Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Support Group

ALLIANCE FOR HUMAN RESEARCH PROTECTION (AHRP)
Promoting Openness, Full Disclosure, and Accountability
http://www.ahrp. org and
http://ahrp. blogspot. com


FYI
A report in the Arizona Daily Star describes in gruesome details of "a bizarrely aggressive oral cancer rarely seen by doctors." Soldiers who had served in combat zones in Iraq are dying of cancer of the mouth, which until now, overwhelmingly strikes smokers, drinkers and
tobacco chewers. But the soldiers who are afflicted with cancers of the mouth do
not fit that at risk profile: "These are kids 19, 20 and 21 getting all kinds of cancers. The Walter Reed Army Medical Center cancer ward is packed full with them." The doctors are stumped: "Jim's doctors didn't know why he would get this kind of cancer — they had no answers for us."

The prime causal suspect in the minds of many victims — and some scientists-- for the alarming number of Iraq war vets who are dying
at record speed " is what's known as depleted uranium (UD)— the radioactive chemical
prized by the military for its ability to penetrate armored vehicles. When munitions explode, the substance hits the air as fine dust, easily inhaled.

Last month, the Iraqi environment minister blamed the tons of the chemical dropped during the war's "shock and awe" campaign for a surge of cancer cases across the country.

The Daily Star reports that the ranks of sickened and dying Iraq war vets and their families who believe exposures to toxic poisons in the war zone are behind their illnesses — --is growing. But the military brass withholds information and denies the link repeating the Vietnam Agent Orange
scenario: "the number of these cancers remains undisclosed, with military officials citing patient privacy issues, as well as lack of evidence the cases are linked to conditions in the war zone. The U.S. Congress has ordered a probe of suspect toxins and may soon begin widespread testing of our armed forces."

Bloomberg News reports that Merck, a major contributor to the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, and two of its researchers are promoting stepped up studies of the HPV vaccine in boys "to expand the
vaccine's use." http://tinyurl.com/2exqoc

The two researchers, Drs. Erich Sturgis and Paul Cinciripini provide the marketing pitch for vaccinating boys with the HPV vaccine in an upcoming article in the journal, Cancer.[1]

They claim that oral sex``Changing sexual practices such as more frequent oral sex in adolescents and young adults could contribute to an increase in oncogenic HPV-associated oropharyngeal cancers,'' researchers said
in the report. Notice, "could contribute" rather than has been proven to contribute.. ..

Indeed, although the HPV vaccine is being offered to males in Australia, Mexico, there is, as yet, no clinical proof that it works to prevent HPV infection in men: "we have no data to confirm that, and we won't have any in the near future," says Debbie Saslow, PhD, of the American Cancer Society.
http://www.webmd. com/sexual- conditions/ HPV-Genital-
Warts/news/20070827 /HPV-l
inked-to-throat- cancer-trend? src=RSS_PUBLIC

Clearly, lack of evidence does nothing to prevent researchers, with financial ties to vaccine manufacturers, from making unsubstantiated claims:

"The best way to reduce cancer-causing HPV is to widen the pool of children vaccinated with Gardasil."

This is a blatant example of academics promoting corporate marketing claims
to dictate medical practice. Industry analysts provide a more convincing motivation for the promoting expanded use of the vaccine. By adding boys to the vaccine pool, Gardasil may generate more than $3 billion in annual sales. Not surprising, Merck's spokeswoman said Merck is studying the shot in boys and plans to seek U.S. approval for that use.

Reference:

Sturgis EM, Cinciripini PM "Trends in Head and Neck Cancer Incidence
in
Relation to Smoking Prevalence: An Emerging Epidemic of Human
Papillomavirus- Associated Cancers?" Cancer 2007;110.

Contact: Vera Hassner Sharav
212-595-8974
veracare@ahrp. org


http://www.azstarne t.com/metro/ 198240.php
The Arizona Daily Star
Cancer in Iraq Vets Raises Possibility of Toxic Exposure
by Carla McClain
Sunday, August 26, 2007

After serving in Vietnam nearly 40 years ago — and receiving the Bronze Star for it — the Tucson soldier was called back to active duty in Iraq. While there, he awoke one morning with a sore throat. Eighteen months later, Army Sgt. James Lauderdale was dead, of a bizarrely aggressive cancer rarely
seen by the doctors who tried to treat it.

As a result, his stunned and heartbroken family has joined growing ranks of sickened and dying Iraq war vets and their families who believe exposures to toxic poisons in the war zone are behind their illnesses — mostly cancers, striking the young, taking them down with alarming speed.

