The UFC's only official pre-fight show returns when Fight Day comes to you live this afternoon (5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT) from the sold-out Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, the home of "UFC 137: Penn vs. Diaz."
Hosts Dave Farra and Megan Olivi will break down all of the latest news from the UFC, including the stunning cancellation of the main event after an injury to Georges St-Pierre forced him to withdraw from the event.
Former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson will join the show to discuss his career and what's next for him, and we'll have a panel of journalists ready to break down the entire card.
NEW YORK (Reuters) ? With the S&P 500 about to end its best month in almost 40 years, many would be happy to cash in gains and start packing for the ski slopes.
But some underperforming investors are being cornered into putting yet more money into U.S. stocks.
The S&P 500 on Friday closed its fourth week of gains and is up more than 13 percent in October alone. But many, including hedge funds, were caught wrong-footed by the rally.
Even though some pullback may be expected next week, the clearer picture after the European deal "should give a green light for many of the funds to get back in risk assets," according to Robert Francello, head trader at hedge fund Apex Capital, which manages about $2 billion in San Francisco.
"Hopefully we'll be able to see some further gains into the year end," he said.
Hedge funds, among the equity market's power players, are on average sitting on losses of 8 percent for the year according to Hedge Fund Research. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 is up for the year, if only a bit more than 2 percent.
A JPMorgan note to clients following Thursday's 3 percent rally on the U.S. benchmark index argues for a "strong foundation for an equity rally into year end," with a 1,400-1,475 target.
That's more than the 8 percent gain hedge funds would need to come out of the red for the year.
"If you're a hedge fund manager and you want to put money to work it feels like it has to be on the long side: buying stocks, buying risky assets," said Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at the ConvergEx Group in New York.
"For the moment, you've taken away major risk in Europe and you've replaced it with a potential positive in stock valuations and no double-dip."
European leaders reached a long-awaited agreement to boost the region's bailout fund and struck a deal with banks and insurers who will take a 50 percent loss on their Greek bonds.
A more disorderly default from Greece, and the possibility of sovereign defaults spreading in Europe, were part of the reason the S&P 500 closed its worst quarter since 2008 in September.
The market was also relieved after data earlier this week showed the U.S. economy grew at its fastest pace in a year in the third quarter.
A heavy flow of job market data, capped on Friday by the government's monthly report of job payrolls, will be closely watched to confirm the upbeat macroeconomic trend. A Reuters poll of economists shows employers created 95,000 jobs in October.
EARNINGS AND FED TO POWER ON THE RALLY
More than 100 S&P 500 companies will report earnings next week, with Lowes (L.N), Pfizer (PFE.N) and Kellogg (K.N) among the highlights.
Among the more than 300 that have already posted earnings for the past quarter, roughly seven out of 10 have reported better numbers than analysts expected.
Some expect the Federal Reserve to announce another round of asset purchases -- similar to the quantitative easing plan set up last year that sparked a year-long rally in stocks.
An equities rally following Fed purchases would most likely be led by commodity-related sectors, said Apex Capital's Francello.
"The Fed is beginning to lay the groundwork for another round of quantitative easing, so that should also put some wind in the back of risk assets," he said.
CHARTS ALSO LOOK BULLISH
The technical picture is also turning bullish, with the S&P moving this week above its 200-day moving average for the first time since early August.
At 1,285 the S&P faces resistance just below 1,300, an RBC Capital Markets note said, but the year-end trend for stocks points higher.
"We're still in a period of high volatility so you can't take anything for granted," said Colas from ConvergEx Group.
"Do you buy the dips? I believe that is the case."
(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; additional reporting by Svea Herbst; Editing by Kenneth Barry)
SOFIA, Bulgaria ? The ruling conservative party's candidate declared victory Sunday in Bulgaria's presidential run-off after exit polls indicated he had won handily and his Socialist challenger conceded defeat.
A win by Rosen Plevneliev means the ruling GERB party now controls all the major posts in Bulgaria, which will bolster its push for painful economic reforms in the struggling country, where the average monthly salary is euro350 ($485) and unemployment is 11.7 percent.
An exit poll, conducted by the Alpha Research agency, gave Plevneliev 54.8 percent of the votes, while indicating 45.2 percent of voters cast ballots for Ivailo Kalfin. Two other exit polls showed a similar margin. The Central Election Commission estimated turnout at 42 percent.
Official results are due Monday, but Kalfin conceded defeat after the exit polling. "The result is clear ? we did not win the elections," he said.
Although most of the power in corruption-plagued Bulgaria, a Balkan country of 7.4 million, rests with the prime minister and Parliament, the president leads the armed forces and can veto legislation and sign international treaties.
The 47-year-old Plevneliev is a former entrepreneur who has been lauded for pushing through several large-scale infrastructure projects as regional development minister in the incumbent Cabinet. He has pledged to reduce the budget deficit and pursue business-friendly policies.
He also said he would do his best to unite Bulgarians in pursuit of reforms in the judicial and health care systems, while also diversifying energy supplies and improving trade.
"Bulgaria's European future means that the president should guarantee equal chances for the development of all regions in the country," Plevneliev said Sunday.
Prime Minister Boiko Borisov, meanwhile, said that by electing Plevneliev, "Bulgarians supported Bulgaria's stability and its European development."
The winner of the contest replaces Georgi Parvanov, a former leader of the Socialist Party who has often criticized the government and used his powers to veto legislation or key judicial office or diplomatic service appointments. Parvanov has served two five-year terms, the legal limit.
If final results confirm Plevneliev as the winner, he would take office Jan. 23.
A counter approaches the 7 billion mark at a National Geographic exhibit in a subway station in Bucharest, Romania, highlighting global population density.
By Alan Boyle
Head-counters around the world are marking Monday as the day when the world's population hits the 7 billion mark. It's a date that has served as the focus for musings on?the problems and possibilities facing our species and our planet. But how?do?experts?know that Oct. 31 is the precise day that the world's 7 billionth human being will be born?
