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| Vitamin D Cuts Colon Cancer Death Rrisk |
People with higher vitamin D levels are less likely to die of colorectal cancer, researchers said on Tuesday, but the vitamin does not appear to affect the chances of dying from any other type of cancer.
A number of studies have found protective effects from higher intake of vitamin D for cancer and other ailments.
A team led by National Cancer Institute epidemiologist Michal Freedman sought to determine whether vitamin D can reduce a person's chances of dying from various cancer types.
The researchers tracked 16,818 people who joined a nationwide government health survey between 1988 and 1994, following them through 2000. Among them, 536 died of cancer.
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| Leukemia Drug Proves Safe And Effective Over The Long Term, Study Suggests |
The drug imatinib mesylate, more commonly known as Gleevec®, proves safe and effective over the long term in patients with an advanced form of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), according to a study prepublished online in Blood, the official journal of the American Society of Hematology.
A team of researchers from the U.S. and Europe, including the drug's creator, Brian Druker, MD, followed 454 patients with chronic-phase CML taking imatinib for more than six years. Prior to enrollment, all study participants had experienced either treatment failure or intolerance with interferon alpha, which was the standard of care for CML at the time the study was initiated.
"The long-term follow-up results of imatinib in CML post interferon failure reassure us of the high efficacy of the drug and its safety," stated Hagop Kantarjian, MD, the lead author on the study and Chairman and Professor of the Leukemia Department at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. "With a six-year follow-up, the estimated six-year survival rate is 76 percent. In historical data, after interferon failure the average survival was about three to four years."
Imatinib dosage began at 400 milligrams per day and was escalated to 600 mg/d or 800 mg/d in patients who did not achieve positive treatment responses within set time periods or whose disease relapsed.
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| Cough Medicine Fights Dyskinesias In Parkinson's |
A cough suppressant and a drug tested as a schizophrenia therapy curb the involuntary movements that are disabling side effects of taking the Parkinson's disease medication levodopa, Portland scientists have found.
Dextromethorphan, used in such cold and flu medications as Robitussin, Sucrets, Triaminic and Vicks, suppresses dyskinesias in rats, researchers at Oregon Health & Science University and the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center found. Dyskinesias are the spastic or repetitive motions that result from taking levodopa, or L-dopa, over long periods.
The researchers also found that BMY-14802, a drug previously tested in people with schizophrenia and found to be safe - although not effective in treating schizophrenia symptoms - suppressed dyskinesias in rats more effectively than dextromethorphan did, suggesting that BMY-14802 might work to block dyskinesias in people with Parkinson's.
"These results were unexpected, but very exciting," said the study's lead author, Melanie A. Paquette, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Behavioral Neuroscience, OHSU School of Medicine, and the PVAMC. "We have filed a patent for the use of BMY-14802 for dyskinesias and we hope to get funding to begin human trials very soon."
The study, titled "Differential effects of NMDA antagonists and sigma ligands on L-dopa-induced behavior in the hemiparkinson rat," is being presented during a poster session today at Neuroscience 2007, the 37th annual Society for Neuroscience conference in San Diego.
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| D-Cycloserine Reduces Cocaine-Seeking Behavior in "Addicted" Mice |
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory provide further evidence that a drug known as D-cycloserine could play a role in helping to extinguish the craving behaviors associated with drug addiction. Their study found that mice treated with D-cycloserine were less likely to spend time in an environment where they had previously been trained to expect cocaine than mice treated with a placebo.
Photo of Bermeo and Thanos
"Since the association between drugs and the places where they are used can trigger craving and/or relapse in humans, a medication that could aid in the reduction or even extinction of such responses could be a powerful tool in the treatment of addiction," said Carlos Bermeo, a Stony Brook University graduate student working under the direction of Brookhaven Lab neuroscientist Panayotis (Peter) Thanos. Bermeo will present these results in a talk at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego on Tuesday, November 6, 2007, at 11 a.m.
D-cycloserine was originally developed as an antibiotic. But it has also been shown to extinguish conditioned fear in pre-clinical (animal) studies, and has been successfully tested in human clinical trials for the treatment of acrophobia (fear of heights). This finding led several researchers to wonder whether D-cycloserine could extinguish drug-seeking behaviors as well.
In 2006, a group of scientists not affiliated with Brookhaven Lab tested this hypothesis in rats. They found that D-cycloserine facilitated the extinction of "cocaine conditioned place preference" - the tendency for the animals to spend more time in a chamber where they had been trained to expect cocaine than in a chamber where they had no access to the drug.
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Drug Slows Prostate Tumor Growth by Keeping Vitamin A Active
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A novel compound that blocks the breakdown of retinoic acid, derived from vitamin A, is a surprisingly effective and "promiscuous" agent in treating animal models of human prostate cancer, say investigators from the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB).
Daily injections of the agent VN/14-1 resulted in up to a 50 percent decrease in tumor volume in mice implanted with human prostate cancer cells, reported Aakanksha Khandelwal, Ph.D., today at the American Association for Cancer Research Centennial Conference on Translational Cancer Medicine. No further tumor growth was seen during the five-week study, Khandelwal reports.
