LOS ANGELES (AP) ? CBS Corp. Chief Executive Les Moonves gave an upbeat view of the health of broadcast TV Wednesday as the company reported strong results for the first three months of the year. He also dismissed startup Aereo as an "insignificant player" that was stealing CBS' signal.
Moonves told investors that Aereo has "gotten way too much attention" from the news media. The New York-based company takes broadcast signals for free from the airwaves and charges customers to watch them over computers and mobile devices. That threatens CBS' ability to collect fees from traditional service providers such as cable TV for rights to redistribute its stations' signals.
"We're not losing sleep over it. It is an insignificant player that has a couple thousand (subscribers)," Moonves said on a conference call. "We think ultimately that it goes away."
Broadcasters such as CBS have sued Aereo for copyright infringement, but so far Aereo has managed to keep operating thanks to a preliminary ruling in its favor last month. The company captures signals using thousands of tiny antennas, which it argues is comparable to individuals buying digital antennas for themselves.
Moonves echoed the comments of News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey, who said last month that if Aereo gets a legal OK to keep operating, he would consider changing the Fox network to a channel available only through cable and satellite TV services.
Moonves said that making this switch at CBS would be "fairly easy to do" and not that disruptive because 85 percent of people who watch CBS do so through TV providers such as cable and satellite companies. But he added, "I'm very doubtful that happens."
Moonves' comments came as CBS, the maker of shows such as "NCIS: Los Angeles" and "The Good Wife," reported that first-quarter earnings rose 22 percent to $443 million, or 69 cents per share. Excluding a loss from the outdoor billboard business in Europe and Asia, which CBS expects to sell this year, adjusted earnings came to 73 cents per share, 5 cents better than the 68 cents predicted by analysts polled by FactSet.
Revenue rose 6 percent to $4.04 billion, the highest since the company's 2006 split from Viacom Inc. That topped the $4.02 billion expected by analysts.
Advertising revenue grew 8 percent to $2.46 billion, helped by big events such as the Super Bowl and Grammy awards. Excluding these one-time events, the company said ad revenue would have grown in the "low single digit" percentages.
CBS Corp.'s stock rose 50 cents, or 1.1 percent, in after-hours trading to $46.90.
Moonves said that demand for last-minute ad buys on the CBS network was strong. He predicted that both bulk airtime sales and prices would be "up considerably" during the mass sales period ongoing now called the "upfronts." Such price hikes would boost CBS's finances in the final quarter of the year. He said prices would be up in the "high single to low double digit" percentages from a year ago.
Alan Gould, an analyst with investment bank Evercore Partners, said Moonves' comments were reassuring. Gould said the quarterly results were much better than expected.
"I do believe him that CBS will do better than the rest of the industry," he said.
Earlier Wednesday, NBC and Telemundo owner Comcast Corp. said broadcast television revenue fell more than 18 percent to $1.5 billion because the quarter last year included the Super Bowl on NBC. Excluding the Super Bowl, which was on CBS this year, revenue fell 5 percent. Comcast blamed lower prime-time ratings at NBC and lower revenue from content licensing.
ABC and ESPN owner Walt Disney Co. and Fox owner News Corp. are scheduled to report results next week.
Large genomic study identifies endometrial cancer subtypes, treatment opportunitiesPublic release date: 1-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Caitlin Hool hoolc@mskcc.org 212-639-3573 Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
NEW YORK, MAY 1, 2013 Endometrial tumors can be reclassified into distinct subtypes based partly on their genomic makeup and may respond to targeted drugs already being tested in clinical trials, according to a large-scale genomic analysis led by researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and other centers within The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Research Network.
Published in the May 2 issue of the journal Nature, the findings may help doctors more accurately diagnose endometrial cancer and choose treatments that will target genomic mutations in women with endometrioid and uterine serous adenocarcinomas, the two most common types of endometrial cancer. The findings could also guide clinical trials and the development of new drugs.
"These findings have an immediate therapeutic application, as patients with endometrial cancer can be tested routinely to see whether they qualify for a targeted therapy clinical trial," said Memorial Sloan-Kettering gynecologic oncologist Douglas A. Levine, MD, corresponding author on the study, principal investigator of Memorial Sloan-Kettering's TCGA Tissue Source Site, and Co-Chair of TCGA's Endometrial Working Group. "The current landscape of treatment for endometrial cancer is quite chaotic, and this research may provide order to that landscape, especially for more-aggressive endometrial cancers."
