| Selected new reviews and commentaries, 2 July 2007
Genomics: Encyclopaedia of humble DNA. Greally JM (2007) Nature 447(7146):782-3. News and Views article accompanying ENCODE report (see journal club article) suggesting that the human genome may function quite differently from previous suppositions (PubMed). UK Biobank: bank on it. Palmer LJ (2007) Lancet 369(9578):1980-2. Commentary on the prospects of the Biobank project, including results from the pilot study, noting the necessity for harmonization and data-sharing between different biobanks via the P3G and HuGENet networks (PubMed). Governing Genetic Databases: Collection, Storage and Use. This July issue of King’s Law Journal is a special symposium issue, including papers on the ethical challenges of genetic databases and biobanks, including issues of consent, international collaboration, medical research and the public good.
Prostate cancer treatment cuts hot flashes
ROCHESTER, Minn., June 4: A U.S. study finds use of low doses of an epileptic seizure medication can significantly reduce the occurrence of hot flashes in prostate cancer patients.The North Central Cancer Treatment Group researchers based at the Mayo Clinic found use of the drug gabapentin that's also used to treat nerve pain caused by shingles substantially reduces hot flashes in men undergoing anti-hormonal treatment, or androgen-deprivation therapy, for prostate cancer.The investigators found gabapentin cut the frequency and intensity of hot flashes up to 46 percent in men receiving androgen deprivation therapy."To my knowledge, this is the first non-hormonal treatment of hot flashes in men, where results from a placebo-controlled trial are positive enough to support that a non-hormonal medication can be used to help some of our patients," lead investigator Dr.
Many families think hospice care was great, came too late
Brown University researchers report in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management that 11.4 percent of the more than 100,000 respondents thought their relatives received hospice care too late. In Massachusetts, the figure was 12.6 percent. Vermont had the lowest rate, at 7.8 percent, and South Carolina had the highest, 15 percent. Among people whose relatives had only two days of hospice care, only 24 percent said that was too late, lead author Dr. Joan M. Teno said. "I think this relates to how well hospice programs rally the troops to make everything happen," she said. "The entire hospice team mobilizes very quickly. They go in there and they do a very intensive intervention for the last 24 or 48 hours." Test subjects: Check the fine print before signing on Sometimes the arms-length distance between academic researchers and the pharmaceutical companies that provide drugs for their clinical trials can lead to problems, Harvard scientists wrote in last week's New England Journal of Medicine.
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