10/15/2006 Escondido, CA Bradley J. Fikes NCTimes.com Radiation therapy for cancer gets on the beam Radiation therapy, a treatment for cancer more than a century old, has become much more powerful and precise with the help of the computer. Harmful side effects of radiation on normal tissue have been lessened, and tumors once untreatable by radiation can now be reached. Two relatively new technologies, called the CyberKnife and intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) , make plentiful use of computing power and precise medical imaging to determine the tumor location. The details of how they work are different, but both deliver X-ray radiation in a concentrated pattern from many directions that converge at the tumor. The concept resembles that of another targeted radiation therapy, called the Gamma Knife, which sends about 200 beams of gamma radiation into the tumor. But while the Gamma Knife can be used only for lesions of the brain, the CyberKnife and IMRT can be used over the entire body. IMRT and the CyberKnife are "complementary," said Cihat Ozhasoglu, a medical physicist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The CyberKnife, the newer of the two therapies, is more precise in delivering radiation. But IMRT is superior for treating large and irregular tumors. Because radiation damage to normal tissue is lessened, both treatments cause less fatigue in patients, a common side effect of radiation, than in conventional radiation. "It's much more pleasant than I thought it would be," said Eugene Fundum, a Temecula resident who received IMRT [...]

10/13/2006 Memphis, TN staff CancerConsultants.com According to an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and presented at the American Head and Neck Society's annual meeting, patients diagnosed with head and neck cancer have four times the rate of suicide than the general public. Head and neck cancer originates in sites within the head or neck. The American Cancer Society estimated that 11,000 individuals died from head and neck cancer in the United States in 2005. The most common type of head and neck cancer is squamous cell, which refers to the type of cell where the cancer originated. Treatment for head and neck cancer often includes surgery that can leave patients disfigured. Furthermore, surgery can impair a patient's voice, taste, swallowing, chewing, breathing, and hearing. This can produce extreme psychological distress and make performing everyday activities difficult. Researchers from the University of Washington recently evaluated data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) from 1973 and 2002 involving patients who had been diagnosed with head and neck cancer. - Patients diagnosed with head and neck cancer had four times the rate of suicide than the general population. - Advanced disease was associated with higher suicide rates than earlier disease. The researchers concluded that, in regards to suicide risk for patients with head and neck cancer, different "quality-of-life, functional, and psychological studies are required to help answer these questions and to refocus our attention." Patients diagnosed with head and neck cancer should discuss all treatment options [...]

10/11/2006 Australia staff The Australian (www.theaustralian.news.com.au) NASAL snuff and chewing tobacco will be banned under new legislation introduced in Queensland parliament. Smokeless tobacco products are addictive and can lead to nicotine dependence with users suffering cravings when they try to quit, Health Minister Stephen Robertson said. "It is a common misconception that smokeless tobacco products are a healthy alternative to cigarettes," he said. "The reality is they are just as bad for your health as cigarettes." Mr Robertson said using the smokeless tobacco products was also a risk factor for oral or pharyngeal (throat) cancer, non-malignant oral diseases and cardiovascular disease. It was not known if snuff (powdered tobacco) and chewing tobacco were already being sold in the state, but Queensland Health had received inquiries from retailers interested in doing so. Mr Robertson said the new laws were among a range of health portfolio changes included in the Health Legislation Amendment Bill 2006.

10/10/2006 Leipzig, Germany press release Yahoo! Finance (biz.yahoo.com) Leading oncology research establishments today gave examples of how advanced real-time imaging and respiration techniques are benefiting cancer patients through more accurate radiotherapy treatments. Their findings were presented at a symposium hosted by Varian Medical Systems at the annual ESTRO (European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology) meeting in Leipzig, Germany. Advances in image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) and respiratory gating, along with the move towards dynamic adaptive radiotherapy (DART), were presented to an audience of cancer treatment specialists by speakers from Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology in the UK, Aarhus University Hospital and Rigshospitalet Copenhagen in Denmark, and Clinique Sainte Catherine in Avignon, France. In a session chaired by Professor Cai Grau from Aarhus University Hospital, speakers described a new treatment technique that makes it possible to deliver doses with greater precision using Varian's On-Board Imager® for IGRT and RPM(TM) gating, a system that synchronizes treatments with the patient's natural breathing cycle. These advanced treatments are also enabling radiation oncologists to reduce side effects. Dr. Robin Garcia, of Clinique Sainte Catherine, presented the initial results of his team's project on the use of IGRT for head and neck cancers. "Image-guided radiotherapy has enabled the possibility of investigating that which has never before been investigated in head and neck radiotherapy," he said. He said the need to begin dynamically adapting treatment plans on a daily basis was vital because of variations in weight loss during the course of treatment. In the case of head and [...]

