7/24/2006 Charleston, SC S ElOjeimy et al Cancer Gene Therapy (2006) 13, 739–745. doi:10.1038/sj.cgt.7700951 In this study, we investigated the in vitro and in vivo efficacy of Fas ligand (FasL) gene therapy for the treatment of head and neck cancer. Three head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) cell lines (SCC-1, SCC-12, and SCC-14a) were treated with the Fas agonist CH-11, a monoclonal antibody to the Fas receptor, or with a replication-incompetent adenovirus (AdGFPFasL) expressing a modified murine Fas ligand gene fused to green fluorescent protein (GFP). A replication-incompetent adenovirus containing the GFP gene alone was used as a control for viral transduction toxicity (AdGFP). Cell death was quantified using a tetrazolium-based (MTS) assay. Cells were analyzed by flow cytometry to determine the expression of adenoviral and Fas receptors on the surface of the cells. Our results showed that the head and neck cancer cell lines are resistant to cell death induction when treated with the anti-Fas monoclonal antibody CH-11. This resistance can be overcome with AdGFPFasL, which was able to induce cell death in all three cell lines. Apoptosis induction was demonstrated using Western blotting by evaluating poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase, and caspase 9 cleavages. In addition, intratumoral injections of AdGFPFasL into SCC-14a xenografts induced significant growth suppression of tumors, indicating that FasL gene therapy may provide a new efficient therapeutic modality for HNSCC that is worthy of a clinical trial. Authors: S ElOjeimy1,3, J C McKillop1,3, A M El-Zawahry1, D H Holman1, X Liu1, D A Schwartz1, T A Day2, [...]

7/21/2006 New York, NY press release PRNewswire (www.prnewswire.com) BioSciences Inc., a company engaged in the acquisition, development and commercialization of oncology and acute care products, today reported that India's Drug Controller General has granted marketing approval to nimotuzumab, an anti-EGFr monoclonal antibody, for the treatment of head & neck cancer. Biocon Biopharmaceuticals Ltd, a joint venture between Biocon and CIMAB SA (Havana, Cuba), has rights to the drug from CIMAB for the Indian subcontinent. "While our license for nimotuzumab does not extend to India, this approval is an important validation of the safety and efficacy of the drug. In addition, a significant amount of additional clinical data in head & neck cancer will be now generated in India as nimotuzumab is commercialized," said David Allan, Chairman and CEO of YM BioSciences. "YM has been advised that in the trials undertaken by Biocon Biopharmaceuticals Ltd to gain approval for nimotuzumab no cases were observed of the severe rash commonly produced by similar agents with the same target, consistent with previous study results. The absence of this debilitating side-effect should prove a key differentiator for nimotuzumab in the marketplace." Nimotuzumab is currently in a Phase IIl trial in Europe in combination with radiation for the treatment of pediatric pontine glioma. YM BioSciences and CIMYM BioSciences Inc. are preparing to file for authorization to conduct a trial in North America in pediatric pontine glioma. In addition, YM is developing nimotuzumab for non-small cell lung cancer and pancreatic cancer and proposes to pursue the [...]

7/21/2006 Iowa City, IA Angela Meng Iowa City Press Citizen (www.press-citizen.com) Health experts worry about rise of fruity flavors Every time a new flavor of smokeless tobacco comes out, Matt Walters, 26, is curious to see what it tastes like. "People may not like Skoal straight, but now they have apple, cherry and jolly rancher flavors, and they taste a lot better than plain or original tobacco," the North Liberty resident said. "The tobacco industry is doing a good job of getting people to try chew." Although statistics have shown a decrease in smokeless tobacco use, some think an increase is in the near future. "I think it may well increase now for two reasons: the increasing movement to smoke-free environments and the great interest of the large tobacco companies in smokeless tobacco," said Christopher Squier, University of Iowa associate dean of the College of Dentistry and a member of the Dows Institute for Dental Research at UI. According to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, use of chewing tobacco, snuff or dip by middle school and high school students in the United States decreased from 11.4 percent in 1995 to 8 percent in 2005. In Iowa, usage decreased from 12.8 percent in 1997 to 7.9 percent in 2005. However, health experts say the tobacco industry is promoting smokeless tobacco in ways that will soon escalate use. "The tobacco industry is starting this 'harm reduction' theme -- which is a great market," Squier said. "They market [...]

