Word: colonic
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When NBC television personality Katie Couric underwent a colonoscopy live on national TV in March 2000, she did more than show the world the insides of her bowels. Couric, whose husband died from colon cancer at age 42, also significantly raised the rate at which Americans signed up for a colon-cancer screening. In a study that appears in the current issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, a team of researchers from Michigan and Iowa reports that colonoscopy rates across the U.S. jumped more than 20% following Couric's examination...
...that may translate into saved lives. More than 130,000 Americans this year will be found to have colon cancer, and more than 56,000 will die from the disease, making it the second leading cause of cancer deaths, according to the National Cancer Institute. Many of these deaths could have been avoided if people were not so squeamish about undergoing colonoscopy, which is what makes the "Katie Couric effect," as researchers have dubbed it, so important. --By David Bjerklie
...Since the stock market started to find its footing last July, U.S. biotech shares have risen 57%. Another bubble? Not necessarily. Many of the companies have marched steadily closer to bringing products to market. MedImmune's inhalable flu preventive FluMist was approved in mid-June. In May, Genentech's colon-cancer drug Avastin stunned scientists with its effectiveness in trials and is widely expected to be approved soon. Dozens of other products are in the works. "We're starting to see the fruits of biotech research," says Kenneth Carter, ceo of Avalon Pharmaceuticals, which is working on three cancer drugs...
...again. Since the stock market started to find its footing last July, biotech shares have risen 57%. Another bubble? Not necessarily. Many of the companies have marched steadily closer to bringing products to market. MedImmune's inhalable flu preventive FluMist was approved two weeks ago. In May, Genentech's colon-cancer drug Avastin stunned scientists with its effectiveness in trials and is widely expected to be approved soon. Dozens of other products are in the works. "We're starting to see the fruits of biotech research," says Kenneth Carter, CEO of Avalon Pharmaceuticals, which is working on three cancer drugs...
...data suggest that it may be an unhealthy one as well. According to the latest results from the continuing Nurses' Health Study, which surveyed more than 78,500 women, those who worked overnight shifts at least three times a month for 15 years were 35% more likely to develop colon cancer than those who worked only days. Authors of the study, published last week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, think the increased risk may be linked to lowered levels of melatonin, which usually reaches peak production in the body in the middle of the night; nighttime exposure...