Researchers who designed one experimental breast cancer vaccine say they have fine-tuned the process and come up with another that they hope will be more effective.

Their new vaccine delivers a cancer-fighting gene into cells, which then produce immune system proteins as well as tumor-destroying cells.

"In our own mind it is a very significant advance because we have put the gene into the cells in the body. The vaccine is produced by your own cells," Wei-Zen Wei of Wayne State University in Detroit, who led the study, said in a telephone interview. "It is made right in your body."

The vaccine eliminated tumors in mice from a type of cancer called HER2 positive cancer, they reported in the journal Cancer Research. HER2-positive cancers account for between 20 percent and 30 percent of breast cancers.

It even worked to eliminate HER2 tumors that had developed resistance to drugs designed to fight them, the said.

The HER2/neu protein is over-expressed, meaning it is over-active, in several tumors including breast, colorectal and ovarian cancer.

Herceptin, also known as trastuzumab, an expensive antibody-based drug made by Genentech Inc, can treat these tumors. But many patients eventually acquire what is known as resistance and the tumors start growing again.

The following is an excerpt from "Mothers Need Time-Outs, Too" by Susan Callahan, Anne, Nolen and Katrin Schumann (copyright 2008). Reprinted with permission from The McGraw-Hill Companies, www.mhprofessional.com.

LET'S TALK ABOUT SEX!

Oh boy, in our focus groups, we could have talked for months on end about the effect that children have on romance.

"Children seem to be a growing impediment for the happiness of marriages," according to a 2004 Rutger's University marriage study. From nursing, wakeful babies to sulky, time-consuming teenagers, moms and dads certainly have less time and patience for romance. These issues can often be short term, but sometimes they linger long after the kids have learned to tie their own laces. According to a 2004 ABC "Primetime Live" poll, only one-third of couples who've been together more than 10 years say their sex life is very exciting, and the percentage of couples having sex two or three times a week plummets from 72 percent in their early years together to only 32 percent after a decade.

Many mothers admitted to feeling guilty that they experienced a slowdown - and, let's face it, sometimes a dead stop - in their sex drives after having children. As many of us have experienced, the warmth of a tiny baby's body and the nurturing, cuddling, affection they require and return often fills our needs enough that we no longer seek that kind of intimacy from our husbands.

Health officials warned consumers Sunday about an outbreak of salmonella in raw tomatoes, after the illness of one woman in Contra Costa County and 144 other infections nationwide.

The source of the tomatoes is still unknown, but officials believe that large tomatoes, including Roma and round red, are carrying the strain, Salmonella sereotype Saintpaul, that has infected 145 people since mid-April. Red plum tomatoes also may be affected, according to a statement by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The FDA is recommending limiting raw tomato consumption to those that are not the likely source of the outbreak, including cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, tomatoes sold with their vine attached and homegrown tomatoes.

No one has died from the recent outbreak, though at least 23 people have been hospitalized. The majority of the infections have occurred in New Mexico and Texas, but cases also have been reported in Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

An alarming outbreak of the mumps two years ago has raised questions about whether an additional vaccination is needed.

A report in The New England Journal of Medicine tracks the 2006 epidemic, the largest mumps outbreak in two decades in the United States. It occurred despite a national vaccination program aimed at eliminating the disease here by 2010.

Mumps is a viral infection characterized by fever and swollen salivary glands. Mumps had virtually disappeared in the United States in the 1990s, when doctors began using a second dose of measles-mumps-rubella vaccine among schoolchildren.

5% of patients who undergo breast surgery have infections at the incision site and incur costs of over $4,000 in hospital-related expenses, according to an article in Archives of Surgery (JAMA/Archives), January issue.

The authors explain that reported infections at surgical sites following breast removals (mastectomies) and other breast procedures range from 1% to 28%. "Given the state of fiscal constraints within the U.S. health care system, it is important to calculate the cost-effectiveness of infection control interventions to justify their use from an economic perspective. Cost-effectiveness analyses require accurate estimates for the attributable costs of hospital-acquired infections, which are lacking for surgical site infections."

Margaret A. Olsen, Ph.D., M.P.H., Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, and team looked at 94 hospital admissions for breast reconstruction or mastectomy at a teaching hospital during the period 1999-2002. They were able to count how many had surgical site infections by looking at the electronic hospital database and verifying by review of medical records. The hospital's accounting database was used to work out costs, which included those from the original hospital admission for surgery as well as any further readmission within 12 months of surgery.

MINNEAPOLIS -- When a Duluth-based operator of hospitals and clinics purged the pens, notepads, coffee mugs and other promotional trinkets drug companies had given its doctors over the years, it took 20 shopping carts to haul the loot away.

The operator, SMDC Health System, intends to ship the 18,718 items to the west African nation of Cameroon.

The purge underscored SMDC's decision to join the growing movement to ban gifts to doctors from drug companies.

SMDC scoured its four hospitals and 17 clinics across northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin for clipboards, clocks, mouse pads, stuffed animals and other items decorated with logos for such drugs as Nexium, Vytorin and Lipitor.

Trinkets, free samples, free food and drinks, free trips and other gifts have pervaded the medical profession, but observers say that's starting to change.

Extra spinal support helps women maintain balance during pregnancy without injury.

The next time you see a pregnant woman teetering under the awkward weight of her growing belly, remember this: if she were a man, it would be even worse.

