Actress Gloria Reuben Returns To NBC's 'ER,' Portrays HIV-Positive Woman

Actress Gloria Reuben, who played an HIV-positive woman on NBC's television drama "ER" and left the show in 2000, on Thursday rejoined the cast for a "one-time appearance," the Los Angeles Times reports.

Reuben before leaving the show played a physician's assistant named Jeanie Boulet who contracted HIV from her husband after he had sex with another woman. The character represented the first time a prime-time series showed an HIV-positive woman continuing "with her life and career despite the stigma surrounding the virus," according to the Times (Braxton, Los Angeles Times, 1/2). When Reuben left the show, she and the producers decided to avoid sending a negative message about HIV/AIDS by not having the character die, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 1/3). In Thursday's episode, Boulet is directing two HIV/AIDS clinics and sends her son to the emergency department at the fictional hospital where the show is set after he is injured in a gym class.

According to the Times, since Reuben's departure from the program, she has begun working as an advocate for HIV/AIDS. She has spoken during World AIDS Day and this year produced a program, "Positive Voices: Women and HIV," for Showtime, on which she interviews women living with or affected by the virus. In addition, she has co-starred in an HBO film "Life Support," which featured Queen Latifah as an HIV-positive woman (Los Angeles Times, 1/2). According to the Post-Gazette, Reuben became an HIV/AIDS advocate after reading about high death rates among black women with HIV/AIDS (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 1/3).


Reprinted with kind permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

Sexual Violence Aimed At Girls, Women In Swaziland Linked To High HIV/AIDS Risk, Other Health Issues, Report Says

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Pelvic Disorders Affect Large Number Of Women

Nearly one-quarter of all women suffer from pelvic-floor disorders, such as incontinence, at some point in their lives, a national study, including researchers from UT Southwestern Medical Center, has found.


The study of nearly 2,000 women in seven U.S. cities found that 23.7 percent of participants had experienced at least one pelvic-floor disorder, and the risk increased with age.


"This study is the first nationwide study to confirm what we consider a high prevalence of pelvic-floor disorders in the U.S.," said Dr. Joseph Schaffer, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at UT Southwestern and an author of the study, which appears in today's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.


"Nearly a quarter of all women suffer from at least one pelvic-floor disorder, and, with the aging of the population, this will become more prevalent," he said.


The national rate of pelvic-floor disorders has not been well-studied, although several regional studies have found that almost 10 percent of women go through surgery for such conditions at some point in their lives, while one-third of those women have two or more surgeries.


The current study was designed to assess the national rate of such disorders. The participating women were interviewed in 2005 and 2006 at their homes or at a mobile interview center and did not undergo physical examination. The questions were part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.


For the current study, the researchers focused on three conditions: urinary incontinence, fecal incontinence and symptomatic pelvic organ prolapse, which occurs when women can feel or see an organ dropping or bulging in the vaginal area. This can indicate a dropping of the uterus, bladder or rectum as supporting structures weaken.


The researchers interviewed 1,961 nonpregnant women older than 20. Overall, 15.7 percent of women experienced urinary incontinence; 9 percent experienced fecal incontinence; and 2.9 percent reported symptomatic pelvic organ prolapse. In all, 23.7 percent reported one or more conditions.


The rates of the conditions went up substantially with the number of childbirths and with age. They were also were higher among the poor or less educated. Obesity also increased the risk. Race or ethnicity had no effect on the conditions.


"Physicians with expertise in caring for pelvic-floor disorders offer a variety of nonsurgical and surgical treatments that can significantly improve the quality of life for patients with these problems," Dr. Schaffer said. "Patients with pelvic-floor disorders should be encouraged to seek care from health care providers, particularly those with expertise in pelvic-floor medicine and surgery."


The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.


The research was conducted by the Pelvic Floor Disorders Network, which, in addition to UT Southwestern, includes study authors from the NIH, University of Utah School of Medicine, Cleveland Clinic, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine, University of Michigan School of Public Health, University of North Carolina School of Medicine and Duke University School of Medicine.


Dr. Schaffer has reported receiving research support from Cook Medical Inc. and speaking fees from Astellas/GlaxoSmithKline.


Visit utsouthwestern/obgyn to learn more about UT Southwestern's clinical services in obstetrics and gynocology.