7/21/2006 Appleton, WI Wendy Harris Post Crescent (www.postcrescent.com) What seemed like your average winter sore throat eventually gave Janelle Zempel the shock of her life. She had cancer in her neck. “I thought that was it,” said Zempel, now 57, who figured she’d just be given a death sentence in the spring of 2003 when her persistent sore throat by then had grown into a door knob-sized tumor. By the time she arrived at Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee for treatment, doctors gave her hope that she could survive. But the initial plan they offered was horrendous. “They told me they’d have to (operate on) my larynx, the jugular vein on the left side of my neck, my esophagus, and another vein in my shoulder,” said Zempel, of Fremont. “And I’d have to have a feeding tube for a year until they could reconstruct my esophagus.” And then they gave her another option — a new diagnostic and treatment approach that was being tested by Dr. Dian Wang, assistant professor of radiation oncology at the Medical College of Wisconsin, who practices at Froedtert. Wang was conducting a study involving head and neck cancer patients that used combined images from PET and CT scans to more accurately visualize tumors, and then attack them with a very precise form of radiation, called intensity-modulated radiation therapy. Traditionally, CT scans — an X-ray test that takes pictures of thin slices of the body, are used for seeing tumors. A PET scan, meanwhile, uses a short-lived [...]

7/21/2006 Austin, TX staff www.news8austin.com Oral cancer is the sixth most common cancer in the U.S. The survival rate of oral cancer is lower than that of cervical cancer, Hodgkin's disease, cancer of the brain, liver, testes, kidneys and skin. It is the cause of nearly 8,000 deaths a year in the U.S. That means one patient dies from oral cancer every hour. Worldwide, oral cancer can affect 350,000 annually. Smoking and other tobacco use are associated with 70 to 80 percent of oral cancer cases. Men are affected twice as often as women, particularly men older than age 40. Other than the lips, the most common areas for oral cancer are on the tongue and floor of the mouth. Oral cancer is particularly dangerous because it has a high risk of producing second, primary tumors. Early detection is the key. The mortality rate of this cancer is high because it's often discovered too late in development. Cancer is diagnosed in stages I-IV. Detection of an oral cancer in stage I will carry a likely prognosis of an 80 percent survival rate. However, the same lesion, if progressed to stage III, will carry a 20 percent survival rate. Despite numerous advances in treatment, oral squamous cell carcinoma has just an approximately 50% at five-years from diagnosis survival rate, which is the worst of all cancer death rates. The five-year survival rate has not improved in the last three decades. Currently, the most definitive procedure to detect oral cancer involves a [...]

7/19/2006 Indianapolis, IN staff The Indianapolis Star (Indystar.com) Dr. Stephen J. Jay, chair of the Indiana University School of Medicine's Department of Public Health, discusses smokeless tobacco products. Question: What are smokeless tobacco products? Answer: They come in lots of different forms, such as chewing tobacco, but it's basically putting tobacco in your mouth and absorbing nicotine and lots of different chemicals into your body instead of inhaling them. You don't generate any smoke. We used to refer to this as "spit tobacco," since one of the things you do when you use it is you spit. But some newer products don't require you to do that. Q: Are smokeless tobacco products better for you than cigarettes? A: They're highly addicting. And the companies don't have to adhere to any standards or regulations because there are none for these products, so the consumer really has no idea what is in the product. What you do when you use smokeless tobacco is you just trade your cancer. Instead of getting lung cancer, you get cancers of the lip, tongue, and head and neck cancers, which are just horrible cancers. The disfiguration and surgical procedures needed to treat many of these tumors are just terrible. You have other problems, some of which you also have with smoking, like periodontal disease, dental diseases of gum, including tooth decay and tooth loss. Q: How about Taboka, the new spitless tobacco that's being tested in Indianapolis? A: We have no scientific evidence that I'm aware [...]

7/19/2006 Bristol, United Kingdom Anna A. Davies et al. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Vol. 98, No. 14, 961-973, July 19, 2006 Background: Dietary modifications and supplements are used widely by patients with cancer and preinvasive lesions as an adjunct to standard treatment. Given the widespread use of nutritional modifications and supplements by such patients and concerns about the lack of benefit and possible harm, we conducted a systematic review of randomized controlled trials to examine the effect of nutritional interventions on patients with cancer or preinvasive lesions. Methods: We searched electronic databases and reference lists to locate all eligible trials and analyzed trial quality. Outcome measures were all-cause and cancer mortality, disease-free survival, cancer recurrence, second primary cancer, recurrence of a preinvasive lesion, or progression to cancer. Results of individual trials were combined by use of random-effects meta-analyses. Results: We identified 59 eligible trials, 25 in patients with cancer and 34 in patients with preinvasive lesions, respectively. Trial quality was generally low; only three trials (two of cancer and one of preinvasive lesions) had adequate methods for generating the allocation sequence, allocation concealment, and masking both outcome assessors and participants. The combined odds ratio (OR) for the effect of a healthy diet—given alone or with dietary supplements, weight loss, or exercise—on all-cause mortality was 0.90 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.46 to 1.77). There was no evidence of an association between the use of antioxidant (OR = 1.01, 95% CI = 0.88 to 1.15) or retinol (OR = [...]

