Section A·Page 8
The University Daily Kansan
Tuesday, April 7, 1998
PUN IT ASIN SPORTS We Buy, Sell, Trade & Consign USED & New Sports Equipment 841-PLAY 1029 Massachusetts
Want to sell something fast?
Use the Kansan Classifieds!
Check out UDKi on-line at www.kansan.com.
UDKI
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
interactive
Graduate students:
Do you have concerns about graduate student life, employment opportunities, programming initiatives, teaching positions, and inter/Intra departmental and university administrative relations?
Become a member of GRADEX, the Graduate Executive Committee. GRADEX is an elected group of six graduate students that works directly with the graduate school, university administration, and Student Senate in representing graduate student issues and programming initiatives. GRADEX oversees the Graduate and Professional Association and sets the agenda for the Graduate Affairs Committee.
Nominate yourself, a friend, or colleague. Nominations and election will take place at the April 15 Graduate Affairs Committee meeting at 6:00 p.m. in the International Roon, Kansas Union.
No prior experience or involvement in university, graduate student. or departmental organizations is necessary; just a perspective on graduate student concerns.
TONIGHT
"Your Future as a Professional Biologist"
Speaker from MBA program and graduate student panel.
April 7th @ 7:00 p.m.
2023 Haworth
NEED FUNDING FOR YOUR MEDIA ORGANIZATION?
PICK UP AN APPLICATION FOR MEDIA BOARD IN THE SENATE STUDENT OFFICE,
APPLICATIONS DUE April 15 by 3:00pm
STUDENT THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS SENATE IN THE STUDENT SENATE OFFICE STUDENT THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS SENATE
Researchers find that drug helps prevent breast cancer
Study says risk could be reduced by 40-50 percent
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Federal researchers said they have definite proof that a drug can prevent breast cancer in women who are at high risk for the disease, the first demonstration of such an effect.
This is the first encouraging step toward finding drugs that prevent a number of different kinds of cancer, said Richard Klausner, director of the National Cancer Institute.
"As with any medication, the decision to begin tamoxifen therapy is a very complex one," she said. "There are no simple answers."
Klauser yesterday presented the results of a study that show that a drug called tamoxifen can reduce the risk of breast cancer 40 to 50 percent among women at high risk.
Ford said any decision to begin treatment should be weighed carefully.
Government officials acknowledged that the protection came with an increased risk of another type of cancer and of blood clots. Klausner said the research clearly showed the benefits for women at high risk in preventing breast cancer outweighed the risk of side effects from taking the drug.
"We are now in a position to give women an option. We can now intervene prior to the detection of breast cancer and really reduce a woman's chance of developing the disease," said Leslie Ford, the National Cancer Institute official overseeing the trial.
Ford predicted four years ago that if 16,000 women were recruited, tamoxifen would be expected to prevent 120 to 125 breast cancer cases, while producing 58 to 80 new cases of uterine cancer, which is far easier to detect early and cure than breast cancer.
Tamoxifen, which is made by Wilmington, Del.-based Zeneca Pharmaceuticals, is used to prevent the spread or return of breast cancer.
Yesterday,
she said, "None
of the risks
said. "This is almost overwhelming."
Women at risk of getting the disease-because of family history, precancerous breast lesions or age were assigned randomly to five years on either a placebo pill or tamoxifen.
"There are no simple answers."
Leslie Ford National Cancer Institute Official
were unanticipated, and none were greater than we thought they might be going into the trial."
"This is now the first study in the world to show that a drug can reduce the incidence of breast cancer," the letter told participants.
One of the study's participants, 45-year-old Patricia Lorah of Reading. Pa., lost her mother and grandmother to breast cancer. The deaths prompted her to take part in one of the largest cancer prevention trials ever.
The institute mailed letters announcing the breakthrough to the 13,000 women in the United States and Canada who participated in the study, which was first reported Sunday in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
"I'm just thrilled. Wow!" Lorah
decline of about 45 percent. Tamoxifen slips into estrogen receptors of breast-cancer cells and locks up the cells, preventing the cells from growing and dividing.
According to the institute, the drug reduced the rate of expected breast cancers from one in 130 women to one in 236 during the study, a
"If this turns out to be a good risk-benefit ratio for some women, that will be good news," said Cindy Pearson, the group's executive director.
Tamoxifen has been associated with increased risks for cancer in the uterine lining and with blood clots in the lungs. Those risks prompted The National Women's Health Network in Washington to criticize the study.
She said researchers must tell what they know about the cost of this benefit.