"The answer is, we don't," said Omar Gharzeddine, a spokesman for the U.N. Population Fund. Even though the United Nations?gathered the statistics pointing to the Day of 7 Billion, U.N. officials freely admit that?Oct. 31 is merely the date that popped out of their population projections, and will serve as a symbolic rather than a statistically precise milestone.
Every five years, the U.N.'s Population Division updates its?country-by-country projections?of?demographic trends, and the computer models for 2010?were combined to yield a projection of Oct. 31. In?the report, World Population Prospects, the U.N. analysts emphasize that there could be a 1 to 2 percent overall margin of error in the global tally, which translates into plus or minus six months or more for reaching the 7 billion mark.
Some folks are planning to identify a specific baby in India's Uttar Pradesh state or Russia's Kaliningrad region as the 7 billionth human on the planet, but Gharzeddine told me that?the United Nations isn't?giving official status to?such publicity efforts.?"There's no way that the U.N. or anyone could know where or at what minute on the 31st the 7 billionth baby will be born," he said.
The Day of 7 Billion could well be revised, even years later. That was the case for the Day of 6 Billion, Gharzeddine pointed out. "The U.N.?marked the?'6 billionth' [person] in 1999, and then a couple of years later the Population Division itself reassessed its calculations and said,?actually, no, it was in 1998," he?told me.
This time around,?a lot of population experts suspect that?we're actually months away from?hitting the 7 billion mark. The U.S. Census Bureau, for example, projects that the milestone won't?be reached until March 12, 2012. And researchers at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis?point to a time frame between February 2012 and July 2014.
Those same researchers say that the tally for the world's total?population?is "not the issue" that experts should be worrying about. Instead, they say the United Nations and other groups involved in global development should focus on imbalances in the distribution of various populations by age, education and health status.
Gharzeddine agreed that population policy should be about more than the big number. "It's a good occasion to highlight all these issues," he said. Among the issues on his list:
An estimated 1.8 billion people are between 10 and 24 years of age, meaning that this is?the biggest generation of young people in history. But 90 percent of those youths live in the developing world and are in danger of missing out on the economic opportunities of the 21st century.??
About 215 million women live in areas of the world where access to family planning and contraception is restricted. That's one of the factors between the wide disparity in fertility rates, which range from 1.6 births per woman in east Asia to five births per woman in some parts of Africa.
What does the future hold? It's taken 13 years to go from 6 billion to 7 billion, but the United Nations estimates that?we'll hit 8 billion?by 2023, 9 billion by 2041 and 10 billion at some point after?2081.?If?you think there's?a lot of uncertainty surrounding the Day of 7?Billion, hold onto your hats: Relatively small increases in fertility rates could cause a doubling of the current population by 2100 (to 15.8 billion), while a small decrease could result in fewer people than we have today (6.2 billion by 2100).
More about global demographics:
For more about the Day of 7 Billion, click on over to the U.N. Population Fund, 7 Billion Actions and the 7 Billionth Person Project.
Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding me to your Google+ circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.
(Nanowerk News) Breast cancer detection using mammography has improved clinical outcomes for many women, because mammography can detect very small (5 mm) tumors early in the course of the disease. However, mammography fails to detect 10 - 25% of tumors, and the results do not distinguish benign and malignant tumors. Reducing the false positive rate, even by a modest 10%, while improving the sensitivity, will lead to improved screening, and is a desirable and attainable goal. The emerging application of magnetic relaxometry, in particular using superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) sensors, is fast and potentially more specific than mammography because it is designed to detect tumor-targeted iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles. Furthermore, magnetic relaxometry is theoretically more specific than MRI detection, because only target-bound nanoparticles are detected. Our group is developing antibody-conjugated magnetic nanoparticles targeted to breast cancer cells that can be detected using magnetic relaxometry.
Methods
To accomplish this, we identified a series of breast cancer cell lines expressing varying levels of the plasma membrane-expressed human epidermal growth factor-like receptor 2 (Her2) by flow cytometry. Anti-Her2 antibody was then conjugated to superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles using the carbodiimide method. Labeled nanoparticles were incubated with breast cancer cell lines and visualized by confocal microscopy, Prussian blue histochemistry, and magnetic relaxometry.
Results
We demonstrated a time- and antigen concentration-dependent increase in the number of antibody-conjugated nanoparticles bound to cells. Next, anti Her2-conjugated nanoparticles injected into highly Her2-expressing tumor xenograft explants yielded a significantly higher SQUID relaxometry signal relative to unconjugated nanoparticles. Finally, labeled cells introduced into breast phantoms were measured by magnetic relaxometry, and as few as 1 million labeled cells were detected at a distance of 4.5 cm using our early prototype system.
Conclusions
These results suggest that the antibody-conjugated magnetic nanoparticles are promising reagents to apply to in vivo breast tumor cell detection, and that SQUID-detected magnetic relaxometry is a viable, rapid, and highly sensitive method for in vitro nanoparticle development and eventual in vivo tumor detection.
Paper: "Detection of breast cancer cells using targeted magnetic nanoparticles and ultra-sensitive magnetic field sensors ".
SEOUL, South Korea ? U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta expressed doubt Thursday that diplomacy will persuade North Korea to surrender its nuclear weapons and he raised the prospect of stalemate leading to "escalation and confrontation."
After daylong meetings with South Korea's government leaders, Panetta told reporters he was concerned by North Korea's pattern of deliberately shifting from periods of modest accommodation with the West to episodes of violent aggression, perhaps with no real intention of giving up its nuclear ambitions.
Asked whether he thinks a renewed effort by the Obama administration to explore a possible new round of international negotiations with North Korea will work, Panetta was blunt.
"We're not sure where those talks are headed at this point," he said, referring to discussions held this week in Geneva by American and North Korean diplomats. The talks yielded suggestions of progress but no apparent breakthrough.
"For that reason, I guess the word `skepticism' would be in order," he said.
