7/2/2006 Australia staff The Age (theage.com.au) People who both smoke and drink are increasing their risk of head and neck cancer at a much higher rate than those who indulge in just one, researchers in Perth say. The Australian Council on Smoking and Health (ACOSH) commissioned a desk top study to coincide with the introduction of new laws in Western Australia to ban smoking in all pubs and clubs. University of WA epidemiologist Dr David Preen has surveyed more than 300 scientific papers on the topic and says it is not just a matter of adding the risks of smoking to the risks of heavy drinking. "Where you might have a threefold increased risk for smoking and a twofold increased risk for heavy alcohol consumption, you could have anywhere between a 10 or a nine to 15 times increased risk if you combined the two behaviours," Dr Preen said. "Less than five per cent of the population are aware of this fact," said Dr Preen. ACOSH President Prof Mike Daube said the new study was invaluable. "There is more evidence, there is more comprehensive evidence and it covers more cancers," said Prof Daube. "There's really good news for drinkers (who also smoke) ... which is that if you give up smoking you significantly reduce your risk of some very, very nasty cancers," he said. Prof Daube said 75 per cent of the 200 head and neck cancer deaths each year in Western Australia, occurred among people who were both smokers [...]

7/2/2006 Clarksville, TN Greg Kline Clarksville Leaf Chronicle Head and neck cancers kill about a person a day. Even when treated successfully, they tend to leave patients hurting both physically and psychologically. "The side effects of our treatment are really devastating in some respects," said Kenneth Watkin, a University of Illinois speech and hearing science professor. Watkin, whose research focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of oral cancers, might have found a new way to do both better, using particles 80,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. The particles of a material called gadolinium oxide, developed by the UI professor and former graduate student Michael McDonald, make tumors show up more clearly in magnetic resonance and molecular imaging and in ultrasound and CT scans. That could allow the cancer to be located and attacked with greater precision and less collateral damage to surrounding tissue. Moreover, the particles are better at gathering neutrons and emitting alpha and gamma radiation than the boron commonly used in neutron capture radiation therapy now, which could permit the use of lower doses of radiation in eradicating a tumor and reduce the negative side effects as a result. "The treatment (benefit) is a bonus, a great bonus," said Watkin, who refers to the particles as "multimodal" because of their dual purposes. Watkin and McDonald, now a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University, also have developed a method of coating the particles in dextran, a natural carbohydrate. The coating helps prevent unwanted chemical reactions and [...]

7/2/2006 Jacksonville, FL Fatima Quraishi www.kltv.com Smokers who must step outside for that quick fix or whose states are considering public bans may not have to worry much longer - if a new tobacco product hits the market. Two top U.S. tobacco companies are testing a new "pouch" product that would cease the need for lighters and matches. Philip Morris USA has introduced Taboka, which comes in small pouches that can be placed between the lip and the gums for five minutes to 30 minutes and then thrown out. Each tin carries 12 pouches of tobacco and costs about the same as a pack of cigarettes. The company is testing the product in Indianapolis retail stores. Also, RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co. is testing Camel Snus - named after a popular and decades-old smokeless tobacco product in Sweden - in Austin, Texas, and Portland, Ore. It also costs the same as a pack of cigarettes. Unlike chewing tobacco or similar products - such as dip, snuff or chew - Taboka and Camel Snus don't need to be chewed or spat out frequently. While they may be convenient, these products still carry their own health risks, albeit smaller than those associated with cigarettes, health experts say. Smokeless tobacco is ground and pasteurized, and comes in loose and pouch form. Users usually place the product behind the upper lip. Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds say they're developing the new pouches in response to smokers' demands. Many smokers who use their products, they say, [...]

