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NEW YORK--The more that is learned about the natural history of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the stronger the case for early intervention. Recent research confirms "the notion that HIV infection is a dynamic process throughout the course of infection," said H. Clifford Lane, MD, clinical director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

Meriden, Conn--A 5-year study at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research found no significant clinical benefit for patients receiving MicroGenesys, Inc's therapeutic AIDS vaccine,VaxSyn rpg 160,compared with placebo, the company has announced.

WASHINGTON--Representative John Edward Porter of Illinois has received an American Academy of Otolaryngology--Head and Neck Surgery, Inc. award for "superb legislative leadership for medical research."

WASHINGTON--Caring for patients and conducting research in the age of managed care raises tough problems for all involved, said Peter Quesenberry, MD, director, University of Massachusetts Cancer Center, Worcester. "How can we assure access to treatment, support research, and still be cost effective?"

On May 26, 1995, Philip Morris USA* announced a voluntary recall of 36 cigarette product lines (approximately 8 billion cigarettes) because, during production, the company detected unusual tastes and peculiar odors and identified methyl

PRINCETON, NJ--Blenoxane (bleomycin), Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s anticancer agent, has received FDA clearance for a new indication as intrapleural therapy for the relief of symptoms resulting from malignant pleural effusion (MPE) and prevention of recurrent pleural effusions.

MARINA DEL REY, Calif--The changing reimbursement system in California provides a "real challenge" for academic institution to compete on cost with other area hospitals, said Robert B. Smith, MD, professor of surgery/urology, UCLA School of Medicine, at a conference cosponsored by the Clark Urological Cancer Center and the UCLA School of Medicine.

DUMONT, NJ--The Berlex On-cology Foundation is seeking applicants for two workshops: Epidemiology and Clinical Trial Design, to be held August 23-29, 1996, in Brewster, Mass, and The Clinical Pharmacology of Anticancer Drugs, which will take place October 4-8, 1996, in Leesburg, Va.

WASHINGTON--Community hospitals gain immensely in enhanced patient care when they form partnerships with universities, Allen S. Lichter, MD, said at the annual national meeting of the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC). The benefits of such a joint venture, however, flow both ways, said Dr. Lichter, chairman of the Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Michigan.

BETHESDA, Md--Of the more than 1,300 biotech companies in North America, up to 70% are involved in health care, and many are working on cancer research, Frederick Craves, PhD, of Burrill & Craves, a merchant bank in San Francisco, said at a meeting of the National Cancer Advisory Board (NCAB).

The current health-care environment is creating many new challenges for physicians, and addressing these challenges has led to new ideas in office practice management.

NEW YORK--What with inflation, budget cutting, burgeoning grant applications, and dueling disease advocacy groups, it isn't easy being director of the National Institutes of Health. Harold E. Varmus, MD, gave an audience at the Irvington Institute a peek at what he is up against.

Researchers presented the first comprehensiveresults of Neoprobe Corporation's pivotal multicenter studies of its RIGScan product at The Society of Surgical Oncology's (SSO) 49th Annual Cancer Symposium in Atlanta on March 22.

Even couples who have been happily married for decades can suffer negative health effects from the stress of marital arguments, a new study suggests.

WILMINGTON, Del--Zeneca Inc. has reached an agreement with Faulding Services Inc. (Adelaide, South Australia) for exclusive US rights to purchase, distribute, and promote Faulding's sustained-release morphine sulfate product Kadian, an oral medication taken once or twice daily.

Should an insurance company be able to deny children medical coverage because their mother died of an inherited heart defect that her children may or may not carry? That is the dilemma facing a California father who cannot get family medical coverage under his group plan as a result of his wife's death. And that is a dilemma crying out for congressional intervention.

BUFFALO, NY--Adding a chimeric anti-CD20 antibody to standard CHOP chemotherapy appears to produce a synergistic therapeutic effect in low-grade B-cell lymphomas. Patients on the regimen have achieved complete remissions and disappearance of the bcl-2 translocation, principal investigator Myron Czuczman, of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, said at the annual Chemotherapy Foundation symposium.

BETHESDA, Md--The National Center for Human Genome Research at the NIH has announced six research grants that are expected to propel forward the final phase of the Human Genome Project, headed by Dr. Francis Collins.

MADISON, Wis--An anomaly of pain management is that patients generally report satisfaction with their pain management, even though they are still experiencing pain. The downside of this finding is that if patients are truly satisfied, institutions may see no need to improve pain management programs.

Pediatric cancer specialists at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas plan to bring an old cancer-fighter off the bench and test its effectiveness in a new generation of children with leukemia.

AMSTERDAM--Innovative strategies for thwarting metastasis are now at the brink of clinical application, Lance Liotta, MD, of the National Cancer Institute, reported at the 9th NCI-EORTC Symposium on New Drugs in Cancer Therapy.

The article by Hambleton provides a compendium of the causes of hematopoietic defects in HIV-infected individuals. For the busy practicing physician who treats patients with HIV, these defects are not trivial. Cytopenias are a continuous problem that impact on most clinical decisions. For example, anemia and neutropenia are more common in patients with 100 CD4 cells/mcL or less. In general, these patients also have the highest titers of virus and are at greatest risk of developing symptomatic Mycobacterium avium or cytomegalovirus infection. Thus, physicians often find themselves trying to decide which patients should undergo a more extensive evaluation and which should receive "less" myelosuppressive therapy.

Benign and aggressive intracranial meningiomas, as the authors state, are seemingly simple tumors (even with benign histology) that can behave in a clinically malignant fashion solely by location. Clinicians with experience in the management of patients with aggressive, recurrent, or malignant meningiomas are all too well aware of the difficulties of recommending effective therapy beyond surgery and radiation therapy. Clearly, there is much room for improvement in the treatment of recurrent or malignant meningiomas with local or systemic chemotherapy and/or biologic therapies.

Drs. Dresler and Goldberg review the role of resection of metastatic tumors to the lung. It is a difficult topic, with the exception of osteosarcoma, for which the practice of secondary resection is common and clearly of benefit. For lung metastases from other tumors, however, the use of resection is based largely on sporadic and anecdotal reports.

Meningioma is a prime example of a tumor requiring a multimodality approach. This tumor is usually benign and often grows slowly. Under many circumstances, such a benign tumor would never attract the attention of the oncologist or even require treatment at all. However, a meningioma is a benign tumor in a malignant location. In the closed space of the skull, there is no room for expansion of even a benign lesion; thus, effective treatment of this potentially neurologically devastating lesion is necessary. Neurosurgeons, neuroradiologists, radiotherapists, and medical oncologists are all directly involved in treatment decisions. Rapidly expanding knowledge concerning the etiology and natural history of meningiomas may now also involve epidemiologists, molecular geneticists, and endocrinologists. Despite this concentration of expertise, numerous questions remain unanswered or incompletely answered.

Hematologic complications of HIV disease are commonly encountered by physicians and other health-care workers caring for patients infected with this virus. Ineffective hematopoiesis, infiltrative diseases of the bone

Usually considered benign tumors, meningiomas can display aggressive behavior characterized by multiple recurrences and invasion of the brain, dura, and adjacent bone. The aggressive or malignant phenotype is difficult

Lung parenchyma is the most common site of metastases from either carcinomas or sarcomas. Depending on the status of the original primary, resection of lung metastases may be curative. Multiple variables must be

BALTIMORE--A small study of HIV-infected patients conducted by researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) shows that inoculation with a common vaccine can temporarily increase the amount of HIV that is circulating in the bloodstream.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla--There is a void of outcomes data in cancer that the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) hopes to fill, said Jane Weeks, MD, at the NCCN's first annual conference.