The Pentagon chief said he believes, nonetheless, that efforts at a diplomatic solution must go on.
"On the one hand, we have to engage," he said. "We have to try to seek the hope that ultimately they'll do the right thing and join the international family of nations. ... But I think we always have to be cautious that at the same time, they're going to continue to develop their nuclear capability."
In the same session with reporters, the commander of U.S. Forces Korea, Army Gen. J.D. Thurman, indicated that he suspects the North Koreans are determined to keep up the expansion of their nuclear capabilities.
"Based on what I have observed, they show a willingness to continue to develop and test capabilities that can be associated with their nuclear program," Thurman said. "This is something we've got to remain vigilant on."
Separately, the State Department's top Asia policy official, Kurt Campbell, was in the South Korean capital on Thursday to brief officials on the Geneva talks.
North Korea's foreign ministry issued a statement saying the talks "helped deepen each other's understanding." The statement said both sides agreed to further talks on whether to resume the international discussions involving North and South Korea, Japan, China, Russia and the United States.
Panetta said China, a longtime North Korean ally, "can do more" to push North Korea to give up its nuclear program.
"There are moments when we think that they are urging North Korea to engage, but frankly I think China can do more to try to get North Korea to do the right thing," he added.
"I know that sometimes they make that effort and sometimes North Korea doesn't pay attention."
Panetta's first visit to South Korea as defense secretary is part of a broader U.S. effort to shore up South Korea's confidence in a military alliance that has endured for six decades.
Panetta met with the South Korean defense and foreign affairs chiefs and paid a courtesy call on President Lee Myung-bak.
In parallel talks, the new chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey and top officers from the U.S. Pacific Command met with top South Korean military officers for an annual review of the U.S.-South Korean military alliance.
Panetta planned to attend a second round of alliance talks Friday before flying home.
Panetta has called the North "reckless" and a "serious threat" to peace on the Korean peninsula, which exploded in war in 1950 and drew the U.S. and other nations into a three-year conflict against the North and China.
Panetta was asked by reporters what he thinks can be done to break a cycle of North Korean behavior in which it alternately makes gestures of accommodation to the West, followed by provocations.
"The cycle ultimately has to be broken," he said. "There is either going to be an accommodation where they decide to make the right decisions with regards to their future and join the international family of nations ... or, if they continue these provocations, then obviously that's going to lead to the possibility of escalation and confrontation."
Among the maneuverings that influence U.S. thinking about the security threat posed by North Korea is the process now under way in which the supreme leader, Kim Jong Il, is expected to turn over the reins of power to his son, Kim Jong Un, a newly minted four-star general believed in his late 20s. He would be the third generation leader in a family dynasty that has ruled since Kim Il Sung founded the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in 1948.
U.S. officials are unsure what timeline has been set for the leadership succession. But two senior American military officers in Seoul said it appears the process has slowed, possibly because Kim Jong Il's health problems seem to have eased. The officials spoke to a group of reporters on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic.
U.S. and South Korean officials believe Kim Jong Il had a stroke in August 2008 that kept him out of the public eye for months.
The officials, who are privy to the latest intelligence assessments, said North Korea's recently more accommodating approach to the U.S. is judged to be only a tactical maneuver likely to be followed next year by demands for concessions. That would follow a decades-long pattern in which unmet concessions lead to a period of provocations from North Korea, such as the 2006 nuclear test that came just months after the North cut off nuclear disarmament talks.
The U.S. officials declined to say whether they believe the North can be persuaded to give up its nuclear weapons, but their analysis of the North's basic approach to the West strongly suggested that they do not expect it to change course.
___
Robert Burns can be reached on Twitter at http://twitter.com/robertburnsAP
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) ? Survivors and those still traumatized by the deadly stage collapse at the Indiana State Fair hoped for some musical healing Friday as country band Sugarland returned to the state for a benefit concert more than 10 weeks after a tragic night that continues to conjure up painful memories.
The Grammy-winning duo was giving the free concert at Conseco Fieldhouse in downtown Indianapolis, just a few miles from the fairground venue where high winds ahead of an approaching storm toppled scaffolding and stage rigging onto the crowd. Seven people were killed and dozens more were injured in the Aug. 13 collapse, just minutes before Sugarland was to perform.
Indianapolis resident Sue Humphrey, whose 17-year-old son Brad was partially paralyzed when rigging crushed his spine and legs, planned to attend Friday night's concert with relatives despite mixed feelings.
But she said her son, who is now in a wheelchair, wasn't sure if he'd attend, even though he had eagerly awaited the August show and stood in line for six hours that day to get a stage-side ticket.
Humphrey said her son is apprehensive about the memories the show might bring up. And she's worried it could lead to a repeat of the "meltdowns" she and her only child have experienced since he was injured. If he attends, she said Brad also will be seated in the fieldhouse's handicapped section ? not the coveted "Sugarpit" area feet from the stage where he and other fans were standing at the time of the collapse.
"I can't tell him this is going to heal him, because it won't, and I can't tell him it won't hurt, because it might," Humphrey said. "It's not going to be like the big concert he was looking forward to in August."
Attendees at the Friday night concert were being asked to donate to a victim relief fund that already has raised nearly $1 million.
Sugarland declined comment through their representatives about Friday's show, which marks the band's first return to Indiana since the collapse.
But Indiana-based musician Corey Cox, who along with actress Rita Wilson will perform before Sugarland takes the stage, said the show would be a tribute to the lives of the seven victims and the survivors. He's expecting an emotional night.
"It's going to be a celebration but also a night to hold the ones who lost their lives close to our hearts," he said. "Everyone's going to experience the healing power of music because it's one of the best medicines there is."
Cox performed a few weeks ago at a benefit concert for a woman from his hometown of Pendleton, Ind. ? 30-year-old Andrea Vellinga ? who suffered severe head injuries in the stage collapse and still is struggling to recover. Vellinga's family and friends were expected to be seated in the front row for Friday's concert.
