Washington Blade - December 21, 2001

WASHINGTON -- A majority of all U.S. patients infected with HIV have an infection that resists one or more of the drugs used to treat it, researchers reported Dec. 18, according to Reuters. Researches said drug-resistant HIV had spread even faster than feared, and anti-HIV drug "cocktails" that help many patients lead normal lives have become increasingly limited in their usefulness.

Unless better drugs are developed soon, or until a vaccine is available to control the virus, patients will have ever-lessening chances of using drugs to counter AIDS, the researchers told a conference sponsored by the American Society of Microbiology. "A number of patients [with HIV] are not readily treatable," study leader Dr. Douglas Richman of the Veteran's Administration hospital and the University of California in San Diego told Reuters. "We have to use drugs more intelligently. This is the responsibility of physician and patient. We have to try to figure out ways to prevent transmission ... and we have to find drugs to work against resistant virus."

Study: Group therapy may not lengthen survival

TORONTO -- Results of a new multi-center Canadian study indicate that supportive-expressive group therapy does not lengthen survival among women with metastatic breast cancer, contrary to earlier reports, Reuters reported. "We wanted to see if we could replicate the observation that participation in a group helped women with metastatic breast cancer live longer," Dr. Pamela J. Goodwin from the University of Toronto told Reuters. "We found that the intervention did not impact survival, and there was no evidence of any survival benefit." Goodwin and colleagues randomly assigned 235 women with metastatic breast cancer, who were expected to live for at least three months, to weekly sessions of supportive-expressive group therapy or to no group psychological therapy, according to a report in the Dec. 13 New England Journal of Medicine. Goodwin's team found that survival was similar in both the control and treatment groups. "Women with metastatic breast cancer shouldn't feel compelled to participate in a support group in order to feel they have done everything they can to live as long as possible," Goodwin told Reuters.

Scientists: Cut-rate AIDS drugs effective in Africa

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) -- Cut-rate HIV drugs have proven effective in fighting AIDS in Africa despite concerns they would be poorly administered and produce superstrains of the disease, scientists said. One new study conducted in Senegal showed between 70 to 80 percent of patients had properly followed their drug regimens for several years, said Ibra Nboye, director of the African Society Against AIDS. Nboye presented the results at the 12th International Conference on AIDS & Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Africa. "African doctors are capable not only of treating AIDS patients, but also doing all the follow-ups," Nboye said. "We have the materials and the well-informed personnel required to do it." Nboye's study included French scientists and surveyed 350 HIV-positive patients who were given anti-retroviral treatments in Senegal over a 39-month period, beginning in 1998. Results of a similar study carried out by Paris-based National Agency for AIDS Research were also presented at the Ouagadougou conference and showed similar results.

T-cell loss not caused by production drop

BETHESDA, Md. -- Two recent studies published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine showed that increased T-cell proliferation and destruction is responsible for the T-cell loss that accompanies HIV infection, Reuters reported. The finding is expected to end a long-standing debate in HIV/AIDS research regarding the mechanism of T-cell loss. In the first study, Dr. Joseph A. Kovacs of the National Institutes of Health and colleagues examined labeled CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells from 17 HIV-infected patients to determine the fate of these cells before and after initiation of highly active antiretroviral therapy.

The researchers found that the percentage of proliferating cells, not the decay rate, correlated significantly with HIV RNA levels. Dr. David D. Ho of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York and colleagues reached the same conclusion.

Other drugs may be better than tamoxifen

LONDON -- Two new drugs to treat breast cancer have shown to be more effective than the current standard treatment, tamoxifen, according to the new research, Reuters reported. New clinical trial results showed that AstraZenca's Arimidex (anastrozole) was significantly more effective than tamoxifen and it "dramatically reduced" the risk of developing endometrial cancer, Dr. Jeffrey Tobias, a consultant oncologist at University College Hospitals in London, told Reuters. Compared with tamoxifen, anastrozole also reduced by more than 50 percent the risk for women with breast cancer of developing cancer in the other breast. Also, Novartis' Femara (letrozole) worked better than tamoxifen in treating breast cancer with women with advanced disease. "Letrozole is associated with a higher rate of tumor shrinkage à and better one- and two-year survival than tamoxifen," Duke University's Dr. Matthew Ellis, told Reuters.

-- Staff and wire reports

011221
WB011205

Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2001. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.

AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.

Copyright ©1980, 2001. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .