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Drug Combination Improves Outcome For Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
A new, international study found that the combination of two drugs delays disease progression for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Results from the Phase III "ATLAS" trial were presented today by Dr. Vincent Miller of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting.

Data From Enzo Therapeutics' Phase II Study Of Crohn's Disease Presented At Prestigious Gastroenterology Conference
Enzo Biochem, Inc. (NYSE: ENZ), a biotechnology company specializing in gene identification and genetic and immune regulation technologies for diagnostic and therapeutic applications and laboratory services, announced that data from a Phase II clinical trial was presented today at Digestive Disease Week, the largest international gathering of academic researchers and practicing physicians in gastrointestinal medicine, held this year in Chicago. The data indicate that Alequel™, the Company"s investigational individualized oral immune regulation preparation, may be effective for the treatment of moderate-to-severe Crohn"s disease.
News of the day
Fate Of Tiller's Clinic Expected To Be Decided This Week
The family of murdered Kansas abortion provider George Tiller is expected to decide this week whether his Wichita clinic will reopen, NPR"s "Morning Edition" reports. Tiller"s clinic is one of the few in the U.S. that performs abortions later in pregnancy, and many abortion-rights advocates are concerned whether women in need of abortions in the second and third trimester would be able to obtain care if it were not reopened. LeRoy Carhart, a Nebraska abortion provider who worked with Tiller at his clinic for four years, said that although it is a difficult time for abortion providers, he hopes that the family will reopen the clinic. "This is a job that we took, and we were well-aware of the risks when we started, as was Dr. Tiller," he said. Providing abortion services in the second and third trimester is "a service that"s so needed that it"s worth the risks," he added (Lohr, "Morning Edition," NPR, 6/9). Carhart also said that although no decision on Tiller"s clinic has been made, he "want[s] to assure the press and the women of America ... that we will somehow, somewhere continue to provide abortions later in gestation" (Duin, Washington Times, 6/9).According to Carhart, there are only about 10 providers in the U.S. who perform abortions in the second and third trimesters, including a few hospitals that do not advertise the services. "Morning Edition" reports that most women"s health care providers either are not trained or do not want to receive training to perform the procedure later in pregnancy. Providers who do tend to be older and face extreme pressure from antiabortion-rights advocates. Data from the Guttmacher Institute show that about 1% of all abortions performed in the U.S. occur after 21 weeks" gestation. Elizabeth Nash of Guttmacher said that 37 states have laws that limit access to abortion after a certain point in pregnancy, "usually around 24 weeks, which is at the end of the second trimester." She added that most of those states only allow abortions to save the life of the woman or if her physical health is in jeopardy. Pratima Gupta, an ob-gyn in California, said that she is concerned about what will happen to Tiller"s patients. Gupta said Tiller "had patients that were scheduled for Monday morning. What happened to those patients for the rest of the week, the rest of the month? Those patients are the ones who need us" ("Morning Edition," NPR, 6/9).
Diagnostics

Leading Health Organizations Launch New Accreditation Process For Laboratories Across Africa

