New report identifies research needed on 'modified risk' tobacco products |  |
- New report identifies research needed on 'modified risk' tobacco products
- Cigarette and alcohol use at historic low among teens
- 'Green routing' can cut car emissions without significantly slowing travel time
- New test to indicate likely spread or recurrence of breast cancer
- Chief scientific officer named first Richard L. Menschel Research Chair at Special Surgery
| New report identifies research needed on 'modified risk' tobacco products Posted: 14 Dec 2011 05:00 AM PST ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) WASHINGTON -- A new Institute of Medicine report specifies the types of research that the Food and Drug Administration should require before allowing tobacco companies to sell or advertise 'modified risk' tobacco products as being capable of reducing the health risks of tobacco use. While modified risk tobacco products could be one part of a comprehensive strategy to lower tobacco-related death and disease in the U.S., especially among tobacco users who are unable or unwilling to quit entirely, little is currently known about the products' health effects and whether they pose less risk than traditional tobacco products. Examples of modified risk tobacco products may include e-cigarettes and tobacco lozenges. Companies and other sponsors developing modified risk tobacco products should consider using FDA-approved independent third parties to oversee health and safety research on their products, adds the report, which was completed to fulfill a congressional mandate. Independent oversight would ensure that the data submitted to FDA are reliable and credible, and it could help re-engage the mainstream scientific community in research. Because of the tobacco industry's well-documented history of improper conduct, many institutions and scientists currently refuse to conduct or publish research supported by the tobacco industry. Right now there's a shortage of scientific evidence on the health effects of modified risk tobacco products, and the tobacco industry currently lacks the trustworthiness, expertise, and infrastructure to produce it, said Jane Henney, chair of the committee that wrote the report, and professor of medicine and public health sciences at the University of Cincinnati. Having trusted third parties oversee the conduct of research could help re-engage scientists and enable generation of credible research data on the health effects of these products. The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009... http://www.rxpgnews.com    |
| Cigarette and alcohol use at historic low among teens Posted: 14 Dec 2011 05:00 AM PST ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Cigarette and alcohol use by eighth, 10th and 12th-graders are at their lowest point since the Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey began polling teenagers in 1975, according to this year's survey results. However, this positive news is tempered by a slowing rate of decline in teen smoking as well as continued high rates of abuse of other tobacco products (e.g., hookahs, small cigars, smokeless tobacco), marijuana and prescription drugs. The survey results, announced today during a news conference at the National Press Club, appear to show that more teens continue to abuse marijuana than cigarettes; and alcohol is still the drug of choice among all three age groups queried. MTF is an annual survey of eighth, 10th, and 12th-graders conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, under a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health. The survey was conducted in classrooms earlier this year. That cigarette use has declined to historically low rates is welcome news, given our concerns that declines may have slowed or stalled in recent years, said NIDA director Dr. Nora D. Volkow. That said, the teen smoking rate is declining much more slowly than in years past, and we are seeing teens consume other tobacco products at high levels. This highlights the urgency of maintaining strong prevention efforts against teen smoking and of targeting other tobacco products. The 2011 results showed that 18.7 percent of 12th-graders reported current (past-month) cigarette use, compared to a recent peak rate of 36.5 percent in 1997 and 21.6 percent five years ago. Only 6.1 percent of eighth-graders reported current smoking, compared to a recent peak of 21 percent in 1996 and 8.7 percent five years ago. While it is good news that cigarette use has declined to historically low rates, we can and must do more to accelerate that decline, said Howard K. Koh, MD, MPH, assistant... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| 'Green routing' can cut car emissions without significantly slowing travel time Posted: 14 Dec 2011 05:00 AM PST ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The path of least emissions may not always be the fastest way to drive somewhere. But according to new research from the University at Buffalo, it's possible for drivers to cut their tailpipe emissions without significantly slowing travel time. In detailed, computer simulations of traffic in Upstate New York's Buffalo Niagara region, UB researchers Adel Sadek and Liya Guo found that green routing could reduce overall emissions of carbon monoxide by 27 percent for area drivers, while increasing the length of trips by an average of just 11 percent. In many cases, simple changes yielded great gains. Funneling cars along surface streets instead of freeways helped to limit fuel consumption, for instance. Intelligently targeting travelers was another strategy