Faculty Bibliography

In disclosing the surprising development, the officials told clinics, hospitals and other providers of health care to delay mass influenza immunization campaigns for at least a month later than planned and to make provisions to immunize people at highest risk first. Preparations are now under way for the immunizations, which are usually conducted from October through mid-November. The delay was attributed in part to difficulty in growing in the laboratory two new influenza strains in this year's vaccine. Studies have shown influenza vaccine to be 70 percent to 90 percent effective in preventing illness among healthy young men, and less effective among older people and those with chronic ailments. But the vaccine is effective in reducing influenza-related hospitalizations and deaths among older adults. Because the influenza virus mutates, the vaccine is altered each year to account for the strains expected to circulate during the season. This year, as usual, the vaccine protects against three strains. The two new ones are A/Panama and A/New Caledonia; the third, B/Yamanashi, was in last year's vaccine

When [Eva Peron], the first lady of Argentina, underwent a hysterectomy in November 1951, she did not know that her husband, [Juan Peron], had summoned a Manhattan cancer surgeon to perform the procedure. The surgeon, Dr. George Pack, flew to Buenos Aires, entered the operating room after Eva was anesthetized and left before she awoke. The Argentine and the U.S. governments apparently have not officially confirmed that Eva Peron had cervical cancer or that Pack performed the operation without her knowledge. State Department officials and the Argentine Embassy in Washington said they had no knowledge about Eva's case because it occurred so long ago. [Barron Lerner] said he did not try to examine Eva's medical records or government records. At the time, the Argentine government declined to disclose the nature of Eva's illness. Press reports gave conflicting views as to whether she had cancer. Peron was re-elected while Eva recuperated from surgery. Later, she resumed limited political activities. But when the abdominal pain returned in February 1952, Argentine doctors confirmed, again without telling Eva, that the cancer had recurred with striking rapidity

When [EVA PERON], the first lady of Argentina, underwent a hysterectomy in November 1951, she did not know that her husband, [Juan Peron], had summoned a Manhattan cancer surgeon to perform the procedure. The surgeon, Dr. George Pack, flew to Buenos Aires, entered the operating room after Eva was anesthetized, and left before she awoke. Eva's medical ordeal began in January 1950 when she was 30. She fainted and underwent an appendectomy. Despite persistent weakness and anemia from vaginal bleeding, she delayed further tests. In August 1951, Eva, much weaker, developed increasingly severe abdominal pain and fainted again. A physical showed she had advanced cancer of the cervix, and Argentine doctors treated her with radium, then a standard therapy. At the time, the Argentine government declined to disclose the nature of Eva's illness. Press reports gave conflicting views as to whether she had cancer. Peron was re-elected while Eva recuperated from surgery. Later, she resumed limited political activities. But when the abdominal pain returned in February 1952, Argentine doctors confirmed, again without telling Eva, that the cancer had recurred with striking rapidity

Peron was re-elected while Eva recuperated. Later, she resumed limited political activities. But when the abdominal pain returned in February, 1952, Argentine doctors confirmed, again without telling Eva, that the cancer had recurred very quickly. In lifting Eva's medical story from obscurity and reporting it in the June 3 issue of The Lancet, Barron Lerner, a medical historian and ethicist at Columbia University, has added new information to an earlier biography of Eva and a small number of articles about her illness in Argentine newspapers and medical journals

The Argentine and the United States governments apparently have not officially confirmed that [Eva Peron] had cervical cancer or that Dr. Pack performed the operation without her knowledge. State Department officials and the Argentine Embassy in Washington said they had no knowledge about Eva's case because it occurred so long ago. Dr. [Barron H. Lerner] said he did not try to examine Eva's medical records or government records. Eva's medical ordeal began in January 1950 when she was 30. She fainted and underwent an appendectomy. Despite persistent weakness and anemia from vaginal bleeding, she delayed further tests. In August 1951, Eva, much weaker, developed increasingly severe abdominal pain and fainted again. A physical showed she had advanced cancer of the cervix, and Argentine doctors treated her with radium, then a standard therapy. At the time, the Argentine government declined to disclose the nature of Eva's illness. Press reports gave conflicting views as to whether she had cancer. President Peron was re-elected while Eva recuperated from surgery. Later, she resumed limited political activities. But when the abdominal pain returned in February 1952, Argentine doctors confirmed, again without telling Eva, that the cancer had recurred with striking rapidity

Scientists at three laboratories in the United States and Europe are gearing up to test samples of an experimental polio vaccine stored for more than 40 years to determine whether it might have been the spark that ignited the worldwide AIDS epidemic. The scientists will test a highly controversial and seemingly far- fetched theory that holds that an oral polio vaccine, used in vaccine trials in what was then the Belgian Congo in the 1950s, might have been made with chimpanzee tissue that might have been contaminated with an ancestor of the AIDS virus. The Wistar Institute, a research center in Philadelphia, made the vaccine and has kept a few drops of material used in its preparation frozen since 1957. After the AIDS and polio vaccine theory was first raised in 1992, Wistar appointed an independent committee of scientists to look into the questions. The committee recommended testing the vaccine. But Wistar never carried out the tests, it said, because of a lack of scientific interest

In quitting the Senate race last week, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani discovered that choosing a therapy for prostate cancer was a far more daunting effort than he had expected. Mr. Giuliani said he had to focus entirely on the decision, letting his immediate political future fall by the wayside. Mr. Giuliani's is a case in point. His father died in 1981 at 73 of prostate cancer. The full facts in the elder Mr. Giuliani's case are not known. A blood test known as P.S.A., for prostate specific antigen, led to the detection of Mr. Giuliani's prostate cancer at an early stage. The test did not exist in his father's lifetime. Thus, its use has forced Mr. Giuliani to make decisions his father never had to consider

Relatively small amounts of antidepressant drugs quickly eased the frequency and severity of hot flashes in some women with breast cancer, a researcher said yesterday at the meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology here. The apparent new use for antidepressants presumably also will benefit women suffering hot flashes during menopause and men who suffer hot flashes during hormonal therapy for prostate cancer, said the researcher, Dr. Charles L. Loprinzi of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Although hormones known as estrogens and progesterones can relieve hot flashes, many doctors shy away from prescribing them for women with breast cancer because of concerns that hormones may stimulate the growth of malignant tumors

The apparent new use for antidepressants presumably will also benefit women suffering hot flashes during menopause and men who suffer hot flashes during hormonal therapy for prostate cancer, said the researcher, Dr. Charles L. Loprinzi of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. There are now three studies that show the benefit of antidepressants on hot flashes.Because the antidepressant drugs ''so clearly work and are reasonably tolerated,'' they may offer an effective alternative for women who do not want to take hormones, Dr. Loprinzi said at the meeting. However, Dr. Loprinzi said the antidepressants did not completely relieve hot flashes in every woman. In March, researchers from Georgetown University reported a similar benefit in a third study among 27 women using Paxil, also an S.S.R.I., Dr. Loprinzi said. In the pilot study from Georgetown in Washington, the women kept diaries of the frequency and severity of hot flashes while they took increasing amounts of Paxil for six weeks. The women also completed questionnaires. All women knew they were taking Paxil

Three large new studies are challenging the safety and benefits of clot-busting drugs for older people suffering heart attacks, particularly those 75 and older. The findings are surprising because of a widespread belief that clot-busting drugs help older patients just as they clearly do younger ones. The American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology recommend use of clot-busting drugs in heart attack patients. But the two leading heart organizations caution that evidence for the drugs' effectiveness and safety in older people has been equivocal. TPA (tissue plasminogen activator) and streptokinase are the two main clot-busting drugs, also known as thrombolytics