| GSK Receives Approval for HYCAMTIN(R) (topotecan) Capsules for the ...
PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) announced today approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for oral HYCAMTIN(R) (topotecan) capsules for the treatment of relapsed small cell lung cancer (SCLC). Specifically, HYCAMTIN capsules are indicated for patients who had a complete or partial response to first-line chemotherapy and who are at least 45 days from the end of that treatment. HYCAMTIN capsules are the only oral single-agent chemotherapy approved for the treatment of SCLC after failure of first-line therapy. The product will be available in 2008. "The approval of HYCAMTIN capsules is particularly important for patients with relapsed small cell lung cancer as they now have an effective treatment option that has been shown to provide a survival benefit and can be conveniently taken at home," said Debasish Roychowdhury, M.D., Vice President, Global Clinical Development, Oncology Medicine Development Center, GSK.
Journalist Matt Price dies aged 46
Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Sue and his children. We will really miss our brilliant parliamentary sketch writer. Matt was one of a kind. He was prolific and just as happy writing political commentary, as magazine profiles or Australian football and rock reviews. We will miss his conversation, sense of humour, humanity, good nature, positive outlook and wonderfully amusing take on the life of the body politic." Matt was always going to be a journalist. Born on October 15, 1961, he emerged from the Catholic school system with another well-known journalist, Sean Murphy of ABC television. They were five when they met. "He was a wonderful, larger than life character, if that's at all possible when you're a small kid. He was cheeky and completely disruptive in class and everyone loved him," Murphy recalls.
Breast MRI spots other cancers, may alter treatment plan
In about 20 percent of women with breast cancer who plan to undergo a lumpectomy, breast magnetic resonance imaging reveals important diagnostic information that alters their treatment plan, University of Florida surgeons reported.
MRI, which is not routinely administered to these patients, can find additional cancerous areas in the breast that previously evaded detection, discover cancer in the opposite breast that standard imaging tests such as mammography and ultrasound missed, or determine a tumor is actually larger than expected, the doctors say.
Some of these women end up needing a total mastectomy instead of breast-conserving lumpectomy. Others whose tumors are bigger than indicated on standard imaging could be less likely to face a second operation to remove cancerous cells left behind after a tumor is removed if MRI findings signal the need for surgeries to be more aggressive.
Obama's Joy?
Dr. Keith Siller, director of the Comprehensive Stroke Care Center at NYU Medical Center and assistant professor at the NYU School of Medicine, said it is unusual for a patient to be sedated after brain surgery for more than a few days. "The two-week period is longer than I would be happy with," he said. Siller is not the doctor on the scene, of course. Congressional Quarterly has some more encouraging stats [via IP]. ... He said it: Only Slate 's Tim Noah, however, has had the balls to prematurely speculate about a partisan Schiavo do-si-do in which Tom DeLay suddenly realizes that 'quality of life' is what counts, while Democrats discover that maybe the Schiavo conservatives had a point. ... 2:35 P.M. Crooks & Liars has 4 of the top 10 blog posts of 2006, according to Nielsen BuzzMetrics, which is pretty impressive.
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