BACKGROUND BABBLE MAY IMPROVE BABIES' LEARNING.

At a surprisingly early age, babies apparently can deal with the so-called ``cocktail party effect'' and pick out words of interest from a background of babble, researchers report.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University had women repeat the words ``cup'' and ``dog'' to 24 babies while a man read a scientific tract in the background. Recordings of the readings were later played back to the babies and their responses were noted. The babies appeared to pay more attention when the words ``cup'' and ``dog'' were part of the recordings than when they weren't.

``What is interesting about this is how quickly babies are able to progress,'' said Peter Jusczyk, a Hopkins professor of psychology. The researchers suggest that hearing language in a setting of background noise may even help babies learn more quickly than hearing it in isolated situations.

An answer for aching bones?: In a study with implications for women with advanced breast cancer and for people with other cancers as well, researchers in Texas have found a way to reduce pain and fractures in bones to which cancer has spread.

If further studies are similarly encouraging, the treatment may eventually become a way to block the process by which cancer cells metastasize, or spread, to the bones. Currently, about 100,000 women with breast cancer are living with bone metastases.

In this study of almost 400 women, the researchers found that a drug already on the market called Aredia (pamidronate) can block the action of cells called osteoclasts that destroy bones. Osteoclasts, known for their capacity to degrade bone in osteoporosis, the bone-thinning disease that strikes older women, can also be activated by cancer cells in the bones.

Led by doctors Gabriel N. Hortobagyi, Richard L. Theribault and others from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, the researchers gave 185 women with cancer a two-hour infusion of Aredia every month, along with regular chemotherapy. Another 195 women received a look-alike placebo.

Bone fractures were delayed from seven months to 13 in the women who took Aredia and their need for radiation to relieve pain was also reduced, said Theribault in a telephone interview. The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Bisphosphonates already are used to fight osteoporosis in women who cannot take estrogen. They have been shown to decrease bone pain and fractures in patients with multiple myeloma. They may also be useful, researchers said, for people whose cancers of the lung, prostate or kidney have spread to the bone.