Australia and France will jointly produce ammunition to be provided to Ukraine, ministers for the two countries have announced in Paris.
KEY POINTS:
*France and Australia have signed a partnership to supply ammunition to Ukraine.
*The meeting comes amid a thawing of relations between Australia and France.
*Several thousand 155-millimetre shells will be manufactured for Ukraine.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Defence Minister Richard Marles have announced plans for Australia and France to jointly produce ammunition to be given to Ukraine.
The pair held a press conference in Paris overnight alongside French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna and Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu.
"We are really pleased to be able to announce today that Australia and France are working together in providing supply of 155-millimetre ammunition to Ukraine... to make sure Ukraine is able to stay in this conflict and see it concluded on its own terms," Mr Marles said.
"It represents a novel co-operation between Australian and French defence industry."
Mr Lecornu said several thousand 155-millimetre shells will be manufactured, with Australia supplying the gunpowder and French firm Nexter producing the ammunition.
"This partnership will allow us over time, over the coming weeks and months, to assist Ukraine," Mr Lecornu said.
The meeting comes amid a thawing of relations between Australia and France following the previous coalition government's decision to scrap a multibillion dollar submarine deal with the European country in favour of nuclear-powered vessels as part of the AUKUS security pact.
Ms Colonna alluded to the past tensions as she welcomed the Australian ministers.
"It is the first time that our consultations have taken place at this level - in the so-called 2+2 format - since an incident I shall not come back to," she said.
This is the key take away from all of this: “Due to the small number of subjects in both studies, it is impossible to accurately estimate the magnitude of the beneficial effect, but the effects are statistically significant, meaning that they are not accidental.”
Statistically significant is certainly a positive.
Darlin and Etopan appear to cut the chances of cancer returning elsewhere in body by reducing inflammation and stress, according to peer-reviewed research
By NATHAN JEFFAY
Today, 12:26 pm
Taking two common drugs just before cancer operations may significantly reduce the chance of a secondary tumor, new Israeli research suggests.
Scientists from Tel Aviv University gave 18 colon cancer patients a course of Darlin and Etopan just before and after the surgical removal of their tumor, and gave placebos to another 18 patients.
Propranolol, marketed as Darlin, blocks adrenaline and is normally used to lower blood pressure or reduce anxiety. Etodolac, marketed as Etopan, is used to prevent pain and inflammation.
The groups were randomly allocated, and doctors didn’t know which patients received the real drugs. Now, five years later, the scientists have found out how many patients from each group developed secondary tumors.
Half of the placebo group — nine out of 18 — had a secondary tumor, while only two of the 18 who received the drugs did. The team behind the peer-reviewed study acknowledges that the cohort of patients was small, and is initiating a larger study.
“The results indicate that by reducing stress and inflammation five days before surgery and continuing the treatment for one to two weeks afterward, we can reduce the chances of cancer occurring again,” Prof. Shamgar Ben-Eliyahu of Tel Aviv University’s neuroscience school, who led the study, told The Times of Israel.
He said that the research is independent of any drug company, and aims specifically at identifying a cheap, non-patented and easily accessible way to reduce the chance of secondary cancer.
“One should bear in mind that the pharmaceutical companies have no financial incentive to support such studies,” Ben-Eliyahu said. “The medicines are not patented; they are safe, cheap, and administered in a short treatment lasting just a few days. The drug companies look for patents on expensive drugs, and prefer that the patient be dependent on the drug for the rest of their life.”
Prof. Shamgar Ben-Eliyahu of Tel Aviv University (courtesy of Tel Aviv University)
The new study, which was published in the European Journal of Surgical Oncology, followed several experiments with rats and mice. In these, the two drugs showed protective benefits from secondary — or metastatic — cancer. There was also an earlier human study, peer-reviewed and published in 2017, indicating that the drugs strengthen the biomarkers in the body which help prevent secondary tumors.
Ben-Eliyahu explained his hypothesis on how the drugs are effective, saying: “It’s widely accepted that inflammation aggravates cancer, so part of the benefit here is reducing inflammation. Meanwhile, there is growing research suggesting that stress can help the progression of cancer and metastases; hence the benefit of the medication that blocks adrenaline.
“It’s widely accepted that inflammation aggravates cancer, and regarding stress, there is a growing amount of research suggesting that it helps cancer progress and helps secondary tumors,” said Ben-Eliyahu.
He commented: “Although at five years after the operation, the statistical significance is clear, we need to conduct larger clinical studies. Our treatment reduced markers of metastasis in the tumor tissue, and reduced the chances of cancer recurrence. This is very promising research, which can save lives of cancer patients.”
“This is a short, cheap drug treatment with no significant side effects. We deliberately sought the safest and cheapest drugs capable of lowering the body’s stress-inflammatory response to surgery, in order to save lives. It sounds too good to be true, but similar results in breast cancer tissue were obtained in the study we conducted in 2017.
“Due to the small number of subjects in both studies, it is impossible to accurately estimate the magnitude of the beneficial effect, but the effects are statistically significant, meaning that they are not accidental.”
Paul Newman and Robert Redford playing ping-pong aka table tennis in the UK during a break while filming Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in 1968
You know the plan? Yes - I throw them the big cute puppy dog eyes on Thanksgiving and we dine like Kings! Perfect...
TheGuvnor247 OP t1_jdwgof1 wrote
Reply to Paul Newman and Robert Redford playing ping-pong aka table tennis in the UK during a break while filming Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in 1968 by TheGuvnor247
Here in Ireland and the UK we call it table tennis, TBF ping pong sounds better.
1968 here and I have to say Newman looks like he knows what a gym is - he's not huge or anything but he is most definitely in shape!
Cool picture of two cool actors from the 'set' of a cinema classic.