Health Highlights: Dec. 4, 2008

Dec. 5 -- Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:

Alzheimer's Drug May Help Brain Cancer Patients

An experimental Alzheimer's drug may be effective against highly aggressive brain tumors called malignant gliomas that are resistant to conventional treatments, according to Canadian researchers.

The University of Calgary team identified a "switch" activated by a protein already present in the brain that enables cancer cells to spread from the primary brain tumor. The Alzheimer's drug prevents that switch from being turned on, CBC News reported.

The study was published in the journal PLoS Biology.

"Several drug companies have already invested hundreds of millions of dollars in developing drugs that target this process, although in Alzheimer's, not in cancer, so it's sort of a new way to think about it, and we have a leg up where we could make an impact," oncology professor Dr. Peter Forsyth told CBC News.

Clinical trials to test this treatment on brain cancer patients in Alberta could begin within a few years, he said.

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Melamine Found in More ChineseEggs

The industrial chemical melamine has been found in another Chinese brand of eggs, Hong Kong health authorities said.

The eggs from a farm in Dehui City in the northeastern province of Jilinwere distributed through a local importer in a wholesale food market. The importer has been told to stop selling the eggs and officials are trying todetermine where the eggs may have been sold. The eggs were distributed tosome bakeries but not to any other retail outlets,BBC Newsreported.

In October, Hong Kong's Center for Food Safety announced that melamine had been detected in Chinese produced eggs. In that case, it's believed the melamine came from tainted chicken feed. Since then, the center has tested 307 egg samples and found four of them had nearly twice the legal limit of melamine.

There's an allowable limit of 2.5 parts per million (ppm) of melamine in food. Tests showed the latest batch of eggs had 4.7 ppm of melamine, BBC News reported.