1/21/2007 Boston, MA Howard Koh et al. http://blog.psych.andress.com/blog/_archives/2007/1/19/2665905.html A reanalysis of nicotine yield from major brand name cigarettes sold in Massachusetts from 1997 to 2005 has confirmed that manufacturers have steadily increased the levels of this agent in cigarettes. This independent analysis, based on data submitted to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) by the manufacturers, found that increases in smoke nicotine yield per cigarette averaged 1.6 percent each year, or about 11 percent over a seven-year period (1998-2005). Nicotine is the primary addictive agent in cigarettes. In addition to confirming the magnitude of the increase, first reported in August, 2006 by MDPH, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) extended the analysis to: 1. ascertain how manufacturers accomplished the increase -- not only by intensifying the concentration of nicotine in the tobacco but also by modifying several design features of cigarettes to increase the number of puffs per cigarette. The end result is a product that is potentially more addictive. 2. examine all market categories -- finding that smoke nicotine yields were increased in the cigarettes of each of the four major manufacturers and across all the major cigarette market categories (e.g. mentholated, non-mentholated, full-flavor, light, ultralight). Findings from the report "Trends in Smoke Nicotine Yield and Relationship to Design Characteristics Among Popular U.S. Cigarette Brands" will be presented at Harvard School of Public Health, Bldg 3/Rm 203, on Thurs., Jan. 18, 2007, 12 p.m.. The presentation is open to the media. The analysis was performed [...]

1/21/2007 web-based article staff CancerConsultants.com According to an article recently published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, men with poor oral health have a significantly increased risk of developing pancreatic cancer over those with good oral health. The pancreas is an organ that is surrounded by the stomach, small intestine, bile ducts (tubes that connect the liver to the small intestine), gallbladder, liver, and spleen. The pancreas helps the body to break down food and produces hormones, such as insulin, to regulate the body’s storage and use of food. There are approximately 33,730 new cases of pancreatic cancer diagnosed in the United States every year, with 32,200 deaths attributed to this disease annually. Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. The majority of patients are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer once it has spread from the pancreas to distant sites in the body, a stage referred to as metastatic pancreatic cancer. The reason that the majority of pancreatic cancers are diagnosed at such a late stage is that the disease usually causes no symptoms until it has spread. As well, there are no universal screening methods for the disease. Due to the lethal nature of pancreatic cancer, understanding risk factors that contribute to its development is critical. Greater understanding of these risk factors may help identify patients who are at a high risk so that they may undergo regular screening for the disease and thus be diagnosed and treated early. This understanding [...]

1/18/2007 web-based article press release EurekAlert (www.eurekalert.com) Preliminary findings show adding the chemotherapy drug cetuximab (brand name Erbitux) to radiation therapy and chemotherapy may help some patients with head and neck cancer live longer, according to a study presented today at the plenary session of the Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Symposium, co-sponsored by the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology, the American Society for Clinical Oncology and the American Head and Neck Society. Researchers are recommending a larger trial to prove definitively if cetuximab combined with radiation helps improve survival for these patients. Researchers at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore designed the study to evaluate the efficacy of the addition of cetuximab with concurrent chemotherapy and radiation in patients with locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck in order to improve local regional control and overall survival. Currently 21 patients are enrolled in this study. Initially they received an initial dose of cetuximab followed then by weekly doses of the drug. Patients also received daily radiation therapy treatments and weekly doses of chemotherapy. Of the 21 patients, 18 have completed all therapy and were available for analysis of toxicity and response. No grade 4 toxicities were reported, however 89 percent reported mouth pain and 11 percent reported skin problems. Other toxicities included difficulty swallowing, fever and a drop in white blood cell count. Seventy-two percent achieved a complete response two months after completion of therapy. Ultimately, 95 percent were disease free after [...]

