventacorp.
This press release contains statements which may constitute
forward-looking information under applicable Canadian securities
legislation or forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United
States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such
forward-looking statements or information may include financial and other
projections as well as statements regarding the Company's future plans,
objectives, performance, revenues, growth, profits, operating expenses or
the Company's underlying assumptions. The words "may", "would", "could",
"will", "likely", "expect," "anticipate," "intend", "plan", "forecast",
"project", "estimate" and "believe" or other similar words and phrases may
identify forward-looking statements or information. Persons reading this
press release are cautioned that such statements or information are only
predictions, and that the Company's actual future results or performance
may be materially different.
Forward-looking statements or information in this press release
include, but are not limited to, statements or information concerning: the
collection and use of immunological data to indicate efficacy of the
compound; the number of cohorts and patients and the expected dosing
amounts in the Phase 1 trial; successful completion of the Phase 1 trial;
the launching of a Phase 2 clinical trial in patients with high-grade
cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN2/3); the possibility of a second
Phase 2 trial in HIV-positive low-grade CIN patients.
Such forward-looking statements or information involve known and
unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual
results, events or developments to be materially different from results,
events or developments expressed or implied by such forward-looking
statements or information. Such factors include, among others, the
possibility that we will not be able to recruit patients for our trials in
a timely manner; our need for capital, risks associated with requirements
for approvals by government agencies such as the FDA before products can be
tested in clinical trials; the possibility that such government agency
approvals will not be obtained in a timely manner or at all or will be
conditioned in a manner that would impair our ability to advance
development; risks associated with the requirement that a drug be found
safe and effective after extensive clinical trials: our dependence on
suppliers, collaborative partners and other third parties and the prospects
and timing for negotiating supply agreements, corporate collaborations or
licensing arrangements; our ability to attract and retain key personnel;
and other factors as described in detail in our filings with the Canadian
securities regulatory authorities at sedar.
Assumptions underlying our expectations regarding forward-looking
statements or information contained in this press release include, among
others, that we will raise enough capital, on reasonable terms and in a
timely manner; that we will retain our key personnel; that we will obtain
the necessary regulatory approvals related to HspE7 and our adjuvant in a
timely manner; that enough HspE7 will be available to conduct our planned
trials; that we will be able to procure the necessary amount of adjuvant to
conduct our planned trials; that we will obtain timely approval from
additional IRBs; that the results from additional preclinical and clinical
work, if any, will be consistent with the results we have already obtained;
that a sufficient number of patients will be available to conduct our
planned trials; and that sufficient data will be generated to support our
IND.
In the event that any of these assumptions prove to be incorrect, or in
the event that we are impacted by any of the risks identified above, we may
not be able to continue in our business as planned.
For a complete discussion of the assumptions, risks and uncertainties
related to our business, you are encouraged to review our filings with
Canadian securities regulatory authorities, including our 2006 Annual
Information Form filed on SEDAR at sedar. Historical filings
relating to the Company prior to the completion of the Company's March 23,
2006 corporate reorganization, including Old Stressgen's 2005 Annual
Information Form dated March 16, 2006 may be reviewed on SEDAR at
sedar under the SEDAR profile GVIC Publications Ltd.
All forward-looking statements and information made herein are based on
our current expectations as of the date hereof and we disclaim any
intention or obligation to revise or update such forward-looking statements
and information to reflect subsequent events or circumstances, except as
required by law.
Nventa Biopharmaceuticals Corporation
nventacorp
Biopharmaceuticals Corporation (TSX:NVN) announced the completion of
the safety and tolerability assessment in its second cohort of patients in
a Phase 1 clinical trial of new HspE7 in patients with cervical
intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN). HspE7's safety data were normal and met
the limits prescribed in the trial protocol, allowing advancement to the
third cohort of patients in the study.
The evaluation by the Safety Review Committee was performed after the
second cohort reached five weeks of treatment (two doses plus one week of
follow-up). The dosing of the third cohort of patients is expected shortly.
At the end of each cohort, Nventa is also collecting immunological data
that may provide an early indication of potential efficacy of the compound.
All patients are being typed for class I and II human leukocyte antigen
(HLA) subtypes, and are being evaluated for cytokine responses, anti-HspE7
antibodies and cellular (T-cell) immunology.
The trial is expected to dose up to 5 cohorts comprising twenty-four
patients. The first cohort of patients was administered 500 mcg of HspE7
and 50 mcg of adjuvant containing Poly-IC, a toll-like receptor-3 (or TLR3)
agonist. The second cohort was administered 500 mcg of HspE7 and an
escalated dose of 500 mcg of adjuvant. The third cohort will be
administered 500 mcg of HspE7 and 1,000 mcg of adjuvant, and the fourth
cohort will be administered 500 mcg of HspE7 and 2,000 mcg of adjuvant. An
additional cohort of six patients administered 1,000 mcg of HspE7 and 2,000
mcg of adjuvant may be added if deemed appropriate based on data from the
previous four cohorts.
Following successful completion of this Phase 1 trial, the Company
anticipates launching a Phase 2 clinical trial with new HspE7 in patients
with high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN 2/3). The Company
is also in discussions with clinical investigators regarding the design and
implementation of a second Phase 2 trial with new HspE7 in patients that
are HIV-positive with low-grade CIN.
Affiliations and investigators in this trial currently include the
Montefiore Medical Center; William D. Kolton, M.D. of San Diego,
California; Linda Roman, M.D. of the University of Southern California
(USC); Michael L. Twede, M.D. of the Salt Lake Women's Center in Sandy,
Utah; and Mark T. Saunders, M.D. at the Mt. Timpanogos Women's
Healthcare/Physician's Research in Pleasant Grove, Utah.
About HspE7, Lead Product Candidate:
HspE7 is a novel therapeutic vaccine candidate for the treatment of
diseases caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV), one of the most common
sexually transmitted diseases in the world. HspE7 is derived from Nventa's
proprietary CoVal(TM) fusion platform, which uses recombinant DNA
technology to covalently fuse stress proteins to target antigens, thereby
stimulating cellular immune system responses. Heat shock proteins (Hsps),
also known as stress proteins, are naturally present in the human body and
play important roles in the immune system, including transporting
substances within cells and activating cells of the immune system.
About Nventa Corporation:
Nventa is developing innovative therapeutics for the treatment of viral
infections and cancer, with a focus on diseases caused by the human
papillomavirus (HPV). The corporation is publicly traded on the Toronto
Stock Exchange under the symbol NVN. For more information about Nventa,
please visit nventacorp.
This press release contains statements which may constitute
forward-looking information under applicable Canadian securities
legislation or forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United
States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such
forward-looking statements or information may include financial and other
projections as well as statements regarding the Company's future plans,
objectives, performance, revenues, growth, profits, operating expenses or
the Company's underlying assumptions. The words "may", "would", "could",
"will", "likely", "expect," "anticipate," "intend", "plan", "forecast",
"project", "estimate" and "believe" or other similar words and phrases may
identify forward-looking statements or information. Persons reading this
press release are cautioned that such statements or information are only
predictions, and that the Company's actual future results or performance
may be materially different.
Forward-looking statements or information in this press release
include, but are not limited to, statements or information concerning: the
collection and use of immunological data to indicate efficacy of the
compound; the number of cohorts and patients and the expected dosing
amounts in the Phase 1 trial; successful completion of the Phase 1 trial;
the launching of a Phase 2 clinical trial in patients with high-grade
cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN2/3); the possibility of a second
Phase 2 trial in HIV-positive low-grade CIN patients.
Such forward-looking statements or information involve known and
unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual
results, events or developments to be materially different from results,
events or developments expressed or implied by such forward-looking
statements or information. Such factors include, among others, the
possibility that we will not be able to recruit patients for our trials in
a timely manner; our need for capital, risks associated with requirements
for approvals by government agencies such as the FDA before products can be
tested in clinical trials; the possibility that such government agency
approvals will not be obtained in a timely manner or at all or will be
conditioned in a manner that would impair our ability to advance
development; risks associated with the requirement that a drug be found
safe and effective after extensive clinical trials: our dependence on
suppliers, collaborative partners and other third parties and the prospects
and timing for negotiating supply agreements, corporate collaborations or
licensing arrangements; our ability to attract and retain key personnel;
and other factors as described in detail in our filings with the Canadian
securities regulatory authorities at sedar.
Assumptions underlying our expectations regarding forward-looking
statements or information contained in this press release include, among
others, that we will raise enough capital, on reasonable terms and in a
timely manner; that we will retain our key personnel; that we will obtain
the necessary regulatory approvals related to HspE7 and our adjuvant in a
timely manner; that enough HspE7 will be available to conduct our planned
trials; that we will be able to procure the necessary amount of adjuvant to
conduct our planned trials; that we will obtain timely approval from
additional IRBs; that the results from additional preclinical and clinical
work, if any, will be consistent with the results we have already obtained;
that a sufficient number of patients will be available to conduct our
planned trials; and that sufficient data will be generated to support our
IND.
In the event that any of these assumptions prove to be incorrect, or in
the event that we are impacted by any of the risks identified above, we may
not be able to continue in our business as planned.
For a complete discussion of the assumptions, risks and uncertainties
related to our business, you are encouraged to review our filings with
Canadian securities regulatory authorities, including our 2006 Annual
Information Form filed on SEDAR at sedar. Historical filings
relating to the Company prior to the completion of the Company's March 23,
2006 corporate reorganization, including Old Stressgen's 2005 Annual
Information Form dated March 16, 2006 may be reviewed on SEDAR at
sedar under the SEDAR profile GVIC Publications Ltd.
All forward-looking statements and information made herein are based on
our current expectations as of the date hereof and we disclaim any
intention or obligation to revise or update such forward-looking statements
and information to reflect subsequent events or circumstances, except as
required by law.
Nventa Biopharmaceuticals Corporation
nventacorp
четверг, 3 ноября 2011 г.
VIVUS Announces Results Of ALISTA Phase 2b Study
VIVUS, Inc. (Nasdaq: VVUS), today announced results of the company's Phase 2b
clinical study of its investigational drug ALISTA(TM) (topical
alprostadil), for the treatment of female sexual arousal disorder (FSAD),
in women who have undergone a hysterectomy. In this double-blind,
placebo-controlled study, patients with FSAD using ALISTA achieved a more
than doubling over baseline in the number of satisfactory sexual events;
however, the difference between the ALISTA treatment group and the placebo
group did not achieve statistical significance for the primary endpoint of
the study. Following a 2-month non-treatment run-in period, 320 subjects
were randomly assigned to treatment with ALISTA or placebo for a period of
6 months. During study participation, subjects maintained daily diaries to
capture outcomes of all sexual encounters, and the primary measure of
treatment efficacy was based on the difference between ALISTA and placebo
in the improvement over baseline in the number of satisfactory sexual
encounters per month. This was the first study in which the efficacy of
ALISTA was prospectively evaluated in an all organically impaired group of
patients with FSAD.
"The placebo response rate was higher than what was anticipated in this
phase 2b trial," said Leland Wilson, president and CEO of VIVUS.
