Bits and Pieces May 14 2006

Hi Everybody,
I decided to try and make this a weekly column - so if anybody has any interesting stories, please email me off list.
Now stories this week:
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A real life Robin Hood story! This got a chuckle out of me...
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10380952
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An easy to read explanation as to why Peripheral Neuropathy causes pain:
http://www.charcot-marie-tooth.org/about_cmt/pain.php
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The story that Nick covered so well this week:
The NYT times reports today that mice that are completely resistant to cancer have been found, and that they pass
their immunity on to half their offspring. White cells from these mice, when injected into
other mice, cure the cancer. The may have found humans who have the same natural resistance.

It may be a long time before they discover the genetic basis for this immunity and develop a way to apply it to us,
but  this does appear to be a genuinely new approach.

Here's the article:

http://www.nesseler.org/pages/mm/mice.html
http://www.nesseler.org/pages/mm/micelat.html
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National  Oncologic PET Registry Now Open:
The National Oncologic  PET Registry (NOPR) opened May 8th to ensure access to Medicare  reimbursement for
certain types of positron emission tomography (PET)  scans. You may recall Dr. Durie's statement in February of
last year: "[The IMF has] worked hard for reimbursement because we believe PET  scanning is an important tool
for diagnostic evaluation, staging, and  monitoring for myeloma. This is a very encouraging decision by Medicare,
and an important step  forward for myeloma patients."
http://www.cancerpetregistry.org/
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Clinical Trials:
Interesting article on Medcape entitled: How Participants in Clinical
Trials are Chosen: Ethics and Conflicting Interests.
http://www.nesseler.org/pages/mm/trials.html
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A very interesting abstract about just how much it costs a caregiver looking after an SCT patient:
"The financial requirements and time commitments of caregivers for autologous stem cell transplant recipients"
http://tinyurl.com/z32jg
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The story that had me bothered:
Vertebroplasty/Kyphoplasty
http://tinyurl.com/hxvax
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Feel good story from Ontario:
http://tinyurl.com/lw5dj
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An interesting story from Washington State
National Marrow Donor Program
http://www.northkitsapherald.com/portals-

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And finally a bit of silliness!
A good few years ago I tried to get a map to show all our MMA members. It was a complete failure, because it only
allowed 100 entries and was plagued with free ads and pop-ups!!!

HOWEVER - I have found a new exciting and better map, powered by Google maps!
http://www.mapservices.org/myguestmap/showguestmap.do?id=myeloma
login is myeloma
password is multiple
But the link should take you straight to the map. You navigate by holding down your left mouse button and dragging
over the map - centre up over where you live and zoom in using the zoom bar on the left. It gets pretty detailed and
you should be able to pin point your position.
Go on, take a couple of minutes, add a pin!! I expect to see HUNDREDS next week!
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Have a great weekend,
Best wishes,
Chris