2/14/2005 Toronto, Ontario, Canada Clincial Linguistics & Phonetics, Feb. 2005 as reported by Eurekalert.org 3-D ultrasound reveals effects of tongue surgery on speech New imaging research about tongue shape and volume before and after surgery should ultimately help surgeons decide how to best reconstruct tongue defects resulting from cancer surgery, says a team of researchers at the University of Toronto. Tim Bressmann, a professor in the Department of Speech-Language Pathology, and his colleague Jonathan Irish, a professor in the Department of Otolaryngology and a head and neck cancer surgeon at Princess Margaret Hospital, are the first researchers to use 3-D ultrasound to assess both normal and partially resected tongues during the production of speech sounds. By measuring the 3-D topography of the tongue's surface as each of 10 normal speakers produced a variety of speech sounds, Bressmann and Irish were able to describe basic mechanisms underlying the normal functioning of a tongue. This ultrasound data became the baseline to which partially resected tongues were compared. "We used the data from the normal speakers to model a prototypical 'Joe Canadian' tongue," says Bressmann. "This is a first step toward assessing the biomechanical impact of different reconstructive techniques on tongue movement for speech. Now, we can work toward determining what the ideal method of reconstruction is for different lesion locations and extents, so that we can ensure optimum speech outcomes for every patient." The researchers are now collecting ultrasound data from more tongue cancer patients in order to build a database for [...]

2/11/2005 as reported by Medical News Today Researchers at the University of Washington have blended the past with the present in the fight against cancer, synthesizing a promising new compound from an ancient Chinese remedy that uses cancer cells' rapacious appetite for iron to make them a target. The substance, artemisinin, is derived from the wormwood plant and has been used in China since ancient times to treat malaria. Earlier work by Henry Lai and Narendra Singh, both UW bioengineers, indicated that artemisinin alone could selectively kill cancer cells while leaving normal cells unharmed. The new compound appears to vastly improve that deadly selectivity, according to a new study that appeared in a recent issue of the journal Life Sciences. In addition to Lai and Singh, co-authors include Tomikazu Sasaki and Archna Messay, both UW chemists. "By itself, artemisinin is about 100 times more selective in killing cancer cells as opposed to normal cells," Lai said. "In this study, the new artemisinin compound was 34,000 times more potent in killing the cancer cells as opposed to their normal cousins. So the tagging process appears to have greatly increased the potency of artemisinin's cancer-killing properties." The compound has been licensed to Chongqing Holley Holdings and Holley Pharmaceuticals, its U.S. subsidiary, to be developed for possible use in humans. Although the compound is promising, officials say, potential use for people is still years away. In the study, researchers exposed human leukemia cells and white blood cells to the compound. While the leukemia [...]

2/10/2005 Rebekah Cin Hem/Onc Today Avoiding a painful complication of chemotherapy and radiotherapy be-fore bone marrow transplantation may be easier with an FDA approval of palifermin (Kepivance, Amgen). The approval followed a placebo-controlled, double-blind, phase-3 study that found the IV drug reduced the risk of mucositis during pre-transplant regimens. The study, which appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine, also found that palifermin shortened the duration of mucositis in patients who developed the adverse effect. Mucositis development High-dose chemotherapy and radiotherapy followed by hematopoietic stem-cell support is a well-established treatment for hematologic cancers, said Ricardo Spielberger, MD, of the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, Calif. and lead researcher of the study. Unfortunately, oral mucositis commonly develops. About 70% to 80% of patients undergoing high-dose chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hematopoietic stem-cell support experience the adverse effect. Spielberger and his colleagues predicted that palifermin would mimic naturally occurring keratinocyte growth factor by stimulating cells on the surface layer of the mouth to grow. This would lead to fast replacement of the cells killed by the cancer treatments as well as accelerating the healing process of mouth ulcers. Mucositis alleviated Researchers enrolled 212 eligible patients with leukemia or lymphoma who received high doses of chemotherapy and radiation treatments associated with bone marrow transplantation. The patients were randomized to two treatment arms. In one group, 106 patients received IV palifermin for three days before treatment. In the other group, 106 patients received a placebo in place of palifermin. Ninety-eight percent of [...]