"Additional work will be required to determine how to better control the
placebo response rate in this patient population before additional clinical
trials can be started. Because we have a rich pipeline with three
late-stage development programs, ALISTA will receive a lower development
priority at VIVUS. We will focus our development efforts on Qnexa for the
treatment of obesity, Testosterone MDTS for the treatment of hypoactive
sexual desire disorder (HSDD) and avanafil for the treatment of male
erectile dysfunction (MED), all of which have demonstrated clear, clinical
and statistical significance over placebo in phase 2 studies."
About VIVUS
VIVUS, Inc. is a pharmaceutical company dedicated to the development
and commercialization of next-generation therapeutic products addressing
obesity and sexual health. VIVUS has three products that are positioned to
enter Phase 3 clinical trials, and one product that has completed Phase 3
evaluation, for which an NDA is anticipated to be submitted to the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the second half of 2006. The
investigational pipeline includes: Qnexa(TM), for which a Phase 2 study has
been completed for the treatment of obesity; Testosterone MDTS(R), for
which a Phase 2 study has been completed for the treatment of Hypoactive
Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD); Evamist(TM), for which a Phase 3 study has
been completed for the treatment of menopausal symptoms; avanafil, for
which a Phase 2 study has been completed for the treatment of erectile
dysfunction (ED); and, MUSE(R), which is approved and currently on the
market for the treatment of ED. For more information on clinical trials and
products, please visit the company's web site at vivus.
Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking within the
meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These
statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as
"anticipate," "believe," "forecast," "estimated" and "intend," among
others. These forward-looking statements are based on VIVUS' current
expectations and actual results could differ materially. There are a number
of factors that could cause actual events to differ materially from those
indicated by such forward-looking statements. These factors include, but
are not limited to, substantial competition; uncertainties of patent
protection and litigation; uncertainties of government or third party payer
reimbursement; reliance on sole source suppliers; limited sales and
marketing efforts and dependence upon third parties; risks related to the
development of innovative products; and risks related to failure to obtain
FDA clearances or approvals and noncompliance with FDA regulations. As with
any pharmaceutical under development, there are significant risks in the
development, regulatory approval and commercialization of new products.
There are no guarantees that future clinical studies discussed in this
press release will be completed or successful or that any product will
receive regulatory approval for any indication or prove to be commercially
successful. VIVUS does not undertake an obligation to update or revise any
forward-looking statement. Investors should read the risk factors set forth
in VIVUS' Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2005 and periodic
reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
VIVUS, Inc
vivus
clinical study of its investigational drug ALISTA(TM) (topical
alprostadil), for the treatment of female sexual arousal disorder (FSAD),
in women who have undergone a hysterectomy. In this double-blind,
placebo-controlled study, patients with FSAD using ALISTA achieved a more
than doubling over baseline in the number of satisfactory sexual events;
however, the difference between the ALISTA treatment group and the placebo
group did not achieve statistical significance for the primary endpoint of
the study. Following a 2-month non-treatment run-in period, 320 subjects
were randomly assigned to treatment with ALISTA or placebo for a period of
6 months. During study participation, subjects maintained daily diaries to
capture outcomes of all sexual encounters, and the primary measure of
treatment efficacy was based on the difference between ALISTA and placebo
in the improvement over baseline in the number of satisfactory sexual
encounters per month. This was the first study in which the efficacy of
ALISTA was prospectively evaluated in an all organically impaired group of
patients with FSAD.
"The placebo response rate was higher than what was anticipated in this
phase 2b trial," said Leland Wilson, president and CEO of VIVUS.
"Additional work will be required to determine how to better control the
placebo response rate in this patient population before additional clinical
trials can be started. Because we have a rich pipeline with three
late-stage development programs, ALISTA will receive a lower development
priority at VIVUS. We will focus our development efforts on Qnexa for the
treatment of obesity, Testosterone MDTS for the treatment of hypoactive
sexual desire disorder (HSDD) and avanafil for the treatment of male
erectile dysfunction (MED), all of which have demonstrated clear, clinical
and statistical significance over placebo in phase 2 studies."
About VIVUS
VIVUS, Inc. is a pharmaceutical company dedicated to the development
and commercialization of next-generation therapeutic products addressing
obesity and sexual health. VIVUS has three products that are positioned to
enter Phase 3 clinical trials, and one product that has completed Phase 3
evaluation, for which an NDA is anticipated to be submitted to the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the second half of 2006. The
investigational pipeline includes: Qnexa(TM), for which a Phase 2 study has
been completed for the treatment of obesity; Testosterone MDTS(R), for
which a Phase 2 study has been completed for the treatment of Hypoactive
Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD); Evamist(TM), for which a Phase 3 study has
been completed for the treatment of menopausal symptoms; avanafil, for
which a Phase 2 study has been completed for the treatment of erectile
dysfunction (ED); and, MUSE(R), which is approved and currently on the
market for the treatment of ED. For more information on clinical trials and
products, please visit the company's web site at vivus.
Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking within the
meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These
statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as
"anticipate," "believe," "forecast," "estimated" and "intend," among
others. These forward-looking statements are based on VIVUS' current
expectations and actual results could differ materially. There are a number
of factors that could cause actual events to differ materially from those
indicated by such forward-looking statements. These factors include, but
are not limited to, substantial competition; uncertainties of patent
protection and litigation; uncertainties of government or third party payer
reimbursement; reliance on sole source suppliers; limited sales and
marketing efforts and dependence upon third parties; risks related to the
development of innovative products; and risks related to failure to obtain
FDA clearances or approvals and noncompliance with FDA regulations. As with
any pharmaceutical under development, there are significant risks in the
development, regulatory approval and commercialization of new products.
There are no guarantees that future clinical studies discussed in this
press release will be completed or successful or that any product will
receive regulatory approval for any indication or prove to be commercially
successful. VIVUS does not undertake an obligation to update or revise any
forward-looking statement. Investors should read the risk factors set forth
in VIVUS' Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2005 and periodic
reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
VIVUS, Inc
vivus
четверг, 27 октября 2011 г.
Study Shows Ixabepilone Demonstrated Clear Activity In Patients With Metastatic Breast Cancer Resistant To Anthracycline, Taxane, And Capecitabine
Results from a Phase II study - which will be published in the August 10, 2007 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO) and are now available as an Early Release Article at jco - demonstrate that ixabepilone, a Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY) investigational compound, has activity in patients with metastatic breast cancer whose tumors were resistant to three types of standard chemotherapy (anthracycline, taxane, and capecitabine). Currently, there are few proven treatment options available to patients with breast cancer whose disease has rapidly progressed through or whose disease is not responding to prior treatment with approved chemotherapies. This study was one of five Phase II ixabepilone studies published in this issue of JCO, including three additional studies in metastatic breast cancer and one in non-small cell lung cancer.
"Drug resistance is a major concern in treating patients with advanced disease," said Renzo Canetta, vice president, Oncology Global Clinical Research, Bristol-Myers Squibb. "The results of this study are important as they provide valuable information about this investigational compound and its potential in patients with advanced breast cancer that is no longer responding to any of the current U.S. approved chemotherapy treatments."
The 126 patients enrolled in the single-arm Phase II study (CA163081) had heavily pretreated, advanced metastatic breast cancer, which had progressed through three prior therapies (anthracycline, taxane and capecitabine). The primary endpoint was objective response rate, which is an assessment of the response to treatment as determined by the independent radiology facility (IRF). Secondary efficacy endpoints included duration of response, time to response, progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS), and with the exception of OS, analyses were based on IRF data. Response-evaluable patients were defined as patients with measurable disease, as determined by the IRF, which met the resistance criteria for anthracyclines, taxanes, and capecitabine. Results of the 113 response-evaluable patients were assessed by the IRF, as well as independently by investigators at the study site, and showed:
-- Objective response rate was achieved in 11.5% of patients as determined
by the IRF and 18.6% as determined by the investigators.
-- Median duration of response of 5.7 months.
-- Median time to response of 6.1 weeks.
-- Median progression-free survival of 3.1 months.
-- Median overall survival of 8.6 months.
Overall treatment-related non-hematological adverse events greater than or equal to 20% included: peripheral sensory neuropathy 60% (Grade 3/4: 14%); fatigue/asthenia 50% (Grade 3/4: 14%); myalgia/arthralgia 49% (Grade 3/4: 8%); alopecia 48% (Grade 3/4: 0%); nausea 42% (Grade 3/4: 2%); stomatitis/mucositis 29% (Grade 3/4: 7%); vomiting 29% (Grade 3/4: 1%); diarrhea 22% (Grade 3/4: 1%); and musculoskeletal pain 20% (Grade 3/4: 3%). Treatment-related hematological adverse events greater than or equal to 20% included: leukopenia 90% (Grade 3/4: 49%); anemia 84% (Grade 3/4: 8%); neutropenia 79% (Grade 3/4: 54%); and thrombocytopenia 44% (Grade 3/4: 8%).
About Ixabepilone
Ixabepilone is an investigational compound, a semisynthetic analog of epothilone B, designed to inhibit or prevent the growth or development of cancer cells. Epothilones are a potential new class of antineoplastic (or chemotherapy) agents. For information on ixabepilone clinical trials, log on to clinicaltrials.
On June 19, 2007 the company announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has accepted, for filing and granted priority review of, these data as part of the New Drug Application for ixabepilone. The target action date is in late October. The proposed indications for ixabepilone are as a monotherapy to treat patients with metastatic or locally advanced breast cancer after failure of an anthracycline, a taxane, and capecitabine and in combination with capecitabine to treat patients with metastatic or locally advanced breast cancer after failure of an anthracycline and a taxane. The company also plans to submit these data as part of a registrational dossier in the European Union, and other countries this year.
About Bristol-Myers Squibb
Bristol-Myers Squibb is a global pharmaceutical and related health care products company whose mission is to extend and enhance human life.
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding product development. Such forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and involve inherent risks and uncertainties, including factors that could delay, divert or change any of them, and could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from current expectations. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed. Among other risks, there can be no guarantee that the application submitted to the FDA will be approved, that an application will be submitted or approved in any other country, or, if approved, that the product will be commercially successful. Forward-looking statements in this press release should be evaluated together with the many uncertainties that affect Bristol-Myers Squibb's business, particularly those identified in the cautionary factors discussion in Bristol-Myers Squibb's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2006 and in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Bristol-Myers Squibb undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Bristol-Myers Squibb
Bristol-Myers Squibb
"Drug resistance is a major concern in treating patients with advanced disease," said Renzo Canetta, vice president, Oncology Global Clinical Research, Bristol-Myers Squibb. "The results of this study are important as they provide valuable information about this investigational compound and its potential in patients with advanced breast cancer that is no longer responding to any of the current U.S. approved chemotherapy treatments."
The 126 patients enrolled in the single-arm Phase II study (CA163081) had heavily pretreated, advanced metastatic breast cancer, which had progressed through three prior therapies (anthracycline, taxane and capecitabine). The primary endpoint was objective response rate, which is an assessment of the response to treatment as determined by the independent radiology facility (IRF). Secondary efficacy endpoints included duration of response, time to response, progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS), and with the exception of OS, analyses were based on IRF data. Response-evaluable patients were defined as patients with measurable disease, as determined by the IRF, which met the resistance criteria for anthracyclines, taxanes, and capecitabine. Results of the 113 response-evaluable patients were assessed by the IRF, as well as independently by investigators at the study site, and showed:
-- Objective response rate was achieved in 11.5% of patients as determined
by the IRF and 18.6% as determined by the investigators.
