11/3/2003 Japan Mainichi Shimbun Medical organizations and antismoking groups are up fuming over a trial "tobacco gum" product that is being sold in Japan, demanding that health authorities remove it from shelves. Mainichi Shimbun A packet of the controversial tobacco gum. The Firebreak brand tobacco gum, a Swedish-produced product, is legally classified as tobacco but has similar shape and flavor to chewing gum. The Ministry of Finance approved the product on Sept. 11 and about 60,000 packets have already been imported into the country. Since the gum doesn't produce any smoke it is being marketed as a product that allows people to enjoy tobacco without having to worry about others. One piece of gum contains one milligram of nicotine, and each piece is advertised as being the equivalent of one cigarette, but lasting for about 20 minutes. The gum has a mint flavor, but a spicier flavor comes out when it is chewed. However, critics say that since the ingredients of the tobacco go straight into people's mouths, harmful ingredients are more easily absorbed compared with rolled tobacco. They say this could lead to oral cancer. On Nov. 4, the Japanese Society for Dental Health and the Japanese Society of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons requested that the Finance Ministry withdraw approval of the product. Representatives of an antismoking association also demanded that the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, which deals with food product safety, take measures against the gum as a harmful product. Kazunori Nakakuki, a part-time lecturer at [...]

11/2/2003 Alabama Monique Curet University of Alabama Pat Sullivan loaned his name to campaign against smokeless tobacco as part of his fight against oral cancer Pat Sullivan is no stranger to the Iron Bowl, the annual match-up between Auburn and Alabama. The 1971 Heisman Trophy winner continues to rank as one of the top passers in Auburn's history, and he also spent six years as an assistant coach at the school. Now a coach at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, 53-year-old Sullivan is fighting a new opponent: oral cancer. He was diagnosed in September with cancer that was at the base of his tongue and spread to the lymph nodes in his neck. A two-decade smokeless tobacco user, Sullivan has decided to lend his name and support to the Alabama Department of Public Health's campaign against smokeless tobacco use. We all think we're invincible, but we're not, Sullivan said, adding that he hopes to raise awareness among young people. Sullivan started coaching at UAB in 1999 and is the team's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Cancer of the mouth and throat is the sixth most common cancer among males, according to the health department. Each year in Alabama, 600 new cases of oral cancer are diagnosed, and 150 people die from it, the agency reports. Because its rate of oral cancer has increased over the past 20 years, Alabama received a grade of D-minus on the 2003 Oral Health America Report Card. Recent studies have indicated that about 30 [...]

11/1/2003 Austin American City Business Journals Inc Austin-based Introgen Therapeutics Inc. [Nasdaq: INGN] will study the effectiveness of its leading cancer drug candidate Advexin as a mouthwash for oral lesions, Introgen announced Thursday. Introgen develops gene therapy drugs. The study is the first trial to investigate the effective of Advexin on pre-malignancies that could develop into full-blown cancer. Advexin was granted "fast track" designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a treatment for head and neck cancer. "One of our goals is to treat earlier stage disease, even prevent disease if possible, in the hopes of improving outcomes for cancer patients," says Robert Sobol, Introgen's senior vice president of medical and scientific affairs. Patients with pre-malignant lesions will be treated for up to six months with the Advexin oral rinse, according to Introgen. The study is being conducted under an agreement between Introgen and the Bethesda, Md.-based National Cancer Institute. Tobacco smoking and alcohol use are contributing factors to the development of oral cancer. The American Cancer Society estimates that 30,000 new cases of oral cancer will be diagnosed this year in the United States.

10/19/2003 Cleveland PRNewswire Eszterhas Takes Aim at Smoking in Movies: 'Don't Let People Like Me Kill You' U.S. Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona Commends 'Join Joe' Campaign -- Screenwriter Joe Eszterhas has written and filmed a 30-second public service announcement to be shown in movie theaters which warns audiences "not to get suckered into smoking byHollywood." "I glamorized smoking in my movies," Eszterhas says on screen to moviegoers. "Then I got throat cancer. Maybe that's my punishment. Please, don't let people like me kill you." The announcement, filmed on a Hollywood soundstage, funded by The Cleveland Clinic and directed by American History X director, Tony Kaye, will be shown on more than 30 screens in the Cleveland area, where Eszterhas lives. Jonathan Forman, president of Cleveland Cinemas, said, "I only hope other exhibitors nationwide will have the courage to take this vital message to the masses of people who are killing themselves with tobacco." "We're working around the clock with Joe and Jon Forman to get this message into as many theaters as possible across America," said Angela Calman, chief communications officer for The Cleveland Clinic Foundation. "Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, resulting in more than 440,000 deaths each year. When it comes to smoking, quitters are winners," said U.S. Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona. "I commend the American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout and the 'Join Joe' Eszterhas campaign for helping people to quit smoking and begin living longer, healthier lives." "Hollywood [...]

10/7/2003 New York Robert Dominguez New York Daily News Playing Berra Off-B'way: Ben Gazzara Fifty years after dazzling Broadway audiences with a series of intense leading roles - he played Brick in the original production of Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" in 1955 - Ben Gazzara is coming back to the stage this month. It's like dèjá vu all over again in more ways than one - he's playing New York Yankees great Yogi Berra in a one-man show, "Nobody Don't Like Yogi." Gazzara, four years removed from a bout with oral cancer, won his first Emmy last month for a supporting role in the HBO film "Hysterical Blindness." After years of toiling in obscure foreign films and TV movies, the award capped a period of steady work as a character actor in which he was "rediscovered" by independent-film directors - including David Mamet, Vincent Gallo, Todd Solondz, Spike Lee and the Coen brothers - who were familiar with Gazzara's collaborations with indie icon John Cassavetes in the 1970s. "Yogi" is set on opening day at Yankee Stadium in 1999, when Berra ended his self-imposed exile following his dismissal as manager by team owner George Steinbrenner. "It's a personal portrait of Berra that's funny, but it's also very touching," says Gazzara. "It doesn't depend on 'Yogi-isms' like 'It ain't over 'til it's over' or that kind of nonsense to fill an evening." Berra does not plan to see the show, a spokesman tells The News. Gazzara, who [...]