"Did any women die of anything
caused by tamoxifen?" she asked.
In 1994, the study was suspended while congressional hearings investigated four uterine cancer deaths in another study of breast-cancer treatment using tamoxifen. University of Pittsburgh surgeon Bernard Fisher, coordinator of the study, was investigated for reports that he was slow to address research problems.
That did not prevent women from staying in the study.
"I'm hoping I was on tamoxifen, but if I was in the placebo arm, I am going to ask my physician to put me on tamoxifen because I really believe in it," said Helen Wilson. 48, of North Wales, Pa
"I never considered dropping out. My thoughts were more like, 'Maybe I'll save my child's life and my own and other people's,'" said Fern Maklin, 49, of Newtown, Pa.
Study participants will be tracked for at least two more years.
Researchers still are analyzing the data. Medical recommendations for using tamoxifen to prevent cancer still are being developed, according to the letter sent to the participants.
The women now can go to the 270 medical centers participating in the study to find whether they were taking tamoxifen or the placebo.
U. S. shares of Zeneca Group, the British parent of Zeneca Pharmaceuticals, were up 8.5 percent yesterday afternoon on the New York Stock Exchange, soaring $11.62 1/2 to $148.87 1/2 a share.
Taco Bell sued for spit'n' chips
The Associated Press
BLACK MOUNTAIN, N.C. — Chris T. Phillips says he won't be returning to fast-food restaurants after a Taco Bell employee allegedly served him spit-covered chips.
The 31-year-old state highway patrol trooper is seeking $20,000 in damages from Taco Bell, employee Jason Paul Jones and Restaurant Management of Carolina in a lawsuit filed last week in Buncombe County Superior Court.
The lawsuit claims Jones spit on food Phillips ordered last summer at the Black Mountain Taco Bell. "I think my only question was why. Had I done something to anyone there?" Phillips said. "It's definitely left a phobia about eating at fast food restaurants."
After eating several of the nachos, Phillips noticed a clear, slimy substance on the nacho chips that appeared to him to be human saliva, according to the lawsuit.
The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation Lab tests confirmed the presence of human saliva on the chips.
"We don't know whether it was because he was a highway patrolman or because Chris happens to be Black or if this is something they do every now and then," said Phillips' lawyer. Robert B. Long Jr.
Peter Stack, vice president for public attriors for Taco Bell, said yesterday the restaurant chain immediately refunded Phillips his money and fired the employee.
"Company officials also met with the customer and apologized, and we regret he is going to the courts to try to resolve this matter." Stack said.
Jones could not be reached for comment; there was no phone listing for that name.
Squeaky clean
A University employee washes the windows yesterday afternoon at the Endowment Center near Nichols Hall on West Campus. Photo by Kansan staff.
Pollution turns rivers into latrine
Waste defiles pristine waters group claims
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — From hydroelectric dams in the Pacific Northwest to chicken farms near the Potomac River, a conservation group yesterday cited a growing list of threats to some of the nation's most famous waterways.
American Rivers picked the last undisturbed stretch of the Columbia River in Washington state to head its 13th annual list of the 20 most endangered rivers in the nation.
"We continue to abuse our rivers — by damming, draining, straightening and polluting them - all the while weakening their ability to sustain fish and wildlife," said Rebecca Wodder, president of the group, which is based in Washington, D.C.
Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Norm Dicks, both Washington Democrats, have introduced legislation to designate the Hanford Reach a National Wild and Scenic River to protect it against farming and potential development. American Rivers advocates creation of a 90,000-acre refuge.
"This spectacular stretch of the river is the crown jewel of
Other rivers the group says are endangered by pollution, commercial development and other threats include the Missouri, the Chattahoochee River in the Southeast, the Potomac and Pocomoke rivers in Maryland, Passaic River in New Jersey, Blackfoot River in Montana, Kern River in California, Apple River in Wisconsin and
"To say that this pristine stretch of the Columbia River is 'endangered' shows that the American Rivers group is clearly not interested in preservation, but rather they are trying to advance their own political agenda." he said.
"We continue to abuse our rivers..."
Rebecca Wodder American Rivers President
Pinto Creek in Arizona.
Animal manure and other farm runoff pose threats to the Pocomoke, Chattahoochee, Apple, Potomac and Kansas rivers, among others, the group said. Almost a half million animal factory farms are producing 130 times the waste of the human population.
"Factory hog and chicken farms are a growing national blight on our nation's rivers." Wodder said. "Waste from one of these factory operations is equal to that of a medium-sized city — a city with no sewage treatment plant."