Importantly, VN/14-1 exerted its effects in multiple ways, which is the hallmark of a so-called promiscuous drug, according to the study's senior investigator, Vincent C.O. Njar, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics within UMB's School of Medicine.
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| Superbug Succeeds by Blowing Up Defender Cells, Scientists Learn |
The aggressive antibiotic-resistant staph infection responsible for thousands of recent illnesses undermines the body's defenses by causing germ-fighting cells to explode, researchers reported Sunday. Experts say the findings may help lead to better treatments.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is a form of the very common staph family of germs.
An estimated 90,000 people in the United States fall ill each year from methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. It is not clear how many die from the infection; one estimate put it at more than 18,000 per year, which would be slightly higher than the rate of U.S. deaths from AIDS.
The infection long has been associated with health care facilities, where it attacks people with reduced immune systems. But many recent cases involve an aggressive strain, community-associated MRSA, or CA-MRSA. It can cause severe infections and even death in otherwise healthy people outside of health care settings.
The CA-MRSA strain secretes a kind of peptide -- a compound formed by amino acids -- that causes immune cells called neutrophils to burst, eliminating a main defense against infection, according to researchers.
The findings, from a team of U.S. and German researchers led by Michael Otto of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, appeared in Sunday's online edition of the journal Nature Medicine.
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| FDA Strengthens Boxed Warnings, Approves Other Safety Labeling Changes for Erythropoiesis-Stimulating Agents (ESAs) |
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved revised boxed warnings and other safety-related product labeling changes for erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs), which treat certain types of anemia. These new statements address the risks that the drugs Aranesp, Epogen and Procrit pose to patients with cancer and patients with chronic kidney failure.
The labeling changes, which incorporate advice from FDA advisory committees and expand upon labeling changes made in March 2007, also include a statement that symptoms of anemia, fatigue and quality of life have not been shown to improve in patients with cancer who are treated with ESAs.
Epogen, Procrit and Aranesp are approved to treat anemia in patients with chronic kidney failure and anemia caused by chemotherapy in certain patients with cancer. Epogen and Procrit are also approved for use in certain patients with anemia who are scheduled to undergo major surgery to reduce blood transfusions during or shortly after surgery and for the treatment of anemia caused by zidovudine (AZT) therapy in HIV patients.
For Patients with Cancer
For patients with cancer, the new boxed warnings emphasize that ESAs caused tumor growth and shortened survival in patients with advanced breast, head and neck, lymphoid and non-small cell lung cancer when they received a dose that attempted to achieve a hemoglobin level of 12 grams per deciliter (g/dL) or greater.
The boxed warnings also emphasize that no clinical data are available to determine whether there is a similar risk of shortened survival or increased tumor growth for patients with cancer who receive an ESA dose that attempts to achieve a hemoglobin level of less than 12 g/dL. This is the hemoglobin level commonly achieved in clinical practice.
Health care providers determine whether a patient is anemic and decide on ESA dosing by measuring how much of the protein known as hemoglobin is present in a patient's red blood cells.
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Believe it or not
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Hide your old pills in poo, U.S. government says
Got some leftover drugs -- the kind that someone else might want to use, such as painkillers or stimulants? Wrap them up in used kitty litter or other pet droppings, the government advises.
A pilot program at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration is looking at ways people can safely dispose of unused prescription drugs that are liable to be abused.
The Food and Drug Administration recommends flushing some of the most dangerous ones down the toilet, including the strong, addictive painkillers oxycodone and fentanyl and stimulants such as methylphenidate.
But environmentalists worry about the effects on fish and amphibians.
On its Web site at http://www.samhsa.gov/rxsafety/, SAMHSA recommends ways to disguise leftover pills.
"Mixing prescription drugs with an undesirable substance, such as used coffee grounds or kitty litter, and putting them in impermeable, nondescript containers, such as empty cans or sealable bags, will further ensure the drugs are not diverted," it says.
Of course some people do not drink coffee. But maybe they have a pet ferret.
"Ferret waste, like nearly any other form of pet waste, can be effectively used to help prevent the abuse of unused prescription drugs," SAMHSA spokesman Mark Weber said.
This news delighted the American Ferret Association.
"The U.S. government declares ferret poop to be an effective weapon against drug abuse," the group said in a statement.
SAMHSA said the problem is no joke.
"One in five teens reports intentionally misusing someone else's prescription drugs to get high. Nearly half say they get the medications from friends and relatives for free," it says in a statement.
Dr. Ilene Ruhoy of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, studied leftover pharmaceuticals found in the homes of 473 people who died in 2006. She found 3,562 controlled substances, or an average of nearly eight per person.
More than half were hydrocodone painkiller products, while the rest were oxycodone, morphine or fentanyl.
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News From MedWatch |
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medical products regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by CLICKING HERE
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Recently Approved Drugs/Indications |
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FDA Recalls and Safety Alerts in the Past 60 Days: |
| To see a list of all FDA Recalls and product safety alerts for the last 60 days CLICK HERE
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Drug Shortages: |
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