Afinitor is one of Novartis’s most important new drugs and is being tested for use against several different types of cancer, which could help it achieve sales of more than $1 billion annually.

It works by blocking a protein known as mTOR and disrupting the growth, division and metabolism of cancer cells and is a key plank of Novartis’s strategy to expand in cancer drugs.

A late stage trial evaluating Afinitor as a potential treatment option for patients with pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours is already underway, Novartis said.

Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours are an uncommon form of the disease, a cancer formed from cells that have roles both in the endocrine and nervous systems

At the time of diagnosis nearly 60 percent of all patients have advanced disease, meaning the cancer has spread to other parts of the body and has become more difficult to treat.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Afinitor earlier this year for use in advanced kidney cancer and European regulators have also recommended it. Novartis expects a filing for use in neuroendocrine tumours within the next year.

Sandostatin LAR is already approved for symptom control in certain types of neuroendocrine tumours.

The veterans were to receive implanted radioactive seeds (brachytherapy) as treatment for their prostate cancer. The use of these radioactive seeds when implanted correctly focus the radiation in the prostate and limit the damage to nearby tissues.

Several of the veterans received incorrect doses (often too small for adequate treatment) of radiation while others had improper placement of the seeds. Some were improperly placed into the bladder and/or rectum rather than the prostate. In at least one case, the improperly placed seeds may have contributed to rectal bleeding.

It is reported that all of the affected veterans have since gotten follow-up care. Eight patients received additional seed implants for their prostate cancer treatment at the VA Medical Center in Seattle.

Brachytherapy is usually done as an outpatient procedure under spinal anesthesia. An ultrasound probe is inserted into the rectum and used to guide the placement of the radioactive seeds. The seeds are then implanted into the prostate through very thin needles. Depending on different variables, between 50 and 100 seeds are used. The needles are inserted into the skin between the scrotum and rectum. The US probe is used to guide the needles into the right place to most effectively treat the cancer.

The seeds used in prostate brachytherapy may include Iodine-125, Palladium-103, and echnogenic Iodine-125 seeds. They emit a low level of radiation which doesn’t usually travel beyond the prostate. Because there is such a small amount of radiation involved, it is not considered a risk to others. Ask your doctor questions about what the precautions should be, or any other questions that you have about the safety of the radiation used in brachytherapy treatments.

Dr. Jerri Nielsen FitzGerald, 57, was the only doctor at the National Science Foundation Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station when she found a lump in her breast. Weather conditions made a rescue impossible, so she performed a biopsy on herself and then treated herself with anti-cancer drugs for months until she was taken back to the United States.

Her cancer remained in remission until August 2005. She died Tuesday at her home in Southwick, Mass., her husband, Thomas FitzGerald, said Wednesday, the Associated Press reported.

Neilsen FitzGerald described her South Pole ordeal in a best-selling book that was made into a TV movie. During the last decade, she traveled the world to speak about how cancer had changed her life. She also worked as a roving emergency room doctor at hospitals in the northeastern United States.

They found women who had weight-loss surgery were 42 percent less likely to develop cancer during a 10-year study published in the journal Lancet Oncology.

Men in the study did not benefit, possibly because many cancers are driven by female hormones such as estrogen, they said, or simply because fewer men get weight-loss surgery.

Obesity has long been known to raise the risk of cancer, and the evidence continues to mount.

A study released on Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association found people who were obese as young adults had twice the risk of developing pancreatic cancer, an especially aggressive kind.

Weight-loss operations — in which doctors change the digestive system’s anatomy to cut the volume of food a person can eat — have been shown to reverse diabetes and reduce the risks of dying from heart disease.

The Swedish study, led by Lars Sjostrom of Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg, compared 2,010 obese patients who had weight-loss surgery with 2,037 obese patients who got standard diet and exercise treatment.

Overall, they found the surgery helped people maintain an average weight loss of 19.9 kg or about 43 pounds over 10 years. People in the diet and exercise group gained an average of 1.3 kg or nearly 3 pounds during the study period.

The surgery cut the rates of cancer by a third, but women enjoyed most of that benefit. Among women, there were 79 first-time cancers in the surgery group, and 130 among those who got standard treatment.