2/10/2005 London, England Dr Thomas Stuttaford TimesOnLine The United Kingdom cervical screening programme, which aims to detect pre-malignant changes in a woman’s cervix so that these may be treated before cervical cancer has formed, is said to be the most successful in the world. Even so, the occasional case of cervical cancer escapes the screening net and there is still a death rate. Sometimes this is because of a faulty smear-taking technique. The worst case I ever saw of this involved a fellow journalist, who had been reassured about persistent symptoms after the smear was passed as normal. The reassurance, on clinical grounds alone, was obviously misplaced and when the smear was repeated the cervix had tumours in three places, one of which, it transpired at surgery, could not be removed with what is known as an adequate margin. It is hoped that a vaccine will be prepared, but five years is the target for its introduction. Then it will given to all girls before they become sexually active. However, further advances will be needed before it can be predicted that cervical cancer will be eradicated. The present vaccines under trial protect against only two of the types of human papilloma virus (HPV) infection, HPV-16 and HPV-18, that regularly cause cancer. These two account for about 70 per cent of cases of cervical cancer. The remaining 30 per cent are caused by other types of HPV, especially but not exclusively HPV-31 and HPV-33. The current advance in vaccine therapy is [...]

2/10/2005 New York, NY as reported by ArriveNet Health Releases (arrivenet.com) Journal of the American Dental Association, January 2005 Rarely Do Dentists Admit Fluoride's Adverse Effects “The combination of gastric problems, difficulty in swallowing, leg muscle pain, and pain in the knee and hip joints is a key indicator of fluoride toxicity, and patients using high-concentration home fluoride treatments should be monitored for these symptoms,” is reported in the January 2005 Journal of the American Dental Association. (1) After ruling out other causes, a physician theorized his mouth-cancer patient’s unrelated ailments were caused by his dentist-prescribed high-dose daily fluoride regimen. The dentist contacted the American Dental Association’s (ADA) research center which confirmed fluoride toxicity, reports the study’s authors, F.C. Eichmiller, DDS, Director, American Dental Association Foundation’s Paffenbarger Research Center and colleagues. “The patient visited his physician with complaints of gastric distress, dysphagia, difficulty in swallowing when eating or drinking, soreness of the leg muscles and knee joints, and general malaise,” Eichmiller and colleagues write Tests by the physician showed thickening of the esophagus walls and other irregularities of this muscular tube that carries food from the mouth to the stomach. “Many of these symptoms might have been considered normal sequelae of the head-and-neck cancer treatment if not for the latent onset of joint and muscle pains,” they report. Eichmiller’s team monitored the patient’s urinary fluoride levels while fluoride treatments were lowered until his symptoms disappeared. When fluoride treatments were stopped completely and brushing just once a day with fluoridated toothpaste, [...]

2/9/2005 staff report Cancer Weekly Feb, 8, 2005 Tobacco smoke triggers the production of COX-2, a cellular protein linked to the development and progression of cancer, according to new research. Tobacco smoke also promoted rapid cellular production of two proteins that initiate an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) driven cascade leading to the production of COX-2, the Cancer Research report stated. The report by Andrew J. Dannenberg, MD, director of cancer prevention, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, and colleagues, indicates that smokers produce as much as four times the amount of COX-2 in oral mucosal cells lining their mouths than their nonsmoking counterparts. After observing the increased amount of COX-2 in the oral mucosa of smokers, Dannenberg and his team of collaborating scientists exposed cells in culture to tobacco smoke to define the mechanism underlying smoke-induced elevation of COX-2. The researchers determined that COX-2 levels were increased due to tobacco smoke induced activation of EGFR, a cell membrane protein also associated with various types of cancer. Tobacco smoke stimulated the oral mucosal cells to rapidly release two proteins that activate the EGFR, initiating a cascade resulting in COX-2 protein production. "In an oral mucosal cell line, tobacco smoke clearly activated the epidermal growth factor receptor. Tobacco smoke caused increased EGFR phosphorylation leading to increased COX-2 production," Dannenberg reported. "We were able to block the induction of COX-2 with either a small molecule that inhibited EGFR activity or an antibody that prevented ligands from binding to and activating the EGFR. [...]

