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The text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

Marco Werman: I’m Marco Werman.  This is The World, a coproduction of the BBC World Service, PRI, and WGBH Boston. Venezuelans are celebrating their independence today, on the 5th of July.  It’s the 200 year anniversary of Venezuela’s declaration of independence from Spain.  The festivities began a day early for thousands of Venezuelans.  They gave President Hugo Chavez a hero’s welcome as he returned from Cuba where he was getting medical treatment. Now, Chavez is not universally loved in Venezuela, we’ll hear more about his mixed record as president in a moment, but first we go to the BBC’s Sarah Grainger in Caracas.  Sarah, you’ve been out on the streets of Caracas, what’s the atmosphere like?

Sarah Grainger: Well, down on los Proceres, which is a big pedestrianized boulevard, there are military marches going on.  And it’s absolutely filled with thousands of people.  Most of them dressed in red, which shows their allegiance to the socialist party of President Chavez. Many of them there not just celebrating Independence Day and the Bicentennary, but celebrating the fact that the president came back to the country yesterday.  And a jubilant mood.  The government has pulled out all the stops for this celebration. They started off the march with jets through the skies of Caracas streaming colored smoke in the colors of the Venezuelan flag — red, yellow and blue.  And President Chavez himself began the march from the presidential palace on a video link; he wasn’t actually there present himself.

Werman: And that jubilant mood you described, Sarah, across Caracas, is that duplicated everywhere?

Grainger: Obviously if you’re of a certain political persuasion, if you back the president and you back the socialist party, then this really is a huge celebration.  And the government has been planning this for months and months.  They’ve really gone to some trouble to celebrate this Bicentennary, and it’s for them really a political celebration as much as a celebration for the country. I think anyone who is a supporter of the opposition probably isn’t enjoying these festivities, so I think it’s very much split on political lines; and I think it’s very much a political celebration.

Werman: Now, Hugo Chavez has only just returned to Venezuela.  What’s been the reaction there so far to his return and to the news he had surgery in Cuba as part of his treatment for cancer?

Grainger: I think the reaction yesterday when he first arrived back and first addressed the public, amongst his reporters was one of jubilation and delight.  He seemed back to his old self, embracing the public.  He loved being out there watching the thousands of people who’d come to watch him speak. That contrasted very sharply with the man that we saw delivering the message last week that he’d been treated for cancer.  He looked himself very apologetic and almost quite scared when he gave that announcement.  And I think that made a lot of people here quite worried.  And by coming back the day before Independence Day and coming out and talking to the public, he’s trying to ease people’s fears about his ability to continue. But obviously the fact that he’s not present physically at today’s marches shows that he is still having treatments and we’ll have to wait and see over the next weeks and months how he responds to treatment, and how he responds to having to work at the same time.

Werman: The BBC’s Sarah Grainger in Caracas, thanks very much indeed.

Grainger: Thank you.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

The Chinese government has announced a smoking ban on indoor smoking in public places.

Go into a restaurant in just about any city in China, and you may find a non-smoking section. You may also find people smoking in it.

Smoking has long been an engrained part of the social scene for Chinese men. Only a tiny percentage of Chinese women smoke, although that number is edging up, thanks to aggressive marketing. But tobacco prematurely kills more than a million Chinese a year, and that number is projected to triple within 20 years.

Among some younger Chinese men, the message seems to be getting through that smoking is not necessarily such a good thing. Huang Yijiang, who’s 23, has been smoking for 10 years. He said that although he thinks it’s harmful, it’s something that he does when he’s bored or when he gets together with friends.

The overall number of smokers in China is on the rise. But the percentage of men Huang’s age who smoke is much lower than it was in the previous generation. It could be that public health messages about the dangers are getting through. In one Chinese public service video, a fresh-faced young man giving cartons of cigarettes as a gift, then the cartons turn into a body bag.

Hospitals and schools

Another factor could be that some offices, and now hospitals and schools, already ban indoor smoking. And the Chinese government just announced it’s expanding the ban to include most indoor public spaces starting May 1st. No penalties are specified, but restaurants and shopping malls are supposed to put up “no smoking” signs and dispatch personnel to dissuade smokers.

