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Connecticut House Approves Two Health Insurance Pooling Bills
The Connecticut House on Wednesday approved two separate measures to expand health insurance pooling in the state, the Hartford Courant reports. The first measure would create a public health insurance pool open to all residents. The pool, intended to compete with rather than replace private insurance, would be based on the existing pool for state workers (Keating, Hartford Courant, 5/21). The bill will create a nine-member board of directors to investigate and recommend a plan to guarantee every resident health insurance. The bill also creates four committees that will work with the board and provide advice on electronic health records, medical homes, clinical care guidelines and preventive care. In addition, three task forces will examine obesity, tobacco use and care provider shortages (Stuart, CT News Junkie, 5/20).The cost of plan, known as SustiNet, could be a "sticking point" given the state"s $8.7 billion budget deficit over the next two years, the Courant reports The state Senate and Gov. Jodi Rell (R) will consider the plan next.The second measure would allow local governments, small businesses and not-for-profit groups join the state employee insurance plan. The bill would increase the current pool"s membership from 200,000 to an estimated 300,000. Juan Figueroa, a former state legislator and president of the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, said, "Both of these plans reduce costs and increase choice. The partnership (pooling) bill has features that SustiNet can build on. The two bills fit hand in glove." Democrats said the second bill would utilize economies of scale to lower costs. Steve Fontana (D), co-chair of the State House Insurance and Real Estate Committee, said, "The larger the pool you have, ... you reduce the volatility and the risk associated with that pool."Opponents say the pooling measure would affect only those who already have coverage. According to House Republican Leader Larry Cafero, "This bill does not solve that problem. If you don"t have it now, you"re not going to have it because of this" (Keating, Hartford Courant, 5/21).

Prostate Cancer Screening Benefits Are Small, Says US Report
The recently released results of two large randomized trials suggest there are no big benefits from prostate cancer screening, and if
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Media Advisory: Lack Of Rules For Genetic Testing Akin To Wild, Wild West, According To Stanford Podcast
With just $399 and a bit of saliva in a cup, consumers can learn about their genetic risk for diseases from breast cancer to Alzheimer"s. Now, thanks to social networking sites set up by personal genomics companies, they can also share that information with family, friends and even strangers on the Internet.
Mental Health

Anti-Inflammatory Drugs May Defeat A Treatment-Resistant Type Of Cancer

Effective drugs for treating a chemotherapy-resistant form of lymphoma might already be on the market according to a study that has pieced together a chemical pathway involved in the disease. By following the trail of several molecular flags that mark this type of cancer, a team from the University of California, San Diego, the Burnham Institute for Medical Research and the University of Copenhagen Hospital have discovered that anti-inflammatory drugs used to treat arthritis will shrink lymphoma tumors in mice. Their report, published in the July issue of the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine, also strengthens evidence for a link between inflammation and cancer. "If this shows promise with early clinical experiments, the treatment would be immediately available," said Michael David, a professor of biology who leads the group at UC San Diego. The research focused on a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma called diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. In some patients with the disease, chemotherapy works well. In a recent study of 40 patients more than 75 percent of patients with one form of this type of lymphoma survived five years or longer. But that study also identified a group of patients whose cancer proved difficult to treat. Their tumors failed to respond to chemotherapy, and only 16 percent of patients with this form of lymphoma survived more than five years after they were diagnosed. Several molecular flags mark this treatment-resistant lymphoma, but the links between them were unknown until now. The new paper reports that tumor cells isolated from these patients have depressed levels of a protein called SHIP1, which was known to suppress tumors. In fact, patients with the lowest levels of SHIP1 are the least likely to survive. The resistant type of lymphoma cells also have elevated levels of miR-155, a specific example of a type of genetic material called microRNA, the team found. They demonstrated that miR-155 suppresses SHIP1 by sticking to the template for the protein, preventing its manufacture. This raised the possibility that these patients might respond favorably to a treatment that interrupted that pathway. "It makes sense to block that loop," said Irene Pedersen, a research scientist in the Division of Biological Sciences at UC San Diego and lead author of the paper. The final clue came from earlier reports that an inflammatory molecule called TNFí± could boost levels of miR-155. Additional laboratory work confirmed the observation for this type of lymphoma cell. "Our study strengthens the scientific link between inflammation and tumor progression," David said. "The prevailing thought is that you need two mutations to get cancer. But it might take just one mutation plus inflammation." The anti-inflammatory drugs etanercept and infliximab, which are currently used to treat arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease, work by suppressing TNFí±, suggesting a new way to curb the malignancy of this type of lymphoma. The team tested the idea in mice that had been injected with aggressive lymphoma cells and found that nascent tumors shrank in six days. "It"s a promising result of this whole translational path," said Pedersen, whose initial training was in cancers of the blood. "To get somewhere we had to study the mouse models and the molecular profiles. I hope it will be beneficial to patients." Patients with lymphoma that has not responded to chemotherapy and who are ineligible for a bone-marrow transplant will be the first to receive the new treatment. The team in Copenhagen has begun recruiting patients for an initial clinical study. Grants from the National Cancer Institute and the Novo Nordisk Foundation supported this research program. Michael David University of California - San Diego


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