6/20/2006 St. Petersburg, FL V. Upender Rao St. Petersburg Times (www.sptimes.com) Researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center found a high risk of developing a variety of cancers among parents, siblings and children of lung cancer patients who never smoked cigarettes. Researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center found a high risk of developing a variety of cancers (melanoma, head and neck, colorectal, prostate, lung and breast) among first-degree relatives (parents, siblings and children) of lung cancer patients who never smoked cigarettes. Olga Gorlova, PhD, an assistant professor in the department of epidemiology, studied 2,465 first-degree relatives of 316 lung cancer patients who were nonsmokers. She compared the results with 2,442 first-degree relatives of 318 controls who were nonsmokers and who did not have cancer. She found the following patterns and magnitude of increased risk among first-degree relatives of nonsmoking lung cancer patients: - Overall risk of cancer was increased by 25 percent. - First-degree relatives developed cancer 10 years earlier than the index case. - Risk of developing a cancer at a younger age among relatives was estimated at 44 percent. - Greater than a sixfold risk especially for lung cancer at a young age. - A 68 percent risk of developing lung cancer at any age. A study of patients with lung cancer, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, showed an increased risk of lung cancer not only for the first-degree but also for the second- and third-degree relatives [...]

6/20/2006 Iowa City, IA staff CancerConsultants.com Cervarix™, GlaxoSmithKline’s cervical cancer vaccine candidate, produced an antibody response against human papillomavirus (HPV) types 16 and 18 in 100% of vaccinated women between the ages of 15 and 55 years. These results were presented at the 2006 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). HPV types 16 and 18 account for roughly 70% of all cases of cervical cancer. Cervarix, a bivalent L1 virus-like particle vaccine, is intended to prevent infection with these high-risk types of HPV, and may also offer some protection against two other high-risk types of HPV – types 45 and 31. The results presented at ASCO were from a phase III clinical trial conducted among 666 women between the ages of 15 and 55 years. Three doses of vaccine were administered over a six month period, and antibody levels were assessed at 7 and 12 months. - 100% of women had detectable antibodies to HPV types 16 and 18 at month 7 and month 12. - The antibody levels at month 12 were several times higher than would be expected after natural infection - Although geometric mean antibody titers declined with age, the levels observed in the oldest group of women are still expected to provide protection. This study suggests that Cervarix may protect against infection in older as well as younger women. GlaxoSmithKline is expected to submit an application for approval of its vaccine to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by the end [...]

6/15/2006 Iowa City, IA staff CancerConsultants.com Results from a phase III trial indicate that the addition of Taxotere (docetaxel) to Platinol® (cisplatin) and fluorouracil (5-FU) in induction therapy for advanced head and neck cancer improves survival over cisplatin/fluorouracil. These results were presented at a special session at the 42nd annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). Flurouracil and cisplatin are a standard chemotherapy combination for the treatment of head and neck cancers. Recent research, however, has focused on the addition of a third agent such as a taxane to this regimen in order to improve outcomes in patients with this disease. Researchers from Harvard recently conducted a phase III trial to evaluate the addition of Taxotere to cisplatin/florouracil in the treatment of advanced head and neck cancer. This trial included 538 patients with stages III-IV squamous cell carcinomas of the larynx, pharynx or oral cavity. Patients were randomized to induction Taxotere/cisplatin/fluorouracil or cisplatin/fluorouracil (control group) as induction therapy, followed by chemoradiation and in some cases, surgery. The median follow-up time is 42 months. - Three-year survival was 62% for the Taxotere arm, compared with 48% for the control group (p=0.0058). - The median survival for patients in the Taxotere arm was 70.6 months, compared with 30.1 months for the control group. - Side effects were mainly associated with radiation therapy. The researchers stated that this three-drug regimen of Taxotere/cisplatin/fluorouracil used as induction therapy should now be considered a standard reference arm from which to compare future treatment [...]

