2/3/2006 Iwoa City, IA staff Doctor's Guide (www.docguide.com) A limitation of current cancer care is the difficulty of quickly assessing how well a therapy is working. However, expanding the use of existing positron emission tomography (PET) technology can provide early and accurate assessment of a tumor's response to a particular therapy allowing physicians to better tailor a patient's treatment, according to Malik Juweid, MD, associate professor of radiology at the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine. Writing in the Feb. 2 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, Juweid and co-author Bruce Cheson, MD, of the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University Hospital, outline the advantages and limitations of PET imaging in assessing cancer therapy and suggest that increasing the role of PET imaging has the potential to further improve cancer care management. PET is a non-invasive imaging technique that uses radioactivity emitted from injected tracer chemicals to measure and image biological activity. The most commonly used PET radiotracer is fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), a radiolabeled form of glucose, which is consumed more avidly by tumors than by normal tissue. In fact, Dr. Juweid's work already has led to changes in how PET is used in cancer care. In a study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology in July 2005, Dr. Juweid and colleagues showed that adding FDG-PET to the standard computer tomography (CT)-based assessment criteria made the predictions of treatment outcome much more accurate for aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Based on this study, [...]

2/2/2006 Miami, FL Ayinde O. Chase All Headline News (www.allheadlinenews.com) Doctors in Italy are studying whether a new type of mouthwash will help alleviate pain for patients suffering from head and neck cancer who were treated with radiation therapy. According to the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, fifty patients suffering from various forms of head and neck cancer and who received radiation therapy as part of their treatment, were observed during the course of their radiation treatment. All of the patients experienced some level of pain related to their cancer treatment and this study sought to discover if a mouthwash made from the local anesthetic tetracaine was able to alleviate the discomfort associated with head and neck cancer, and if there would be any negative side effects of the mouthwash. The mouthwash containing tetracaine was administered approximately 30 minutes before and after meals. With 48 of the 50 patients reporting relief of oral pain The doctors chose to concoct a tetracaine-based mouthwash instead of a lidocaine-based version because it was found to be four times more effective, worked faster, and produced a prolonged relief.

2/1/2006 Goettingen, Germany Tobias Raupach et al. ©The European Society of Cardiology 2005 The evidence that active smoking is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and the leading cause of preventable death is overwhelming. However, numerous epidemiological findings indicate that even passive exposure to cigarette smoke may exert detrimental effects on vascular homoeostasis. Recent experimental data provide a deeper insight into the pathophysiological mechanisms linking secondhand smoke (SHS) to CVD. Importantly, most of these effects appear to be characterized by a rapid onset. For example, the relatively low doses of toxins inhaled by passive smoking are sufficient to elicit acute endothelial dysfunction, and these effects may be related, at least in part, to the inactivation of nitric oxide. Moreover, passive smoking may directly impair the viability of endothelial cells and reduce the number and functional activity of circulating endothelial progenitor cells. In addition, platelets of non-smokers appear to be susceptible to pro-aggregatory changes with every passive smoke exposure. Overall, SHS induces oxidative stress and promotes vascular inflammation. Apart from vascoconstriction and thrombus formation, however, the myocardial oxygen balance is further impaired by SHS-induced adrenergic stimulation and autonomic dysfunction. These data strongly suggest that passive smoking is capable of precipitating acute manifestations of CVD (atherothrombosis) and may also have a negative impact on the outcome of patients who suffer acute coronary syndromes. Authors: Tobias Raupach, Katrin Schäfer, Stavros Konstantinides and Stefan Andreas Authors' affiliation: Department of Cardiology and Pulmonology, University Clinic, Georg August University of Goettingen, D-37099 Goettingen, Germany

