6/1/2004 London, UK Medical News Today Cigarette smoke transforms healthy saliva into a deadly cocktail that can accelerate mouth cancer, according to new research in the British Journal of Cancer. Normally, saliva provides a protective buffer between toxins and the lining of the mouth because it contains important enzymes that fight and neutralize harmful substances. But the new research shows that the chemicals in tobacco smoke combine with saliva with devastating effect. They destroy the protective components of saliva – leaving a corrosive mix that damages cells in the mouth and can eventually turn them cancerous. The researchers in this study wanted to examine saliva's role in the development of mouth cancer. The study recreated the effects of cigarette smoke on cancerous cells of the mouth. Half of the cell samples were exposed to cigarette smoke and the other half to the saliva and cigarette smoke mixture. Cancerous cells were used in order to quickly assess whether the saliva and smoke mixture would speed the cancer's development. The study revealed that the longer the mouth cells were exposed to the contaminated saliva, the more the cells were damaged. Dr Rafi Nagler, based at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, who co-led the study, says: "Most people will find it very shocking that the mixture of saliva and smoke is actually more lethal to cells in the mouth than cigarette smoke alone. "Our study shows that once exposed to cigarette smoke, our normally healthy saliva not only loses its beneficial qualities but [...]

5/26/2004 Datamonitor Services GSK is awaiting the outcome of a Phase III trial to evaluate an anti-cervical cancer vaccine. GlaxoSmithKline's [GSK.L] four-year clinical trial of an HPV vaccine could have a significant affect on cervical cancer treatment, as HPV is a known contributory factor to the disease. However, GSK will need to consider how this product should be positioned, especially with regard to use in pediatrics, so as to maximize revenues. GSK's global Phase III PATRICIA HPV vaccine trial will involve 90 sites and approximately 13,000 young women aged 15-25 worldwide, lasting for approximately four years. HPV is associated with cervical cancer, the second most common cause of cancer in women worldwide, and the leading cause in the developing world. Furthermore, cervical cancer develops early in life, with a median age of 38 years. Although there are more than 100 different types of HPV, approximately 70% of all cervical cancers are associated with just two types, namely HPV 16 and HPV 18. It is against these oncogenic strains that the HPV vaccine is intended to confer protection. GSK's main challenge will be identifying the optimal target population. Judging by the proposed trial, it can be inferred that GSK anticipates its target population to be young women, from mid-teens to early twenties. This means that the HPV vaccine will not be included on the US pediatric immunization schedule, which is the most commercially attractive sector for vaccine manufacturers due to its large patient population and high compliance rates. Consequently, GSK will [...]

5/21/2004 Houston, Texas KPRC TV Studies Link Oral Sex To Cancer AIDS has been known for a long time as a sexually transmitted virus. Now, doctors are warning about a new virus that causes cancer and is spread through sexual contact, News2Houston reported Thursday. It's called human papillomavirus, also known as HPV. Out of the hundreds of different strains of human papillomavirus, doctors said No. 16 causes cervical cancer. Approximately 20 percent of people have a type of HPV at any one time, according to statistics. That means two of every 10 people are active carriers. "The human papillomavirus is very common today because of sexual practices," said Dr. Randal Weber, a head and neck surgeon at M.D. Anderson Hospital. "It is human-to-human contact and exchange of bodily fluids -- that's the way this is transmitted." Now doctors like Erich Sturgis at M.D. Anderson Hospital said it is also the culprit in another cancer. "The virus that is likely associated with head and neck cancer is the same virus associated with cervical cancer in women," Sturgis said. "Is this theory that you are speaking of or is it accepted in the medical community?" asked News2Houston's Krista Moreno. "I think it is accepted in the field of individuals who work in head and neck cancers, and I think it is also accepted in the field of individuals who work in human papillomavirus. But it is just not common knowledge among most physicians," said Dr. Maura Gillison, with Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer [...]

