Bladder Cancer

OncorMed Inc., a Gaithersburg company that provides genetic testing services, says it plans a validation study soon on its new test for bladder cancer.The study will include an as yet undetermined number of people. It will be supervised by Dr. Mark Schoenberg, an assistant professor of urology at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and is expected to last about a year.The technology was developed by researchers at Johns Hopkins Hospital and licensed by OncorMed.OncorMed says the new test was shown to be 95 percent accurate in a pilot study of a small group of patients who had suspicious bladder lesions.

Mary B. Filler, a former dance instructor and preschool teacher, died May 13 from bladder cancer at Harmony Hall, a Columbia retirement community. She was 99. The daughter of the owner of a Baltimore feed and seed store and a homemaker, the former Mary Bolgiano was born in Baltimore and raised in Roland Park. After graduating in 1933 from Friends School, she joined the Estelle Dennis Dance Theater in Baltimore, and also studied at the American Ballet School in New York. For many years, Mrs. Filler was the owner and instructor at the Bolgiano School of Dancing in Baltimore.

PerImmune Inc., a privately held Rockville biotechnology company, said yesterday that it has struck an agreement with a California medical and surgical instruments company to market its rapid test for bladder cancer.The deal with Mentor Corp. of Santa Barbara, Calif. represents PerImmune's second product to be commercialized. The other product is a bladder cancer treatment, known as TICE-BCG.Peter Shepard, Mentor's vice president for business development, said the agreement with PerImmune called for the companies to evenly split revenues from sales of AuraTek FDP, the bladder cancer test.

Jimmy Martin, 77, a pioneering bluegrass singer and guitarist who performed with the Blue Grass Boys and many other musicians, died Saturday in Nashville, Tenn., more than a year after he was found to have bladder cancer. After performing as lead vocalist for the Blue Grass Boys periodically through 1955, he formed his own band, the Sunny Mountain Boys, and recorded with Decca records for 18 years. He recorded several bluegrass standards, including "Rock Hearts," "Sophronie," "Hold Watcha Got," "Widow Maker" and "The Sunny Side of the Mountain."

Anthony Avena,83, whose shoeshine shop was a Queens fixture for 75 years, died in New York on June 22 of bladder cancer. The 200-square-foot shop, which sits directly below the elevated tracks of the Long Island Rail Road in downtown Flushing, Queens, consisted of Avena's shoeshine stand and the flower and key-duplicating stands he added later.Peter T. Joseph,47, a banker who headed the board of the American Ballet Theater, died of cancer June 25 in New York. He joined the ballet board in 1991.

Jimmy Martin, 77, a pioneering bluegrass singer and guitarist who performed with the Blue Grass Boys and many other musicians, died Saturday in Nashville, Tenn., more than a year after he was found to have bladder cancer. After performing as lead vocalist for the Blue Grass Boys periodically through 1955, he formed his own band, the Sunny Mountain Boys, and recorded with Decca records for 18 years. He recorded several bluegrass standards, including "Rock Hearts," "Sophronie," "Hold Watcha Got," "Widow Maker" and "The Sunny Side of the Mountain."

Mary B. Filler, a former dance instructor and preschool teacher, died May 13 from bladder cancer at Harmony Hall, a Columbia retirement community. She was 99. The daughter of the owner of a Baltimore feed and seed store and a homemaker, the former Mary Bolgiano was born in Baltimore and raised in Roland Park. After graduating in 1933 from Friends School, she joined the Estelle Dennis Dance Theater in Baltimore, and also studied at the American Ballet School in New York. For many years, Mrs. Filler was the owner and instructor at the Bolgiano School of Dancing in Baltimore.

My mother thinks I have a sixth sense when it comes to calling her. It happened most recently when I called home from work one afternoon recently.The news from her end was that my father was in the hospital. The first thought that ran through my mind was that he had another job-related injury as had occurred in the past. His only recent hospitalizations had been for cataracts and cellulitis, and an infection from a cut or insect bite on his foot -- not very serious. Here was a 68-year-old man who didn't look his age, swam, went to the gym and passed a thorough physical examination a few months ago.But what he had this time was very serious indeed.

At a dinner party recently, we played "What ever happened to . . ." regarding nutrition issues that had been really hot in the past, but seem to have vanished without resolution.Sweeteners were of particular interest to the group, since all have young children.Here are some formerly burning issues raised by consumer groups, and their scientific resolutions.Everybody knows that sugar causes hyperactivityWrong.The sugar issue was raised in the days of the Feingold Diet, when we believed sugar made kids hyperactive.

