CHICAGO, May 16 (Reuters) – Many of the 12 million Americans who have beaten cancer get routine care from primary care doctors, but a new survey suggests the vast majority of these physicians have very little knowledge about the long-term side effects these patients face.

The survey of more than 1,000 primary care doctors - internists, family practitioners and gynecologists – found that few were aware of the key side effects such as heart problems, nerve damage and early menopause caused by four standard chemotherapy drugs used to treat breast and colorectal cancers.

The findings, released on Wednesday ahead of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting next month, underscore the need for better communication between cancer specialists and primary care doctors.

“This is really a problem created by our successes,” Dr. Michael Link, president of ASCO, told reporters by telephone.

Link said the 12 million U.S. survivors of cancer are largely the result of better cancer treatments, but these survivors now return to their primary care physicians, who may not know what risks these patients face.

For the study, Dr. Larissa Nekhlyudov of Harvard Medical School surveyed 1,072 primary care doctors and 1,130 cancer specialists by mail in 2009.

The doctors were asked which of five side effects they had observed most often in their practices or seen reported for each of four widely used chemotherapy drugs: doxorubicin, paclitaxel, oxaliplatin and cyclophosphamide.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Using just her thoughts, a 58-year-old paralyzed woman instructed a robotic arm to grasp a cup of coffee and guide it to her mouth where she sipped from a straw, the first drink she has been able to serve herself in 15 years.

The woman is one of two patients in the ongoing trial of BrainGate neural interface, an experimental brain-computer interface technology that may one day give paralyzed individuals more mobility.

“This is another big jump forward to control the movements of a robotic arm in three-dimensional space,” said John Donoghue, who leads the development of BrainGate technology and is the director of the Institute for Brain Science at Brown University in Rhode Island.

“We’re getting closer to restoring some level of everyday function to people with limb paralysis,” said Donoghue, whose study was published on Wednesday in the journal Nature.

To manage the feat, researchers used a tiny sensor about the size of a baby aspirin that is loaded with 96 electrodes designed to pick up nerve activity.

Scientists implant that into a part of the brain called the motor cortex that is involved in voluntary movement.

When a paralyzed patient implanted with the device thinks about moving an object, the electrodes pick up those nerve signals and send them to a nearby computer, which then translates them into commands to operate assistive devices, such as the robotic arms used in the study.

CHICAGO, May 15 (Reuters) – Roche Holding AG’s Genentech unit has won the right to try its experimental Alzheimer’s drug crenezumab on people with no signs of dementia - the first such trial to gauge whether early intervention can help prevent or slow the disease.

The drug will be tested among members of an extended family of about 5,000 people from the Antioquia region of Colombia. They carry a gene that causes them to develop Alzheimer’s early, with some experiencing symptoms of memory loss in their mid-30s, scientists say.

The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services is backing the trial with a $16 million grant as part of the government’s National Alzheimer’s Plan announced on Tuesday, which includes a target to find an effective treatment or prevention by 2025.

Another $15 million in trial funding comes from Banner Health, a non-profit organization based in Phoenix, Arizona, that runs a chain of hospitals and which is leading the study. The rest of an estimated $100 million in total costs will be paid by Genentech, the U.S.-based biotechnology unit of Switzerland’s Roche.

Trial researchers said they picked the Genentech drug from among 25 rivals, largely because it does not cause vasogenic edema, a brain swelling side effect seen in similar drugs. They include bapineuzumab, being tested by Pfizer Inc and Johnson & Johnson ; and Eli Lilly and Co’s solanezumab.

Both closely watched drugs are in late-stage clinical trials, with results expected later this year.

The trial in Colombia could offer the most definitive test yet of the amyloid theory of Alzheimer’s, which holds that the disease is caused by a steady buildup of a protein known as beta amyloid.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The U.S. government launched an ambitious push to develop new treatments for Alzheimer’s on Tuesday with a first prevention study of high-risk patients and tests on an insulin nasal spray that has shown promise in earlier studies.