-- Median duration of response of 5.7 months.
-- Median time to response of 6.1 weeks.
-- Median progression-free survival of 3.1 months.
-- Median overall survival of 8.6 months.
Overall treatment-related non-hematological adverse events greater than or equal to 20% included: peripheral sensory neuropathy 60% (Grade 3/4: 14%); fatigue/asthenia 50% (Grade 3/4: 14%); myalgia/arthralgia 49% (Grade 3/4: 8%); alopecia 48% (Grade 3/4: 0%); nausea 42% (Grade 3/4: 2%); stomatitis/mucositis 29% (Grade 3/4: 7%); vomiting 29% (Grade 3/4: 1%); diarrhea 22% (Grade 3/4: 1%); and musculoskeletal pain 20% (Grade 3/4: 3%). Treatment-related hematological adverse events greater than or equal to 20% included: leukopenia 90% (Grade 3/4: 49%); anemia 84% (Grade 3/4: 8%); neutropenia 79% (Grade 3/4: 54%); and thrombocytopenia 44% (Grade 3/4: 8%).
About Ixabepilone
Ixabepilone is an investigational compound, a semisynthetic analog of epothilone B, designed to inhibit or prevent the growth or development of cancer cells. Epothilones are a potential new class of antineoplastic (or chemotherapy) agents. For information on ixabepilone clinical trials, log on to clinicaltrials.
On June 19, 2007 the company announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has accepted, for filing and granted priority review of, these data as part of the New Drug Application for ixabepilone. The target action date is in late October. The proposed indications for ixabepilone are as a monotherapy to treat patients with metastatic or locally advanced breast cancer after failure of an anthracycline, a taxane, and capecitabine and in combination with capecitabine to treat patients with metastatic or locally advanced breast cancer after failure of an anthracycline and a taxane. The company also plans to submit these data as part of a registrational dossier in the European Union, and other countries this year.
About Bristol-Myers Squibb
Bristol-Myers Squibb is a global pharmaceutical and related health care products company whose mission is to extend and enhance human life.
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding product development. Such forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and involve inherent risks and uncertainties, including factors that could delay, divert or change any of them, and could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from current expectations. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed. Among other risks, there can be no guarantee that the application submitted to the FDA will be approved, that an application will be submitted or approved in any other country, or, if approved, that the product will be commercially successful. Forward-looking statements in this press release should be evaluated together with the many uncertainties that affect Bristol-Myers Squibb's business, particularly those identified in the cautionary factors discussion in Bristol-Myers Squibb's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2006 and in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Bristol-Myers Squibb undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Bristol-Myers Squibb
Bristol-Myers Squibb
четверг, 20 октября 2011 г.
Being Called At Home About Work Bothers Women More Than Men
Women are more psychologically distressed when receiving emails or phone calls about work while they are at home than men are, researchers from the University of Toronto wrote in Journal of Health and Social Behavior. The results of their findings surprised some people who thought women would welcome the flexibility between home and work duties offered by modern technology.
The researchers gathered data from a national survey of US workers. They asked participants how often they received communications by text messages, emails and telephone calls about work-related matters during their free time. They found that females who were contacted often by colleagues, clients or their own bosses reported elevated levels of psychological distress. Males, on the other hand, exposed to similar levels of communications appeared to be less affected.
Lead author Paul Glavin, said:
"Initially, we thought women were more distressed by frequent work contact because it interfered with their family responsibilities more so than men. However, this wasn't the case. We found that women are able to juggle their work and family lives just as well as men, but they feel more guilty as a result of being contacted. This guilt seems to be at the heart of their distress."
According to their findings, a significant number of women have feelings of guilt when having to deal with work-related matters at home, even when their family lives are not directly affected. Males in similar circumstances do not seem to experience the same degree of guilt.
The authors suggest that expectations regarding the boundaries that separate work and private life are different between males and females, which lead to unique emotional consequences.
Co-author, Scott Schieman, said:
"Guilt seems to play a pivotal role in distinguishing women's work-family experiences from men's. While women have increasingly taken on a central role as economic providers in today's dual-earner households, strong cultural norms may still shape ideas about family responsibilities. These forces may lead some women to question or negatively evaluate their family role performance when they're trying to navigate work issues at home."
"Boundary-Spanning Work Demands and Their Consequences for Guilt and Psychological Distress"
Paul Glavin, Scott Schieman, Sarah Reid
Journal of Health and Social Behavior February 28, 2011 vol. 52 no. 1 43-57
doi: 10.1177/0022146510395023
The researchers gathered data from a national survey of US workers. They asked participants how often they received communications by text messages, emails and telephone calls about work-related matters during their free time. They found that females who were contacted often by colleagues, clients or their own bosses reported elevated levels of psychological distress. Males, on the other hand, exposed to similar levels of communications appeared to be less affected.
Lead author Paul Glavin, said:
"Initially, we thought women were more distressed by frequent work contact because it interfered with their family responsibilities more so than men. However, this wasn't the case. We found that women are able to juggle their work and family lives just as well as men, but they feel more guilty as a result of being contacted. This guilt seems to be at the heart of their distress."
According to their findings, a significant number of women have feelings of guilt when having to deal with work-related matters at home, even when their family lives are not directly affected. Males in similar circumstances do not seem to experience the same degree of guilt.
The authors suggest that expectations regarding the boundaries that separate work and private life are different between males and females, which lead to unique emotional consequences.
Co-author, Scott Schieman, said:
"Guilt seems to play a pivotal role in distinguishing women's work-family experiences from men's. While women have increasingly taken on a central role as economic providers in today's dual-earner households, strong cultural norms may still shape ideas about family responsibilities. These forces may lead some women to question or negatively evaluate their family role performance when they're trying to navigate work issues at home."
"Boundary-Spanning Work Demands and Their Consequences for Guilt and Psychological Distress"
Paul Glavin, Scott Schieman, Sarah Reid
Journal of Health and Social Behavior February 28, 2011 vol. 52 no. 1 43-57
doi: 10.1177/0022146510395023
четверг, 13 октября 2011 г.
HPV Home Tests Could Improve Cervical Screening Uptake
Home tests for the human papillomavirus (HPV) could help increase the take-up of cervical screening among women who do not respond to screening invitations, new research shows today.
Despite publicity surrounding Jade Goody who died from cervical cancer at the age of 27, a worrying number of women ignore the opportunity to be screened.
The study,* published in the British Journal of Cancer,** looked at 3000 women from the Westminster Primary Care Trust who had not responded to at least two screening invitations.
Self-sample HPV test kits were sent to half the women, while the other half were sent another invitation for cervical screening.
Around 10 per cent of women in the first group responded to receiving kits. This was made up of 96 women (6.4 per cent) doing the self-sample and in addition, 57 (3.8 per cent) booking an appointment to be screened in the usual way.
In the other group, 68 women (4.5 per cent) went for a smear test after receiving a third invitation.
Dr Anne Szarewski , lead author of the study and a Cancer Research UK cervical cancer expert, said: "Women who don't go for cervical screening face a higher risk of cervical cancer so it's important to encourage these women to take part. HPV self-sampling could be an effective way of getting women to be screened.
"Home testing for HPV is as accurate as samples taken by doctors and can help address some of the reasons, like finding time or being embarrassed, that women often give as reasons for not attending screening."
Screening for cervical cancer - the most common form of cancer in women under 35 - can prevent cases of the disease.
But over the last ten years the coverage rate - the proportion of women aged 25-64 in England who have had a cervical screening test at least once in the previous five years - has been edging lower and is now 78.9 per cent, just below the government's target of 80 per cent.
A one per cent fall in the coverage rate accounts for around 165,000 women.
The authors say the study should be repeated in other areas to find out if the level of response seen in Westminster is likely to be representative of the rest of the country.
In the HPV home test group eight women tested positive for HPV - two had high grade stages of abnormal cells and one had an invasive cancer. Dr Szarewski said this showed that self-sampling had the potential to pick up even more women with abnormalities.
While most women infected with HPV do not develop cervical cancer, the virus is the major cause of the disease.
Sara Hiom, director of health information at Cancer Research UK, said: "Although we saw a surge in the number of women going for smear tests immediately after the sad experience of Jade Goody, we know a significant proportion of women are not going for screening.
"Cervical cancer is one of the few cancers that can be prevented through screening by picking up early changes in the cells which can lead to the disease. So finding a way to screen women who do not go for smear tests could be very valuable.
"HPV home tests could help overcome some of the barriers women face, especially those from deprived backgrounds or ethnic minorities where cultural barriers play a role.
"More research is needed to see if the response to self-sampling around the country would be generally higher but this study suggests it may have the potential to prevent even more cases of cervical cancer along with the current screening programme."
References
**Szarewski, A et al., HPV self-sampling as an alternative in non-attenders for cervical screening - a randomised controlled trial, British Journal of Cancer (2011) DOI:10.1038/bjc.2011.48
Notes
*funded by a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Research for Patient Benefit (RfPB) Programme grant
Source:
Cancer Research UK
Despite publicity surrounding Jade Goody who died from cervical cancer at the age of 27, a worrying number of women ignore the opportunity to be screened.
The study,* published in the British Journal of Cancer,** looked at 3000 women from the Westminster Primary Care Trust who had not responded to at least two screening invitations.
Self-sample HPV test kits were sent to half the women, while the other half were sent another invitation for cervical screening.
Around 10 per cent of women in the first group responded to receiving kits. This was made up of 96 women (6.4 per cent) doing the self-sample and in addition, 57 (3.8 per cent) booking an appointment to be screened in the usual way.
In the other group, 68 women (4.5 per cent) went for a smear test after receiving a third invitation.
Dr Anne Szarewski , lead author of the study and a Cancer Research UK cervical cancer expert, said: "Women who don't go for cervical screening face a higher risk of cervical cancer so it's important to encourage these women to take part. HPV self-sampling could be an effective way of getting women to be screened.
"Home testing for HPV is as accurate as samples taken by doctors and can help address some of the reasons, like finding time or being embarrassed, that women often give as reasons for not attending screening."
Screening for cervical cancer - the most common form of cancer in women under 35 - can prevent cases of the disease.
But over the last ten years the coverage rate - the proportion of women aged 25-64 in England who have had a cervical screening test at least once in the previous five years - has been edging lower and is now 78.9 per cent, just below the government's target of 80 per cent.
A one per cent fall in the coverage rate accounts for around 165,000 women.
The authors say the study should be repeated in other areas to find out if the level of response seen in Westminster is likely to be representative of the rest of the country.
In the HPV home test group eight women tested positive for HPV - two had high grade stages of abnormal cells and one had an invasive cancer. Dr Szarewski said this showed that self-sampling had the potential to pick up even more women with abnormalities.
While most women infected with HPV do not develop cervical cancer, the virus is the major cause of the disease.
Sara Hiom, director of health information at Cancer Research UK, said: "Although we saw a surge in the number of women going for smear tests immediately after the sad experience of Jade Goody, we know a significant proportion of women are not going for screening.
"Cervical cancer is one of the few cancers that can be prevented through screening by picking up early changes in the cells which can lead to the disease. So finding a way to screen women who do not go for smear tests could be very valuable.
