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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 7, 1997)
j u s t o u t ▼ f o b r u a ry 7, 1 0 9 7 ▼ 9 See at «elisiti Listiigs it ur He kpagr êê Aftfi Nil ROYALli MortgageBanc Does AZT cause cancer? An N1H advisory panel says the results of a recent study are inconclusive and warrant no changes for now y by Bob Roehr tumors in at least four different animal species. study in mice conducted by the Na Advisory committee members found the NCI tional Cancer Institute has raised fears study interesting but questioned its immediate that AZT might cause cancer. The work was completed in November applicability to human therapy. and prompted an advisory committee Edward Bresnick, an animal researcher at the meeting at the National Institutes of Health on University of Massachusetts Medical Center, Jan. 14. The panel concluded that the study was called it "a fine model, but I don’t think it is ready “worrisome” from a theoretical perspective and for prime time.” suggested more research. The panel also said that Jean-Pierre Sommadossi, a pharmacologist at the data itself bears little immediate relevance for the University of Alabama at Birmingham, ques humans and merits no changes in current recom tioned the use of a mouse model. He pointed out mendations for use of AZT that there are “major dif as therapy. ferences” in the way mice and humans metabolize Clinical trial ACTG AZT. 076, concluded three years ago, demonstrated that Dr. Lucy Anderson, AZT is effective in greatly who conducted the study, reducing the perinatal was asked for her recom transmission of HIV from mendation on continued mother to fetus. The trans use of AZT in pregnant women. She responded, mission rate was 25.5 per cent in the placebo group “Whatever the cancer ri sk but only 8.3 percent in the might be, it is certainly AZT arm of the trial. By less than that of HIV in mid-1994 AZT had be fection.” Patricia Whitley-Wil come the recommended standard of therapy for liams, a professor at the pregnant women. Robert Wood Johnson The NCI study looked Medical School, noted at whether exposure to the resistance to using AZT in utero would in AZT within the African crease the risk of cancer American community. when the child grew to be She feared “this data is an adult. It chose mice and going to raise even more rats as the test subjects. resistance.” The pregnant rodents were heavily dosed with Several members of the HIV/AIDS commu AZT, at rates much higher than those used in nity raised the specter of mandatory testing and humans, to the point just short of spontaneously possibly mandatory medication of a drug that aborting the young. Normal births occurred and might cause cancer. They urged the committee to the young were followed. Tumors began to ap consider the political ramifications of its actions pear at abnormal rates at about 12 months, the as well as the scientific ones. human equivalent of approximately age 30. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Insti Those results may conflict with an earlier tute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, joined the study by Glaxo Wellcome, the manufacturer of audience for the afternoon session. He summarized AZT, which took a slightly different focus. It was the results by saying, “We’re not sure what it [the designed to measure the long-term carcinogenic NCI study] means, but we are obligated to bring it effect of the drug in animals at blood levels that to your attention.” He pressed for more research but approximated those found in humans under nor concluded, ‘The evidence that we have seen thus mal dosing. It found no abnormal occurrence of far does not warrant any changes” in therapy. A THE Nonconventional Direct Lender! http//www. 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Yet for some unexplained reason the study was not mentioned at a press conference later that month at which drug czar retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, Attorney General Janet Reno, and Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala bashed the medical use of mari juana. “Putting McCaffrey in charge of investigating medical marijuana is like putting Hillary Clinton in charge of investigating Whitewater,” said Steve Michael of ACT UP-Washington, “we know what is going to happen.” There are a vast number of anecdotal accounts but little truly scientific research to examine. Pharmaceutical companies have no financial in terest in conducting research into medical mari juana because it cannot be licensed for future profit, while for four years the DEA has effec tively blocked the one proposed clinical trial into marijuana’s effectiveness as a therapy in AIDS wasting syndrome. That trial protocol was cre ated by San Francisco medical researcher Dr. Donald Abrams with a review and approval by the Food and Drug Administration. The DEA also has a history of ignoring results it doesn’t like. In the late 1980s it charged admin istrative law judge Frank L. Young with examin ing the medical use of marijuana. The judge concluded that “Marijuana has been accepted as capable of relieving the distress of great numbers of very ill people and doing so with safety under medical supervision.” The DEA rejected his con clusions. Bob Roehr VOICE MAIL (503) 323-2221 E-M AIL Jewel2U @ teleport.com Proudly Serving The Greater Portland Metro Area 503/ 286-1330 E R S P O iT lA H * m ' Located in Historic St. Johns 8 3 0 2 N. LOMBARD • PORTLAND, OREGON 9 7 2 0 3 2 11 1 4 V .'. «umnuantiüflu- WHEEL ALIGNMENTS & TIRES 2454 E. 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