“It’s good for other people,” said Huang Yijiang who thought the new ban was alright. But when asked if an indoor smoking ban would make him smoke less, he laughed and said he’d probably just smoke in the bathroom.

The Chinese government has been conflicted about implementing a strict ban on indoor smoking in public places. The Tobacco Monopoly, which is an arm of the Chinese government, is the world’s top producer of cigarettes, and tobacco is the government’s top source of tax revenue. Yang Gong Huan, who heads the Tobacco Control Department at China’s Center for Disease Control, said all this makes anti-smoking efforts in China much harder to enforce.

“The Tobacco Monopoly is supposed to help implement tobacco control. That’s why it’s so difficult,” she said.

That’s right — the Tobacco Monopoly sits on the committee that reviews tobacco control legislation. The Tobacco Monopoly turned down my requests for an interview. They said it “wasn’t convenient” to talk to a foreign journalist; same with the government of Yunnan province, a top producer of Chinese tobacco. Officials said no one would be available for at least two months.

But Yunnan Communist Party Chief Bai Enpei did give an interview last December to Hong Kong’s Phoenix TV. He said the tobacco industry is a pillar of industry in Yunnan. “But we can’t depend on it forever, because smoking is harmful for your health,” Bai said. “We should gradually shift to other industries.”

Tax profits

But for now, the Tobacco Monopoly continues to increase production, with profits increasing almost 20 percent a year. Sarah England of the World Health Organization in Beijing said the Chinese government needs to recognize that it’s in its own economic interests to wean itself off the profits and tax revenue that come from tobacco.

“We often hear an economic argument that the government is benefiting, or society is somehow benefiting from the economic contribution of the tobacco industry,” England said. “You have to remember that that’s half the story. You think of all the people who are sick, who miss work, or who work at a lower level of productivity because they’re victims of tobacco-related disease.”

But changing an engrained smoking culture takes time. It did in the United States, and it’s expected to here in China. That gives tobacco-growing areas like Yunnan time to transition. Meanwhile, the new expanded ban on indoor smoking may at least clear some of China’s air, and may just save a few lives.

• Listen to the previous story
• Breakthrough in Tasmanian devil facial cancer fight

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This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

JEB SHARP:  Now an update on a story we brought you earlier this year.  It’s about Tasmanian Devils.  Yes, they are real animals, not just cartoon characters. They are only found on the Australian island of Tasmania and Tasmanian Devils could be facing extinction because of a mysterious form of cancer.  The news today is that an international team of scientists has made some important progress in understanding the disease.  Greg Hannon is on the team.  He’s with the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island, New York.  Dr. Hannon, remind us what’s made this particular form of cancer, this Devil Facial Tumor, so baffling.  I gather it’s a rare and infectious form of cancer that spreads from one animal to another.

GREG HANNON:  Right.  It’s virtually unique amongst tumors.  As I’m sure everybody’s aware, tumors arise from a series of mutations that occur in our own cells.  These mutations convert a normal cell into a cell that’s capable of forming a tumor.  And what seems to have happened in Devils is that probably a very similar process took place some time in the fairly recent past that created a tumor cell within an individual animal but that tumor cell somehow acquired an ability not only to metastasize within the body of that individual animal, but also to move from animal to animal, in essence metastasizing throughout the population of Devils.

SHARP:  So help us understand exactly what you’ve discovered in this particular chapter of the research.

HANNON:  What we’ve done is to apply some very new tools of molecular biology, something called Next Generation Sequencing that lets you determine vast amounts of DNA sequence.  And we use this to look into the genetics of this tumor, particularly the type of messenger RNA’s and small RNA’s that it expresses and these kinds of molecules are highly characteristic.  They’re essentially, their profile conform is signature of a particular type of cell within the body and what we’ve managed to do is to essentially decipher that signature for the tumor, compare it to what has been discovered essentially throughout the community of biologists and then using that comparative data we were able to track the origin of this tumor down to a particular kind of cell called a Schwann cell.

