Monday, June 8, 2009

News Clipping Archives

 

Maryland / Regional

A day to celebrate victory for 'real life' (Baltimore Sun)

Men who have breast cancer face many hurdles (Baltimore Sun)

Two teens who drowned off APG over weekend identified (Baltimore Sun)

 

National / International

Diabetes study points to surgery (Baltimore Sun)

Risks: Pertussis Protection? Not From the Herd (New York Times)

China quarantines New Orleans Mayor Nagin over flu (Frederick News-Post)

 

Opinion

In the Patient’s Best Interest (The Examiner Editorial)

 

 

Maryland / Regional

 

A day to celebrate victory for 'real life'

St. Agnes, other hospitals in Md. mark National Cancer Survivors Day

 

By Julie Bykowicz

Baltimore Sun

Monday, June 8, 2009

 

Men in suits and women in high heels swirled on the ballroom dance floor at Martin's West as a big band played and candelabras shone on a sea of dinner tables. Dr. Diana Griffiths of St. Agnes Hospital had to concentrate on faces to recognize her cancer patients.

 

"I'm so used to seeing people in a hospital setting," she said. "This is real life."

 

Hospitals and cancer support groups across Maryland participated in National Cancer Survivors Day on Sunday, a time set aside to celebrate the 12 million Americans who have overcome the disease.

 

The National Cancer Survivors Day Foundation says survivors day has been observed for 22 years, on the first Sunday in June.

 

The St. Agnes dance at Martin's West in Baltimore County was billed as one of the largest survivors-day events in the area. More than 300 survivors and their relatives attended, as did about 60 St. Agnes employees.

 

Jennifer Broaddus, an oncology social worker who is chairwoman of the event, said more people attend each year. She mailed 1,500 invitations and selected attendees through a lottery.

 

Shades of Blue Orchestra was back by popular demand after playing last year's survivors-day event, and survivors signed an Adirondack chair that will be placed outside the cancer center.

 

Dr. Richard Hudes, chief of radiation oncology, called it an "inspirational day.

 

"Every one of these tables has my patients," he said. "This is a time for us to all celebrate together."

 

Griffiths, who founded the hospital's breast cancer center in 1978 and is its director, said she attends nearly every year: "Patients are our motivation, and events like this motivate us to keep going."

 

One of her patients, Vicki Russell, was diagnosed with breast cancer in January 2008. Russell, 43, moved to the area from Largo for weekly chemotherapy treatments at St. Agnes that are scheduled to end in August.

 

Wearing all pink and an African-American breast cancer ribbon - a loop of rainbow colors tied with the traditional pink - Russell said she thought she'd die from cancer, not become an advocate for education about the disease.

 

She began a nonprofit group called It's in the Genes and runs the cancer ministry at First Baptist Church in Glenarden.

 

"You want to tell everyone that you're a survivor," she said.

 

Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun.

 

Men who have breast cancer face many hurdles

Treatment's side effects unknown for little-studied ailment in males

 

By Stephanie Desmon

Baltimore Sun

Monday, June 8, 2009

 

The case was fairly routine: The patient felt a lump smaller than a pea, had a mammogram, got a diagnosis of breast cancer and quickly underwent a mastectomy.

 

What was different is this patient was a man - Mike Nelsen, a 49-year-old high-level sales executive who never saw himself at risk."I remember distinctly sitting in a conference room when my cell phone rang," Nelsen said recently. It was his doctor, so Nelsen walked out into the hall to hear the news. "I guess I don't get shocked by a lot but I didn't even think men could have breast cancer. I'd never heard of it before. He said, 'There's 180,000 women and 2,000 men - and you're one of them.' "

 

The diagnosis put Nelson into an overlooked and understudied group. While decades of research into breast cancer in women has led to more effective treatments and improved outcomes for patients, comparatively little attention has been paid to the disease as it strikes men.

 

The common lack of awareness about male breast cancer can be lethal. Diagnosed at the same stage of cancer, men and women of the same age do equally well. But the disease tends to be caught later in men, giving it time to grow and spread and wreak havoc in the body.

 

"Men are different than women. They think it's not really a lump. It'll go away. I'll ignore it," said Dr. Michael J. Schultz, Nelsen's oncologist at the Breast Center at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson. "Women are conditioned: If it's a lump, I've got to take care of it."

 

Men "just can't believe it - I'm not a woman [they say]. How can I have this? It's sort of a challenge to their masculinity but any cell type in the body can develop a mutation and develop into a cancer cell. It's all around us."

 

Schultz said that while male breast cancer is something to be aware of - men do have breast tissue - it certainly should not be added to the list as yet another thing to worry about. The diagnosis is a rare one.

