Health Highlights: Feb. 10, 2006

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:

Anti-Lymphoma Drug Gets OK for New Use

The anti-cancer drug Rituxan has received U.S. government approval for a new use, according to an announcement from its manufacturers Friday.

The Associated Press reports that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a new indication for Rituxan to treat certain types of non-Hodgkin''s lymphoma. Rituxan, in combination with the drug Bexxar, has already been shown to be effective in therapy against B-cell lymphomas.

The pharmaceutical firms Genentech and Biogen co-market the drug.

According to the companies'' news release, Rituxan, combined with chemotherapy, helps improve the chances of survival for patients with an aggressive form of non-Hodgkin''s lymphoma, known as diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, a particularly aggressive type of non-Hodgkin''s lymphoma.

Without intense treatment, large B-cell lymphoma can kill a person within six months to two years.

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American Stem Cell Researcher Cleared by University Panel

U.S. stem cell expert Dr. Gerald Schatten committed no scientific misconduct in his work with disgraced South Korean stem cell researcher Dr. Hwang Woo-suk, University of Pittsburgh officials said Friday.

The university''s research integrity panel concluded that Schatten did fail in his responsibilities as co-author of one of Hwang''s studies because Schatten "did not exercise a sufficiently critical perspective," the Associated Press reported.

The panel decided to take no action against Schatten and commended him for going public with his suspicions about Hwang''s research. Schatten is still a tenured professor and active researcher at the University of Pittsburgh.

Schatten was Hwang''s only American collaborator and worked with the South Korean researcher for 20 months, the AP reported.

A panel of South Korean experts concluded that Hwang faked data to support his claim that he extracted stem cells from human embryos that he''d cloned. The academic panel also said Hwang falsely claimed to have developed 11 stem cell lines tailored to individual patients.

When it was first announced, Hwang''s research was greeted worldwide as a cloning breakthrough. Many believed it held the promise of new treatments for numerous diseases, such as Parkinson''s and Alzheimer''s.

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U.S. Heart Transplant Pioneer Dies

U.S. heart transplant pioneer Dr. Norman E. Shumway died Friday due to complications from cancer, the Stanford University School of Medicine said.

Shumway, who just turned 83 on Feb. 9, performed the first successful human heart transplant in the United States in 1968 at Stanford. The recipient was 54-year-old steel worker Mike Kasperak. He lived for 14 days following the transplant.

While the operation provoked an initial wave of enthusiasm for heart transplantation in the United States, a high rate of post-surgical deaths caused cardiologists to lose interest in the procedure.

However, Shumway continued to perform the operation and made steady progress, helping pave the way for a procedure that is now considered routine. Nearly 60,000 Americans have received new hearts through transplant programs at 150 medical centers.

"Many people gave it up when they thought it was too difficult, but Dr. Shumway had the persistence and vision that it could work. His determination to make heart transplantation work was absolutely crucial," Dr. Bruce Reitz, professor of cardiothoracic surgery at Stanford and former chair of the department, said in a prepared statement.

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Nigerian Bird Flu Outbreak Spreading

Despite efforts to control it, an outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus in Nigeria is spreading rapidly through poultry flocks in the north of the country, Agence France Presse reported.

It''s feared that emergency measures put in place by the country may be coming too late -- a month after poultry started to die from what was initially regarded as a mystery infection.

Nigerian officials have confirmed bird flu outbreaks on only four farms, but that official tally is being contradicted by local authorities. For example, a senior official in the northern state of Kano on Friday told AFP that 16 farms in his area are believed to have been hit by bird flu and about 100,000 chickens had died.

The World Health Organization and other United Nations agencies plan to send experts to Nigeria to help the country fight the outbreak. The United States has pledged $20 million and a team of scientists.

In related news, two more bird flu deaths have been reported, one in China and another in Indonesia. And lab tests have confirmed the presence of bird flu in a new country -- Azerbaijan.

Since 2003, 88 people have been killed by bird flu, the WHO says. Almost all the deaths have been in people who had contact with infected poultry.

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Deposition Challenges Merck''s Vioxx Lawsuit Defense

A court deposition shows that the New England Journal of Medicine insisted that changes be made to a study that promoted the idea that the use of the cox-2 painkiller Vioxx was safe for up to 18 months.

The article was eventually published in the journal and included the 18-month figure. However, the journal editors insisted the 18-month figure be preceded by a term that indicated this figure was a hypothesis and not a proven fact, the Associated Press reported.

The November deposition by the journal''s executive editor, Gregory Curfman, also reveals that he disputes the use of the study by Merck as part of its legal defense in liability suits stemming from use of the drug.

Merck contends that the doubling of risk for heart attack and stroke among Vioxx users in the study wasn''t evident until after 18 months of using the drug. Once this information became known, Merck halted the study and pulled Vioxx from the market in September 2004.

Five months later, the study with the 18-month figure was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

In his deposition, Curfman said the 18-month figure wasn''t credible. He noted the article itself indicated that problems such as cardiac failure and fluid build-up in the lungs showed up in patients who''d used Vioxx for as little as five months, the AP reported.

Part of his deposition may be shown Friday to jurors at a federal trial in New Orleans hearing a lawsuit against Merck by the widow of a man who died of a heart attack after using Vioxx for one month, the AP reported.

Merck faces about 6,500 Vioxx-related lawsuits.

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High-Profile Doctor Leaves Cleveland Clinic

Cleveland Clinic''s high-profile cardiology chairman Dr. Eric J. Topol announced Thursday that he''s leaving and will become a professor of genetics at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, also in Cleveland.

Topol is one of the best-known doctors in the United States and was among the first physicians to raise questions about potentially deadly cardiovascular side effects of cox-2 painkillers like Vioxx, The New York Times reported.

His departure from the Cleveland Clinic comes after a year-long dispute with the clinic''s chief executive, Dr. Delos M. Cosgrove. Topol, 51, has also been at the center of controversy, the newspaper said.

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Last Updated: Feb. 10, 2006