Science Daily reports: Gene Panel Predicts Lung Cancer Survival, Study Finds

Researchers from four leading cancer centers have confirmed that an analysis involving a panel of genes can be used to predict which lung cancer patients will have the worst survival. The finding could one day lead to a test that would help determine who needs more aggressive treatment.

The study, the largest of its kind, appears online in Nature Medicine.
The researchers looked at 442 lung cancer tissue samples collected from six cancer hospitals in North America. They tested the cancer samples to look at the expression of hundreds of genes, and factored in clinical predictors such as tumor stage and the patients' gender and age. The results showed that the lung cancers could be divided into groups with better and worse survival rates.
Typically, lung cancer patients receive chemotherapy after surgery to reduce the risk of the cancer coming back. But specialists know that some patients with stage I disease, the earliest stage, have an aggressive disease with poor prognosis while some patients with more advanced stage II disease have a relatively good prognosis. The question is how to identify which patients need the additional therapy and which patients could potentially avoid it.
"We found that looking at clinical data along with gene expression can be a more reliable indicator. Gene expression is not just a black box approach -- which a lot of researchers think it is. Sometimes knowing the context actually helps you use that information more efficiently," says study author David Beer, Ph.D., professor of surgery and radiation oncology at the University of Michigan Medical School and co-director of the Cancer Genetics Program at the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center.

To read the complete article, click the following link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080721110309.htm

The State reports: Black members of Congress split over issue of menthol cigarettes

By STEPHANIE SAUL - The New York Times

Free cigarettes are no longer handed out at Congressional Black Caucus functions. But the Congressional Black Caucus has not severed its financial ties to big tobacco. And that can complicate matters when the political discussion involves smoking’s impact on African-Americans.
A rift has opened in the 43-member caucus over a menthol provision in legislation that would enable the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco. To reduce smoking’s appeal to teenagers, the legislation would outlaw flavored cigarettes — except for menthol cigarettes, which are exempted. The exemption was seen as a compromise to win broad backing for the legislation.
But menthol has become a politically charged subject in Washington because an estimated 75 percent of black smokers choose mentholated brands.
Critics of the menthol exemption tend to denounce it as a sellout to the tobacco industry, and some members of the black caucus are pressing to narrow the exemption or ban menthol outright. But other caucus members oppose any changes, saying that pushing too hard now on menthol could endanger the entire legislation.

Philip Morris has been one of the biggest contributors to the caucus’ nonprofit Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. That financial support has been the reason some critics perceived an alliance between big tobacco and black lawmakers, some of whom were willing to help fend off anti-tobacco efforts.

Black lawmakers who maintain strong tobacco industry ties include Rep. James E. Clyburn, D-S.C., who represents a tobacco-growing region of South Carolina and is majority whip of the House.

To read the complete article, click the following link:
http://www.thestate.com/nation-extra/story/470931.html

The New York Times reports: Billionaires Back Antismoking Effort

Article By: Donald G. McNeil Jr.
Photo By: Nicole Bengiveno

Bill Gates and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced on Wednesday that they would spend $500 million to stop people around the world from smoking.

The World Health Organization estimates that tobacco will kill up to a billion people in the 21st century, 10 times as many as it killed in the 20th.
This time, most are expected to be in poor countries like Bangladesh and middle-income countries like Russia. In an effort to cut that number, Mr. Bloomberg’s foundation plans to commit $250 million over four years on top of a $125 million gift he announced two years ago. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is allocating $125 million over five years.

To read the complete article, click the following link: http: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/health/24smoke.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=bill%20gates%20smoking&st=cse&oref=slogin

Editorial from The State: Cities, counties can save lives by adopting smoking bans

By WARREN BOLTON - Associate Editor

SMOKING BANS save lives. A recent government study affirming that fact shouldn’t shock anyone.
Instead, it should prompt more cities and counties in South Carolina to act.
It’s hard to understand why even more local governments haven’t jumped at the opportunity to protect the health and lives of workers and patrons since the S.C. Supreme Court gave them the green light.
Many have been wringing their hands over the prospects because some bar and restaurant owners won’t like it. Those business owners should be able to make the decision themselves, some argue.
But this is a matter of life and death. And — now, this may be a shock for some — keeping people alive and healthy is a higher priority than personal preference.
Innocent people ought not be at risk of getting sick and dying because of someone else’s bad, and dangerous, habit. The U.S. Surgeon General has declared there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand cigarette smoke. Cigarettes cause lung cancer and other deadly illnesses — in smokers, and in nonsmokers who inhale smoke.
Health officials say secondhand smoke increases the risk of lung cancer in nonsmoking adults by at least 20 percent.

Just think of what would happen if our state raised the cigarette tax and passed a statewide smoking ban. Unfortunately, state elected leaders haven’t seen fit to do either. They came close to raising the tax this past legislative session, but the governor vetoed it. And lawmakers haven’t summoned the will to pass a smoking ban, largely due to the strong tobacco lobby.
So, for now, local governments are South Carolinians’ only chance for relief.
And there’s a great need for relief. While there’s been a great decline in the number of nonsmokers who take in secondhand smoke, that’s tempered by the fact that nearly half of nonsmokers continue to involuntarily inhale poison.
The new CDC report has somber news for some groups, particularly children and black people who are nonsmokers. While the proportion of blacks with a recent exposure to smoke dropped from 94 percent to about 71 percent, it dropped from 83 percent to 43 percent for whites.
Also unsettling is the fact that exposures for children didn’t drop as steeply as for adults. More than 60 percent of children ages 4 through 11 had recent exposure to cigarette smoke in the 1999-2004 period.
It’s time to kick the habit.
Governments must ban smoking in public places, including bars and restaurants. Families and individuals must stop lighting up at home and in cars.
I know quitting isn’t easy.
But it’s easier than watching friends, loved ones and neighbors suffer and perish from the effects of secondhand smoke.

Reach Mr. Bolton at (803) 771-8631 or wbolton@thestate.com.

Read the complete editorial at the following link: http://www.thestate.com/editorial-columns/story/468617.html

Study: High cancer in Great Falls

The News & Reporter of Chester County
Photo by Stephen Guilfoyle
editor@onlinechester.com

Lung cancer and deaths from lung cancer are "significantly" higher than expected in the Great Falls area, a state study shows.

The area has almost 20 percent higher than expected cases of cancer, according to a survey done by the state at the request of a former Chester County councilman.

The state Department of Health and Environmental Control has now done "cancer cluster" surveys of the ZIP codes for the county's four major towns at its request.

Separate surveys for each area show that from 2001 to 2005, expected incidents of cancer in:

• the Fort Lawn ZIP were 10 percent higher than expected;

• the Great Falls ZIP were 19.8 percent higher than expected; and

• the Richburg ZIP were 2 pecent higher than expected; and

Combined, that's about 8.2 percent higher than expected for the four ZIP codes.

The N&R previously reported on the Chester ZIP code findings.Former County Coun-cilman Tom Hamilton, himself a cancer survivor, requested the surveys. He received a report on the Chester ZIP code last month, and last week, he received "the rest of the story."

He said people have been coming up to him since The N&R reported the Chester ZIP code results two weeks ago. Comments range from curiosity to concern, he says.

"People are talking about this," he said. Almost everyone has had some form of cancer hit them or their family. "It strikes a nerve."

To read the complete article, follow this link:
http://www.onlinechester.com/cgi-bin/storyviewnew.cgi?155+News.2008718-5934-155-155007.Full+News