1/18/2007 web-based article staff News-medical.net Patients with early stage oral cancer may benefit from a more advanced screening process allowing for a more accurate diagnosis, according to a study presented at the plenary session at the Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Symposium in Rancho Mirage, Calif., co-sponsored by the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology, the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American Head and Neck Society. "By combining conventional techniques with more modern techniques, we were able to better diagnose and determine the best options for patients with oral cancer," said J.B. Epstein, lead author of the study and Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "This approach to diagnosing oral cancer may lead to easier identification of serious pathology, significantly lessening the need for unnecessary biopsies without additional risk of false negatives." Patients with early stage oral cancer are typically examined by their doctor for suspicious areas in the mouth and throat area. Doctors in this study wanted to test the value of two diagnostic aids in evaluating lesions in the oral cavity. Chemiluminescent light, or brand name Vizilite and toluidine blue, a pharmaceutical grade dye, were used in addition to the conventional, visual and manual observations of the patient. Patients were given routine visual examinations under incandescent light for suspicious lesions. The lesions that were deemed suspicious were then assessed with Vizilite, followed by the toluidine blue dye and then biopsied. Doctors then compared the findings from the conventional exam to the advanced, illumination [...]

1/17/2007 Ann Arbor, MI staff Newswise (www.newswise.com) Researchers have found a marker on head and neck tumor cells that indicates which cells are capable of fueling the cancer’s growth. The finding is the first evidence of cancer stem cells in head and neck tumors. Cancer stem cells are the small number of cancer cells that replicate to drive tumor growth. Researchers believe current cancer treatments sometimes fail because they are not attacking the cancer stem cells. By identifying the stem cells, researchers can then develop drugs to target and kill these cells. “Our treatment results for head and neck cancer are not as good as we’d like them to be. A lot of people still die of head and neck cancer. This finding will impact our understanding of head and neck cancer, and we hope it will lead to treatments that will be more effective,” says study author Mark Prince, M.D., assistant professor of otolaryngology at the University of Michigan Medical School and section chief of otolaryngology at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System. Results of the study appear in the Jan. 16 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers at the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center and Stanford University School of Medicine took tumor samples from patients undergoing surgery for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, including cancers of the tongue, larynx, throat and sinus. Cells from the samples were separated based on whether they expressed a marker on their surface called CD44. The sorted cells [...]

1/17/2007 Vienna, Austria staff UPI (www.upi.com) U.S. firm Cel-Sci said Tuesday it has been cleared to launch a phase 3 study of it drug Multikine to treat head and neck cancer. The company said it is conducting the multinational study of the drug to assess it ability to increase survival in patients with the disease, also known as "advanced primary squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity." The study will determine whether Multikine, given locally prior to the current standard therapy, extends overall survival and enhances local and regional control of the disease, while increasing disease-free survival. "So far Multikine has been shown to be non-toxic, which is very unusual for a cancer drug," said Geert Kersten, CEO of Cel-Sci. "In phase 2 clinical studies with head and neck cancer patients it also markedly increased survival. Now we will get the chance to prove that Multikine can extend the survival of these cancer patients." Head and neck cancer affects about 500,000 people worldwide each year, the company said.

1/17/2007 Charleston, SC M. Boyd Gillespie, MD et al. Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2007;133:28-31 Objective: To determine whether ongoing use of a cyclooxygenase (COX) inhibitor is associated with a reduction in mortality and disease recurrence after head and neck cancer treatment. Design: Retrospective case-control study. Patients: A total of 325 potential subjects with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma were identified using an electronic patient database. Main Outcome Measure: The rate of COX inhibitor use among patients who had died or whose disease had recurred (cases) was compared with the rate of use among survivors or those without recurrence (controls). The comparison was controlled for tumor site, tumor stage, treatment received, age, sex, race, smoking, and alcohol use. Results: The 325 patients were compared by logistic regressions, with recurrence rate and survival status as the dependent variables. There was no difference in COX inhibitor exposure between patients with recurrence and those with no recurrence (P = .42) or between survivors and those who died of disease (P = .66). The median survival of COX inhibitor users, however, was 96 months, compared with 47 months in nonusers. The only independent variable with a significant impact on recurrence and survival was tumor stage at the time of diagnosis. Conclusions: Although preliminary in vitro studies suggest an antitumor effect of COX inhibitors in head and neck cancer, this study found no difference in head and neck cancer recurrence or survival in nonselective COX inhibitor users vs nonusers. A randomized, double-blinded controlled trial [...]

1/16/2007 London, England staff United Press International (www.upi.com) Britain's new ban on smoking in enclosed public places, which goes into effect July 1, has sparked a new interest in snuff. Snuff is a peppery tobacco powder that is sniffed to get a quick nicotine hit, Britain's Daily Mail said Monday. The possible replacement for cigarettes was popular in the 17th century, and itself was virtually replaced by cigarettes in the modern era. Snuff is not illegal under the new ban and shops that sell it have reported interest. The landlord of the Albion pub in Haggerston, London, is experimenting with selling snuff and said it is already popular. "Initially we were selling none but now we have seven regulars using it," landlord Dave Chapman said. "We sell about five or six tins a week." However, experts have warned that snuff is just as addictive as cigarettes and has a greater risk of producing mouth and throat cancer, the newspaper said.

1/15/2007 Alberta, Canada Sheryl Ubelacker CBC News (www.cbcnews.ca) Doctors at the University of Alberta have pioneered a technique that gives most patients treated surgically for tongue cancer the one thing they want most besides survival - the ability to swallow and speak. Most tongue and other oral cancers are caused by smoking and drinking alcohol - a combination that multiplies the risk dramatically over smoking alone. About 900 Canadians are diagnosed with cancer of the tongue or tonsils each year. Standard surgery involves removing a patch of skin from the forearm to rebuild the base of the tongue after a tumour is removed. But that procedure alone doesn't usually provide enough bulk in the reconstructed tongue because followup radiation can shrink and scar the tissue, destroying the organ's pliability. The result is a reduced ability to speak and to swallow, the latter often leading to the need for a lifelong gastric feeding tube to maintain sufficient nourishment. To help protect the rebuilt tongue from the effects of radiation, Drs. Hadi Seikaly and Jeff Harris of the Edmonton university went a step farther, taking an additional paddle-shaped section of tissue from the forearm - a "jelly roll" of fat and connective tissue they have dubbed a beaver tail - to provide extra bulk. "When you do tongue cancer surgery and you take enough of the tongue, you have to rebuild it somehow so people can talk and swallow," said Seikaly, a head and neck surgeon who credits a team of specialists [...]

1/15/2007 web-based article staff Medical News Today (www.medicalnewstoday.com) While a newly marketed vaccine promises to drastically reduce human papilloma virus (HPV) infections, the major cause of cervical cancer, a new discovery by University of California, Berkeley, researchers could some day help the millions of people already infected and at constant risk of genital warts and cancer. One study found that 75 percent of sexually active men and women under 50 have, or have had, an HPV infection, while 10,000 women annually develop cervical cancer, more than 90 percent of which is caused by HPV. Four thousand women die of cervical cancer each year. Once infected, it's difficult to rid oneself of the virus because it hides as a latent DNA in cells of the epithelial tissue, such as skin and the lining of the vagina and cervix, and spreads as these cells divide. The UC Berkeley team created a protein fragment, or peptide, that successfully prevents the virus from hitching a ride on a cell's chromosomes as the cell divides. If such a peptide - or more likely, a drug that mimics the action of the peptide - works in the body, it would effectively stop the virus from spreading or generating warts, which can progress to cancer. "We're optimistic that this will work generally for many different genetic variants of human papilloma virus, though it's too early to say how many of the genotypes of this virus will respond," said Michael Botchan, professor of molecular and cell biology and [...]