The number of these cancers remains undisclosed, with military officials
citing patient privacy issues, as well as lack of evidence the cases are linked to conditions in the war zone. The U.S. Congress has ordered
a probe of suspect toxins and may soon begin widespread testing of our armed forces.

"He got so sick, so fast" Jim Lauderdale was 58 when his National Guard unit was deployed to the Iraq-Kuwait border, where he helped transport arriving soldiers and Marines
into combat areas. He was a strong man, say relatives, who can't remember him ever missing a day of work for illness. And he developed a
cancer of the mouth, which overwhelmingly strikes smokers, drinkers and tobacco
chewers. He was none of those. "Jim's doctors didn't know why he would get this kind of cancer — they had no answers for us," said his wife, Dixie.

"He got so sick, so fast. We really think it had to be something he was exposed to over there. So many of the soldiers we met with cancer at Walter Reed (Army Medical Center) complained about the polluted air they
lived in, the brown water they had to use, the dust they breathed from exploded munitions. It was very toxic."

As a mining engineer, Lauderdale knew exactly what it meant when he saw the thick black smoke pouring nonstop out of the smokestacks that line the Iraq/Kuwait border area where he was stationed for three months in 2005. "He wrote to me that everyone was complaining about their stinging eyes and sore throats and headaches," Dixie said. "For Jim to say something like that, to complain, was very unusual.

"One of the mothers on the cancer ward had pictures of her son bathing in the brown water," she said. "He died of kidney cancer."
Stationed in roughly the same area as Lauderdale, yet another soldier — now
fighting terminal colon cancer — described the scene there, of oil refineries, a cement factory, a chlorine factory and a sulfuric acid factory, all spewing unfiltered and uncontrolled substances into the air.

"One day, we were walking toward the port and they had sulfuric acid exploding out of the stacks. We were covered with it, everything was burning on us, and we had to turn around and get to the medics," said Army Staff
Sgt. Frank Valentin, 35. Not long after, he developed intense rectal pain, which doctors told him for months was hemorrhoids. Finally diagnosed with aggressive colorectal cancer — requiring extensive surgery, resulting in a
colostomy bag — he was given fewer than two years to live by his Walter Reed physicians. He is now a couple of months past that death sentence, but his chemo drugs are starting to fail, and the cancer is eating into his
liver and lungs. He spends his days with his wife and three children at their Florida home. "I don't know how much time I have," he said.

Suspect: Depleted Uranium
None of these soldiers know for sure what's killing them. But they suspect it's a cascade of multiple toxic exposures, coupled with the intense stress of daily life in a war zone weakening their immune systems. "There's
so much pollution from so many sources, your body can't fight what's coming at it," Valentin said. "And you don't eat well or sleep well, ever. That weakens you, too. There's no chance to gather your strength. These are kids 19, 20 and 21 getting all kinds of cancers. The Walter Reed cancer ward is
packed full with them."

The prime suspect in all this, in the minds of many victims — and some scientists — is what's known as depleted uranium — the radioactive
chemical prized by the military for its ability to penetrate armored vehicles. When
munitions explode, the substance hits the air as fine dust, easily inhaled. Last month, the Iraqi environment minister blamed the tons of the chemical dropped during the war's "shock and awe" campaign for a surge of cancer cases across the country.

However, the Pentagon and U.S. State Department strongly deny this, citing four studies, including one by the World Health Organization, that found levels in war zones not harmful to civilians or soldiers. A U.N.
Environmental Program study concurs, but only if spent munitions are cleared away.

Returning solders have said that isn't happening. "When tanks exploded, I would handle those tanks, and there was DU
everywhere," said Valentin. "This is a big issue." The fierce Iraq winds carry desert sand and dust for miles, said Dixie
Lauderdale, who suspects her husband was exposed to at least some depleted
uranium. Many vets from the Gulf War blame the chemical used in that conflict for their Gulf War syndrome illnesses.

Congress orders study As the controversy rages, Congress has ordered a comprehensive
independent study, due in October, of the health effects of depleted uranium exposure on
U.S. soldiers and their children. And a "DU bill" — ordering all members of the U.S. military exposed to it be identified and tested — is working its way through Congress.

"Basically, we want to get ahead of this curve, and not go through the years of painful denial we went through with Agent Orange that was the legacy of Vietnam," said Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., a co-sponsor of the bill.
"We want an independent agency to do independent testing of our soldiers,
and find out what's really going on. Theseincidents of cancer and illness
that all of us are hearing about back in our districts are not just anecdotal — there is a pattern here. And yes, I do suspect DU may be
at the bottom of it."

