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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 24, 1996)
Thursday Page 7 October 24, 1996 r tlFll ‘Angioplasties, drugs have same effects OSTON (AP) — A large head-to-head com- ison of angioplasty and clot-dissolving drugs eart attack victims has ended in a draw. Ifhe study, performed on more than 3,000 [ients, found no difference in death rate after treatment i the rival approaches at or- iry community hospitals, he issue of which is better been a hot topic among the ion’s heart specialists, and the Jst report is unlikely to settle debate. uring the past decade, clot- Jsting drugs such as TPA jerged as the front-line treat- Int for heart attacks, used on put 180,000 Americans at a t of $350 million annually. If en soon enough, they can akup blockages in the heart’s arteries, pre- iting death or permanent damage. T”"” Vlore recently, an approach called primary jioplasty has challenged the dominance of se drugs. Angioplasty is already a mainstay treatment for clogged heart arteries. Doc- push a catheter into the artery and inflate ny balloon that squeezes open the block- to restore blood flow. hat In its new application, some doctors are performing angioplasty as an emergency pro cedure within an hour or two after the heart attack patient arrives at the emergency room. Small studies at hospitals that specialize in this ap proach found that heart at tack patients who undergo angioplasty have a 40 per cent lower death rate than those who receive clot busters. However, many ex perts wondered if it would work so well at hospitals where doctors do the proce dure less often. The latest study, led by Dr. Nathan R. Every and colleagues from the Uni versity of Washington, was conducted at 19 Seattle-area hospitals, mostly smaller, community hospitals. It was published in today’s issue of the New Eng land Journal of Medicine. Fewer than 20 percent of U.S. hospitals perform angioplasties, and fewer still are set up to do them on an emergency basis. “The bottom line is that in community hospitals, both of these treatments are effec- “The bottom line is that in community hospitals, both of these treatments are effective and good.” Dr. Nathan R. Every University of Washington tive and good,” Every said. “Right now, a lot of doctors and hospitals feel they should be do ing primary angioplasty because it saves more lives. I’m not sure that’s true.” The doctors followed 1,050 heart attack pa tients who got primary angioplasty and 2,095 who received clot-dissolving drugs between 1988 and 1994. The death rate during recovery in the hospital was 5.6 percent for those get ting the drugs and 5.5 percent for the angio plasty patients. The clot-dissolving drugs did hold one signifi cant advantage: The cost of treatment was about $3,000 lower over three years of follow-up. Dr. Cindy L. Grines of William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich., an advocate of primary angioplasty, contends the approach “has overwhelming advantages.” Despite the latest study results, she said in an accompanying analysis in the journal, heart at tack patients getting angioplasty are less likely to suffer strokes and new heart attacks or to die. Drs. Richard A. Lange and L. David Hillis of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center argued that “the preferred treatment is the one that can be applied more quickly, safely and expertly.” And for most patients, they said, that is clot-dissolving drugs. sarco )uatn f ke niQan Researchers found hat hormones injected into Kaposi’s sarcoma tumors the cancer disappear. y| 3, PUNKtA regnant women’s hormones kill AIDS-related cancer BOSTON (AP) — The chance icovery that some pregnant lab ceare resistant to Kaposi’s sarco- , a form of cancer seen almost lusively among AIDS patients, yielded a promising new treat- mtfor the disease. The treatment involves a hor- me derived from the urine of egnant women. Researchers und that injections directly othe tumor often make the ncer disappear. The hormone triggers the can- rcells to commit suicide, al- gh exactly how it works re- is a mystery, m'lt'san important finding,” said I Anthony Fauci, head of the Na tional Institute of Allergy and Infec tious Diseases. “It certainly has a dramatic effect and needs to be ag gressively pursued.” Kaposi’s sarcoma is a form of skin cancer that is extremely rare except among AIDS patients, espe cially homosexuals, striking be tween 15 percent and 30 percent. The disease can be fatal and causes purplish blotches. Researchers working with AIDS pioneer Robert Gallo, now at the In stitute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland, discovered that an inbred strain of hairless mice, which are ordinarily suscepti ble to all sorts of cancer, could not be induced to get Kaposi’s sarcoma if they were pregnant. Eventually the researchers found that chorionic gonadotropin, a hor mone made early in pregnancy by the human placenta, seemed to stop the cancer in the test tube. Next, Dr. Parkash S. Gill and colleagues from the University of Southern California tested the treatment on 36 patients. They re ported their results in Thursday’s U Safa** fa SarttM l Sch4 'e fa SkWt A^toanJ: 725B University Drive FOR THE WEEK OF OCT 28-31 TICKETS GO ON SALE SUNDAY 3-5 PM 7^ SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING d 7«&‘ 'l/tutd*"* wjs* MON Oct 28 TUBS Oct 29 WED Oct 30 THUR Oct 31 CHEM 101 3-5 PM CH 6, 7 CH 8 CH 9 PRAC TEST RHYS 202 5-7 PM CH 36 CH 37 CH 38 PRAC TEST RHYS 201 7-9 PM CH 9 CH 10 CH 11 CH 13 CHEM 101 9-11 PM CH 6, 7 CH 8 CH 9 PRAC TEST MON Oct 28 TUBS Oct 29 WED Oct 30 RHYS 7-11 PM CH 26, CH 29, PRAC 208 27, 28 30 TEST }43 -122? BUSINESS ACCT 229 BEGINS NOV 4TH ACCT 209 BEGINS NOV 11TH ACCT 230 BEGINS NOV 11TH FINC 341 BEGINS NOV 11TH issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. They tried four commercial vari eties and found that one made by Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories worked best. Cancerous spots went away completely in 10 of 12 patients who got the highest doses, although it is unclear whether the lesions will come back. Currently, Kaposi’s sarcoma is treated with radiation and chemotherapy, which carry un pleasant side effects. In contrast, chorionic gonadotropin actually makes patients feel better. “I have never used a drug before that has side effects that patients actually like,” Gill said. “Some gain weight, have improved endurance, can lift more weight and have a feeling of well-being.” Gill said it costs about $150 to treat one spot of cancer, and the ap proach is suitable for those with up to 10 or so cancerous outbreaks. Some patients have much more ex tensive cancer, involving even hun dreds of tumors. Researchers are now testing bloodstream injections of the hor mone to see if it stops Kaposi’s sar coma that has spread through the body. While not ready to release those results yet, Gallo hinted, “There is an important future for this approach.” Also under way are studies of the hormone as a treatment for breast and prostate cancer, as well as AIDS itself. A major goal of research is to find exactly what body chemical is at work. Commercial prepara tions of the substance contain many other proteins besides chorionic gonadotropin, and re searchers suspect that something else — perhaps a broken-down remnant of the hormone — is ac tually what stops the cancer. Dr. Susan E. Krown of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York recommended more study before doctors use the treat ment routinely. “Should everyone be injecting their patients’ KS lesions based on this? No,” she said. “Does it have in teresting potential? Yes.” r m r q m EL r m IE.T AV&y FROM ALL TRE. HUSTLE BUSTLE THE HATURE lSLAUt> OF THE CARIBBEAN IH AMO Earn TAMU Creoit! IFORKATiONAL MEETINGS ON*. 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