6/27/2004 Pittsburgh, PA Dong Moon Shin M.D. University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute Promising results from a study led by University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) researcher, Dong Moon Shin, M.D., suggest that treating head and neck cancer patients with a combination of the biologic agents retinoid, interferon, and vitamin E may lead to improved survival for patients with a locally advanced stage of the disease and result in few negative side-effects. Results from the study will be published in the June 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology. The phase II study focuses on patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN), which has a low five-year survival rate after standard treatment including surgery, radiation therapy or both surgery and radiation. More than two-thirds of patients with SCCHN are diagnosed with stage III or IV cancer, which represent advanced stages of the disease, and are at high risk for disease recurrence or the development of second primary tumors (SPTs). “Given the poor survival rates from head and neck cancer, the study's overall survival rates of 98 percent at one-year follow-up and 91 percent at two-year follow-up, are very promising indications of the potential of this treatment for patients with locally-advanced head and neck cancer,” said Dr. Shin, professor of medicine and otolaryngology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and co-director, UPCI Head and Neck Cancer Program. “The finding that there are only mild to moderate negative side-effects from treatment, which primarily include flu-like symptoms and fatigue, [...]

6/25/2004 TORONTO, Canada University of Pittsburg release University of Pittsburgh researchers have found the combined PET/CT scanner is the most powerful imaging tool available for localizing, evaluating and therapeutic monitoring of head and neck cancer and may be equally useful for other cancers that are difficult to pinpoint. Results of a study showing PET/CT has a distinct advantage over PET or CT alone were presented today at the annual meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine. According to the researchers, the prototype of the combined PET/CT machine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is able to effectively localize cancerous activity in the head and neck, an area of the body that presents substantial challenges to other imaging methods because of densely packed tissue structures and the frequent involvement of lymph nodes. Separately, computed tomography (CT) and positron emission tomography (PET) do not provide images with the necessary combination of clear structural definition and metabolic activity that is achieved with the PET/CT. "The PET/CT tells us the exact size, shape and location of the cancer and provides a specific target for surgery or other treatment," said Carolyn Cidis Meltzer, M.D., associate professor of radiology and psychiatry and medical director of the UPMC PET Facility. "The PET/CT can also be used to help us develop the best course of treatment for an individual, then monitor that individual's progress during treatment." Head and neck cancers often have already involved lymph nodes when first discovered and can spread rapidly if they are not [...]

6/16/2004 Houston, TX By: Kristi Nakamura News 24 Houston / Time Warner Cable Dr. Timothy Cashion prides himself on having the latest in dental equipment. He says he can pinpoint cavities earlier than ever before. But new technology being developed by Dr. Ann Gillenwater at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and engineers at the University of Texas in Austin may one day allow Dr. Cashion to offer his patients something more -- early detection of oral cancer. Experts say that when it's found early, oral cancer has an 80-90 percent cure rate. But unfortunately, they say, most of these cancers are found in late stages. "Unfortunately, many people, even in this country, come in with very late, advanced lesions because they weren't picked up earlier. And what we're trying to do is develop a system that will improve our ability to detect those lesions," said Dr. Gillenwater. The procedure is called oral spectroscopy. Dr. Gillenwater says the way it works is an oral probe uses light to distinguish between normal and abnormal tissue. As light is shined on the tissue, she says, it hits special molecules called fluorophors, which causes a fluorescence -- like glow in the dark. "For instance, if you take a normal cell, as it changes toward becoming a cancer cell, it has changes in its structure, in its size, and also in the amount of these little fluorophors, the molecules that cause the fluorescence. So what we're designing is a special system where we're going to be [...]

