This is published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, January 2010.

Reuters and others carried the layperson writeup.

Though the study was a Phase II clinical trial, the medicine KRX-0401 appeared to have success in a tough segment of oncology: metastatic colon cancer.

We haven't had a new drug in colon cancer since Erbitux and Vectibix in 2006. Keryx appears poised to open a Phase III clinical trial, and positive movement on their share price today means they'll probably have the dough to do it (otherwise get bought).

It's pretty rare for a phase II clinical trial to have positive survival results. Either this drug is poised to become the next blockbuster, or it's the flash in the pan of the week.

There's the soft rationing of managed care, and then there's "quality."

Mark McClellan, now at a think tank, chooses the latter option. He's not just another yahoo in the healthcare debate. He's an MD, and he headed up the FDA and CMS during the 2000s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_McClellan

He wrote about healthcare reform here:

http://thegovmonitor.com/world_news/united_states/experts-skeptical-heal...

The response is this:

A study published this week reports that a machine known as magnetoencephalography can correctly identify PTSD 90% of the time.  Researchers at the VA in Minneapolis, Minnesota used technology that has been studied for years: imaging the activity of the brain using magnetic sensors.  Wikipedia has a nice article about the technique, but it should be noted that the Wikipedia article about Magneto the comic book character is probably longer.»

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Yesterday, FDA approved Ampyra for MS.

http://www.webmd.com/multiple-sclerosis/news/20100122/ms-drug-ampyra-get...

This seems like a symptomatic treatment only, in that it improves nerve function, though it does not affect the natural history of the disease.

The WebMD article has some interesting tidbits: the drug is evidently a derivative of bird poision, and some neurologists were ordering it from landscape supply companies for use in their patients.

Oh, and it can also cause seizures. On the plus side, patients walk faster when they use the drug.

Final results from the randomized trial of Sutent in pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors was released in Orlando today, and they are good enough to send Pfizer to the FDA seeking an approval. Evidently Sutent extended overall (a secondary endpoint) and progression-free survival in the studies, according to researchers.

This was in a pretreated population of patients. Sutent was compared to placebo, so the setting appears to be people with advanced disease.

This time, researchers found that low circulating Vitamin D levels were linked to colon cancer.

The article on ABCNews.com was at least balanced, stating that the current results are "inconclusive" and that a large prospective study will have more clinical relevance once completed.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/WellnessNews/low-vitamin-levels-linked-colon-cancer-study-finds/story?id=9636657

The 1960s brought flower power and also the invention of Tamoxifen.  Tamoxifen reduced breast cancer recurrence by 50%, and women everywhere rejoiced.

This question comes from a man in his thirties.

Before starting any fitness or exercise program, be sure to check with a doctor if there are any questions about your health or capabilities.

First, let's look at the guidelines put out by the US Government. There is a helpful website available at http://pag.airhealthprojects.org/paguidelines/adultguide/default.aspx, and a PDF of the information there can be found at http://pag.airhealthprojects.org/paguidelines/pdf/adultguide.pdf