Kidney Cancer

Gov. Pete Wilson has agreed to release a dying prisoner who is serving a sentence of seven years to life for kidnapping, his office said Tuesday. The Republican governor granted clemency to John Frazier, 57, who held three people hostage in Marin County in 1980. Frazier has kidney cancer and is "unlikely to survive more than a few weeks at best," according to a medical report cited by the governor in his decision. The inmate is being cared for in a San Diego hospital.

Father Ronald P. Pytel, 56, a pastor of Holy Rosary Roman Catholic Church in Southeast Baltimore whose recovery from a life-threatening heart condition was declared a miracle by Vatican authorities four years ago, died of kidney cancer Monday at a home he had restored in Middle Way, W.Va.

One instance in which height doesn't give you the advantage - women high in stature are at greater risk for cancer than their vertically challenged peers. A new study finds that for every 4 inches, a woman's risk of developing cancer increases by 16%. The association between cancer and height isn't new, but the new findings confirm it in a large study and for a wide array of cancers. British researchers assessed data from nearly 1.3 million women enrolled in the Million Women Study; as the women were followed for about nine years, about 97,000 cancers were found.

Two drugs already used to treat kidney cancer doubled survival in a rare form of pancreatic cancer known as neuroendocrine cancer or islet cell tumors, researchers reported Wednesday. The tumors account for only about 1.4% of the 40,000 people who develop pancreatic cancer each year and are generally not as lethal as the adenocarcinomas that represent the bulk of pancreatic cancers. While patients with adenocarcinomas typically die within a year or two, those with neuroendocrine tumors can survive much longer.

Two drugs used against kidney cancer won the endorsement of a federal advisory panel Tuesday to treat a form of pancreatic cancer that strikes several hundred Americans each year. The panel found that the benefits of Novartis Pharmaceuticals' Afinitor and Pfizer's Sutent outweighed their toxic side effects, increasing the likelihood that the Food and Drug Administration would approve their use for pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. The drugs provide significant new treatment options with the potential to extend the lives of patients diagnosed with the tumors.

Once they finish high school, most graduates look forward to heading off to college and the beginning of four years of fun and adventure. But for Jessica Cieslak, this time means so much more. Jessica, 17, missed more than a year of school after she was diagnosed at 13 with Wilms' tumor, a form of kidney cancer that usually afflicts young children. The American Cancer Society, as part of a newly established program, has awarded Jessica a $5,000 scholarship for tuition and other college expenses.

A dozen children with cancer or chronic illnesses--some bald from treatments, one whose leg has been amputated--were tap-dancing, drawing, singing and trying on costumes sparkling with glitter and sequins on a recent afternoon at Long Beach Memorial Hospital. Music from "Mary Poppins" and "The Little Mermaid" blared so loudly from the stereo that it was nearly impossible for nurses to figure out whose IV alarm was sounding.

In "How to Get Clothes Clean?" (Oct. 21), Jon Meijer, vice president of the International Fabricare Institute, calls perchloroethylene "fabulous" for its ability to remove stains "without damaging fabric." It must be a peculiar luxury to put clothing ahead of people's health and safety. As the son and grandson of dry cleaners, I am relieved that action is underway to eliminate this chemical. This work should have begun a generation ago, when health agencies first spotted the carcinogenic trail of "perc."

SAN ANTONIO -- On nearly every block surrounding the former Kelly Air Force Base, small purple crosses sprout from front lawns, marking the homes where cancer has struck. The residents call their neighborhood the "toxic triangle," alleging that the Air Force poisoned it with an industrial solvent, trichloroethylene, or TCE. It was casually dumped at the base for decades and spread for miles through a shallow aquifer under 22,000 nearby houses.