cancer
oracknows | August 18, 2011I don't know if I should thank Peter Lipson or condemn him.
What am I talking about? Yesterday, Peter sent me a brain-meltingly bad study in so-called "complementary and alternative medicine" that shows me just how bad a study can be and be accepted into what I used to consider a reasonably good journal. I say "used to consider," because the fact that this journal accepted a study this ludicrously bad indicates to me that peer review at the journal is so broken that I now wonder about what else I've read at that journal that I should now discount as being so unreliable as to be not worth…
"Integrative medicine" further evolves into "evidence-based complementary medicine." Nothing changes
oracknows | August 16, 2011One of these days I'm going to end up getting myself in trouble.
The reason, as I've only half-joked before, is that, even though I'm not even 50 yet, I'm already feeling like a dinosaur when it comes to "complementary and alternative medicine" (CAM) or, as it's called more frequently now, "integrative medicine" (IM). These days, we now have the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), the Bravewell Collaborative, and a number of other forces are conspiring to "integrate" quackery with real medicine. As part of that task, it's been necessary to rebrand quackery, a…
cmonforton | August 15, 2011The Republican chairmen of the House Education and the Workforce Committee and its Subcommittee on Workforce Protections are invoking "sound science" and "transparency" in a request to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) for data and draft publications of a cancer mortality study of underground miners exposed to diesel exhaust. Congressman John Kline (R-MN) and Tim Walberg (R-MI) wrote to NIOSH director John Howard onJuly 8, suggesting that the agency is violating a 2001 federal court order. That order stemmed from a lawsuit filed more than 15 years ago by the…
oracknows | August 14, 2011NOTE: I was on a lovely vacation for three days in Chicago over the weekend, where I visited old haunts. (Bathroom attendants? At one of my favorite pub hangouts when I lived in Lincoln Park, John Barleycorn? Handing out crappy brown paper towels? Plastering the walls there with endless rows of flat screen TVs turned continuously on sports and news? Really? Oh, the pain.) In any case, what that means is that I didn't write anything new for today (other than this introduction). I did, however, find a lovely post from over two and a half years ago to recycle and update. Remember: If you haven't…
oracknows | August 2, 2011One of the very first themes I started hammering on in this blog, dating back to its very inception, is the analysis of alternative medicine cancer testimonials. One reason was (and is) that I take care of cancer patients and do research into developing new treatments for a living. Another reason is that, to the average lay person, most of whom don't have much of an understanding of cancer, alternative medicine cancer testimonials can sound extremely convincing.
For example, if you didn't know that breast cancer can have a highly variable course spreading out over years, Kim Tinkham's claim…
jhalper | July 23, 2011Today's science news from the Weizmann Institute covers research in neurobiology, environmental science and cancer immunology.
⢠In the first, scientists identified a likely biological marker for autism that shows up even in very young children. Diagnoses of autism are generally not possible so early, as the signs typically appear gradually throughout the first 3-4 years of life. The scientists used fMRI to scan the brains of children aged 1-3 who were just starting to show signs of autistic behavior. Their method: scanning the brains of toddlers while they sleep. It seems that even asleep…
cmonforton | July 19, 2011Thanks to Ken Ward at Coal Tatto for alerting me to a hearing conducted last week in the House Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs, Stimulus Overight and Government Spending, of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform called "EPA's Appalachian Energy Permitorium: Job Killer or Job Creator?" The majoirity of the witnesses were at the ready to sing the praises of King Coal and complain that the Obama Administration is trying to cripple the industry. The target of the oversight hearing was the EPA, with Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) serving as lead-off witness and insisting…
cmonforton | July 12, 2011If one listens to the speeches of many Republican members of Congress, especially those assigned to the House Education and Workforce Committee, you'd think the U.S. Department of Labor has unleashed an avalanche of new employment-related regulations that business must now meet. I heard one Hill staffer report on inquiries he receives from constituents who ask "how many OSHA rules were issued last month?" Imagine their surprise when they learn, OSHA barely issues one major rule per year. Whomever is telling lawmakers and business that the Labor Department's worker safety agencies are out-…
cmonforton | July 6, 2011During his first week in office, President Obama promised an Administration defined by
"unprecedented level of openness...to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration."
But that's not been the case when it comes to a draft worker safety rule developed by federal OSHA. Almost all the participation has been among special interest groups--not the ordinary workers who have the most at stake---and not in a public process that builds trust and is participatory.
The proposed regulation would affect workers exposed to respirable…
oracknows | July 4, 2011I saw this story on Friday and almost couldn't wait the weekend to blog about it. However, since the conference that was brought to my attention isn't until November, I ultimately decided that it would keep. At least until now.
This story is about Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health. Unlike some bloggers, personally, as a physician and scientist I don't much care about what religion Dr. Collins ascribes to. Unlike some writers such as Sam Harris, most definitely do not consider his strong Christian faith a disqualification for holding the position that he now…
lborkowski | June 27, 2011by Dick Clapp, DSc, MPH
The documentary "Semper Fi: Always Faithful" was screened at the Congressional Auditorium in the Capitol Visitors Center on a hot, humid evening in Washington, DC on June 23. Congressman Brad Miller (D-NC) welcomed the audience of Congressional staff, North Carolina Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), and approximately 150 audience members and representatives from groups such as the Blue-Green Alliance, Environmental Working Group (EWG) and interested individuals.
