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American Morning

House Call: Health Stories in the News

Aired December 27, 2002 - 07:50   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Dr. Gupta once again earning his keep in double duty this morning, and he's here to make his "House Call."
You asked if you are of any use.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Here I am.

KAGAN: Of course you are.

GUPTA: Right, yes. There's a lot of health stories going on today, and I want to talk about two of them, and then we'll talk about some other ones as well later on.

But first of all, people who have dry eyes you need to pay attention to this story. About a million people have severely dry eyes, where your eyes really don't produce any tear drops at all, and that can lead to all kinds of problems, even corneal ulceration where your corneas get scratched. That's really painful.

There's a new medication called Restasis out there. It's the first FDA approved medication solely for this purpose, and it comes in the form of eye drops. Supposedly, it's going to be better than any ointments or other sort of eye drops that are out there right now. Restasis is the name. You should be able to get it pretty soon.

Another important story about cancer. We've talked a lot about various cancers and the treatments for cancers. When you think about cancer treatment, you usually think about radiating the tumor, you think about giving chemotherapy. But there's another way to treat it as well, and that's with a medication that actually cuts off the blood supply to the tumor, so it doesn't have anymore. There's a medication specifically coming out called Avastin, and let's look at how this stacks up compared to just chemotherapy alone.

Survival with colorectal cancer, which incidentally is a very common cancer, more common in men than in women, 13 months of chemo alone vs. 21.5, almost doubling survival. That may not seem like a lot, but that extra year, 13 months of life can (UNINTELLIGIBLE) progression much more slow, slower than the chemo and with the Avastin group vs. just chemo alone, 5.2 months. And a better response as well, 40 percent vs. 17 percent. So, the tumor seems to respond better if you give this Avastin as well. Like with any medication, there are some side effects to this medication as well.

We can take a look at those side effects, and as we're looking at those, I'll just say as well that the side effects of the Avastin don't really appear to be much more significant than with the chemo alone. You may have a possible increase of blood clots. There may be some protein in the urine, which really usually is not a problem for any specific patients. And sometimes the blood pressure can be a little bit elevated as well.

But, Daryn, researchers are pretty excited about this, really of using another way now to try and kill off cancer, cutting off the blood supply to it. It's not brand new, but this medication appears to work particularly well.

KAGAN: Just with that kind of cancer? Not other tumors?

GUPTA: There are other cancers as well. Good question. The colorectal cancer was the type of cancer that was actually studied for this particular trial, but this whole concept of being able to study cancer this way, including breast cancer, prostrate cancer, kidney cancer, they may all be possibilities as well, including others.

KAGAN: We've very hopeful. And as you said, while we don't have a cure yet, if you can buy time, that would be great.

GUPTA: That's right, those extra months.

KAGAN: Need to ask you about cloning, because in the next hour, we have this news conference coming up.

GUPTA: Yes, I'm really interested to see what they're going to say here. At 9:00 a.m., this organization called the Raelians are going to -- we're thinking they might say that they've cloned a human being. We don't know yet for sure what they're going to say. They are sort of a fringe organization. They've said some wacky things in the past, quite honestly, they'll admit that. What they're going to say at 9:00 is really anybody's guess, but we're going to carry that live.

KAGAN: And when you go on the Raelians Web site, they talk about how everyone is descended from aliens and UFOs.

GUPTA: Yes.

KAGAN: And they come at it from a different perspective than your traditional science, let's say.

GUPTA: Right, I don't think there are a lot of people out there going, ah-ha!

(CROSSTALK)

KAGAN: Yes, OK, but still, we do what to hear what they have to say, and as you said, 9:00 a.m. Eastern, you're going to see it live right here on CNN.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.






Aired December 27, 2002 - 07:50   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Dr. Gupta once again earning his keep in double duty this morning, and he's here to make his "House Call."
You asked if you are of any use.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Here I am.

KAGAN: Of course you are.

GUPTA: Right, yes. There's a lot of health stories going on today, and I want to talk about two of them, and then we'll talk about some other ones as well later on.

But first of all, people who have dry eyes you need to pay attention to this story. About a million people have severely dry eyes, where your eyes really don't produce any tear drops at all, and that can lead to all kinds of problems, even corneal ulceration where your corneas get scratched. That's really painful.

There's a new medication called Restasis out there. It's the first FDA approved medication solely for this purpose, and it comes in the form of eye drops. Supposedly, it's going to be better than any ointments or other sort of eye drops that are out there right now. Restasis is the name. You should be able to get it pretty soon.

Another important story about cancer. We've talked a lot about various cancers and the treatments for cancers. When you think about cancer treatment, you usually think about radiating the tumor, you think about giving chemotherapy. But there's another way to treat it as well, and that's with a medication that actually cuts off the blood supply to the tumor, so it doesn't have anymore. There's a medication specifically coming out called Avastin, and let's look at how this stacks up compared to just chemotherapy alone.

Survival with colorectal cancer, which incidentally is a very common cancer, more common in men than in women, 13 months of chemo alone vs. 21.5, almost doubling survival. That may not seem like a lot, but that extra year, 13 months of life can (UNINTELLIGIBLE) progression much more slow, slower than the chemo and with the Avastin group vs. just chemo alone, 5.2 months. And a better response as well, 40 percent vs. 17 percent. So, the tumor seems to respond better if you give this Avastin as well. Like with any medication, there are some side effects to this medication as well.

We can take a look at those side effects, and as we're looking at those, I'll just say as well that the side effects of the Avastin don't really appear to be much more significant than with the chemo alone. You may have a possible increase of blood clots. There may be some protein in the urine, which really usually is not a problem for any specific patients. And sometimes the blood pressure can be a little bit elevated as well.

But, Daryn, researchers are pretty excited about this, really of using another way now to try and kill off cancer, cutting off the blood supply to it. It's not brand new, but this medication appears to work particularly well.

KAGAN: Just with that kind of cancer? Not other tumors?

GUPTA: There are other cancers as well. Good question. The colorectal cancer was the type of cancer that was actually studied for this particular trial, but this whole concept of being able to study cancer this way, including breast cancer, prostrate cancer, kidney cancer, they may all be possibilities as well, including others.

KAGAN: We've very hopeful. And as you said, while we don't have a cure yet, if you can buy time, that would be great.

GUPTA: That's right, those extra months.

KAGAN: Need to ask you about cloning, because in the next hour, we have this news conference coming up.

GUPTA: Yes, I'm really interested to see what they're going to say here. At 9:00 a.m., this organization called the Raelians are going to -- we're thinking they might say that they've cloned a human being. We don't know yet for sure what they're going to say. They are sort of a fringe organization. They've said some wacky things in the past, quite honestly, they'll admit that. What they're going to say at 9:00 is really anybody's guess, but we're going to carry that live.

KAGAN: And when you go on the Raelians Web site, they talk about how everyone is descended from aliens and UFOs.

GUPTA: Yes.

KAGAN: And they come at it from a different perspective than your traditional science, let's say.

GUPTA: Right, I don't think there are a lot of people out there going, ah-ha!

(CROSSTALK)

KAGAN: Yes, OK, but still, we do what to hear what they have to say, and as you said, 9:00 a.m. Eastern, you're going to see it live right here on CNN.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.