11/16/2004 New Delhi, India no attribution indianexpress.com Biotech major Biocon Limited today said its first cancer drug will be ready to hit the Indian market late next year. The drug is currently in advanced second-phase clinical trials at Bangalore’s Kidwai Oncology Institute. "Our cancer antibody, Thera HR3, is expected to launch late next year in India. It is currently in phase II B clinical trials and has demonstrated very good tumour regression. It has displayed none of the skin reactions common in patients undergoing chemotherapy," said Biocon CMD Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw at its launch of Insugen, a new insulin product. Thera HR3 is the first of six cancer drugs in Biocon’s product pipeline. The drug will target head and neck cancer, which afflicts 90 per cent of India’s cancer patients. "Head and neck cancer includes mouth, tongue, jaws, pharynx and other parts affected by tobacco chewing, cigarette smoking and poor dental hygiene," said Dr AS Arvind, CEO, Clinigene International Ltd, a division of Biocon. Thera HR3 trials are the first of their kind in India, with the EGF-receptor based drug being paced through development in collaboration with Cuba’s C Map. It is to be used in combination with radiology and chemotherapy, said Arvind. Biocon’s five other oncology drugs include three vaccines to suppress relapses in cancer patients and two that target colon, breast, chest and other forms of cancer. No timelines were discussed for these drugs.

11/16/2004 Sweden IARC Meeting report The Local, Swedens news in English Visitors to Scandinavia could be forgiven for thinking that a significant number of the men have a congenital malformation of the upper lip. Actually they're just stuffing small pouches of chewing tobacco, or 'snus' under it. As if the horrific breath and stained teeth aren’t argument enough to stop, researchers have now sounded a new cancer warning bell about the snus habit. A study carried out by the World Health Organisation and released this week followed 10,000 Norwegians, of whom two-thirds were snus-lovers. The results show that users of the popular chewing tobacco increase their risk of contracting mouth or pancreatic cancer by 67%. At the same time a study has been commissioned by Sweden's National Institute of Public Health to assess the risk of using the small tobacco pouches under the lip. "Chemical substances such as nitrosamines, as well as the way the snus is used, the frequency and the level of mouth hygiene all contribute to the risk of cancer," says Anders Ahlbom, Professor of Epidemiology at the Karolinska Institute and the Swedish delegate to the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Chewing tobacco of the snus type is also widely used in the United States, with other forms of chewing tobacco prevalent in Asian and African countries. "In earlier studies it was difficult to establish a link between mouth cancer and the type of chewing tobacco we use in Sweden," continued Anders Ahlblom. Consequently in 2001, [...]

11/16/2004 Donna De La Cruz, Associated Press 365gay.com About 30,000 Americans each year contract oral cancer, and 8,000 of them will die, but people remain ignorant of a disease that can be cured if caught in the early stages, a University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey official says. "This is not a disease that strikes just old men anymore," said Arnold Rosenheck, assistant dean at UMDNJ's dental school, before he was to speak to health care professionals about oral cancer at the American Public Health Association annual meeting in Washington. Oral cancer can strike anyone, even people who don't smoke or drink, which are two of the risk factors, Rosenheck said, adding that his goal is to educate Americans and health care professionals on how to prevent the disease. Oral cancer once struck mainly men in their 60s, but the largest increase in cases now is seen in people under 40 years of age, and in women. The survival rate remains unchanged from 50 years ago — about 50 percent for someone diagnosed with the disease in its later stages. Women began developing oral cancer when smoking became chic, said Rosenheck, referring to the well-known Virginia Slims ad campaign, "You've Come a Long Way, Baby," that ran from 1968 to 1986. "As a result, women have taken their place alongside their male counterparts in developing the diseases that are prevalent to tobacco use," Rosenheck said. "And I think women are drinking more openly now, going out with the [...]

