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Philadelphia Area Increases Inpatient Hospice Care
A new market emerges for special end-of-life care that is inpatient and offers quiet rooms, home-like settings and high-tech alternatives. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports: "For most people, hospice is a collection of services -- and an attitude -- that helps the terminally ill die comfortably at home. But as the number of patients entering hospice grows and as the drugs and technology used to ease pain become more sophisticated, some hospice providers say they"re seeing more patients who need more care than their families can provide at home. That need, combined with the availability of some empty hospital buildings, has led to the creation, since November, of three new inpatient hospice units in this area."
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A Person's High Or Low Response To Alcohol Says Much About Their Risk For Alcoholism
Someone who has a low level of response (LR) to alcohol, meaning relatively little reaction to alcohol, has a higher risk for developing alcohol-use disorders (AUDs). A study that examined the influence of LR in conjunction with other characteristics - like family history of AUDs and age of drinking onset - has found that LR is a unique risk factor for AUDs across adulthood and is not simply a reflection of a broader range of risk factors.
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Tiller's Patients, Not Critics, Should Be Ones To 'Define His Memory,' Opinion Piece Says
In a "portrayal that defied logic," George Tiller -- the Kansas abortion provider who was murdered last month -- has been depicted "on Web sites, TV and radio talk shows and in legislative hearings as the reckless "abortionist," willing to euthanize babies close to birth just so the mother could fit into a prom dress or attend a rock concert," Barbara Shelly, a member of the Kansas City Star editorial board, writes in a Star opinion piece. She asks, "Would someone in the third trimester of pregnancy travel to the heart of Kansas and pay a $6,000 fee just to fit into a size six party dress?" Shelly adds that the "overwhelming majority of the 250 to 300 women a year" that sought abortions from Tiller in the second and third trimesters had planned their pregnancies. She profiles a Missouri college professor, pregnant with twins, who traveled to Tiller"s clinic with her husband to obtain an abortion after an amniocentesis revealed that neither fetus would survive and that she faced potentially life-threatening complications if the pregnancy continued. Shelly writes that the woman and others like her went to Tiller "heartbroken and afraid, carrying fetuses with malfunctioning kidneys, missing organs and syndromes certain to cause death in the womb or soon after birth." A smaller number were survivors of rape and incest, including young girls, according to Shelly. The "prom queen who talked her way into a late-term abortion" is a "creation of Tiller"s enemies," Shelly writes, concluding that the "real people" affected by his death are the "thousands who wrote the notes that now serve as a memorial wall to a fallen physician. They are the ones who should define his memory" (Shelly, Kansas City Star, 6/9).
Nutrition

Yeast 'DNA Damage Sensor' Provides Chemotherapy Resistance Clue

Cancer Research UK scientists have been part of an international collaboration that has revealed the structure of a protein found in simple yeast cells and shown how it flags up damaged DNA for repair. The results of their study are published in Nature*. The finding may provide clues as to how some cancer cells become resistant to certain chemotherapy drugs. Researchers based at Cancer Research UK"s Paterson Institute for Cancer Research at the University of Manchester, worked with other US and UK collaborators to investigate a recently discovered DNA "damage sensing" protein family. The collaboration used a technique called X-ray crystallography to show in yeast cells how the family called alkyltransferase-like proteins (ATLs) - originally discovered by Paterson scientists*** - can detect the DNA damage caused by some anti-cancer drugs, and alert the cell"s DNA repair machinery. They also found ATLs in organisms as diverse as sea anemones and microscopic organisms - so it"s likely that a similar protein plays the same kind of "damage sensor" role in humans. Some anti-cancer drugs kill tumour cells by damaging their DNA. But sometimes the treatment fails because tumour cells can repair this DNA damage - and reverse the effects of the drug. This latest study suggests that that ATL proteins might contribute to this drug resistance. Their new work shows how the yeast ATL protein binds to DNA and "flips" out the damaged DNA bases, flagging them up for repair. The scientists already knew that the ATL in yeast cells protect them from being destroyed by the kind of damage caused by anticancer agents. When the gene for the ATL protein was deactivated in yeast cells, the yeast cells became very sensitive to these drugs. The study of the DNA repair processes in cells is an area of intense activity. A better understanding of them will help scientists find ways to block DNA repair which could lead to the development of more effective cancer treatments. A number of clinical trials based on this concept are being carried out at the moment. Doctor Geoff Margison, Cancer Research UK scientist and study co-author, said: "We have found out how this family of proteins can begin the repair of certain types of DNA damage. "Now the hunt is on to see if similar processes exist in humans. If so, they may tell us why some tumours do not respond to certain chemotherapy drugs and they will provide important new targets for future drug development." Dr Helen George, Cancer Research UK"s head of science information, said: "Our research over several decades has contributed to our understanding of repair kits in cells and these latest results are an exciting step forward. Many chemotherapy drugs work by damaging the DNA in cancer cells which destroys them. But cells can be incredibly resilient and fight back to repair their damage. "This research reveals for the first time exactly how a key repair protein can detect the damage caused by some types of chemotherapy and initiate the DNA repair process. If this process occurs in humans, this may provide new leads for treating cancer." Notes *Alkylated DNA damage flipping bridges base and nucleotide excision repair. Nature. Julie Tubbs et al. ** X-ray crystallography This technique is used to determine molecular structures by finding out the order in which atoms are arranged within a crystal. X-rays are beamed onto a crystallised form of the molecule of interest and are scattered in different directions. By following the direction in which the x-rays are scattered it is possible to produce a 3-D structure of the location of the atoms in the crystal and from this determine the 3-D structure of the molecules. ***In 2003-2007 they first reported and then characterised the fission yeast ATL protein and reported that inactivation of the gene (called Atl1) in S.pombe made them very sensitive to DNA damaging agents. Margison GP, Povey AC, Kaina B, Santibanez Koref MF. Variability and regulation of O6-alkylguanine-DNA alkyltransferase. Carcinogenesis. 24: 625-635. (2003) Pearson SJ, Ferguson J, Santibanez-Koref M, Margison GP. Inhibition of O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase by an alkyltransferase-like protein from Escherichia coli. Nucleic Acids Res. 33: 3837-3844 (2005) Pearson, S.J., Wharton, S.J., Watson, A.J., Begum. G., Butt, A., Glynn, N., Shibata, T., Williams, D.M. Santibanez-Koref, M.F., Margison, G.P. A novel DNA damage recognition protein in S. pombe. Nucleic Acids Res. 34: 2347-2354 (2006) Margison, G.P., Butt, A., Pearson, S.J., Wharton, S.J., Watson, A.J., Marriott, A., Caetano, C.M., Hollins, J.J., Rukazenkova, N., Begum, G. and Santibanez-Koref, M.F. Alkyltransferase-like proteins. DNA Repair 8; 1222-1228 (2007). About Cancer Research UK - Together with its partners and supporters, Cancer Research UK"s vision is to beat cancer. - Cancer Research UK carries out world-class research to improve understanding of the disease and find out how to prevent, diagnose and treat different kinds of cancer. - Cancer Research UK ensures that its findings are used to improve the lives of all cancer patients. - Cancer Research UK helps people to understand cancer, the progress that is being made and the choices each person can make. - Cancer Research UK works in partnership with others to achieve the greatest impact in the global fight against cancer. Cancer Research UK


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