 

Still, efforts are under way to learn more about male breast cancer, which kills fewer than 500 men each year in the United States. Up until now, the data has been limited and collected over so many years as to not be valuable. An international consortium is currently in the process of collecting 1,000 tissue samples from male breast tumors from 100 medical institutions across the globe in hopes of learning more.

 

"The whole trend in cancer treatment in general and breast cancer in particular is trying to individualize therapy for the individual patient's cancer - targeted therapy," said Dr. Monica Morrow, chief of the breast service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. And little is known about how to do that for men. "There is something fundamentally different about the hormonal environment in men."

 

Dr. Sharon H. Giordano, an oncologist at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, said a clinical trial was opened to study a hormonal breast cancer treatment in men. But without enough cases of the disease to enroll enough men in the trial, the trial was canceled.

 

Mike Nelsen, a healthy, vigorous guy, felt the lump underneath his right nipple last fall as he lay on his stomach in bed. "It felt tender," he recalled. "I thought, 'That doesn't seem right.' "

 

Nelsen procrastinated a bit about going to the doctor. He didn't have one. Within a month, though, he had an appointment. It was a good choice, he figured, when, a few days before his scheduled visit, he took off his T-shirt and found a wisp of blood on it.

 

His doctor sent him to Schultz, who ordered a mammogram and diagnosed the cancer. On Dec. 17, Mike Nelsen had a mastectomy. Schultz removed the breast tissue on Nelsen's right side and 14 of his lymph nodes. His nipple is gone, but he has decided against reconstructive surgery: "I'm not a surfer dude."

 

Nelsen spends a lot of time on the road, selling spices for McCormick & Co. in Hunt Valley, where he is director of sales. So he was back at it in no time, flying across the country still fixed with drains used to draw lymphatic fluid from his wound. There was work to be done.

 

He started chemotherapy in early February and was told that seven days later he would likely feel the worst. But he had a meeting in Chicago and then plans to entertain clients in Breckenridge, Colo. He just figured he wouldn't ski as hard as usual. He ended up in intensive care in a Chicago hospital for days, the chemo had so damaged his large intestine.

 

It would be his last round of chemotherapy. He was concerned he wasn't doing enough to keep the cancer from coming back, but genetic testing of his tumor indicated it was unlikely to return.

 

"I could get hit by a bus just as easily as I could die from cancer, based on this report," he said, his Midwestern accent giving away his Chicago roots.

 

Now, he is taking tamoxifen, a drug that interferes with the estrogen that fed his breast tumor. Tamoxifen is used to shrink existing tumors and to prevent them from coming back. He will be on the drug for the next five years. It does have side effects.

 

"How I got a women's disease from the start I don't know," Nelsen said. But because of the tamoxifen, "I get flushed from time to time. As my female friends say, 'Now you know what it's like to have hot flashes.' "

 

While there is data that tamoxifen can shrink tumors in men with breast cancer, Giordano said little is known about whether it has prevention properties in men, or what the side effects - which include blood clots, increased risk of uterine cancer and vaginal dryness in women - are in men.

 

Nelsen doesn't know for sure if he inherited his disease. But knows his mother had breast cancer while in her 40s, melanoma in her 50s and died of ovarian cancer at 63. And that an aunt had ovarian cancer, too. His daughter, 23-year-old Megan, plans to start getting routine mammograms when she is 25, much earlier than the average for women.

 

For now, Nelsen spends his good days at work - and they are mostly good days. He plays golf. He works in the yard at his Parkton home. He plays with Mikayla, the 2-year-old he and his wife adopted from Guatemala. And he will throw out the ceremonial first pitch at the June 14 Orioles game as part of an annual Cancer Survivors Day sponsored by St. Joseph.

 

It is not Nelsen's way to fret about his health. He's worrying more these days about whether he'll get the ball over the plate than if there is more cancer is in his future.

 

"I try to take everything in stride. You run into issues your whole life. Instead of feeling sorry for yourself, you just have to go on. I don't know how else to do it," he said.

 

"I'm not very good at sitting still."

 

Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun.

 

Two teens who drowned off APG over weekend identified

Graduation celebration ends in tragedy for young men

 

Gus G. Sentementes

Baltimore Sun

Monday, June 8, 2009

 

Two Baltimore County teenagers drowned Saturday while on a Gunpowder River boating trip to celebrate a friend's graduation, authorities said.

 

The U.S. Coast Guard and the Army's criminal investigation division are investigating the deaths of Kyle Bianchi, 18, of Overlea and Matthew Collier, 17, of Middle River because they were found in federal waters off Aberdeen Proving Ground, according to George Mercer, a spokesman for APG.

