4/15/2002 Atlanta AP Each pack of cigarettes sold in the United States costs the nation $7 in medical care and lost productivity, the government said Thursday. The study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta put the nation's total cost of smoking at $3,391 a year for every smoker, or #157.7 billion. Health experts had previously estimated $96 billion. Americans buy about 22 billion packs of cigarettes annually. The CDC study is the first to establish a per-pack cost to the nation. The agency estimated the nation's smoking-related medical costs at $3.45 per pack, and said job productivity lost because of premature death from smoking amounted to $3.73 per pack, for a total of $7.18. "There's a big difference in the cost to society and what society is getting back in tax," said the CDC's Dr. Terry Pechacek. "We believe society is bearing a burden for the individual behavioral choices of the smokers." The CDC said is analyzed expenses, both personal and for the health-care industry, and used national medical surveys to calculate the costs to the nation. The agency also reported that smoking results in about 440,000 deaths a year in the United States, up from the government's previous figure of 430,000, established in the early 1990's. The new study was conducted from 1995 to 1999. A spokesman for tobacco giant Brown & Williamson objected that the study presents the figures in a vacuum, without comparing smoking to the financial burdens other people-nonsmokers with diabetes, for [...]

4/9/2002 San Francisco American Association for Cancer Research Recurrent head and neck cancer patients receiving higher dose of ADVEXIN® gene therapy in one study had a significant survival advantage when compared to a group of patients in another study receiving a lower dose of the drug, according to the results of two Phase 2 studies presented today at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. Study results show that, for the first five months of the trial, patients in the ADVEXIN high-dose study were 50 percent more likely to live than those in the low-dose study. ADVEXIN, which combines a proprietary adenoviral vector with the p53 gene, is the lead product candidate of Introgen Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: INGN). "We are extremely encouraged by these results demonstrating a significant survival advantage in patients who received a high dose of ADVEXIN," said Max W. Talbott, Ph.D., Introgen's senior vice president of worldwide commercial development. "There have been drugs approved to treat cancer that demonstrated a less beneficial survival advantage in clinical trials." Patients receiving high-dose ADVEXIN had a median survival advantage 2.4 months longer (189 days vs. 114 days) than those receiving a low-dose treatment with the drug. Dosing in the low-dose study was 50 times lower than dosing in the high-dose trial. Dosing in the high-dose trial was consistent with dosing in Introgen's current phase 3 studies of ADVEXIN in the treatment of head and neck cancer. Data from the same studies also show a 60 percent improvement [...]

4/8/2002 Washington DC Reuters A genetically engineered virus designed to home in on and kill cancer cells may be safe to test in patients whose cancer has spread, researchers said on Monday. The latest in a series of experiments using Onyx-015, a cold virus altered so that it infects and kills only cancer cells and leaves healthy cells alone, produced positive results on liver cancer, the researchers said. Richmond, California-based Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. has been testing the virus for several years, using a variety of novel approaches such as putting it into a mouthwash to treat oral cancer and injecting it into tumors. In the latest experiment they infused the virus into the livers of patients whose cancers had spread there. "Rather than injecting it directly into the tumor using a syringe and needle, where it might not get distributed evenly, we injected it into the artery, so that the flow of blood carries it throughout the liver," Dr. Daniel Sze of Stanford University Medical Center in California, who helped lead the study, said in a telephone interview. The phase I study was meant only to test the safety of the approach, and Sze told a meeting in Baltimore of the Society of Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology it seemed safe. They tested 35 patients whose gastrointestinal cancer, mostly colon cancer, had spread into the liver. None could be cured by surgery and chemotherapy had stopped working for them, so they were dying of their cancer. Not only was the treatment [...]

