Friday, August 19, 2005 - UBC Weekly Media Summary

Compiled by UBC Public Affairs/ edited by UBC Faculty of Medicine

MEMBERS OF THE FACULTY OF MEDICINE IN THE NEWS

[National/International News]

DOCTORS DEBATE BEST BRAIN ANEURYSM TREATMENT Macleans.Ca Friday, Aug 19, 2005
http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/health/article.jsp?content=20050818_113914_2768

While people who develop life-threatening bleeding in the brain due to a ruptured aneurysm are more likely to receive a less invasive treatment called coiling these days, some doctors say traditional brain surgery is still best for certain patients.

"It really comes down to what is best for the patient," says "Dr. Gary Redekop, head of neurosurgery and associate professor of surgery and radiology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

Despite the shift toward coiling, Redekop says specialists need to keep up their skills in clipping, as not every aneurysm can be treated with the less invasive technique.

SCIENTISTS TO STUDY WHY BREAST CANCER SPREADS The Globe and Mail Wednesday, Aug 17, 2005
Page: S3
Brest Cancer story in the Globe and Mail

A multidisciplinary program, the first of its kind in Canada, will focus on metastasis of breast cancer, B.C. Cancer Agency scientists said yesterday.

The Canadian Breast Cancer Research Alliance has provided a $3.36-million five-year research grant to determine what causes breast cancer cells that metastasize -- the cause of mortality in breast cancer patients -- to thrive in organs and bone, said B.C. Cancer Agency senior scientist and project leader Dr. Shoukat Dedhar.

The national study will use new scientific approaches and include researchers from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre in Toronto.

GENE THERAPY WORKS IN MICE TO PREVENT BLINDNESS THAT STRIKES BOYS Sciencedaily.Com Tuesday, Aug 16, 2005
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/08/050814170130.htm

University of Florida scientists have successfully used gene therapy in mice to treat retinoschisis, a rare genetic disorder that is passed from mothers, who retain their sight, to their sons.

Retinoschisis is usually first detected in boys between 5 and 10 years of age when their vision problems cause reading difficulties.

UF researchers worked with Bernhard Weber, Ph.D., at the Institute of Human Genetics in Regensburg, Germany, and Robert Molday, Ph.D., director of the Center for Macular Research at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

NEW STUDY ON ECHINACEA IS FAULTY, SAYS CANADIAN-BASED COMPANY Medicalnewstoday.Com Monday, Aug 15, 2005
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=29145

A new study which claims that Echinacea products work no better than a placebo on cold symptoms has been called faulty and inaccurate by the Factors Group of Nutritional Companies, which produces a number of well known Echinacea-based products for consumers around the world.

According to Dr. Michael Murray, the Factors Group Director of Education, says that the most recent study, as reported in the New England Journal of Medicine this week, revealed that the study was incorrect on several different levels.

Factors Group developed its Echinacea-based products following years of collaboration with researchers at the University of Alberta, University of British Columbia and Dalhousie University in Canada, as well as Heinrich-Hein University in Düsseldorf, Germany and Karl-Franzens University in Graz, Austria.

NEWER ANTIPSYCHOTICS CAUSE MOVEMENT PROBLEMS TOO Reuters.Com Tuesday, Aug 16, 2005 By Anne Harding

Newer atypical antipsychotic drugs are just as likely as older antipsychotics drugs to cause movement disorders in older people with dementia, according to a new study.

UBC's Dr. Philip E. Lee explained that the findings underscore the importance of discussing the potential side effects of these drugs with patients and their caregivers before they are prescribed.

"A lot of people felt that they were much safer to use, with much (fewer) side effects. These are in fact still powerful medications with potential side effects, including movement disorders," he said in an interview.

BREAST MILK BANK AIDS AILING NEWBORNS
Maclean's.Ca
Monday, Aug 15, 2005
http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/health/article.jsp?content=20050812_144519_6200

As director of the only human milk bank in Canada, Frances Jones distributes donated breast milk to babies for whom formula is not appropriate.

"We get babies with gut surgeries, kidney problems, cardiac surgeries. And in all cases we're supplying in situations where the biological mother -- for whatever reason -- isn't able to meet the baby's needs," Jones says. "We also get requests for babies with severe allergies who aren't tolerating anything else."

"There is certainly evidence that it's nutritionally much more beneficial in terms of reducing the incidence of infection and illness in newborns -- especially sick newborns," says Dr. Paul Thiessen, a clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of British Columbia. "It reduces the incidence of a condition we particularly dread called necrotizing enterocolitis, where your bowel becomes very inflamed. There's also evidence that it reduces the incidence of type 1 diabetes."

