THIS ISSUE AVAILABLE ONLINE WITH EXPANDED INFORMATION AND PHOTOS AT:
http://www.hhs.gov/news/newsletter/weekly
IN THIS ISSUE:
1) HHS Releases Comprehensive Plan to Help End Chronic Homelessness
2) HHS Issues National Plan to Reduce Impact of Diabetes on Women
3) Secretary Thompson encourages adoption
4) Scientists Discover that Metastasis Gene May Be Useful for Diagnosis and Treatment of Liver Cancer
HHS Releases Comprehensive Plan to Help End Chronic Homelessness
HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson released a comprehensive plan last week aimed at reducing and ultimately ending chronic homelessness. The new initiative, Ending Chronic Homelessness: Strategies for Action, was created to address the need for a network of support systems for homeless people.
"In the United States, approximately 200,000 people are chronically homeless," Secretary Thompson said. "The large majority of these individuals have serious and disabling health conditions, including psychiatric and substance use disorders. HHS' plan is a blueprint that will help develop a cohesive set of policies that recognize and make accessible the many essential health and human services needed for people to get and keep permanent housing."
Secretary Thompson announced the plan as he assumed chairmanship of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (ICH). As the new ICH chairman, Secretary Thompson said he would focus on improving resources for chronically homeless people who often face barriers to gaining and keeping permanent housing and ultimate self-sufficiency due to lack of coordination among services.
Currently, HHS, and the Departments of Housing and Urban Development and Veterans Affairs are soliciting applications for $35 million in funding to create a collaborative and comprehensive approach to addressing the problem of chronic homelessness. The programs include improving access to housing services, substance abuse and mental health services and primary health care services.
HHS' comprehensive homelessness plan executive summary can be found on the HHS Web site at http://www.aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/homelessness/strategies03/.
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HHS Issues National Plan to Reduce Impact of Diabetes on Women
HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson introduced a national plan to address the growing health epidemic of diabetes in women on March 25. Diabetes is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States and is a major contributor to heart disease, the number one killer of women.
"We need to change the way we think about diabetes with an eye on preventing the disease in women throughout their lives and on reducing disease-related complications for the more than 9 million American women who already have the disease," Secretary Thompson said. "We need to help women understand the disease and what they can do to take care of themselves."
The National Agenda for Public Health Action: The National Public Health Initiative on Diabetes and Women's Health is designed to mobilize the nation to address diabetes as a growing health concern. It calls for expanding community-based health education programs, promoting risk assessment, supporting quality care and self-management for diabetes and its complications and encouraging research into the factors that influence diabetes and women's health.
"This plan offers a vision of a nation in which diabetes in women is prevented or at least delayed whenever possible," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of HHS' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The goal of this national plan is to address the growing problem of diabetes in women and create a nation in which:
According to CDC, diabetes has increased to epidemic proportions in the United States. Diagnosed diabetes among women has increased almost 50 percent during the past decade. The prevalence of type 2 diabetes is at least two-to-four times higher in Black, Hispanic, American Indian, Asian, and Pacific Island women than in whites.
CDC estimates that more than 17 million Americans have diabetes, and about 6 million are undiagnosed. About 1 million new cases of diabetes are diagnosed each year. The total economic cost of diabetes in the United States was estimated to be $132 billion annually in 2002, according to ADA. In addition, an estimated 16 million Americans have pre-diabetes and can reduce their risks of developing the disease by losing a modest amount of weight and increasing their physical activity levels.
The National Agenda is available at http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/pubs/english.htm. For information on other diabetes topics, please visit CDC's Web site at http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/.
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Secretary Thompson encourages adoption
Each year, while American families adopt tens of thousands of children, often the adoption process is too long, difficult, and expensive for most families to afford. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is working to change that.
"Promoting adoption isn't a partisan issue - it's one where all Americans can agree," HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson said. "Every child deserves to be part of a loving family. For all of us who believe in the intrinsic value of every human life, we have a solemn responsibility to encourage lives of hope, health, and promise for all children."
There are currently more than 542,000 children in foster care in the United States. Of these, more than 125,000 children are still waiting to be adopted into permanent homes.
In an effort to improve the lives of those children, HHS has given nearly $4 million to help eliminate barriers to adoption for children with special needs as part of the Adoption Opportunities Program. In addition, last summer President Bush launched a new Web site, www.adoptUSkids.org, which features photographs and biographies of more than six thousand children in foster care.
"The best social program in the world is a strong, healthy, and independent family," Secretary Thompson said. "Common sense and social science lead us to the same conclusion: Children thrive in secure, loving and stable homes."
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Scientists Discover that Metastasis Gene May Be Useful for Diagnosis and Treatment of Liver Cancer
By analyzing the genes that are active in tumor cells, scientists may be able to predict whether the most common form of liver cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, is likely to spread from its original site.
Researchers at HHS' National Cancer Institute (NCI), in collaboration with surgeons at the Liver Cancer Institute of Fudan University in Shanghai, report in a study published in Nature Medicine* that they have identified a pattern of gene activity that is unique to hepatocellular carcinoma cells that spread, or metastasize. Knowing whether a tumor is likely to metastasize can help physicians decide on the best treatment strategy for a patient.
Additionally, researchers have identified a specific gene required for metastasis. The gene, known as osteopontin, may be a useful diagnostic marker for metastasis. The protein it produces is a potential target for treatment.
Hepatocellular carcinoma is one of the most common and aggressive malignant tumors worldwide. Although incidence rates are relatively low in the United States, they are higher in Asia and Africa, where liver cancer risk factors such as hepatitis infection and contamination of food by aflatoxin (a known cancer-causing substance) are more prevalent. However, recent studies indicate that the incidence of liver cancer in the United States is rising, while rates of most other cancers are declining. Poor survival among patients is attributed to the high rate of metastasis after treatment, usually spreading to other parts of the liver.
The initial goal of the study was to identify genes that allow researchers to discriminate hepatocellular carcinoma patients' original tumors from metastastic tumors. Surprisingly, researchers found that the genes expressed in metastatic tumors were identical to those in the original tumor, a finding that challenges the current model of metastasis progression. Differences became apparent, instead, between the activity of genes in tumors that went on to metastasize and genes in tumors that did not spread.
"The fact that gene activity in metastatic tumors is identical to that in the tumors from which they originated, but metastasis-free tumors are distinct, suggests that changes favoring metastasis occur in the original tumor," said Xin Wei Wang, Ph.D., of NCI's Center for Cancer Research, the lead investigator on the study. "If we can identify in advance patients whose tumors are likely to metastasize, it will improve our ability to individualize treatment of their disease."
For more information about cancer, visit NCI's Web site at http://www.cancer.gov/.
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Last updated 31 March 2003
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