Dr. Andrew Renehan of the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom said in a commentary the absence of a benefit in men could simply reflect the number of men who were in the study.

He said for women, the greatest cancer prevention effects were likely to be post-menopausal breast and endometrial cancers — cancers sensitive to hormone levels.

Renehan said the effects of weight-loss surgery may take longer to show up in men, who are more prone to colon, rectal and kidney cancers, which take longer to become apparent.

Dr. Leena Khaitan, a bariatric surgeon at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, said the fact that men did not benefit likely reflected who gets the surgery.  Continued…

On Friday, the Mayo Clinic said both patients experienced reduction in levels of a protein called PSA, or prostate specific antigen, and tumor shrinkage after receiving one dose of ipilimumab, which allowed them to be treated with surgery.

The two patients had tumors that were considered inoperable at diagnosis, the Mayo Clinic said.

Patients in the mid-stage study were being treated with ipilimumab in combination with hormone treatment and radiation therapy.

“It is really the headline itself of these dramatic responses irrespective of the patient number that is driving the stock at this point,” Merriman Curhan Ford analyst Joseph Pantginis said.

The Mayo Clinic published the report about the study in its online research magazine, Discovery’s Edge.

“Certain caution is warranted… It is very different from a publication in a peer review medical journal, which usually goes through critical review by other experts,” BMO Capital Markets analyst Jason Zhang said.

“Both patients received hormonal therapy. Although hormonal therapy typically does not yield this type of response, one can’t exclude the possibility that the therapy has contributed to the outcome,” Zhang added.

Ipilimumab is an antibody that is being developed by the company with Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (BMY.N) and is in trials for melanoma, lung cancer and prostate cancer.

“We think the melanoma is the lead product and the big value driver. The news today shows the potential activity of ipilimumab,” Needham & Co analyst Mark Monane said.

“But to get real college credit, they have to do it with more than two patients. It is 108 patient trial and it is ongoing and we look forward to hearing those results,” Monane added.

Medarex and Bristol-Myers recently initiated a late-stage trial with ipilimumab for prostate cancer. For the mid-stage study conducted by Mayo Clinic, Medarex provided the drug and supported safety monitoring during the protocol.

Shares of Medarex were up more than 17 percent at $8.65 Monday afternoon on Nasdaq. They had touched a high of $9.01 earlier in the session. Shares of Bristol-Myers were down little more than 1 percent at $20.30 on New York Stock Exchange.

The ninth annual Relay for Life at California High started with an opening ceremony and “survivor lap” and continued throughout the day, culminating in a luminaria ceremony to celebrate those who lost their lives to all forms of the disease.

About 50 teams walked the Cal High track from 9 a.m. Saturday to 9 a.m. today to generate money for the American Cancer Society. It’s the organization’s largest fundraiser of the year, with hundreds of cities participating nationwide.

Event organizer Sara Lindborg is no stranger to the disease. Ten years ago she lost her boyfriend to non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Her grandmother had cancer. Her

Cancer survivor Bruce Martin wears his pink shoes as he walks around the track during the Whittier Relay For Life at California High School in Whittier on Saturday June 20, 2009. The Relay for Life is the largest fundraiser of the year for the American Cancer Society. For two days groups run or walk around a schoolís athletic track to raise money to battle cancer. (SGVN/Staff Photo by Keith Durflinger/SWCity)

father, Glenn Watje, is a melanoma survivor.

“It gets us one step closer to finding a cure,” Lindborg, 29, said. “And it’s saving lives. I have two young children, and I don’t want them to have to go through what I have.”

President Barack Obama says he’s “very optimistic” about the prospects for legislation revamping health care, arguing that the country simply must control skyrocketing costs in this field.

He told a news conference th at unless the government acts now, the country will spend $1 out of every $5 on health care within the next 10 years. Obama commented in the wake of several days of work — and political wrangling — in Congress over the transformation he seeks in the way people get medical care in this country.

Despite sharp differences between Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill over what role the government would play in a new health care system, Obama said he hopes “Congress will continue to make significant progress on this issue” in the weeks ahead.

Older people who don’t socialize much might be increasing their risk for declining motor function and hastening their death, researchers from Rush University Medical Center report.

