Health Headlines - July 25

No Proof 12-Step Programs Are Best: Study

Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step programs do not reduce the severity of addictions any more than other interventions, a new study concludes.

A review of eight trials involving 3,417 men and women ages 18 and older, led by Marica Ferri of the Italian Agency for Public Health in Rome, found no evidence that 12-step interventions were any more or less successful in increasing the number of people who stayed in treatment or reducing the number who relapsed after being sober, the New York Times reported Tuesday.

In some of the studies reviewed, AA was compared with other psychological treatments including cognitive-behavioral therapy, motivational enhancement therapy, and relapse-prevention therapy. The group was also compared with other spiritual and nonspiritual 12-step programs. Scientists found no proof that any of the therapies were superior to any other intervention in reducing alcohol dependence or alcohol-related problems.

The findings were published in The Cochrane Library, a journal devoted to systematic reviews of health care interventions.

An Alcoholics Anonymous staffer told the Times that the organization did not comment on published studies of the program, but some experts said the study conclusions would not change how the programs are run.

John F. Kelly, a clinical psychologist at Harvard, said he still believed that AA and other 12-step programs were effective. The programs are not cure-alls, Kelly told the newspaper, "but I would say at a minimum, they help."

CDC to Offer Free Colon Cancer Tests to Poor

A government-funded project is offering free colon cancer testing for the poor in five states as part of a new push to screen for the nation's No. 2 cancer killer.

Some 148,600 Americans will be diagnosed with colorectal cancer this year, and more than 55,000 will die, the Associated Press reported Tuesday. Up to 60 percent of those deaths could be prevented if everyone over age 50 underwent routine screening, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, yet just over half get tested. Black Americans are especially at risk, the agency said.

The CDC's new free-screening project will be offered in Suffolk County, N.Y., Baltimore, St. Louis, Seattle/King County, Wash., and statewide in Nebraska. Currently, Medicare pays for colorectal screening, but that federal insurance program is for people 65 and older.

If the screening project is successful, the CDC said the program may one day be expanded nationwide, the AP reported.

States Aid Stem-Cell Work Despite Bush Veto

Several U.S. governors have committed state money to controversial stem cell research, despite President George Bush's veto of legislation that hoped to expand federally financed projects. Stem cell research has become a hot-button campaign issue in elections across the country, the New York Times reported Tuesday.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Bush supporter, cited the veto as he lent $150 million from the state's general fund last Thursday to pay for grants to stem cell scientists. In Illinois, Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich offered $5 million for similar grants in his state. Before those announcements, the Times reported, the only money available was $72 million that five states had allocated for the research and $90 million that the U.S. National Institutes of Health had provided since 2001 for work on a restricted number of stem cell lines.

Within hours of Bush's veto last Wednesday, funding for stem cell research became key issues in elections in Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri and Tennessee. In many cases, Republican moderates, mindful of polls showing public support for expanded stem cell research and expecting attacks from Democrats, sought to distinguish their positions from the president's, the Times reported.

Scientists May Have Found Second Code in DNA

Researchers say they've found a second code in DNA in addition to the genetic code that specifies all the proteins a cell can make.

The second code, superimposed on the first, sets the placement of nucleosomes -- miniature protein spools around which the DNA is looped. The spools protect and control access to the DNA itself, the New York Times reported Tuesday. The finding was published in the current issue of Nature by Eran Segal of the Weizmann Institute in Israel and Jonathan Widom of Northwestern University in Illinois and their colleagues.

Biologists have long suspected that some positions on the DNA strand might be more favorable for nucleosomes than others, but no overall pattern was apparent. Segal and Widom analyzed the sequence at some 200 sites in the yeast genome where nucleosomes are known to bind, and discovered that there is indeed a hidden pattern, the Times reported.

If confirmed, the discovery of this second genetic code could provide insights into the higher order control of the genes, such as the critical but still mysterious process by which each type of human cell is allowed to activate the genes it needs but cannot access the genes used by other types of cell, the Times reported.

FDA Approves First Treatment for Hunter Syndrome

A drug called Elaprase (idursulfase) on Monday became the first treatment for Hunter syndrome to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Hunter syndrome is a rare, inherited disease that can cause premature death.

The condition is caused by a defect in the body's ability to produce a chemical required to break down complex sugars. It can cause growth delay, joint stiffness, respiratory and cardiac problems, liver and spleen enlargement, neurological defects, and death.

The FDA designated Elaprase an orphan product, which are generally developed to treat rare diseases or conditions that affect fewer than 200,000 people in the United States. Hunter syndrome is diagnosed in about one out of 65,000 to 132,000 births.

The FDA approval was based on a study of 96 Hunter syndrome patients. It found that patients treated with Elaprase showed an improved ability to walk. Side effects included potentially fatal hypersensitivity reactions including respiratory distress, drop in blood pressure, and seizure.

Elaprase is made by Shire Human Genetic Therapies, Inc. of Cambridge, Mass. The treatment is expected to cost about $300,000 per patient per year, the Associated Press reported.