"HPV home tests could help overcome some of the barriers women face, especially those from deprived backgrounds or ethnic minorities where cultural barriers play a role.
"More research is needed to see if the response to self-sampling around the country would be generally higher but this study suggests it may have the potential to prevent even more cases of cervical cancer along with the current screening programme."
References
**Szarewski, A et al., HPV self-sampling as an alternative in non-attenders for cervical screening - a randomised controlled trial, British Journal of Cancer (2011) DOI:10.1038/bjc.2011.48
Notes
*funded by a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Research for Patient Benefit (RfPB) Programme grant
Source:
Cancer Research UK
четверг, 6 октября 2011 г.
NPR's 'Weekend Edition Saturday' Profiles Prenatal Care Program at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in New York
NPR's "Weekend Edition Saturday" profiled the prenatal care program for female inmates at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester County, N.Y. The state sends all of its pregnant inmates to Bedford Hills, a maximum security prison, where they receive prenatal care and parenting classes and are permitted to keep their infants at an in-house nursery for up to 18 months after birth. The program is meant to foster relationships between women and their newborns, which provides the infants a "better start" and incentives for women to "stay straight," according to NPR. Mary Byrne of Columbia University, who is evaluating the success of the nursery program, said the infants at Bedford Hills "do as well as babies in any other setting" and are "not challenged at all in any negative way." Her research is expected to be completed in 2007. Critics of the program say it is "soft on crime" and that inmates should lose their parental rights, NPR reports. The U.S. is one of four countries that routinely takes infants away from their incarcerated mothers (Wertheimer, "Weekend Edition Saturday," NPR, 11/5).
The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer.
"Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer.
"Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
четверг, 29 сентября 2011 г.
RCOG Release: Ultrasound Training Programme For Obstetricians And Gynaecologists Launched
A new competence-based ultrasound training programme that is compulsory for doctors undergoing speciality training in obstetrics and gynaecology is now being implemented nationally.
It has been agreed that much of the training will be delivered by sonographers following discussions between the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) and the Society and College of Radiographers (SCoR).
Mr Christoph Lees, RCOG national ultrasound training co-ordinator said, "The RCOG programme provides for 'deanery ultrasound co-ordinators' who will normally be obstetricians-gynaecologists and local 'ultrasound education supervisors' who may, for example, be ultrasound department managers or lead sonographers.
"The intention is that there are local discussions between these individuals as to how the RCOG training can be delivered, taking into account the number of potential trainees of all disciplines, the numbers already being trained within the department (including sonographer trainees), the available workforce and department capacity."
NHS trusts and boards will be expected to implement the training as part of the core syllabus requirements.
Audrey Paterson, Director of Professional Policy at the SCoR said, "The aim of the training is to improve maternal and women's healthcare, especially outside of normal hours when sonographer cover may not be available. Sonographers have traditionally played a major role in the training of doctors in obstetric and gynaecological ultrasound and their involvement is not new.
"Everyone recognises the need for an inter-professional approach to ensure the new training programme is delivered effectively."
Source:
Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
It has been agreed that much of the training will be delivered by sonographers following discussions between the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) and the Society and College of Radiographers (SCoR).
Mr Christoph Lees, RCOG national ultrasound training co-ordinator said, "The RCOG programme provides for 'deanery ultrasound co-ordinators' who will normally be obstetricians-gynaecologists and local 'ultrasound education supervisors' who may, for example, be ultrasound department managers or lead sonographers.
"The intention is that there are local discussions between these individuals as to how the RCOG training can be delivered, taking into account the number of potential trainees of all disciplines, the numbers already being trained within the department (including sonographer trainees), the available workforce and department capacity."
NHS trusts and boards will be expected to implement the training as part of the core syllabus requirements.
Audrey Paterson, Director of Professional Policy at the SCoR said, "The aim of the training is to improve maternal and women's healthcare, especially outside of normal hours when sonographer cover may not be available. Sonographers have traditionally played a major role in the training of doctors in obstetric and gynaecological ultrasound and their involvement is not new.
"Everyone recognises the need for an inter-professional approach to ensure the new training programme is delivered effectively."
Source:
Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
четверг, 22 сентября 2011 г.
Link Discovered Between Hip Size Of Mothers And Breast Cancer Risk In Their Daughters
In a study of the maternity records of more than 6,000 women, David J.P. Barker, M.D., Ph.D., and Kent Thornburg, Ph.D., of Oregon Health & Science University discovered a strong correlation between the size and shape of a woman's hips and her daughter's risk of breast cancer. Wide, round hips, the researchers postulated, represent markers of high sex hormone concentrations in the mother, which increase her daughter's vulnerability to breast cancer.
A woman's hips are shaped at puberty when the growth of the hip bones is controlled by sex hormones but is also influenced by the level of nutrition. Every woman has a unique sex hormone profile which is established at puberty and persists through her reproductive life. The study's findings show for the first time that the pubertal growth spurt of girls is strongly associated with the risk of breast cancer in their daughters.
The study, carried out with colleagues in Finland and the United Kingdom., is described in an article just published online by the peer-reviewed American Journal of Human Biology. The authors followed up on 6,370 women born in Helsinki from 1934 to 1944 whose mothers' pelvic bones were measured during routine prenatal care. The study found that breast cancer rates were more than three times higher among the women in the cohort, born at or after term, whose mothers had wide hips. They were more than seven times higher if those mothers had already given birth to one or more children.
A woman's vulnerability to breast cancer, the study found, was greater if her mother's "intercristal diameter" -- the widest distance between the wing-like structures at the top of the hip bone -- was more than 30 centimeters, or 11.8 inches. The risk also was higher if these wing-like structures were round. The breast cancer risk was 2.5 times higher for the daughters of women in whom the widest distance was more than 3 centimeters greater than the distance at the front.
Barker, professor of medicine (cardiovascular medicine) in the OHSU School of Medicine as well as professor of clinical epidemiology at the University of Southampton in the U.K., is internationally known for discovering the relationship between low birth weight and the lifetime risk for coronary heart disease and other medical disorders, which the British Medical Journal has named the Barker Hypothesis. He has published more than 200 papers and written or edited five books about the developmental origins of chronic disease. He was honored in 2005 with the prestigious Danone International Prize for Nutrition for his pioneering research.
The OHSU study proposes that breast cancer is initiated in the first trimester of a pregnancy by exposure of the embryo's developing breast tissue to the mother's circulating sex hormones. The primary mammary cord, which gives rise to milk-producing breast lobules, develops in the fetus at 10 weeks. The fetal breast is known to be stimulated by circulating hormones; the intensity of the stimulation is such that half of all newborn babies have breast secretions.
"Our findings support the hypothesis that wide round hips reflect high levels of sex hormone production at puberty, which persist after puberty and adversely affect breast development of the daughters in early gestation," the authors commented. They could only speculate, they said, on the exact nature of this adverse effect but pointed out: "Catechol estrogen, a metabolite or estradiol, is thought to cause chromosomal instability by breaking DNA strands. High catechol estrogen concentrations in the maternal circulation could produce genetic instability in differentiating breast epithelial cells, which would make the breast vulnerable to cancer in later life."
"Epidemiological findings of this kind aren't designed to define precise biological or molecular mechanisms," said Grover Bagby, M.D., deputy director of the OHSU Cancer Institute. "However, for those of us involved in identifying the earliest molecular causes of cancer, these fascinating results define the types of questions we need to ask. This is a wake-up call telling us to pay attention to stem cell populations at the time of birth ??¦ a good deal earlier than we might have otherwise done. It is important to consider these cell populations because only by understanding the initial cause can we begin to develop rational strategies to prevent this very common cancer."
The daughters who were the subjects of the study were all born during 1934-1944 at either Helsinki University Central Hospital or City Maternity Hospital, the two maternity hospitals in Finland's capital. The occurrence of breast cancer among them was ascertained from national registers of all hospital admissions and deaths in Finland. Three hundred of them had had breast cancer of whom 48 died from the disease. Their mean age when they were diagnosed was 54.
The findings shed new light on the link between breast cancer and nutrition. "Mothers whose daughters developed breast cancer were of similar height to the other mothers," Barker and Thornburg reported. "This suggests that they had similar nutrition through childhood. Our findings do not therefore indicate that good nutrition through childhood is linked to breast cancer in the next generation. But they do show that the pubertal growth spurt of girls, which reflects the level of nutrition, is strongly associated with the risk of breast cancer in their daughters."
The authors of the journal article besides Barker and Thornburg, who is director of the OHSU Heart Research Center and professor of cardiovascular medicine in the OHSU School of Medicine, were Clive Osmond, senior scientist at the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Resource Center at the University of Southampton; Eero Kajantie and Tom J. Forsen, both of Finland's National Public Health Institute; and Johan G. Eriksson, who holds positions at both the National Public Health Institute as well as with the University of Helsinki's Department of Public Health. Barker and Osmond have collaborated with Eriksson and his Finnish colleagues for the past 12 years tracing some 20,000 men and women in the Helsinki Birth Cohort Study.
The American Journal of Human Biology is published by Wiley-Liss, Inc., a subsidiary of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. The full text of the study, entitled "A possible link between the pubertal growth of girls and breast cancer in their daughters," is available in "Early View".
Click here for access to the abstract.
Source: Harry Lenhart
Oregon Health & Science University
View drug information on Estradiol Transdermal System.
A woman's hips are shaped at puberty when the growth of the hip bones is controlled by sex hormones but is also influenced by the level of nutrition. Every woman has a unique sex hormone profile which is established at puberty and persists through her reproductive life. The study's findings show for the first time that the pubertal growth spurt of girls is strongly associated with the risk of breast cancer in their daughters.
The study, carried out with colleagues in Finland and the United Kingdom., is described in an article just published online by the peer-reviewed American Journal of Human Biology. The authors followed up on 6,370 women born in Helsinki from 1934 to 1944 whose mothers' pelvic bones were measured during routine prenatal care. The study found that breast cancer rates were more than three times higher among the women in the cohort, born at or after term, whose mothers had wide hips. They were more than seven times higher if those mothers had already given birth to one or more children.
A woman's vulnerability to breast cancer, the study found, was greater if her mother's "intercristal diameter" -- the widest distance between the wing-like structures at the top of the hip bone -- was more than 30 centimeters, or 11.8 inches. The risk also was higher if these wing-like structures were round. The breast cancer risk was 2.5 times higher for the daughters of women in whom the widest distance was more than 3 centimeters greater than the distance at the front.
Barker, professor of medicine (cardiovascular medicine) in the OHSU School of Medicine as well as professor of clinical epidemiology at the University of Southampton in the U.K., is internationally known for discovering the relationship between low birth weight and the lifetime risk for coronary heart disease and other medical disorders, which the British Medical Journal has named the Barker Hypothesis. He has published more than 200 papers and written or edited five books about the developmental origins of chronic disease. He was honored in 2005 with the prestigious Danone International Prize for Nutrition for his pioneering research.
The OHSU study proposes that breast cancer is initiated in the first trimester of a pregnancy by exposure of the embryo's developing breast tissue to the mother's circulating sex hormones. The primary mammary cord, which gives rise to milk-producing breast lobules, develops in the fetus at 10 weeks. The fetal breast is known to be stimulated by circulating hormones; the intensity of the stimulation is such that half of all newborn babies have breast secretions.