A psychiatrist who specializes in treating survivors of disasters said attending the concert could help some of the roughly 40 people injured in the stage collapse and relatives of those killed come to terms with the tragedy. But he said there's a chance it could deal others a setback, dredging up intense and painful memories.
"It's good that this benefit concert should happen, but it may be too hard for some people to go through it," said Anthony Ng, interim chief medical officer at The Acadia Hospital in Bangor, Maine. "Obviously everybody's different and there's no right way or wrong way to do this."
Rick Stevens, who served as an Army medic in Vietnam, said he still doesn't like to discuss what he saw that night as he and other fans rushed into the tangled metal rigging to help people crushed in the collapse.
"It's going to take some people forever, if ever they get over this," said Stevens, 57, of Terre Haute. "I don't know many people, unless you're in a war, who experience mass death, and the injuries of that caliber and the screaming that was going on."
IKORODU, Nigeria ? Seasonal rains have sent water flowing over riverbanks again in Nigeria, raising the risk of cholera and disease as government appears unable to cope with the flooding.
Canoes are being used where cars used to drive in communities just outside of Ikorodu, a city itself just outside of Nigeria's megacity of Lagos.
In one community, water flowed over an outhouse, a warning sign of cholera. Earlier this month, UNICEF said nearly 2,500 have died in one of the biggest cholera outbreaks West Africa has ever seen this year, with deaths from Congo to Mali, including Nigeria.
Locals blame government officials for not seeing their plight, though several acknowledged they live in a flood-prone area.
Through-the-nipple breast cancer therapy shows promise in early testsPublic release date: 26-Oct-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Vanessa Wasta wasta@jhmi.edu 410-614-2916 Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
Delivering anticancer drugs into breast ducts via the nipple is highly effective in animal models of early breast cancer, and has no major side effects in human patients, according to a report by Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center researchers in Science Translational Medicine on October 26. The results of the study are expected to lead to more advanced clinical trials of so-called intraductal treatment for early breast cancer.
"Our results support the theory that by treating the breast tissue directly we can reach a much more potent drug concentration where it is needed, with far fewer adverse effects on tissues outside the breasts," says oncologist Vered Stearns, M.D., Ph.D., the Breast Cancer Chair in Oncology and co-director of the Breast Cancer Program at the Kimmel Cancer Center, who supervised the clinical part of the study.
"This has been a classic translational medicine collaboration between a bench researcher and a clinician scientist," says cancer biologist Saraswati Sukumar, Ph.D., who supervised the animal tests.
Sukumar, the Barbara B. Rubenstein Professor of Oncology at the Kimmel Cancer Center, and co-director with Stearns of the Breast Cancer Program, began intraductal research more than a decade ago, reasoning that because most breast cancers originate from cells lining the milk ducts, early or preventive therapies should be delivered directly to the ducts via the nipple, rather than intravenously. In 2006, in the journal Cancer Research, Sukumar and her colleagues reported on an initial successful test of the technique using the chemotherapy drug doxorubicin against early ductal breast cancers in rats.
For the current study, Stearns set up a small clinical trial to determine the feasibility of Sukumar's technique in 17 breast cancer patients. Starting first with dextrose -- essentially sugar water -- and later with escalating doses of the same doxorubicin formulation used on Sukumar's rats (pegylated liposomal doxorubicin, or PLD), she was able to infuse patients' breast ducts via a small catheter placed into the nipple. The technique wasn't used in this case to treat cancer; the patients in the study all had established breast tumors and were awaiting mastectomies. But Stearns was able to establish that single doses of PLD to breast ducts caused only mild side effects including mild nipple pain and breast fullness.
A comparison of 12 patients receiving PLD intraductally with three patients treated with PLD by the standard intravenous route also was revealing, Stearns said. "Intraductal delivery of PLD resulted in much higher concentration in the breast compared to the circulation, whereas in the women with intravenous doses we saw relatively high concentrations in the blood but very little if any in the breast," she noted.
In the animal portion of the study, Sukumar's lab examined the intraductal effectiveness of four standard anticancer drugs, 5-fluorouracil (5FU), carboplatin, methotrexate and paclitaxel, all compared with PLD. Of these drugs, intraductal 5FU prevented the most cancers compared to no drug or to intravenous delivery. It also shrank established breast tumors with striking effectiveness, completely eliminating them in 10 of 14 treated rats, she said. "As both a preventive and a therapy, 5FU worked extremely well in these tests," Sukumar added.
5FU has the additional advantage, she noted, of sparing breast ducts the kind of damage caused by PLD, which at therapeutic doses can destroy large parts of the ductal lining. But perhaps the most intriguing outcome of these tests, she said was that preventive treatment of only four mammary glands in rats - who have a total of twelve - showed a strong effect in preventing tumors in the untreated glands as well. "We think that 5FU, at the high concentration achieved with intraductal delivery, elicits an immune response that can suppress tumor formation in the other ducts," Sukumar said. "This is an attractive feature, because some breast ducts in women are 'blind ducts' that are unconnected to the nipple and therefore unreachable directly with intraductal therapy."
Sukumar and Stearns say the next step is to set up a further clinical study with 5FU, based on the new findings. The goal is to use intraductal therapy to suppress tumors in patients with a high genetic risk for breast cancer or premalignant lesions in their breast ducts. "In principle, one could do such a procedure every ten years or so to keep one's breasts tumor-free, as an alternative to having the breasts removed," Sukumar says.
###
The study was funded by the National Cancer Institute, Windy Hill Medical Center, the Mary Kay Ash Foundation and the Susan Love Research Foundation.
Other contributors to the study, besides Drs. Sukumar and Stearns, were co-first author Tsuyoshi Mori, currently at the Shiga Institute of Medical Science in Japan; and Lisa K. Jacobs, Nagi F. Khouri, Edward Gabrielson, Takahiro Yoshida, Scott L. Kominsky, David L. Huso, Stacie Jeter, Penny Powers, Karineh Tarpinian, Regina J. Brown, Julie R. Lange, Michelle A. Rudek, Zhe Zhang and Theodore N. Tsangaris, all of Johns Hopkins.