10/10/2006 England staff The Guardian (www.guardian.co.uk) Cancer cases will rise by a third by 2020, increasing the burden on the NHS, experts have said. The total number of people newly diagnosed each year will go from 224,000 in 2003 to 299,000 in 2020 - a rise of 33%, Professor Henrik Moller predicted. National Cancer Director Professor Mike Richards said the findings were "incredibly important" and were being used for planning radiotherapy. Presenting his figures at the National Cancer Research Institute conference in Birmingham, Prof Moller, a professor of cancer epidemiology at King's College, London, said the rise was largely due to an ageing population. The number of cases will go up because there will be more people and cancer patients will live longer, but the chance of contracting cancer will largely stay the same. Currently around one in three people in Britain will be diagnosed with cancer at some point during their lives. Prof Moller's predictions showed that the number of annual cases of cancer in men will go from 111,639 in 2001 to 152,381 in 2020, a rise of 36%. For women, the figures will go from 112,477 new cases a year in 2001 to 146,500 in 2020, a rise of 30%. For the same period, mouth cancer cases will go up 75% in men and 57% in women. Cases of oesophageal cancer will go up 58% in men and 21% in women, rectal cancer cases will go up 52% in men and 35% in women, and prostate cancer [...]

10/9/2006 Columbus, OH staff Science Daily (www.sciencedaily.com) Researchers have identified a new and unusual tumor suppressor gene that may be important in cancers of the lung and head and neck. The study shows that restoring the inactivated gene can slow the growth of tumor cells. The gene, known as TCF21, is silenced in tumor cells through a chemical change known as DNA methylation, a process that is potentially reversible. The findings might therefore lead to new strategies for the treatment and early detection of lung cancer, a disease that killed an estimated 163,510 Americans in 2005. The study could also lead to a better understanding of the molecular changes that occur in tumor cells during lung-cancer progression. Tumor-suppressor genes are genes that normally prevent cells from growing out of control. The loss or silencing of one or more tumor-suppressor genes is believed to be an important part of cancer development. The study, by researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute, was published online in the Jan. 13 early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The newly discovered gene is unusual because it can alter normal epithelial cells, causing them to change to a more primitive state. Epithelial cells form the skin and line the body's passageways and hollow organs. They are also the source of the most common forms of cancer. The more primitive cell type, known as a mesenchymal cell, is [...]

10/9/2006 Effingham, IL US Newswire Heartland Dental Care, a dental practice management group is committed to increasing the public's awareness about oral cancer and promoting the importance of annual oral cancer screenings. When found early, oral cancer is highly survivable. Unfortunately, too often early discovery of the disease does not take place, and nationally, 66% of the time it is found as a late stage killer. A simple, painless, 5-minute examination which finds the disease in its early stages, or even the pre-cancerous changes that take place in the mouth, can save lives. Dedicated HDC doctors and their staff made an all out effort this summer to help change this statistic, by focusing the combined power of their more than 175 home town dental practices on this issue. But they did more than help those in their own patient populations. The practices donated $10.00 from each screening fee to the Oral Cancer Foundation (OCF), a national non-profit charity dedicated to bringing down the death rate from this disease. At the end of their effort, HDC practices raised $31,480 for OCF by performing 3,148 oral cancer examinations during a two-month time period. The top six practices providing the most exams included Westfield Dental Center in Westfield, Ind.; 21st Century Dental in Charleston, Ill.; Effingham Dental Group in Effingham, Ill.; South Street Family Dental in Lafayette, Ind.; Creative Smiles in Champaign, Ill.; and Terre Haute Family Dental Care in Terre Haute, Ind. Brian Hill, the founder of OCF and a late stage [...]