2/9/2005 staff report Oncology Business Week Reb. 6, 2005 Researchers from Sweden reported study data concluding that human papilloma virus positively impacts prognosis in base of tongue cancer patients. "The frequency of human papilloma virus (HPV) and its influence on clinical outcome was analyzed retrospectively in pre-treatment paraffin embedded biopsies from 110 patients with tongue cancer," wrote L. Dahlgren and colleagues in the International Journal of Cancer. "The presence of HPV DNA was examined in 85 mobile tongue tumors and 25 base of tongue tumors by a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with 2 general primer pairs, GPS+/6+ and CPI/IIG. When HPV-DNA was found, HPV-type specific primers and direct sequencing were used for HPV sub-type verification. "Twelve of 110 (10.9%) samples were HPV-positive; 9 for HPV-16, 1 for HPV-33, 1 for HPV-35 and 1 could not be analyzed because of shortage of DNA. HPV was significantly more common in base of tongue tumors (10/25, 40.0%) compared to tumors of the mobile tongue (2/85, 2.3%)," the authors reported. Kahlgren and colleagues noted, "The influence of HPV on clinical outcome in mobile tongue cancer could not be studied, due to that HPV was present in too few cases. "Of the 19 patients with base of tongue cancer that were included in the survival analysis, however, 7 patients with HPV-positive base of tongue cancer had a significantly favorable 5-year survival rate compared to the 12 HPV-negative patients." "In conclusion, HPV is significantly more common in base of tongue cancer than in mobile tongue cancer, [...]

2/9/2005 Philadelphia, PA staff report Biotech Week, Feb. 2, 2005 Cancer researchers at Jefferson Medical College and the Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia have found that zinc treatment may help prevent esophageal and oral cancers in those individuals at high risk. Oral and esophageal cancers are associated with nutritional zinc deficiency, and a rise in the expression of the enzyme COX-2 is connected with these cancers. Louise Fong, PhD, assistant professor of microbiology and immunology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, and her coworkers have found that zinc given orally to zinc-deficient rats reverses the development of precancerous conditions in the esophagus and tongue and reverses the high expression of COX-2 there as well. These findings suggest that zinc supplements may prevent the development of esophageal or oral cancers, particularly in developing countries where zinc deficiency is a problem. The researchers reported their findings January 5, 2005 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Zinc in the diet comes mostly from red meat and seafood. Whereas up to 10% of Americans have a zinc-deficient diet, as many as 2 billion individuals in developing countries are zinc-deficient. Epidemiological evidence show the incidence of esophageal and oral cancers is rising in recent years. As many as 13,000 Americans die from esophageal cancer each year. Fong has been studying zinc deficiency and its connection to esophageal cancer for some 20 years, and has developed animal models of zinc deficiency and cancer susceptibility. Zinc deficiency, she said, [...]

2/9/2005 staff report Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA, Feb. 6, 2005 Cel-Sci Corp. has submitted a phase III clinical trial protocol to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the use of its investigational immunotherapy drug Multikine in the treatment of advanced primary squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity. Additional information in support of and to provide the rationale for the phase III trial (final reports of clinical trials conducted with Multikine to date and manufacturing and testing information) was included with this submission. The protocol was designed in consultation with a group of recognized experts in the field of head & neck cancer therapy to develop the conclusive evidence of the safety and efficacy of Multikine in the treatment of advanced primary squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity that would be required to license the product. The company plans to meet with the FDA to discuss the proposed phase III clinical trial over the next several months and obtain the agency's approval to initiate the study. Geert Kersten, CEO of Cel-Sci said, "We believe that Multikine has the ability to improve the success rate of first line therapy in head & neck cancer and this protocol is designed to prove our belief." Head and neck cancer is an aggressive cancer that affects about 500,000 people per annum worldwide. Multikine is an immunotherapeutic agent consisting of a mixture of naturally occurring cytokines including interleukins, interferons, chemokines and colony-stimulating factors. Multikine has completed several phase II [...]

2/7/2005 Rustburg, VA Cynthia T. Pegram The Lynchburg News and Advance Stephen L. Thompson, M.D., looked relaxed and healthy sitting in his office this week. The husky timbre of his voice might have been the aftermath of a cold. But it was throat cancer, not a seasonal microbe, that added the bit of hoarseness to his voice and kept him away from the office from October to January. On Jan. 5, Thompson began working a half-a-day a week in his family practice group, on his way back to full time. Nowadays patients will see him sip a glass of water he keeps nearby to combat the dry mouth after-effects of radiation treatment. Although not seen as frequently as other cancers, cancers of the head and neck are not rare. The most recent data from the Virginia Cancer Registry reported 715 patients in 1999. During 2005 nationwide, nearly 10,000 new cancers in and around the vocal cords are likely to occur, according to the American Cancer Society. Tobacco use is a factor in about 80 percent of head and neck cancers. Thompson, like most doctors, is part health educator - he wants people to be aware of throat cancer potential, so he gave permission for his doctors to talk about his treatment. Thompson, who has practiced in Campbell County for more than 30 years, was lucky. The cancer was found early, in part because of the odd way it turned up last spring. It was Mother’s Day, he recalled. “I had [...]