(AP Online Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Bone drug Zometa helps fight breast cancer spreadCHICAGO (AP) _ A drug to prevent bone loss during breast cancer treatment also substantially cut the risk that the cancer would return, results that left doctors excited about a possible new way to fight the disease. It is the first large study to affirm wider anti-cancer hopes for Zometa and other bone-building drugs called bisphosphonates. Zometa, made by Novartis AG, is used now for cancers that have already spread to the bone.

Neurologist, choir explore music's healing powerNEW YORK (AP) _ Noted neurologist Oliver Sacks has found common ground with the pastor of Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church: Both men believe in the healing power of music. Sacks, the best-selling author of "Awakenings" and "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat," was to share the church stage Saturday with the famed gospel choir as part of the inaugural World Science Festival, a five-day celebration of science taking place in New York this week.

FDA: Time for asthma patients to switch inhalersWASHINGTON (AP) _ Old-fashioned asthma inhalers that contain environment-harming chemicals will no longer be sold at year's end _ and the government is urging patients not to wait until the last minute to switch to newer alternatives. Patients use inhalers to dispense airway-relaxing albuterol during asthma attacks.

FDA panel favors Glaxo, Ligand blood drugWASHINGTON (AP) _ Advisers to the Food and Drug Administration said Friday a blood-clotting drug from GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. is effective for short-term use, despite reservations by FDA scientists. A panel of 16 outside advisers voted unanimously in favor of Promacta at a meeting held in Chicago, said FDA spokeswoman Karen Riley. The drug is designed to treat an immune system disorder that causes the body to destroy its own platelets, which can cause excessive bleeding.

Report: UCLA gave transplant to Japanese gang bossLOS ANGELES (AP) _ A Los Angeles hospital provided liver transplants to four Japanese gang figures, including one of Japan's most powerful gang bosses, over a period when several hundred area patients died while awaiting transplants, according to a published report. The surgeries were performed at UCLA Medical Center by world-renowned liver surgeon Dr. Ronald W. Busuttil, executive chairman of UCLA's surgery department, the Los Angeles Times reported in a story posted on its Web site Thursday night. The Times cited a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Study: Bacteria may be link in sudden baby deathsLONDON (AP) _ A baffling phenomenon known as sudden infant death syndrome is one of the leading causes of death for children under 1. Now, British researchers say they may have found a contributing factor: bacteria. They found potentially dangerous bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus and E. coli in nearly half of all babies who died suddenly and without explanation over a decade at a London hospital. Their findings are in Friday's Lancet medical journal.

Baby born after rare ovarian pregnancySYDNEY, Australia (AP) _ A woman in a northern Australian city gave birth to a healthy baby girl after a rare full-term ectopic pregnancy, a hospital official said Friday. Meera Thangarajah, 34, had no symptoms or complications during her pregnancy, so doctors performing a routine Caesarean section Thursday were shocked to find that the baby had developed in the ovary rather than the uterus.

WHO slams tobacco industry's youth focusMANILA, Philippines (AP) _ Tobacco companies are targeting the half billion young people in the Asia Pacific region by linking smoking to glamorous and attractive lifestyles, the U.N. World Health Organization said Friday. In a statement marking World No Tobacco Day on Saturday, WHO said the tobacco industry is taking advantage of young people's vulnerability to advertising and influence.

Researchers to examine video games and healthWASHINGTON (AP) _ Why fight the proliferation of video games if you can use them to improve the nation's health? Health researchers are looking at ways that people's obsession with video games might be put to good use. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announced Thursday it will give a dozen research teams up to $200,000 each for studies lasting one to two years. The projects will measure the effects of playing video games on the young and old. For example:

NJ, Texas courts scrap awards from Vioxx casesNEWARK, N.J. (AP) _ Appeals courts in New Jersey and Texas on Thursday scrapped verdicts against the drugmaker Merck & Co. Inc. stemming from some of the earliest trials involving its once popular painkiller Vioxx. A Texas court reversed a $26 million verdict against the drug company stemming from the first trial. The court found no evidence that Robert Ernst suffered a fatal heart problem from a blood clot triggered by Vioxx. He had been taking the now-withdrawn drug for eight months before being stricken in May 2001.

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Discussions:


	The Vioxx situation is all about very, very misguided MASS TORT REFORM...the public thinks - YEA, that's needed...and it is; but this means things like hot coffee spilling, it DOES NOT mean the (alleged...) issue of neglect, deceit and fraud wrought by Merck et. al. ... If it wasn't so utterly tragic and murderous, one would almost have to just stare in wonder of the great planning Merck has done…don't think for a minute that all - decisions to let people die, only pull the drug when the last potential incremental profit was made, using the major mi/strokes to also cover up other problems (the veil of cover), use the engine of the MASS TORT reform craziness to drive towards a completely unfair and weird private agreement, the clogging of the courts by moving cases from the states to the Federal under the MDL right Merck won (and misused) to clog the dockets, use that docket clogging for scare purposes, dilution and stealing of civil rights, and so, so much more - I have to stop or this gets too long. But I have much written on what Merck's strategy might be - 9 months BEFORE the private “deal” - or is the word “deal supposed” to be settlement; and the similarity is alarming. To advance my own case, I studied Merck's moves, analyzed their cost/beenfis, and much more...it wasn’t too difficult to understand their comprehensive strategy; it was however, much to be puzzled over as way too many just “rolled over”, and did not exemplify the repudiation that they may have. ... It is ALARMING, actually that is just so, so understated…it is miniscule in the larger scheme of what is happening - and we must hope that some smart, tough, no-nonsene legal minds, scholars, constitutional experts who WANT to protect the public's rights, will yet converge - and guess what? - it ain't over! - at least Canada has a bit more smarts.. ... The absolute sadness is the thousands and thousands of Vioxx victims, and that is what they are, who not only have had to endure Merck's