6/16/2004 Washington, DC By Tom Hamburger and Alan C. Miller Los Angeles Times A World Health Organization panel has upgraded its assessment of the danger of formaldehyde, declaring for the first time that the chemical is “carcinogenic to humans.” However, the Bush administration states this requires "more study" before implementation of any new regulations. The warning from the International Agency for Research on Cancer contrasts with the approach taken by the Bush administration in February, when the Environmental Protection Agency approved an industry-backed rule intended to spare many plywood and timber-product plants from strict formaldehyde emission controls. In doing so, the EPA adopted a far more lenient assessment of formaldehyde danger. Administration officials said the controversial change was justified by the “best available science.” Administration critics Tuesday characterized the international health group's action as a rebuke of the EPA'S handling of the matter. An industry representative downplayed the international finding, noting that the reclassification of formaldehyde was not a finding of actual risk. The World Health Organization panel, made up of 26 scientists from 10 countries, reviewed the latest literature and concluded that formaldehyde posed a greater hazard than previously thought. “Based on this new information, the expert working group has determined that there is now sufficient evidence that formaldehyde causes nasopharyngeal cancer in humans, a rare cancer in developed countries,” said a statement Tuesday from the agency's headquarters in Lyon, France. Nasopharyngeal refers to the area in the back of the mouth and nose. The organization's previous evaluation of [...]

6/15/2004 By Robert E. Wittes The Washington Post The cancer research community and the patients it serves took heart a few weeks ago from the Food and Drug Administration's approval of two new drugs -- Avastin and Erbitux. These are antibodies, similar in structure to the infection-fighting proteins that circulate in our blood. Neither is very effective when used alone, but in combination with other chemotherapy drugs, they can shrink tumors, restrain tumor growth and, in the case of Avastin, extend life by a few months in some patients with colon cancer that has already spread to other parts of the body. There is just one big problem: Both drugs have been marketed at such extraordinarily high prices that many people will simply not be able to afford them. Although the new drugs help only a minority of patients, they represent significant successes in translating new molecular knowledge about cancer into more effective treatment. In this respect they join other recent entries in the oncologist's medicine cabinet and are a sign of things to come. Most of us anticipate that truly successful treatment for disseminated cancers will be not with single drugs but with combinations of them, aided by precise molecular testing to guide selection of the most effective drugs for a particular patient. Now back to the economics. The average wholesale price (AWP, or the average price charged to hospitals and physician practices) of a month of treatment for a normal-size adult is roughly $4,800 for Avastin and $12,000 [...]

6/14/2004 Los Angeles, CA Valerie Reitman, Times Staff Writer The Los Angeles Times A growing number of anti-smoking researchers and public health advocates are adopting a tack that not long ago would have been considered heresy: suggesting that hard-core smokers who can't kick the habit would be better off switching to new smokeless tobacco products. With slogans such as "Spit-free" and "For when you can't smoke," these products differ markedly from the messy snuff and chewing tobacco stereotypes associated with your granddaddy's spittoon or certain pro baseball players' stuffed cheeks. They are clean, discreet, last about 30 minutes and come in mint, wintergreen and other flavors. Some go down easily, dissolving much like a breath mint, while others look like tiny tobacco-filled teabags, tucked into the side of the mouth and discarded like chewing gum. Though no one is calling the products "safe" — any tobacco that has been cured contains some carcinogens — numerous epidemiological studies have shown that smokeless tobacco is far less likely to cause any type of cancer, including oral cancer, than cigarettes. "If someone can't quit smoking, there is no question that smokeless is much safer. It doesn't cause heart or lung disease, and if it does cause cancer, it does so at a much lower rate," said Dr. Neal Benowitz, a professor of medicine at UC San Francisco and director of its cancer center's Tobacco Control Program. Gary Giovino, director of the Tobacco Control Research Program at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, [...]

7/12/2004 New Orleans, LA By Marie Rosenthal Hem/Onc News Presidential advisory panel releases report aimed at improving outcomes for survivors. Although there are nearly 10 million Americans who are cancer survivors, a threefold increase over the number of survivors in 1971, many enter a world that is ill equipped to handle their special needs, ranging from psychological to medical, says a new report from the President’s Cancer Panel. “In 1971, there were 3 million cancer survivors in the United States; in 1986, there were 6 million. In 2004, there are close to 10 million cancer survivors,” said LaSalle D. Leffall, Jr., MD, who is chair of the panel, which just issued a report that looks at the late effects of cancer treatment across a survivor’s life. The panel made recommendations about issues concerning four age groups: children, adolescents and young adults, adults and the elderly. After holding town meetings in four cities — Austin, Texas, Birmingham, Ala., Denver and Philadelphia — to talk with cancer survivors, their caregivers and health care givers, the panel found that patients reported problems during and after cancer treatment. Late effects Years after treatment, cancer survivors reported late effects, such as learning disabilities among children; infertility or complications with pregnancies; premature aging and heart disease; psychosocial effects and prejudicial treatment, including being denied life or health insurance. Survivors reported depression and anxiety rooted in their fight against cancer that later affects their quality of life and ability to work, panelists said. “There were overarching issues [...]