Endometrial cancer, which forms in the tissues lining the uterus, is the fourth leading type of cancer among women and the eighth leading cause of cancer death. Endometrioid tumors are usually less aggressive, while uterine serous tumors are more aggressive.
There has been little agreement among doctors over the best treatment approach following surgery for patients with a high risk of recurrence, with decisions relying largely on a tumor's pathology. However, it is difficult for pathologists to reliably differentiate high-grade endometrioid tumors from uterine serous tumors.
According to Dr. Levine, incorporating new genomic information into treatment planning could be a great leap forward, helping to make certain that additional therapies are used effectively and only when necessary.
The analysis of 373 endometrial tumors showed that approximately a quarter of high-grade endometrioid tumors have certain types of genomic alterations also found in uterine serous tumors. This suggests that a significant portion of endometrioid tumors should be treated more aggressively after surgery.
Many of the tumors analyzed had mutations in important cancer-related genes and pathways for which targeted therapies are already being tested in clinical trials for other cancers. For example, 84 percent of the tumors have some alteration in the PI3 kinase pathway, which is implicated in many cancers. Additionally, genomic alterations in uterine serous tumors share many features with ovarian serous and triple-negative breast cancers, suggesting opportunity for shared treatments.
Investigators at Memorial Sloan-Kettering are now translating these findings into clinically useful tests that may be applied to ongoing and planned clinical trials.
A project jointly funded by the National Cancer Institute and the National Human Genome Research Institute, TCGA is one of the most comprehensive national efforts to collect and analyze the largest set of tumor samples to date using state-of-the-art genomic and molecular techniques. Memorial Sloan-Kettering currently houses one of TCGA's Genome Data Analysis Centers, led by computational biologist Chris Sander, PhD, biocomputing manager Nikolaus Schultz, PhD, and molecular pathologist Marc Ladanyi, MD. For the endometrial cancer study, Memorial Sloan-Kettering contributed more than 10 percent of all tissue samples analyzed.
###
This research was supported by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under award 5U24CA143840-04.
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center is the world's oldest and largest private institution devoted to prevention, patient care, research, and education in cancer. Our scientists and clinicians generate innovative approaches to better understand, diagnose, and treat cancer. Memorial Sloan-Kettering specialists are leaders in biomedical research and in translating the latest research to advance the standard of cancer care worldwide. For more information, go to http://www.mskcc.org.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Large genomic study identifies endometrial cancer subtypes, treatment opportunitiesPublic release date: 1-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Caitlin Hool hoolc@mskcc.org 212-639-3573 Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
NEW YORK, MAY 1, 2013 Endometrial tumors can be reclassified into distinct subtypes based partly on their genomic makeup and may respond to targeted drugs already being tested in clinical trials, according to a large-scale genomic analysis led by researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and other centers within The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Research Network.
Published in the May 2 issue of the journal Nature, the findings may help doctors more accurately diagnose endometrial cancer and choose treatments that will target genomic mutations in women with endometrioid and uterine serous adenocarcinomas, the two most common types of endometrial cancer. The findings could also guide clinical trials and the development of new drugs.
"These findings have an immediate therapeutic application, as patients with endometrial cancer can be tested routinely to see whether they qualify for a targeted therapy clinical trial," said Memorial Sloan-Kettering gynecologic oncologist Douglas A. Levine, MD, corresponding author on the study, principal investigator of Memorial Sloan-Kettering's TCGA Tissue Source Site, and Co-Chair of TCGA's Endometrial Working Group. "The current landscape of treatment for endometrial cancer is quite chaotic, and this research may provide order to that landscape, especially for more-aggressive endometrial cancers."
Endometrial cancer, which forms in the tissues lining the uterus, is the fourth leading type of cancer among women and the eighth leading cause of cancer death. Endometrioid tumors are usually less aggressive, while uterine serous tumors are more aggressive.
There has been little agreement among doctors over the best treatment approach following surgery for patients with a high risk of recurrence, with decisions relying largely on a tumor's pathology. However, it is difficult for pathologists to reliably differentiate high-grade endometrioid tumors from uterine serous tumors.
According to Dr. Levine, incorporating new genomic information into treatment planning could be a great leap forward, helping to make certain that additional therapies are used effectively and only when necessary.
The analysis of 373 endometrial tumors showed that approximately a quarter of high-grade endometrioid tumors have certain types of genomic alterations also found in uterine serous tumors. This suggests that a significant portion of endometrioid tumors should be treated more aggressively after surgery.
