Panels raise questions on prostate-cancer screenings, treatment ...

A blood screening result that suggests prostate cancer is bound to provoke high anxiety ? even though up to 80 percent of those findings turn out to be false positives.

Anxiety deepens, of course, if a biopsy confirms a cancer diagnosis, to the extent that many men demand surgery or radiation even when they don?t need it.

Now, two national health panels have made startling recommendations that call into question the way doctors have been handling prostate cancer testing and treatment. One panel said men should skip standard prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, testing unless they have symptoms such as urinary blockage or pain. A second panel urged many men with low-risk prostate tumors to turn to ?active surveillance? rather than immediate surgery or radiation.

The recommendations ? the first is part of a draft report by the U.S. Preventive Services task force in October, the second came from a panel convened by the National Institutes of Health in December ? have generated controversy, even as researchers work to develop better methods.

?Skipping the PSA is the wrong way to approach it. It?s an extreme viewpoint that will have terrible ramifications on public health if it goes forward,? says Dr. Bruce Kava, interim chair of urology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

?I?ve had patients whose cancer was discovered by a PSA test,? adds Dr. Rakesh Singal, a urologist and prostate cancer researcher at the University of Miami medical school.

The Preventive Services task force recommendation came after a months-long study of clinical trials around the world. ?The common perception that PSA-based early detection of prostate cancer prolongs lives is not supported by the scientific evidence,? the draft report said. The task force is a congressionally mandated panel of doctors, nurses and other specialists that develops recommendations for doctors and hospitals.

The second recommendation, from a ?consensus panel? of 14 researchers and clinicians convened in December by the National Institutes of Health, tackled the treatment side: ?Treatment of low-risk prostate cancer with radical prostatectomy or radiation therapy leads to side effects such as impotence and incontinence. Active surveillance has emerged as a viable option.?

Responding to those concerns, researchers in South Florida and around the world are working on better screening tests to replace or at least supplement the PSA test, which has been in use since 1986. Such improved tests could make the screening controversy ?moot,? the U.S. Cancer Foundation says. It says studies also are under way to better guide how aggressive treatment should be when cancer is confirmed.

The prostate, a plum-sized gland that sits above the base of the penis and helps produce semen, becomes enlarged in half of all men by age 60, and half of those will have symptoms such as frequent urination, weak stream or inability to completely empty the bladder.

And the symptoms raise the question: Is it benign prostate hyperplasia (enlargement) or prostate cancer? Cancer is not rare. One-third of men ages 40 to 60 and three-quarters of men older than 85 have prostate cancer, federal health officials say ? even though most of it is microscopic and clinically insignificant.

Researchers say most of those diagnosed with prostate cancer are likely to grow old and die of something else first. The lifetime risk of death from prostate cancer is only 2.5 percent, and the median age of death from prostate cancer is 80, says the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Still, it?s the second-greatest cause of male cancer deaths after lung cancer, killing 32,000 men a year.

?We realize it?s a dilemma,? says Kava, the urologist, calling the number of positive PSA tests that lead to negative biopsies ?unacceptably high. ? And biopsies are not innocuous. Some find them painful. Also, false positives can create anxiety, sometimes depression.?

Biopsies also cause fever, infection, bleeding and transient urinary difficulty in 68 of every 1,000 procedures, the task force report says. Seeking to balance the benefits of the PSA test against the harms, the task force concluded that men without overt symptoms should skip the PSA tests.

Protest came quickly from the American Urological Association: ?We are concerned that the task force?s recommendations will ultimately do more harm than good,? it said. ?It is our feeling that, when interpreted appropriately, (the PSA test) provides important information in diagnosis.?

Research at several U.S. universities soon might produce better screening tests to replace or supplement the PSA test, said the California-based Prostate Cancer Foundation, which raises funds for research. Foundation president Jonathan Simons said his group?s 2011 annual Scientific Retreat heard presentations of 17 new tests under way that might improve on the PSA.

Source: http://www.kansas.com/2012/01/03/2160770/panels-raise-questions-on-prostate.html

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Commodities Post First Annual Decline Since 2008 on Europe Debt

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Monday 2nd January, 2012 (Source: Business Week)

Dec. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Commodities posted the first annual drop since 2008, paced by declines in cotton, copper and cocoa, on concern that the sovereign-debt crisis in Europe and a cooling Chinese economy will sap demand for raw materials. ...

Read the full story at Business Week

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Source: http://feeds.albuquerquenews.net/?rid=202308904&cat=3a8a80d6f705f8cc

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India airs edgier TV shows _ but cuts out the edge

NEW DELHI (AP) ? Would the sex, drugs and rock-n-roll fueled TV show "Californication" be worth watching without the sex, drugs and rock-n- roll? What about serial killer series "Dexter" without the gore?

In an effort to attract younger viewers without offending the older ones, Indian TV is now showing some of America's edgiest shows ? but cutting out the edge.

As India urbanizes and its middle class grows, a delicate dilemma has hit a media culture long dominated by local TV shows aimed at rural audiences, such as the soap opera "Baalika Vadhu" or "Child Bride," about a girl married off at age 10. While the young and hip audiences that attract advertising dollars want foreign imports, no broadcaster wants to upset conservative viewers or attract government ire.

"This is a very sensitive time for the media in India," said TV critic Shailaja Bajpai. "Many stations are afraid of government banning orders," but at the same time, output needs refreshing to bring in audiences."

So TV channels resort to inconsistent and clumsy self-censorship, snipping scenes that are central to a show's plot with abandon. While they bleep out profanities, they will also cut a reference to the drug "crack" from one part of a show, while letting it slide a few minutes later.

Even more absurd are the imports that have English subtitles to assist those with a shaky grasp of the language. Censors often let the spoken word slide through, but change it or strike it completely from the subtitles. So while a character on "The Big Bang Theory" is allowed to say the word "intimate," the subtitles only showed "int ------."

One incident turned an episode of "Friends" into a legend of unwatchable TV. The show hinged on the gag that two pages in a cookbook got stuck together and the character Rachel mistakenly made a fruit pastry with beef. The station bleeped out the word "beef," a show of sensitivity for Hindus' reverence for cows, leaving viewers to guess why her diners were so disgusted.

It's just as perplexing for the suddenly chaste vampires of HBO's lusty "True Blood" and for the serial killer star of "Dexter," who is constantly changing blood-splattered clothes for no apparent reason on Indian TV. Or for David Duchovny's "Californication" lech Hank Moody, who disappears into a bedroom with a beautiful women and then suddenly appears in a disjointed scene from later in the episode.

Nevertheless, young Indians, who have embraced Levis, McDonalds and MTV, are hungering for Western television.

"I no longer want to watch the stupid shows I watched with my family growing up, I want entertainment and there is very little on Hindi-language television," said Abhinav Mohan, a 22-year-old mass-communication student, who watches the disjointed imports instead. "Though heavily censored, I can still follow them."

Broadcasting the shows, while editing them into confusion, underscores the fine line entertainment companies like the NewsCorp-owned Star and FX are trying to walk to attract urban youth while not angering their more traditional parents.

Bollywood actors only began kissing onscreen in the last decade. As recently as 2007, an arrest warrant was briefly issued for Hollywood star Richard Gere after he kissed the cheek of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty at an AIDS awareness rally.

"Indian produced movies and TV are very formulaic, you always know what you are going to get," said Rahul Gupta, a media company owner in New Delhi. "Today's youth are more likely to get what they want from Hollywood than Bollywood and TV companies are starting to realize it and hope to cash in."

In an effort to head off government interference, the industry created its own regulatory body in June to deal with complaints. Now, in addition to the odd censoring, viewers must also suffer a banner that repeatedly scrolls across the screen, advising viewers how to complain to the Broadcasting Content Complaints Council. More than 3,000 have.

The complaints range from "scantily and vulgarly dressed women" on MTV's "Grind" to a scene "misguiding children to kill," on the southern Indian family melodrama "Muddu Bidda," or "Cute Girl."

So far, only six channels have been called in for a hearing. Their apologies have been enough to satisfy the council and prevent it from referring the cases to the government, which has the power to ban shows.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-01-02-AS-India-Soft-Core-Censoring/id-1e22ccc5154a426db24d7ba9d943ddf7

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Video: 2011?s best triumphs and failures of government

>> comes to lawmakers, what were the past year's biggest triumphs and failures from the government? i'm joined by ed o'keefe from "the washington post " and the author of the federal eye blog and here to give us their take on what the government got right and the biggest oops of 2011 so far. let's talk about the good list. what did they do right?

