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r Miuj <r Drinking coffee might help prevent liver cancer , By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON — That hot cup of j coffee may do more than just provide a tasty energy boost. It also may help prevent the most common type of liver cancer. A study of more than 90,000 Japanese found that people who drank coffee daily or nearly every day had half the risk of liver cancer as those who never drank coffee. The American Cancer Society estimates that 18,920 new cases of liver cancer were diagnosed in the United States last year and some 14,270 people died of the illness. Causes include hepatitis, cirrhosis, excess alcohol consumption and diseases causing chronic inflammation of the liver. Animal studies have suggested a By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON — The government is setting up a special monitoring board to keep checking on medicines once they’re on the market, responding to complaints that officials reacted too slowly to reports linking prescription painkillers to heart attack and stroke. Plans for the board were announced Tuesday on the eve of a three-day scientific meeting on the safety of painkillers such as Vioxx and Celebrex, drugs that blossomed into a $5 billion-a year business before risks from potential side effects came to light. Meanwhile, a medical journal questioned whether continued use of such products was justified. Vioxx was pulled from the market in September after a study showed an increase in heart attacks and strokes among people using it. Other studies have also raised questions of heart problems with the similar drugs Celebrex and Bextra. • “Because there are well-established options for treatment of all the approved indications for these drugs, it is protective association of coffee with liver cancer, so the research team led by Monami Inoue of the National Cancer Center in Tokyo analyzed a 10-year public health study to determine coffee use by people diagnosed with liver cancer and people who did not have cancer. They found the likely occurrence of liver cancer in people who never or almost never drank coffee was 547.2 cases per 100,000 people over 10 years. For people who drank coffee daily the risk was 214.6 cases per 100,000, the researchers report in this week’s issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. They found that the protective effect occurred in people who drank one to two cups of coffee a day and increased at three to four cups. They were unable to compare the effect of regular and decaffeinated coffee because decaf is rarely consumed in Japan. It’s the caffeine in coffee that makes some people nervous and it has been shown in other studies to prompt mental alertness in many people. Some studies have suggested caffeine aggravates symptoms of menopause or intensifies the side effects of some antibiotics. Heavy caffeine use has been linked to miscarriage. Studies have also shown that a skin cream spiked with caffeine lowers the risk of skin cancer in mice. “It’s an excellent, interesting and provocative study and their conclusions seem justified,” commented Dr. R. Palmer Beasley of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. “It will provoke a lot of new work Board to monitor prescription drugs reasonable to ask whether the use of the drugs can now be justified,” Dr. Jeffrey M. Drazen, editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, wrote in an editorial published online. That is the question facing the Food and Drug Administration’s arthritis and drug safety and risk management advisory committees at their meeting beginning Wednesday. The new drug safety board was announced by Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, who said it has become clear that people want more oversight and openness from the FDA. “They want to know what we know, what we do with information and why we do it,” Leavitt said, promising to create “a new culture of openness and enhanced independence.” The board will recommend what information and updates to put on the government’s Drug Watch, resolve disputes over drug safety issues, and oversee the development of a drug safety policy. It will include FDA employees and medical experts from other government agencies and will consult with outside medical experts as well as consumer and patient groups. Lester M. Crawford, the acting FDA commissioner who was nominated Monday by President Bush to assume the post permanently, said the agency now “understands that the public expects better and more prompt information.” Drazen’s editorial was accompanied by three studies of these drugs, known as Cox-2 inhibitors, being released early by the journal. The reports add detail to indications of heart problems associated with the drugs. The prescription drugs have become widely popular pain killers for people with chronic conditions such as arthritis because they avoid the stomach and intestinal problems that have been associated with many other pain killers. “Unfortunately,” Drazen said in his editorial, “as the evidence began to suggest unexpected toxicity of this group of agents, the same zeal that had driven the clinical investigators to show their gastrointestinal safety was not evidenced by studies designed to show their cardiovascular safety.” The unexpected findings raise questions about the integrity of the American drug-safety system, according to a second editorial in the journal by researchers Bruce M. Psaty of the University of Washington and Curt D. Furberg of Wake Forest University. “Physicians are dismayed, pharmaceutical companies are embarrassed and financially threatened, and patients are injured,” they wrote. Dr. Mark Fendrick, an internal medicine specialist at the University of Michigan, said a decision on the drugs “should be considered one of competing risk and benefits.” “Until we know for sure about the cardiological safety of the Cox-2 inhibitors, I believe they should be limited to those individuals who have a risk of stomach injury and those who are at low risk for cardiac problems,” Fendrick said. People who have a heart risk or who take aspirin to protect the heart should consider a traditional pain killer, he