ATM Gene Linked To Increased Pancreatic Cancer Risk

A study in Cancer Discovery says mutations in the ATM gene may increase the hereditary risk for pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most morbid cancers, with less than 5 percent of those diagnosed with the disease surviving to five years. Approximately 10 percent of patients come from families with multiple cases of pancreatic cancer.

Using next-generation sequencing, including whole genome and whole exome analyses, they identified ATM gene mutations in two kindreds with familial pancreatic cancer. When those initial findings were examined in a large series for patients, ATM mutations were present in four of 166 subjects with pancreatic cancer but were absent in 190 spousal control subsets.?

Knowledge of the presence of the ATM gene could lead to better screening for pancreatic cancer, the fourth most common cause of cancer-related death, but there are currently no recommended screening tests. Many doctors use endoscopy as a screening tool for pancreatic cancer, but researchers are still evaluating this technique in clinical trials.

"There was significant reason to believe this clustering was due to genetics, but we had not, to this point, been able to find the causative genes that explained the cluster of pancreatic cancer for a majority of these families," said lead author Alison Klein, Ph.D., associate professor of oncology at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins and director of the National Familial Pancreas Tumor Registry.

Source: http://www.science20.com/news_articles/atm_gene_linked_increased_pancreatic_cancer_risk-85808

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Italian who fought for votes for emigres dies (AP)

ROME ? Mirko Tremaglia, a right-wing politician who won a decades-long battle for the right of Italian emigres to vote in Italian elections, died on Friday. He was 85.

Italian news agencies and Sky TG24 TV said Tremaglia died at home in Bergamo, northern Italy, after a long illness.

Tremaglia was a co-founder of the Italian Social Movement, a neo-fascist party built on the ashes of Benito Mussolini's political legacy. But he gradually moved toward what is now Italy's center-right ? first as a leader of the National Alliance and then as a prominent member of Silvio Berlusconi's conservatives ? before breaking with the media mogul in 2010 to defect to a new center-right party.

In a condolence message to Tremaglia's family, President Napolitano, a former Communist, noted that the late lawmaker and himself had "different experiences" and ideological positions but they shared a "sense of national responsibility."

"Particularly strong remains the mark of his commitment to give voice and representation to Italians abroad," Napolitano said.

Tremaglia campaigned tirelessly in Parliament for rights for millions of Italians who had emigrated, or who were born to emigre parents, to cast ballots in Italian elections. His dream became law in 2001, the same year he became minister for Italians abroad, in one of Berlusconi's governments.

In spring 2006, campaigning for Berlusconi in parliamentary elections, Tremaglia energetically worked the crowds in South America, where many of the 3.5 million Italian voters abroad lived. The law also gave Italian emigres the right, for the first time, to have representation in Parliament.

Tremaglia had served as a lawmaker in Parliament's lower chamber, the Chamber of Deputies, since 1972. Chamber President Gianfranco Fini, himself a former neo-fascist leader and former Berlusconi ally, hailed Tremaglia in a tribute Friday, as a "great political and personal friend."

Fini called Tremaglia a "great protagonist of the Italian right ? a cause to which Tremaglia, right to the end, dedicated himself with coherence and loyalty."

Fini's defection, along with several lawmakers like Tremaglia, from Berlusconi's coalition after nasty bickering in 2010, weakened the premier's government. Berlusconi resigned in November amid criticism over his handling of Italy's financial crisis.

In 2004, as a minister in then-premier Berlusconi's government, Tremaglia caused uproar when he complained about what he called the influence of gays in the European Union and used a pejorative term for homosexuals in remarks carried by Italian media.

Tremaglia was commenting on a European Parliament committee's decision not to endorse an Italian nominee to become EU justice minister after the candidate, a former Christian Democrat with close ties to the Vatican, testified that he considered homosexuality a sin.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111230/ap_on_re_eu/eu_italy_obit_tremaglia

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Big Apple Funds Make LGBT Waves at Defense Contractor

The New York City Pension Funds have thrown around their shareowner might once again in order to help the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community to obtain and maintain jobs at KBR Inc...

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Source: http://www.mandatepipeline.com/news/kbr-comptroller-shareowners-lgbt-226167-1.html

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British industry faces wave of strikes in 2012, union leader warns

Further strikes over public sector pensions are possible as union leaders consider whether to accept the government?s revised pensions offer, he said.

?It is not a foregone conclusion that all union executives will feel that they can live with this. Bear in mind, the industrial action is only suspended. It has not been called off. We can switch the industrial action back on if it goes wrong,? he said.

The concessions granted after the one-day November strike have encouraged public sector workers to consider industrial action to defend pay and jobs as wage freezes and further staff cuts loom in 2012, Mr Sutton said.

"Local government has been on an absolute pay freeze for two years. Council leaders are warning it may be the same. Then there is the juxtaposition of those issues with huge job losses. There is to be 710,000 in the public sector in total, half of which have already gone. Next year we will have pretty well run out of those who would volunteer for redundancy so you start getting into compulsory redundancies. That is when your members start kicking back.

"This year was hard, 2012 is going to be much, much harder. November 30 was a real boost for the unions. It has given the whole union movement a lot of confidence going into next year. People will say, ?after November 30 we ended up in a better place?.

?My hope is that it will lead to more realistic negotiations, that the Government will not just think that the public sector is there for the taking. We have shown there is still spirit amongst public sector workers, that they are prepared to stand and fight.?

A spokesman for Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office Minister who led negotiations with union leaders, said: ?We have enjoyed good relations with the unions every step of the way. We will not get drawn into commenting on any speculation into what may happen in 2012.?

Source: http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/579309/s/1b5a196a/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Cnews0Cuknews0C89818950CBritish0Eindustry0Efaces0Ewave0Eof0Estrikes0Ein0E20A120Eunion0Eleader0Ewarns0Bhtml/story01.htm

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