FDA ApprovesAvastin For Treatment of Breast Cancer

Washington (dbTechno) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the Genentech drug Avastin for treatment of advanced breast cancer. This FDA approval is a huge victory for Genentech as well as the advancement in the fight against breast cancer.

Avastin has already been approved to treat many types of cancers, including colon and lung cancer.

A U.S. biotechnology company revealed a week ago that a study on Avastin showed that it was very effective against breast cancer. It managed to allow patients to live longer lives without their breast cancer getting any worse.

Genentech saw shared jump 9% following the announcement that the FDA has approved the drug.

It was believed by many that the FDA would delay their decision on Avastin based on new data which had just recently come in.

This is big news for Genentech though, as an FDA advisory panel rejected Avastin for breast cancer last December. They stated that the toxicity risks outweighed the benefits. The vote was only by a slim margin to reject it though, and new studies have shown it is beneficial.

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Eighty killed in bloodiest attack since Taliban's fall

A suicide bomber killed more than 80 people at a picnic spot in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar yesterday in the most deadly attack since the Taliban was ousted in 2001.

The attack will add urgency to a debate about how the United States and Afghanistan's other allies can help stem violence.

"This event ... left behind more than 80 killed and 50 wounded," the Interior Ministry said in a statement. The death toll may rise because some of the wounded were critical.

The attack happened in a field where a crowd of people, including police, were watching dog fights on the western outskirts of Kandahar city.

Enemies

Kandahar governor Assadullah Khalid said it was the work of Afghanistan's enemies, a term used by the government to refer to Taliban insurgents.

The Taliban could not be contacted for comment.

The head of an auxiliary police force in Kandahar, Abdul Hakim, was among the dead, Mr Khalid said.

After the blast, some of Hakim's guards fired at the crowd causing casualties, witnesses said.

The Interior Ministry said it was the bloodiest attack since US-led troops overthrew the Taliban government in 2001.

In November, a suicide bomb attack and subsequent firing by police killed more than 75 people, including six politicians, in the province of Baghlan.

Thirteen policemen and six children were killed yesterday, a police official near the site of the blast said.

"The match was going on and all of a sudden the explosion went off," said witness Abdul Rahman whose brother was killed.

Dog-fighting is a popular pastime in Afghanistan. The hardline Taliban banned it during its rule, along with other forms of entertainment such as music, dancing and television.

Kandahar is a stronghold of the Taliban who largely rely on suicide attacks and roadside bombings in their campaign to force foreign troops out and topple the government.

Despite the presence of more than 50,000 foreign troops, as well as some 140,000 Afghan troops, the militants have made a comeback in the past two years, and more than 11,000 people have been killed.

Violence has been concentrated in areas bordering Pakistan where the militants have taken refuge in lawless areas.Taliban

Some Western politicians say more troops are needed to tackle the insurgency or Afghanistan will slide back into anarchy.

President Hamid Karzai, who has been leading Afghanistan since the Taliban was ousted, instead wants the strengthening of the Western-trained Afghan forces and more funds.

- Ismail Sameem and Mirwais Afghan in Kandahar, Afghanistan

Independent

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Gunman Planned Campus Shooting For At Least Six Days

The graduate student who massacred students in Northern Illinois University lecture hall bought three of his four guns on Saturday - indicating that he had been planning his assault for at least six days, ABC News has learned.

University sources identfied the gunman as Steve Kazmierczak, 27, a onetime undergraduate and award winning sociology graduate student at NIU.

Fresh details about the latest campus carnage emerged as a seventh student died this morning from gunshot wounds suffered when the gunman opened fire Thursday afternoon at NIU in DeKalb, Ill.

The bloodbath claimed a total of seven lives, including the gunman who also shot himself, and another 16 wounded.

Kazmierczak, dressed in black, was armed with three handguns and a shotgun as students took cover beneath desks and ran out of the lecture hall. He was later found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.

In all, there were 23 casualties in the shooting, including the gunman, university president John Peters told "Good Morning America." Several of the victims were taken to hospitals, where three later died. Four others, including the shooter, died at the scene of the gunfire. Peters said no note was found and no motive is yet known.

"There is no note or threat that I know of," Peters told GMA. "By all accounts that we can tell right now [he] was a very good student that the professors thought well of."

Law enforcement authorities told ABC News that Kazmierczak, bought most of his arsenal -- a 12 gauge shotgun, .22 pistol and a .9 mm pistol -- at a gun store in Champaign, Ill., on Saturday, indicating that he had planned the assault on the school for at least five days.

A .45 Glock semi-automatic handgun was also found on the scene and linked to him.

Kazmierczak had no history of mental illness and no history of arrests, which would have allowed him to qualify to buy the guns under the state's gun laws, sources said.

