In the news

Lives of Mesothelioma Patients can be Extended

A new study could lead to ways to extend the lives of patients with a lethal form of lung cancer. A study by researchers at Wayne State University and New York University School of Medicine, published in this week\'s New England Journal of Medicine, finds a molecule that reveals the early stages of pleural mesothelioma, a chest cancer caused by asbestos. "It's called osteopontin, and it's been discovered before, but not really as an early detection marker for mesothelioma, what it means is this is a disease that's usually found late in the course of the disease- and the survival is not good when found late," says Wayne State's School of Medicine's Dr. Harvey Pass. "What has to be done now is take this marker and validate it in big trials. It's important to know that patients who present with early mesothelioma, earliest state, stage one, can have 5 year survival," Pass says.

Schools Today: Volunteers needed

Wayne State's Merrill-Palmer Institute is seeking volunteers to help with its 22nd annual Metropolitan Detroit Teen Conference, which will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. Nov. 3. The free conference, designed to bring together metro Detroit teenagers from diverse backgrounds, will host 300 ninth- and 10th-grade students from more than 50 schools and organizations. The students will be placed in groups of six to eight for topical discussions and volunteer facilitators will initiate and monitor the discussions among the students. Those interested in volunteering need to attend a special training orientation from 8 a.m. to noon Tuesday at the McGregor Memorial Conference Center on the campus of Wayne State University. Contact information is provided.

Study: Cooling Babies May Help Prevent Brain Damage

Chilling a newborn\'s entire body can help prevent or reduce brain damage caused by lack of oxygen during difficult births, research suggests. However, experts say the results are too preliminary and in conflict with previous research for the treatment to be used outside of medical studies. \"Widespread application of brain cooling ... would be premature,\" Dr. Lu-Ann Papile, a neonatologist at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, wrote in an editorial accompanying the study in Thursday\'s New England Journal of Medicine. She had no role in the study. A pilot study in newborns found no benefit. But the new study was the largest to test the technique. It was led by doctors at Wayne State University in Detroit , involved 15 children\'s hospitals around the country and was funded by the federal government. Newborns were randomly assigned to get usual care or the hypothermia treatment. It involves placing the babies on a special blanket containing chilled water that lowers their temperature to 92.3 degrees for three days, then gradually rewarms them back to normal, around 98.6 degrees. Babies were evaluated 18 to 22 months later.

Merits of cooling therapy for babies emerge in study

Cooling a newborn for three days on a temperature-controlled blanket can help to prevent or reduce brain damage caused by lack of oxygen during difficult births, a national study has found. The research, published in today\'s New England Journal of Medicine, provides hope for babies deprived of oxygen in the first six hours of life. Newborns with that complication, which occurs in fewer than one in 1,000 U.S. births, are more likely to die or face significant mental and physical disabilities, including cerebral palsy, mental retardation, blindness and hearing loss. Between 60,000 and 80,000 of the 4 million babies born in the U.S. each year are at high risk of death or disability because of birth problems that deprive them of oxygen. Forty-four of the babies who were cooled died or developed disabilities, compared with 64 of those who died or developed complications in the comparison group, said Dr. Seetha Shankaran, professor of pediatrics at the Wayne State University School of Medicine and division director of neonatal-perinatal medicine at Children\'s Hospital.

TV pro's tips for students

Emery King is a long way from the Purdue University junior who took a summer job at an Indiana radio station and never looked back. "My instructor asked if anyone was interested in the part-time job and I felt my hand going up,\" said King, who later became an NBC White House correspondent and a veteran news anchor at Detroit \'s WDIV-TV (Channel 4). The summer job led to a full-time position as a news reporter -- a position that didn\'t jibe with college classes. \"So in my senior year, I dropped out,\" said King, a Gary, Ind. , native. On Oct. 22, Wayne State University \'s Journalism Institute for Minorities will salute the veteran journalist. The event will also help endow JIM, an organization that provides scholarships, internships and support for minority journalism students.

Detroit 's poverty and prospects

Quinn Klinefelter did a report on Detroit 's poverty and prospects featuring remarks from Robin Boyle, professor of Urban Planning at WSU. Boyle said, "It took a hurricane and a flood, to show Americans just how separate we are," referring to the gap between the rich and the poor that is so evident in cities like Detroit and New Orleans . He said Detroit was just a larger version of New Orleans , plagued with the same problems of high unemployment, lack of public transportation and racial animus. Klinefelter also interviewed a homeless man, a former auto worker, who said that Detroit was not going to see a return to high industrial times, and that the future would probably be divided between those in very high-tech and very low-tech jobs. He called for a return to the public works projects of the depression to pull Detroit out of its economic slump.

Poor diet hurts black breast cancer patients

Racial health disparities are an emerging area of study in medicine. On Monday and Tuesday, experts gathered at Wayne State University for a conference on the issue. Suggestions included training more minority physicians; referring patients to specialists for underdiagnosed problems like heart failure, and creation of networks like the Healthier Black Elders program, a Detroit program that hooks up minority patients with community resources and clinical studies. It is collaboration between WSU and the University of Michigan .

Michigan speaks out of both sides of its mouth when it comes to higher education

Proof that Michigan is fast pricing its residents out of the higher education market comes in a survey of young adults that found less than one-third were able to pay for college without outside help. Sixty-eight percent said their families lacked the financial resources to foot the tuition bill without scholarships, grants and, mostly, loans. Half left college with their bills unpaid. Does this sound like a state committed to a crash goal of doubling the number of college graduates in 10 years? Michigan speaks out of both sides of its mouth when it comes to higher education. While declaring it needs more college grads, state policies and university pricing work against achieving that goal. The high cost of college is a major barrier to college attendance, according to the EPIC-MRA survey of 18- to 30-year-olds commissioned by Your Child, a coalition dedicated to improving college graduation rates in Michigan .

For kids to succeed, parents must insist on college

Kids with parents who insist they continue their education beyond high school are the most likely to attain a four-year degree, a new survey concludes. The September telephone survey released Monday of 1,126 Michigan residents aged 18 to 30, also found that those with more education say they are more optimistic about the future, happier and earn more pay. Of those who didn\'t pursue education after high school, 72 percent said they regretted it. Your Child, a Michigan coalition of education and family groups, including the Michigan Education Association, the Presidents Council, State Universities of Michigan and Michigan Virtual University , commissioned the $80,000 survey by EPIC-MRA, a Lansing polling firm.

Black women face varying cancer risks

African-American women are less likely than white women to get cancer, but more likely to die of it often because other diseases and conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure complicate treatment. Dr. Michael Simon, professor of oncology at Karmanos Cancer Institute at Wayne State says socio-economics is partly to blame. African Americans are 13 percent of the U.S. population but 24 percent of the nation's poor. They have limited access to high quality health care and are often diagnosed in the later stages of cancer.