What's happening today — growing numbers of sickened soldiers who say they were exposed to it amid firm denials of harm from military brass — almost mirrors the early stages of the Agent Orange aftermath. It took the U.S.
military almost two decades to admit the powerful chemical defoliant killed and disabled U.S. troops in the jungles of Vietnam, and to begin compensating them for it.

Doctors flabbergasted Whatever it was that struck Jim Lauderdale did a terrifying job of
it. Sent to Walter Reed with oral cancer in April 2005, he underwent his first extensive and disfiguring surgery, removing half his tongue to get to tumors
in the mouth and throat. A second surgery followed a month later to clear out more of those areas. Five months later, another surgery removed a new neck tumor. Then came heavy chemotherapy and radiation.

Shortly after, he had a massive heart attack, undergoing another surgery to place stents in his arteries. Two weeks later, the cancer was back and growing rapidly, forcing a fourth surgery in January 2006.

By this time, much of his neck and shoulder tissue was gone, and doctors tried to reconstruct a tongue, using tissue from his wrist. He couldn't swallow, so was fed through a tube into his stomach.

Just weeks later, four external tumors appeared on his neck — "literally
overnight," his wife said. Suffering severe complications from the chemo drugs, Lauderdale
endured 39 radiation treatments, waking up one night bleeding profusely through his
burned skin. The day after his radiation ended, new external tumors erupted
at the edge of the radiation field, flabbergasting his doctors.

"As this aggressive disease grew though chemoradiation, it was determined at
this point there was no chance for cure," his oncologist wrote then. By then, the cancer had spread to his lungs and spine and, most
frightening of all, "hundreds and thousands" of tumors were erupting all over his upper
body, his wife said. "The doctors said they'd never seen anything like it — that this happens in only 1 percent of cases," she said.

Efforts to contact his doctors at Walter Reed were unsuccessful, but a leading head-and-neck cancer specialist at the Arizona Cancer Center reviewed the course of Lauderdale's disease.
"This a very wrenching case," said Dr. Harinder Garewal. "This is unusually aggressive behavior for an oral cancer. I would agree it happens in
only 1 percent of cases."

When oral cancer occurs in nonsmokers and non-drinkers, it tends to be more aggressive, he said. "My feeling is the immune system for some reason can't handle the cancer," he said.

Jim Lauderdale died on July 14, 2006, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Dixie and their two grown children still feel the raw grief of loss, but not anger, she said. "But I am convinced something very wrong is happening over there. Is anyone
paying attention to this? Is the cancer ward still full?" she asked. "I would hate to see another whole generation affected like this, but I'm very afraid it will be."

© 2007 The Arizona Daily Star

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http://www.bloomber g.com/apps/ news?
pid=20601103& sid=aIcMpI2YcQV8 &refer=us
Bloomberg News
Oral-Sex Cancer Link Suggests Boys Need Merck Vaccine (Update2)

By Angela Zimm

Aug. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Merck & Co.'s Gardasil vaccine, approved for
preteen
girls to prevent cervical cancer caused by a sexually transmitted
virus,
should also be given to teenage boys to help avert cancers linked to
oral
sex, researchers said.
A growing body of research shows that human papilloma virus,
responsible for
cervical cancer, is also linked to about half of certain throat, or
oropharyngeal, cancers. In a research review in the journal Cancer,
doctors
from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center said
scientists
should step up studies of the HPV vaccine in boys to expand the
vaccine's
use.

Gardasil may generate more than $3 billion in annual sales for
Whitehouse
Station, New Jersey-based Merck, analysts say. The best way to reduce
cancer-causing HPV is to widen the pool of children vaccinated with
Gardasil, the researchers say. Merck is studying the shot in boys
and plans
to seek U.S. approval for that use, said spokeswoman Kelly
Dougherty.
``We would encourage industry and scientists to study the efficacy
in boys
and men so the vaccination program can be expanded,'' said Erich
Sturgis,
associate professor of head and neck surgery at M.D. Anderson and the
report's lead author, in an interview. ``We know men are getting
exposed and
we know a major proportion of oropharyngeal cancers are caused by
HPV.''

Recent findings also tie the virus to cancers of the penis, anus and
vagina.
The link to head and neck cancers, which mostly affect males, points
to a
need to vaccinate boys before they are sexually active, the
researchers
said.

Result Next Year
Merck expects to have data on use of the vaccine in teenage boys
next year,
Dougherty said. The Merck vaccine can already be used in boys in the
European Union, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Costa
Rica and
Korea.