Dr. Joseph Schaffer -- utsouthwestern.edu/findfac/professional/0,2356,22212,00.html


UT Southwestern Medical Center

5323 Harry Hines Blvd.

Dallas, TX 75390-9060

United States

utsouthwestern.edu

Having Synchronous Cancers Means Better Survival Outcome

New research published in this month's edition of Obstetrics & Gynecology (Vol. 113, Issue 4), by a team of investigators from The Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ) shows better survival outcomes for women who have cancer of the ovaries and endometrial lining of the uterus at the same time (synchronous) than those who only have one tumor in the ovaries. CINJ is a Center of Excellence of UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.


The study, Synchronous Primary Ovarian and Endometrial Cancers: A Population-Based Assessment of Survival, utilized a massive data set from the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program, which collects and compiles information on cancer cases representing about one quarter of the U.S. population. Registries from New Jersey, Connecticut, Los Angeles and other large metropolitan areas were targeted, which yielded data on more than 85,000 women both those who were diagnosed with primary ovarian cancer and those with synchronous primary ovarian and endometrial cancers between 1973 and 2005.


While the definition for synchronous cancer can vary, the CINJ team utilized the SEER definition, which is one being diagnosed with endometrial or ovarian cancer within two months of the other. Researchers note this characterization should not be confused with the metastasis or spread of disease from one tumor site to another.


Once exclusion criteria were applied, results were based on 55,348 single ovarian cases and 1,355 synchronous ovarian and endometrial cancer cases. Among women with synchronous cancers, 70 percent had endometrial tumors diagnosed at a localized stage and 75 percent were in an earlier stage of disease. A previous study has shown that 75 percent of endometrial cancers are detected in earlier, treatable stages. Authors of this study conclude synchronous cases may have a lead-time advantage over single ovarian tumors due to the presence of irregular bleeding, which prompts earlier examination and treatment.


According to the American Cancer Society, 40,000 new cases of endometrial cancer were diagnosed in the United States last year, with 7,400 deaths, while there were more than 22,000 new cases of ovarian cancer and more than 15,000 deaths. Having both cancers diagnosed within a short time of one another is relatively uncommon.


Melony G. Williams, MPH, who is a research training specialist and project coordinator at CINJ and UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and a doctoral student at UMDNJ-School of Public Health, is the lead author on the paper. She notes, "While synchronous cancers are rare, their identification and optimal clinical management are key in the battle to reduce ovarian cancer deaths. The development of a national registry to document these cases and the means to collect and review such data would help to achieve this goal."















According to Williams, other factors that may affect survival such as family history, income, education, health insurance, recurrences and co-morbidities were not included, because they were not available in the SEER database, but that future studies should aim to address these issues.


Along with Williams, the author team consists of Elisa V. Bandera, MD, PhD, epidemiologist at CINJ and assistant professor of epidemiology at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and the UMDNJ-School of Public Health; Kitaw Demissie, MD, PhD, MPH, co-program leader of CINJ's Population Science Program and associate professor of epidemiology at UMDNJ-School of Public Health; and Lorna Rodriguez, MD, PhD, chief of gynecologic oncology at CINJ and professor of gynecologic oncology at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.


About The Cancer Institute of New Jersey


The Cancer Institute of New Jersey (cinj) is the state's first and only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, and is dedicated to improving the prevention, detection, treatment and care of patients with cancer. CINJ's physician-scientists engage in translational research, transforming their laboratory discoveries into clinical practice, quite literally bringing research to life. The Cancer Institute of New Jersey is a center of excellence of UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.



The Cancer Institute of New Jersey Network is comprised of hospitals throughout the state and provides a mechanism to rapidly disseminate important discoveries into the community. Flagship Hospital: Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. Major Clinical Research Affiliate Hospitals: Carol G. Simon Cancer Center at Morristown Memorial Hospital, Carol G. Simon Cancer Center at Overlook Hospital, and Jersey Shore University Medical Center. Affiliate Hospitals: Bayshore Community Hospital, CentraState Healthcare System, Cooper University Hospital, JFK Medical Center, Raritan Bay Medical Center, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital at Hamilton (CINJ at Hamilton), Saint Peter's University Hospital, Somerset Medical Center, Southern Ocean County Hospital, The University Hospital/UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, and University Medical Center at Princeton.


Cancer Institute of New Jersey

195 Little Albany St.

New Brunswick

NJ 08903-2681

United States

cinj