Many of the tumors analyzed had mutations in important cancer-related genes and pathways for which targeted therapies are already being tested in clinical trials for other cancers. For example, 84 percent of the tumors have some alteration in the PI3 kinase pathway, which is implicated in many cancers. Additionally, genomic alterations in uterine serous tumors share many features with ovarian serous and triple-negative breast cancers, suggesting opportunity for shared treatments.
Investigators at Memorial Sloan-Kettering are now translating these findings into clinically useful tests that may be applied to ongoing and planned clinical trials.
A project jointly funded by the National Cancer Institute and the National Human Genome Research Institute, TCGA is one of the most comprehensive national efforts to collect and analyze the largest set of tumor samples to date using state-of-the-art genomic and molecular techniques. Memorial Sloan-Kettering currently houses one of TCGA's Genome Data Analysis Centers, led by computational biologist Chris Sander, PhD, biocomputing manager Nikolaus Schultz, PhD, and molecular pathologist Marc Ladanyi, MD. For the endometrial cancer study, Memorial Sloan-Kettering contributed more than 10 percent of all tissue samples analyzed.
###
This research was supported by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under award 5U24CA143840-04.
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center is the world's oldest and largest private institution devoted to prevention, patient care, research, and education in cancer. Our scientists and clinicians generate innovative approaches to better understand, diagnose, and treat cancer. Memorial Sloan-Kettering specialists are leaders in biomedical research and in translating the latest research to advance the standard of cancer care worldwide. For more information, go to http://www.mskcc.org.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
CHICAGO (AP) ? A 2-year-old girl born without a windpipe now has a new one grown from her own stem cells, the youngest patient in the world to benefit from the experimental treatment.
Hannah Warren has been unable to breathe, eat, drink or swallow on her own since she was born in South Korea in 2010. Until the operation at a central Illinois hospital, she had spent her entire life in a hospital in Seoul. Doctors there told her parents there was no hope and they expected her to die.
The stem cells came from Hannah's bone marrow, extracted with a special needle inserted into her hip bone. They were seeded in a lab onto a plastic scaffold, where it took less than a week for them to multiply and create a new windpipe.
About the size of a 3-inch tube of penne pasta, it was implanted April 9 in a nine-hour procedure.
Early signs indicate the windpipe is working, Hannah's doctors announced Tuesday, although she is still on a ventilator. They believe she will eventually be able to live at home and lead a normal life.
"We feel like she's reborn," said Hannah's father, Darryl Warren.
"They hope that she can do everything that a normal child can do but it's going to take time. This is a brand new road that all of us are on," he said in a telephone interview. "This is her only chance but she's got a fantastic one and an unbelievable one."
Warren choked up and his wife, Lee Young-mi, was teary-eyed at a hospital news conference Tuesday. Hannah did not attend because she is still recovering from the surgery. She developed an infection after the operation but now is acting like a healthy 2-year-old, her doctors said.
Warren said he hopes the family can bring Hannah home for the first time in a month or so. Hannah turns 3 in August.
"It's going to be amazing for us to finally be together as a family of four," he said. The couple has an older daughter.
Only about one in 50,000 children worldwide are born with the windpipe defect. The stem-cell technique has been used to make other body parts besides windpipes and holds promise for treating other birth defects and childhood diseases, her doctors said.
The operation brought together an Italian surgeon based in Sweden who pioneered the technique, a pediatric surgeon at Children's Hospital of Illinois in Peoria who met Hannah's family while on a business trip to South Korea, and Hannah ? born to a Newfoundland man and Korean woman who married after he moved to that country to teach English.
Hannah's parents had read about Dr. Paolo Macchiarini's success using stem-cell based tracheas but couldn't afford to pay for the operation at his center, the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. So Dr. Mark Holterman helped the family arrange to have the procedure at his Peoria hospital, bringing in Macchiarini to lead the operation. Children's Hospital waived the cost, likely hundreds of thousands of dollars, Holterman said.
Part of OSF Saint Francis Medical Center, the Roman Catholic hospital considers the operation part of their mission to provide charity care, but also views it as a way to champion a type of stem-cell therapy that doesn't involve human embryos, the surgeons said. The Catholic church opposes using stem cells derived from human embryos in research or treatment.
Macchiarini has been involved in 14 previous windpipe operations using patients' own stem cells ? five using man-made scaffolds like Hannah's but in adults; and nine using scaffolds made from cadaver windpipes, including one in a 10-year-old British boy.