7/19/2006 San Francisco, CA staff Biocompare.com Researchers have discovered a potent inhibitor of the human papilloma viruses (HPV), particularly those types that cause cervical cancer and genital warts, according to a study published in PLoS Pathogens. The inhibitor is found in commercially available products, including sexual lubricants and baby food. In laboratory tests, carrageenan, a compound derived from red algae, prevented HPV infection by both genital wart and cancer-causing types. "We were floored by how much better it worked than anything else we have tested. It's effective at 100-fold lower concentration than the next best inhibitor we've found," said Dr. John Schiller, senior investigator at the National Cancer Institute. Normally, HPV attacks cells by attaching to proteins on their surface and then chemically manipulating access to the cells. Carrageenan thwarts this process by attaching to HPV and preventing its entry into cells. Christopher Buck, lead author of the study and post-doctoral fellow at the National Cancer Institute, searched for candidate inhibitory compounds by looking for substances that were structurally similar to a key cell surface component involved in HPV infection. "When carrageenan came up to be the clear winner, Chris started to search for products that might contain it," said Schiller. "It quickly became clear that it is widely used as a thickening agent in many foods and topically applied products. So he decided to search for sexual lubricants that might contain it as the gelling agent and came up with several. Although carrageenan was identified in a systematic screen, [...]

7/19/2006 Plantation, FL press release biz.yahoo.com CIGNA Dental today announced the expansion of its DHMO product suite to include a new series of schedules that highlight the importance of preventive care and wellness through a new split copay differential, oral cancer detection offerings, greater access to dental sealants, and more. "These DHMO plan enhancements are part of the overall broad product suite that we offer our employer customers. In fact, we are experiencing increased employer interest in adding DHMO to their plan offerings as another cost savings approach," says Rebekah Whitehouse, chief marketing officer of CIGNA Dental. The CIGNA Dental Care 06 Patient Charge Schedules (PCS), effective August 1, 2006, include procedures and copays that build upon its flexible and innovative dental plan offerings, giving CIGNA one of the most extensive national DHMO product lines. "With rising health care costs, employers are looking for ways to manage benefit expenses while maintaining healthy and productive employees," added Whitehouse. "Through wellness and cost savings features, these new plans provide a cost-effective option for employers and employees. The 06 Plans provide flexibility while focusing on comprehensive coverage and the importance of preventive care." Studies show that preventive dental care can help members avoid paying more money in the long-term for restorative and emergency treatment. This new product series offers members coverage for a wide range of dental services, with most preventive services covered at no or low cost. "Structuring dental plans that encourage use of preventive dental care supports our mission to provide [...]

7/17/2006 Houston, TX Juan A. Lozano Chron.com Knees bent and hands above his head, Francis Maloy lay on his back on a narrow, metallic table inside a white chamber, waiting for a giant wheel-like device to bombard the tumor in his chest with protons. "I had never heard of proton therapy. The last time I heard about protons I was in college taking physics," said Maloy, a 68-year-old retired Army colonel from Stuart, Fla., just before the procedure. Maloy, who has advanced lung cancer, is one of the first patients being treated at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center's new $125 million Proton Therapy Center. It is the largest of the nation's four such facilities that treat cancer by targeting protons narrowly on the tumor itself, sparing the healthy tissue that with traditional X-ray radiation therapy is blasted along with the cancer cells. From inside one of five treatment rooms in the 94,000 square-foot center, the gantry looks like the airlock of a science-fiction spaceship. But behind it sits the bending magnets, electrical wires and monitors that make up the gantry, encased in a steel barrel, three stories tall and weighing 190 tons. The protons, which are stripped from the nucleus of hydrogen atoms in a tubular device called an injector, are sent to a compact particle accelerator — actually a ring of magnets about 20 feet in diameter — called a synchrotron. There they circle around until they gather enough energy to irradiate a tumor before being [...]