3/17/2004 Eugene Russo thescientist.com Spit's potential diagnostic value has funding agencies putting money where the mouth is Human Saliva magnified 100x A trip to the doctor's office generally entails a deposit of blood or urine from which some diagnoses can be produced after a laborious process. Now, groups of biologists and engineers are working to make disease diagnoses quicker and more efficient by giving credit to a less conventional humor--the Rodney Dangerfield of bodily fluids--spit. In the past year and a half, the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) has used a set of seven grants totaling $27 million (US) through 2006 to form a Salivary Diagnostics Group for technology development. Once disparate disciplines, oral salivary biology and engineering are melding in order to give saliva its due respect as a diagnostic fluid. Scientists and healthcare workers have long known the power of saliva to indicate HIV exposure or drug abuse. Indeed, certain informative molecules or analytes in saliva, such as DNA, RNA, peptides, or fatty acids, could indicate a variety of conditions including cancer, Alzheimer, and heart disease. "It turns out that almost anything you can measure in blood, you can measure in saliva," says NIDCR director Lawrence Tabak. But often, informative saliva analytes are present in hard-to-detect levels--one hundredth to one thousandth of what's found in blood. Qualitative measures are feasible, for example, when someone tests positive for HIV antibodies. But quantitative measures, such as a precise glucose level, are not. Nanoscale [...]

3/16/2004 New York Rueters Infection of oral epithelial cells with oncogenic types of human papillomavirus (HPV) is an independent risk factor for the development of head and neck cancer, investigators report in the March 17th issue of The Journal of the National Cancer Institute. In a case-control study, Dr. Elaine M. Smith of the University of Iowa and colleagues detected oncogenic HPV types in oral exfoliated cells from 22.9% of 201 patients with head and neck cancer and 10.8% of 333 cancer-free control subjects. HPV 16 was the most frequently detected type, present in 19% of cases and 10% of controls. In analyses adjusting for age, tobacco use, and alcohol intake, the risk of head and neck cancer was statistically significantly greater in subjects infected with high-risk HPV types, with an adjusted odds ratio of 2.6, but not in those infected with non-oncogenic HPV types (adjusted OR = 0.8)compared with HPV-negative individuals. There was also a significant synergistic effect between detection of high-risk HPV types and heavy alcohol use (OR=18.8) and an additive effect between detection of high-risk HPV and tobacco use (OR = 5.5). "Any biologic interaction effect with HPV is associated primarily with alcohol consumption and not with tobacco use," the researchers note. The team also found a significant association between detection of high-risk HPV in oral cells and detection of high-risk HPV in tumor tissue. Head and neck cancers cause "clinically significant morbidity and disfiguration," Dr. Smith and colleagues remind readers, making "early detection of disease and [...]

4/15/2004 Twin Falls Chad Baldwin Like many aspiring rodeo cowboys, Kent Cooper began chewing tobacco at a young age -- 13, to be exact. For close to 30 years -- most of those while he was on the pro rodeo circuit -- Copenhagen was his brand of choice, until friends say he dropped the habit four or five years ago. But the lifestyle change came too late for one of Idaho's most successful rodeo cowboys, attorneys for his ex-wife say. The Albion resident, a 13-time qualifier for the National Finals Rodeo in saddle bronc riding, was diagnosed with throat cancer in April 2002 and died later that year in Burley at the age of 47. Now, Cooper's ex-wife, Susan Smith, on behalf of their son, Will, 9, is suing the manufacturer of Copenhagen. The lawsuit contends that the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. and its predecessors "hooked" Cooper on the product, and that they falsely stated for years that chewing tobacco wasn't addictive and there was no proof that it caused harm to people. What's particularly intriguing about the case is the close relationship between the smokeless tobacco industry and the sport of rodeo. The U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. is a major sponsor of both the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association, according to their Web sites. Many professional rodeo cowboys have individual sponsorship deals with the company. Some rodeo broncs and bulls are named after chewing tobacco products. Country singer Chris LeDoux, a rodeo icon, even [...]