SHARP:  And how does tracking it down to that particular kind of cell, the Schwann cell, help you think about controlling the disease and saving Tasmanian Devils from possible extinction?

HANNON:  Well a very immediate impact is that we can now try to devise tests so that we can distinguish this Devil Facial Tumor Disease, essentially allowing us to diagnose this tumor.

SHARP:  Greg Hannon is a cancer researcher at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.  His new research on Devil Facial Tumor Disease is being published tomorrow in the Journal of Science. Thanks very much.

HANNON:  Thank you.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

Grammy awards, high-profile gigs with superstars, critical acclaim from their peers in the jazz world — you name it. But Randy Brecker’s most recent album is different — it’s a personal one.

The World’s Alex Gallafent has the story.

http://www.randybrecker.com
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• BBC coverage
• The Institute of Cancer Research

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This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman.  This is The World.  An unusual and tragic medical report from Japan could shed light on the biology of cancer.  A 28-year-old Japanese woman apparently transmitted leukemia to her child when the baby was in her womb.  Scientists say it’s the first conclusive evidence of cancer being passed from pregnant mother to fetus.  The genetic analysis that confirmed this phenomenon was conducted by researchers at the Institute of Cancer Research in Great Britain.  Doctor Anthony Ford was part of that team.  This news is sure to scare a lot of women, Dr. Ford.  I have to ask you first, does this mean it’s unwise for women who have cancer to get pregnant?

DR. ANTHONY FORD:  Absolutely not.  I think in this case, it’s quite unusual and very rare.  Similar cases have been reported only about 20 to 30 times in the last 200 years.  What’s unique about this case is that we now understand how the clones that would normally be prevented from passing to the baby via the placental barrier, how these clones have actually got across by changing their compatibility so that they look like the baby’s own cells and then do not get destroyed by the baby’s immune system.

WERMAN:  But normally, a baby’s immune system would protect it from leukemia or cancer?

FORD:  That’s right.  Perhaps one or two cells may get across, but they would normally be seen as foreign by the baby’s own immune system.  But this malignant clone has managed to escape that surveillance.

WERMAN:  Well, tell us about this specific case.  How did this Japanese woman and her baby come to your attention?

FORD:  It started with a visit to the hospital in Tokyo by the father and his daughter, and she was admitted because of a massive tumor on her cheek.  The father told them that his wife and the child’s mother had died about six or so weeks after giving birth from leukemia.  And then after a biopsy of the tumor, the clinicians in Japan realized that it was actually a leukemia lymphoma that was in the cheek, and not a solid tumor that they were expecting.  And so then they had the idea, in collaboration with us, to backtrack and try and identify where those leukemic cells had come from, using a technique that we had used before.  And we were able to show that the cells that caused the leukemia and the cells that caused the tumor in child were actually identical.

WERMAN:  What happened to the girl with the tumor in her cheek?

FORD:  She’s been treated and she’s now, I think, nearly two years old, and hopefully is going to be fine for the future, which is a nice result.

WERMAN:  Why do you think this doesn’t happen more often?  I mean, a fetus does share a blood supply with its mother, right?

FORD:  Well, I think that the placenta obviously forms an effective barrier to the mother’s cells anyway, otherwise the mother’s own immune system would reject the foreign baby.  So obviously the baby’s own immune system, although it’s immature, can be expected to recognize and destroy any invasive cancer cells.  This is a case that shows us that this system normally works very well, unless there’s a specific change in the cells themselves.

WERMAN:  I mean, given it’s so rare, I’m wondering if by studying how, you know, babies, infants in the womb are usually protected, how their immune systems usually protect them, are there things you could deduce or investigate further that might lead us to understand better other forms of cancer?

FORD:   Yes, I think obviously if we can try to determine how the immune system actually does prevent these cells from growing and expanding in the child, then it may give us some clues to how we can prevent cancers in the future.  But I think that’s a long time off yet.

WERMAN:  Dr. Anthony Ford, a scientist with the Institute of Cancer Research in the UK.  He co-authored a study about a case of mother to child transmission of cancer.  The study appears in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  Dr. Ford, thanks very much for your time.

FORD:  Thank you very much.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.