The trials, funded by grants of $16 million and $7.9 million respectively, are part of a national Alzheimer’s plan, a sweeping effort to find an effective way to prevent or treat Alzheimer’s by 2025 and improve the care of those already afflicted with the brain-wasting disease.

Experts predict that without more effective drugs, the number of Americans with Alzheimer’s will double by 2050 and annual related healthcare costs could soar to more than $1 trillion.

The fatal form of dementia affects about 5.1 million Americans today and current treatments address symptoms, but cannot prevent the disease or stop its progression.

Details of the two clinical trials are due to be announced by the National Institutes of Health at a national meeting on Alzheimer’s research in Bethesda, Maryland, later on Tuesday.

One of the studies will involve the use of a drug that attacks amyloid — a protein thought to be a cause of Alzheimer’s — in an international study of people who are genetically predisposed to develop the disease early.

The second will test the use of an insulin nasal spray to restore memory in patients with Alzheimer’s.

CHICAGO, May 9 (Reuters) – Two proposed psychiatric diagnoses failed to make the last round of cuts in the laborious process of revising the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – an exhaustive catalog of symptoms used by doctors worldwide to diagnose psychiatric illness.

Gone from the latest revision, the first since 1994, are “attenuated psychosis syndrome,” intended to help identify individuals at risk of full-blown psychosis, and “mixed anxiety depressive disorder,” a blend of anxiety and depression symptoms.

Both performed badly on field tests and in public comments gathered by the American Psychiatric Association in its march toward a May 2013 publication deadline.

They have been tucked into Section III of the manual – the place reserved for ideas that do not yet have enough evidence to make the cut as a full-blown diagnosis.

What has survived, despite fierce public outcry, is a change in the diagnosis of autism, which eliminates the milder diagnosis of Asperger syndrome in favor of the umbrella diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder.

That, too, could still be altered before the final manual is published, the group says. The APA opened the final comment period for its fifth diagnostic manual known as DSM-V on May 2, and it will accumulate comments through June 15.

Dr. David Kupfer, who chairs the DSM-5 Task Force, said in a statement that the changes reflected the latest research and input from the public.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Two proposed psychiatric diagnoses failed to make the last round of cuts in the laborious process of revising the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders — an exhaustive catalog of symptoms used by doctors to diagnose psychiatric illness.

Gone from the latest revision are “attenuated psychosis syndrome,” intended to help identify individuals at risk of full-blown psychosis, and “mixed anxiety depressive disorder”, a blend of anxiety and depression symptoms. Both performed badly on field tests and in public comments gathered by the group in its march toward the May 2013 publication deadline.

Both have been tucked into Section III of the manual — the place reserved for ideas that do not yet have enough evidence to make the cut as a full-blown diagnosis.

What has survived, despite fierce public outcry, is a change in the diagnosis of autism, which eliminates the milder diagnosis of Asperger syndrome in favor of the umbrella diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder.

But that, too, could still be altered before the final manual is published, the group says. The APA opened the final comment period for its fifth diagnostic manual known as DSM-V on May 2, and it will accumulate comments through June 15.

Dr. David Kupfer, who chairs the DSM-5 Task Force, said in a statement that the changes reflect the latest research and input from the public.

Dr. Wayne Goodman, professor and chairman of the department of psychiatry at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, said he’s glad the task force is responding to feedback from professionals and the public.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Mothers of overweight toddlers often mistakenly think their children are normal weight, and mothers of underweight toddlers often wish they were plumper, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

The findings, based on a study of poor women in Baltimore, suggest that U.S. mothers often do not have a realistic idea of their offspring’s weight, and many still cling to the notion that a chubby child is healthy child.