6/11/2004 CODY, WY By TIMOTHY EGAN The New York Times That Copenhagen Cowboy, as they called Kent Cooper, was a saddle bronc rider on the rodeo circuit, one of the best in the world at trying to keep his spurs high on a horse that wanted no part of him. When he died two years ago at 47, the throat cancer was so bad it wrapped around his jugular vein and got into his brain. His name lives on, here in the place that calls itself the rodeo capital of the world, and in every town where cowboys wrestle animals under starry skies. But Mr. Cooper's legacy may be something more unsettling than his many winning rides. The Cooper family has sued the nation's leading maker of chewing tobacco, which is also the oldest sponsor of rodeo, charging that the company addicted Mr. Cooper to a cancer-causing product without adequate warning about its hazards. Smokeless tobacco, known as chew or spit, is the drug of choice on the bull and bronc circuit, given away at sampling tents, promoted through banners and college scholarships and by charismatic champions who tell people it is part of Western culture. Mr. Cooper's ex-wife, Susan Smith, and a small but growing number of cowboys say smokeless tobacco has made tooth-stained addicts out of too many rodeo riders and has no place in a fast-growing sport that appeals to families. "Kent was a billboard for tobacco," Ms. Smith said. "They all are. But I wish people [...]

7/10/2004 Bethesda, MD Karen Antman, MD National Cancer Institute Since about 1990, cancer mortality per 100,000 population in the United States has been falling. This trend has been driven by decreasing mortality in the four most common malignancies: prostate, breast, lung, and colon cancers.1 Although many debate the impact of either cancer screening or treatment, the decrease in mortality for breast, colon, and prostate cancers is attributable to better treatment, to screening, or, probably, to both. The fall in lung cancer deaths almost certainly results from the fact that significant numbers of Americans quit smoking 15 to 20 years ago. Most of those who quit were men; consequently, lung cancer mortality in men peaked in about 1990 and is now falling, whereas mortality in women has only leveled off. Women have particular difficulty quitting smoking, perhaps because our society places great value on thinness, and women who quit tend to gain weight. Depression, which also decreases the success rate of quitting, is approximately twice as common in women as in men. Mortality per 100,000 is a clean statistical end point. Although 5-year survival rates have also improved, from about 40% in the 1950s to 62% today, these rates are subject to early detection bias; they can be inflated by the implementation of screening programs, which increase the detection of small lesions with a better prognosis or of premalignant lesions of uncertain clinical significance.1 Nevertheless, because large numbers of baby boomers are now entering their 50s—an age when the risk of [...]

6/10/2004 London, UK BBC News, (UK) The world's first clinical research centre devoted to facial surgery is opening in London on Thursday. The centre, set up by the Facial Surgery Research Foundation, will coordinate studies into oral cancers and facial injuries and deformities. It will bring together 40 UK surgeons, plus researchers and statisticians. Surgeon Iain Hutchison, who is leading the centre, says he hopes its research will mean better treatments can be developed for patients more quickly. Oral cancer is the sixth most common cancer in the world and a source of facial disfigurement for some after treatment. It is almost as common in the UK as leukemia and melanoma and its incidence is twice that of cervical cancer. Another significant part of the surgeons' work involves caring for patients injured after binge drinking, either by falling or by fighting. All these types of causative factors will be treated by the facility. We hope to eliminate the inconsistencies in treatment Around 125,000 teenagers in the UK are affected by severe facial injuries after drinking every year and surgery is needed to correct the facial disfigurement of over 4,000 young people. Specialists also plan to carry out research into the psychological effects of having a facial injury. Although the centre will start by focusing research studies in the UK, it is hoped it can take part in international research projects within two or three years. Dr. Hutchison, a consultant in oral and maxillofacial surgery at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London, [...]