SCIENCE News Summaries, Volume 331, Issue 6024
dated March 25 2011, is now available at: - http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol331/issue6024/news-summaries.dtl
A copy of the "SCIENCE News This Week" section has been appended below.
SCIENCE News This Week
March 25 2011, 331 (6024)
NEWS:
Cancer Research and the $90 Billion Metaphor Eliot Marshall There never was an official "War on Cancer." That phrase from news reports and debates attached itself to the U.S. program that began when President Richard Nixon signed the National Cancer Act in December 1971, which made big promises and gave the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) a token measure of independence. Since the 1971 act, NCI has spent about $90 billion on science, treatment, and prevention of cancer. Although the war metaphor has been a target for skeptics, who note that cancer incidence and mortality rates haven't changed fundamentally, if one sets aside the rhetoric, it's evident that the cancer campaign has changed therapy and saved lives, as demonstrated in this infographic Science has created of indicators for the seven deadliest cancers. Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/331/6024/1540-a?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/25-March-2011/10.1126/science.331.6024.1540-a
40 Years of the War on Cancer Science presents a timeline chronicling notable events in the war on cancer, launched 40 years ago when U.S. President Richard Nixon signed the National Cancer Act. Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/331/6024/1540-b?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/25-March-2011/10.1126/science.331.6024.1540-b
Combining Targeted Drugs to Stop Resistant Tumors Jocelyn Kaiser In the past few years, researchers have reported dramatic responses to a handful of new drugs that are given to cancer patients with a specific mutation in their tumors. But although these drugs can shrink solid tumors and extend patients' lives, for reasons that are still not well understood, they never completely eliminate the cancer. Researchers are seeking to identify the ways that tumors resist the drug, then find or develop second-generation drugs that block these escape routes so they can design a cocktail—perhaps two, three, or more drugs—that, if given when a patient is first diagnosed, could stop tumors from ever evading the blockade. This approach has worked for patients infected with HIV, who usually take three antiviral drugs, and many researchers say there's no reason it shouldn't work for cancer. But even if a combination therapy stops tumor growth, it may not buy patients more than a temporary reprieve, researchers admit. To stretch the benefit over years, it might be necessary to devise one complex cocktail after another, each tailored to a patient's evolving tumors. Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/331/6024/1542?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/25-March-2011/10.1126/science.331.6024.1542
Can Treatment Costs Be Tamed? David Malakoff* Over the past 3 decades, total U.S. spending on cancer care has more than quadrupled, reaching $125 billion last year, or 5% of the nation's medical bill, according to a recent estimate. By 2020, it could grow by as much as 66%, to $207 billion. Multiple forces are driving the spiral: a growing and aging population, more people living longer with cancer, and new "personalized," or "targeted," therapies that can come with sticker-shock prices of $50,000 or more per patient. New and more costly, however, haven't necessarily meant better. Although targeted treatments have helped improve survival rates for many cancers, some extend life for just a few weeks or months (see p. 1542). And the prices can be sobering: more than $1.2 million to extend a lung cancer patient's life for 1 year in one scenario involving a costly but common drug. That example is unusual, but such numbers have sparked a growing—and sometimes feisty—debate over how best to calculate the benefits of new cancer treatments, whether their use will lower or raise per-patient expenses, and who should decide whether using them is worth the cost. * David Malakoff is a writer in Alexandria, Virginia. Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/331/6024/1545?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/25-March-2011/10.1126/science.331.6024.1545
A Push to Fight Cancer in the Developing World Martin Enserink Global health has gained in prominence on political agendas in recent years, but attention has been overwhelmingly focused on infectious diseases. Now, some argue, it's time to start closing an equally unconscionable gap between rich and poor nations in cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. The numbers speak volumes. A child suffering from leukemia in Western Europe has an 85% chance of survival; in the 25 poorest countries in the world, it's just over 10%. Estimates suggest that less than 5% of the world's cancer resources are spent in the developing world. Oncologists at topflight centers in the United States and Europe are now taking time out to help improve cancer care in low- and middle-income countries. The obstacles are major, and some people question whether battling cancer is the wisest use of scarce global-health money. Similar doubts were once raised about infectious diseases: 15 years ago people questioned the logistical and financial feasibility of treating HIV and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in poor countries. Yet both are now being addressed on a large scale. Great strides have been made recently in a range of other tropical diseases, too. So why can't it be done for cancer? Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/331/6024/1548?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/25-March-2011/10.1126/science.331.6024.1548
Making Her Life an Open Book to Promote Expanded Care Martin Enserink Felicia Knaul, a health economist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, doesn't mind telling in detail how breast cancer changed her marriage, her family, and her career. In her mission to shatter taboos around the disease and improve the lives of patients in developing countries, her professional and private lives have become one. Knaul is one half of a Mexican-Canadian power couple that aims to end the neglect of cancer as a disease of the poor—and will succeed, if anyone can, say colleagues. The other half is Julio Frenk, the former health minister of Mexico and a much admired reformer, who is now dean of the Harvard School of Public Health. Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/331/6024/1549?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/25-March-2011/10.1126/science.331.6024.1549
Brothers in Arms Against Cancer Mitch Leslie The tumor-suppressor protein p53 has been dubbed "the guardian of the genome." Few nonspecialists know that the celebrated p53 is closely related to two other proteins, p63 and p73. Yet these unheralded siblings are grabbing the attention of cancer biologists. New research suggests that p63 and p73 are fierce cancer killers that deserve equal billing with p53. Because efforts to exploit p53 in cancer therapies haven't yet paid off, some researchers are now looking to p73 and p63 as alternative tumor treatments. Researchers have shrunk or prevented tumors in animals by targeting p73, and the first clinical trials—attempting to use p73 to combat a hard-to-treat type of breast cancer—have already started. Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/331/6024/1551?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/25-March-2011/10.1126/science.331.6024.1551
NEWS OF THE WEEK
This Week's Section Follow the links below for a roundup of the week's top stories in science, or download a PDF of the entire section.