7/1/2006 San Francisco, CA staff UCSF Medical Center (www.ucsfhealth.org) Researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center report that they have found a potential molecular cause for the aggressive growth and spread of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, a highly malignant form of cancer with a very high death rate. The discovery could potentially lead to new treatments, researchers say. Their key finding is the triple interaction between three players — CD44, a surface receptor molecule that plays an important role in a variety of cellular functions; hyaluronan (HA), a complex carbohydrate found in the connective tissues between cells; and LARG, a signal activator found in tumor cells. That interaction apparently initiates two molecular pathways that simultaneously cause tumor cell growth and tumor cell migration, says lead author Lilly Bourguignon, a research career scientist at SFVAMC and a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. The study results are reported in the current online "In Press" section of the Journal of Biological Chemistry. Working with human cancer cells in culture, Bourguignon and her team found that HA mediates the interaction between CD44 and LARG in a way that stimulates a molecular pathway called RhoA. Through a series of complex steps, the RhoA pathway causes the tumor cell's cytoskeleton — the structure that maintains the cell's shape — to reorganize in a way that causes tumor cells to migrate to other sites in the body, resulting in cancer metastasis. At the same time, the HA-mediated CD44/LARG complex [...]

7/1/2006 Washington, D.C . Becky Ham Health Behavior News Service (www.hbns.org) Dentists and physicians who take advantage of routine checkups to screen their high-risk patients for oral cancer may be the most cost-effective guard against the disease, at least in the United Kingdom. The new analysis suggests that screening of high-risk patients by dentists could save anywhere from 2,000 British pounds to 12,000 British pounds (roughly $3,600 to $21,700 in U.S. dollars) in health-care costs for each additional healthy year of a patient’s life. The review is published in the latest issue of Health Technology Assessment, the international journal series of the Health Technology Assessment program of the National Health Service for the United Kingdom. Dr. Paul Speight of the University of Sheffield in England and colleagues collected data on resources and costs in oral cancer treatment from two hospitals, as well as information from published studies and expert clinicians. They tested a variety of screening scenarios—from no screening at all to screening at all physician visits — on a hypothetical population of Britons age 40 and older. Screening high-risk patients — those who smoke or who drink heavily — brought about the most significant results. However, Speight said the estimate assumes that treating precancerous lesions in the mouth lessen the chance that the lesions will become malignant. The review of the medical literature “revealed that there is little evidence that this is the case,” Speight said. But Dr. Michael Kahn, an oral pathologist with Tufts University and member of [...]

7/1/2006 Manchester, England H. C. Kitchener et al. British Journal of Cancer (2006) 95, 56-61 To evaluate the effectiveness of human papillomavirus (HPV) testing in primary cervical screening: This was a cross-sectional study from the recruitment phase of a prospective randomised trial. Women were screened for HPV in addition to routine cervical cytology testing. Greater Manchester, attendees at routine NHS Cervical Screening Programme. In all, 24 510 women aged 20-64 screened with liquid-based cytology (LBC) and HPV testing at entry. HPV testing in primary cervical screening. Type-specific HPV prevalence rates are presented in relation to age as well as cytological and histological findings at entry. In all, 24 510 women had adequate cytology and HPV results. Cytology results at entry were: 87% normal, 11% borderline or mild, 1.1% moderate and 0.6% severe dyskaryosis or worse. Prevalence of HPV decreased sharply with age, from 40% at age 20-24 to 12% at 35-39 and 7% or less above age 50. It increased with cytological grade, from 10% of normal cytology and 31% of borderline to 70% mild, 86% moderate, and 96% of severe dyskaryosis or worse. HPV 16 or HPV 18 accounted for 64% of infections in women with severe or worse cytology, and one or both were found in 61% of women with severe dyskaryosis but in only 2.2% of those with normal cytology. The majority of young women in Greater Manchester have been infected with a high-risk HPV by the age of 30. HPV testing is practicable as a primary [...]

7/1/2006 Rochester, MN staff Forbes.com U.S. surgeons say they've developed a promising new method of lower jaw reconstruction for patients who've had surgery to remove large oral tumors. This new approach, first tested on rabbits, was to be outlined Wednesday at a meeting of the International Federation of Head and Neck Oncologic Societies in Prague, Czechoslovakia. "We think this new process can be a huge advantage for patients and a good tool for reconstructive surgeons," lead investigator Dr. Daniel Price, an ear, nose and throat surgery resident at the Mayo Clinic, said in a prepared statement. "We're excited about it. It will not completely replace the current mandible reconstruction method -- transfer of bone -- but down the road, I think that this method of reconstruction will be done regularly in patients with cancer involving the mandible," Price added. The current standard procedure for jaw reconstruction in these patients uses bone transferred from the fibula in the patient's leg, along with surrounding muscle, skin and blood vessels. This method produces good functional and aesthetic results but does have some negative aspects. For example, the surgery is costly and takes all day. Plus, the second surgery site in the leg means patients are less mobile after the operation. The new approach uses a procedure called "distraction osteogenesis" to restore the section of jaw that's lost during tumor removal surgery. With distraction osteogenesis, a cut is made at one of the remaining ends of the jawbone. Pliable soft tissue appears and a [...]