>> topping the list is disaster response . fema had a banner year. you talk to democrats and know ares and lawmakers from all over who dealt with the disasters, 11 topped $1 billion. fema did a fantastic job responding ahead of the storm and providing a disaster relief as quickly as possible to the victims. if you think back a few years to how it performed after hurricane katrina , to say that fema has bipartisan praise.

>> government waste?

>> that was another big issue on improper payments and people who had medicare and medicate and took tax credits and the irs hasn't stopped them, it's a shrinking problem to its credit. the obama administration has been doing a lot to find this wasteful spending and cut down on it. it's a test of reporters and other who is keep tabs to make sure the numbers drop in the new year. they have done a good amount of cutting or made plans to cut.

>> with some of the other positive things you wrote about is the freedom of information act and they're more efficient when it comes to that.

>> agencies overall are granting freedom of information act requests at a healthier clip than in the past. that is part of a growing trend to cut backlogs of all sorts whether it's veterans waiting for benefits and people trying to get social security payments and backlogs through the better use of technology. they are being cut. that's definitely a good thing.

>> that's the good stuff. a list of four good things. on the oops list, huh something like nine. i will bring up one of them. you are saying that when it comes to the landfill, the issue of troops remains being found in a landfill, that was a big no-no.

>> this was the big issue at the mortuary scandal that happened between 2004 and 2008 . hundreds of remains of service members killed overseas were dumped in a landfill and body parts were misplaced as an awful story and an example of how they dropped the ball, keeping their share of the commitment that the troops make to the country.

>> also you heard response when is it came to the shutdowns. we are talking about the government shutdowns every other month.

>> about every six week and that meant that federal agencies had to be on watch to close down. they were not able to do the actual job. government is supposed to be function skpk several times they almost did it. that is a big oops of 2011 .

>> good and bad stuff for the government. thank you so much.

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/newsnation/45827781/

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Funeral next week for Conn. Christmas fire victims

STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) ? A funeral service will be held in New York next week for three girls killed with their grandparents in a Christmas morning house fire in Connecticut.

Dominic Carella, vice president of the Frank Campbell Funeral Home, says a private wake will be held Wednesday at the funeral home in Manhattan.

A funeral service open to the public will be held at 10:30 a.m. Thursday at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Manhattan for 10-year-old Lily Badger and 7-year-old twins Grace and Sarah Badger. A private service will be held at Woodlawn Cemetery for all five victims.

Carella says funeral plans for the grandparents, Lomer and Pauline Johnson, are still being worked on.

Authorities say embers in a bag of discarded fireplace ashes started the blaze.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-12-30-Fire-Five%20Dead/id-068d2d8f0bb94f2bb2bb353ca832bd4b

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Fiesta, revamped Explorer carry Ford sales above 2 million

December 31, 2011 12:00 AM

By Mark Clothier

Bloomberg News

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. ? Ford Motor Co. said Friday its namesake brand exceeded 2 million U.S. sales for the first year since 2007, led by gains for models such as the Fiesta small car and revamped Explorer sport-utility vehicle.

Smaller cars such as the Fiesta and Focus are on pace for a sales increase of more than 20 percent this year while light trucks that include the Explorer, Escape SUV and F-150 pickup may rise at least 30 percent, the Dearborn, Mich. -based company said.

The second-largest U.S. automaker is benefiting from an auto market that rose 10 percent through November from a year earlier. The company's sales also got a boost from vehicles such as the Fiesta, which debuted in the U.S. in June 2010 and has more than tripled this year through last month, and the Explorer, which has more than doubled.

"The industry sales rate has exceeded 13 million in each of the last three months," Ken Czubay, Ford's vice president for U.S. sales and marketing, said in the statement. "This suggests the current momentum is not an aberration."

Ford-brand sales gained 18 percent to 1.86 million through November, compared with 1.76 million for all of 2010. Ford's total U.S. sales through November increased 11 percent.

The automaker reported net income of $6.6 billion in this year's first nine months. Ford gained consumer consideration as it managed to avoid the bankruptcies that befell its U.S. rivals in 2009. The company borrowed $23.4 billion in late 2006 before credit markets froze, giving it the cash to weather the recession and invest in new models.

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Source: http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111231/NEWS19/112310325/-1/rss02

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Odd notes, mad-dash trips mark Iowa closing sprint (AP)

DES MOINES, Iowa ? Iowa's GOP presidential contest remains deeply unsettled, if not downright strange, five days before the Jan. 3 caucus.

Rep. Ron Paul, drawing big crowds, got a surprise endorsement Wednesday night from Rep. Michele Bachmann's now-former state chairman.

Former Sen. Rick Santorum, who has languished for months, suddenly seems to have momentum, just as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich may be losing his.

And Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who began the campaign by de-emphasizing Iowa, might be poised to finish on top, according to some new polls.

Romney now is making an unabashed push in Iowa. His rivals are scrambling to deny him huge momentum heading into the Jan. 10 primary in New Hampshire, his second home.

Paul, the 76-year-old libertarian-leaning Texan, drew about 500 people at the Iowa State fairgrounds in Ames late Wednesday. A group of Occupy activists tried to interrupt the rally, but that wasn't the main surprise.

State Sen. Kent Sorenson, who had campaigned a few hours earlier with Bachmann as a state chairman of her bid, announced he would support Paul instead.

Paul's anti-government appeal appears to tap into the desire of a frustrated electorate for profound change in an era of high unemployment and an economy that has only slowly recovered from the recession.

"In the last couple of weeks I fell into Ron Paul's camp," said Bob Colby of Newton, who spent 21 years in the military and is a former employee of a now-shuttered Maytag plant in town.

Paul, who is airing TV ads hitting Romney and Gingrich, planned a town hall meeting Thursday in Perry, Iowa, plus stops in Atlantic and Council Bluffs.

There were other odd campaign notes Wednesday.

Two politically active pastors in Iowa's robust evangelical conservative movement disclosed an effort to persuade either Santorum or Bachmann to quit the race and endorse the other. "Otherwise, like-minded people will be divided and water down their impact," said Rev. Cary Gordon, a Sioux City minister and a leader among Iowa's social conservatives.

Neither candidate appeared interested.

Meanwhile, an ever more confident Romney scheduled stops Thursday in Cedar Falls, Mason City and Ames. He has air support: TV ads say he has the best chance to beat President Barack Obama in November.

Asked Wednesday about the prospects for back-to-back victories in Iowa and New Hampshire, Romney demurred. "I can't possibly allow myself to think in such optimistic terms," he said. "I just have to put my head down and battle as best I can."

Santorum seems to be gaining steam, according to a Time-CNN survey and some private polls. "We're very, very happy with the new numbers," he told reporters in Dubuque.

Acknowledging widespread voter anger in an age of high unemployment, Santorum told an audience Wednesday: "If you want to stick it to the man, don't vote for Ron Paul. That's not sticking it to anybody but the Republican Party."

Santorum, who planned events Thursday in the eastern Iowa towns of Coralville, Wilton, Muscatine and Davenport, says he believes his improved showing reflects voters belief that he "can be trusted" and that "we've got a record to back it up."

He said in an appearance on NBC's "Today" show Thursday that he's the only one in the Republican field who "has a track record" of winning elections in states, like Pennsylvania, where it was necessary for GOP candidates to attract independents and Democrats.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry adjusted his position on abortion for a second straight day, telling reporters he would allow abortion if a woman's life were at risk. On Tuesday, he had told a pastor that he had undergone a "transformation" on abortion rights and now opposed the procedure in cases of rape or incest after having recently met a woman who said she was conceived by a rape.

Asked if a mother's life was the only instance when he would allow abortion, he was concise as he boarded his bus Wednesday: "That's correct."

Perry planned Thursday events in Washington, Cedar Rapids and Marshalltown.

Gingrich, who has suffered a barrage of TV attack ads lately, also took aim at Paul. "I'm very uncomfortable with the idea that the commander in chief would think it was irrelevant to have an Iranian nuclear weapon," he said Wednesday.

Gingrich planned events Thursday in Sioux City, Storm Lake, Denison and Carroll.

Bachmann took aim Wednesday at her two rivals from Texas. She said Perry has spent "27 years as a political insider," and Paul would be "dangerous as president" because of his hands-off views on national security.

Bachmann scheduled events Thursday in Des Moines, Marshalltown and Nevada, Iowa.

___

Associated Press writers Thomas Beaumont, Brian Bakst, David Espo, Philip Elliott, Beth Fouhy, Mike Glover, Kasie Hunt and Shannon McCaffrey contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111229/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_campaign

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