On the positive side, sociable seniors who keep active physically and mentally tend to stave off the decline in physical ability often associated with aging, the scientists added.

“A broader range of activities in elders, including physical, social and cognitive activities, may slow the rate of age-related decline,” said lead researcher Dr. Aron S. Buchman, an associate professor in the department of neurological sciences.

“Less frequent participation in social activity was associated with a more rapid rate of motor decline,” he added.

The report is published in the June 22 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

For the study, Buchman and colleagues collected data on 906 older adults who took part in the Rush Memory and Aging Project from 1997 to 2008. Over almost five years, the researchers measured various motor functions, including participants’ grip and pinch strength; the ability to stand on one leg and on their toes; whether they could walk in line in a heel-to-toe manner; how quickly they could put pegs on a board, and their rate of index-finger tapping in a 10-second period.

Participants were also asked about social activities, such as eating out, volunteering, visiting with friends or relatives and attending religious services. The frequency of these activities was rated on a five-point scale.

Infrequent social activities were associated with a more rapid rate of decline in motor function. For every point decrease in social activity, the researchers noted a 33-percent faster rate of decline in motor function.

A one-point decrease in social activity was the same as being about five years older at the start of the study, they found. This decline in motor function was also linked with a more than 40-percent increased risk of dying and a 65-percent increased risk of developing disability, Buchman said.

“Social engagement may slow the rate of age-related motor decline,” Buchman said.

The association between socialization and decline in motor function remained even after taking into account factors such as late-life physical and cognitive activity, disability, global cognition depressive symptoms, body composition and chronic medical conditions, the researchers noted.

Experts on aging weren’t surprised by the findings. Colin Milner, CEO of the International Council on Active Aging in Vancouver, has seen this phenomenon in his own father.

“Inherently we know that being social is important in life and good, but a lot of times we don’t relate it to physical health, ” Milner said.

“My dad is 77, he doesn’t get out, he just sits around all day,” Milner said. “He retired two years ago and probably lost his purpose for life. He has just literally declined and aged in front of me, and now looks as old as my grandfather does at 98.”

Before he retired, Milner’s father was socially engaged. “He was vibrant, now his skin color has changed, just everything has changed,” Milner said.

The factors that contribute to the decline are physical and psychological, Milner said.

“We are social beings,” Milner said. “If you are socially engaged, you are out and about and getting some movement. Friends are good, being involved in social activities is good. If you are engaged in life, you are engaged in all the things that keep you healthy.”

More information

For more information on healthy aging, visit the U.S. National Institutes of Health .

Loud music made hearts beat faster and blood pressure go up, while softer passages lowered both heart rates and blood pressure, a new study shows.

It’s the latest word on how music affects the cardiovascular system, from researchers at Pavia University in Italy. Their earlier studies found that music with quicker tempos had people breathing faster, with increased heart rate and blood pressure, while slower tempos produced opposite effects.

The findings “increase our understanding of how music could be used in rehabilitative medicine,” study author Dr. Luciano Bernardi, a professor of internal medicine at Pavia, said in a statement. The report appears in the June 22 online edition of Circulation.

It’s a lesson that already is being put to medical use, said Dr. Michael Miller, director of the Center for Preventive Cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center, who has done his own research assessing the cardiovascular effects of music.

“The take-home message from this paper is now being employed at many hospitals, including ours,” Miller said. “In the cardiovascular unit, we play music that is very soothing and quiet. On a subconscious level, it produces a decrease in blood pressure and heart rate.”

The Italian and Maryland studies differ in important aspects. The Pavia researchers played classical music, including selections from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, a Bach cantata, and arias from operas by Puccini and Verdi. They also measured the effects on the cardiovascular systems of two dozen volunteers in their mid-20s, half of whom were trained singers, who listened through headphones.

Readings from electrocardiograms and skin monitors showed that a crescendo, a swelling volume of music, was stimulating, while decrescendos had relaxing effects. The effects were modest but noticeable.

“In our studies, volunteers selected music that made them feel good or feel bad,” Miller said. “Our belief is that cardiovascular reactions to music are amplified by emotional responses. Our results were not inconsistent with these findings.”