Around the World In science news around the world this week, U.K. scientists are welcoming proposed changes to libel law, an oil spill is threatening endangered penguins in Tristan da Cunha, European space scientists are scrambling to rethink—and redesign—massive potential missions that NASA won't be helping support as planned, a model farm devoted to raising insects as food is set to open at the National University of Laos, and seven Guatemalan plaintiffs have filed suit in response to unethical medical studies run by U.S.-funded scientists in Guatemala in the 1940s. Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/331/6024/1499-b?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/25-March-2011/10.1126/science.331.6024.1499-b
Newsmakers This week's Newsmakers are Evan O'Dorney, who won first place and $100,000 in the Intel Science Talent Search; three stem cell scientists whose work will share this year's Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research and its accompanying $500,000; and seven medical researchers who have won Canada's Gairdner Foundation Awards, valued at CAD $100,000 each. Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/331/6024/1500-a?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/25-March-2011/10.1126/science.331.6024.1500-a
Random Sample Space scientists at the University of Leicester are working to protect the people of Britain from a terrifying scourge: counterfeit whisky. And this week's numbers quantify the cost to ferry U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station aboard Soyuz spacecraft, the percentage of MIT's science and engineering faculty who are women, and the number of homes that could run on an underwater turbine array just authorized by the Scottish government. Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/331/6024/1500-b?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/25-March-2011/10.1126/science.331.6024.1500-b
FINDINGS
Cause of Lethal Disease In China Unmasked Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/331/6024/1501-a?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/25-March-2011/10.1126/science.331.6024.1501-a
Allergic to Peanuts? For Some Kids, Eating Them Helps Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/331/6024/1501-b?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/25-March-2011/10.1126/science.331.6024.1501-b
Sperm From a Test Tube Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/331/6024/1501-c?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/25-March-2011/10.1126/science.331.6024.1501-c
NEWS & ANALYSIS
Nuclear Power's Global Fallout News Staff The crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is prompting countries around the world to reassess the safety of their plants and their nuclear aspirations. Science has created a map that provides a snapshot of the number of nuclear reactors in operation and under construction worldwide, locations of power plants in relation to seismic hazard zones, and reactions to events in Japan in some countries. The rest of this special News & Analysis section examines what we have learned about radiation risks from previous exposures (p. 1504), improvements in safety since the boiling water designs at Fukushima (p. 1506), what to do with the wrecked reactors (p. 1507), and damage to research facilities from the earthquake (p. 1509). Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/331/6024/1502?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/25-March-2011/10.1126/science.331.6024.1502
Radiation Risks Outlined by Bombs, Weapons Work, and Accidents Jocelyn Kaiser The ongoing leaks from Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have raised concern that some workers and even the public could be exposed to dangerous levels of radiation. So far, officials have said that levels outside the plant are low. But how do they know how much radiation is harmful? Risk calculations are based heavily on a 63-year study of 94,000 people who survived the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan in August 1945. It is one of the largest, longest population studies ever done; for radiation safety, it is the gold standard. Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/331/6024/1504?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/25-March-2011/10.1126/science.331.6024.1504
Candidate Radiation Drugs Inch Forward Yudhijit Bhattacharjee Beyond potassium iodide, whose utility is limited to warding off thyroid cancer, the pharmaceutical industry has no proven drugs to ward off the devastating health effects of a large radiation exposure. Over the past 5 years, however, a few promising candidates have begun to undergo animal, and even human, testing. Still, only a few companies and academic groups are addressing this unmet need. The obvious lack of a commercial market may explain why. But some also blame the U.S. government's relative indifference toward the development of radiological countermeasures compared with biodefense. Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/331/6024/1505?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/25-March-2011/10.1126/science.331.6024.1505
Current Designs Address Safety Problems in Fukushima Reactors Daniel Clery Despite the severity of the accident at the Fukushima I plant, nuclear reactor designers don't expect the same type of backlash against the nuclear industry as occurred a generation ago after Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. Their confidence rests on the fact that the reactors being built or planned today are quite different—and they say much safer—than those that are still smoldering in Japan. Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/331/6024/1506?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/25-March-2011/10.1126/science.331.6024.1506
