Killing cancerous tumors isn’t easy, as anyone who has suffered through chemotherapy can attest. But a new study in mice shows that switching off a single malfunctioning gene can halt the limitless division of tumor cells and turn them back to the path of their own planned obsolescence. [click link for full article]

Following a joint meeting of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee and the Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee, Takeda Global Research & Development (TGRD) underscores its position that ACTOS ®; (pioglitazone HCl) offers a proven safety profile regarding the risk of cardiovascular disease. [click link for full article]

The world’s most common joint disease, osteoarthritis (OA) affects more than 10 percent of American adults, nearly 80 percent of people past age 55, and about three times as many women as men. Treatment has been targeted at controlling the pain that tends to come with the progressive loss of articular cartilage cushioning the joints, disintegration of the underlying bone, and the formation of bone spurs or osteophytes. [click link for full article]

CMS on Monday announced a final decision that will limit Medicare coverage for use of anemia medications — Aranesp, manufactured by Amgen, and Procrit, manufactured by Johnson & Johnson — in cancer patients, but the decision is less restrictive than a [click link for full article]

The North Carolina General Assembly on Saturday tentatively approved a $20.7 billion budget under which the state government would absorb counties’ share of Medicaid costs in exchange for a portion of counties’ sales tax revenue, the Charlotte Observer reports. The Senate approved the budget measure 25-13 and the House 65-53 (Johnson, Charlotte Observer, 7/29). [click link for full article]

The House on Monday by voice vote passed an omnibus bill (HR 2874) on health care for veterans, CQ Today reports (Yoest, CQ Today, 7/30). The legislation would require the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide outreach and mental health services to veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. [click link for full article]

In the first study to directly compare men and women with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, and severe emphysema, researchers have found that there are marked differences between the sexes. The study, led by Fernando J. Martinez, M.D., of the University of Michigan, was reported in the August 1, 2007 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, published by the American Thoracic Society. [click link for full article]

Mortality rates from pulmonary fibrosis (PF) have increased significantly in recent years, and are predicted to continue to rise, according to researchers from the University of Colorado. Between 1992 and 2003, the age-adjusted mortality rate from PF-an often fatal disease which involves scarring of the lung-rose by nearly 28.4 percent in men, and 41.3 percent in women. [click link for full article]

Many people in Portugal have said a new law that legalizes abortions during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy is a “crucial step in a process of modernization and reform,” but the measure also has created an “emotional, divisive debate in a country more accustomed to resisting radical change and reaching compromises,” the [click link for full article]

The Senate on Monday voted 80-0 to begin debate on legislation (S 1893) that would reauthorize SCHIP and expand funding for the program by $35 billion over five years, CongressDaily reports (Johnson, CongressDaily, 7/31). SCHIP expires on Sept. 30. The [click link for full article]