Merck's shares fell 70 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $50.12, in New
York Stock
Exchange composite trading. The stock has increased 15 percent this
year.
GlaxoSmithKline Plc, which is seeking U.S. and European approval of a
similar vaccine called Cervarix, said it's focusing the product on
girls and
women.

Head and neck cancers, closely linked to smoking, have declined as
the
number of people who use tobacco dropped. However, oropharyngeal
cancers,
including the tonsils and back part of the tongue, are rising,
especially
among younger adults, studies show.
``Changing sexual practices such as more frequent oral sex in
adolescents
and young adults could contribute to an increase in oncogenic HPV-
associated
oropharyngeal cancers,'' researchers said in the report.

Tonsil, Tongue Increases
Tonsil cancers have increased 4 percent and tongue cancers 2 percent
a year
in the past 30 years among adults younger than 45, according to
studies
cited in the review. Many of the cancers were among non-smokers,
which
points to HPV as the culprit behind the rise in the cancers, M.D.
Anderson
researchers said.
``This was once a disease exclusively of smokers and drinkers,''
Sturgis
said. ``Our experience is between a third to a half of oropharyngeal
cancer
patients have never smoked.''

More than 90 percent of HPV-positive throat cancer tumors show
infection
with the HPV-16 form of the virus. Merck's and Glaxo's vaccines
target
strains HPV 16 and HPV 18. Merck's Gardasil also targets two
additional HPV
strains that cause genital warts.
Approved in June 2006, Gardasil generated $723 million in sales
during the
first half of this year.

Head and neck cancers are the latest malignancies tied to HPV
infection
generating attention from health experts that would like to see
broader use
of the Merck vaccine. Every year, about 650,000 people worldwide are
diagnosed with head and neck cancers, and 350,000 die from the
diseases,
according to the American Cancer Society, based in Atlanta.

`Emerging Area'
``This is an emerging area,'' said Joseph Bocchini, chairman of
pediatrics
at Louisiana State Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, in an
interview.
``As the data evolves, it would add the possibility of not only
genital
cancer control but oropharyngeal cancer control as well.'' Bocchini
who
heads the American Academy of Pediatrics committee on infectious
diseases,
which makes recommendations on childhood vaccines, said it's too
early to
say whether boys should be vaccinated until more data is available.
``At this point there is nothing to suggest it would act
differently, '' he
said. ``There is a very good chance it will be as effective in boys
as girls
and women.''
Cancer is the medical journal of the American Cancer Society.

To contact the reporter on this story: Angela Zimm in Boston
azimm@bloomberg. net
Last Updated: August 27, 2007 16:21 EDT
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http://www.madison. com/tct/opinion/ letters/207312
Lindsay and Starkweather: Parents should be wary of cervical cancer
vaccine
A letter to the editor — 8/27/2007 10:39 am

Dear Editor: It is unfortunate that the Wisconsin State Journal's
Aug. 8
editorial, "Educate parents about vaccine," failed to provide all
the facts
necessary to allow parents to make an informed decision on using the
new
Merck vaccine, Gardasil, for the human papillomavirus (HPV).
The editor urged the state to mandate girls as young as 9 years old
to use a
vaccine to prevent an infection that cannot be transmitted in the
school
setting. A similar mandate was attempted by Texas Gov. Rick Perry,
but
failed when the public rebuked his authority to do so.
Shouldn't the people of Wisconsin be fully informed of all the facts
before
allowing one official to mandate the use of any vaccine for a
disease that
is not easily transmissible?

A May 2007 report documented over 1,600 adverse reactions and
included
three deaths linked to Gardasil. Among those reactions, 371 were
classified
as serious, and of the 42 women who received the vaccine while
pregnant, 18
experienced side effects including spontaneous abortion and fetal
abnormalities.
Cervical cancer has declined by more than 74 percent in the U.S.
since the
1950s and today accounts for fewer than 1 percent of all U.S. cancer
deaths.
The cervical cancer/papilloma virus vaccine also may not bring about
a
significant decline in cervical cancer mortality rates in the U.S.
because
so many women undergo early detection of precancerous lesions and
surgical
hysterectomy.

A May 2007 editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine also
raised
questions about the vaccine 's effectiveness.
It has come to the point where individuals must self-educate when it
comes
to protecting our health and the health of our children. We must
demand all
the pertinent information, not just that which comes from the
pharmaceutical
companies or politicians who are lobbied by them.

Rosanne Lindsay, Fitchburg
Melinda Starkweather, Madison
Posted on 08/28/07, 07:08 pm
Posted on 08/29/07, 09:08 pm
Posted on 08/29/07, 10:08 pm