said. Many people who take the Cox-2 drugs to avoid stomach problems also take aspirin to protect the heart, he noted, and that cancels the gastrointestinal protection of the Cox-2 drugs. Gamecocks S'mnectioiU lamecocks news alerts wireless pnone! Get up-to-the-minute news about the Gamecocks, from the Gamecocks, on your wireless phone. Log on to www.vtext.com and select "Coaches Corner!" * Subject to Customer Agreement and Calling Plan. $35 activation fee may apply. $175 early termination fee applies. Requires credit approval. Subject to taxes, charges and other restrictions. See verizonwireless.com/bestnetwork for network claim details. Digital phone required. Verizon Wireless post pay customers charged 2< per message received and 10e per message sent. Verizon Wireless prepay customers charged 5tfor messages received and sent. Network not available in all areas ©2004 Verizon Wireless L~-’-I-1 here,” said Beasley, who was not part of the research group. While the study found a statistically significant relationship between drinking coffee and having less liver cancer, the authors note that it needs to be repeated in other groups. And the reason for the reduction remains unclear Inoue’s team noted that coffee contains large amounts of antioxidants and several animal studies have indicated those compounds have the potential to inhibit cancer in the liver. In their study, the team also looked at green tea, which contains different antioxidants, and they found no association between drinking the tea and liver cancer rates. “Other unidentified substances may also be responsible” for the reduction in cancers, they said. A separate study reported in the same issue of the journal reported no relationship between drinking caffeinated coffee or tea and the rates of colon or rectal cancer. That analysis did find a 52 percent decline in rectal cancer among people who regularly drank two or more cups of decaffeinated coffee. In that study a team led by Karin B. Michels of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston analyzed data from two large studies — the Nurses’ Health Study of women and the Health Professionals’ Follow-up Study involving men. The analysis of nearly 2 million person years found 1,438 cases of colorectal cancer. While they did not find any association between cancer rates and consumption of caffeinated coffee or tea, people who regularly drank two or more cups per day of decaffeinated coffee had about half the incidence of rectal cancer as those who never drank decaf The rate of rectal cancer was 12 cases per 100,000 person-years among those who consumed two or more cups of decaffeinated coffee per day. For those who never drank decaffeinated coffee, the rate was 19 cases per 100,000 person-years. That difference may, however, be due to differences in lifestyle, the researchers commented, suggesting that drinkers of decaffeinated coffee might be more health conscious overall. The Japanese study was funded by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan. The U.S. study was funded by the National Institutes of Health. STEPHEN J. BOITANO/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt addresses Food and Drug Administration employees in Rockville, Md.,on Tuesday to announce the FDA will establish a new independent Drug Safety Oversight Board to monitor FDA-approved medicines once they’re on the market. ■ RUNOFF Continued from page 1 first election is more important. “It will definitely be down,” Scott said. “We are really, really happy with the turnout today.” Brewer added that most of time spent counting ballots was used to discern and count the hand-written ballots. Treasurer candidate Preston said he thought experience was a deciding factor in his race. He added that he was impressed with voter turnout. “It is great to see that 20 percent of students came out for elections," Preston said. “I think the number of candidates immobilized people, but many came because of grass-roots campaigning.” The 2005 elections were littered with motions for campaign violations, but Brewer said it was no worse than in previous years. “I don’t think there were more or less this year,” Brewer said. “I haven’t looked at all the violations, but most were mistakes.” Treasurer candidate Cook said she feels campaign managers and staff should be responsible for making sure their candidate does not commit violations. Vice president-elect Ryan Holt said when there are nine candidates vying for an office, there will always be “sparks flying.” Holt also said he feels lucky to be finished with campaigning. “I am certainly grateful because I know how difficult it will be for people to runoff,” Holt said after the announcement. “I am thankful that it was decided tonight.” With general elections finalized, runoff candidates are contemplating whether to change campaign strategies. Williams said he does not feel the need to change his strategy because his message will remain the same. “I am all about the people,” Williams said. “My platform is concrete, what I want to do is all for the students.” After securing the vice presidency, Holt added that he is giving his full endorsement to Tommy Preston for treasurer in the runoff. “I think he is the best person for the job,” Holt said. “And I think he will get the job done." After more than a week of campaigning, the candidates still in the runoff will be exhausting every financial and physical resource at their disposal to finish strong, they said. “I thank God I am still alive,” Williams said. Comments on this story? E-mail ga7necocknetos@gwm.sc.edu -1 LEA NONE OF 211 NGUAGES ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ As a Soldier at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, you’ll learn one of 21 languages. And you don’t need to speak a foreign language to qualify. >> Call Sgt. 1st Class Kelly Greene at 777-4812 about college loan repayment and more Army benefits. And see how you can become AN ARMY OF ONE. > > Or talk to a Recruiter at the Lagare College, 902 Sumter Street in Columbia. Monday through Saturday 8=00 a.m. through 7=00 p.m. or call toll free 877-264-3876 goarmy.com 02001. Paid for by the U.S. Army. All rights reserved. AN ARMY OF ONE *f