Faculty Bibliography

Gastroenteritis, or 'intestinal flu,' the ailment that the White House said led to President Bush's collapse at a dinner in his honor in Tokyo yesterday, often causes sudden and violent upsets of the stomach and intestines. Intestinal flu is not influenza, or the respiratory flu that Federal health officials say has spread in many areas of the United States in recent weeks. Unlike influenza, for which a vaccine offers protection, there is no immunization to protect against the many forms of gastroenteritis. It is not known if Mr. Bush had a flu shot. Mr. Bush looked ashen after he vomited and slumped to the floor at the home of the Japanese Prime Minister, Kiichi Miyazawa. But the 67-year-old Mr. Bush appeared to recover within a few minutes after fainting, briefly losing consciousness.

[Bush] looked ashen after he vomited and slumped to the floor at the home of Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa. But Bush, 67, appeared to recover within a few minutes after fainting, briefly losing consciousness. Hours earlier, Bush fainted while sitting at the banquet table. Some people suffering from gastroenteritis faint when they suddenly change position, such as getting up from bed to go to the bathroom. But experts said it was uncommon for such individuals to faint while seated at a table. [Gerald L. Mandell] said Bush's fainting from gastroenteritis could have resulted from a combination of factors, including jet lag

Throughout the world, breast cancer affects 500,000 women each year. Richard Peto, who supervised the Oxford statistical analysis, said that for every 1 million women receiving adjuvant therapy, 100,000 would live 10 years longer than they would have lived without the treatment. The Oxford analysis offers the strongest evidence to support a recommendation in 1988 by the National Cancer Institute that urged all women who have breast cancer to have adjuvant hormone therapy or chemotherapy, even if there is no evidence that the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes. Tamoxifen blocks the effect of estrogen, which feeds some breast cancers. But, paradoxically, its greatest effect is among post-menopausal women, who have little estrogen to block. So experts are puzzled about exactly how tamoxifen protects against breast cancer

In findings that have startled even the most optimistic experts, the largest analysis of breast cancer patients ever conducted shows that the life-saving benefits of widely used hormone or drug treatments prevail for at least 10 years, long after therapy has ended. The difference in breast cancer recurrence and death rates actually continued to increase several years after even relatively brief treatment had ended, the analysis showed. Benefits of the synthetic hormone, tamoxifen, or a combination of drugs in chemotherapy were even more striking in the second five-year period than in the first. In recent years, experts have begun recommending such treatment. But it can have side effects and doctors have not always prescribed it for patients in whom cancer is caught early and who seem to be free of cancer after surgery

The most thorough and statistically advanced analysis of early breast cancer treatment yet shows that the difference in breast cancer recurrence and death rates actually continued to increase several years after even relatively brief treatment by the synthetic hormone tamoxifen, or a combination of drugs in chemotherapy

Tamoxifen blocks the action of the female hormone estrogen in the body. Tamoxifen, but not chemotherapy, also protected against development of new cancer in the opposite breast, the analysis showed. Throughout the world, breast cancer affects 500,000 women each year. [Richard Peto] said that for every million women receiving adjuvant therapy, 100,000 would live 10 years longer than they would have lived without the treatment. The Oxford analysis offers the strongest evidence to support a recommendation in 1988 by the National Cancer Institute, which urged that all women who have breast cancer have adjuvant hormone therapy or chemotherapy, even if there is no evidence that the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes

In criticizing [Charles D. Bluestone]'s study, [Erdem I. Cantekin] said it relied too heavily on techniques that were prone to bias in examining an ear. Cantekin concluded that amoxacillin did not work for middle-ear infections. In 1986, both groups submitted separate reports to The New England Journal of Medicine. Cantekin told the journal's editor, Dr. Arnold S. Relman, that his manuscript was a re-analysis and re-interpretation of the paper that Bluestone had submitted a month earlier. Relman was wrong in retrospect, Dr. Drummond Rennie, a deputy editor of The Journal of the American Medical Association wrote, because he could have sent both Bluestone's and Cantekin's papers out for review. If both were deemed worthy of publication, they could have been published with an editorial outlining the dispute from the start

In criticizing Dr. [Charles D. Bluestone]'s study, Dr. [Erdem I. Cantekin] said it relied too heavily on techniques that were prone to bias in examining an ear. Dr. Cantekin concluded that amoxacillin did not work for middle-ear infections. Dr. Cantekin refused to give up, and he paid a heavy price for becoming a whistle-blower. A few weeks after submitting his dissenting paper in 1986, Dr. Cantekin saw his career come to an abrupt halt. A decade after Dr. Bluestone recruited him to work with him in Pittsburgh, Dr. Cantekin was dismissed as research director of the university's center for studies of middle-ear infections. Dr. Charles D. Bluestone, left, led 1987 study that concluded amoxacillin was effective for middle-ear infections. A team led by Dr. Erdem I. Cantekin disputed the conclusion, using material from the same study. (Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh) (Dr. Bluestone); Pittsburgh Press (Dr. Cantekin); Dr. [Drummond Rennie], deputy editor of Journal of American Medical Association, said publishing only the Bluestone paper was wrong. (Steve Kagan for The New York Times)

Officials are searching for the cause of about 90 false positive tests for HIV, hepatitis C and HTLV-1 among a group of blood donors, 60% of whom had received influenza vaccinations from health officials

The CDC is planning to develop guidelines for a federal system that will track donated organs and tissues from the time they are donated to the time they are transplanted. The system is intended to protect patients from acquiring diseases such as AIDS through donated organs and tissues