9/7/2006 Iowa City, IA staff CancerConsultants.com Researchers in Canada have reported that the administration of 400 IU/day of vitamin E (alfa-tocopherol) is associated with a 38% increased rate of mortality in patients with head and neck cancer treated with radiation therapy. The details of this report appeared in the November 2006 issue of the International Journal of Cancer . There has been concern about patients taking anti-oxidant vitamins while receiving treatment for cancer. These concerns have been justified by the increased death rate in patients with lung cancer taking beta carotene. More recently researchers have reported that high doses of daily vitamin E appear to be associated with higher risks of mortality in persons with chronic diseases. The current trial originally randomly allocated 540 patients with head and neck cancer receiving radiation therapy to receive placebo or alfa tocopherol and beta carotene during treatment and for the following 3 years. Beta carotene was dropped from the study during the trial because of adverse reports in other studies. The median follow-up of this trial was 6.5 years at which time the group receiving alfa tocopheral had a 38% increased risk of dying compared to the control group. Comments: This study should caution individuals about taking high doses of vitamin E and other antioxidant vitamins during cancer treatment in hopes of a health benefit. This should also encourage individuals to get needed vitamins from fruit and vegetable sources rather than from medicinal sources. Reference: Bairati I, Meyer F, Jobin E, et al. [...]

9/7/2006 Los Angeles, CA press release www.tradingmarkets.com Introgen Therapeutics Inc. announced that in a Phase II study, it's investigational cancer therapy Advexin when combined with chemotherapy to treat breast cancer showed better results than what would be expected from chemotherapy treatment alone. In the clinical trial, Advexin was combined with chemotherapy to shrink the tumor before it was surgically removed. In the phase 2 clinical trial, Advexin was locally administered to breast tumors in conjunction with doxorubicin and docetaxel chemotherapy in twelve patients who subsequently underwent surgery to remove residual tumor. Over 50% reduction in tumor size was seen in patients treated with ADVEXIN and chemotherapy. Complete tumor removal by subsequent surgery was achieved in all the patients. At a median follow-up of 37 months, the estimate breast cancer-specific survival rate at 3 years was 84%. Advexin, indicated for treating head and neck cancer was granted Fast Track designation status by the FDA in September 2003. Each year about 40,000 Americans are affected with head and neck cancer. The activation of a local immune response at the site of the tumor was observed in patients treated with Advexin and chemotherapy. The company said that the novel finding suggests that Advexin may also work through additional immune mechanisms of action to eradicate tumor cells.

9/6/2006 Australia, Canada, Finland Rischen et al; Lau et al; Luukkaa et al TherapeuticsDaily.com Reports from Australia, Canada and Finland highlight recent research in head & neck cancer. Study 1: The risk of locoregional failure (LRF) in head and neck cancer patients receiving a nontirapazamine-containing chemoradiotherapy regimen could be related to tumor hypoxia. Researchers in Australia conducted a study "to determine the association between tumor hypoxia, treatment regimen, and LRF in patients with stage III or IV squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck randomly assigned to radiotherapy (70 Gy in 35 fractions over 7 weeks) plus either tirapazamine and cisplatin in weeks 1, 4, and 7 and tirapazamine alone in weeks 2 and 3 (TPZ/CIS) or cisplatin and infusional fluorouracil during weeks 6 and 7 (chemoboost)." "Forty-five patients were enrolled onto a hypoxic imaging substudy of a larger randomized trial," explained D. Rischin and colleagues, Peter MacCallum Cancer Center. "Pretreatment and midtreatment [F-18]-fluoromisonidazole positron emission tomography scans (FMISO-PET) were performed 2 hours after tracer administration, with qualitative scoring of uptake in both primary tumors and nodes. Thirty-two patients (71%) had detectable hypoxia in either or both primary and nodal disease." "In patients who received chemoboost, 1 of 10 patients without hypoxia had LBF compared with 8 of 13 patients with hypoxia; the risk of LRF was significantly higher in hypoxic patients (exact log-rank, p=.038; hazard ratio [HR]=7.1). By contrast, in patients who received the TPZ/CIS regimen, only 1 of 19 patients with hypoxic tumors had LRF; risk of [...]

9/6/2006 Iowa City, IA staff CancerConsultants.com According to an article recently published in the journal Cancer, patients with nasopharyngeal cancer have an increased risk of second cancers in the upper aerodigestive tract. The nasopharynx is the area above the soft palate (roof of the mouth) and behind the nose. Nasopharyngeal cancer is considered a type of head and neck cancer. Approximately 40,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with head and neck cancer every year. Radiation therapy is a common form of treatment for cancers of the head and neck. However, researchers have been concerned that radiation to affected tissues may cause long-term side effects, including the development of another cancer. Researchers from China recently conducted a clinical study to evaluate the effects of treatment among patients with nasopharyngeal cancers. This study included 326 patients with nasopharyngeal cancer that had not spread to distant sites in the body. These patients were treated between 1994 and 1995. All patients received radiation therapy as part of their treatment regimen. At nearly six years follow-up, the following results were reported: -5.2% of patients developed subsequent tumors (SPTs) that were not associated with cancer spread from their initial cancer. -64.7% of these patients developed the SPTs in the upper aerodigestive tract (areas such as the lip, tongue, major salivary glands, gums and nearby oral cavity tissues, floor of the mouth, tonsils, all parts of the throat and other oral regions, nasal cavity, accessory sinuses, middle ear, and larynx (voice box). -Only 21.4% of the [...]

9/5/2006 Houston, TX Eric Berger Chron.com Medical scientists have great power in their laboratories, and perhaps nowhere more so than with a technique known as RNA interference. By harnessing the potential of short bits of RNA inside cells, researchers have gained the power to shut off a gene's capability to make proteins. Emerging in the last decade, this ability to "silence" genes holds great promise for treating human diseases by stopping the production of harmful proteins. The tiny bits of RNA work well in cells, but getting them into human cells within the body has proved more problematic. That's because the body's defense mechanisms perceive the RNA bits as invaders and kill them before they can reach their intended target. Now, a team led by Dr. Anil Sood, an associate professor at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, may have solved the problem for ovarian cancer, opening the door to promising treatments for other forms of cancer. "The purpose of our research was to figure out how to get these short pieces of RNA into tumor cells," Sood said. Sood's first step was to identify bits of RNA with considerable cancer-killing promise. In lab dishes, the selected RNA shut down production of a protein that helps ovarian cancer cells survive and spread. Difficult to penetrate Most cancer drugs target proteins on the exterior walls of cells because cells are so difficult to penetrate. For Sood's RNA drug to work, it had to find a doorway into the cells [...]

9/3/2006 Philadelphia, PA staff MedicalNewsToday.com While one of the Holy Grails in radiation oncology is to spare as much healthy tissue as possible during therapy, patients undergoing treatment for weeks at a time physically change. Patients can lose weight during a period of therapy. They might lose or gain fluid. Tumors may shrink or unfortunately, continue to grow. As a result, radiation target sites change, which can be problematic for treatment. Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia and the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson are among the first centers in the nation to study the effect of incorporating a new technology - cone beam CT - into a source of radiation, namely a linear accelerator, in an attempt to find an answer to this vexing problem. The technology creates three-dimensional axial CT slices of a patient's tumor, enabling therapists and doctors to compare these images with initial treatment planning images to determine how precisely focused the radiation set-up is. They can then make position adjustments if necessary to deliver a more targeted therapy to the patient. The hope is that this technology will lead to more highly customized radiation treatments, where higher doses are directed at the tumor while sparing the patient's normal body structures. "Right now, cone beam is used as one additional means of verifying the accuracy of the radiation treatments that we deliver," says Mitchell Machtay, M.D., the Walter J. Curran Jr., M.D., associate professor of radiation oncology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University and [...]

9/2/2006 Iowa City, IA staff CancerConsultants.com According to an article published in the American Journal of Medicine, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and smoking increase the risk of developing laryngeal cancer. Laryngeal cancer is considered a type of head and neck cancer and occurs in the larynx, which may also be referred to as the "voice box". Smoking and alcohol are thought to increase the risk of laryngeal cancer. GERD, also referred to as heartburn, is a condition in which the acidic contents of the stomach back up into the esophagus (the tube that connects the throat to the stomach). GERD may be responsible for the irritation of tissues of the esophagus, a condition referred to as Barrett’s esophagus. Researchers from the Cleveland Clinic recently conducted a study to evaluate potential effects of GERD on laryngeal cancer. This study included 96 patients with laryngeal cancer and 192 patients who did not have laryngeal cancer. - When considering all variables, smoking was associated with more than a six-fold increase in the development of laryngeal cancer. - GERD was associated with a two-fold increase of the development of laryngeal cancer. The researchers concluded that smoking and GERD increase the risk of developing laryngeal cancer. Only future clinical trials can determine if intervention against GERD can help reduce the risk of developing laryngeal cancer. Patients who smoke or have GERD may wish to speak with their physician regarding their individual risks of developing laryngeal cancer, as well as potential treatments for GERD. Source: Vaezi [...]