By all accounts Kazmierczak was a good student. Serving as a member of the NIU Academic Criminal Justice Assocation, and a teaching aid as an undergraduate. In 2006 he recieved a Dean's Award from the sociology department.

Kazmierczak's father Robert lives in Lakeland Fl. and his mother died in Sept. 2006.

The shooting occurred during an introductory geology class at the university's Cole Hall in the campus center around 3:15 p.m. About 163 students were registered for the class.

"The assailant began firing into the assembled class from the stage — from the front," Peters said.

"It didn't seem like he was aiming, he just raised a gun and shot immediately," said Paul Sundstrom, a student who was sitting in the class with his brother Kevin when the gunman opened fire.

Kevin Sundstrom said, "He had blank stare on his face, not a frown, not a grin, like there was nobody there. I went back to find Paul. He was reloading his gun, like he's in the backyard, methodically going about it."

"I didn't think it was real, I went to ground, asked a girl if it was for real. She said 'run!' I crawled and never looked back," said Kristina Balluff, another student who was also in the hall.

"If he had different gun, it would have been worse," said Kevin.

Peters described the incident as a "very brief rapid-fire assault that ended with the gunman taking his own life."

An eyewitness told ABC News' Eileen Murphy that the shooter was a white male, about 5'9", wearing a black beanie and a black coat, who had an ebony shotgun. He came in through the teacher's podium area and opened fire on 100 to 120 people who were attending the class.

NIU Police Chief Donald Grady said there was "no apparent motive at this time" for the shooting and it appeared the gunman had acted alone.

Most of the victims were taken to Kishwaukee Community Hospital in DeKalb, though some were airlifted elsewhere, including a female with a chest injury and two other victims with head injuries.

All of the casualties were students, including the teaching assistant leading the class who was a graduate student, Peters said.

DeKalb County Coroner Dennis J. Miller on Friday released the identities of the four victims who died in his county: Daniel Parmenter, 20, of Westchester; Catalina Garcia, 20, of Cicero; Ryanne Mace, 19, of Carpentersville; and Julianna Gehant, 32, of Meridan.

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Researchers fear fat is the new tobacco.

Too much body fat raises the risk of about a dozen different cancers, according to a major new study that adds to growing evidence linking excess weight to cancer at most sites in the body.

British scientists who pooled data from 141 studies on 20 cancer types found a higher body mass index is associated with:

- An increased risk of thyroid, kidney and colon cancers, cancer of the esophagus, multiple myeloma (a cancer of the blood cells), leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma in both sexes;

- Rectal cancer and malignant melanoma (a deadly skin cancer) in men and;

- And gallbladder, pancreas, endometrial and postmenopausal breast cancers in women.

The study is published in this week's edition of the journal The Lancet.

Today, most Canadians are overweight or obese. According to the 2004 Canadian Community Health Survey, 23 per cent of Canadians aged 18 or older -- about 5.5 million adults -- had a body mass

index (BMI) of 30 or more, putting them in the obese category. Another 8.6 million, or 36 per cent, were overweight, with a BMI greater than 25. (BMI is a measure of body fat based on height and weight).

Researchers warn fat is becoming the new tobacco: Many of the associations between a bigger body mass and cancer risk were for cancers that aren't related to smoking.

"Conceivably, as cigarette smoking (which is the largest cause of cancers in developed countries) decreases, excess body weight could become the dominant lifestyle factor that contributes to cancer occurrence in such countries," the authors conclude.

And, unlike smoking, it's not known whether it's too late to lower cancer risks once the weight is already on.

"This study is all about preventing weight gain in the first place," says lead author Dr. Andrew Renehan, senior lecturer in cancer studies and surgery at the University of Manchester.

"When you ask populations what do they think are the risk factors for cancers, they all know smoking, they all know about family risk, but not many mention obesity. There's an awareness that needs to be echoed over and over again."

A key report last fall from the World Cancer Research Fund concluded body fat is associated with an increased risk of cancers of the esophagus, pancreas, colorectum, post-menopausal breast, endometrium and kidney.

Renehan's group went further. They looked at less common cancers as well, and at differences between sexes and populations to quantify the cancer risks.

The team estimated cancer risk with every five-unit increase in BMI. Overall, the increased cancer risk corresponds to a weight gain of about 37 pounds in men, and 28.6 pounds in women who have an average BMI of 23, or about "the middle of normal weight," Renehan says.

The study reinforces that "the leaner we are, the better off we are in terms of health status," says Dr. David Lau, professor of medicine at the University of Calgary and president of Obesity Canada. He said even people who aren't overweight might benefit "if you can slim off a few pounds. It goes beyond just overweight and obesity."

Just how excess weight increases cancer risk isn't fully understood. One theory is that excess body fat causes changes in circulating concentrations of hormones that can cause cells to proliferate, leading to runaway cancer formation.

It's also possible that fat cells, especially those inside the belly, produce a basket of messengers that may induce cells to become cancer cells.

"The bottom line is that fat cells produce toxins that can wreak havoc, and not just in sugar and lipid metabolism, which can in turn lead to high risk for heart disease and diabetes. We now know this may also be mechanistically linked to the formation of a number of cancers," Lau says.

The team analyzed 141 articles that involved 282,137 cancer cases. In men, a higher BMI raised the risk of esophageal cancer by 52 per cent, thyroid cancer by 33 per cent and colon and kidney cancers each by 24 per cent.

In women, increased BMI raised the risk of endometrial and gallbladder cancer each by 59 per cent, cancer of the esophagus by 51 per cent and kidney cancers by 34 per cent.

The association for colon cancer was stronger in men than in women (24 per cent versus nine per cent). The magnitude of associations between increased BMI and cancer were similar across different populations, though the link between increased body fat and breast cancers was particularly strong in Asia-Pacific populations.

It's unknown whether excess weight in adolescence or early adulthood increases the cancer risk, or whether where the fat is located makes a difference. The team used BMI as a measure of body fat, but some say abdominal or belly fat might be a better predictor of cancer risk, which is the case for cardiovascular disease.

According to an accompanying article, obesity accounts for about 30,000 deaths in the U.K. each year, "and 10 times that" in the U.S., where obesity is now thought to have overtaken smoking as the main preventable cause of sickness and premature death.

It will take "multiple public health approaches to reverse the obesity epidemic, the Swedish authors write, including restricting junk food ads, taxing sugary drinks and other high-calorie, high-fat foods, lowering the cost of healthy foods and promoting physical activity in schools and workplaces.

© The Calgary Herald 2008

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FDA Reviewing Safety of Botox After Child Deaths

Washington - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is looking into the safety of Botox and the severe side effects it can cause. The anti-wrinkle drug has been linked to deaths of children.

The drug uses a botulinum toxin which basically blocks nerve impulses to muscles. This allows them to relax and allows the anti-wrinkle effect to take place.

The problem with the drug though is that it can spread beyond where it is injected into the body. This allows it to spread to different areas and can cause certain respiratory muscles to become paralyzed.

This causes people to have a tough time swallowing food, as well as other severe side effects taking shape.

The FDA has already stated that many deaths of children patients have been linked directly to Botox.

The FDA had already approved the drug Botox to treat children with cerebral palsy for limb spasms. This is all going to be under review now by the FDA after these new revelations about Botox continue to come out.

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Woman kills 2 students in La. vo-tech classroom, then kills self

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A 23-year-old woman shot and killed two other women in a vocational college classroom Friday, then turned the .357 revolver on herself and committed suicide, police said.

All three were students at the Louisiana Technical College campus, but the motive was not clear, said Sgt. Don Kelly, a spokesman for the Baton Rouge Police Department.

"Why those two women were targeted ... is still an unanswered question," Kelly said.

The victims were identified as Karsheika Graves, 21, and Taneshia Butler, 26, both of Baton Rouge. The suspect was Latina Williams, whose address was unknown, Kelly said.

About 20 people were in the emergency medical technology class when the shooting occurred, Kelly said.

The shooter entered the room briefly, spoke with the instructor and left, he said. She then returned through another door and fired six rounds, killing the two victims, Kelly said, then reloaded and shot herself in the head.

Officers ran into the building within four minutes of the first 911 call, which came at 8:36 a.m., Kelly said.

"There was mass pandemonium, people running," Kelly said. "One officer — the first into the classroom — told me he could still smell gunpowder."

Classes were canceled through Tuesday, and tentatively scheduled to resume Wednesday, said Jim Henderson, vice president of the Louisiana Community and Technical College System.

Mayor Kip Holden told reporters it was "a tragic day for Baton Rouge, when you come to a learning institution ... and become the victim of a violent crime."

Students were told to stay in their classrooms for about two hours before after the shootings before being released for the day, student Louis Davis said. Davis said he was taking a test for an automobile technology class when the instructor told the class "to stay in the classroom because there's been an incident."

He said they were allowed to leave after a police officer asked them brief questions.

The school of about 800 students — one of two LTC campuses in Baton Rouge and dozens around the state — offers classes in a dozen subjects including early childhood education, practical nursing, drafting and welding.

The incident came on the heels of two attacks in public places in other states. In Portsmouth, Ohio, a teacher's estranged husband charged into her classroom Thursday morning, firing a gun, then stabbing her. He later killed himself; the teacher survived.

In the St. Louis suburb of Kirkwood, Mo., a man who had lost a free-speech lawsuit against the government stormed a council meeting and killed three city officials and two police officers, critically wounding the mayor.

By DOUG SIMPSON

The Associated Press

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