Newsbriefs


MEDICAL NEWS

----------------------
Surviving pancreatic 
surgery predictable
----------------------

     Johns Hopkins researchers have identified a group of factors
that can accurately predict which patients survive long term
after Whipple surgery, a procedure used for the most common type
of pancreatic cancer.
     Results of the study, the largest of pancreatic cancer
patients to date, are published in the June issue of Annals of
Surgery.
     Pancreatic cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer
deaths in the United States, accounting for more than 25,000
deaths per year. In recent decades, five-year survival rates have
increased dramatically from almost zero in the 1960s to more than
20 percent at some medical centers, Hopkins researchers say.
     In the study led by Charles Yeo, an associate professor of
surgery, researchers found that the best predictors of long-term
survival after surgical removal of the cancer were a normal
chromosome count in the tumor cells; small tumor size; no tumor
spread to the lymph nodes; whole tumor removal; surgery in the
1990s; chemotherapy and radiation after surgery; and molecular
genetic information, such as minimal or no damage to the p53
tumor-suppressor gene.
     The study looked at post-hospitalization survival rates for
201 Hopkins patients undergoing the Whipple procedure between
1970 and 1994 to remove the cancerous head of the pancreas. 
     The Whipple procedure, or pancrea-ticoduodenectomy, involves
not only the removal of part of the pancreas, but also the
duodenum (a portion of the small intestine), the gallbladder, the
bile duct and sometimes part of the stomach.



OTHER NEWS

----------------------
Searching the Net for 
new research funding
----------------------

     Faculty can now run their own funding searches--at no
charge--directly from their office computer.
     Research Information Systems, which has run searches at no
charge for the past 12 years, now offers faculty free access on
the World Wide Web to a data base of more than 5,000 federal and
non-federal funding opportunities. The advantage of the new
service, said information systems manager John Paul Elrod, is
that faculty can directly access the funding sources, avoiding
the often slow and cumbersome divisional process of putting in a
request and waiting for it to be processed. That system, however,
still exists if needed.
     On the Web, faculty can experiment interactively to get as
specific or as broad a search result as they like.
     For example, a search can be tailored to return only
opportunities that the candidate qualifies for, by telling the
system the academic degree level (Ph.D., grad student, etc.),
citizenship, sex, etc.
     To take a look, try: ; then
select "Funding Opportunities," then select "Begin Your Funding
Search."
     For help and more information, call Elrod at (410) 516-8732.


----------------
Here's one 
for the books
----------------

     The new Guinness Book of Sports Records, 1995-96, is on the
street, and it includes the following listing on page 21: 
     "IS ANYBODY LISTENING? Are baseball fans mad about the 1994
baseball strike?  They're mad as hell--and at least one radio
station did something about it.
     "WJMP 1520 AM, an Akron, Ohio, sports talk radio station,
played 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game' continuously 57,161 times.
The station began broadcasting the song at 6:20 a.m. on August
12, 1994--the day the strike began--and ended at noon on October
19, 1994.
     "From sunup to sundown, WJMP alternated between two versions
of the song: a 70-second recording sung by Tom Chalkley [who
teaches cartooning in the Art Workshops at Homewood] with the
Bruce Springstone (no, not Springsteen) band; and a 30-second
instrumental. The music was recorded in 1982 for Clean Cuts
Records (now distributed by Rhino); Jack Heyrman was producer and
Craig Hankin the arranger." Hankin is director of the Homewood
Art Workshops.