5/11/2004 Dave Kindred Golf Digest Hubert Green said, "That pine tree, the tall one, all the way to the left." He looked at the tree through a range finder. "It's 144, 145 yards." It was one of those bright winter days in Florida when the sun is betrayed by a chilling wind off the Gulf of Mexico. The breeze came past that pine tree, came against Green's face. Because he's diabetic, his hands and feet quickly get cold. He was uncomfortable. He wore shimmering blue slacks, a blue sweater over a blue long-sleeved shirt, and the wide-brimmed leather hat that is his trademark. He'd driven his golf cart onto the back practice tee at Hombre Golf Club, his home course in Panama City Beach. In a red plastic crate, he'd brought along a couple hundred Callaway reds, each ball marked with an inked circle and inside the circle the initials "HG." He hit five, six balls with a 9-iron. Earlier, he'd said he felt weak. Instead of the club hitting the ball, it was like the ball hit the club. A 9-iron might go 110 yards, a measure of strength so dispiriting that he said, "Right now I couldn't play on the LPGA Tour." On the practice tee, he moved to a 5-iron. A little draw, pretty enough. Nine, 10 swings. The balls fell 10, 15 yards short of that left pine tree. He turned and said to the only other player on the range, "Whatcha hitting?" "Five-iron," said Allen [...]

5/11/2004 HILARY WALDMAN Hartford Courant Cancer patients often leap two gigantic hurdles in the race against disease. First comes treatment to stay alive. Next is life after treatment. And for patients such as Sandra Smith, who lost most of her jaw and the floor of her mouth to oral cancer, living now includes smiling, speaking clearly and chewing tender meat with replacement parts that move and function almost as well as the originals. Smith and about 6 million other people nationwide are beneficiaries of advances in reconstructive surgery that some doctors say they could not have imagined 10 years ago. The ability to create Smith's new, living jawbone; to rebuild breasts without destroying abdominal muscles; and to restore function to limbs or fingers damaged by accident hinges on the relatively newfound ability of doctors to stitch together veins and arteries whose diameters are about the size of the tip of a ballpoint pen. "Reconstructive surgery has never been more exciting," said Dr. Allen Van Beek, a Minnesota plastic and reconstructive surgeon and president of the Plastic Surgery Educational Foundation, an arm of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. "It goes well beyond what would have been possible without the advent of microsurgery." Most people have heard the term microsurgery when a person loses a finger in an accident and the severed digit is placed in an ice-filled baggie and rushed to the hospital along with the patient. A surgeon in Boston started experimenting with replacing and restoring function to severed [...]

5/10/2004 NEW YORK , NY Reuters Health Puffing on one cigar may be enough to harden the body's main artery for hours afterward, a small study shows. Researchers say the findings add to evidence that, far from being a "safe" alternative to cigarettes, cigars increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. The study of 12 healthy men who smoked cigarettes and cigars found that shortly after smoking a cigar, the men showed evidence of greater stiffness in the aorta, the main artery carrying blood from the heart to the rest of the body. The degree of stiffness in large arteries is key in how well the heart's main pumping chamber can work and blood can flow. The new findings provide the first evidence that cigar smoking immediately increases stiffness in large arteries, according to the study authors, led by Dr. Charalambos Vlachopoulos of Athens Medical School in Greece. They report the findings in the American Journal of Hypertension. Tobacco use in its various forms has long been known to carry serious health risks. Yet there's been a popular perception that cigars, which enjoyed a surge in popularity starting in the 1990s, offer a safer way to smoke. But research shows that cigar smoking does boost the risk of heart disease, stroke and several types of cancer, including lung and oral cancers. In the new study, the researchers used a measure called pulse wave velocity to gauge aortic stiffness in 12 young, male smokers for two hours after they smoked a cigar, [...]

5/2/2004 Arizona Odeen Domingo The Arizona Republic He's seen it. The hurt it could create. The damage it could cause. Spit tobacco facts INGREDIENTS Nicotine: a poisonous and highly addictive drug. Carcinogens: cancer-causing agents. Abrasives: wear down teeth and allow nicotine and other chemicals to get directly into blood system. INCREASES THE RISK OF: Mouth cancer: cancer of cheeks, gums, lips and tongue. Throat cancer: cancer of the voice box and esophagus. Heart disease: heart attacks, strokes and high blood pressure. Dental diseases: stained teeth, tooth decay, receding gums and gum disease. Stomach problems: ulcers, increased bowel activity and stomach cancer. Source: Saskatchewan Health and National Cancer Institute Diamondbacks center fielder Steve Finley has seen it almost destroy his good friend Pete Harnisch. "It" is spit tobacco. It's also commonly known as smokeless tobacco, chewing tobacco or dip. Whatever it's called, it almost ended Harnisch's career. Harnisch, a one-time All-Star pitcher who last pitched in the major leagues in 2001, was diagnosed with clinical depression in 1997 at the time when he was trying to quit a 13-year-old habit he knew was dangerous. So when Finley was asked recently to do commercials sponsored by the National Spit Tobacco Education Program (NSTEP), which is headed by Hall of Fame baseball announcer Joe Garagiola Sr., he didn't hesitate. "(Garagiola) asked me if I'd be a part of (the anti-spit tobacco campaign) and help the organization," said Finley, 39, a non-user. "It's a bad habit . . . it caused a big brush [...]