3/13/2004 Honolulu, HA International Association for Dental Research, Annual Meeting presentation Detailed molecular analysis of tumors is now providing molecular portraits which show the genetic basis of the different clinical presentations of disease. This technology will help identify metastasis signatures and provide logical targets for drug discovery. This moves us closer to a time when we will treat patients based on the genetic profile of the tumor rather than the clinical presentation of the disease. Finding targets that are differentially expressed in cancer and normal tissue will also provide better tests for early diagnosis. There is also increasing interest in utilizing knowledge about tumor biology to address the vexing question as to why tumors recur despite seemingly adequate treatment. A new generation of ultra-sensitive diagnostics has highlighted the problem of subcutaneous foci of residual tumors that may remain at the operative site, or be disseminated throughout the body. These approaches have also revealed that the extent of spread of a precancerous patch is often much greater than previously realized. Long-term follow-up of cases screened by these molecular diagnostics suggests that detecting these troublesome foci of disease can help to identify individuals at risk of developing local and distant recurrence. In a Keynote Address during the 82nd General Session of the International Association for Dental Research, Dr. Maxine Partridge (King's College Hospital, London, UK) reports that a host of novel therapeutic strategies is now on the horizon for management of these problems. These include gene-mediated strategies to replace defective sequences, blocking [...]

2/29/2004 Houston, TX MD Anderson Cancer Center Press Release Nearly 38,000 men and women in this country will develop head and neck cancers in 2002, according to the American Cancer Society. Now, the first Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant to study these cancers has been awarded to a national cancer center. The National Cancer Institute recently presented M. D. Anderson with a $12 million SPORE grant to study head and neck cancers, which include cancers of the: * jaw * mouth * throat * nose * nasal cavity * salivary gland * sinuses * thyroid * larynx “M. D. Anderson has made great strides in treating head and neck cancer patients while maintaining quality of life for our patients,” says Dr. Waun Ki Hong, the lead investigator on M. D. Anderson's latest SPORE lire ici. Hong is head of the institution's Division of Cancer Medicine and chairman of the Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology. The grant's co-lead investigators are Drs. Reuben Lotan, professor of medicine, and Gary Clayman, professor of head and neck surgery, both in the Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology. “We are already hard at work, and with this addition, we hope to make more progress in reducing head and neck cancer and ensure that patients with these diseases receive state-of-the-art medical care with cutting-edge therapeutic approaches.” The head and neck SPORE grant will support research in five key areas: Genetic Susceptibility Markers: Although head and neck cancer is known to be [...]

2/28/2004 Baltimore, Maryland Michael Day New Scientist Print Edition Oral sex can lead to oral tumours. That is the conclusion of researchers who have proved what has long been suspected, that the human papilloma virus can cause oral cancers. The risk, thankfully, is tiny. Only around 1 in 10,000 people develop oral tumours each year, and most cases are probably caused by two other popular recreational pursuits: smoking and drinking. The researchers are not recommending any changes in behaviour. The human papilloma virus (HPV), an extremely common sexually transmitted infection, has long been known to cause cervical cancers. Several small studies have suggested it also plays a role in other cancers, including oral and anal cancers. "There has been tremendous interest for years on whether it has a role in other cancers. Many people were sceptical," says Raphael Viscidi, a virologist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, a member of the team that did the latest work. The researchers, working for the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France, compared 1670 patients who had oral cancer with 1732 healthy volunteers. The participants lived in Europe, Canada, Australia, Cuba and Sudan. HPV16, the strain seen most commonly in cervical cancer, was found in most of the oral cancers too. Antibodies against HPV The people with oral cancers containing the HPV16 strain were three times as likely to report having had oral sex as those whose tumour did not contain HPV16. There was no difference between [...]

2/18/2004 By Daniel DeNoon, Reviewed By Brunilda Nazario, MD WebMD Medical News Evidence Mounts: Aspirin Prevents Cancers of Esophagus, Blood Regular use of aspirin is a cost-effective way to prevent cancer of the esophagus. And it may also prevent Hodgkin's disease. The findings come from two separate reports in the Feb. 18 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The most provocative of these reports suggests that regular aspirin use may prevent Hodgkin's disease, a lymphoma or cancer of the white cells in the blood. The finding holds true only for aspirin and not for other drugs of its class such as ibuprofen. "If aspirin use is indeed found to protect against Hodgkin's lymphoma, this relationship could afford insight into the [cause] of the disease and offer possible clues toward its prevention," conclude Harvard researcher Ellen T. Chang, ScD, and colleagues. Regular use of another common pain reliever, acetaminophen (Tylenol), seemed to increase the odds of having Hodgkin's disease. It's not the first time acetaminophen has been linked to cancer. However, the researchers think this association is more likely due to the fact that people coming down with Hodgkin's disease may have used more pain relievers. In the second study, Massachusetts General Hospital researcher Chin Hur, MD, and colleagues find that aspirin is the key to preventing esophageal cancer. Hur's team looked at whether aspirin is a good way to prevent a condition known as Barrett's esophagus, a result of chronic acid reflux. People with Barrett's esophagus are [...]