On the Web:
http://www.hopkinskimmelcancercenter.org
http://www.hopkinsbreastcenter.org
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Through-the-nipple breast cancer therapy shows promise in early testsPublic release date: 26-Oct-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Vanessa Wasta wasta@jhmi.edu 410-614-2916 Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
Delivering anticancer drugs into breast ducts via the nipple is highly effective in animal models of early breast cancer, and has no major side effects in human patients, according to a report by Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center researchers in Science Translational Medicine on October 26. The results of the study are expected to lead to more advanced clinical trials of so-called intraductal treatment for early breast cancer.
"Our results support the theory that by treating the breast tissue directly we can reach a much more potent drug concentration where it is needed, with far fewer adverse effects on tissues outside the breasts," says oncologist Vered Stearns, M.D., Ph.D., the Breast Cancer Chair in Oncology and co-director of the Breast Cancer Program at the Kimmel Cancer Center, who supervised the clinical part of the study.
"This has been a classic translational medicine collaboration between a bench researcher and a clinician scientist," says cancer biologist Saraswati Sukumar, Ph.D., who supervised the animal tests.
Sukumar, the Barbara B. Rubenstein Professor of Oncology at the Kimmel Cancer Center, and co-director with Stearns of the Breast Cancer Program, began intraductal research more than a decade ago, reasoning that because most breast cancers originate from cells lining the milk ducts, early or preventive therapies should be delivered directly to the ducts via the nipple, rather than intravenously. In 2006, in the journal Cancer Research, Sukumar and her colleagues reported on an initial successful test of the technique using the chemotherapy drug doxorubicin against early ductal breast cancers in rats.
For the current study, Stearns set up a small clinical trial to determine the feasibility of Sukumar's technique in 17 breast cancer patients. Starting first with dextrose -- essentially sugar water -- and later with escalating doses of the same doxorubicin formulation used on Sukumar's rats (pegylated liposomal doxorubicin, or PLD), she was able to infuse patients' breast ducts via a small catheter placed into the nipple. The technique wasn't used in this case to treat cancer; the patients in the study all had established breast tumors and were awaiting mastectomies. But Stearns was able to establish that single doses of PLD to breast ducts caused only mild side effects including mild nipple pain and breast fullness.
A comparison of 12 patients receiving PLD intraductally with three patients treated with PLD by the standard intravenous route also was revealing, Stearns said. "Intraductal delivery of PLD resulted in much higher concentration in the breast compared to the circulation, whereas in the women with intravenous doses we saw relatively high concentrations in the blood but very little if any in the breast," she noted.
In the animal portion of the study, Sukumar's lab examined the intraductal effectiveness of four standard anticancer drugs, 5-fluorouracil (5FU), carboplatin, methotrexate and paclitaxel, all compared with PLD. Of these drugs, intraductal 5FU prevented the most cancers compared to no drug or to intravenous delivery. It also shrank established breast tumors with striking effectiveness, completely eliminating them in 10 of 14 treated rats, she said. "As both a preventive and a therapy, 5FU worked extremely well in these tests," Sukumar added.
5FU has the additional advantage, she noted, of sparing breast ducts the kind of damage caused by PLD, which at therapeutic doses can destroy large parts of the ductal lining. But perhaps the most intriguing outcome of these tests, she said was that preventive treatment of only four mammary glands in rats - who have a total of twelve - showed a strong effect in preventing tumors in the untreated glands as well. "We think that 5FU, at the high concentration achieved with intraductal delivery, elicits an immune response that can suppress tumor formation in the other ducts," Sukumar said. "This is an attractive feature, because some breast ducts in women are 'blind ducts' that are unconnected to the nipple and therefore unreachable directly with intraductal therapy."
Sukumar and Stearns say the next step is to set up a further clinical study with 5FU, based on the new findings. The goal is to use intraductal therapy to suppress tumors in patients with a high genetic risk for breast cancer or premalignant lesions in their breast ducts. "In principle, one could do such a procedure every ten years or so to keep one's breasts tumor-free, as an alternative to having the breasts removed," Sukumar says.
###
The study was funded by the National Cancer Institute, Windy Hill Medical Center, the Mary Kay Ash Foundation and the Susan Love Research Foundation.
Other contributors to the study, besides Drs. Sukumar and Stearns, were co-first author Tsuyoshi Mori, currently at the Shiga Institute of Medical Science in Japan; and Lisa K. Jacobs, Nagi F. Khouri, Edward Gabrielson, Takahiro Yoshida, Scott L. Kominsky, David L. Huso, Stacie Jeter, Penny Powers, Karineh Tarpinian, Regina J. Brown, Julie R. Lange, Michelle A. Rudek, Zhe Zhang and Theodore N. Tsangaris, all of Johns Hopkins.
On the Web:
http://www.hopkinskimmelcancercenter.org
http://www.hopkinsbreastcenter.org
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Two abortion clinic workers pleaded guilty Thursday to third-degree murder in deaths that occurred at a Philadelphia clinic where seven babies were allegedly born alive, then killed with scissors, and a patient died from an overdose of painkillers.
PHILADELPHIA ? The daughter of a woman accused of being the ringleader in an alleged Social Security fraud plot in which mentally disabled people were held captive in a squalid basement is "shocked" but understands the charges she faces, her lawyer said Wednesday.
In a brief court hearing, a judge scheduled a Dec. 19 preliminary hearing for Jean McIntosh, 32. She will join her mother, Linda Ann Weston, 51, and the two other co-defendants at that hearing. All four were arrested last week and face kidnapping, false imprisonment and other counts.
Outside of court, McIntosh's attorney said his client understands the charges and that he does not plan to ask for a competency hearing.
"She's just kind of shocked and surprised," attorney Michael J. Graves Jr. said. "She understands the charges. ... I'm really not able to tell her any more than that."
