| Govt rejects funding breast cancer drug
A drug for women with advanced breast cancer has been rejected for a government subsidy, prompting calls to have it added to a specialist funding scheme. Tykerb was approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) in August but has since been turned down twice for a subsidy under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). The expensive drug is designed for women with the extremely fast-moving HER2-positive form of breast cancer who have failed on the blockbuster drug Herceptin. The pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) currently subsidises the $45,000 treatment under an access scheme with the hope it would win a PBS subsidy. .
Obesity May Worsen Ovarian Cancer
The doctors included James Pavelka, MD, and Andrew Li, MD, of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. If their finding is correct, it could lengthen the list of possible links between obesity and cancer. Obesity has already been tied to cancers of the breast, colon, esophagus, kidney, and endometrium (inner uterus lining). Links to ovarian cancer haven't been certain, the researchers note. They studied the records of 216 women undergoing surgery and treatment for ovarian cancer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. The patients were in their late-50s to mid-60s, on average. They included 146 women with advanced ovarian cancer (stage III or IV ovarian cancer). Ovarian cancer is hard to spot in its earliest, most treatable stages.
Egg donor gives life — and a death sentence
The couple had intended to keep paternity a mystery. Both men's sperm was mixed with Gammelgard's eggs. When they found out Krystie was sick, though, doctors said identifying the mutation that caused the disease might help treat it. Karl was found to be the Tay-Sachs carrier and, by inference, Krystie's father. He is of Irish-American heritage but had no known Tay-Sachs in his family. Test results suggested a mutation typical of French Canadians. "I will always have this incredible amount of guilt because I'm the one who did this to our daughter," Karl said. As for the other recipients of Gammelgard's eggs, Van De Voort-Perez said Surrogate Alternatives has no way of contacting them. Different agencies handled all of her other donations, she said, and her agency never asked which they were.
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