7/24/2002 New York Rueters Health A number of studies have suggested stress can hinder the body's immune system defenses. Now researchers say people may be able to fight back with the stress-relieving techniques of self-hypnosis. In a study of medical students under exam-time stress, investigators found that those who received "hypnotic-relaxation training" did not show the same reduction in key immune system components that their untrained counterparts did. Janice K. Kiecolt-Glaser and colleagues at Ohio State University in Columbus reported the findings recently in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. The researchers looked at 33 medical and dental students during relatively low-stress periods and around the time of the first major exam of the term. Half of the students attended sessions where they learned to relax through self-hypnosis. Kiecolt-Glaser's team took blood samples from all students at the start of the study and just before exams. They exposed the samples to foreign substances in order to observe the activity of T cells and other immune system defenses. The investigators found that during exam time, the self-hypnosis students launched stronger immune responses compared with students who did not learn the technique. And the more often students practiced the relaxation strategy, the stronger their immune response. In previous studies, Kiecolt-Glaser and her colleagues have found that stressful times may impair the body's wound-healing process and response to vaccination. They and other researchers have also found that relaxation techniques may combat these effects by relieving stress and boosting the immune system. "The [...]

3/19/2002 New York Drs. Stimson P. Schantz and Guo-Pei Yu Rueters Health The incidence of tongue cancer, increased 60 percent over the last three decades in U.S. adults under age 40, according to a new report. "Because incidence rates of overall head and neck cancer have remained stable and have even shown a very small declining trend since the 1970s, the increase in the number of young adult patients (with tongue cancer) is concerning," write co-authors Drs. Stimson P. Schantz and Guo-Pei Yu of New York Medical College in Manhattan. While factors responsible for the increase remain unknown, the authors suggest increasing use of marijuana as well as smokeless tobacco products like chewing tobacco among this population group may be to blame. Another possible cause may be infections with the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV), the report indicates. HPV has been under suspicion as a cause of head and neck cancer, since DNA of the virus has been detected in head and neck tumors. But studies of the relationship have provided mixed results. Schantz and Yu identified a total of 63,409 patients with head and neck cancer between 1973 and 1997 from a cancer surveillance database established by the National Cancer Institute. Within this group, 3,339 patients were younger than 40 years of age. The incidence of head and neck cancers remained stable for people over age 40, but tongue cancer in younger adults increased approximately 60 percent during the same time period, the investigators found. "The present study exhibits [...]

3/17/2002 Atlanta, GA Emma Hitt, PhD Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report The percentage of US adults who smoke ranges from about 13% in Utah to about 30% in Kentucky, and only three states have meet federal goals for reducing the number of residents who smoke, according to researchers at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Two reports in the December 14th issue of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report describe state-based statistics for adult smokers and, for the first time, smoking patterns in major metropolitan areas. In their "Healthy People 2010'' guidelines, federal officials have set the goal of reducing cigarette smoking among adults to 12% by the year 2010. The CDC points out that the average number of people who smoked in 2000 was similar to that reported for the preceding 5 years; however, the number of smokers varied from state to state. For the year 2000, the goal was to reduce cigarette smoking among adults to 15% in every state, but only three states, Puerto Rico, Utah and California, were able to meet that goal. The 12 states with the highest number of smokers were Kentucky, Nevada, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, New Hampshire, Alabama, Arkansas and Alaska, the researchers report. The CDC also investigated the percentages of smokers in 99 metropolitan areas across the US. Similarly to the state-based figures, they ranged from 13% to 31%. Toledo, Ohio had the highest percentage of adult smokers and Orange County, California had the [...]

3/10/2002 New York Amy Norton Rueters Health Acupuncture may help some cancer patients who have severe dry mouth as a side effect of treatment, California researchers report. Their study, which included mainly patients with head and neck cancers treated with radiation, showed that acupuncture to the ear and index finger improved dry mouth in a majority of patients. An ancient therapy that arose in China more than 2,000 years ago, acupuncture involves placing fine needles in specific points on the body's surface. Traditional theory holds that these points connect with energy pathways that run through the body, and acupuncture helps keep this natural energy flow running smoothly. Modern science as well has suggested that acupuncture can help ease a range of conditions, from arthritis pain and migraine to morning sickness. But researchers are still trying to understand why it works. "When we try to explain the relief of (dry mouth) using ear acupuncture, we presume it is a function of a subtle activation of the autonomous nervous system," the new study's lead author, Dr. Peter A. S. Johnstone of the Naval Medical Center in San Diego, told Reuters Health. The autonomic nervous system regulates bodily functions that are not under conscious control, including activity in the glands. In the study, Johnstone's team followed 50 patients undergoing acupuncture. Most had received radiation for head and neck cancers and had dry mouth that did not respond to treatment with the saliva-inducing compound pilocarpine. One patient had dry mouth after chemotherapy, and two [...]