Graves, who was privately retained, said he has spent several hours with his client, but is still gathering information.
Weston and the other two defendants ? Weston's boyfriend Gregory Thomas, 47, and Eddie "the Rev. Ed" Wright, 50 ? had their initial appearance Monday. None have entered pleas or appeared in court.
Earlier this week, Weston's attorney said he was evaluating his client's mental state and thought a competency hearing for her would be a good idea.
The victims, who authorities say have the mental capacity of 10-year-olds, were discovered by a landlord at a Philadelphia apartment building on Oct. 15. They were malnourished and one was chained to a boiler, police said.
Investigators are working to discover the extent of the alleged scheme after finding more than 50 Social Security cards, power of attorney documents and other forms. The suspects may have been taking in the downtrodden and disabled for their Social Security checks, then holding them captive in wretched conditions without enough to eat or drink, authorities said.
Eight children and four young adults linked to the defendants were taken into protective custody, and DNA tests are being conducted to determine the children's identities.
Leading the charge this week is Gameloft?s first-person shooter, Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation. It?s a pretty impressive Call of Duty look-alike with great production values and a huge multiplayer offering that?ll keep you busy throughout the weekend. But it?s not the only great game we saw this week. There are four other phenomenal contenders you should pick up as well. Read about all of them below.
Gameloft?s latest first-person shooter has some astounding graphics and a presentation that might make you think it belongs on today?s video game consoles. In fact, that?s not far off ? Modern Combat apes the popular Call of Duty series very well. Like many of Gameloft?s other FPS titles, MC3 uses gyroscopic aiming controls mixed with buttons to give you a pretty smooth shooter experience. It?s brimming with content and features 13 missions in its single-player story and a full online multiplayer mode. Leaderboards, weapons you can customize with new parts, and seven game modes for online play make Modern Combat 3 a pretty good value.
Asteroids are threatening to destroy Earth, and you?re its last line of defense. The end of the world is imminent, and the best hope of humanity is to evacuate the planet while you try to divert asteroids from their impact trajectories by exploding missiles near them. Eve of Impact is simple but beautiful with a great sci-fi aesthetic. It?s probably much better on the iPad ? it could use a little more screen real-estate on smaller devices ? but for a straightforward arcade experience, there?s something both haunting and mesmerizing about this one, thanks to its great presentation.
Like The Legend of Zelda series, Mage Gauntlet taps into that action role-playing spirit that made for some fantastic 16-bit games way back in the days of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the Sega Genesis. But with some tight, funny writing and plenty of hats to find and try on, Mage Gauntlet differentiates itself as a great iOS experience. Gamers who grew up in the 1990s will feel right at home with Mage Gauntlet?s old-school aesthetic and gameplay, but this one just has a lot of content to offer. It?s all swords and sorcery, and at the end of the day, who could ask for anything more?
Riptide GP (iPhone, iPad) $4.99
I?m usually not one for racing games, but Riptide finds a way to make old things new again by introducing some great-looking water with strong, working physics to the equation. This is a racing title in which you race jet skis. It packs some high-quality 3-D graphics to drive the immersion into the game, along with three different game modes, and mixes a few stunts in with the races to keep things interesting. You can also earn new jet skis as you race and qualify with better times, and best of all, it sports Game Center leaderboards, which helps engender real-life competition. Mostly, though, it?s just fun to bounce off great-looking virtual waves.
The developers over at Adult Swim Games have kind of cornered the market on weird, slightly dark, hilarious concepts. Bring Me Sandwiches!! is another in a long line of these. You play a fast-food employee who has to serve sandwiches to a monstrous alien in order to keep it happy. Your job in this 2-D platformer is to gather just about anything you can to make sandwiches, but the game also tosses objects at you, and you?ll often include rude people or animals in your entrees. It?s a goofy game with a fun aesthetic and a great premise, and it?s definitely fun to incapacitate annoying teenagers and pile them on to bread slices to feed to a giant alien.
KABUL, Afghanistan?? Tens of thousands of Afghan and NATO troops killed or captured 200 insurgents in eastern Afghanistan during two operations targeting the violent Haqqani network blamed for the majority of attacks in Kabul, the U.S.-led coalition said Monday.
At least 20 of the insurgents had ties to the Haqqani group, which is affiliated with al-Qaida and the Taliban, said German Brig. Gen. Carsten Jacobson, a coalition spokesman in Afghanistan. The roughly 180 others were from the Taliban or other groups, though not all have been identified.
About half of the Haqqani fighters were identified as leaders and the other half were bomb makers or individuals who help militants in various ways, such as distributing weapons and supplies, running safe houses or preparing areas for attack.
"Removal of the midlevel cell leaders with their expertise and leadership has significantly disrupted insurgent operations and degrades the Haqqani network's ability to coordinate and execute future attacks against combined team forces and the people of Afghanistan," Jacobson said.
Afghan and coalition forces have made gains in southern Afghanistan in the past two years, routing insurgents from their strongholds. They are now trying to hold that territory in the south while shifting resources to deal with insurgent hotspots in the east.
The Haqqani network is based in Pakistan, but operates primarily in Paktia, Paktika and Khost provinces along Afghanistan's eastern border. U.S. and Afghan officials have demanded that Pakistan do more to eliminate militant sanctuaries on its side of the border.
The Haqqanis aim to have maximum control over eastern Afghanistan and access to Kabul from the south, Jacobson said, adding they are "a family clan, a criminal patronage network and a terrorist organization."
"For work on the other side we need help from Pakistan."
Roughly 25,000 Afghan soldiers and policemen and 11,000 coalition troops were involved in the operations, said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Jimmie Cummings, a spokesman for the coalition in Kabul. More than 400 kilograms (880 pounds) of explosives, weapons, munitions and computers were seized.
He said more than 400 hours of close-air support and thousands of hours of surveillance missions were flown in support of the operations, which began Oct. 12 and ended Oct. 20. The majority of the operations were conducted in Kabul province, Wardak, Logar and Ghazni provinces south and west of the capital and Paktia, Paktika and Khost provinces along the border.