Congressman Miller said he is approached by many groups seeking his help to move large bureaucracies or make…
cmonforton | June 23, 2011Rhetoric has been flying this year, especially in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, about the "burdens" of federal regulations. Many of these members seem to despise EPA rules, CSPS rules, healthcare rules, and OSHA rules. Many of their talking points come from groups like the Heritage Foundation with their reports "Red Tape Rising: Obama's Torrent of New Regulations," and "Rolling Back Red Tape: 20 Regulations to Eliminate," and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's multi-media "Regulations: Restoring Balance" campaign. Many House members were embolden early in the…
egrossman | June 22, 2011by Elizabeth Grossman
On June 10th the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the National Toxicology Program released the department's 12th Report on Carcinogens, adding eight new substances to the overall list that now includes 240 compounds (or classes of compounds) known or reasonably anticipated to be human carcinogens. Two of these eight - the industrial chemical formaldehyde and the botanical compounds known as aristolochic acids - are listed as known human carcinogens. Six others - styrene, certain inhalable glass wool fibers, o-nitrotoluene, captafol, cobalt-tungsten…
sa smith | June 21, 2011No, Im not talking about XMRV ;)
Im talking about using genetically modified viruses to treat prostate cancer :)
Broad antigenic coverage induced by vaccination with virus-based cDNA libraries cures established tumors
First, just to be clear, I dont know how this works. :-/
I mean, I know how this 'works', but I dont know how its actually working.
Firstly, it works nothing like the anti-tumor vaccines I have written about previously. In that case, scientists used HSV-1 as a Kamikaze-- the virus delivers a protein to the cancer cell that attracted immune cells to kill the tumor.
Not how this…
cmonforton | June 21, 2011In a post on May 5, I predicted that Labor Secretary Hilda Solis would be publishing within a few days her semi-annual regulatory plan for new worker health and safety rules. I made that projection based on requirements in the Regulatory Flexibility Act and Executive Order 12866, which suggest these plans be published every April and October. As I've written previously, this Administration has a habit of being tardy releasing these plans, and this fifth document is posed to be the most belated. According to a very nice press officer with the Office of Management and Budget, the agencies…
lborkowski | June 17, 2011by Kim Krisberg
Don't mess with Texas. The iconic phrase was actually created as part of an anti-littering campaign more than 20 years ago, however it could be as easily applied to the state's notorious anti-regulatory attitude and penchant for bucking convention. But despite its reputation, the Lone Star State is poised to join 29 other states in passing a statewide restriction on indoor smoking.
With the Texas legislature now in special session, policy-makers are considering a bill (known as HB 46 in the House and SB 28 in the Senate) that would ban indoor smoking in bars and restaurants.…
stoat | June 1, 2011Keith Kloor is having fun being kwuooeeeel to poor Joe Romm, simply because Romm is being an anti-scientific bozo pushing groundless fears of cancer-from-mobile-phones. Keith has a nice collection of links to sane people pointing out that there is no evidence of a problem. One of whom is Orac, in a post entertainingly entitled The bride of the son of the revenge of cell phones and cancer rises from the grave...again. And the key quote is Still, despite my trying to keep an open mind on the matter, I also don't want my mind to be so open that my brains fall out, so to speak. Alas, Romm has…
oracknows | May 31, 2011I've caught some flak before over things I've written about the almost certainly nonexistent link between cell phones and cancer. Actually, it's not the kind of flak you probably think, unless you've been a long time reader and remember the relevant posts. You'd think it would be believers attacking the mean old skeptic for denying a link between cell phone radiation and cancer, thus making me (obviously) a shill for big telecom. Actually, it was flak from one physicist and at least a couple of skeptics, who didn't like that I actually left open the small possibility that it could be possible…
jhalper | May 24, 2011This week's Weizmann news stories: A "steam release valve" for inflammation, a "brake" for cell division and an "amplifier" for quantum signals.
The steam release valve mechanism also involves an amplifier - one that ramps up the inflammation signal in response to viral attack on a cell. When the signal reaches its peak, it trips a nearby protein called caspase-8, which then kills the amps, damping the signal back down. The scientists think that failures in this mechanism could be behind various inflammatory diseases.
The brake on cell division turns out to be our old friend p53. Thirty…
oracknows | May 16, 2011Remember dichloroacetate, also known as DCA?
This is a relatively simple compound that showed promise in rodent models of cancer four years ago, leading to an Internet meme that "scientists cure cancer, but no one notices." It also lead to scammers trying to take advantage of desperately ill cancer patients. The whole sordid story is detailed in my series of posts, the most recent of which I wrote about a year ago and link to here. I've also appended a list of every post I've written on the subject since I first discovered DCA in January 2007. It's a story of hope, fascinating cancer biology…