4/29/2004 Dr Thomas Stuttaford The London Times WORDSWORTH’S early romantic experiences were not confined to admiring daffodils. But the results of these experiences were not as transient as the beauty of the daffodils fluttering in the breeze by a lake. After Cambridge he went on a walking tour of the Continent before living for a time in France, where he fell for a French woman. When he returned to England, he had a nasty dose of chlamydia. The infection spread to his eyes and gave him life-long trouble. The additional lights he needed to follow a church service can still be seen on his pew. It is not only the eyes that may be damaged by sexually transmitted diseases. There is a suggestion that infection with the human wart virus — HPV (Human Papilloma Virus) — which is the cause of cervical cancer, may also be one of the reasons why oral cancer is becoming more common. Springtime love might have a surprising and unpleasant sequel, for the type of cell involved in cancer of the mouth and the cervix is the same. Two years ago Professor Saman Warnakulasuriya, of King’s College London, presented findings on oral cancer to the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Seventy five per cent of the patients had lifestyles that included well-known risk factors for mouth cancers. In the past it was customary to attribute these to rotten or broken teeth, but either changing circumstances, or greater knowledge, has shown that the great risks [...]

4/29/2004 Ralph W. Moss, PhD CancerDecisions.com An article of great importance has appeared in Fortune magazine. It is titled "Why We're Losing the War on Cancer." The author, Clifton Leaf, is Executive Editor of the magazine and is himself a survivor of adolescent Hodgkin's disease. So he is no stranger to cancer or to the potential of modern treatment to cure some of its less common manifestations. Leaf recognizes that he himself was extraordinarily lucky in surviving. But he still has the courage to ask, "Why have we made so little progress in the war on cancer?" He readily acknowledges the flood of recent favorable publicity for drugs such as Gleevec, Herceptin, Iressa, Erbitux and most recently Avastin. "The cure has seemed closer than ever," he says. "But it's not," he continues. "Hope and optimism, so essential to this fight, have masked some very real systemic problems that have made this complex, elusive, relentless foe even harder to defeat. We are far from winning the war. So far away, in fact, that it looks like losing." Leaf gives some facts about cancer that are well known to insiders but will come as a shock to many readers: --More Americans will die of cancer in the next 14 months than have died from every war that the US has fought...combined. --Cancer is about to replace heart disease as the number one US killer. It is already the biggest killer in many age groups. --Even adjusting for age, the percentage of Americans [...]

4/24/2004 Jennifer Warner Consumer Reports Issues List of Potentially Dangerous Supplements Despite known hazards, many potentially dangerous dietary supplements are readily available for purchase in stores and on the Internet, according to a new report from Consumer Reports. Today, the magazine released its "dirty dozen" list of dietary supplements that it says are too dangerous to be on the market. The list includes yohimbe, bitter orange, chaparral, and andro. But researchers say the supplements are sold under many names, which makes it hard for consumers to know what they're getting. Many of the supplements that made the list have already been banned in other countries. But researchers say regulatory barriers created by Congress have prevented the FDA from taking similar actions to protect consumers in this country. The announcement coincides with a report on supplement safety issued today by the Institute of Medicine, which suggests that the FDA should take action against potentially hazardous dietary supplements and asks Congress to ease restraints on the agency. Dirty Dozen of Dietary Supplements Researchers from the consumer magazine say the supplements that made its "dirty dozen" list may cause cancer, severe liver or kidney damage, heart problems, or even death. For example, they say the herb aristolochia has been conclusively linked to kidney failure and cancer in China, Europe, Japan, and the U.S. Yohimbe, a supplement marketed as a sexual stimulant and herbal Viagra, has been linked to heart and respiratory problems. The supplement bitter orange, whose ingredients have effects similar to those [...]