"Our findings support the hypothesis that wide round hips reflect high levels of sex hormone production at puberty, which persist after puberty and adversely affect breast development of the daughters in early gestation," the authors commented. They could only speculate, they said, on the exact nature of this adverse effect but pointed out: "Catechol estrogen, a metabolite or estradiol, is thought to cause chromosomal instability by breaking DNA strands. High catechol estrogen concentrations in the maternal circulation could produce genetic instability in differentiating breast epithelial cells, which would make the breast vulnerable to cancer in later life."
"Epidemiological findings of this kind aren't designed to define precise biological or molecular mechanisms," said Grover Bagby, M.D., deputy director of the OHSU Cancer Institute. "However, for those of us involved in identifying the earliest molecular causes of cancer, these fascinating results define the types of questions we need to ask. This is a wake-up call telling us to pay attention to stem cell populations at the time of birth ??¦ a good deal earlier than we might have otherwise done. It is important to consider these cell populations because only by understanding the initial cause can we begin to develop rational strategies to prevent this very common cancer."
The daughters who were the subjects of the study were all born during 1934-1944 at either Helsinki University Central Hospital or City Maternity Hospital, the two maternity hospitals in Finland's capital. The occurrence of breast cancer among them was ascertained from national registers of all hospital admissions and deaths in Finland. Three hundred of them had had breast cancer of whom 48 died from the disease. Their mean age when they were diagnosed was 54.
The findings shed new light on the link between breast cancer and nutrition. "Mothers whose daughters developed breast cancer were of similar height to the other mothers," Barker and Thornburg reported. "This suggests that they had similar nutrition through childhood. Our findings do not therefore indicate that good nutrition through childhood is linked to breast cancer in the next generation. But they do show that the pubertal growth spurt of girls, which reflects the level of nutrition, is strongly associated with the risk of breast cancer in their daughters."
The authors of the journal article besides Barker and Thornburg, who is director of the OHSU Heart Research Center and professor of cardiovascular medicine in the OHSU School of Medicine, were Clive Osmond, senior scientist at the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Resource Center at the University of Southampton; Eero Kajantie and Tom J. Forsen, both of Finland's National Public Health Institute; and Johan G. Eriksson, who holds positions at both the National Public Health Institute as well as with the University of Helsinki's Department of Public Health. Barker and Osmond have collaborated with Eriksson and his Finnish colleagues for the past 12 years tracing some 20,000 men and women in the Helsinki Birth Cohort Study.
The American Journal of Human Biology is published by Wiley-Liss, Inc., a subsidiary of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. The full text of the study, entitled "A possible link between the pubertal growth of girls and breast cancer in their daughters," is available in "Early View".
Click here for access to the abstract.
Source: Harry Lenhart
Oregon Health & Science University
View drug information on Estradiol Transdermal System.
четверг, 15 сентября 2011 г.
Women's Heart Health Takes Center Stage In February
Despite strides in raising awareness of cardiovascular disease as the leading cause of death and illness among women, heart disease is still under-recognized, under-treated, and under-diagnosed in women. During American Heart Month, The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists encourages women to learn how they can protect their heart health.
Heart disease killed more than 432,000 US women in 2006-roughly one woman per minute. Women over age 20 have more than a one in three chance of dying from cardiovascular disease.
Long considered a man's disease, awareness efforts have helped many people understand that heart disease is very much a women's disease. It often manifests differently in men and women making the signs harder to recognize and delaying diagnosis in women. And while heart disease kills more women than men in the US, vast disparities still exist in the care of women with heart disease, their treatment after cardiac events such as heart attack, and their representation in clinical trials.
More women today know about the factors that increase their risk of heart disease, including diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure. Unfortunately, these conditions are on the rise among American women. According to the American Heart Association, an estimated 11.5 million women in the US are diabetic; more than half of white, black, and Hispanic women (58%, 80% and 78% respectively) are overweight or obese; 48% of women have borderline high cholesterol; 39% of women have high blood pressure; and many women (50% white, 64% black, and 60% Hispanic) are sedentary and get no physical activity.
Heart disease is largely preventable and individual efforts can make a difference. Ob-gyns are encouraged to discuss heart disease with their patients, the health problems that may contribute to it, and steps to improve their heart health. Women who know their health indicator numbers-such as body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, blood pressure, and blood cholesterol and sugar levels-are better equipped to tackle personal risk factors and work with their doctors to improve them.
Healthy lifestyle habits play an important role in reducing the risk of heart disease. Women should aim to consume a diet high in fiber and low in saturated fats, cholesterol, and refined carbohydrates. They should also get 30 to 90 minutes of exercise on most days of the week and quit smoking.
For more information on heart disease, go to americanheart.
Source
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
Heart disease killed more than 432,000 US women in 2006-roughly one woman per minute. Women over age 20 have more than a one in three chance of dying from cardiovascular disease.
Long considered a man's disease, awareness efforts have helped many people understand that heart disease is very much a women's disease. It often manifests differently in men and women making the signs harder to recognize and delaying diagnosis in women. And while heart disease kills more women than men in the US, vast disparities still exist in the care of women with heart disease, their treatment after cardiac events such as heart attack, and their representation in clinical trials.
More women today know about the factors that increase their risk of heart disease, including diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure. Unfortunately, these conditions are on the rise among American women. According to the American Heart Association, an estimated 11.5 million women in the US are diabetic; more than half of white, black, and Hispanic women (58%, 80% and 78% respectively) are overweight or obese; 48% of women have borderline high cholesterol; 39% of women have high blood pressure; and many women (50% white, 64% black, and 60% Hispanic) are sedentary and get no physical activity.
Heart disease is largely preventable and individual efforts can make a difference. Ob-gyns are encouraged to discuss heart disease with their patients, the health problems that may contribute to it, and steps to improve their heart health. Women who know their health indicator numbers-such as body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, blood pressure, and blood cholesterol and sugar levels-are better equipped to tackle personal risk factors and work with their doctors to improve them.
Healthy lifestyle habits play an important role in reducing the risk of heart disease. Women should aim to consume a diet high in fiber and low in saturated fats, cholesterol, and refined carbohydrates. They should also get 30 to 90 minutes of exercise on most days of the week and quit smoking.
For more information on heart disease, go to americanheart.
Source
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
четверг, 8 сентября 2011 г.
Home Visits, Classes And Emotional Support From Therapists Improve Parenting Of Abusive Mothers
Mothers who live in poverty and who have abused their children can stop if they are taught parenting skills and given emotional support.
A new study has found that mothers in families in which there is a history of child abuse and neglect were able to reduce how much they cursed at, yelled at, slapped, spanked, hit or rejected their children after a series of home visits from therapists who taught them parenting skills.
There were large improvements in mothers' parenting in families that received the intensive services, compared to families that did not receive the services, according to SMU psychologists Ernest Jouriles and Renee McDonald at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, two of the study's eight authors.
As a result of the intensive, hands-on training, the women in the study said they felt they did a better job managing their children's behavior, said Jouriles and McDonald. The mothers also were observed to use better parenting strategies, and the families were less likely to be reported again for child abuse.
"Although there are many types of services for addressing child maltreatment, there is very little scientific data about whether the services actually work," said McDonald. "This study adds to our scientific knowledge and shows that this type of service can actually work."
Help for violent families
The parenting training is part of a program called Project Support, developed at the Family Research Center at SMU and designed to help children in severely violent families.
The study appears in the current issue of the quarterly Journal of Family Psychology. The article is titled "Improving Parenting in Families Referred for Child Maltreatment: A Randomized Controlled Trial Examining Effects of Project Support." SMU psychologist David Rosenfield also authored the study.
The research was funded by the federal Interagency Consortium on Violence Against Women and Violence Within the Family, along with the Texas-based Hogg Foundation for Mental Health.
"Child maltreatment is such an important and costly problem in our society that it seems imperative to make sure that our efforts - and the tax dollars that pay for them - are actually solving the problem," said Jouriles. He and McDonald are co-founders and co-directors of the SMU Family Research Center.
In 2007, U.S. child welfare agencies received more than 3 million reports of child abuse and neglect, totaling almost 6 million children, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Poor and single with children
The study worked with 35 families screened through the Texas child welfare agency Child Protective Services, CPS. The parents had abused or neglected their children at least once, but CPS determined it best the family stay together and receive services to improve parenting and end the maltreatment.
In all the families, the mother was legal guardian and primary caregiver and typically had three children. On average she was 28, single and had an annual income of $10,300. Children in the study ranged from 3 to 8 years old.
Half the families in the study received Project Support parenting education and support. The other half received CPS's conventional services.
New parenting skills + help
Mental health service providers met with the 17 Project Support families weekly in their homes for up to 6 months.
During that time, mothers, and often their husbands or partners, were taught 12 specific skills, including how to pay attention and play with their children, how to listen and comfort them, how to offer praise and positive attention, how to give appropriate instructions and commands, and how to respond to misbehavior.
Also, therapists provided the mothers with emotional support and helped them access materials and resources through community agencies as needed, such as food banks and Medicaid. The therapists also helped mothers evaluate the adequacy and safety of the family's living arrangements, the quality of their child-care arrangements and how to provide enough food with so little money.
Services provided to families receiving traditional child welfare services varied widely. The range of services included parenting classes at a church or agency, family therapy or individual counseling, videotaped parenting instruction, anger-management help, GED classes and contact by social workers in person or by phone.
Fewer recurrences of abuse
Only 5.9 percent of the families trained through Project Support were later referred to CPS for abuse, compared with almost 28 percent of the control group, the researchers found.
"The results of this study have important implications for the field of child maltreatment," said SMU's Rosenfield.
Project Support was launched in 1996 to address the mental health problems of maltreated children and children exposed to domestic violence, both of which often lead to considerable problems for children later in life, such as substance abuse, interpersonal violence and criminal activity. Previous studies have shown the program can improve children's psychological adjustment as well as mothers' ability to parent their children appropriately and effectively, according to the researchers.
Project Support: A promising practice
With funding from the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Project Support has been included in a study evaluating 15 "promising practices" nationally for helping children who live in violent families.
Jouriles is professor and chairman of the SMU Psychology Department. McDonald and Rosenfield are associate professors.
Other researchers were William Norwood, University of Houston; Laura Spiller, Midwestern State University; Nanette Stephens, University of Texas; Deborah Corbitt-Shindler, SMU; and Miriam Ehrensaft, City University of New York.
Source:
Margaret Allen
Southern Methodist University
A new study has found that mothers in families in which there is a history of child abuse and neglect were able to reduce how much they cursed at, yelled at, slapped, spanked, hit or rejected their children after a series of home visits from therapists who taught them parenting skills.
There were large improvements in mothers' parenting in families that received the intensive services, compared to families that did not receive the services, according to SMU psychologists Ernest Jouriles and Renee McDonald at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, two of the study's eight authors.
As a result of the intensive, hands-on training, the women in the study said they felt they did a better job managing their children's behavior, said Jouriles and McDonald. The mothers also were observed to use better parenting strategies, and the families were less likely to be reported again for child abuse.
"Although there are many types of services for addressing child maltreatment, there is very little scientific data about whether the services actually work," said McDonald. "This study adds to our scientific knowledge and shows that this type of service can actually work."
