3/9/2006 New York, NY staff Forbes.com Researchers may be within spitting distance of a reliable, saliva-based early detection test for oral cancer. "It's nothing more than having someone spit. And 24 hours after the sample is mailed in, that information could be known to the individual -- whether you're at risk of having oral cancer," said study senior researcher Dr. David T. Wong, director of the Dental Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles. His team presented its findings Thursday at the American Association for Dental Research annual meeting, in Orlando, Fla. According to the American Cancer Society, each year more than 31,000 Americans are diagnosed with some form of oral cancer, and more than 7,000 people die from the disease. Smoking and the use of smokeless tobacco products, as well as excessive drinking, are both risk factors for oral malignancies. According to Wong, early detection is key to beating oral cancer. "The later you detect it, the more dreadful the outcome," he said. "For example, someone who has what we call stage 3 disease -- there are stages one through four -- has only a 20 percent chance of survival. But if you detect that person's disease at stage one, he'll have a 90 percent chance of survival over five years." Regular, thorough oral exams by a trained professional can spot lesions early on, but "not every dentist or health-care provider does a full oral heath exam," Wong said. That's why he and other researchers are working [...]

3/8/2006 England A M Kirby et al. British Journal of Cancer (2006) 94, 631-636 Head and neck cancer is the sixth most common malignant tumour diagnosed in Europe. More than 100 000 cases were diagnosed in Europe in 2000 with more than 50 000 deaths occurring in the same year. Many patients present with locally advanced, unresectable (stages III and IV) disease in which the standard treatment is a combination of platinum-based chemotherapy and radiotherapy. For patients who relapse after such treatment, the only curative treatment option is surgical. If this is not possible, as is often the case, platinum-based chemotherapy is frequently used as palliative therapy (Forastiere et al, 1992; Jacobs et al, 1992) Other drugs that have some activity in this tumour type include bleomycin, methotrexate, taxanes, gemcitabine and vinorelbine (Clark et al, 2001; Basaran et al, 2002). However, tumour response rates rarely exceed 30-35% (Liggett and Forastiere, 1995) and responses are usually of short duration such that the outlook in the setting of recurrent/metastatic disease is poor, with 1-year survival below 30% and median survival only 4 months. Treatment options for patients with progressive disease (PD) are limited and, therefore, this is an area of high unmet need. The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), a member of the erbB family of receptors, is a transmembrane glycoprotein whose intracellular domain has tyrosine kinase activity. Activation of the EGFR increases the proliferation, differentiation and survival of cancer cells via multiple phosphorylation-dependent signalling cascades down to transcription factors in the [...]

3/8/2006 Memphis, TN staff CancerConsultants.com According to an early online article published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, circulating ribonuclease acids (RNAs) present in a blood sample may help detect oral cancer. Oral cancer, or cancer of the mouth, is considered a type of head and neck cancer. Approximately 40,000 people in the US are diagnosed with head and neck cancer every year. In 2005 the American Cancer Society estimated that 11,000 people would die from head and neck cancer. The earlier that oral cancer is detected, the greater the cure rate with standard therapy. Therefore, “markers” that accurately detect early oral cancers may help improve survival among patients with this disease. Research continues into early detection of head and neck cancers since a significant portion of patients has advanced disease upon diagnosis. Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), recently conducted a clinical study to evaluate the accuracy of the presence of RNA (a type of genetic protein) in circulating blood in detecting oral cancer. This trial included 32 patients with early oral squamous cell carcinoma (the most common type of oral cancer; designated by the type of cell where the cancer originated), and 35 healthy patients. All patients had their blood drawn and tested for the presence of specific mRNAs. A combination of markers (specific RNAs) detected 91% of the cancers. The same combination of markers accurately distinguished 71% of cancers from non-cancerous conditions. The researchers concluded that, although these findings need further confirmation, results from [...]

