La SEOR pone en marcha un curso con el objetivo de facilitar la formación continuada de los especialistas y residentes en Oncología Radioterápica

Durante 3 días cerca de 30 oncólogos de múltiples zonas de España se dan cita en Castellón con el fin de formarse y actualizarse en las últimas técnicas radioterápicas en el curso “Avances Tecnológicos en Radioterapia Externa”, organizado conjuntamente por la Sociedad Española de Oncología Radioterápica (SEOR) y la Escuela Española de Oncología Radioterápica (EEOR).Los cursos monográficos organizados por la EEOR, que están dirigidos fundamentalmente a oncólogos radioterápicos y especialistas en formación en Oncología radioterápica, “pretenden facilitar la formación continuada de los especialistas en Oncología Radioterápica y de los residentes en formación mediante el análisis de temas concretos llevados a cabo por miembros destacados en cada una de los temas seleccionados”, explicaba el Dr. Carlos Ferrer Albiach, jefe de Servicio de Radioterapia del Hospital Provincial de Castellón y codirector del curso junto con el Dr. Felipe Calvo, jefe del Departamento de Oncología del Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón.

Según el Dr. Carlos Ferrer, a lo largo de los 3 días de los que consta este curso, “los ponentes plantearán a los asistentes diversos temas actuales entre los que destacan el estudio de las bases técnicas de radioterapia, las últimas mejoras en la precisión o la aportación de la tecnología en la mejora del ratio terapéutico” además de “aportar experiencias muy avanzadas en planificación 4-D o radiocirugía sin marco estereotáxico”. Los coordinadores del curso esperan “que sirva a sus asistentes para renovar sus conocimientos en la materia, cosa que no dudamos los coordinadores dado el magnífico plantel de ponentes con el que contamos”.

Abbott to cut 3000 jobs

Abbott reported Tuesday that it will eliminate 3000 positions, or about 3 percent of its workforce, over the next two years as part of a restructuring plan following its $6.2-billion acquisition of Solvay's drug unit. The drugmaker said the restructuring plan would lead to total charges of about $1.3 billion.
Most of the positions to be eliminated will be in sales, manufacturing, research, and corporate staff, company spokeswoman Kelly Morrison said. Spokeswoman Melissa Brotz indicated that the majority of the job cuts will affect acquired Solvay operations, with most happening in Europe. The restructuring plan includes the closure of Solvay pharmaceuticals former US headquarters by the end of 2011, while about 500 positions at a site in Weesp, the Netherlands will be eliminated, as will 300 jobs in Hannover, Germany. Some employees will be informed immediately, while others will be told in the coming months.
In a regulatory filing, Abbott noted that the majority of the savings are targeted to be realised by 2012. Around $475 million to $640 million of the expected charges are scheduled to occur this year, including $430 million in the third quarter. In addition, the company expects one-time costs of about $135 million in the second half of this year and $175 million next year related to integrating Solvay.
Abbott agreed to buy Solvay in September 2009, gaining full control of the cholesterol drug TriCor (fenofibrate) and a larger presence in emerging markets. At the time, Abbott predicted that Solvay would add more than $3 billion in annual product revenue.

Reference Articles
Abbott to cut 3,000 jobs after Solvay unit acquisition - (Bloomberg)
Abbott expects more than $1B in Solvay charges - (Forbes)
Abbott to cut 3,000 jobs following Solvay deal - (Forexyard)
Abbott Labs to cut 3,000 jobs in integration of Solvay unit (free preview) - (The Wall Street Journal)
Abbott Laboratories - Form 8-K filing - (US SEC)

**Published in "First Word"

Novartis Aims for China Trial of Novel Cancer Drug in 2013

The China R&D center for Novartis (NYSE: NVS) plans to put its first novel cancer treatment into Phase I testing in 2013. Although details of the new drug candidates were not released, Novartis said the new molecules are aimed specifically at treating cancers that are most prevalent in China, which include gastric, liver, nasopharyngeal and esophageal cancer. The China trial would be the first-in-human test of the drug candidate."2013 is a target ... it can be for any disease (of these cancers)," said Chris Lu, PhD, who heads drug discovery at Novartis' China R&D operation, speaking to Reuters reporters at a recent pharmaceutical meeting in Shanghai. "We have certain things in pre-clinical stage. We could reach that target." The China branch of the worldwide Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR) is located in Shanghai’s Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park. "We are developing drugs for Chinese patients. If we can't do first-in-man trials in China, then we are ruined,” continued Dr. Lu.

