Recent News and Articles on the Keywords: vaccine + flu + promise  Related to the article below (Last Update: 8/5/2008)

Vical Reports Second Quarter and First Six Months 2008 Financial ... PR Newswire (press release), NY - The Vaxfectin(R) adjuvant is currently being evaluated by potential partners for a variety of additional vaccine applications. -- In June, Vical received ...VICL Immunotherapy Boosts Treatment of Kids' High-Risk Sarcomas Washington Post, United States - Aug 4, 2008 The study involved a new dendritic vaccine as well as a standard flu vaccine to potentially strengthen the immune system following chemotherapy. ... Immunotherapy In High-risk Pediatric Sarcomas Shows Promising Response Science Daily (press release) - Aug 1, 2008 The researchers tested a novel dendritic vaccine as well as a standard flu vaccine to potentially strengthen the immune system post chemotherapy. ... Vical Takes New Tack With Bird-Flu Vaccine Wall Street Journal - Jul 16, 2008 By MARILYN CHASE A small San Diego biotech company Thursday will report encouraging test results for a new, experimental vaccine that holds promise for ...VICL Concentrated Immunotherapy Feasible in High-Risk Pediatric Sarcoma MedPage Today, NJ - Aug 1, 2008 In a small pilot study, patients with recurrent or metastatic sarcoma who got an experimental dendritic vaccine plus other immune boosters had a 43% ... Fighting Avian Flu with DNA Pharmaceutical Technology Magazine, NJ - Jul 8, 2008 Their technique delivers the vaccine by means of synthetic DNA designed specifically to build antigens against the avian flu. According to their research, ... Adolescents Are Not Receiving Recommended Immunization In US ... Science Daily (press release) - Jul 8, 2008 Vaccines to prevent flu are a regular part of medical care for senior citizens and at-risk patients. But, according to a new study, the US healthcare system ... Surgeon to test breast cancer vaccine Allentown Morning Call, PA - Jul 20, 2008 When used in cancer research, the term vaccine is not the same as a vaccine against polio or the flu, for example, which can prevent a healthy person from ... Researchers Identify Potential Drugs to Combat Bird Flu Infection Control Today, AZ - Jul 7, 2008 While flu vaccines are being developed, it could take up to nine months for an effective vaccine to be developed against any new strains, and could still be ... Women Leaders And Stumbling Politicians RH Reality Check, DC - Jul 20, 2008 The crankery about the HPV vaccine makes me doubly insane, because it plays on two of my biggest hot buttons, which are mindless sex phobias and ...

Bird Flu Vaccine Shows Promise

Dad's Family History Important to Breast Cancer Screening

When doctors take a woman's family history as part of breast cancer screening, they need to gather thorough information about her father's relatives, too, according to a U.S. study in the September issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Breast cancer cases in the father's family are under-reported in screenings, the researchers said. They analyzed data collected from 800 women and found that 16 percent of them reported breast cancer on their mother's side, compared with 10 percent on their father's side, BBC News reported.

This doesn't match the statistical expectation that a population of women should show an equal percentage of relatives with breast cancer in both their mother's and father's families.

"The most likely explanation for these findings may be underreporting of breast cancer on the paternal side," wrote researchers led by John Quillin of Virginia Commonwealth University.

Bird Flu Vaccine Shows Promise

More than 80 percent of people given an experimental bird flu vaccine developed by British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline PLC showed a protective immune response, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday.

Using a very low dose of inactivated virus, subjects were given a special adjuvant -- an added substance used to stimulate an immune response -- along with 3.8 micrograms of inactivated H5N1 bird flu virus. The company said this is the first time such a low dose of inactivated virus has been able to stimulate this large an immune response. The study, conducted in Belgium, involved 400 healthy adults from 18 to 60 years old.

The company said it hopes to make regulatory filings for the vaccine in the coming months.

Pfizer Seeks OK for Stand-Alone Heart Pill

Drug giant Pfizer, Inc. will apply for approval to sell a new heart treatment as a stand-alone pill, rather than only in combination with Lipitor, the company's best-selling cholesterol treatment, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

The new drug, torcetrapib, is still being tested in clinical trials and could be at least 18 months away from federal approval. Trials so far have shown that torcetrapib, a statin drug, substantially raises the levels of so-called good cholesterol, a novel approach to preventing heart attacks and strokes, and Wall Street analysts say it could become a blockbuster medicine, with sales of several billion dollars annually, the Times reported.

Pfizer's decision reverses a strategy that had drawn criticism from doctors who said the company was putting profits ahead of patients health. Not all patients, doctors complained, can easily switch from one statin to another, and some patients cannot take statins at all. In June 2005, an article in the New England Journal of Medicine criticized Pfizer's strategy. By offering torcetrapib only in a combination pill, Pfizer would have forced patients taking other statins such as Zocor, from Merck to switch to Lipitor if they wanted torcetrapib's benefits, the Times reported.

Pfizer expects to submit an application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to sell the combination pill in the second half of 2007, and if the drug trials continue to show good results, the FDA could give its approval for the stand-alone pill by the first half of 2008.

Smoking May Boost Alcohol Consumption

Smoking may reduce alcohol's effects and promote increased drinking, a U.S. study on rats suggests.

If the same holds true in humans, it may mean that smokers can tolerate drinking more than other people and are therefore at greater risk for alcohol-related problems, BBC News reported.

The rats' blood was tested after they were given varying doses of nicotine and alcohol. The level of alcohol in the rats' blood decreased as their nicotine levels increased.

The researchers said this may be because nicotine somehow delays the movement of alcohol from the stomach into the intestines, which is a major site of absorption for alcohol into the bloodstream.

The findings appear in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

"Since the desired effect of alcohol is significantly diminished by nicotine -- particularly among heavy- or binge-drinkers such as college students -- this may encourage drinkers to drink more to achieve the pleasurable or expected effect. In other words, cigarette smoking appears to promote the consumption of alcohol," said lead researcher Wei-Jeun Chen, associate professor of neuroscience at Texas A & M Health Science Center.