6/15/2006 Cape Town, South Africa Susan Erasmus Health24.com Former South African president F.W. de Klerk has had a tracheotomy done after complications set in following surgery for colon cancer last week. Why do smokers, or former smokers, often have severe post-operative complications? Health24 spoke to a lung specialist. “Many smokers are unaware of the fact that they have heart or lung problems, before they have operations,” according to lung specialist from Durbanville in Cape Town. “They often have blocked coronary arteries or emphysema, which may only be picked up when post-operative complications set in.” But that does not mean that all smokers get emphysema. Only 15% of them do, but says the doctor, there are many other grim conditions to which smokers are more susceptible than non-smokers, such as mouth cancer, lip cancer and colon cancer, to name but a few. Emphysema is certainly not the only thing to worry about if you are a smoker. He also mentioned that smokers produce more phlegm, which makes them more susceptible to airway and lung infections. Their lungs are also far more likely to collapse after they have had surgery. What is a heavy smoker? When asked when he would consider someone to be a heavy smoker he replied that anyone who smoked 15 or more cigarettes a day could be considered as that. But he also cautioned that that didn’t mean it was in order to smoke ten a day. “Non-smokers are just generally healthier and stand a greater chance to [...]

6/14/2006 New Haven, CT staff Biocompare (news.biocompare.com) There is a lower incidence of cardiovascular disease and cancer in Asia where people smoke heavily, which may be accounted for by high consumption of tea, particularly green tea, according to a review article published by a Yale School of Medicine researcher. "We do not yet have a full explanation for the 'Asian paradox,' which refers to the very low incidence of both heart disease and cancer in Asia, even though consumption of cigarettes is greater than in most other countries," said Bauer Sumpio, M.D., professor and Chief of Vascular Surgery in the Department of Surgery. "But we now have some theories." Sumpio, the lead author of the review in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, said he and his colleagues reviewed more than 100 experimental and clinical studies about green tea in writing the article. He said one theory is that the average 1.2 liters of green tea consumed daily by many people in Asia offers the anti-oxidant protective effects of the polyphenolic EGCG. EGCG may prevent LDL oxidation, which has been shown to play a key role in the pathophysiology of arteriosclerosis. EGCG also reduces the amount of platelet aggregation, regulates lipids, and promotes proliferation and migration of smooth muscle cells, which are all factors in reducing cardiovascular disease, he said. Sumpio said other reports show that EGCG prevents growth of certain tumors. Tea, according to studies, also can improve gastrointestinal function, alcohol metabolism, kidney, liver and pancreatic function, [...]

6/13/2006 Los Angeles, CA press release www.tradingmarkets.com Monday, drug manufacturer MGI Pharma Inc. revealed that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, has accepted its New Drug Application, or NDA, for Saforis Powder for Oral Suspension for priority review. The regulator also kept October 12 as a Prescription Drug User Fee Act goal date for review of the company's application for Saforis. The Bloomington, Minnesota-based MGI Pharma's Saforis is an investigational drug candidate for the prevention and treatment of oral mucositis in patients, who have been given mucotoxic cancer therapy. Oral mucositis is a common side effect of mucotoxic cancer therapy and has been termed by painful ulcerations, redness and swelling in the mouth. More than 200,000 patients in the U.S. are estimated to develop significant oral mucositis every year. This included nearly 40% of patients, who are undergoing standard dose mucotoxic cancer therapy and over 75% of patients receiving high dose chemotherapy with stem cell transplantation or radiation therapy for head and neck cancer. Studies supporting Saforis One pivotal phase 3 trial and several supportive studies form the foundation of the Saforis NDA. The pivotal phase 3 trial of Saforis was successfully completed in 326 patients with breast cancer who were receiving anthracycline-based chemotherapy regimens. The primary endpoint of this trial, defined as a reduction in incidence and severity of oral mucositis, was met. Data showed that patients receiving Saforis experienced a 22% relative risk reduction of clinically significant (World Health Organization or WHO Grade 2 or higher) [...]

6/13/2006 Germany press release finanzen.net Amgenthe world's largest biotechnologycompany, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration(FDA) has accepted the Biologic License Application (BLA) for panitumumab, an investigational fully human monoclonal antibody that targets the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFr) and has granted Priority Review. The BLA was submitted for the treatment of metastaticcolorectal cancer patients who have failed prior chemotherapy,including oxaliplatin and/or irinotecan containing regimens. A Priority Review designation means that the FDA will target an Agency action within six months of the application's submission date. Priority Review status is assigned by the FDA to those applications the Agency has deemed to have the potential to provide a significant therapeutic advance for patients. The rolling BLA submission for panitumumab was initiated in December 2005 and completed in March 2006. Panitumumab received Fast Track designation from the FDA in July 2005. In April 2006, marketing applications were submitted to the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) and Health Canada and in May 2006 in Australia and Switzerland. Patients and physicians can access www.amgentrials.com for moreinformation about ongoing panitumumab clinical trials. About Panitumumab Panitumumab is an investigational fully human monoclonal antibody that targets the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFr), a protein that plays an important role in cancer cell signaling. Panitumumab, an IgG2 monoclonal antibody, binds with high affinity to the EGFr. Panitumumab was generated with XenoMouse(R) technology, which creates a fully human monoclonal antibody that contains no murine (mouse)protein. The body's immune system can recognize the mouse protein found in chimeric [...]

