Delivering one dose of radiation to the area where a breast tumor was removed is as effective at preventing recurrence as treating the whole breast with radiation for weeks, a major new study has found. Because the procedure can be done during surgery, treatment of the cancer often can be limited to a single day, the researchers said. Standard radiation therapy typically is given five days a week for as long as 6 1/2 weeks. The co-authors of the study, released Saturday at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting in Chicago, called the data a major challenge to ‘the existing paradigm of the treatment of breast cancer.’ The British medical journal Lancet also published the results online. The findings are based on the TARGIT-A study, an ongoing international breast cancer clinical trial involving more than 2,000 breast cancer patients who were followed for as long as 10 years. The study took place at 28 medical centers in nine countries in Europe, North America and Asia. The study subjects were women 45 or older with invasive ductal breast carcinoma who were undergoing breast-conserving surgery. Half were randomly assigned to undergo conventional treatment – whole breast […]
Experts advising the World Health Organization on pandemic influenza and writing some of its guidance did not disclose their financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry, according to an investigative report in the BMJ. Some of the paid relationships involved companies that made antivirals and vaccines and were positioned to benefit financially from preparations for a flu pandemic, reported Deborah Cohen, features editor of BMJ, and Philip Carter, a journalist with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in London. The conflicts of interest were never publicly disclosed by WHO, according to the report, which was featured under the headline, ‘Did the drug industry influence WHO’s decisions about the swine flu pandemic?’ The investigation ‘has uncovered evidence that raises troubling questions about how WHO managed conflicts of interest among the scientists who advised its pandemic planning, and about the transparency of the science underlying its advice to governments,’ Cohen and Carter wrote. Although they said that ‘experts need to work with industry to develop the best possible drugs for illnesses,’ they argued that ‘questions remain about what level of involvement experts with industry ties should have in the formulation of public health policy.’ The U.S. Department of Health […]
Still waiting for a response to the 300 resumés you sent out last month? Bad news: Some companies are ignoring all unemployed applicants. In a current job posting on The People Place, a job recruiting website for the telecommunications, aerospace/defense and engineering industries, an anonymous electronics company in Angleton, Texas, advertises for a ‘Quality Engineer.’ Qualifications for the job are the usual: computer skills, oral and written communication skills, light to moderate lifting. But red print at the bottom of the ad says, ‘Client will not consider/review anyone NOT currently employed regardless of the reason.’ In a nearly identical job posting for the same position on the Benchmark Electronics website, the red print is missing. But a human resources representative for the company confirmed to HuffPost that the The People Place ad accurately reflects the company’s recruitment policies. ‘It’s our preference that they currently be employed,’ he said. ‘We typically go after people that are happy where they are and then tell them about the opportunities here. We do get a lot of applications blindly from people who are currently unemployed — with the economy being what it is, we’ve had a lot of people contact us […]
The first time Priya Merrill, who is Indian, brought her white boyfriend home for Thanksgiving in 2007, the dinner was uncomfortable and confusing. She still remembers her family asking if Andrew was the bartender or a family photographer. The couple married last August, and her Indian family has warmed up to her husband despite their racial differences. ‘I think we get the best of both cultures,’ said Merrill, 27, of New York. She added, ‘Sometimes I just forget that we’re interracial. I don’t really think about it.’ Asian. White. Black. Hispanic. Do race and ethnicity matter when it comes to marriage? Apparently, race is mattering less these days, say researchers at the Pew Research Center, who report that nearly one out of seven new marriages in the U.S. is interracial or interethnic. The report released Friday, which interviewed couples married for less than a year, found racial lines are blurring as more people choose to marry outside their race. ‘From what we can tell, this is the highest [percentage of interracial marriage] it has ever been,’ said Jeffrey Passel, a senior demographer for the Pew Research Center. He said interracial marriages have soared since […]
FORT VALLEY, Ga. – During the school year, Mondays in this rural Georgia community are for video games, trips to grandma’s house and hanging out at the neighborhood community center. Don’t bother showing up for school. The doors are locked and the lights are off. Peach County is one of more than 120 school districts across the country where students attend school just four days a week, a cost-saving tactic gaining popularity among cash-strapped districts struggling to make ends meet. The 4,000-student district started shaving a day off its weekly school calendar last year to help fill a $1 million budget shortfall. It was that or lay off 39 teachers the week before school started, said Superintendent Susan Clark. ‘We’re treading water,’ Clark said as she stood outside the headquarters of her seven-school district. ‘There was nothing else for us to do.’ The results? Test scores went up. So did attendance – for both students and teachers. The district is spending one-third of what it once did on substitute teachers, Clark said. And the graduation rate likely will be more than 80 percent for the first time in years, Clark said. The […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