7/1/2006 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Scott Fields FoxNews.com A hand-held light may soon help dentists and physicians find oral cancer faster and more reliably. That's important because in America alone each year 30,000 people are diagnosed with oral cancer, and only half of them will survive more than five years, according to the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. And people who do survive oral cancer may do so at the cost of painful and disfiguring surgery, as chunks of tongue, jaw or palate are carved from the patient's mouth. The problem, says Miriam Rosin, a cancer biologist at the British Columbia Cancer Research Center in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, is not only that dentists and general practitioners don't do frequent enough inspections, but that when they do, they usually inspect the mouth under ordinary light. Ordinary light doesn't highlight what has turned out to be a reliable indicator of some cells' health: their natural fluorescence. In the right environment, specifically under a specialized blue light, cells can flash their condition like a lighthouse warning of a submerged reef. This new device, called a Visually Enhanced Lesion Scope, or "VELScope," (combined with program of regular oral checkups, Rosin cautions) could reveal early evidence of the fast-spreading disease, which is most common in smokers and heavy drinkers. Used correctly, the device can spotlight cells that have turned to the dark side, literally, as well as those that are teetering on becoming cancerous. "You shine a blue light on the tissue [...]

7/1/2006 Kansas City, MO Randy Covitz The Witchita Eagle (www.kansas.com) It started with an aching wisdom tooth. The pain throbbed in the right side of Bobby Hamilton's jaw, but because it's hard to smile for the television cameras and do postrace interviews with sore gums, he put off having the tooth pulled until the NASCAR Craftsman Trucks Series season concluded last November. When the swelling in his neck persisted, Hamilton was examined in early February. And after competing in the first three trucks races of the season, Hamilton received the dreadful news. Hamilton had head and neck cancer embedded in the right side of his neck. "Cancer is a strange deal," said Hamilton, 49. "We've learned when it starts up around the head area, it travels downward toward the right side of your body. It just stayed in my neck. It froze there." Before embarking on a series of chemotherapy and radiation treatments, Hamilton, a four-time winner on the Nextel Cup circuit and the 2004 Craftsman Trucks Series champion, faced some major decisions. As owner of Bobby Hamilton Racing, he was responsible for operating two other racing teams. So Hamilton imported his son Bobby Hamilton Jr. from Bobby Dotter's Green Light Racing and put him -- and the future of BHR -- in the seat of his Dodge. Bobby Hamilton Jr. will be in the field for the O'Reilly Auto Parts 250 on Saturday at Kansas Speedway, but his thoughts will be with his father, who is recuperating at his [...]

7/1/2006 New York, NY Mike Stobbe Forbes.com Taking up a sensitive issue among religious conservatives, an influential government advisory panel Thursday recommended that 11- and 12-year-old girls be routinely vaccinated against the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices also said the shots can be started for girls as young as 9, at the discretion of their doctors. The committee's recommendations usually are accepted by federal health officials, and influence insurance coverage for vaccinations. Gardasil, made by Merck & Co., is the first vaccine specifically designed to prevent cancer. Approved earlier this month by the Food and Drug Administration for females ages 9 to 26, it protects against strains of the human papilloma virus, or HPV, which causes cervical, vulvar and vaginal cancers and genital warts. Health officials estimate that more than 50 percent of sexually active women and men will be infected with one or more types of HPV in their lifetimes. Vaccine proponents say it could dramatically reduce the nearly 4,000 cervical cancer deaths that occur each year in the United States. The vaccine is considered most effective when given to girls before they become sexually active. About 7 percent of children have had sexual intercourse before age 13, and about a quarter of boys and girls have had sex by age 15, according to government surveys. The committee's vote was unanimous, with two of the 15 members abstaining because of they have worked on Merck-funded studies. The committee also voted to [...]