10/8/2006 Oakland, CA Marla Cone LA Times (latimes.com) Destined for American kitchens, planks of birch and poplar plywood are stacked to the ceiling of a cavernous port warehouse. The wood, which arrived in California via a cargo ship, carries two labels: One proclaims "Made in China," while the other warns that it contains formaldehyde, a cancer-causing chemical. Because formaldehyde wafts off the glues in this plywood, it is illegal to sell in many countries — even the one where it originated, China. But in the United States this wood is legal, and it is routinely crafted into cabinets and furniture. As the European Union and other nations have tightened their environmental standards, mostly in the last two years, manufacturers — here and around the world — are selling goods to American consumers that fail to meet other nations' stringent laws for toxic chemicals. Wood, toys, electronics, pesticides and cosmetics are among U.S. products that contain substances that are banned or restricted elsewhere, particularly in Europe and Japan, because they may raise the risk of cancer, alter hormones or cause reproductive or neurological damage. Michael Wilson, a professor at UC Berkeley's Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, said the United States is becoming a "dumping ground" for consumer goods that are unwanted and illegal in much of the world. Wilson warned earlier this year in a report commissioned by the California Legislature that "the United States has fallen behind globally in the move toward cleaner technologies." The European Union, driven by [...]

10/5/2006 Washingoton, D.C. Carole Fakhry et al. J. Clin. Microbiol. doi:10.1128/JCM.01321-06 Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is an etiologic agent for both oropharyngeal and cervical cancers, and yet, little is known about the interrelationship between oral and cervical HPV infection. Therefore, we compared the prevalence and type distribution of oral and cervical HPV infection and evaluated infection concordance in a cross-sectional study within the Womens' Interagency HIV Study (WIHS) cohort. Oral rinse and cervical vaginal lavage samples were concurrently collected from a convenience sample of 172 HIV-positive and 86 HIV-negative women. HPV genomic DNA was detected by PGMY09/11 L1 consensus primer PCR and type specified by reverse line blot hybridization for 37 HPV types and B-globin. Only 26 of the 35 HPV types found to infect the cervix were also found within the oral cavity, and the type distribution for oral HPV infections appeared distinct from that for cervical infections ( p<0.001). Oral HPV infections were less common than cervical infections for both HIV-positive (25.2% vs. 76.9%, p<0.001) and HIV-negative (9.0% vs. 44.9%, p<0.001) women. Oral HPV infections were more common among women with a cervical HPV infection (25.5% vs. 7.9%, p=0.002). The majority of women (207, 93.7%) did not have a simultaneous oral and cervical infection by the same HPV type, however, the number of women who did (14, 6.3%) was significantly greater than would be expected by chance (p=0.0002). Therefore, the oral and cervical reservoirs for HPV infection are likely not entirely independent of one another. Authors: Carole Fakhry, Gypsyamber [...]

10/5/2006 New York, NY staff Reuters (today.reuters.co.uk) Men who consume high quantities of fruits, especially citrus fruits and juices, have a significantly lower risk of developing oral premalignant lesions, irregular tissue that has not yet developed into cancer, according to the findings published in the American Journal of Epidemiology. "Virtually all oral squamous cell carcinomas arise from a premalignant precursor," Dr. Kaumudi Joshipura, of Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, and colleagues write. "Epidemiologic studies have found that 16 to 40 percent of oral premalignant lesions transform to cancer," they note. Squamous cell carcinoma is the second most common form of skin cancer, and is primarily composed of epidermis, the cells that make up the outer layer of the skin. Squamous cell carcinoma is not serious if identified early and promptly treated. However, once advanced, it is harder to treat and a small percentage can spread to other parts of the body. The researchers examined fruit and vegetable consumption and the rate of oral premalignant lesions among 42,311 U.S. men enrolled in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Food frequency questionnaires were used to assess diet every 4 years. A total of 207 cases of oral premalignant lesions occurred between 1986 and 2002. Citrus fruits, citrus fruit juice, and vitamin C-rich fruits and vegetables were associated with a significantly lower risk of oral premalignant lesions. Greater quantities of these foods in the diet were linked to a 30- to 40-percent lower risk. For example, the risk of oral premalignant lesions in [...]