Help for violent families
The parenting training is part of a program called Project Support, developed at the Family Research Center at SMU and designed to help children in severely violent families.
The study appears in the current issue of the quarterly Journal of Family Psychology. The article is titled "Improving Parenting in Families Referred for Child Maltreatment: A Randomized Controlled Trial Examining Effects of Project Support." SMU psychologist David Rosenfield also authored the study.
The research was funded by the federal Interagency Consortium on Violence Against Women and Violence Within the Family, along with the Texas-based Hogg Foundation for Mental Health.
"Child maltreatment is such an important and costly problem in our society that it seems imperative to make sure that our efforts - and the tax dollars that pay for them - are actually solving the problem," said Jouriles. He and McDonald are co-founders and co-directors of the SMU Family Research Center.
In 2007, U.S. child welfare agencies received more than 3 million reports of child abuse and neglect, totaling almost 6 million children, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Poor and single with children
The study worked with 35 families screened through the Texas child welfare agency Child Protective Services, CPS. The parents had abused or neglected their children at least once, but CPS determined it best the family stay together and receive services to improve parenting and end the maltreatment.
In all the families, the mother was legal guardian and primary caregiver and typically had three children. On average she was 28, single and had an annual income of $10,300. Children in the study ranged from 3 to 8 years old.
Half the families in the study received Project Support parenting education and support. The other half received CPS's conventional services.
New parenting skills + help
Mental health service providers met with the 17 Project Support families weekly in their homes for up to 6 months.
During that time, mothers, and often their husbands or partners, were taught 12 specific skills, including how to pay attention and play with their children, how to listen and comfort them, how to offer praise and positive attention, how to give appropriate instructions and commands, and how to respond to misbehavior.
Also, therapists provided the mothers with emotional support and helped them access materials and resources through community agencies as needed, such as food banks and Medicaid. The therapists also helped mothers evaluate the adequacy and safety of the family's living arrangements, the quality of their child-care arrangements and how to provide enough food with so little money.
Services provided to families receiving traditional child welfare services varied widely. The range of services included parenting classes at a church or agency, family therapy or individual counseling, videotaped parenting instruction, anger-management help, GED classes and contact by social workers in person or by phone.
Fewer recurrences of abuse
Only 5.9 percent of the families trained through Project Support were later referred to CPS for abuse, compared with almost 28 percent of the control group, the researchers found.
"The results of this study have important implications for the field of child maltreatment," said SMU's Rosenfield.
Project Support was launched in 1996 to address the mental health problems of maltreated children and children exposed to domestic violence, both of which often lead to considerable problems for children later in life, such as substance abuse, interpersonal violence and criminal activity. Previous studies have shown the program can improve children's psychological adjustment as well as mothers' ability to parent their children appropriately and effectively, according to the researchers.
Project Support: A promising practice
With funding from the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Project Support has been included in a study evaluating 15 "promising practices" nationally for helping children who live in violent families.
Jouriles is professor and chairman of the SMU Psychology Department. McDonald and Rosenfield are associate professors.
Other researchers were William Norwood, University of Houston; Laura Spiller, Midwestern State University; Nanette Stephens, University of Texas; Deborah Corbitt-Shindler, SMU; and Miriam Ehrensaft, City University of New York.
Source:
Margaret Allen
Southern Methodist University
четверг, 1 сентября 2011 г.
Wyoming Lawyer Who Introduced Legislation To Restrict Access To Abortion Nominated For Federal Judgeship
Sens. Craig Thomas (R-Wyo.) and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) on Monday announced the nomination of lawyer Richard Honaker for a U.S. District Court judgeship, the AP/Billings Gazette reports. Honaker in 1991 while a member of the Wyoming Legislature introduced a bill -- called the Human Life Protection Act -- that would have banned abortion except in cases of rape or incest or if the pregnant woman's health was in jeopardy, according to the AP/Gazette. The legislation would have required survivors of rape and incest seeking an abortion to report the crime within five days. The state House Judiciary Committee in 1991 voted 5-4 against the bill. After the legislation failed, the political action committee Unseen Hands of Prayer Circle attempted to place the measure on a state ballot. Honaker represented Unseen Hands in an appeal to the Wyoming Supreme Court. Opponents of the measure said it violated the U.S. Constitution. The court allowed the measure to be placed on the ballot in 1994, but it was not approved by state voters. Honaker on Monday said, "As a state legislator, I took positions on a lot of legislative issues and public policy issues, and one of them was on the abortion issue." He added that his "role as a judge would be far different." Honaker said, "I am absolutely committed to approaching every case that I hear with an open mind and deciding every case that I hear fairly and impartially, based on the rule of law and the U.S. Constitution." Sharon Breitweiser, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Wyoming, said she is "horrified" at Honaker's nomination, adding that she "doubt[s] that his zeal for the anti-abortion movement has waned in any way." Cameron Hardy, a spokesperson for Thomas, said he was not aware of Honaker's stance on abortion rights (Neary, AP/Billings Gazette, 3/19). Thomas in a statement said that Honaker "has the right judicial philosophy; he knows the importance of interpreting the law while not legislating from the bench." Enzi in a statement said Honaker "has what it takes to provide an impartial hand in applying the laws of the land." Honaker has been nominated by President Bush to fill the U.S. District Court seat in Wyoming vacated by the retirement of Judge Clarence Brimmer, the Casper Star-Tribune reports (Barron, Casper Star-Tribune, 3/20).
"Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
"Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
четверг, 25 августа 2011 г.
Mums Say NHS Maternity Services Are Good In Biggest Ever Survey, UK
Mothers have praised the good quality of care provided by NHS maternity services in a survey published today (Tuesday) by the Healthcare Commission.
But the results also highlight specific areas of concern and wide variations between trusts in responses to questions about postnatal care, communication, food and cleanliness.
Responses came from 26,000 women who gave birth in January and February 2007, making it the largest survey ever of maternity experience.
The Commission has chosen to throw the spotlight on maternity services because its investigations have highlighted instances of poor quality care.
It is carrying out a national review of this area of care that will culminate in a comprehensive assessment of services nationally and locally. Early next year all trusts will be ranked on a four-point scale from "excellent" through to "weak".
The survey, which will contribute to the national review, represents the voice of women using these services. The watchdog is also gathering information on clinical outcomes and value for money.
The proportion of women surveyed who said their care was "excellent","very good" or "good" was 89% during pregnancy, 90% during labour and birth, and 80% after the birth. The Commission said that these are positive overall results.
Looking at the three stages of care, positive survey results included:
Antenatal care:
- 91% of women said they saw a health professional about their pregnancy as soon as they wanted
- 90% of women said they had the name and telephone number of a midwife they could contact during pregnancy
Care during labour and birth:
- 92% of women said they "definitely" or "to some extent" got the pain relief they wanted
- 82% of women said they were always spoken to in a way they could understand
Postnatal care:
- 88% of women said they had a postnatal check-up four to six weeks after the birth
- 76% of women saw a midwife as much as they wanted
However women's responses were less positive in the following areas:
Antenatal care (Note that antenatal and postnatal care may or may not be provided by the same trust where women have their baby. Primary care trusts, GPs and community midwives also have a role to play.)
- 43% of women said they were not given a choice of having their baby at home, as NICE guidelines suggest. Responses ranged from one acute trust where only 8% of women said this was not offered to another where 76% were not given this option. This may not be the direct responsibility of the acute trust.
- 36% of women said they were not offered NHS antenatal classes, which trusts were asked to do in the government's National Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services. Fourteen per cent of those were first time mums and 76% had previously had a baby. Responses ranged from 11% of all women at one acute trust saying they were not offered NHS classes to 67% saying this at another.
During labour and birth
- 26% reported being left alone during labour or shortly after giving birth at a time that worried them. This suggests midwives may not be adequately reassuring women when they have to leave the room - NICE guidelines say women should not be left alone except for short periods. Looking at labour alone, 9% of women at one trust said they were left alone at a time that worried them, while 33% said this at another. In 18 out of the 148 trusts, more than 20% of women said they were left alone during labour at a time that worried them.
- 57% of women gave birth either lying (30%) or lying with their legs supported in stirrups (27%). The most recently published NICE guidance encapsulating best practice recommends that for normal births women should be discouraged from having their baby in this position. At one trust, 44% reported using stirrups, but only 11% at another. Only 13% of women reported their babies were born using forceps or a vacuum cap - these are medical reasons that may require a women to give birth lying.
- The vast majority of women said they were treated with kindness and understanding but beneath this there were variations. At some trusts this was barely an issue while at one trust 18% of women said they were not treated with kindness and understanding.
Postnatal care
- 19% of women said the food in hospital was "poor". Seventy seven per cent said they had the right amount of food but 23% said they had had too little. At one trust only 6% of women said they had too little, 46% at another. There were 21 trusts where more than 30% of women said they did not get enough food.
- 22% of women said they would have liked to have seen a midwife more often after birth and 22% said their midwife did not discuss feeding their baby with them during pregnancy.
- 8% of women said their hospital room or ward was "not very clean" or "not at all clean" while 18% said this of the toilets or bathrooms. At one trust 63% of women said the toilets and bathrooms were "not very clean" or "not at all clean", while at other trusts only 4% of women said this.
Anna Walker, Healthcare Commission Chief Executive, said:
"We have had well publicised concerns about some maternity services. So now is a good time to carry out a thorough review of the quality of care women are getting. A critical piece of that jigsaw is the views of women. This survey represents their voice.
"Overall women are clearly positive about maternity services. But the results do highlight specific areas of concern and wide variations with issues including postnatal care, communication, food and cleanliness.
"We expect trusts to make full use of their individual results and the opportunity to compare with others. These results show us that many trusts provide very positive services for women. Trusts with less positive results need to learn from the good performers."
The maternity survey was coordinated on behalf of the Commission by the Picker Institute Europe.
Early next year the Commission will publish detailed results of its comprehensive review of maternity services which will include data on outcomes, facilities, resourcing, staffing levels and costs. These survey results will feed into this review.
Trusts are expected to use the results of this survey, and the assessment they receive next year from the maternity service review, to help them focus on areas where improvement is needed.
More information about the survey of NHS maternity services
Notes:
This report builds on a national survey of women's experiences in NHS maternity units published in March which was carried out last year by the The National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (NPEU) and supported by the Healthcare Commission.
The Healthcare Commission survey extends the findings collated by the NPEU by providing localised results of women's experience's in maternity units at a trust level.
Information on the Healthcare Commission
The Healthcare Commission is the health watchdog in England. It keeps check on health services to ensure that they are meeting standards in a range of areas. The Commission also promotes improvements in the quality of healthcare and public health in England through independent, authoritative, patient-centred assessments of those who provide services.
Responsibility for inspection and investigation of NHS bodies and the independent sector in Wales rests with Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW). The Healthcare Commission has certain statutory functions in Wales which include producing an annual report on the state of healthcare in England and Wales, national improvement reviews in England and Wales, and working with HIW to ensure that relevant cross-border issues are managed effectively.
The Healthcare Commission does not cover Scotland as it has its own body, NHS Quality Improvement Scotland. The Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA) undertakes regular reviews of the quality of services in Northern Ireland.
Healthcare Commission
But the results also highlight specific areas of concern and wide variations between trusts in responses to questions about postnatal care, communication, food and cleanliness.