10/5/2003 New Zeland New Zeland Herald Cigarette packs will soon carry graphic horror stories but, asks CATHERINE MASTERS, will smokers take any notice? Every smoker knows what to do when confronted with the hard evidence of why they should not. Justify - might get run over tomorrow, got to die one day. Defend - it's my choice. Turn the pack over. Put the lighter on top of the warning. They have all seen the warnings on the packs and managed to ignore them. But soon the warnings are going to get bigger and nastier. The Smoke-free Environments Amendment Bill, likely to be passed before Christmas, does not stop with banning smoking in bars and clubs. It includes other measures to get rid of the cigarette. No longer will you be able to light up while you watch your child play sport within the school grounds, for instance. Then there are the warnings, likely to take up half the pack and be much more graphic: images of rotting lungs and hearts, brains with blood clots, infected teeth - unavoidable, graphic and nasty. But will they make a blind bit of difference to smokers already immune to warnings of impending doom? Walk into any pub and ask. So, John May, a burly Scottish cop working in Auckland, drinking a beer and smoking Marlboro Lights in a pub in central Auckland, what do you think when you see the warning already on your pack? May, 41, from Torbay, glances at the pack, which [...]

10/4/2003 Boston MIT The George R. Harrison Spectroscopy Laboratory in the School of Science at MIT has been awarded a Bioengineering Research Partnership grant to develop and implement spectroscopic techniques for imaging and diagnosing dysplasia -the precursor to cancer - in the uterine cervix and the oral cavity. Cervical and oral cancer account for approximately 11,000 deaths in the United States each year. Detection of the precancerous state of human tissue is crucial for ease of treatment and greatly improved survival, but it is often invisible and difficult to diagnose. The new techniques are said to provide a method for visualisation and accurate diagnosis based on spectroscopic detection and imaging. Clinical screening for cervical and oral precancer are multibillion-dollar industries which currently rely on visual detection of suspicious areas followed by invasive biopsy and microscopic examination. Given that visually identified suspicious areas do not always correspond to clinically significant lesions; spectroscopic imaging and diagnosis could prevent unnecessary invasive biopsies and potential delays in diagnosis. Michael S. Feld, professor of physics and director of the Spectroscopy Lab, says the laboratory has developed a portable instrument that delivers weak pulses of laser light and ordinary white light from a thin optical fibre probe onto the patient's tissue through an endoscope. This device analyses tissue over a region around 1 millimetre in diameter and has shown promising results in clinical studies. It accurately identified invisible precancerous changes in the colon, bladder and oesophagus, as well as the cervix and oral cavity. The second [...]

10/3/2003 Florida Ed Susman American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation Identifying and locating the sentinel node in head–and-neck cancer surgery is feasible, and the results of careful dissection of the nodes appears to correlate with full neck dissection, researchers said here September 21st at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation. In describing findings from a recent study, lead author Peter Zbaeren, MD, department of otorhinolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, University of Bern–Inselspital, Switzerland, said, "Accurate localisation of the sentinel nodes was possible in all cases by using lymphoscintigraphy and by use of a gamma probe." Dr. Zbaeren and colleagues found 82 sentinel nodes in 36 patients -- about 2.2 nodes per patient. Using a radionuclide-labeled colloid, preoperative lymphoscintigraphy and intraoperative sentinel lymph-node identification by a gamma probe, doctors located the sentinel lymph node, excised the node or nodes and performed frozen section analysis. The study sought to assess the accuracy of sentinel lymph node identification in patients with a Stage NO neck in squamous-cell carcinoma of the oral cavity and oropharynx. Dr. Zbaeren said the pathology analysis located one occult cancer in a sentinel lymph node. To correlate these findings, the surgeons carried out a complete neck dissection in the patients, removing an average of 36 nodes from each patient. In the 1,295 nodes analysed, just one positive node was found. Dr. Zbaeren said the sensitivity of sentinel lymph-node biopsy in the series was 93%, and the negative predictive value was 94%. [...]

9/20/2003 New York Reuters Health Induction chemotherapy appears to reduce distant disease failure rates following intensive concomitant chemoradiotherapy when administered to patients with advanced head and neck cancer. Physicians at a Chicago-area network of hospitals observed high locoregional control, organ preservation, and overall survival rates when they treated patients with intensified concomitant chemoradiotherapy. The biggest problem appeared to be distant failure. To eradicate systemic micrometastases, Dr. Everett E. Vokes, of the University of Chicago, and colleagues added an inductive regimen of carboplatin and paclitaxel administered in 6 weekly cycles. According to their report in the Journal of Clinical Oncology for January 15, three patients presented with stage III disease and 66 with stage IV disease. After 6 weeks, 87% of 61 patients with remaining disease following initial organ-preserving surgery exhibited a response and 35% a complete response. Beginning 2 to 3 weeks later, the patients underwent five cycles of treatment with paclitaxel, fluorouracil, hydroxyurea and twice-daily radiation therapy administered every other week. The patients were then followed for a median of 28 months. Fifty patients survived until the end of the study period in 2002, for an overall survival rate of 70%, the report indicates. Ten had died of disease persistence or recurrence and three of complications related to therapy. Five died of unrelated causes and one of a second malignancy. "The great majority of patients were treated without disabling surgery," the physicians note. The 3-year progression-free rate among those who survived was 80%. Systemic progression occurred in five subjects. [...]