Bioethics & Health News
December 13

December 13, 2005

NIH to Study Genetic Makeup of Cancer

If all the ways genes run amok to cause cancer were laid out in a dictionary, scientists would be able to decipher only a small part of the first page. Hoping to change that, the government is set to begin a $100 million pilot project to unravel the genetic makeup of cancer, with the idea of speeding the discovery of culprits and treatments that today is largely a matter of scientific luck.
(AP)

Parkinson’s Hope Over ‘Implants’

US scientists have moved a step closer to developing a brain implant therapy for Parkinson’s disease symptoms.
(BBC)

Gene-Therapy Tried for Parkinson’s

Mike Castle lay motionless as surgeons drilled two holes into his skull and injected a virus deep into his brain. The virus carries a gene and a tantalizing hope: that just maybe it could stall the Parkinson’s disease slowly crippling him.
(AP)

Environment and Cancer: The Links Are Elusive

When Mike Gallo learned he had cancer, a B cell lymphoma, two years ago, his friends and relatives told him that they knew how he got it.
(New York Times)

Study: Epilepsy Surgery Eases Depression, Anxiety

Epilepsy surgery can significantly improve the depression and anxiety that are common among people whose epilepsy can’t be controlled by medication, a new study finds.
(HealthDay)

Charity Getting Drugs to the Needy

Nearly everyone has a packet of paracetamol or Lemsip in their cupboards to help ward off headaches, sore throats and the flu.
(BBC)