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-----------------------------------(The “Portland ffibseruer
New Pill Treats Deadly Brain Tumors
August 18, 1999
Page A3
LAl'RAN neergaard ________
© T he A ssociated P ress
WASHINGTON ( AP) - Patients
who have run out o f options to fight
a particularly deadly brain tumor are
about to get a new therapy that could
prolong their lives a little with appar
ently few side effects.
The Food and Drug Administra
tion on Wednesday approved the first
new chemotherapy for brain tumors
in 20 years, a drug called Temodar
designed for adults whose anaplastic
astrocytomas have failed treatment.
“Temodar is not a wonder d ru g ,...
not the cure drug that w e're looking
for,” cautioned Dr. Aired Yung, on
cology chairman at M.D Anderson
Cancer Center, who tested the drug.
"But it’s better than what we have
had,” because patients can take
Temodar at home with fewer side
effects than many alternatives, he said.
Temodar, known chemically as
temozolomide, is an oral form of
chemotherapy. Patients would take
pills at home for five days a month -
every month until their tumors seem
to stop responding.
About 18,000 brain tumors are
diagnosed in the United States each
year. Anaplastic astrocytomas are one
o f the worst kinds, accounting for
2,000 to 3,000 new cases a year.
These rapidly growing, hard-to-treat
tumors typically kill within two to
three years o f diagnosis.
Temodar is one of a new class of
cancer drags. Schering-Plough Corp,
tested it against anaplastic astrocytomas
in patients who relapsed despite surgery,
radiation and other chemotherapy.
Twelve o f 54 patients - a fairly
impressive 22 percent - had their
tumors significantly shrink or tem
porarily disappear, the FDA said.
The study was tiny and did not
compare Temodar to older chemo
therapies, so it’s hard to say if
Vacation and Do
Good Deeds
Transition Projects, Inc., a social
service agency serving more than
9.000 homeless and low-income
citizans annually, invites you to serve
your community as you vacation this
summer. Donations of hygiene sup
plies and bath towels generally de
cline during the busy summer months
as donors go on vacation and recline
in the sun. This summer. Transition
Projects is asking vacationers to col
lect extra bar soaps, shampoos, shav-
ing kits, and other hygiene supplies
while they vacation in hotels. Old'
bath towels (from your home) are
always a valuable donation also.
Donations can be dropped off 24 hours
a day atoneoftheirthreeshelters: 475
NW Glisan Street, 18 NE 1 l'h Street,
or 323 SE Hawthorne.
For more information on donat
ing, please contact Tony Bernal, Vol
unteer and Fundraising Coordinator,
at (503) 823-4930, extension 205.
Study on Allergy
Shots & Symptoms
B y LINDA A. JOHNSON
© T he A ssociated P ress
Monthly allergy shots can lessen
the torment o f hay fever years after
the shots are stopped, according to
a study in the New England Journal
o f Medicine.
Researchers at the Imperial Col
lege School o f Medicine in London
found that patients who received
immunotherapy monthly for three or
four years reported weaker symp
toms o f the grass-pollen allergy three
years after stopping the treatment.
“They may never relapse into
sym ptom s as severe as w hat they
had orig in ally ,” said Sam antha
W alker, one o f the s tu d y 's au
thors. “ In carefully selected pa
tients, this form o f treatm ent is
extrem ely e ffectiv e.”
Up to 20 percent o f people in the
United States and northern Europe
have hay fever. Allergy shots were
the primary treatment until the 1940s,
when antihistamine medications were
introduced, but the shots are still
widely used.
The researchers asked patients
to keep detailed diaries o f their
hay fever sym ptom s in 1993, ’94
and '95.
The study found little di fference
betw een the severity o f symptoms
reported by patients who had con
tinued allergy-shot treatment dur
ing the three-year trial and those
who got dummy shots. Those who
had never had immunotherapy re
ported much more severe symp
toms than the others.
The researchers also found that
the immune system s o f the p a
tients who discontinued treatm ent
pro d u ced less o f the allergen-
Temodar will prove better than other
cancer drugs that doctors now try as
last-ditch efforts. But Yung said he
believed that ltgave a better response
than doctors get from other alterna
tives - plus it’s easier to take.
Not only can patients take the pills
at home, but side effects proved milder
than for many chemotherapies. The
most common reactions were mild
nausea and vomiting, headaches and
mild immune suppression. Schering-
Plough Corp, said side effects were
severe in less than 10 percent o f pa
tients, and the FDA said most patients
had their immune systems recover
without having to delay treatment.
Even for those people Temodar
helped, it’s not a cure, Yung stressed.
But the m edian d u ratio n o f
Temodar’s effect was 12 1/2 months
- meaning half o f patients began re
lapsing sooner but half lasted longer.
One o f Yung’s patients, 59-year-
old Larry Sager o f Beaumont, Texas,
has seen his tumor stop growing for a
full 1 1/2 years - after surgery, radia
tion and a type of surgically implanted
chemotherapy patch all failed.