3/8/2006 Iowa City, IA staff CancerConsultants.com Among selected patients with head and neck cancer that has not yet spread to distant sites in the body, combination chemotherapy and radiation therapy appears to cure many patients without the need for surgical removal of the affected area. These results were published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Approximately 40,000 people in the US are diagnosed with head and neck cancer every year. Cancers of the head and neck comprise several types of cancers affecting the nasal cavity and sinuses, oral cavity, nasopharynx (upper part of throat, behind ear), oropharynx (middle part of throat, including soft palate, base of tongue, and tonsils), and other sites throughout the head and neck. In 2005 the American Cancer Society estimated that 11,000 people would die from head and neck cancer. To describe patient outcomes after treatment of head and neck cancer with radiation therapy and combination chemotherapy delivered at the same time (concurrent), researchers at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation assessed 222 patients who were treated between 1989 and 2002. All patients had squamous cell cancer of the head or neck that had not yet spread to distant sites in the body. A majority of the patients had stage III or stage IV cancer, and a small number had stage II cancer. Patients received radiation therapy once or twice daily. During the first and fourth weeks of radiation therapy, patients also received chemotherapy with fluorouracil and cisplatin. Patients underwent surgery to remove the cancer only if there [...]

3/8/2006 St. Louis, MO staff YubaNet.com Before you take that walk or ride a bike, think again - especially if you will be undergoing a positron emission tomography (PET) scan any time soon. "Any type of physical activity - from tapping your feet while in the waiting room to jogging the neighborhood the day before - can affect the results of a PET scan and lead to false-positive results," said Medhat M. Osman, M.D., ScM, Ph.D., assistant professor in the department of internal medicine's division of nuclear medicine and director of PET at St. Louis University Hospital, St. Louis, Mo. "Knowing whether a patient has participated in physical activity is relevant in interpreting a PET imaging study," added the co-author of "Prevalence and Patterns of Physiologic Muscle Uptake Detected With Whole-Body 18F-FDG PET," which appears in the March issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology. "Individuals undergoing PET scans should take it easy - and if you do any kind of physical activity outside of the ordinary - you should let your nuclear medicine technologist know so it can be noted," said Thomas C. Schlarman, MBA, CNMT, educational coordinator with the department of nuclear medicine technology at St. Louis University. Physical activity may trigger a potential source of false-positive results on a PET scan in about one out of eight patients, he noted. In order to obtain the most accurate reading of PET scans, patients should not exercise excessively 48 hours prior to having a PET scan and should [...]

3/7/2006 Iowa City, IA staff cancerconsultants.com According to a recent article published in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics, the treatment combination of chemotherapy plus radiation therapy results in improved outcomes compared to aggressive radiation therapy for cancers of the oropharynx or hypopharynx that cannot be surgically removed. Approximately 40,000 people in the US are diagnosed with head and neck cancer every year. Cancers of the head and neck comprise several types of cancers affecting the nasal cavity and sinuses, oral cavity, nasopharynx, oropharynx, and other sites throughout the head and neck. In 2005 the American Cancer Society estimated that 11,000 people would from head and neck cancer. The oropharynx is the part of the throat that lies behind the mouth. The hypopharynx is the bottom part of the throat that leads to the esophagus (tube leading to the stomach) and the larynx (tube where air passes to the lungs). Standard treatment for cancer of the oropharynx or hypopharynx is largely determined by the stage (extent to which the cancer has spread) as well as the specific locations to which the cancer has spread. The patient’s overall medical condition is also a consideration. Treatment typically consists of radiation therapy, chemotherapy with surgery, or surgery alone. Unfortunately, a significant portion of patients are not able to undergo surgery; this condition is referred to as “unresectable”. Cancer is typically considered unresectable due to the extent of spread of the cancer, the structures to which the cancer has spread, or the [...]