Fukushima Cleanup Will Be Drawn Out and Costly Richard Stone* Once the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant eases, authorities will begin plotting the endgame: how to dismantle the contaminated complex and dispose of its nuclear fuel. They are unlikely to have to resort to the desperate measures taken at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, where a reactor exploded and burned 25 years ago. Instead, the Fukushima operation is more likely to resemble the protracted cleanup at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Pennsylvania, where one reactor experienced a partial meltdown in 1979. * With reporting by Dennis Normile. Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/331/6024/1507?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/25-March-2011/10.1126/science.331.6024.1507
Japan's Research Facilities Down But Not Out Dennis Normile With attention riveted on the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, Japan's scientific community has been quietly taking stock of how extensively the magnitude-9 earthquake and subsequent tsunami on 11 March damaged facilities and experiments. The news is mixed. Two of Japan's major physics facilities were knocked out indefinitely, and many laboratories along the eastern seaboard have lost instruments and research materials or are shuttered due to rolling blackouts. In a glimmer of good news, the university hardest hit by the quake suffered no fatalities at its campuses. Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/331/6024/1509?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/25-March-2011/10.1126/science.331.6024.1509
NEWS FOCUS
Peak Oil Production May Already Be Here Richard A. Kerr Five years ago, many oil experts saw trouble looming. In 10 years or so, they said, oil producers outside the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) would likely be unable to pump oil any faster and OPEC would gain an even stronger hand among the world's oil producers. Five years on, it appears those experts may have been unduly optimistic—non-OPEC oil production may have been peaking as they spoke. Despite a near tripling of world oil prices, non-OPEC production, which accounts for 60% of world output, hasn't increased significantly since 2004. And many of those same experts, as well as some major oil companies, don't see it increasing again—ever. Optimists remain. Some experts still see production from new frontiers, such as Kazakhstan, the deep waters off Brazil, and the oil sands of Canada, pushing production above the current plateau in the next few years. But time's running out to prove that newly discovered fields and new technology can more than compensate for flagging production from the rapidly aging fields beyond OPEC. Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/331/6024/1510?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/25-March-2011/10.1126/science.331.6024.1510
Texas Site Confirms Pre-Clovis Settlement of the Americas Heather Pringle* Near the headwaters of a small creek, a group of hunter-gatherers made their camp and began to craft stone tools, leaving thousands of sharp stone flakes and chips discarded on the ground. At one time or another, similar scenes have played out almost the world over. But the remarkable thing about this one, as detailed on page 1599 of this week's issue of Science, is that it happened near Buttermilk Creek, Texas—about 15,500 years ago. That's long before the Clovis hunters, once thought to be the very first people in America, had appeared. The ancient tools also offer a first glimpse into how the distinctive fluted Clovis points may have developed over millennia. Although some previous claims of pre-Clovis artifacts have been controversial, other archaeologists say the new research is highly convincing. * Heather Pringle is a contributing editor at Archaeology magazine. Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/331/6024/1512?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/25-March-2011/10.1126/science.331.6024.1512
Going Viral: Exploring the Role Of Viruses in Our Bodies Elizabeth Pennisi In the past decade, scientists have learned that the vast bacterial world inside the human body plays a role in regulating the energy we take in from food, primes the immune system, and performs a variety of other functions that help maintain our health. Now, researchers are gaining similar respect for the viruses we carry around. For a start, the variety and sheer number of viruses that inhabit us put our bacterial companions to shame. Many of the viruses prey on the bacteria in our bodies, altering their numbers and diversity and shuffling genes—including genes for antibiotic resistance—from one bacterium to another. At the International Human Microbiome Congress earlier this month, one provocative, albeit preliminary, finding emerged: Infants with unexplained fevers harbor many more viruses than healthy infants. Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/331/6024/1513?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/25-March-2011/10.1126/science.331.6024.1513
Unsubscribe or edit your subscriptions for this service at: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/alerts/main Written requests to unsubscribe may be sent to:
AAAS / Science, 1200 New York Avenue NW, Washington DC 20005, U.S.A. | 
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar