< MM« 4 * 1 w i -----------------------------------(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 THE LARGEST, MOST COMPLETERETA1L FABRIC STORE l\ THE WEST 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 MAILER SALE! Everything in the store* FABRIC DEPOT COI P O \ ¿1 QQ r 1 ’/ / M c C a l l ’s P a tte rn s • L im it 6 p e r c o u p o n • V a lid 8 / 1 2 9 9 - 8 / 1 5 9 9 • 4 d a y s o n ly S P E C IA L SA LE 2 DAYS ONLY-AUG. 15 & I t 40 | l f %OFF A L I F A B R IC extended hours N.iltinl.n - open (il ‘>pm Limited to stock on hand! BE SURE TO CHECK OUR STORE FOR “MANAGER’S SPECIALS" •Discounts do ihm apph (o prenoush discounted or marked down items. 8 3 9 9 thru 8 1799 RETAIL-WHOLESALE 184 A f / / RFTAII HOI RS: 1 STARK co I 8 street ] \R )\TRI9 9 d0.im “pni Si \] > \ï HMHUnV’ pm AX HOIT SAI T HOI RS Mt A-! Rl ’ Mim-S Aopiu ‘A ll RII A m i «um Apm s| \|) M 11 t«i.in)-»pui ★ 7 0 0 S.E. 1 2 2 n d Ave. P ortlan d , OR 252-9530 Visit our website at www fabricdepot.com 1-800-392-3376 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 Look For Y o u r Safeway W e e k ly !»r.*ro cm ,P s S hopping G u id e In Y o u r O re g o n ia n F O O D d a y in the P ortland M e tro Area ...a n d save m o re by sh o p p in g at Safeway. London Broil Boneless Beef T od Round or Lay's Super Size Chips g¡g 20.5 to 21.5-oz. 1.97 Classic or KC BBQ. Limit 2. 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