2/17/2004 Laurie Barclay, MD Medscape Medical News 2004 Information sources/original article in the medical publication Circulation. Published Feb. 16, 2004 Asymptotic dental scores (ADS) reflecting poor oral health are linked to coronary heart disease (CHD), according to the results of a study published in the March 9 issue of Circulation, and published online Feb. 16. "Oral infections are thought to produce inflammation that might be associated with CHD, so we examined all oral pathologies that might generate inflammation," lead author Sok-Ja Janket, DMD, MPH, from Boston University School of Dental Medicine in Massachusetts, says in a news release. "The ADS is a noninvasive risk indicator that can be measured easily at the time of dental check-up."Using a logistic regression model, the investigators determined the weight that each of five oral diseases should be assigned to create the ADS as a predictor of cardiac risk. The strongest predictor of CHD was pericoronitis, followed by root remnants and gingivitis; then dental caries and missing teeth. Comparing oral health records from 256 Finnish patients with CHD to those of 250 matched controls without CHD revealed that individuals with high ADS, low levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and high levels of fibrinogen had an 82% probability of having CHD. A model that included ADS, C-reactive protein, and HDL cholesterol and fibrinogen levels was at least as good a predictor of cardiac risk as was the Framingham heart score High ADS alone was associated with a 70% probability of having CHD, low HDL cholesterol [...]

2/12/2004 HELEN R. PILCHER A British study has quantified the cancer risk from diagnostic X-rays. Radiation from medical and dental scans is thought to cause about 700 cases of cancer per year in Britain and more than 5,600 cases in the United States1. The benefits of using X-rays still far outweigh the potential increase in cancer risk, says Amy Berrington de González from Oxford University, UK, who coordinated the study. But it's important to know what that risk is, she says, so doctors can weigh up the pros and cons of using the technique. X-rays and their computerized cousin, CT scans, are routinely used to diagnose cancer and examine bone breaks. But the radiation can penetrate through cells and damage DNA. In some people, this can trigger cancer. To minimize the risks, doctors use low doses. A chest X-ray, for example, delivers just three days' worth of low, background radiation. But X-rays are commonplace in hospitals and huge numbers of people receive them — there are 500 X-rays for every 1,000 people every year in Britain. Attempts to quantify the risk of X-rays have been made before. The most recent previous estimate, made in 1981, found that X-rays probably accounted for 0.5% of cancer cases in the United States. The new study, using more data from 15 different countries, is a much-needed update on those risk estimates, says Berrington de González, particularly because many more X-rays are done today than 20 years ago. The study estimates that diagnostic X-rays account [...]

2/12/2004 Lisa Patterson Daily World A little white dot on the side of Cliff Crawford's tongue got a lot more significant Tuesday. Mouth wide - opened, tongue sticking out, the Aberdeen High School ninth - grader asked Rick Bender to take a look. Bender told him to talk with his parents, see a doctor and quit chewing "spit tobacco," a habit Crawford says he began at the age of 7. "I'm not a doctor," Bender said. "But I wouldn't take any chances." Missing part of his tongue, all of his bottom teeth and much of his chin, Bender's words held more weight with Crawford and his fellow Aberdeen High School students than any wordy warning on the side of chew cans that so many of the students admittedly pack. Bender barely survived mouth cancer, diagnosed in April of 1989, just days before his 27th birthday. He spoke to students at several area schools this week to share is horrific near - death experience. OCF Note: What we would like to know is where were the parents responsible for the bringing up of this 7 year old when he started using spit tobacco? How can we make a difference in the incidence and death rate from this disease when parents allow this to occur? How proud they will be of their parenting abilities when their child finds out that oral cancer is now part of his life, due to their lack of involvement or plain stupidity. No matter how you try [...]