FRIDAY, July 31 (HealthDay News) -- Breast computed tomography
(CT) scans, already used experimentally to diagnose breast cancer, may
also be able to treat it, a California researcher reports.

"Breast CT is superior to mammography for [detecting] masses," said
John Boone, vice chair of research radiology at the University of
California Davis. He presented information about the potential of breast
CT for treatment this week at the American Association of Physicists in
Medicine meeting, in Anaheim, Calif.

Since 2004, Boone has led a group of UC Davis researchers in developing
the breast CT scan for diagnosing breast cancer in women. The technology's
pluses, said Boone, include being more comfortable than conventional
mammograms but just as safe.

More than 200 women have been scanned with the custom-designed breast
CT prototype scanner, he said. The technology has not yet made its way
into clinical practice, he said, but preliminary results look good.
"Breast CT is still experimental for diagnosis," he said. But it is
already looking to be more effective than traditional mammography at
detecting breast masses.

More work needs to be done to find microcalcifications, tiny specks of
calcium which don't always mean cancer is present but bear checking, he
added.

Next, Boone hopes to use the breast CT scanner to guide interventional
procedures such as a robotic biopsy, radiofrequency ablation and
cryoablation to treat breast cancer.

With the breast CT scanner, a woman lies on her stomach, face down on
the table while the breast drops through a hole in the table; the CT
scanner then rotates around the breast. The position is considered more
comfortable, especially for big-breasted women.

Boone hopes that the new scanner could be used to perform image-guided
therapies such as the technique known as radiofrequency ablation. "It
literally heats up the tissue, cooks the tumor and kills the tumor," he
said. It may help some women avoid lumpectomy and follow-up radiation
therapy.

"The concept is good," said Dr. Chika Madu, an assistant professor of
radiation oncology at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington,
D.C.

But she added a caveat that the energy level talked about by Boone may
have to be adjusted. "It may come at a price of increased toxicity to the
skin," she noted.

The technique may not work for all cancers or all women, she added. "In
small-breasted women, not enough breast may come through the hole
sufficiently [to treat]," she said. Cancer that is close to the chest wall
rather than the nipple may not be treatable by this technique either, she
said.

Even so, Madu said, "I think it's worth exploring."

Boone's study was funded partially by the industry, including Varian
Medical Systems, Fuji Medical Systems and Hologic Corp.

In another presentation at the same meeting, Michael O'Connor, a
professor of radiologic physics at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.,
reported on molecular breast imaging (MBI), a new technique that uses
gamma cameras designed for breast imaging.

"The devices look somewhat like a mammography unit," he said. A small
amount of radioisotopes is given intravenously and is taken up by any
tumors in the breasts, he said.

In a study of 1,000 patients, mammography picked up three cancers but
MBI picked up 10, he said.

Next, O'Connor hopes to reduce the dose of radioisotopes and begin a
clinical trial. The technique is expected to especially benefit women with
dense breasts, for whom mammography is not as accurate at cancer
detection.

Efforts to find ways to detect small cancers that can't be felt on
exams should be stepped up, said Dr. Gary Whitman, a professor of
radiology at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Other studies suggest
MBI has promise, he said, but O'Connor's finding "would need to be
confirmed."

More information

To learn more about early detection of breast cancer, visit the American Cancer Society.

JACKSON, Miss. – Even though he left no will, slain former NFL quarterback Steve McNair's entire immediate family has been provided for under instructions he left before his death.
McNair's former agent, James "Bus" Cook, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that McNair's wife, Mechelle, is not trying to exclude McNair's mother and two children he had with other women.
McNair was killed July 4 in a murder-suicide committed by Sahel Kazemi.
Cooks says McNair had wills drawn up two or three times but never signed them. He said Mechelle McNair is not contesting the legal status of her husband's two other children, but that court documents might have confused reporters.

NEW YORK (Reuters) –
Oil dropped nearly 6 percent on Wednesday to near $63 a barrel in the biggest one-day slide since April after data showed a surge in U.S. crude inventories on higher imports and lower refinery activity.

Crude stocks in the world's top consumer jumped 5.1 million barrels in the week to July 24, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, countering analyst expectations for an inventory draw.

The build came as crude imports hit a six-month high and refiners -- their profits battered by limp demand -- cut back on their processing rates.

U.S. crude traded down $3.88, or 5.77 percent, to settle at $63.35 a barrel in the biggest percentage decline since April 20. London Brent fell $3.35 to $66.53 a barrel.

Over the past four weeks, U.S. fuel consumption dropped 4.1 percent against year-ago levels, led by a 10.7 percent drop in demand for distillates, which include key industrial fuels such as diesel. Distillate stocks rose to the highest level in nearly 25 years, while gasoline stockpiles fell, the EIA said.

"The build this week will put more pressure on oil, especially given that we were already seeing return of risk aversion across markets, with the U.S. dollar climbing and the stock market lower," said Rachel Ziemba, lead energy analyst for RGE Monitor in New York.

Optimism an economic recovery has helped push crude prices up from below $33 a barrel in December, with investors looking toward positive economic data for signs of a turnaround in flagging oil demand.

U.S. stock markets (.N) traded lower on Wednesday and the dollar rose broadly as investors piled into safer havens.

Further pressure came after commerce Department data showed new durable goods orders fell 2.5 percent in June, the largest percentage drop since January, after rising 1.3 percent in May.