The Italian study results were called “fascinating” by Barry A. Franklin, director of cardiac rehabilitation and exercise laboratories at William Beaumont Hospital in Michigan, and a spokesman for the American Heart Association.

“They were able to see modest changes in all variables,” Franklin said. “As a clinician, one who works with people with cardiovascular disease, I ask, can we extrapolate or generalize to clinical populations? I see some potentially very exciting research and clinical applications to people with disabilities, where modest changes could have very significant salutatory effects. If they listen to music through headphones while they exercise, can we get better changes on such measures as oxygen flow and blood pressure?”

The people who Franklin works with now exercise on treadmills or stationary bicycles, without music. “I might implement a small pilot program on these subjects, not at rest but while they exercise,” he said. “Are their responses altered by simultaneous music? These are debilitated coronary patients in whom small changes might be important.”

“One logical next step would be to encourage interdisciplinary research with relevant clinical populations receiving specific music therapy interventions,” said Al Bumanis, a spokesman for the America Music Therapy Association. The effects of music therapy are being tested in people in cardiovascular rehabilitation, brain-injured individuals and premature babies, among others, he said.

More information

Information on music therapy research is available from the American Music Therapy Association.

People who visit their primary care physician for routine blood tests or screenings are often not informed of the results, a new study finds.

The failure of doctors and medical facilities to follow-up and give people test results is “relatively common,” the researchers wrote, even when the results are abnormal and potentially troublesome, and affects one of every 14 tests.

“If you’re a patient, it’s often assumed that no news is good news,” acknowledged Dr. Lawrence P. Casalino, an associate professor and chief of the division of outcomes and effectiveness research in the public health department at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City and the study’s lead author. “But the bottom line is that is not always the case, and patients should not passively go along with that.”

Casalino and his colleagues report their findings in the June 22 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

The researchers reviewed the medical records of 5,434 people aged 50 to 69 years old. They focused on those who, in the previous year, had abnormal results on one of 11 blood tests or one of three screening tests at primary care facilities in the Midwest and on the West Coast. They also combed through responses to 176 surveys completed by physicians designed to assess test result management procedures at each facility.

The study found that in 135 cases — of 1,889 abnormal test results — either the person was not informed of the test results or the facility had not documented having communicated with the patient about the results. The upshot: more than a 7 percent failure rate in communicating abnormal test results.

Furthermore, the researchers found that most of the primary care facilities involved in the study did not follow basic protocol for test processing, and most did not have a defined policy on communicating test results to patients.

Though the study found no difference in failure rates between facilities that relied exclusively on paper records and those that used only electronic filings, medical practices that used a hybrid of paper and electronic record-keeping had the highest failure rates.

Practices that had in place better test result management procedures in general had lower failure rates, Casalino said.

“Yet even in the best doctor’s office it is possible — and, actually, not uncommon — for test results one way or another to get overlooked,” he said.

“A good relationship with your doctor is a valuable thing to have, but in this case it isn’t enough,” Casalino said. “You still need to be told whether your tests were normal or not. And if you don’t get the result you’re waiting for, you really should call the doctor’s office and ask for it.”

Diane Pinakiewicz, president of the nonprofit National Patient Safety Foundation, said that the test results issue falls into the broader context of patient safety concerns in “an imperfect system with any number of opportunities for things to go wrong or fall through the cracks.”

Pinakiewicz said, “In the past — 10 or 15 years ago — if you didn’t hear back about diagnostic test results, you probably simply assumed everything was OK. But the culture of medicine is changing,” she added. “The patient of today is very different, and physicians and clinicians are also different. We know a lot more today about the safety importance of making sure physicians go through the entire continuum, from taking a sample to delivering results to patients. And physicians understand that transparency is important, and a patient’s right to know is important.”

Nonetheless, Pinakiewicz said, proactive patient vigilance is key to keeping track of personal medical information after doctor visits. That’s particularly important, she noted, when changing care settings, from an in-hospital stay to outpatient treatment, for instance.

“Patients should not accept it when a physician or clinician says they will let you know if something is wrong,” she said. “Patients should ask for their test results on a consistent basis, whether or not the results are of concern — because, if you ask for them 100 percent of the time, there is no question you will always stay informed.”

More information

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has more on patient safety.