Responses came from 26,000 women who gave birth in January and February 2007, making it the largest survey ever of maternity experience.
The Commission has chosen to throw the spotlight on maternity services because its investigations have highlighted instances of poor quality care.
It is carrying out a national review of this area of care that will culminate in a comprehensive assessment of services nationally and locally. Early next year all trusts will be ranked on a four-point scale from "excellent" through to "weak".
The survey, which will contribute to the national review, represents the voice of women using these services. The watchdog is also gathering information on clinical outcomes and value for money.
The proportion of women surveyed who said their care was "excellent","very good" or "good" was 89% during pregnancy, 90% during labour and birth, and 80% after the birth. The Commission said that these are positive overall results.
Looking at the three stages of care, positive survey results included:
Antenatal care:
- 91% of women said they saw a health professional about their pregnancy as soon as they wanted
- 90% of women said they had the name and telephone number of a midwife they could contact during pregnancy
Care during labour and birth:
- 92% of women said they "definitely" or "to some extent" got the pain relief they wanted
- 82% of women said they were always spoken to in a way they could understand
Postnatal care:
- 88% of women said they had a postnatal check-up four to six weeks after the birth
- 76% of women saw a midwife as much as they wanted
However women's responses were less positive in the following areas:
Antenatal care (Note that antenatal and postnatal care may or may not be provided by the same trust where women have their baby. Primary care trusts, GPs and community midwives also have a role to play.)
- 43% of women said they were not given a choice of having their baby at home, as NICE guidelines suggest. Responses ranged from one acute trust where only 8% of women said this was not offered to another where 76% were not given this option. This may not be the direct responsibility of the acute trust.
- 36% of women said they were not offered NHS antenatal classes, which trusts were asked to do in the government's National Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services. Fourteen per cent of those were first time mums and 76% had previously had a baby. Responses ranged from 11% of all women at one acute trust saying they were not offered NHS classes to 67% saying this at another.
During labour and birth
- 26% reported being left alone during labour or shortly after giving birth at a time that worried them. This suggests midwives may not be adequately reassuring women when they have to leave the room - NICE guidelines say women should not be left alone except for short periods. Looking at labour alone, 9% of women at one trust said they were left alone at a time that worried them, while 33% said this at another. In 18 out of the 148 trusts, more than 20% of women said they were left alone during labour at a time that worried them.
- 57% of women gave birth either lying (30%) or lying with their legs supported in stirrups (27%). The most recently published NICE guidance encapsulating best practice recommends that for normal births women should be discouraged from having their baby in this position. At one trust, 44% reported using stirrups, but only 11% at another. Only 13% of women reported their babies were born using forceps or a vacuum cap - these are medical reasons that may require a women to give birth lying.
- The vast majority of women said they were treated with kindness and understanding but beneath this there were variations. At some trusts this was barely an issue while at one trust 18% of women said they were not treated with kindness and understanding.
Postnatal care
- 19% of women said the food in hospital was "poor". Seventy seven per cent said they had the right amount of food but 23% said they had had too little. At one trust only 6% of women said they had too little, 46% at another. There were 21 trusts where more than 30% of women said they did not get enough food.
- 22% of women said they would have liked to have seen a midwife more often after birth and 22% said their midwife did not discuss feeding their baby with them during pregnancy.
- 8% of women said their hospital room or ward was "not very clean" or "not at all clean" while 18% said this of the toilets or bathrooms. At one trust 63% of women said the toilets and bathrooms were "not very clean" or "not at all clean", while at other trusts only 4% of women said this.
Anna Walker, Healthcare Commission Chief Executive, said:
"We have had well publicised concerns about some maternity services. So now is a good time to carry out a thorough review of the quality of care women are getting. A critical piece of that jigsaw is the views of women. This survey represents their voice.
"Overall women are clearly positive about maternity services. But the results do highlight specific areas of concern and wide variations with issues including postnatal care, communication, food and cleanliness.
"We expect trusts to make full use of their individual results and the opportunity to compare with others. These results show us that many trusts provide very positive services for women. Trusts with less positive results need to learn from the good performers."
The maternity survey was coordinated on behalf of the Commission by the Picker Institute Europe.
Early next year the Commission will publish detailed results of its comprehensive review of maternity services which will include data on outcomes, facilities, resourcing, staffing levels and costs. These survey results will feed into this review.
Trusts are expected to use the results of this survey, and the assessment they receive next year from the maternity service review, to help them focus on areas where improvement is needed.
More information about the survey of NHS maternity services
Notes:
This report builds on a national survey of women's experiences in NHS maternity units published in March which was carried out last year by the The National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (NPEU) and supported by the Healthcare Commission.
The Healthcare Commission survey extends the findings collated by the NPEU by providing localised results of women's experience's in maternity units at a trust level.
Information on the Healthcare Commission
The Healthcare Commission is the health watchdog in England. It keeps check on health services to ensure that they are meeting standards in a range of areas. The Commission also promotes improvements in the quality of healthcare and public health in England through independent, authoritative, patient-centred assessments of those who provide services.
Responsibility for inspection and investigation of NHS bodies and the independent sector in Wales rests with Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW). The Healthcare Commission has certain statutory functions in Wales which include producing an annual report on the state of healthcare in England and Wales, national improvement reviews in England and Wales, and working with HIW to ensure that relevant cross-border issues are managed effectively.
The Healthcare Commission does not cover Scotland as it has its own body, NHS Quality Improvement Scotland. The Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA) undertakes regular reviews of the quality of services in Northern Ireland.
Healthcare Commission
четверг, 18 августа 2011 г.
Biomechanics May Be The Key To A Successful IVF Implantation
Engineering Bouncing Babies, One at a Time
As hopeful moms-to-be learn, there are important considerations to the successful implantation of a fertilized human egg. A calm environment, regular hormonal injections and the timing of the implantation can all affect the outcome of an in-vitro procedure.
Now a Tel Aviv University researcher is suggesting that prospective parents and their obstetricians also look at the role that gravity and other biomechanical processes play in its success. New studies by Prof. David Elad from TAU's Department of Biomedical Engineering could help desperate couples give birth to healthy single babies - and avoid the risk of multiple births at the same time.
"I am specifically studying how the uterus contracts before the embryo implants itself onto the uterine wall," he says. These contractions play a vital role in keeping the embryo in the uterus, and knowledge of its mechanics can indicate the optimal time and site for implantation. Physical positioning of the woman and the shape and size of her uterus also affect the results of IVF implantation, Prof. Elad says.
His recent publication in the journal Fertility and Sterility suggests methods to enhance the success rate of fertility treatments.
The Gravity of the Situation
"We are all subject to the Earth's gravity forces, and all biological process must also obey Newton's basic laws of physics," says Prof. Elad, who has been studying the biomechanical engineering of pregnancy for over 15 years. "Uterine contractions push the fluid inside a woman's womb in a peristaltic fashion, which helps sperm reach the ovum in the fallopian tube. And after fertilization, this same peristalsis propels the embryo to its implantation site in the uterine wall. It's a fluid mechanics issue.
"By thinking about these biomechanical processes during IVF treatments, we can help physicians, and prospective parents, see better outcomes," he says. The chance of finding an optimal uterine position could be improved through Prof. Elad's recommendations.
"There is no such thing as a standard uterus," Prof. Elad adds. "Our research offers best practices for women of all shapes and sizes."
Avoiding Multiple Birth Dangers
To increase the chances of a successful IVF implantation, women can opt for three or more viable embryos to be implanted in the womb during one cycle. Many, emotionally and financially exhausted, take this chance even if it means an embryo will need to be sacrificed to ensure the health of another. Prof. Elad's research may spare women from having to make this difficult ethical decision.
"Besides recent reports that IVF babies are slightly more prone to genetic diseases, there is a general notion that when there is more than one embryo in the uterus, all the fetuses are subjected to risks of mild and sometimes severe medical problems in the future," says Prof. Elad. "Parents naturally want to avoid this circumstance."
New Tools for IVF Specialists
Through advanced bioengineering research, Prof. Elad, who is currently a visiting professor at New York's Columbia University, is continuing to provide "stimulating evidence" to the IVF medical community. He is working on a computer simulation program on embryo transport in the uterus, in both natural conception or after IVF procedures, to model how and when artificially inseminated embryos should be implanted in the uterus.
Source: George Hunka
American Friends of Tel Aviv University
As hopeful moms-to-be learn, there are important considerations to the successful implantation of a fertilized human egg. A calm environment, regular hormonal injections and the timing of the implantation can all affect the outcome of an in-vitro procedure.
Now a Tel Aviv University researcher is suggesting that prospective parents and their obstetricians also look at the role that gravity and other biomechanical processes play in its success. New studies by Prof. David Elad from TAU's Department of Biomedical Engineering could help desperate couples give birth to healthy single babies - and avoid the risk of multiple births at the same time.
"I am specifically studying how the uterus contracts before the embryo implants itself onto the uterine wall," he says. These contractions play a vital role in keeping the embryo in the uterus, and knowledge of its mechanics can indicate the optimal time and site for implantation. Physical positioning of the woman and the shape and size of her uterus also affect the results of IVF implantation, Prof. Elad says.
His recent publication in the journal Fertility and Sterility suggests methods to enhance the success rate of fertility treatments.
The Gravity of the Situation
"We are all subject to the Earth's gravity forces, and all biological process must also obey Newton's basic laws of physics," says Prof. Elad, who has been studying the biomechanical engineering of pregnancy for over 15 years. "Uterine contractions push the fluid inside a woman's womb in a peristaltic fashion, which helps sperm reach the ovum in the fallopian tube. And after fertilization, this same peristalsis propels the embryo to its implantation site in the uterine wall. It's a fluid mechanics issue.
"By thinking about these biomechanical processes during IVF treatments, we can help physicians, and prospective parents, see better outcomes," he says. The chance of finding an optimal uterine position could be improved through Prof. Elad's recommendations.
"There is no such thing as a standard uterus," Prof. Elad adds. "Our research offers best practices for women of all shapes and sizes."
Avoiding Multiple Birth Dangers
To increase the chances of a successful IVF implantation, women can opt for three or more viable embryos to be implanted in the womb during one cycle. Many, emotionally and financially exhausted, take this chance even if it means an embryo will need to be sacrificed to ensure the health of another. Prof. Elad's research may spare women from having to make this difficult ethical decision.
"Besides recent reports that IVF babies are slightly more prone to genetic diseases, there is a general notion that when there is more than one embryo in the uterus, all the fetuses are subjected to risks of mild and sometimes severe medical problems in the future," says Prof. Elad. "Parents naturally want to avoid this circumstance."
New Tools for IVF Specialists
Through advanced bioengineering research, Prof. Elad, who is currently a visiting professor at New York's Columbia University, is continuing to provide "stimulating evidence" to the IVF medical community. He is working on a computer simulation program on embryo transport in the uterus, in both natural conception or after IVF procedures, to model how and when artificially inseminated embryos should be implanted in the uterus.
Source: George Hunka
American Friends of Tel Aviv University
четверг, 11 августа 2011 г.
Progress Made In Understanding Causes And Treatment Of Endometriosis
Endometriosis is a poorly understood chronic disease characterized by infertility and chronic pelvic pain during intercourse. It affects between 5 to 10 million women in the U.S.