Falling demand due to the recession knocked crude off record highs near $150 a barrel hit last July, clipping a six-year rally in commodities that had been fueled by rapid growth expansion in emerging economies such as China.

The wide swings in prices has raised concern over speculation in commodities markets, prompting the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission to consider implementing position limits for some commodity futures.

CFTC Gary Gensler said on Wednesday he supported exemptions from tough new investor limits for bona fide hedgers, however, despite worries they could limit the usefulness of position limits.

"While I believe that we should maintain exemptions for bona fide hedgers, I am concerned that granting exemptions for financial risk management can defeat the effectiveness of position limits," he said during the second day of hearings on tightening regulatory oversight of U.S. futures markets.

A senior analyst for the International Energy Agency said volatile oil prices may have reached a floor.

"The evidence so far suggests that prices have probably reached a floor which may be around $50 to $60," Eduardo Lopez told Reuters on the sidelines of an oil and gas conference in Cape Town.

(Additional reporting by Gene Ramos and Robert Gibbons in New York and Joe Brock and Barbara Lewis in London; Editing by Christian Wiessner)

NEW YORK – On the morning after Michael Jackson died, literary agent Joy Harris began getting the e-mails: When, publishers wanted to know, would Jackson's memoir "Moonwalk" be returned to print?
"It did seem abrupt to me," Harris said. "But when I thought about it, it didn't surprise me, in the way that everything is so immediate these days."
Within days, Harris had forwarded the e-mails to Jackson's attorneys and soon the real discussions began. "Moonwalk," originally acquired by then-Doubleday editor Jackie Kennedy and published in 1988, will be reissued in October by Random House Inc. with a first printing of 100,000 copies and a new introduction from a Jackson friend who has not been identified.
Jackson's representatives wanted to act quickly. Just a week after his death, executors of the singer's estate filed papers in a Los Angeles court stating that book deals should be reached "as soon as possible" in order to capitalize on "the notoriety surrounding Michael Jackson's unexpected death" and ensure that "profits for the Estate will be maximized."
According to Harris, several U.S. publishers were interested in the memoir but — assuming the price was right — both Harris and the lawyers who had handled Jackson's book wanted to stay with his original editor, Shaye Areheart. Her Harmony imprint at Random House will handle the release. (Kennedy died of cancer in 1994.)
"She was professional with Michael and she was respectful," Harris, who declined to offer financial details for the new edition, said of Areheart. "She had worked for Jackie a long time and she was comfortable around celebrity."
The book is also coming out in Germany, France and the United Kingdom.
"Moonwalk" was a classic celebrity project. It was not written or even conceived by Jackson. The contents were kept secret right up to the moment of release; around the printing plant the book had the code name "Neil Armstrong." It topped The New York Times hardcover nonfiction list, but within a few years was forgotten and out of print.
The idea began in the mid-1980s, when "Thriller" was at the top of the charts and the singer at the height of his career. Jackie Kennedy, a celebrity at least as famous and even more secretive as Jackson, admired him, was fascinated by him and wanted him to tell his story.
Kennedy and fellow editor Areheart met with Jackson at his home in Encino, Calif. Areheart remembered Jackson as "smart and funny and gracious," without any symptoms of the tabloid target he would become over the following two decades.
"He was just a lively, in-touch guy," she said. "And he did have his act together."
Other publishers were interested but Jackson was equally in awe of Kennedy and wanted to publish with her.
"They got along very well," Areheart said. "She thought he was so sweet."
Much of the field work was done by Areheart. Over the next few years, she would fly out to California and meet with Jackson at his Encino home, often in a large study that had a fireplace, and ask questions that he would answer by speaking into a tape recorder.
The project took longer than Areheart had anticipated, not because Jackson was uncooperative, but because he was busy — touring, recording and otherwise being Michael Jackson.
"His time was constantly not his own," she said.
"Moonwalk" was released in the spring of 1988. Reviewing the book in The New York Times, music critic Ken Tucker called "Moonwalk" eccentric, contradictory and helplessly revealing. Jackson, he wrote, was "a master of deadpan banality," slipping out "significant information between the lines of psychobabble."
Along with common statements about fame ("It hurts to be mobbed") and the media ("What happened to truth? Did it go out of style?"), Jackson confided to being physically beaten by his father, to having twice had his nose changed by plastic surgery and to wearing just one glove because "two gloves seemed so ordinary." The book was dedicated to Fred Astaire and included a brief note from Kennedy, who asked, "What can one say about Michael Jackson?"

Doubleday printed 300,000 copies for release and eventually sold around 500,000, according to the current publisher, Harmony. The promotional budget was $150,000, a lot of money for 1988, although not quite in range for the man who perfected the long-form music video.

Jacqueline Deval, then the book's publicist and now publisher of Hearst Books, said she had just one conversation with Jackson. She could not persuade him to give interviews, but he was very eager to discuss a possible promotional spot.

"He had this fabulous idea for a TV commercial for the book," she said. There would be music playing and a camera would show his feet, his steps moving to the beat. And then a major celebrity friend, such as Elizabeth Taylor, would say something about Michael Jackson.

Then the camera would pan up to his knees, and there would be another celebrity talking about him. And so on, until we finally see his face. I think it would have been fabulous, but it was way beyond the budget of any book publisher."