“A long time ago, it was O.K. to value a chubby baby when kids were underweight and we had potato famines and what not. It was a sign you’re doing well for yourself,” said Erin Hager of the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

“But that is not how it is today in the United States,” said Hager, whose study appears in the journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

Hager works with low-income mothers in clinics in the Baltimore area to find ways to help prevent obesity, a condition that now affects about 17 percent, or 12.5 million, American children and adolescents ages 2 through 19.

Poor children are hit especially hard. As many as one in seven low income preschool-age children are considered obese, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

The researchers wanted to get an idea of how moms see their children, and how that might affect the way they feed them. For the study, they used a cartoon drawing of seven diaper-clad toddlers arranged in a row from underweight to obese.

CHICAGO, May 7 (Reuters) – Mothers of overweight toddlers often mistakenly think their children are normal weight, and mothers of underweight toddlers often wish they were plumper, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

The findings, based on a study of poor women in Baltimore, suggest that U.S. mothers often do not have a realistic idea of their offspring’s weight, and many still cling to the notion that a chubby child is healthy child.

“A long time ago, it was O.K. to value a chubby baby when kids were underweight and we had potato famines and what not. It was a sign you’re doing well for yourself,” said Erin Hager of the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

“But that is not how it is today in the United States,” said Hager, whose study appears in the journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

Hager works with low-income mothers in clinics in the Baltimore area to find ways to help prevent obesity, a condition that now affects about 17 percent, or 12.5 million, American children and adolescents ages 2 through 19.

Poor children are hit especially hard. As many as one in seven low income preschool-age children are considered obese, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

The researchers wanted to get an idea of how moms see their children, and how that might affect they way they feed them. For the study, they used a cartoon drawing of seven diaper-clad toddlers arranged in a row from underweight to obese.

CHICAGO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. government will help drug companies find treatments for a host of diseases through a new collaboration in which researchers will test experimental drugs provided by manufacturers.

The National Institutes of Health said on Thursday that Pfizer Inc, AstraZeneca Plc and Eli Lilly and Co have agreed to make 24 compounds available for a pilot phase of the project, the biggest of its kind ever launched in the United States.

All of the compounds have been tried in people and found to be safe, but the drugmakers have abandoned them because they did not work for the disease they were intended to treat. The NIH will provide $20 million in grants each year to researchers trying to find new uses for the compounds.

“The goal is simple: to see whether we can teach an old drug new tricks,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius during a press conference.

Big advances in genetics have allowed researchers to identify causes of more than 4,500 diseases. But turning those discoveries into treatments has been difficult, and there are drugs to treat only about 250 of these conditions.

NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins said “diseases of the brain” represent an especially urgent unmet need.

“We need to speed the pace at which we are turning discoveries into better health outcomes,” Collins said. “NIH looks forward to working with our partners in industry and academia to tackle an urgent need that is beyond the scope of any one organization or sector.”

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Tired of the long wait for a new kidney, Michael Shelling, a 50-year-old video game marketing consultant based in San Diego, decided to take a more active role in the search.

About three months ago, he decided to tap into his social network by setting up a Facebook page to get the word out to his friends, and their friends, that he needs a new kidney and, by the way, his blood type is O.

The search may have paid off. A potential donor is going through testing to see if they are a match.

It is the kind of scenario Facebook hopes to foster. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg put out the call earlier on Tuesday to encourage the social network’s users — more than 900 million — to speak up if they are organ donors and display it on their personal pages.

“We think that people can really help spread awareness of organ donation and that they want to participate in this to their friends, and we think that can be a big part in helping to solve the crisis,” Zuckerberg told ABC-TV’s “Good Morning America” program on Tuesday.

There are currently 92,102 people in the United States waiting for a donor kidney — the organ that is in greatest demand — according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. Last year, only 16,812 kidney transplants took place in the United States, with the majority of those donated from deceased donors.

That disparity leaves many like Shelling waiting in line for a donor organ to become available, a process that can take three or four years, said Joel Newman, a spokesman for the United Network for Organ Sharing.