Researchers have found that the vertebrae that make up a woman's spine have evolved to give her more support, probably to help her cope during pregnancy. The results hold true for modern mothers as well as those of their ancient ancestors, Australopithecus, who lived more than two million years ago. Vertebrae in men lack these features.

Without this added support, women would have to draw more on their back muscles to stay upright. Over the course of nine months, that could lead to muscle fatigue and back injury.

When human ancestors made the switch from walking on four legs to walking on two, they had to make several skeletal adjustments. Vertebrae increased in number and thickness to provide added support to the upper body. The spine took on a curved shape in the lower back, to shift the shoulders backwards and move the centre of mass above the hips.

But the added bulk of pregnancy shifts that centre of mass forwards again, making a woman more likely to tip over towards the front. Pregnant women bring their centre of mass back over their hips by leaning back, deepening the curve at the base of their spine.

What to do if this happens to you

There is a crisis of epidemic proportion within the International Adoption Community. It has the potential to compromise the health and well-being of many adoptive families. Known as Post Adoptive Depression or PAD, it affects over 65 percent of adopting mothers according to a recent survey by the Eastern European Adoption Coalition (EEAC), yet goes unacknowledged or unrecognized by agencies, social workers, and most of the medical community.

Post Delivery Depression, long recognized as an expected part of normal pregnancy and delivery is an issue that is openly discussed and well understood by the medical community and the public. Estimates vary, but between fifty to eighty percent of mothers who have given birth will experience the mildest form of PDD called "The Baby Blues" according to Depression After Delivery, Inc. Of those, approximately ten percent will suffer a more serious form of Postpartum Depression which is of longer duration and has more symptoms. The cause of both these manifestations is attributed to hormone changes and imbalances. Families, physicians, and caretakers are alert for symptoms and offer unconditional support to new mothers during this usually brief crisis.

The public and medical attitudes toward PDD are a far cry from the silence and secrecy that surround a much more pervasive problem - Post Adoption Depression Syndrome (PADS) which is a term coined by June Bond in her Spring 1995 article for Roots and Wings Magazine. For those of us who are part of the International Adoption Community, in particular parents of orphanage children, we have the added complication of adopting children who are almost always older than newborns and have been in an institutional setting. In many cases, our new children are toddlers to school-aged, and their histories and language issues add an extra dimension to the possibility of their new adoptive mothers developing PADS.

Mothers who eat junk food during pregnancy and breastfeeding may be putting their children at risk of overeating and developing obesity, according to a study funded by the Wellcome Trust and carried out at the Royal Veterinary College, London. The research suggests that pregnant and breastfeeding women should not indulge in fatty, sugary and salty foods under the misguided assumption that they are "eating for two".

The study*, published in the British Journal of Nutrition, found that rats fed a diet of processed junk food such as doughnuts, muffins, biscuits, crisps and sweets during pregnancy and lactation gave birth to offspring which overate and had a preference for junk foods rich in fat, sugar and salt when compared to the offspring of rats given regular feed. The research team behind the study believe the findings have implications for humans.

Obesity is a major cause of disease, associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer. According to a report by the World Health Organization, around 1.6 billion humans were classified as overweight worldwide in 2005 and 400 million were obese. Obesity affects populations increasingly earlier in life with over 20 million children under the age of five being classed as overweight.

"Our study has shown that eating large quantities of junk food when pregnant and breastfeeding could impair the normal control of appetite and promote an exacerbated taste for junk food in offspring," says lead author Dr. Stephanie Bayol. "This could send offspring on the road to obesity and make the task of teaching healthy eating habits in children even more challenging."

New studies show the practice has a role in rising costs and the risk of complications.

The move appears to be a push back against the trend in recent decades to medically manage childbirth. Fewer than 10% of women underwent induction in 1990, but more than 21% did so in 2004, according to federal government statistics. No one knows how many of those inductions were prompted by legitimate medical concerns. But various studies have put the number of inductions for convenience at 15% to 55% of the total number.

At the same time, rates of caesarean sections increased to more than 29% in 2004, up from 23% in 1990, with many women requesting elective C-sections -- surgical births without any medical justification. That trend too has generated debate about whether patients are undertaking unnecessary risks.

On the ninth floor of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, newborns squall in the nursery while a half-dozen new moms and dads, looking dazed, file into a conference room.

It's time for breast-feeding class.

They're welcomed warmly by Gina Abbascia-Simmons, whose title is "lactation consultant."

"Thank you for coming," she says, "and congratulations for making the healthiest choice: to breast-feed your baby."

More new mothers are breast-feeding these days -- 84 percent at this hospital, which has New England's busiest maternity unit. Most women say they do it because of the benefits for their babies.

For instance, breast-fed babies get a shot of maternal antibodies along with mother's milk. That's important at a time when their own immune systems haven't kicked in yet. Studies show it translates to fewer infant infections, and maybe less asthma later on. Other benefits for infants are legion, and well-documented.

But there's growing evidence that mothers benefit, too, by having a lower risk of cancer.

One frequently cited statistic about breast cancer is that 1 in 9 women will develop the disease. Though accurate, this statement can be misleading, as some women are at greater risk than others. Now, scientists at the National Cancer Institute have developed a risk calculator that helps women estimate their individual risk of getting breast cancer.

Deb Feinberg is a healthy, 40-year-old, stay-at-home mom. She was curious to know what her personal risk of developing breast cancer might be, so she has logged on to the National Cancer Institute's risk calculator.

"My five-year risk is 0.8 percent," Feinberg reads, "and the average woman is 0.6 percent."