11/15/2004 Seungtaek Choi, MD. et al. Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2004;130:1308-1312 Objective: To determine whether external beam radiation therapy (XRT), administered either before or after surgery, increases the rate and/or severity of local postoperative complications in patients with head and neck cancer who undergo microvascular free flap reconstruction. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting: University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle, a tertiary care hospital. Patients: A total of 100 consecutive patients underwent fibular free flap reconstruction of the mandible. The study cohort was divided according to radiation treatment status: (1) no XRT (28 patients), (2) preoperative XRT (37 patients), and (3) postoperative XRT (35 patients). The median follow-up after surgery was 11 months (range, 1-89 months). Main Outcome Measures: Rate and severity of local postoperative complications. Results: Fifty-four patients (54%) had at least 1 postoperative complication. There were no differences among the 3 XRT subgroups in the overall proportion of patients with complications of any severity (15 [54%] of 28 patients in the no XRT group, 24 [65%] of 37 patients in the preoperative XRT group, and 16 [46%] of 35 patients in the postoperative XRT group; P = .26, 2 analysis). There were also no differences seen when mild and severe complication rates were specifically examined (P = .58 and P = .10, respectively). No case of complete flap loss was observed. We noted no significant correlations between the rate of postoperative complications and the following covariates: total radiation dose, size of radiation field, disease stage, exposure to chemotherapy, [...]

11/14/2004 Houston, TX Todd Ackerman HoustonChronicle.com William Poole lies face down, his upper back peppered with small jars that suck up skin turned red underneath them. One by one, Dr. Joseph Chiang removes the jars, lights a quickly extinguished flame in them and swiftly applies the jars to other spots. He does it effortlessly, like a master illusionist performing sleight of hand. "That feels better," says Poole at the end. "I feel looser already." The therapy is an ancient Chinese one called cupping, but if the scene conjures up images of a dark room in an unfamiliar neighborhood, think again. It occurred at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, epitome of the conventional cancer-care establishment. Place ... of Wellness, M.D. Anderson's integrative medicine program, offers unconventional care, from meditation to yoga to aromatherapy. But for many people, cupping has become a therapy of choice, suddenly trendy after actress Gwyneth Paltrow's high-profile use of it earlier this year. Used by acupuncturists in China since the third century B.C., cupping is considered most beneficial for back pain and stiff shoulders because it increases circulation and the mobility of affected areas. But it's also pronounced good for digestive and respiratory disorders and sports injuries. For cancer patients such as Poole, it eases the discomfort that can come with chemotherapy and radiation. Massagelike effects Cupping may look like medieval alchemy, but its effect is similar to that of an intense, vigorous massage. Suction created by the cups pulls the skin up and [...]

11/14/2004 Liz Szabo USA Today Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist's diagnosis of thyroid cancer, announced late last month, comes at a time when research in the malignancy -- which experts say was stalled for many years -- is suddenly taking off. In the past year or so, scientists have initiated at least 10 new studies of thyroid cancer, and a dozen more will soon be up and running, says Steven Sherman, an associate professor at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. "There's been an explosion," Sherman says. "Before that, there was almost nothing." Thyroid cancer research has suffered partly because its most common variety is usually curable, making the disease seem less threatening. Yet the most aggressive form of thyroid cancer, anaplastic carcinoma, is one of the most lethal of all tumors. Anaplastic cancers afflict so few people -- just a few hundred a year -- that experts long doubted that it was possible to even start clinical trials, says Manisha Shah, a thyroid cancer specialist at Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center. Recent research has been sparked by the discovery of genetic mutations involved in thyroid tumors, as well as progress in the growing field of "targeted" cancer therapies that affect the tumors but not the surrounding, healthy tissue. Last year, a team of scientists at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine discovered a genetic mutation that is present in most papillary thyroid cancers, the most common sort. Earlier this year, the same team showed that the mutation [...]

11/14/2004 Eureka, CA Times-Standard staff Times Standard (www.times-standard.com) If you're serious about quitting smoking, take the challenge during the Great American Smokeout on Thursday. Held each year in November, the Great American Smokeout helps smokers quit cigarettes for at least one day, in hopes they will quit forever. Quitting smoking kits will be available at several areas including local hospitals. "The majority of patients we see in our department have tobacco health-related illnesses or complaints," said St. Joseph Hospital's Cardiopulmonary Director Jack Scott. He said these include Chronic Obstructive Cardiopulmonary Disease, emphysema and bronchitis, oral cancer and major lung disease. "It is amazing how smoking still dominates the life and behavioral patterns for many people -- it's an addiction that's obviously very hard to give up," Scott said. Smoking damages nearly every organ in the human body, is linked to at least 10 different cancers, and accounts for some 30 percent of all cancer deaths. And it costs billions of dollars each year. "You can't cure major damage that has already been done by smoking. But when a smoker quits smoking, it stops any further pulmonary deterioration. Within just an hour of smoking that last cigarette the body begins a series of changes -- there is a difference of improvement immediately," Scott said. "It's not easy to stop smoking, but there are a variety of programs now available, as well as medication, that can help in the process of quitting." Cigarettes and cigarette smoke contain over 4,000 chemicals, including 43 [...]

11/13/2004 E.J. Mundell USA Today A generation or two ago, dentures were common among the elderly, even the middle-aged. Fortunately, public health initiatives over the past 50 years have changed attitudes and hygiene practices, and a majority of today's Baby Boomers are growing older with the teeth they had as teenagers. But will the nation's dentists be able to care for them as they continue to age? "By about 2030, an enormous amount of people — 20% of the population —will be 65 years of age or older. Those numbers are going to be overwhelming, and I don't think dentists right now are very well-equipped to deal with them," said Dr. Ira Lamster, dean of the Columbia University School of Dental and Oral Surgery, in New York City. In an article published earlier this year in the American Journal of Public Health, Lamster warned of a "looming crisis" in geriatric dentistry. "The country's been successful, and rightly so, in convincing people that teeth can last a lifetime," he said. On the other hand, aging teeth and gums have special health-care needs. "What are teeth? They are biomechanical devices for crushing and grinding food," explained dentist and American Dental Association spokesman Dr. Richard Price. "But any machine is going to wear or break. As you get older, gums recede. In some populations, tooth decay among senior citizens is twice that of teenagers." Some of the contributing factors to poor oral health in old age include: A lifetime of tooth repair using [...]

11/13/2004 Washington, D.C. David McAlary Voice of America (voanews.com) Researchers in the North America and Brazil have successfully tested a vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, the second most common cancer in women around the world, after breast cancer. Such a vaccine might eventually prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. The human papillomavirus is a common infection that invades more than 75 percent of women at some time in their lives. Most of the time, it lasts only a short time and produces no symptoms. But in nearly 500,000 women worldwide each year, it persists long enough to cause cancer of the cervix, the opening to the uterus. Nearly 250,000 die from it each year, most of them in developing countries. An experimental GlaxoSmithKline vaccine offers hope against this disease. Researchers tested it for two-and-a-half years in more than 1100 U.S., Brazilian, and Canadian women aged 15 to 25. According to the journal Lancet, three doses of the vaccine prevented human papillomavirus infections in 92 percent of the women. Even better, it completely prevented the long-lasting infections that can lead to cancer. "It is outstanding, phenomenal news that it is 100 percent! We are so excited with that outcome," said study leader, Dartmouth University Medical School researcher Diane Harper. She added that the vaccine proved safe with few side effects. "This really moves women's health care forward in a very positive direction and allows us to make changes in the way we care for women at a personal level," [...]

11/13/2004 Sue S Yom and David I Rosenthal Nature Clinical Practice Oncology (2004) 1, 14-15 Background: Patients with advanced high-risk squamous-cell carcinoma of the head and neck frequently have a recurrence in the original tumor bed. Following tumor resection, radiotherapy can be effective in improving cancer control. This study assessed whether the addition of cisplatin to postoperative radiotherapy could improve local and regional control rates in head and neck cancer patients. Design: This phase III, multicenter, randomized, stratified study enrolled men and women with squamous-cell carcinoma, who were at high risk of disease, had undergone tumor resection, and who could tolerate chemotherapy. Patients were included if they were aged 18 years or more with a minimum Karnofsky Performance Status score of 60, and on the basis of particular clinical laboratory results. Intervention: Radiotherapy began not later than 8 weeks after surgery; patients were stratified according to age (>70 years vs <70 years), surgical margin, and tumor status. Patients were randomly assigned to receive 60 Gy radiosurgery in 30 fractions over 6 weeks, with or without 6 Gy boosts in 3 fractions over a 3-day period. Patients in the combined therapy group also received intravenous cisplatin at 100 mg/m2 of body-surface area on days 1, 22, and 43. Patients were examined weekly during treatment, and post-treatment evaluations were carried out after 9 weeks, then every 3 months for the first year, twice in the second and third years, and annually thereafter. Outcome Measures: Local and regional tumor control was the primary [...]