that worked: Rerouting just one fifth of drivers -- those who would benefit most from a new path -- reduced regional emissions by about 20 percent. Sadek, a transportation systems expert, says one reason green routing is appealing is because it's a strategy that consumers and transportation agencies could start using today. We're not talking about replacing all vehicles with hybrid cars or transforming to a hydrogen-fuel economy -- that would take time to implement, said Sadek, an associate professor of civil, structural and environmental engineering. But this idea, green routing, we could implement it now. In the near future, GPS navigation systems and online maps could play an important role in promoting green routing, Sadek said. Specifically, these systems and programs could use transportation research to give drivers the option to choose an environmentally friendly route instead of the shortest route. Sadek and Guo, a PhD candidate, presented their research on green routing at the 18th World Congress on Intelligent Transportation Systems in October. In the UB study on green routing, the researchers tied together two computer models commonly known as... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| New test to indicate likely spread or recurrence of breast cancer Posted: 13 Dec 2011 05:00 AM PST ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) A Queensland University of Technology (QUT) PhD student has developed a potential breakthrough test for predicting the likelihood of the spread or return of breast cancer. While in recent years there have been fantastic advances in the treatment of breast cancer there has been no way of predicting its progress, said Helen McCosker, a PhD student at the Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation (IHBI). Ms McCosker's research found that a breast cancer's interaction with its surrounding environment held the key to predicting whether it would grow, become dormant or spread to other organs. The ability to predict its progress is a huge step forward as it will ultimately enable doctors to select the most appropriate treatments for individual patients, she said. This test should identify those patients who need their cancer removed but require no further treatment, those who need the tumour removed but also require additional treatment, for example, chemotherapy, and those who need more vigorous treatments. That will mean that patients should neither receive unnecessary treatments nor be undertreated when a more aggressive medical response is required. Ms McCosker said the new test would use the tissue surrounding the cancer cells, which were collected for biopsy purposes, but were currently not examined. The test makes better use of tissue that's already being collected anyway, so from the patient's point of view there would be no change; no new test, she said. She said the next step was to develop an easy-to-use, accurate online program that doctors would use to diagnose cancer progression. Ultimately, doctors should be able to key the results of the examination of tissue samples into an online program with built-in mathematical models and be presented with a clear answer as to the likelihood of cancer progression. She said the test would offer solutions for a wide range of patients, particularly those with more advanced,... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| Chief scientific officer named first Richard L. Menschel Research Chair at Special Surgery Posted: 13 Dec 2011 05:00 AM PST ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Steven R. Goldring, M.D., chief scientific officer, has been named the first Richard L. Menschel Research Chair at Hospital for Special Surgery. A gift of $5 million from an anonymous donor will permanently endow the position of the Hospital's chief scientific officer. This chair honors Richard L. Menschel, Hospital for Special Surgery chairman emeritus and a senior director, The Goldman Sachs Group, L.P., who has been a vital proponent of the Hospital's focus on research. In addition to providing leadership for the HSS Reseach Division, Dr. Goldring's research objective is to translate basic research into new therapies for people with mobility disorders, with a focus on expanding the Hospital's clinical registries and advancing its Osteoarthritis Initiative. Extraordinary advances in medicine can be accomplished when there are partnerships between visionary leaders like Richard Menschel and scientific innovators like Dr. Steven Goldring, said Louis A. Shapiro, president and CEO of Hospital for Special Surgery. Dr. Goldring is a strong advocate of the physician-scientist. He has led the recruitment of talented scientists in the areas of arthritis and tissue degeneration, autoimmunity and inflammation, musculoskeletal integrity, and tissue engineering, regeneration and repair. I am truly honored to be the first holder of the Richard L. Menschel Research Chair at Hospital for Special Surgery, said Dr. Goldring. I began my career as a clinician, but I was also fortunate enough to be in an environment that supported and promoted the great importance of research. While our focus is how best to define disease mechanisms, the ultimate goal is to apply what we learn to patient care. A major initiative that Dr. Goldring will oversee is the expansion of Hospital for Special Surgery's clinical patient registries. These powerful research tools provide the foundation of clinical trials, providing an ongoing collection of confidential... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
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