Free Session on Funding Tech Companies

Small businesses and university researchers can get some help in obtaining federal funding to grow their high tech companies and develop new ideas. The first of the free information sessions hosted by the Small Business Development Center at Duquesne University is Tuesday, March 22nd, followed by three daylong programs.

Cynthia Laurash, Consulting Manager at the Small Business Development Center, says the money is made available through the Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) and the Small Business Technology Transfer Research program (STTR). "So 11 federal agencies participate in these programs and they are required by law to share part of their R&D funds each year to solicit programs and research requests from small businesses."

Laurash says that both programs are under continuing authorization from Congress through the end of May. She says she believes Congress will work out a deal to keep the programs funded through the next 8-10 years because of their helpfulness to businesses.

Not Treating Some Breast Cancer May Be Okay

Researchers at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh are arguing that doctors may want to step away from testing and treating very small amounts of breast cancer. For decades, there has been a raging debate among oncologists as to what to do when a women who has had breast cancer treatments is found to have no cancer in her sentinel lymph nodes through normal testing but is found to have very small amounts of cancer known as micro metastases upon more intensive analysis. Sentinel nodes are normally the first lymph nodes to receive cancer cells from the breast tumor and can be removed with a surgical procedure. AGH Breast Care Center Associate Director Thomas Julian says their study found that women who had aggressive treatment for cancers under 2 millimeters have a survival rate after 5 years that is just 1.2 percent better than those who are not treated. “When you look at that one to one-and-a-half percent difference, it’s kind of hard to improve on that by giving more intense chemotherapy, so why go chasing for these teeny tiny amounts if you’re not going to treat the patient,” says Julian.

The study randomly assigned 5,611 breast cancer patients with clinically negative auxiliary lymph nodes to undergo either a sentinel node biopsy alone, or a sentinel node biopsy plus auxiliary dissection. Julian says studies done in the past used to argue for more treatment were riddled with poor testing procedures. They did a poor job of detecting the cancer in the first round of testing, says Julian. He says this shows the power of doing good, scientific based research.

While the debate may never be over, Julian says this study and another like it will swing the pendulum toward non-treatment. “For most [Doctors] it will give them satisfactory information so they can treat their patient adequately and not have to pursue things,” says Julian, “There will always be somebody who says, ‘you know, I’m really worried you have this teeny tiny little bit of cancer in there and
I think you should get more treatment.’” Julian says by not testing or treating, doctors will save women the negative side effects associated with such procedures. It could also save money. He says he expects the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network to issue new treatment guidelines in the coming years reflecting the new information.

Pitt Researcher Creates Database for Pregnancy Complications

Dr. James Watson, a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh, is spearheading a project to research prevention and treatment for preeclampsia along with creating a database for future studies. “We’re trying to bring together groups of individuals who have data and biological samples that have studied preeclampsia in the past with the idea that we can maybe pull sources to answer questions pretty quicky,” Watson says. The database method has been successful in other research, including cancer and heart disease. Watson is the senior advisor to PRE-EMPT or PRE-Eclampsia Monitoring, Prevention, and Treatment, a group that is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation through a $7 million grant over four years. His goal is to create a research database filled with blood, urine, and other biological samples from ethnically diverse women across the globe. This database will facilitate the first goal of finding a specific marker of the disease, but can also be used in future pregnancy research. “We’re hoping that we can move pretty quickly. It’s our initial goal to find something along the line of a predictor,” Watson says. Preeclampsia is a pregnancy complication that involves high blood pressure in the mother and affects five to ten percent of pregnancies. It is the second leading cause of maternal death worldwide.

Pitt: Aspirin Can Kill Precancerous Colon Cells

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have discovered how drugs like aspirin and pain-killers can reduce the risk of colon cancer.

Lead researcher Lin Zhang says doctors have known for a while that non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs, can help in preventing tumors of the colon. But Zhang says until now, scientists didn’t know how they did it.

“Some of these anti-inflammatory drugs prevent colon cancer by killing so-called stem cells that accumulate genetic changes that predispose one to cancer,” says Zhang. “So, [this is a] major finding.”

Zhang says this information will be especially useful to people with a hereditary genetic defect called FAP. The defect causes patients to develop cysts on their colons, which can easily become cancerous.

While NSAIDs can reduce one’s risk of colon cancer by as much as 80%, they are not risk-free. Zhang says they’re also known for risks involving the heart. Zhang also notes at this point, NSAIDs can be used for prevention of cancer, but not treatment of tumors.

New Children's Hospital Study

A new study published in the September issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation says Vitamin D might be used to treat and prevent severe allergic response to Aspergillus Fumigatus, a common airborne mold. While the mold does not cause serious symptoms in the majority of people who inhale it, for people with cystic fibrosis, it can cause a severe allergic response.

The research team was led by Dr. Jay Kolls, a lung disease researcher at Children's Hospital who works at Louisiana State University. They studied patients who had infections and had developed severe allergies and some who had not. Vitamin D helped those who had cystic fibrosis.

Kolls says this research might make treating the allergies a lot easier than with the strong medications commonly prescribed.

The researchers are now moving into clinical trials. This new research add to previous evidence that vitamin D may play a critical role on immune responses and allergic diseases.