When Novartis opened the China branch of NIBR in 2007, the facility was given the task of investigating the infectious causes of cancer endemic to China, though the focus of the R&D center certainly could have changed over time. Last year, Novartis made the dramatic announcement that it would spend $1 billion over five years in China, increasing its investment in its China R&D facility, and seeking to make China one of its top three markets worldwide. Enough money would be allocated to the R&D operation to take its staff count from 160 in 2009 to more than 1,000 in 2015.
Before that time, Novartis had been making R&D investments in both China and India, but after it lost patent protection in India for its leukemia drug, Gleevec (known as Glivec outside the US), Novartis turned to China and stopped putting money into India. Last November, the day after announcing its $1 billion China investment, Novartis said it would invest an additional $250 million to expand its global technical center in Changshu, and it would also pay $125 million to buy an 85% stake in a privately held China vaccine company, Zhejiang Tianyuan.

**Published in "Seeeking Alpha"

Why Americans Are Fat: We Literally See More Food as Less

One of the most peculiar findings in obesity research is that exercise — even if vigorous and regular — doesn't reliably lead to weight loss. The reason, as I wrote last year, has to do less with physiology than psychology: people who exercise tend to reward themselves with desserts and snacks that they would never consume otherwise. Exercise helps you stay fit, but it also makes you hungry, so it usually doesn't turn fat people into thin people. Call it the paradox of the gym.
A new paper just published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology offers another weight-loss conundrum: if you show people a plate of unhealthy food — say, a burger and fries — and then add some steamed broccoli to the same plate, most people will say the second plate holds fewer calories, even though it demonstrably has more food on it. The author of the new paper, Alexander Chernev of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, calls this “The Dieter's Paradox.” (More on Time.com: See a special report on overcoming obesity)
Chernev begins his paper with a great question: Why, after 20 years of public outcry about obesity — federal, state, and local government spending on weight-loss programs; widespread media coverage of what is routinely called the obesity “epidemic”; the opening of tens of thousands of new gyms since the 1980s — why, after all this, do we keep getting fatter?
One reason, according to Chernev, is that people think that if they eat an apple, they are entitled to eat a pack of potato chips. “People behave as though healthy foods have halos,” he writes. “Because healthier meals are perceived to be less likely to promote weight gain, people erroneously assume that adding a healthy item to a meal decreases its potential to promote weight gain.”
Chernev has found that this misperception is actually stronger among those of us who are more weight-conscious. In an online experiment, he asked 934 people to estimate the caloric content of four meals. Roughly half were shown unhealthy meals: bacon-and-cheese sandwiches; meatball-and-pepperoni cheesesteaks. The other half were shown the same meals with a healthy side item: celery sticks, say, or an apple. (More on Time.com: The 'Other' Salt: 5 Foods Rich in Potassium)
Respondents estimated the first meal at 691 calories; they estimated the one with the healthy side item at 648 calories. Those who considered themselves weight-conscious were even worse at estimating the calories, according to the study. “Adding a healthy option decreased the perceived calorie content of the combined meal by an average of 96 calories for weight-conscious individuals but only 26 calories for those less concerned with weight,” Chernev writes.

These findings have major implications for how we conduct weight-loss programs: encouraging people to eat more vegetables may be the wrong strategy. Just as people reward themselves with a muffin after they go to the gym, they will reward themselves for eating some celery with their French fries. A better approach may be to persuade people to stop at certain intervals during meals to ask themselves if they are full. As Chernev writes, “the negative calorie illusion [is] less pronounced when individuals pay attention to the quantity of the combined items instead of focusing on the healthy/unhealthy aspects of the items.”
In other words, eat the cheeseburger if you want it. But don't think that a side of steamed kale will make it better for you.
More on Time.com:Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2010/09/21/why-americans-are-fat-we-literally-see-more-food-as-less/?xid=rss-fullhealthsci-yahoo#ixzz10C0UIjDE