He said only one patient died, a 30-year-old man from Abingdon, Md., who had the operation in November 2011 to treat late-stage cancer of the windpipe. He died about four months later of uncertain causes, Macchiarini said.
Similar methods have been used to grow bladders, urethras and last year a girl in Sweden got a lab-made vein using her own stem cells and a cadaver vein.
Scientists hope to eventually use the method to create solid organs, including kidneys and livers, said Dr. Anthony Atala, director of Wake Forest University's Institute for Regenerative Medicine. He said the operation on Hannah Warren "is really showing that the technique is workable."
Hannah had breathing difficulties at birth and Korean doctors soon discovered the missing windpipe. They reconfigured her esophagus so that a breathing tube could go down it from her mouth to her lungs. The esophagus normally runs behind the windpipe and carries food to the stomach.
Korean doctors said she couldn't live long with the tube and told her parents there was nothing more they could do.
Hannah outlived their expectations and has thrived despite the grim prognosis and other abnormalities including an undeveloped voice box that prevented her from speaking. Now that she has a windpipe and can breathe more normally, doctors expect the larynx to grow and function normally. She will work with speech therapists to help her learn to talk.
Holterman said Hannah will likely need a new windpipe in about five years, as she grows.
She breathes with help from a ventilator but no longer has a tube in her mouth that she'd lived with since shortly after birth, Holterman said. She's not yet able to eat normally, but doctors let her have her first taste ever of food ? a few licks on a lollipop. Her father said she already has discriminating taste and prefers chocolate Korean lollipops to the American kind.
"I asked her, 'Is it good?'" he said, "and she immediately nodded her head."
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Online:
Regenerative Medicine: http://1.usa.gov/13IWdrx
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AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner
While Google opened the door to packaged Chrome apps back in February, it's been a largely one-way affair ever since -- developers could upload the native-style apps, but they couldn't find anything without a direct link. As of a dev channel update, the relationship is a little more two-directional. Both Chrome OS and Windows-based Chrome testers can at last search for packaged apps in the Chrome Web Store alongside the usual releases. Google is mostly holding back on wider access to give developers more time to polish their work. Us non-coders will have to be patient, then, but truly offline-friendly apps just came one step closer.
In our review of the Explorer edition of Google Glass, we were surprised at the lack of security features -- there's nothing to stop anyone from picking up your pair, accessing your data and having complete control. We're obviously not the only ones to have noticed this, and developer Mike DiGiovanni, who has his own set of high-tech specs, has come up with an app to alleviate those worries. Called Bulletproof, the app registers when Glass parts from face and engages a lock screen, which can then be disabled with a user-defined combination of swipes and taps on the wearable's touchpad. A brief video demo of the app is available below, and those with the hardware will likely know how to get it loaded using the files linked at the source. It's good to see the dev community already putting out useful software, but it does make you wonder why Google didn't think of it first.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met a group of senior Arab officials on Monday as he sought to build regional support for any fresh push for Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Kerry has made no secret of his hope to revive peace talks, which broke down in 2010, but it remains unclear whether U.S. President Barack Obama will decide to back a major U.S. effort.
In convening the group, Kerry is trying to ensure that a new peace process would have the backing of the Arab states, who, if they were to offer Israel a comprehensive peace, hold a powerful card that could provide an incentive for Israeli compromises.
After meeting the Bahraini, Egyptian, Jordanian and Qatari foreign ministers as well as with officials from Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League, Kerry and the Arab states voiced support for a 2002 Arab League peace initiative.
"I underscored the Arab League's very important role ... by reaffirming the Arab Peace Initiative here this afternoon," Kerry told reporters after the talks at Blair House, the U.S. president's guest house. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden attended part of the meeting.
The Arab League proposal offered full Arab recognition of Israel if it gave up land seized in a 1967 war and accepted a "just solution" for Palestinian refugees.
Rejected by Israel when it was originally proposed at a Beirut summit in 2002, the plan has major hurdles to overcome.
Israel objects to key points, including a return to 1967 borders, the inclusion of Arab East Jerusalem in a Palestinian state and the return Palestinian refugees to what is now Israel.
"The Arab League delegation understands that peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis is ... a strategic choice for the Arab states," Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, who serves as Qatar's prime minister and foreign minister, told reporters.
The core issues that need to be settled in the more than six-decade dispute include borders, the fate of Palestinian refugees, the future of Jewish settlements on the West Bank and the status of Jerusalem.
(Reporting By Arshad Mohammed; Editing by David Brunnstrom)
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Public release date: 1-May-2013
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