Although the two operations have ended, the coalition is continuing its fight against the Haqqani network. The coalition estimates fewer than 5,000 Haqqani militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to a NATO intelligence analyst who spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose the figure.
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On Sunday, NATO reported that a heavily armed group of Haqqani fighters was the target of an airstrike in Wuza Jadran district of Paktia province. The coalition said several insurgents were killed in the attack, but did not specify how many.
While NATO presses ahead with its campaigns, several hundred people including students demonstrated at Kabul University against a strategic security agreement being negotiated by U.S. and Afghan officials. Many Afghans think such an agreement would give American forces a long-term presence in Afghanistan.
The U.S. has said that it is not seeking permanent bases in Afghanistan is negotiating details of the plan, which would govern the American troop presence in the country after the international forces' combat mission ends in 2014.
The protest highlighted a growing frustration felt by many Afghans toward NATO forces who, they argue, have brought little in the way of security or development to the country since the start of the decade-long war that toppled the Taliban. Many of the protesters said the international community wants to exploit Afghanistan's mineral wealth and use the country as a springboard to intervention in other nations in the region.
"The fighting is not for bringing peace or stability or security," said 26-year-old university student Sayed Abdullah. "This is only to allow them (NATO forces) to place their feet firmer in our country and then, from here, (they) want to occupy all the central Asian Muslim nations."
The demonstrators, with about 200 to 300 Afghan police looking on warily, hoisted banners.
"We don't want international forces at all. To sit together is the only way to peace," read one. Another said: "Our unity is our strength."
Separately, the coalition reported that a NATO service member died Monday in a roadside bombing in southern Afghanistan. No other details were released.
So far this year, 478 coalition troops have died in Afghanistan.
___
Associated Press writers Tarek El-Tablawy, Amir Shah and Massieh Aryan in Kabul contributed to this report.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Let there be no debate: Josh Krajcik deserves his spot in the final 12 of The X Factor.
This fast food worker, who made headlines following his initial audition for talking about his career of slinging burritos, can likely retire his hairnet and plastic gloves for good. Even if he doesn't go on to win, it's hard to believe Krajcik won't have a future in the music industry.
On last night's live performance show, Josh received some of the highest praise of the night for his cover of "Forever Young," led by Paula Abdul: "Your voice is my favorite voice I've heard in the past decade."
Caller ID spoofing has long been the domain of pranksters and scammers, but although the technology often is used unethically, there may be a few legitimate reasons why you would want to disguise your phone number's Caller ID, rather than just block it. Here are a few that come to mind and easy ways to masquerade as someone else.
Some Non-Evil Uses for Caller ID Spoofing
Thanks to the Caller ID Act of 2009, using Caller ID spoofing for causing harm or defrauding someone is a crime. (Telemarketers are also required by the FCC to use an accurate Caller ID number when they call you.)
Caller ID spoofing in general, however, isn't illegal in the US. There are at least three scenarios where you might want to use it:
Perhaps you're working from home one day but need to place a call to a client or customer and want to appear to be working from the office?or just not give out your home or cell number (Doctors in particular may have this need). With Caller ID spoofing, you can appear to be placing the call from your office.
Another case scenario is if your friend is ignoring your calls or is simply notoriously hard to get a hold of on the phone, and you really, really need to get through. You should only use Caller ID spoofing in an emergency case, because once your friend answers and finds out you spoofed the Caller ID, it had better be worth it.
Caller ID spoofing is also great for surprising young children: You can place a call as Santa or Cinderella or whoever (many services and apps disguise your voice). This might only work with really young children, however, especially with the limited choices you get for voice disguises.
How to Spoof Your Caller ID
Between 2004 and today, dozens and dozens of Caller ID spoofing companies have been established to meet this incredible need for people to spoof their phone numbers.
SpoofCard is one of the biggest and oldest, and it offers a free test drive of its service. Enter your number, the number you want to call, and the number you want to be displayed on their website widget to place the call. This is the service I used to place a call supposedly from 867-5309, you know, from Jenny in that song (SpoofCard unfortunately doesn't let you enter in a Caller ID name).
SpoofCard and other services like it work like a calling card, if you've ever used one of those. You dial a number provided to you by the service and then enter an access code or PIN number, plus the recipient's number and your fake caller ID. Also like phone calling cards, you buy credits, starting at $4.95 for 25 credits (1 minute per credit).
Spoofingcards.com has a table comparing SpoofCard with Bluff My Call and Stealth Card, two other services in this space. There are several other providers, and they all seem to work pretty similarly, many with mobile apps so you can spoof away from your cell phone.
My advice, if you're going to do this, is to try out the service first if it offers a free call. I tried out SpoofTel, which offers a free trial and also lets you enter in a display name to be shown in Caller ID, but the call came in as "Unknown" to my phone, which pretty much defeated the purpose. Good thing it wasn't a really critical call I needed to get through to myself.
Lifehacker's Evil Week is all about topics such as password cracking, social hacking and other questionable tricks to make sure you're in the know. Knowledge is power, and whether you use that power for good or evil is in your hands.
You can follow or contact Melanie Pinola, the author of this post, on Twitter or Google+.
NEW YORK (AP) ? Strong demand for machinery drove up Caterpillar's profit 44 percent in the third quarter and the company expects even stronger sales next year.
Caterpillar's stock rose almost 5 percent in premarket trading, increasing $4.26 a share to $91.65.
The world's largest maker of construction and mining equipment earned $1.14 billion, or $1.71 per share, in the third quarter, compared with $792 million, or $1.22 per share, a year earlier. Revenue surged 41 percent to $15.72 billion.
Excluding its $7.6 billion acquisition of surface mining equipment maker Bucyrus International Inc., Caterpillar earned $1.93 per share on revenue of $14.58 billion.
Analysts polled by FactSet Research were expecting a profit of $1.63 per share on $14.84 billion in sales.