 

The teens were guests of Christopher Dennis, 17, Dennis' uncle and Dennis' adult female cousin on the uncle's boat - a 19-foot Boston Whaler - and were celebrating Dennis' high school graduation, according to authorities. They decided about 5 p.m. to go swimming in the river, about 300 yards to 400 yards from Hammerman Beach, Debi Horne, a public affairs specialist at APG, said Sunday. The area is in the easternmost part of Baltimore County.

 

After swimming in a strong current, the teens headed toward the boat, but one of them got stuck in the current behind the others, according to Horne. The two boys swam back to help him. One of the teens went under the water, and the remaining two swam back toward the boat, but only one made it back, Horne said.

 

"One made it back to the boat but was exhausted and couldn't get back in," she said. The female cousin at one point tried to assist by extending an oar, Horne said.

 

The Coast Guard received the report of swimmers in distress shortly after 5 p.m., officials said. The Coast Guard then notified several agencies, including the Baltimore County and Harford County fire departments, the Baltimore County Police Department, state Department of Natural Resources police and Maryland State Police.

 

The agencies searched the river with air and water patrols. A marine unit from Baltimore County's North Point Edgemere Volunteer Fire Department, which is based at Sparrows Point, found the bodies of Bianchi and Collier about 8 p.m. Saturday using sonar equipment, authorities said.

 

Bianchi and Collier were taken to APG, an Army installation, where an official with the state medical examiner confirmed their deaths.

 

Autopsies are expected.

 

Richard Bianchi, Kyle's father, said his son had graduated Saturday from Mergenthaler Vocational Technical High School. Though Kyle was taking a course in masonry, Richard Bianchi said his son planned to attend Coppin State University, where he hoped to play baseball and study sports medicine.

 

Bianchi said his son was athletic - even scouted by the Kansas City Royals baseball team - and was a strong swimmer.

 

Investigators inspected the boat and found that it contained all the proper lifesaving equipment, such as flotation devices. The investigators did not find any evidence of alcohol on the boat, Horne said.

 

Horne said that drownings in the Gunpowder River in the jurisdiction of APG are rare because the military installation regularly patrols the water.

 

Viewings for Kyle Bianchi will be held from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday at Leonard J. Ruck Inc. Funeral Home at 5305 Harford Road in Northeast Baltimore.

 

Baltimore Sun reporters Richard Irwin and Liz F. Kay contributed to this article.

 

Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun.

 

National / International

 

Diabetes study points to surgery

 

Tribune Newspapers

By Thomas H. Maugh II

Baltimore Sun

Monday, June 8, 2009

 

For most patients with diabetes and clogged arteries who have not had a heart attack, treatment with drugs and lifestyle changes are as effective at reducing death as immediate bypass surgery or angioplasty, researchers said Sunday.

 

For diabetics with a more severe form of heart disease requiring immediate surgery, bypass surgery is more effective than angioplasty at reducing heart attacks and strokes but not deaths, researchers reported at a meeting of the American Diabetes Association in New Orleans.

 

The findings are a second major blow to companies that manufacture the stents that are inserted into arteries after angioplasty to keep them open, a process that is now performed at least 1.24 million times each year in the United States. A 2007 study of non-diabetics also found that drug treatment and lifestyle changes were as effective as angioplasty in preventing deaths.

 

In this era of health-care reform, "Some may legitimately question ... why we continue to do so many [angioplasty] procedures," wrote Dr. William E. Boden of the University of Buffalo in an editorial accompanying a paper on the results to be published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine.

 

For controlling diabetes, the new study found that drugs that increase insulin levels are as effective as those that increase the body's sensitivity to insulin and that no significant side effects are associated with either approach. That is good news for GlaxoSmithKline, manufacturer of the insulin-sensitizing drug Avandia, which has been linked to an increased risk of heart problems in some studies.

 

"The insulin-sensitization drugs are not harmful ... and may be a little better," said Dr. Trevor Orchard of the University of Pittsburgh, who led the study.

 

Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun.

 

Risks: Pertussis Protection? Not From the Herd

 

By Nicholas Bakalar

New York Times

Monday, June 8, 2009

 

The theory of herd immunity holds that when most people in a group are vaccinated, everyone is protected — even those who refuse the vaccine, as many families are doing these days out of a belief that vaccinations cause autism and other illnesses. But the theory does not appear to work well with whooping cough.

 

Researchers studied children enrolled in a Colorado health plan in the period 1996 to 2007, and found 156 laboratory-confirmed cases of pertussis. They recorded the vaccination status of each and matched them to 595 randomly selected control subjects. After controlling for sex, age, season of infection and other factors, they found that the unvaccinated children were about 23 times as likely as vaccinated children to get whooping cough. In other words, about 1 in 20 unvaccinated children were infected, compared with 1 in 500 who were vaccinated. The study appears in the June issue of Pediatrics.