3/5/2006 Chicago, IL Martin K. Bench, DDS J Am Dent Assoc, Vol 137, No 3, 294 Letters: I am writing in response to Dr. Charles Hapcook’s November JADA column, "Risk Management Considerations for Oral Cancer" ( JADA 2005;136: 1566–7[Medline] ). Dr. Hapcook writes, "For abnormalities or suspicious lesions found during the evaluation, the dentist should either schedule the patient for a reevaluation or properly refer the patient. Failure to follow these procedures on a timely basis can result in a more severe medical and dental consequence for the patient and an onerous legal consequence for the dentist, especially in the case of oral cancer." Many JADA readers, no doubt, are well aware of the value of the oral brush biopsy in the early detection of precancerous and cancerous oral lesions. The great majority of oral abnormalities are not "suspicious" and, therefore, do not warrant referral or need for biopsy. Rather, dentists are faced, almost daily, with evaluating lesions that have minimal or no suspicious features, and no obvious etiology. It is precisely these types of lesions that dentists should evaluate with the brush biopsy, since some will prove to be pre-cancerous or cancerous, despite their benign appearance. These types of lesions develop in all ages, including in young patients, in those with no risk factors for oral cancer and, increasingly, in women. Personally, I have found the brush biopsy to be an invaluable and reliable tool in my practice. The brush biopsy provides my referring dentists and, more importantly, my [...]

3/5/2006 Chicago, IL David T. Wong, DMD, DMSc J Am Dent Assoc, Vol 137, No 3, 313-321 Background: The ability to monitor health status, disease onset and progression, and treatment outcome through noninvasive means is a highly desirable goal in health care promotion and delivery. Oral fluid is a perfect medium to be explored for health and disease surveillance. Methods: Two prerequisites exist before the goal of salivary diagnostics can be achieved: identification of specific biomarkers associated with a health or disease state and the development of technologies that can discriminate between the biomarkers. A recent initiative of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research has created a roadmap to achieve these goals through the use of oral fluids as the diagnostic medium to scrutinize the health and/or disease status of patients. This is an ideal opportunity to optimize state-of-the-art saliva-based biosensors for salivary biomarkers that discriminate between diseases. Results: Seven technology groups are developing point-of-care salivary diagnostic technologies. Three groups are working together toward deciphering the salivary proteome. Conclusion: These collective efforts and the convergence of salivary diagnostic technologies and the salivary proteome will present unparalleled opportunities to explore the diagnostic potential of saliva for oral and systemic diseases.

3/3/2006 Bethesda, MD Naghma Khan et al. Cancer Research 66, 2500-2505, March 1, 2006 Cell signaling pathways, responsible for maintaining a balance between cell proliferation and death, have emerged as rational targets for the management of cancer. Emerging data amassed from various laboratories around the world suggests that green tea, particularly its major polyphenolic constituent (–)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), possesses remarkable cancer chemopreventive and therapeutic potential against various cancer sites in animal tumor bioassay systems and in some human epidemiologic studies. EGCG has been shown to modulate multiple signal transduction pathways in a fashion that controls the unwanted proliferation of cells, thereby imparting strong cancer chemopreventive as well as therapeutic effects. This review discusses the modulations of important signaling events by EGCG and their implications in cancer management.(Cancer Res 2006;66(5):2500–5) Authors: Naghma Khan, Farrukh Afaq, Mohammad Saleem, Nihal Ahmad and Hasan Mukhtar Authors' affiliation: Department of Dermatology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin

3/3/2006 Philadelphia, PA staff 10NBC HealthWatch (www.nbc10.com) Treatments for oral cancers can be very difficult and even disfiguring. But now, local doctors are the first in the world to use robotic surgery for cancerous head and neck tumors. The surgery spares patients the devastating side effects of more traditional surgery. The revolutionary technique was developed in Philadelphia. The surgery robot is changing 57-year-old Philip Preston's life without destroying his appearance. When Preston was told he had cancer at the base of his tongue, he and his wife, Beverly, felt like they had been slapped. "I was blown away. I couldn't believe it," Beverly Preston said. The second punch came when they learned what surgery would mean. "A very big incision, very devastating destructive cuts through a lip, a jaw bone, through the teeth," said Dr. Robert O'Malley, of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Many people end up with facial deformities. They can have trouble speaking and swallowing. They may need reconstructive surgery or a tracheotomy -- a tube inserted into the neck to breathe. But Preston became one of the first people in the world to have another option. Surgeons at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania told him they could remove the cancerous tumor and avoid the traditional side effects. Surgeons control the robot from a nearby console. The robot gives doctors a 3-D image and lets doctors use miniature surgical instruments that fit directly into the mouth and reach areas that are impossible for their [...]