Caterpillar predicts higher 2011 earnings than it forecast earlier. It expects to earn $6.75 per share on sales of $58 billion. It previously forecast profit of between $6.25 and $6.75 per share on revenue of $56 billion to $58 billion.
Excluding the impact of Bucyrus, Caterpillar expects to earn about $7.25 per share on revenue of $56 billion. Analysts project a profit of $6.76 per share on sales of $56.59 billion.
It projects revenue next year will increase 10 and 20 percent over 2011 to between $63.8 billion and $69.6 billion.
The Peoria, Ill. company is continuing to add jobs ? nearly 5,000 between June and September alone. As of Sept. 30, it had about 149,000 employees, up more than 20 percent from a year earlier, including staff gained from acquisitions. About 5,600 of those jobs were added in the United States.
Ten years ago today, Oct. 25, Microsoft released Windows XP, which became one of its most popular flavors of the Windows operating system?? largely because what came after it, Windows Vista, was so terrible.
And while many of us will be looking to migrate from Windows 7 to Windows 8 when it becomes available?? no date is set, but it could be late next summer?? there are still plenty of folks using XP. (And you probably know this, but Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)
Live Poll
If you're a Windows user, which OS do you have?
164906
Windows 7
39%
164907
Windows XP
53%
164908
Windows Vista
6%
164909
Windows Me
0%
164910
Windows 98
1%
VoteTotal Votes: 2305
In StatCounter's chart, above, in the United States, XP still ranks as the top operating system, followed by Windows 7 and?? gulp?? Windows Vista. Vista was security-laden to the point of sluggishness and resulted in lots of user frustration. Microsoft remains so sensitive about the slowness issue from Vista's days that it has made a big point of saying that Windows 8 will boot super fast.
Microsoft is still providing "extended" (that means: you pay) tech support for XP patches and security updates through April 2014.
Globally, XP's reach is even larger than in the U.S.:
"Happy Tenth Birthday, Windows XP. Now Please Die," is the headline Tuesday from NetworkWorld, which says that the operating system's "longevity has allowed XP to take root and outlast its welcome. Consumers have been quicker to ditch XP for Windows 7 while businesses hem and haw and slowly test a decade's-worth of custom apps on Windows 7. The current economic situation isn't helping one iota as budgets are constrained from Wall St. to Main St."
And while budgets are a big factor, so is comfort level. Many who have stayed with XP just find it like a well-worn slipper, not ready to be thrown out and too comfy to give up. If you're a Windows user, which version do you have? Take our poll above.
Related stories:
Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on Facebook,?and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. ? Astronomers finally know why the first documented supernova was super-sized.
The exploded star was observed by the ancient Chinese in the year 185, and visible for eight months. It was later found to be a bigger-than-expected supernova remnant, 8,000 light years away. Each light year is about 6 trillion miles.
New observations in the infrared show the explosion took place in a cavity in space. The cavity allowed the stellar shrapnel to shoot faster and farther out into the universe.
The star ? similar to our sun ? died peacefully and turned into a dense white dwarf. It sucked up material from another star, and then exploded in a supernova.
NASA announced the findings Monday. Four space telescopes were used in the study.
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Gameloft?s latest first-person shooter has some astounding graphics and a presentation that might make you think it belongs on today?s video game consoles. In fact, that?s not far off ? Modern Combat apes the popular Call of Duty series very well. Like many of Gameloft?s other FPS titles, MC3 uses gyroscopic aiming controls mixed with buttons to give you a pretty smooth shooter experience. It?s brimming with content and features 13 missions in its single-player story and a full online multiplayer mode. Leaderboards, weapons you can customize with new parts, and seven game modes for online play make Modern Combat 3 a pretty good value.
Asteroids are threatening to destroy Earth, and you?re its last line of defense. The end of the world is imminent, and the best hope of humanity is to evacuate the planet while you try to divert asteroids from their impact trajectories by exploding missiles near them. Eve of Impact is simple but beautiful with a great sci-fi aesthetic. It?s probably much better on the iPad ? it could use a little more screen real-estate on smaller devices ? but for a straightforward arcade experience, there?s something both haunting and mesmerizing about this one, thanks to its great presentation.
Like The Legend of Zelda series, Mage Gauntlet taps into that action role-playing spirit that made for some fantastic 16-bit games way back in the days of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the Sega Genesis. But with some tight, funny writing and plenty of hats to find and try on, Mage Gauntlet differentiates itself as a great iOS experience. Gamers who grew up in the 1990s will feel right at home with Mage Gauntlet?s old-school aesthetic and gameplay, but this one just has a lot of content to offer. It?s all swords and sorcery, and at the end of the day, who could ask for anything more?
I?m usually not one for racing games, but Riptide finds a way to make old things new again by introducing some great-looking water with strong, working physics to the equation. This is a racing title in which you race jet skis. It packs some high-quality 3-D graphics to drive the immersion into the game, along with three different game modes, and mixes a few stunts in with the races to keep things interesting. You can also earn new jet skis as you race and qualify with better times, and best of all, it sports Game Center leaderboards, which helps engender real-life competition. Mostly, though, it?s just fun to bounce off great-looking virtual waves.
The developers over at Adult Swim Games have kind of cornered the market on weird, slightly dark, hilarious concepts. Bring Me Sandwiches!! is another in a long line of these. You play a fast-food employee who has to serve sandwiches to a monstrous alien in order to keep it happy. Your job in this 2-D platformer is to gather just about anything you can to make sandwiches, but the game also tosses objects at you, and you?ll often include rude people or animals in your entrees. It?s a goofy game with a fun aesthetic and a great premise, and it?s definitely fun to incapacitate annoying teenagers and pile them on to bread slices to feed to a giant alien.
Caller ID spoofing has long been the domain of pranksters and scammers, but although the technology often is used unethically, there may be a few legitimate reasons why you would want to disguise your phone number's Caller ID, rather than just block it. Here are a few that come to mind and easy ways to masquerade as someone else.