3/8/2002 Havana, Cuba Mary Murray Nbc News Cuban researchers this week reported early, but notable success with a biotech drug that attacks advanced cancer of the head and neck regions. In preliminary trials, the novel agent, called Theracim h-R3, enhanced conventional radiation therapy to radically shrink and even completely eradicate tumors. Researchers at Havana's Center of Molecular Immunology administered radiation plus Theracim h-R3 to 70 patients whose head and neck cancers had failed to respond to conventional therapy. Tumors completely disappeared in 60 percent. In contrast, only 30 percent to 40 percent of advanced patients given radiation alone in Cuba would expect to see their tumors eliminated, said the Center's Normando Iznaga-Escobar. To date, patients given the one-two punch from radiation and Theracim h-R3 have remained tumor-free for as many as 28 months, he added. Additionally, another 20 percent of patients saw their tumors shrink by at least half, said Dr. Rolando Perez, head of the Center's research and development division. "Few therapies have demonstrated such an overall response rate and survival benefit of this disease," said study author Dr. Tania Crombet, also of the Center. To develop Theracim h-R3, the researchers took advantage of the fact that the growth of some tumors is fueled by substances known as epidermal growth factors. And, on their outside shell, some tumors have chemical docking stations known as receptors to these growth factors. Scientists figured out that when they stimulate these receptors, tumors grow faster than ever. So, they reasoned that if they [...]

3/6/2002 Pittsburgh, PA University Of Pittsburgh Medical Center Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) are the first to find that a protein appearing on lung cancer cells in people with extensive smoking histories also is present in head and neck cancers. The results, published in the March 6 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, suggest that the protein gastrin-releasing peptide receptor (GRPR), known to be associated with lung cancer, is linked to the growth and proliferation of squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN). "Previous research from our group has indicated that when stimulated by its hormone, gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP), GRPR triggers lung cancer cells to grow," said Jennifer R. Grandis, M.D., associate professor, departments of otolaryngology and pharmacology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Since tobacco exposure is a well-known risk factor for both lung cancer and SCCHN, the investigators decided to examine the expression of GRPR in the cells of patients with head and neck cancer. "We found that GRPR was expressed in the cells of patients with head and neck cancer and that increased GRPR expression occurs early on in the formation of SCCHN tumors," added Jill M. Siegfried, Ph.D., co-author of the study and co-leader of UPCI's lung cancer program. In the study, Dr. Grandis and her colleagues compared that expression of GRPR in 25 people with SCCHN and six people without cancer. They found a fivefold increase in the level of GRPR in the tissues of people [...]

3/4/2002 New York, NY St. Vincent's Comprehensive Cancer Center New SmartBeam IMRT technology from Varian Medical Systems zeroes in on tumors while sparing healthy tissue. When the CFO of a New York company was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor at the base of his tongue last March, he learned that conventional radiation therapy could potentially cure him, but might also cause serious side effects. The tumor was near his salivary glands and his brain stem. If not targeted precisely, radiation could affect one or both. He and his wife had been going over their treatment options with his doctor at St. Vincent's Comprehensive Cancer Center here when his wife asked about intensity modulated radiation therapy, or IMRT, a new and more precise radiation therapy technique that enables doctors to escalate the radiation dose to tumor cells while protecting nearby healthy tissues. By coincidence, St. Vincent's had just commissioned a SmartBeam® IMRT system from Varian Medical Systems, and after reviewing the case, doctors decided that the man was an ideal candidate to be their first IMRT patient. "In cases like this, conventional radiotherapy can damage one or both parotid glands, causing xerostomia, a severe, chronic, and irreversible dry mouth condition that makes it difficult for patients to chew, swallow, or speak," said Dr. Anthony Berson, Chief Radiation Oncologist at St. Vincent's. "With IMRT we increase the chances of eradicating the cancer while preventing dry mouth and other serious side effects. IMRT enables us to concentrate more of the dose on the [...]