Word: nih
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...AIDS therapies and antidepressants -- have been studied almost exclusively in men. Little hard evidence exists about their efficacy or safety for women. The problem has begun to concern doctors, patients and now lawmakers. In June Congress's General Accounting Office released a report condemning the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for failing to promote studies that took adequate account of the differences between the sexes. The Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues, which commissioned the study, introduced a $237 million legislative package in July aimed at achieving "parity in medical research." Said caucus co-chair Patricia Schroeder of Colorado: "Doctors...
Health concerns that primarily affect women get particularly short shrift in the research community, many doctors say. Breast cancer, for example, has doubled in incidence since 1960 and is now killing 44,000 women each year. Yet last year the NIH spent just $77 million studying the ailment, including only $16 million on basic research. Two years ago, the NIH halted a major study on breast cancer and low-fat diets because of cost considerations. "I can't believe that decision," says Dr. Mary Guinan, assistant director for science at the Centers for Disease Control. "If we could tell women...
...bill. Ideally they would prefer to insert ADA genes into bone-marrow stem cells, which would continuously manufacture blood cells containing the gene and ensure a steady supply of the enzyme. But researchers have yet to find a way to isolate marrow stem cells effectively. Instead, the NIH researchers opted for T cells, immune-system cells that can survive in the bloodstream for months and even years...
Several months may pass before doctors can confirm that the ADA genes are being "expressed" and that the enzyme is being produced. Even so, the child will not be cured. She will have to return monthly for at least two years to ) the NIH, where doctors will infuse her with more engineered T cells and check for possible side effects. But Anderson and Blaese are optimistic. "We're very comfortable with the concept," says Blaese. In the meantime, as a precaution mandated by the FDA, the girl will continue to receive the PEG-ADA drug treatment...
...milestone event should be quickly followed by a second application of human gene therapy, now apparently close to final approval. It has been proposed by NIH's Dr. Steven Rosenberg for treating patients with advanced cases of melanoma, a deadly skin cancer that afflicts 28,000 Americans annually. "We now use radiation, chemotherapy and surgery -- external forces -- on cancer patients," Rosenberg says. "But gene therapy uses the body's own internal mechanism. We're trying to make the body itself reject the disease...