6/13/2006 Larchmont, NY press release Genetic Engineering News (www.genengnews.com) Intraop Medical Corporation has received encouraging reports of significant local control and survival benefits for patients with advanced head and neck cancer who received intraoperative electron radiation therapy (IOERT) as part of their treatment. The studies were conducted at The Arthur James Cancer Center at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, one of seven U.S. centers currently equipped with a Mobetron(R). These results are significant for the Company because Intraop is the developer of the Mobetron, the world's first and only mobile electron-beam system designed exclusively for this kind of treatment. One study involved patients with hypopharyngeal cancer. This uncommon cancer has one of the worst prognoses for tumors of the upper aerodigestive tract, with five-year survival rates ranging from 19% to 31% when using only surgery, conventional radiation and chemotherapy. In the current study that added IOERT, the five-year survival rate was 56%, and more than 90% of the patients achieved local control of their disease. The second study included locally advanced tumors of the oral cavity and oropharynx. Standard treatment regimens for these tumors produce four-year survival rates of less than 38%. When IOERT was added, the survival rate was 72%, and overall local control of the disease was 93%. "Head and neck cancers are very difficult to treat because so many vital structures in this region of the body need to be preserved to provide good quality of life for the patient. These new studies are further [...]

6/12/2006 Rome, Italy Kathy Jones Foodconsumer.org Folic acid supplements could halt some laryngeal lesions from progressing to cancer and could even promote regression of disease, according to a new study by researchers at the Sacro Cuore Catholic University in Rome, Italy. The researchers studied the effect of folic acid supplements on laryngeal leucoplakia, which is a precancerous lesion that occurs as a white patch. Smokers are particularly prone to these lesions and might benefit from taking folic acid as a preventative measure, the researchers said. The study had 43 patients diagnosed with glottic laryngeal leucoplakia. Researchers assigned these patients to receive 5 mg of folate supplements every eight hours for six months. All patients were examined every 30 days. Blood tests were done periodically to ensure the volunteers were taking their supplements as assigned. The researchers report that thirty-one out of 43 patients with laryngeal leukoplakia had a 50 percent or greater reduction in patch size at the end of six months. The detailed report appears in the online edition of the journal Cancer. * The small study found that 12 people did not respond to folic acid supplementation. * Of the remaining, 19 had a partial response and 12 had a complete response. * There was no evidence of the original white patches after 6 months of folic acid therapy in the latter group. "Folate supplementation, alone or in combination with other chemopreventive drugs, could effectively reduce the risk of progression in an already genetically altered mucosa, especially in [...]

6/10/2006 London, England Hugo RIfkind TimesOnLine (entertainment.timesonline.co.uk) Cigarettes were cool in the 1950s; a killer in the 1980s. Now Hollywood is hooked again, says Hugo Rifkind Here’s a funny thing. Throughout Casablanca, not one woman smokes. The men do, like anything. A viewer from another species might assume that Humphrey Bogart has a thin white fifth finger, and that he contains an inexhaustible supply of thin, wispy, white candyfloss, which seeks any orifice from which to escape. But the women; never. They may hold cigarettes, but they never smoke them. Seriously. Not once. There is even a scene, right at the beginning, where a women beside Sam at the piano starts to bring a cigarette towards her mouth, and then pauses, as though thinking better of it. Richard Klein, the author of the excellent Cigarettes are Sublime (Picador, 1995), suggests that she may have been checked by a signal from the director. This was 1942, and a mainstream Hollywood movie. Such things just weren’t done. Jump forward 63 years, to 2005’s Romance and Cigarettes, and you can sort of see where that director was coming from. Whenever Kate Winslet’s grotesquely strapping lingerie salesgirl Tula drains a cigarette and leaves it crushed and lipstick-smeared, it is evident to even the most naive viewer that this cigarette probably represents something else. Thank You for Smoking, which opens on Friday, is a satire based around a tobacco PR, played by Aaron Eckhart, who is desperate to get smoking back into the movies. “Let’s [...]