**Published in "Time Healthland"

Blood Drug Gets Nod

A Food and Drug Administration panel unanimously recommended Monday that the FDA approve Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH's blood-thinning drug Pradaxa. The move likely places the company as the first to get a new type of drug on the U.S. market to prevent strokes in patients with irregular heart rhythms.
Pradaxa and similar drugs in development are anticoagulants designed to prevent the formation of blood clots. The drugs aim to replace the widely used anticoagulant warfarin, sold under the brand name Coumadin, which was approved in 1954.
Warfarin is difficult to use and reacts with many other drugs and some foods. Pradaxa, also known by its generic name dabigatran, is approved outside the U.S. to prevent blood clots in patients undergoing knee or hip replacement surgery.
The FDA's cardiovascular and renal drugs advisory committee voted 9 to 0 in favor of approving dabigatran to reduce the risk of stroke and blood clots in patients with atrial fibrillation. The FDA usually follows the advice of its panels and is expected to make a decision by about Oct. 19.
Atrial fibrillation, or an irregular heart beat, puts people at higher risk of developing blood clots, which can be fatal if they travel to the lungs or the brain where they can cause a stroke.
Several companies are racing to develop new anticlotting drugs, for which Barclays has estimated the market could reach $12 billion by 2021. Bayer AG has teamed up with Johnson & Johnson to gain FDA approval of a similar drug, rivaroxaban. In 2009, an FDA advisory panel recommended rivaroxaban be approved for short-term use in patients undergoing knee or hip replacements. The FDA hasn't approved the drug and asked Bayer for more information.
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Pfizer Inc. are co-developing apixaban. Merck & Co. is developing a product known as betrixaban with closely held Portola Inc. Also, Daiichi Sankyo Co. is developing a drug called edoxaban.

**Published in "The Wall Street Journal"

Anxious stem cell scientists await ruling

Frustrated scientists in the US face another anxious wait before judges decide on Monday whether federally funded work on human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) should continue until the legality of their use is resolved.
"It's worrying that I could come into work one day and I might not be allowed to do my research because of someone's ideological beliefs rather than the quality of the science," says Jack Mosher at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. His work on an inherited bowel condition was disrupted in August after a shock court injunction on federally funded hESCs.
Mosher's research is a victim of wrangling over whether federal funding of work on hESCs should be banned because their creation can involve the destruction of an embryo, potentially violating a legal amendment passed in 1995.
On 27 September judges must decide whether research can continue until the issue is settled, or until legislation is introduced which supersedes the restrictions.

Transgenic Indian superspuds pack more protein

Potatoes are an increasingly popular way to increase food production in India, China and other developing countries. The tubers are mainly carbohydrate, but they also contain a little protein: a medium (150-gram) spud contains 3 grams of protein, about 6 per cent of the US recommended daily allowance. The GM variety's extra 60 per cent raises that to 4.8 grams – nearly 10 per cent of the recommended amount.
Subra Chakraborty and colleagues at India's Central Potato Research Institute in Shimla created the high-protein "protato" in 2003 by giving potatoes a gene from the grain amaranth, a South American plant widely eaten across the tropics, including India. The gene codes for a "storage" protein in amaranth seeds, but in the protato it was linked to a DNA code that turns on production of the storage protein in tubers.
The team has now spliced this gene into seven commercial potato varieties, and field-tested them for several seasons. This is crucial, as GM crops often behave differently in the lab and the field.
Some tubers contained almost twice as much extra protein as the prototype, with increases in several essential amino acids. Tests in rats and rabbits revealed no toxic or allergic effects. However, the plants also photosynthesised more, and produced 15 to 25 per cent more potatoes per hectare by weight – the only time this has ever been reported for a plant with just one extra gene toxic or allergic effects. However, the plants also photosynthesised more, and produced 15 to 25 per cent more potatoes per hectare by weight – the only time this has ever been reported for a plant with just one extra gene.

-Hungry millions
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization reports that 925 million people will suffer chronic hunger this year. "Despite promises that GM crops could make a significant contribution to achieving global food security," Chakraborty and colleagues write, such crops have so far mostly been used for industry or fodder, not for boosting human nutrition. The researchers hope their potatoes will change that.
Merideth Bonierbale, head of crop improvement at the International Potato Center in Lima, Peru, says her organisation has chosen to develop potatoes with high levels of iron and zinc, because their lack is a severe problem in many countries and just a little more in potatoes could make a big difference in people's diets. The International Potato Center's potatoes are made without genetic modification.
Chakraborty says the team is applying to Indian regulators for permission to sell the potato. As to whether the GM spud tastes different, he says: "Our data suggests better cooking, processing quality and palatability."
Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1006265107

**Published in "New Scientist"