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American Academy Of Hospice And Palliative Medicine Leader Suggests Health Care Reforms To Cut Costs
Congress can help diminish barriers to quality care for people with serious illness, according to Howard Tuch, MD, MS, a spokesperson for the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM). AAHPM was one of three groups that presented information at a Capitol Hill briefing coordinated by the offices of US Reps. Earl Blumenauer and Charles Boustany, MD, sponsors of legislation (HR 1898) that would provide Medicare coverage for "end of life" care consultations.

Rates Of Sexually Transmitted Infections In Allegheny County, Pa., Disproportionately High Among Blacks, Officials Say
Health officials in Allegheny County, Pa., on Wednesday held a sexually transmitted infection diversity conference to discuss the disproportionately higher STI rates among blacks and strategies to reduce them, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. Blacks comprise 13.5% of the Allegheny County population. According to the Post-Gazette, last year in Allegheny County blacks were involved in:
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Link Between Light Touch And Merkel Cells Solves 100-year Mystery
Light touch - the sense that lets musicians find the right notes on a keyboard, a seamstress revel in the feel of cool silk, the artisan feel a curve in material and the blind read Braille - truly depends on the activity of Merkel cells usually found in crescent-shaped clusters in the skin, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine and colleagues in a report that appears in the current issue of the journal Science.
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Patient Response To Therapy For Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors May Be Predicted By Gene Signature

Researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center uncovered a genetic pattern that may help predict how gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) patients respond to the targeted therapy imatinib mesylate (Gleevec). Moreover, their findings point to genes that could be suppressed in order to make these tumors respond more readily to imatinib. Lori Rink, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Andrew K. Godwin, PhD, at Fox Chase, presents their findings at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. The study uses tumor specimens collected as part of a Phase II trial on the use of the drug before surgical resection for GIST, which is led by the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group, a national clinical cooperative group funded by the National Cancer Institute. "Imatinib has been the first drug that has really made a dent in GIST progression - up to 80 percent response - yet some GIST patients have little or no response to the drug," says Rink. "We are looking to see how we can help clinicians make better decisions in applying imatinib or additional therapies to their GIST patients." Rink and her colleagues followed 63 GIST patients in the RTOG trial, who were given imatinib before surgery for primary or recurrent tumors. Using tumor samples collected before and after the patients were given the drug, the researchers studied which genes were active in the tumors and then compared these profiles of gene expression to how well the tumors responded to short-term imatinib treatment. According to Rink, they found a selection of 38 genes that were expressed higher in tumors that did not respond well to imatinib. Of these, they identified 20 KRAB-zinc finger genes that encode for proteins that typically act as transcriptional repressors of other genes. Ten of these genes, Rink says, are located to a single section of Chromosome 19. "Our data indicate that if we can alter the activity of some of these KRAB-zinc finger proteins, we may be able to enhance the effectiveness of imatinib therapy," Rink says. Funding for this study comes from the National Cancer Institute, the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group Foundation and the GIST Cancer Research Fund. Abstract #10533: Correlation of gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) gene expression signatures and response to imatinib mesylate in the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group phase II clinical trial S-0132. Poster Discussion, Saturday, May 30 2:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. - Level 2, W240A 5:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. - Level 2, West Hall F5 Diana Quattrone Fox Chase Cancer Center


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