Government health officials from 13 African countries today launched the first-ever push for accreditation of the continent"s medical laboratories, starting a process that the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Government believe will be an historic step to strengthen health systems and lead to better care for patients. Just a handful of Africa"s laboratories are now accredited, in part because the existing international accreditation process is so time-consuming. Many laboratories lack equipment, proper funding, adequate training for lab workers, and systematic management of work. This new effort will operate under the guidance of the WHO Regional Office for Africa (WHO/AFRO) and the U.S. President"s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), implemented through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (HHS/CDC). The American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) will assign dozens of volunteer American lab professionals and the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative will help implement action-oriented training programs to boost and standardize the quality of African laboratories. WHO-AFRO has established a five-step accreditation process structured around its core standards for laboratories, which will allow labs to gradually receive credit for improvement - and eventually attain accreditation. For many laboratories that employ top-notch workers, this extra help is seen as critical to reach a consistent high standard of work. "It"s time for Africa to go in this direction - accreditation is the only way to be sure a laboratory is a good laboratory," said Agnes Binagwaho, Rwanda"s Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health. "We cannot provide high quality care - no matter what type of disease we"re fighting - without strong laboratories. This will greatly strengthen our health systems in the short term and long term. This is all about building sustainable health systems." Laboratories form the backbone of health systems around the world, providing doctors and other health care workers with results of a battery of tests for deadly diseases. Sub-Saharan Africa carries a huge burden of disease - it is estimated that the continent has more than 2 million deaths annually from AIDS, nearly 2 million deaths from tuberculosis, and roughly 1 million deaths from malaria - and yet its laboratories are among the most ill-equipped and poorly red facilities anywhere. If laboratories function properly, doctors and nurses will not only get correct diagnoses of diseases and an indication of when and how to begin treatment, but they will also know when drugs fail and when people develop resistance to medications. This is a critical component of monitoring patients infected with HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria, as well as a host of other diseases. In addition, an efficient laboratory can dramatically reduce waiting time to get results - allowing patients in parts of Africa who often travel a day or more for testing to receive the laboratory results sooner. Studies have shown that when patients need to return for a second visit to a hospital or clinic for test results, significant percentages fail to do so. The work to improve laboratories began to gain momentum nearly a decade ago; the intensified fight against HIV/AIDS represented by PEPFAR and others provided funding and demand to improve laboratory services. Two of the integral partners in this process have been the WHO-AFRO and PEPFAR through HHS/CDC. "Supporting governments" efforts to strengthen national health care systems, including laboratory quality management, is essential to ensuring sustainability of country-driven HIV/AIDS interventions," said Ambassador Eric Goosby, U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator. "Efforts like this new lab accreditation process are essential to equipping countries and communities with the tools necessary for progress on health." El-hadj Belabbes, HIV Lab Officer for the WHO Inter-country Support Team, Central Africa, said the outcome is the result of efforts initiated by WHO-AFRO and HHS/CDC eight years ago, leading to meetings with partners in Zimbabwe, Ghana, South Africa, Ethiopia, and Senegal. "Following these meetings, WHO-AFRO, in collaboration with its partners, has initiated the first phase of laboratory accreditation but also has started the implementation of comprehensive Quality Management Systems and laboratory management training," Belabbes said. At the Kigali meeting, which runs from July 27 to 29, participants include 120 experts and policymakers from Rwanda, Botswana, Cameroon, Cote d"Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Ghana, Uganda, and Zambia. The meeting will have three goals: unveil a blueprint toward the path of accreditation; obtain key stakeholders" support for accreditation; and showcase a task-based training program in support of laboratory improvement required for accreditation. "This is a tremendous leap forward for diagnostic laboratory services in Africa," said Dr. Lee H. Hilborne, past president of the American Society for Clinical Pathology, which helped design the training program and will send volunteers from U.S. laboratories to assist the training. "The commitment of laboratories, Ministries of Health, and international partners, including ASCP, speaks to the realization that investments in infrastructure to date have matured to the point where it is now possible to explicitly commit to having Africa"s laboratories aspire to and achieve compliance with international standards. The people of Africa and the world will benefit from this essential step forward." "Every patient deserves "access to accurate and reliable diagnostics that meaningfully inform the care and treatment they receive. The laboratory accreditation process is an important means to encourage, evaluate and recognize competence, quality and reliability in medical laboratory testing. We consider laboratories to be a gateway to the management and treatment of priority diseases," said Philip Rotz, Training Coordinator of the Laboratory Services Team for the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative. Connie Wilkins, a hospital laboratory director in Joplin, Missouri, in the United States and one of ASCP"s volunteers, said that the process will be critically important in helping laboratories run more efficiently. Much of the effort will be focused on training laboratory managers and other administrative staff to improve the management of the facilities. After the laboratories go through the five-stage process for WHO-AFRO, they will be closer to applying for international accreditation as well. "Anything we can do in education, including in improving laboratories is not just about saving a life but about improving quality of life," Wilkins said. "We"re improving healthcare starting with being able to deliver to doctors a more accurate diagnosis of the problem and by allowing doctors to see how well treatments are working through periodic testing. It"s just a huge deal." Preeti Singh Burness Communications


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