Today's Globe: relaxation doctor, colon cancer drugs, cancer stem cells, RSV, veterans' disability claims, food safety, Dr. John R. Gehring, medical conventions

By the time they're 73, most doctors are thinking about hanging up their stethoscopes, if they haven't already. Not Dr. Herbert Benson, though, whose medical specialty - stress - is a growth industry these days.

Doctors thought that combining two newer drugs that more precisely attack cancer would help people with advanced colon cancer. Instead, it made the cancer worse and made the patients more miserable, a study found.

US researchers think they now understand why some cancers grow back after radiation treatment. Researchers said a specialized type of cell known as a cancer stem cell has a protective mechanism that keeps radiation from damaging the DNA and proteins inside.

Respiratory syncytial virus, known as RSV, is far more widespread among children than once thought and puts more of them in the hospital than influenza, US researchers reported yesterday.

Eric K. Shinseki, the new secretary of veterans affairs, said yesterday that he is trying to reduce six-month delays in paying veterans' disability claims, and he said he wants to move quickly toward an all-electronic claims system that could speed up the process.

Lawmakers vowed yesterday to press for stronger food safety laws and more money for inspections as the list of recalled peanut products surpassed 1,000 in an ongoing national salmonella outbreak.

Eyes may be the window to the soul, but Dr. John R. Gehring attended to their main purpose - vision - as a Wellesley ophthalmologist and eye surgeon at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary for four decades. Dr. Gehring died Dec. 23 at Epoch Skilled Nursing Center in the Chestnut Hill section of Brookline after a nine-month struggle with cancer. He was 81.

"Those medical conventioneers who are boycotting Boston - because of the state's new law intended to limit the drug industry's influence over physicians and researchers - might soon have to hold their confabs outside the United States, a Globe editorial says. "More far-reaching federal laws may be on the way.