MICHAEL O. ALLEN

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Doctors: Kennedy has brain tumor

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(CNN) — U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy has a malignant brain tumor, doctors treating him at Massachusetts General Hospital said Tuesday.

Sen. Edward Kennedy suffered a seizure Saturday in Hyannisport, Massachusetts.

Kennedy was hospitalized Saturday morning after suffering a seizure at his family’s compound at Hyannisport, Massachusetts.

“Preliminary results from a biopsy of the brain identified the cause of the seizure as a malignant glioma in the left parietal lobe,” according to a statement from the doctors treating the senator.

“The usual course of treatment includes combinations of various forms of radiation and chemotherapy,” they said.

“Decisions regarding the best course of treatment for Senator Kennedy will be determined after further testing and analysis,” the doctors continued.

“Senator Kennedy will remain at Massachusetts General Hospital for the next couple of days according to routine protocol. He remains in good spirits and full of energy.”

May 20, 2008
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The sky might, er, fall

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Might Mobile Phones Kill More People Than Smoking Or Asbestos? by Christian Nordqvist, Medical News Today

A new study reveals that mobile phones (cell phones) may eventually be responsible for more human deaths than smoking or asbestos. Dr. Vini Khurana, an award-winning cancer expert (14 awards) from Australia, has published some grim study results. Khurana added that government and mobile phone companies should do whatever they can to immediately reduce people’s exposure to radiation.

Khurana, who carried a 15-month critical review of the link between mobile phones and malignant brain tumors, said using mobiles for more than a decade could more than double a person’s risk of developing brain cancer. He added that a ‘solid scientific study’ needs to be carried out on people who have been regular heavy users of mobiles for at least ten years.

Many say mobile phones have not been around long enough for us to make any firm conclusions about their safety. As most tumors (cancers) take about ten years to develop it has been hard to conclude one way or the other. However, we are now reaching a time when certain studies may soon give us some more compelling pointers.

Even so, as a result of previous studies, governments around the world have started telling their people to keep mobile phone usage down to a minimum. The French government has told its children not to use them, while the German government has told its citizens to use them as little as possible. Even the European Environment Agency has advised people to keep exposure down to a minimum.

While Khurana agrees that mobile phones can save lives in emergencies, he states that there is now a significant and growing body of evidence for a link between mobile phone use and the development of some brain tumors. As we move into the next decade Khurana says this evidence will become a reality.

He says that the incidence of brain tumors will grow significantly over the next decade, by which time there is not much that can be done for those who become ill.

Khurana says that the mobile phone danger to public health may be greater than that of asbestos and/or smoking. There are three times as many people globally who use mobiles regularly than there are regular smokers, Khurana points out.

According to the Mobile Operators Association, Khurana’s study does not present a balanced analysis.

— Dr. Vini Khurana
— Read what Khurana has written in more detail

Written by – Christian Nordqvist
Copyright: Medical News Today

April 1, 2008
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AIDS ACTIVISTS IN SIT-IN AT FIRM WANT NEW DRUG MADE AVAILABLE

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, October 30, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A03

A small group of activists, charging that a Japanese pharmaceutical company is slow to develop an experimental drug for treatment of a cancer associated with AIDS, staged a sit-in at the firm’s U.S. headquarters in Fort Lee on Tuesday.

Bob LaChance of Treatment Action Guerrillas said Daiichi Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. determined in laboratory tests on animals about two years ago that a compound developed from a bacteria could halt the growth of blood vessels, and could be effective in treating Kaposi’s sarcoma and some forms of breast cancer. Kaposi’s sarcoma, a cancer that strikes one in 10 AIDS patients, is a proliferation of blood vessels.

Several companies, including Daiichi, are developing experimental drugs to halt the development of these blood vessels. Daiichi’s high molecular weight sugar compound, known to AIDS researchers and activists as SP-PG, is the first known experimental drug that could halt the formation of the purple tumors of Kaposi’s sarcoma in animals.

“They’ve been dragging their feet developing the drug because they are putting corporate profits over people’s lives,” LaChance said. “They want to make sure there’s a market for this drug before they develop it. They are not concerned about people affected by Kaposi’s sarcoma who are dying by the thousands.”

Thomas Boersig, special consultant to the board of Daiichi, told the activists Tuesday it would be premature to bring the drug to the market.

“Some very basic studies have been done in the laboratory on this compound of ours,” Boersig said. “This is a drug that is still in research. When we talk about development, we are talking about studying the product in man, and we have not done that study yet.”

The discussion was tense but peaceful. But protester Bob Rafsky, a 46-year-old Brooklyn man who said he has been HIV-positive for four years, became angry.

“See this dark mark on my forehead? That’s Kaposi’s sarcoma. It’s going to spread. It’s going to kill me. . . . You are my murderer, in your shirt and tie,” he said.

Boersig said it is not lost on him that people continue to die during the search for an effective drug for Kaposi’s sarcoma. Daiichi, he said, is in a race with other companies to develop an effective drug.

LaChance said he lost his lover of 20 years to Kaposi’s sarcoma five months ago.

The 16 activists, 10 of whom sat in a circle, their wrists inserted in plastic tubes and tied with nylon twine, took over the reception area of the company’s ninth-floor offices at 400 Kelby St.

Caption: PHOTO – JOHN DECKER / THE RECORD – Demonstrators in the offices of Daiichi Pharmaceutical talking with a company consultant, Thomas Boersig.

ID: 17359489 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

October 30, 1991
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