Serdar Bulun, M.D., George H. Gardner Professor of Clinical Gynecology at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, has spent the past 15 years investigating and identifying the causes of this disease. Bulun, and colleagues in his lab, discovered key epigenetic abnormalities in endometriosis and identified existing chemicals that now help treat it.
Bulun describes his lab's findings over the past 10 years in the Jan. 15 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
One of the abnormalities he discovered is the presence of the enzyme aromatase -- which produces estrogen -- in endometriosis, the diseased tissue that exists on pelvic organs and mimics the uterine lining. (Normal endometrium, located in the uterine cavity, does not contain aromatase.) As a result, women with endometriosis have excessive estrogen in this abnormal tissue found on surfaces of pelvic organs such as the ovaries. Bulun found the protein SF1 that produces aromatase, which is supposed to be shut down, is active in endometriosis.
"Estrogen is like fuel for fire in endometriosis," Bulun said. "It triggers the endometriosis and makes it grow fast."
As a result of the aromatase finding, Bulun launched clinical trials in 2004 and 2005 testing aromatase inhibitors -- currently used in breast cancer treatment -- for women with endometriosis. The drug blocks estrogen formation and secondarily improves progesterone responsiveness.
"We came up with a new treatment of choice for post-menopausal women with endometriosis," Bulun said. Moreover, treatment with an aromatase inhibitor is a very good option for premenopausal women with endometriosis not responding to existing treatments, he noted.
Another molecular abnormality Bulun found is that women with endometriosis have a progesterone receptor that is inappropriately turned off. Normal progesterone action would be beneficial because it blocks the growth of endometriosis. In the absence of appropriate progesterone action, endometriosis tissue remains inflamed and continues to grow.
Bulun believes that these abnormalities result from epigenetic defects that occur very early on during embryonic development and may be the result of early exposure to environmental toxins. In fact, other investigators have implicated the environmental pollutant dioxin and the synthetic estrogen DES in the etiology of endometriosis.
"This may be a disease that women are born with," Bulun said. "Perhaps when a baby girl is born, it has already been determined that she is predisposed to have endometriosis. Maybe research can now be directed toward the fetal origins of the disease and raise the awareness of how the disease develops."
Source: Marla Paul
Northwestern University
Serdar Bulun, M.D., George H. Gardner Professor of Clinical Gynecology at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, has spent the past 15 years investigating and identifying the causes of this disease. Bulun, and colleagues in his lab, discovered key epigenetic abnormalities in endometriosis and identified existing chemicals that now help treat it.
Bulun describes his lab's findings over the past 10 years in the Jan. 15 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
One of the abnormalities he discovered is the presence of the enzyme aromatase -- which produces estrogen -- in endometriosis, the diseased tissue that exists on pelvic organs and mimics the uterine lining. (Normal endometrium, located in the uterine cavity, does not contain aromatase.) As a result, women with endometriosis have excessive estrogen in this abnormal tissue found on surfaces of pelvic organs such as the ovaries. Bulun found the protein SF1 that produces aromatase, which is supposed to be shut down, is active in endometriosis.
"Estrogen is like fuel for fire in endometriosis," Bulun said. "It triggers the endometriosis and makes it grow fast."
As a result of the aromatase finding, Bulun launched clinical trials in 2004 and 2005 testing aromatase inhibitors -- currently used in breast cancer treatment -- for women with endometriosis. The drug blocks estrogen formation and secondarily improves progesterone responsiveness.
"We came up with a new treatment of choice for post-menopausal women with endometriosis," Bulun said. Moreover, treatment with an aromatase inhibitor is a very good option for premenopausal women with endometriosis not responding to existing treatments, he noted.
Another molecular abnormality Bulun found is that women with endometriosis have a progesterone receptor that is inappropriately turned off. Normal progesterone action would be beneficial because it blocks the growth of endometriosis. In the absence of appropriate progesterone action, endometriosis tissue remains inflamed and continues to grow.
Bulun believes that these abnormalities result from epigenetic defects that occur very early on during embryonic development and may be the result of early exposure to environmental toxins. In fact, other investigators have implicated the environmental pollutant dioxin and the synthetic estrogen DES in the etiology of endometriosis.
"This may be a disease that women are born with," Bulun said. "Perhaps when a baby girl is born, it has already been determined that she is predisposed to have endometriosis. Maybe research can now be directed toward the fetal origins of the disease and raise the awareness of how the disease develops."
Source: Marla Paul
Northwestern University
четверг, 4 августа 2011 г.
Legislatures In Colorado, Mississippi, South Dakota, Utah Take Actions On Abortion-Related Legislation
The following highlights recent news of state actions on abortion-related legislation.
Colorado: The Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday voted 4-3 to reject a bill (SB 143) that would have banned all abortions except in cases of rape or incest or to save the life of a pregnant woman, the Denver Post reports (Clausing, Denver Post, 2/13). The bill would have made performing an abortion a class three felony (Boyle, Greeley Tribune, 2/13). All four Democrats on the committee voted against the measure, while all three Republicans voted for it (Slevin, AP/Denver Rocky Mountain News, 2/13). In related news, the House Health and Human Services Committee on Monday unanimously approved a bill (SB 60) that would require hospitals in the state to inform rape survivors about the availability of emergency contraception, which can prevent pregnancy if taken up to 72 hours after sexual intercourse (Denver Post, 2/13).
Mississippi: The Senate last week voted 34-5 to approve a bill (SB 2795) that would ban abortion in the state except in cases of rape or incest or to save the life of the pregnant woman, the Columbus Commercial Dispatch reports. Under the legislation, anyone who provides an illegal abortion could be fined up to $5,000 and face one year in jail. The measure heads to the House Public Health and Human Services Committee. Rep. Steve Holland (D), who chairs the committee, said he will not take up the legislation. The Senate last week also voted 51-0 to pass a bill (SB 2801) that would require doctors in the state to give women seeking abortion a chance to listen to the fetus' heartbeat and view a sonogram. It also voted 51-0 to pass a bill (SB 2391) that would require minors seeking abortions who do not have parental consent to obtain a court's permission before undergoing the procedure. Holland said, "I have no intention of taking up any pro-life bills this year" (Coffey, Columbus Commercial Dispatch, 2/8).
South Dakota: A House committee on Monday voted 10-3 to approve a bill (HB 1293) that would ban all abortions except in cases of rape or incest or to save the life of a pregnant woman, the Sioux Falls Argus Leader reports (Myers, Sioux Falls Argus Leader, 2/13). The bill would allow rape survivors to undergo abortions if they report the rape to authorities within 50 days. Physicians would be required to confirm the report with authorities, as well as to take blood from aborted fetuses and give that information to police for DNA testing. For incest survivors, a doctor would be required to obtain the woman's consent to report the crime along with the identity of the alleged perpetrator before an abortion could be performed. Blood samples from fetuses also would have to be provided to police. Abortions could be performed until the 17th week of pregnancy in cases of incest or rape. The bill carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for performing illegal abortions. The measure also would allow a pregnant woman to undergo an abortion if her health could be seriously damaged by carrying the pregnancy to term. Under the bill, a doctor from another practice must agree that the woman's health is in jeopardy before the abortion could be performed (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 2/5). The bill passed the committee after Rep. Thomas Deadrick (R) introduced an amendment that would send the measure to a vote during the state's next general election, according to the Argus Leader (Sioux Falls Argus Leader, 2/13).
Utah: The House recently voted 51-23 to substitute a bill (HB 235) that would have banned abortions in the state except in the cases of rape or incest or to protect the health of the woman with a bill (HB 235 second substitute) that would outlaw abortions if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, the AP/ABC4 reports. Roe is the 1973 Supreme Court case that effectively barred state abortion bans. The House voted 62-12 to pass the substitute bill, which now goes to the Senate. The state's attorney general office estimated that it would have cost $2 million to defend the previous bill with in-house counsel, or $4 million with outside counsel, if it were challenged (AP/ABC4, 2/12).
"Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
Colorado: The Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday voted 4-3 to reject a bill (SB 143) that would have banned all abortions except in cases of rape or incest or to save the life of a pregnant woman, the Denver Post reports (Clausing, Denver Post, 2/13). The bill would have made performing an abortion a class three felony (Boyle, Greeley Tribune, 2/13). All four Democrats on the committee voted against the measure, while all three Republicans voted for it (Slevin, AP/Denver Rocky Mountain News, 2/13). In related news, the House Health and Human Services Committee on Monday unanimously approved a bill (SB 60) that would require hospitals in the state to inform rape survivors about the availability of emergency contraception, which can prevent pregnancy if taken up to 72 hours after sexual intercourse (Denver Post, 2/13).
Mississippi: The Senate last week voted 34-5 to approve a bill (SB 2795) that would ban abortion in the state except in cases of rape or incest or to save the life of the pregnant woman, the Columbus Commercial Dispatch reports. Under the legislation, anyone who provides an illegal abortion could be fined up to $5,000 and face one year in jail. The measure heads to the House Public Health and Human Services Committee. Rep. Steve Holland (D), who chairs the committee, said he will not take up the legislation. The Senate last week also voted 51-0 to pass a bill (SB 2801) that would require doctors in the state to give women seeking abortion a chance to listen to the fetus' heartbeat and view a sonogram. It also voted 51-0 to pass a bill (SB 2391) that would require minors seeking abortions who do not have parental consent to obtain a court's permission before undergoing the procedure. Holland said, "I have no intention of taking up any pro-life bills this year" (Coffey, Columbus Commercial Dispatch, 2/8).
South Dakota: A House committee on Monday voted 10-3 to approve a bill (HB 1293) that would ban all abortions except in cases of rape or incest or to save the life of a pregnant woman, the Sioux Falls Argus Leader reports (Myers, Sioux Falls Argus Leader, 2/13). The bill would allow rape survivors to undergo abortions if they report the rape to authorities within 50 days. Physicians would be required to confirm the report with authorities, as well as to take blood from aborted fetuses and give that information to police for DNA testing. For incest survivors, a doctor would be required to obtain the woman's consent to report the crime along with the identity of the alleged perpetrator before an abortion could be performed. Blood samples from fetuses also would have to be provided to police. Abortions could be performed until the 17th week of pregnancy in cases of incest or rape. The bill carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for performing illegal abortions. The measure also would allow a pregnant woman to undergo an abortion if her health could be seriously damaged by carrying the pregnancy to term. Under the bill, a doctor from another practice must agree that the woman's health is in jeopardy before the abortion could be performed (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 2/5). The bill passed the committee after Rep. Thomas Deadrick (R) introduced an amendment that would send the measure to a vote during the state's next general election, according to the Argus Leader (Sioux Falls Argus Leader, 2/13).
Utah: The House recently voted 51-23 to substitute a bill (HB 235) that would have banned abortions in the state except in the cases of rape or incest or to protect the health of the woman with a bill (HB 235 second substitute) that would outlaw abortions if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, the AP/ABC4 reports. Roe is the 1973 Supreme Court case that effectively barred state abortion bans. The House voted 62-12 to pass the substitute bill, which now goes to the Senate. The state's attorney general office estimated that it would have cost $2 million to defend the previous bill with in-house counsel, or $4 million with outside counsel, if it were challenged (AP/ABC4, 2/12).
"Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
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