"I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t
for” Temodar, Sager said Wednes
day. “ When I asked him (the doctor)
my options, he said not to do any
thing, and then I’d have two months.
That wasn’t for me.”
Other than slight constipation the
five days a month that he takes
Temodar,“! had no side effects what
soever,” Sager said.
Temodar, “as a lower toxicity
drag, is of paramount importance to
th ese p a tie n ts ,” said N aom i
Berkowitz, executive director o f the
American Brain Tumor Association.
Temodar will be available next
month, Schering said. Dosage var
ies according to patients’ size, but
company figures suggest the aver
age treatment will cost about $ 1,500
a month wholesale.
Memory Loss Support
Group Forming
free and open to the community as
well as Kaiser Permanent members.
Meetings will be held in Confer
en ce Room 2A o f K a is e r
Permanent’s Interstate South M edi
cal Office, 3500 N. Interstate A v
enue in north Portland For infor
mation call Elex Tenney, MSW, at
(503) 571-3058.
(PORTLAND, Ore ) - Kaiser
Permanent is forming a support
group for the caregivers o f people
with significant memory loss, such
as dementia and A lzheim er’s dis
ease. The professionally facilitated
group will meet from 1:30 3 p.m.
the first Tuesday o f every month
starting Sept. 7. The meetings are
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Scientists Find
Virus Linked With
Breast Cancer
SYDNEY, Aug 12 (Reuters) -
U.S. scientists have discovered evi
dence o f a virus linked to human
breast cancer which they say could
lead to the development o f a vaccine
for the disease.
The virus, almost identical to one
causing breast cancer in laboratory
mice, was found in more than 85
percent o f women with breast can
cer, Robert Garry o f Tulane Univer
sity told an international virology
conference in Sydney this week.
The human mammary tumor vi
rus, which Garry said was hereditary
and non-infectious, was also discov
ered in 20 percent o f people without
breast cancer.
“If the virus has the same role in
human breast cancer as in mouse
breast cancer then this is a very sig
nificant step in fighting the disease."
Garry told Reuters on Thursday.
“Finding a vaccine shouldn’t be
all that difficult,” he said.
Breast cancer specialists were scep
tical, saying the link between a virus
and disease was not necessarily causal.
“Fifty percent of women who have
breast cancer might also have brown
hair, that doesn’t mean brown hair
causes cancer,” John Boyages, di
rector o f the New South W ales Breast
Cancer Institute, told Reuters.
“This association is interesting,
but needs to be replicated in bigger
numbers,” Boyages said.
The U.S. study was done on 30
breast cancer patients.
Garry said his findings could also
help the early detection o f breast
cancer, as the hereditary virus would
show up in DNA taken from a simple
blood test.
fighting su b stan ces that cause
runny noses and other hay fever
sy m p to m s th a n th e u n tre a te d
group. T hose who m aintained a l
le rg y -sh o t tre a tm e n t had even
few er o f those sym ptom s.
“ It’s the clearest dem onstration
o f a long-term effect o f immuno
therapy that I ’m aware of,” said Dr.
M arshall Plaut, ch ief o f the A ller
gic M echanism s Section at the N a
tional Institute o f Allergy and In
fectious Diseases.
The researchers said their find-
mgs and other studies suggest that
starting im m unotherapy sooner
after an allergy appears, p articu
larly in children, could prevent
the allergy from becom ing severe
and prevent developm ent o f addi
tional allergies.
“This may low er the bar for me
to start people a little earlier on
im munotherapy,” said Dr. Leonard
Bielory, director o f the Asthma and
Allergy Research Center at the Uni
versity o f M edicine and Dentistry
o f New Jersey.
August 3 through August 17,1999
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Jefferson
Democrats
1999-2000 School Year
by Roderick Edwards,
Scholar Athlete
ast year the Jefferson Democrats were
the center o f attention for the media.
The reconstitution was one o f the main
reasons that we were watched so closely.
Test scores and overall attendance were a
couple o f factors involved as well.
The staff last year did very well for the
circumstances that they were in. They were
expected to come in and change the school
in one year. Students also adapted to the
new environment o f administration, and
new faces all around.
This year the class o f 2000 hopes to
make a great change, to the point where the
media will focus on the progress the school
is making instead of the things that occur in
all schools in the country such as; poor
attendance, pregnancy in female students,
and low test scores.
For the 99-00 school year the Jefferson
Democrats student body will be led by Jesse
McCoun, Student Body President, and John
Lee, Student Body Vice President. These
two aren't just your average high school
students; they are Student Scholar Athletes,
willing to go the extra mile to make a change
in the school, impact the community around
the Jefferson area, and make Thomas
Jefferson High School the ‘ School o f Cham
pions, School o f Pride’ once again.
“This year's going to be crackin'; the
media will have a whole new perspective on
the Democrats o f 99-00," says dedicated
Senior Class Vice President Neal Brown.
Hopefully this year the student turnout
will be higher than last year, and students
will realize that education is one o f the
most important things in their lives at this
L
CONTINUED ON PAGE ?
S
SAFEW AY
FOOD & DRUG
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