TUESDAY,OCT.23,2001
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 5A
Surgery could save lymph glands
The Associated Press
LISBON, Portugal — New surgical techniques could save the lymph nodes and avoid radiotherapy after breast cancer surgery, a leading expert said yesterday.
Traditional breast surgery involves removing all the lymph glands in the armpit to determine if the tumor has spread. Most of the time in early breast cancer, it has not. However, about 20 percent of women then suffer the rest of their lives from swelling in their arms, which can painfully balloon to twice the normal size and leave them disabled and prone to
infections.
Umberto Veronesi, a pioneer of breast conserving surgery in the 1970s, presented new evidence at a meeting of the Federation of European Cancer Societies that indicated that first removing only one key node for testing was as accurate a predictor as cutting them all out.
The technique, known as sentinel node biopsy, is rapidly gaining recognition and is used quite widely in top cancer centers but has not been embraced by all cancer doctors.
"It's a little controversial. Certain opinion leaders feel it's not totally
established yet," said Larry Norton, chief of medical oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.
Harry Bartelink of the Netherlands Cancer Institute, also took a cautious view.
"Breast cancer is a slow, recurrent disease, so I would really like to see 10 years of follow-up to say it's safe," he said. "It would be better to remove all the nodes than the wrong one."
The status of the lymph glands is considered one of the most important indicators of prognosis and which treatment is best.
There are between 25 and 40 lymph nodes under each armpit and the location of the sentinel node — the first node to be invaded by cancer — varies from woman to woman.
To find the right node, a radioactive probe is injected into the breast, close to the tumor, and is carried by the lymphatic system into the sentinel node. The glow of the tracer guides surgeons to the correct node.
Doctors then remove the tagged node, and tests establish whether cancer is present and thus if removal of the rest of the lymph nodes and further treatment are necessary.
Anthrax cases may lead to more e-mails
The Associated Press
Hundreds of unused bulk-mail pitches sit in a box under a desk at Ultimate Software.
The anthrax scare forced the Weston, Fla., company that specializes in payroll and personnel programs to cancel a long-planned marketing campaign. Joanne Urbanik, the company's marketing director, is now looking to salvage sales by reviving the campaign on the Internet.
Across the country, businesses and individuals are rehinking their reliance on postal mail, giving additional impetus to growth in e-mail marketing, billing and other digital communication.
Urbanik said she would try to focus on individuals who have specifically agreed to receive e-mail offers. But some e-mail recipients might worry they'll also get bombarded by more unsolicited messages or spam.
"I grimly expect there will be people who hitchhike on the anthrax scare and say, 'For your convenience, we will spam you,'" said John Levine of the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail.
Bulk mail hasn't been the culprit in the anthrax cases, and the number of tainted letters is low, but Gartner analyst Scott Nelson said, "The key here is perception, and (consumers)
become afraid of unexplained packages."
Direct Marketing Association estimates that the anthrax scare will cost bulk mailers, who generated $528 billion in sales last year, at least $1 billion to $2 billion in lost sales.
The group said mailers should consider using e-mail or phone calls as well to alert consumers of postal mail on the way.
Yet Bob Wientzen, the group's chief executive, expects disruptions in direct mail to be temporary.
"E-mail is growing as a marketing tool, but it will grow as an additional channel, not as the only channel," he said.
So far, the anthrax scare hasn't resulted in drastic increases in email or drops in postal sales. But change could come gradually in the next weeks and months as mailers try to increase the likelihood of having their messages read.
Steven Schneider, a State University of New York professor who has been studying Internet use, said the anthrax scare shifts the tolerance level.
"When you go from worrying about a virus attacking your hard drive to a (bacteria) attacking your children," Schneider said, "people are more inclined to settle for damage to your hard drive."
U.S.forces strike head-on; prepare for Kabul attack
The Associated Press
BAGRAM, Afghanistan — U.S. jets struck Taliban front-line positions yesterday as the United States tried to pave the way for the opposition to advance on Kabul and other major cities.
In an appeal for Muslim support worldwide, the Taliban accused America of waging a campaign of "genocide."
"Our efforts clearly are to assist those on the ground occupy more ground," Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said in Washington.
The president of neighboring Pakistan, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, said he hoped military operations in Afghanistan would be finished by mid-November, when the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began. Leaders throughout the Muslim world fear a backlash if operations continue against Muslim Afghanistan during Ramadan.
With the shift toward front-line targets, U.S. jets spared Kabul for the first time since the bombing was launched Oct. 7.
was admitted Oct. 17.
Opposition commanders were clearly pleased to see American jets striking Taliban positions and expressed hope there would be more attacks.
expressed hope that we would The United States has been reluctant to allow the opposition to enter Kabul until Afghan factions had agreed on a broad-based government to replace the Taliban.
Pakistan had been urging the United States to restrain the alliance, arguing that the ethnic minority Tajik and Uzbek-dominated coalition would never be accepted by the Pashtun majority, which forms the core of the Taliban.
The Taliban have insisted they remain firmly in control.
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