[Local Press]

HEALTH MINISTER SEES DRUG CHALLENGES
Times Colonist (Victoria)
Friday, Aug 19, 2005
Page: D6
By Katherine Dedyna

Despite an escalating PharmaCare budget, Health Minister George Abbott says B.C. has done "the best job managing that we can,'' while adding, "That's not to say we've done everything.''

The cost of publicly funded prescriptions rose nearly 10 per cent between 2003-4 and 2004-05, and now pushes $800 million. Last year's increase was $70 million.

Steve Morgan, a health economist at the Centre for Health Services and Policy Research at the University of B.C., says B.C. has managed the PharmaCare program well compared to other provinces for 10 or 12 years.

WORLD-CLASS BURN-AND-WOUND CENTRE OPENS: RESEARCHERS TO TRY TO DISCOVER WAYS TO REDUCE SCARRING The Province Friday, Aug 19, 2005
Page: A4
By John Bermingham

A new burn-and-wound research facility at Vancouver General Hospital, which opened yesterday, hopes to heal the wounds of burn victims.

Dr. Nicholas Carr, head of plastic surgery at the University of B.C. Hospital, says the medical community is excited the riddle of scarring can be solved.

"It's what the body does afterwards that matters, and that's the black box to all of us in medicine," he says. "We just don't know how to control the scars. The holy grail in burn-care and in plastic surgery is to find a way to treat those scars so that instead of becoming constricting and deforming, they become soft and pliable and melt away."

DRUGS TO TREAT ALZHEIMER'S AGAIN OPPOSED BY UBC TEAM: B.C. REMAINS ALONE IN REFUSING TO PAY FOR THE TREATMENT The Vancouver Sun Friday, Aug 19, 2005
Page: B7
By Jennifer Miller

A controversial group of drugs to treat Alzheimer's disease has once again come under fire from a group of UBC researchers, who advise PharmaCare on the findings of clinical trials of drugs.

The drug manufacturers claim that the drugs, called Aricept, Exelon and Reminyl, delay the progression of Alzheimer's, stabilize patients and make a functional difference in their lives, said Dr. Tom Perry, a clinical pharmacologist at UBC.

"[But] we've never felt that the evidence was convincing of that," he said. The department of pharmacology and therapeutics published their summary of clinical trials of the drugs Thursday in their newsletter that is distributed to doctors and pharmacists in B.C. and made public on the Internet.

ONCOGENEX RECEIVES $12.8-MILLION BOOST
The Vancouver Sun
Wednesday, Aug 17, 2005
Page: D4
By Gillian Shaw

University of B.C. spin-off OncoGenex Technologies received a $12.8-million US boost in private financing from venture capitalists to develop drugs to combat treatment-resistant cancers.

The money will see it through the next three years of clinical research and puts OncoGenex on track to expand its product pipeline and complete multiple Phase 2 clinical studies.

"This round takes us into 2008 so it is a pretty good runway for us," said Scott Cormack, president and chief executive officer of OncoGenex, which he co-founded with chief scientific officer Martin Gleave, a director of the Prostrate Centre at Vancouver General Hospital. "We have cash to complete multiple Phase 2 trials which would make us one of the latest stage private biotech companies in Canadian history.

UNIVERSITIES PAIRED WITH PRIVATE FIRMS: UNIVERSITY, INDUSTRY LIAISON OFFICES REVIEW RESEARCH WORK, DECIDE WHAT MIGHT HAVE COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL The Vancouver Sun Tuesday, Aug 16, 2005
Page: F9
By Derrick Penner

British Columbia's biggest biotech firm, QLT Inc., brain-scan innovator VSM MedTech Ltd. and computerized-forms maker PureEdge Solutions Inc. were all drawn out into the public domain with the help of the entities known as university, industry liaison offices, UILOs.

The UILO's job, says Donald Rix, successful life-sciences entrepreneur and former UBC pathology professor, is to review the university's research work, decide what might have commercial potential, and then help the researcher find a private-sector relationship to capitalize on his work.

Between them, the UILOs at B.C.'s three major universities have spawned some 157 companies. UBC's UILO, headed by director Angus Livingstone, has "set the stage" for SFU, UVic and the UILO office in the University of Northern B.C.'s research office.

SUFFERERS OF SPRAINED ANKLES SOUGHT FOR SHOE STUDY The Vancouver Sun Monday, Aug 15, 2005
Page: C4
By Karen Gram

A shoe study is seeking subjects to test the Nike Free 5.0 runner, which is designed to allow the foot maximum movement, to see if it speeds up the rehabilitation of runners with ankle sprains

Lead by Dr. Jack Taunton, a physician at the Allan McGavin Sports Medicine Centre at UBC, the study is looking for anyone who has suffered a sprained ankle in the last month that caused them to limp is eligible for the study.

Subjects will be tested three times over six weeks. Half will use the Nike Free shoe in their rehab and the others will get the shoes at the end of the study. They will also get access to free physiotherapy advice.