New drug combination could prevent head and neck cancer in high-risk patients

Source: www.sciencedaily.com Author: staff A new drug combination shows promise in reducing the risk for patients with advanced oral precancerous lesions to develop squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. The results of the study, which included preclinical and clinical analyses, were published in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. "Squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) is the most common type of head and neck cancer," said Dong Moon Shin, M.D., professor of hematology, medical oncology and otolaryngology at Emory University School of Medicine, and director of the Cancer Chemoprevention Program at Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga. "The survival rate for patients with SCCHN is very poor. An effective prevention approach is desperately needed, especially since we can identify patients who are at extremely high risk: those with advanced oral precancerous lesions." Based on prior research suggesting a role for epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) in promoting SCCHN, Shin and colleagues believed combining an EGFR inhibitor and a COX-2 inhibitor could provide an effective chemopreventive approach. They found that the combination of the EGFR inhibitor erlotinib and the COX-2 inhibitor celecoxib was more effective for inhibiting the growth of human SCCHN cell lines compared with either drug alone. In addition, treating mice with the drug combination prior to transplanting them with human SCCHN cells more effectively suppressed cancer cell growth than did pretreating the mice with either drug alone. Based on these preclinical [...]

2013-02-20T07:38:26-07:00February, 2013|Oral Cancer News|

New findings show cancer prevention effects of black raspberries, blueberries, olive leaves and green tea

Source: www.naturalnews.com Author: David Gutierrez Three studies presented at the American Association for Cancer Research's Sixth Annual International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research in Philadelphia have demonstrated the powerful cancer-fighting benefits of dark berries, green tea and olive leaves, and suggest that gels and beverages may some day be used to prevent against cancer and tumor growth. In the first study, researchers from Ohio State University discovered that a gel based on freeze-dried black raspberries helps prevent precancerous mouth tumors (lesions) from becoming malignant. "This gel appears to be a valid means of delivering anthocyanins and other cancer-preventing compounds directly to precancerous cells, since it slowed or reduced lesion progression in about two-thirds of study participants," said researcher Susan Mallery. According to the American Cancer Society, oral squamous cell carcinoma is one of the deadliest forms of cancer, causing 7,500 deaths each year in the United States. Because no chemopreventive agent or treatment method other than radical mouth surgery exists, even those who survive the cancer often emerge significantly disfigured. And even in many cases where tumors are fully removed, they still recur. "Oral cancer is a debilitating disease and there is a desperate need for early detection and management of precancerous lesions," said Mallery. Most mouth cancer begins as small, noncancerous lesions in the mouth that are difficult to detect. It was these lesions that were treated in the Ohio State University study. Researchers carried out the study on 20 participants who had identifiable precancerous mouth lesions [...]

2008-09-29T18:53:12-07:00September, 2008|Oral Cancer News|
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