9/2/2006 Baltimore, MD Nancy Nairi Maserejian et al. American Journal of Epidemiology 2006 164(6):556-566; doi:10.1093/aje/kwj233 The authors prospectively evaluated fruit and vegetable consumption and the incidence of oral premalignant lesions among 42,311 US men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Diet was assessed every 4 years by food frequency questionnaires. The authors confirmed 207 cases of clinically or histopathologically diagnosed oral premalignant lesions occurring between 1986 and 2002. Multivariate-adjusted relative risks were calculated from proportional hazards models. Significant inverse associations were observed with citrus fruits, citrus fruit juice, and vitamin-C-rich fruits and vegetables, indicating 30–40% lower risks with greater intakes (e.g., citrus fruit juice quintile 5 vs. quintile 1 relative risk = 0.65, 95% confidence interval: 0.42, 0.99). Inverse associations with fruits did not vary by smoking status and were stronger in analyses of baseline consumption, with a 10-year lag time to disease follow-up (quintile 5 vs. quintile 1 relative risk = 0.41, 95% confidence interval: 0.20, 0.82; p = 0.01). No associations were observed with total vegetables or with ß-carotene-rich or lycopene-rich fruits and vegetables. For current smokers, green leafy vegetables (ptrend = 0.05) and ß-carotene-rich fruits and vegetables (ptrend = 0.02) showed significant linear trends of increased risk (one additional serving/day relative risk = 1.7). The risk of oral premalignant lesions was significantly reduced with higher consumption of fruits, particularly citrus fruits and juices, while no consistent associations were apparent for vegetables. Authors: Nancy Nairi Maserejian1,2,3, Edward Giovannucci1,4,5, Bernard Rosner4, Athanasios Zavras2 and Kaumudi Joshipura1,2,6 Authors' affiliations: 1 [...]

9/1/2006 New York, NY David Biello ScientificAmerican.com Cancer results from cells gone wild. Proliferating out of control, the cells spawn malignant growths that can travel throughout the human body, spreading the disease. Some patients' immune systems are able to recognize such tumors and begin to attack them, and research has shown that boosting the patients' levels of such tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes can help defeat deadly cancer. Now scientists have transformed immune cells into cancer fighters outside the body--and prompted complete remission in two subjects when those cells were reintroduced. Immune cells such as lymphocytes, also known as T cells and pictured in blue above, recognize health threats via special receptors on the cell surface. Steven Rosenberg of the National Cancer Institute and his colleagues first cloned the genes governing the cancer-recognizing receptor in immune cells from a patient who had successfully beaten back melanoma. The researchers introduced this genetic information into regular T cells from 17 melanoma patients via retrovirus. After chemotherapy, these patients had severely weakened immune systems, with few actively circulating lymphocytes. The scientists infused the engineered lymphocytes back into their weakened systems and discovered that such cells could persist, making up between 9 percent and 56 percent of the T cell population one month after treatment in 15 of the 17 patients. Two patients out of the 17 experienced profound benefits from this infusion. The engineered lymphocytes of a 52-year-old man with melanoma destroyed a tumor in his armpit and shrank a liver growth by 89 percent, allowing [...]

9/1/2006 New Orleans, LA Andre A. Konski et al. Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vol 24, No 25 (September 1), 2006: pp. 4177-4183 Purpose: This study evaluated whether males without partners were disadvantaged for survival in Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) head and neck cancer clinical trials. Methods: Patients treated on three RTOG trials were studied. The Cox proportional hazards model was used to determine if sex and the interaction between sex and marital/partner status were independent prognostic variables for overall survival controlling for Karnofsky performance status, tumor stage, nodal stage, primary site, and protocol treatment. Results: A total of 1,901 patients (1,509 men) were entered onto the three RTOG trials, with 1,822 (1,438 men) analyzable patients. Prognostic variables independent of disease-related variables for survival in multivariate analyses restricted to men were age, marital/partner status, and income. Conclusion: The apparent disadvantage of unpartnered men is striking, even after controlling for disease and other demographic variables. Possible explanations could easily be tested in observational studies, leading to evaluation of simple interventions to improve their outcome. Authors: Andre A. Konski, Thomas F. Pajak, Benjamin Movsas, James Coyne, Jonathan Harris, Clement Gwede, Adam Garden, Sharon Spencer, Christopher Jones, Deborah Watkins-Bruner Authors' affiliations: From the Departments of Radiation Oncology and Population Sciences, Fox Chase Cancer Center; Statistical Headquarters, Radiation Therapy Oncology Group; Abramson Cancer Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; Department of Interdisciplinary Oncology, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, FL; Department of Radiation Oncology, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston TX; Department of Radiation Oncology, [...]