2/1/2006 Goettingen, Germany Tobias Raupach et al. ©The European Society of Cardiology 2005 The evidence that active smoking is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and the leading cause of preventable death is overwhelming. However, numerous epidemiological findings indicate that even passive exposure to cigarette smoke may exert detrimental effects on vascular homoeostasis. Recent experimental data provide a deeper insight into the pathophysiological mechanisms linking secondhand smoke (SHS) to CVD. Importantly, most of these effects appear to be characterized by a rapid onset. For example, the relatively low doses of toxins inhaled by passive smoking are sufficient to elicit acute endothelial dysfunction, and these effects may be related, at least in part, to the inactivation of nitric oxide. Moreover, passive smoking may directly impair the viability of endothelial cells and reduce the number and functional activity of circulating endothelial progenitor cells. In addition, platelets of non-smokers appear to be susceptible to pro-aggregatory changes with every passive smoke exposure. Overall, SHS induces oxidative stress and promotes vascular inflammation. Apart from vascoconstriction and thrombus formation, however, the myocardial oxygen balance is further impaired by SHS-induced adrenergic stimulation and autonomic dysfunction. These data strongly suggest that passive smoking is capable of precipitating acute manifestations of CVD (atherothrombosis) and may also have a negative impact on the outcome of patients who suffer acute coronary syndromes. Authors: Tobias Raupach, Katrin Schäfer, Stavros Konstantinides and Stefan Andreas Authors' affiliation: Department of Cardiology and Pulmonology, University Clinic, Georg August University of Goettingen, D-37099 Goettingen, Germany

2/1/2006 San Diego, CA press release Genetic Engineering News (www.genengnews.com) Immusol announced today that it has entered into a license agreement with Baylor College of Medicine for the exclusive, worldwide rights to a novel oncolytic viral therapy using herpes simplex viruses. Baylor researchers have developed extensive expertise in the field of oncolytic virotherapies against a wide variety of solid tumors. The in-licensed therapy represents Baylor's most advanced virotherapy to date and has shown safety and strong efficacy in a number of preclinical animal tumor models. Oncolytic viruses are human viruses that infect and replicate in cancer cells, destroying these harmful cells and leaving normal cells largely unaffected as a result of specific viral genetic modifications. Principal anti-tumor mechanism used by these viruses is a direct cytopathic effect, produced as the virus propagates and spreads from initially infected tumor cells to surrounding tumor cells, achieving a progressively larger volume of distribution and enhanced tumor cell killing. "The recent approval of the first oncolytic viral therapy for head and neck cancer by the Chinese State Food and Drug Administration, together with the increasing number of clinical trials for oncolytic viral therapies worldwide signal the coming of age of oncolytic viral therapy as a new and important modality for cancer treatment," said Dr. Flossie Wong-Staal, Immusol's Chief Scientific Officer and Executive Vice President of Research. "We believe that the Baylor oncolytic viral therapy has significant advantages over many other oncolytic viruses, including higher potency and efficacy in metastatic tumors. We are excited to [...]

2/1/2006 Kerrville, TX Amy Armstrong Kerrville Daily Times (dailytimes.com) Twenty-two-year-old Kristen Morton of San Angelo knows a thing or two about not only surviving, but also thriving when faced with adversity. The senior at Schreiner University in Kerrville, and 2002 graduate of San Angelo Central High School, is leaving a giant legacy at this small private school, its Kerrville community and on hundreds of people who are battling cancer. While creating decorations for a Mini Relay for Life to be held on the Schreiner campus Thursday, she calmly discusses her own battle with cancer. Morton, a San Angelo native, was only weeks from her 17th birthday when she was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma — a cancer so rare that her doctor informed her there were only 18 cases of adolescents getting this form of cancer since 1980. “He told me it is normally seen only in adults who smoke,” said Morton, a senior at Schreiner. Cancer was the last thing on Morton’s mind as she began her junior year at Central. A gifted student, who excelled academically as well as athletically on Central’s tennis team, Morton had noticed a bump on her tongue that wouldn’t go away. “I went for the biopsy and not too long after that my dad showed up at school one day and pulled me out of class,” Morton said. “He said ‘You have cancer and you have to start treatment right away,’” she said. “After that everything happened really fast.” Morton underwent three different [...]