 

“This study is additional information that both doctors and parents can use,” said the lead author, Jason M. Glanz, an epidemiologist with Kaiser Permanente. “Parents need to know the consequences of choosing not to vaccinate.”

 

Pertussis can cause serious illness, especially in children. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than half of infants who get the disease have to be hospitalized, about 1 in 10 get pneumonia, and about 1 in 50 have convulsions. In 2007, there were 10,454 cases of pertussis reported to the C.D.C., and 10 children died.

 

Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company.

 

China quarantines New Orleans Mayor Nagin over flu

 

Associated Press

By Becky Bohrer

Frederick News-Post

Monday, June 8, 2009

 

Chinese authorities have quarantined New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, his wife and a security guard in Shanghai after another traveler on their flight from New Jersey exhibited suspected swine flu symptoms.

 

Nagin's office said the three were quarantined in a hotel Sunday as a precaution and were exhibiting no flu symptoms.

 

"He's doing well. His spirits are fine," Nagin's spokeswoman Ceeon Quiett told The Associated Press on Monday in New Orleans. She did not know when the three might be released or whether they will be tested for the flu.

 

She said the quarantine was for passengers who sat near the traveler with flu-like symptoms but she did not know if anybody besides the Nagin trio was affected. Quiett also did not release the name of the airline, deferring to embassy officials.

 

The U.S. Consulate in Shanghai and local officials did not respond to questions Monday.

 

China has been imposing quarantines and temperature checks at airports throughout the country to prevent the virus from spreading. If the quarantined individuals display no flu symptoms, they are usually released in about seven days.

 

Last month, China quarantined a group of 21 students and three teachers from a Maryland private school for five days in a hotel. Officials feared the group from the Barrie School in Silver Spring was exposed to swine flu on their flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong.

 

The World Health Organization reported that, as of Monday morning, 73 countries had officially reported 25,288 cases of infection. Most of the cases have been mild, though 139 people have died.

 

Nagin's office said a passenger on the flight from Newark, N.J., had "signs and symptoms of an influenza-like illness suspected to be of the H1N1 subtype."

 

Three other city employees on the trip were not sitting close enough to the passenger to be quarantined, Quiett said. They were the deputy head of the press office, James Ross, city economic development director Ernest Gethers and Lisa Ponce de Leon, director of international affairs.

 

Quiett said Nagin has been in contact with city officials in New Orleans and that city business continues in his absence.

 

Nagin left Friday on an economic development trip through the eastern Pacific and had two meetings in Shanghai before getting the quarantine notice, Quiett said. Private interests were to pay for that leg of his trip, Quiett said, though she did not say who those interests were and said the cost was "not available to us."

 

Nagin was scheduled to travel next to Australia to speak at a conference on climate change and the global recession at the University of Sydney, but the status of those plans remained unclear Monday morning.

 

New Orleans' departing recovery director, Ed Blakely, was a professor at the university and among the conference's scheduled speakers. A spokeswoman for the university's United States Studies Centre has said Blakely is being made an "honorary" professor in urban policy at the center.

 

Nagin's schedule initially had him in Shanghai until Tuesday and then in Australia from Wednesday until Sunday. The mayor and his party were due to return to New Orleans June 15.

 

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.

 

Opinion

 

In the Patient’s Best Interest

 

The Examiner Editorial

Monday, June 8, 2009

 

Even by the low standards of New York’s procrastinating State Legislature, the 17-year stalemate over a measure to allow family members to make health decisions for incapacitated patients is unacceptable and inhumane.

 

The Family Health Care Decisions Act was first proposed by a blue-ribbon task force in 1992. All of these years later and families in New York still have no legal authority to give consent or object to medical treatment — or even review medical records — for incapacitated loved ones unless those patients have signed a health care proxy, a living will or other treatment instructions.

 

Since only about one-fifth of Americans have signed health care proxies or living wills, this is a big problem.

 

New York’s Legislature has come close to approving a remedy only to get derailed by cultural warfare. Senate Republicans previously balked at allowing same-sex partners to serve as surrogates and insisted on superfluous wording covering a pregnant comatose woman. This problem must be fixed.

 

The proposed bill would bring New York law into alignment with most of the rest of the states. Family members and others close to the incapacitated patient would be empowered to make decisions. Those decisions would have to reflect, as best as possible, the patients’ wishes and values. Where that is unknown, decisions would be made in the patient’s best interests.

 

Family members or other surrogates could decline life-sustaining treatment only if it imposes an “excessive burden” on a terminally ill or permanently unconscious patient, or if the treatment would entail an inhumane amount of pain and suffering.

 

With the end of the legislative session in sight, the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, and the Senate majority leader, Malcolm Smith, need to arrange a prompt vote and get the bill to the desk of Gov. David Paterson for his signature. Patients and families should not have to wait any longer.

 

Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company.

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