Bishop Alfred L. Abramowicz, 80, known as an international advocate for the Polish Catholic community, died Sunday of cancer in Chicago. He led the Catholic League for Religious Assistance to Poland for 35 years and was known for his tireless work for the Church in Poland while that country was under communist rule.Enrique Alferez, 98, an artist who gained almost as much fame for his travels with Pancho Villa as for his art deco sculptures that decorate New Orleans, died in New Orleans on Monday.

The vitamin E in an extra handful of nuts or serving of spinach each day may help cut the risk of bladder and prostate cancers, according to two separate studies presented yesterday in Orlando. For the prostate, Finnish men who got more of the vitamin in their diets slashed their risk by as much as 53 percent. For the bladder, people in a Texas-based study had about a 40 percent reduction in risk whether they took vitamin E supplements or ate more foods that are rich in the nutrient. Though the results are intriguing, scientists said additional research is needed to see if the vitamin truly protects against cancer.

Rick Ecalono was the first in the family to be diagnosed with cancer. Bladder cancer, an old man's disease, and he was only 28. By the time he was 40, he had buried his beloved brother, Buddy, beat back three bladder cancers and found himself confronting a new one, colon cancer. The first three cancers were easily reconciled. That he should get his brother's cancer seemed too much of a coincidence. Could this cancer be hereditary, a trait as likely to be found in his genes as his blue eyes?

Theodore Hall, 74, who helped develop the atomic bomb at Los Alamos, N.M., and was later revealed to have passed on some of its secrets to the Soviets, died Nov. 1 of cancer in Cambridge, England, his wife, Joan, said yesterday.Lester Bowie, 58, a jazz trumpeter who was a founding member of the long-running Art Ensemble of Chicago, died Monday in New York from complications from liver cancer.George McMurtrie Godley, 82, who served as U.S. ambassador to Laos and Lebanon during the Vietnam War, died Sunday in Oneonta, N.Y., of heart failure.

Bishop Alfred L. Abramowicz, 80, known as an international advocate for the Polish Catholic community, died Sunday of cancer in Chicago. He led the Catholic League for Religious Assistance to Poland for 35 years and was known for his tireless work for the Church in Poland while that country was under communist rule.Enrique Alferez, 98, an artist who gained almost as much fame for his travels with Pancho Villa as for his art deco sculptures that decorate New Orleans, died in New Orleans on Monday.

Anthony Avena,83, whose shoeshine shop was a Queens fixture for 75 years, died in New York on June 22 of bladder cancer. The 200-square-foot shop, which sits directly below the elevated tracks of the Long Island Rail Road in downtown Flushing, Queens, consisted of Avena's shoeshine stand and the flower and key-duplicating stands he added later.Peter T. Joseph,47, a banker who headed the board of the American Ballet Theater, died of cancer June 25 in New York. He joined the ballet board in 1991.

Dr. Janet Travell,95, personal physician to Presidents John F. rTC Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, died Friday in Boston. Dr. Travell, who specialized in pain management, helped President Kennedy with his chronic back problems. When he was a senator from Massachusetts, she recommended he use a rocking chair, said her brother, Clark Travell.Dr. Travell became White House physician and stayed through the Johnson administration. Among her patients were Sen. Barry Goldwater, Ambassador to India Chester Bowles and Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn.

When his wife suggested he should take advantage of a free prostate cancer screening last September, Rupert Bradshaw objected that he had no symptoms."

Theodore Hall, 74, who helped develop the atomic bomb at Los Alamos, N.M., and was later revealed to have passed on some of its secrets to the Soviets, died Nov. 1 of cancer in Cambridge, England, his wife, Joan, said yesterday.Lester Bowie, 58, a jazz trumpeter who was a founding member of the long-running Art Ensemble of Chicago, died Monday in New York from complications from liver cancer.George McMurtrie Godley, 82, who served as U.S. ambassador to Laos and Lebanon during the Vietnam War, died Sunday in Oneonta, N.Y., of heart failure.

PerImmune Inc., a privately held Rockville biotechnology company, said yesterday that it has struck an agreement with a California medical and surgical instruments company to market its rapid test for bladder cancer.The deal with Mentor Corp. of Santa Barbara, Calif. represents PerImmune's second product to be commercialized. The other product is a bladder cancer treatment, known as TICE-BCG.Peter Shepard, Mentor's vice president for business development, said the agreement with PerImmune called for the companies to evenly split revenues from sales of AuraTek FDP, the bladder cancer test.

OncorMed Inc., a Gaithersburg company that provides genetic testing services, says it plans a validation study soon on its new test for bladder cancer.The study will include an as yet undetermined number of people. It will be supervised by Dr. Mark Schoenberg, an assistant professor of urology at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and is expected to last about a year.The technology was developed by researchers at Johns Hopkins Hospital and licensed by OncorMed.OncorMed says the new test was shown to be 95 percent accurate in a pilot study of a small group of patients who had suspicious bladder lesions.