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NCI Web Site Wins Health & Medical Media Award
NCI's Web site, www.cancer.gov, has won the 2004 International Health
& Medical Media Award - the FREDDIE - in the Web site category. Now in its 30th year of competition, the prestigious FREDDIE awards are sponsored
by medical publisher MediMedia. The goal of the FREDDIE awards is to promote excellence in videos, films, DVDs, CD-ROMs, and Web sites that address health and medical issues for both consumers and health
care professionals.
Winning this FREDDIE puts NCI in excellent company. Previous FREDDIE winners include the Discovery Health Channel, ABC News, Home Box Office, Dateline NBC, and many others.
"Our staff continually meet the challenge of finding innovative ways to present all of NCI's information and resources to the public. It's very exciting
for the cancer.gov Web site, its staff, and other NCI staff who are responsible
for Web site content to be recognized in this way," said Nelvis Castro,
director of NCI's Office of Communications, which manages cancer.gov.
To see the full list of this year's winners and finalists in all categories,
visit http://www.thefreddies.com.
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Alcohol Consumption Not Linked to Bladder Cancer Risk
Researchers at Boston University Medical School and NCI found no association
between alcohol consumption and bladder cancer risk in a study of 10,125
people. However, beer consumption was significantly associated with a reduced
risk of the cancer, while hard liquor and wine were not. The results, published
in the September 15 Journal of the National Cancer Institute, were based on
records from the Framingham Heart Study - an extensive, population-based study
begun in 1948 and funded by the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National
Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Participants in the study have been
repeatedly interviewed about their alcohol consumption and smoking habits. For
each of the 122 bladder cancer cases included in the study, Dr. Luc Djoussé of
the Boston University School of Medicine and his colleagues selected as many as
5 control subjects matched by age, sex, and smoking status and frequency.
Smoking is known to be a strong risk factor for bladder cancer. They
categorized subjects by average grams of alcohol consumed per day, from zero to
48 - one drink contains about 12 grams. While most studies have not found an
association between alcohol consumption and bladder cancer risk, two have
provided evidence suggesting a connection in men. The authors speculate that
this may be due to the difficulty in controlling for smoking in these studies
and note that the population in the Framingham study is characterized by
moderate drinking - only 7 percent consumed more than four drinks a day. They
suggest further study to confirm the significant association they found between
beer consumption and reduced risk of bladder cancer.
EGFR Mutations Occur Frequently in Never-Smokers
Diagnosed with Lung Cancer
A high percentage of individuals considered "never-smokers" who develop lung
cancer have mutations in one specific receptor protein, according to a new
study appearing in the September 7 Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences. These mutations are present in the kinase domain of the epidermal
growth factor receptor (EGFR), and they are also associated with sensitivity to
the drugs gefitinib and erlotinib. The research team from Memorial
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Washington University School of Medicine,
funded in part by NCI, checked the sequences of EGFR from tumors known to
respond to gefitinib or erlotinib treatment. They found EGFR mutations in 12
out of 17 drug-sensitive tumor samples. In contrast, none of the 18
drug-resistant tumors examined contained an EGFR mutation. A majority of these
mutations were found in one of two conserved regions on the receptor, both of
which were near the activation site. Most of the mutation-positive tumors came
from patients classified as never-smokers, so the researchers next examined the
frequency of EGFR mutations in relation to smoking rates. EGFR mutations were
present in 7 of 15 samples derived from never-smokers, while only 4 of 81
samples derived from current or former smokers contained an EGFR mutation.
Interestingly, 3 of the EGFR mutations among the current-smoker samples came
from patients with limited exposure to smoke; they were not long-term heavy
smokers. "Collectively, these data show that adenocarcinomas from never smokers
comprise a distinct subset of lung cancers, frequently containing mutations
within the TK domain of EGFR that are associated with gefitinib and erlotinib
sensitivity," stated the authors.
Increasing Fruit and Vegetable Consumption through Grocery Stores and Other Settings
Researchers at Emory University and NCI have collaborated in presenting
strategies for increasing daily recommended servings of fruits and vegetables.
These recommendations stem from a September 26-27, 2002 workshop cosponsored by
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Cancer Society.
Experts from the government and private sectors, produce and food service
industries, and academic researchers attended the Fruit and Vegetable
Environment, Policy, and Pricing Workshop, and worked to identify
interventions, strategies, and existing programs to improve efforts in
increasing fruit and vegetable consumption. In a supplement to the September
2004 Preventive Medicine, Dr. Karen Glanz of Emory University and Dr. Amy
Yaroch of NCI present an overview of environmental, policy, and pricing
strategies that can be applied in grocery stores and other community
settings. Grocery stores are a valuable untapped resource in exerting change in
eating habits; the authors note that recent studies have found not only that
fruit and vegetable intake in adults increased in proportion to additional
grocery stores within a census tract, but that availability of healthy foods in
stores is associated with adherence to healthier diets. Additionally, grocery
stores now account for almost one-fifth of all take-out foods, thus
contributing to their importance in Americans' food choices. Interventions that
can be implemented in grocery stores to promote good health, provide product
information, lower costs, and offer product diversity include:
point-of-purchase information; reduced prices and coupons; increased
availability, variety, and convenience; and promotion and advertising. Other
community settings such as churches, child care centers, and neighborhoods have
implemented similar programs to increase fruit and vegetable consumption. These
types of strategies have shown promise in emphasizing the need for proper
nutrition through fruit and vegetable intake, but limited evaluations have
yielded mixed results in terms of their effectiveness. The authors note "there
is a need to further develop valid and reliable measures of supermarket
environments beyond the excellent but limited work of the early 1990s."
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