January 2009 – Page 3 – Oral Cancer News

Using mouthwash could increase risk of cancer by nine times, claim scientists

Source: news.scotsman.com Author: Shan Ross Mouthwashes containing alcohol can cause oral cancer and should be removed from supermarket shelves, a dental health study claims. Scientists say there is now "sufficient evidence" that such mouthwashes contribute to an increased risk of the disease. The ethanol in mouthwash is thought to allow cancer-causing substances to permeate the lining of the mouth. Michael McCullough, associate professor of oral medicine at the University of Melbourne, Australia, who led the study, said: "We see people with oral cancer who have no other risk factors than the use of (mouthwash containing alcohol], so what we've done is review all the evidence. "Since this article, further evidence has come out, too. We believe there should be warnings. If it was a facial cream that had the effect of reducing acne but had a four to fivefold increased risk of skin cancer, no-one would be recommending it." Professor McCullough, chair of the Australian Dental Association's therapeutics committee, said the alcohol in mouthwashes "increases the permeability" of the mucus membrane to other carcinogens, such as nicotine. A toxic breakdown product of alcohol called acetaldehyde that may accumulate in the oral cavity when swished around the mouth is also a "known human carcinogen," he said. Top-selling mouthwashes contain as much as 26 per cent alcohol. Smoking and alcohol are well-established risk factors in causing cancer, but the use of mouthwash containing alcohol is more controversial. Prof McCullough and co- author Dr Camile Farah, director of research at the University of [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-01-14T07:24:27-07:00January, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Absence Of CLP protein can be indicative of oral cancer

Source: www.sciencedaily.com Author: staff Human calmodulin-like protein (CLP) is found in many cell types including breast, thyroid, prostate, kidney, and skin. The protein can regulate many cell activities and has a highly specific expression. Gaining an understanding about the expression of CLP in oral epithelial cells and its possible downregulation (or lack of production) in cancer may be a potentially valuable marker in early detection of oral cancer. A new study in the Journal of Prosthodontics found that CLP is expressed in normal human oral muscosal cells and that downregulation of this protein may be an indicator of malignancy or cancer. Michael D. Brooks, DMD, MS, Richard D. Bennett, PhD, Emanuel E. Strehler, PhD, Thomas J. Sebo, MD, PhD, Stephen E. Eckert, DDS, MS, and Alan B. Carr, DMD, MS used a method of staining oral skin cells to see if they expressed this protein. A breast tissue sample that was known to have this protein was used as a basis for comparison. Normal cells in the mouth also possessed CLP. In malignancy or cancer, the same type of skin cells no longer expressed this protein. In the areas of cancerous cells, a decrease in CLP occurred. There was a sharp contrast in staining quality and clarity between benign and malignant tissue. In the majority of the cancerous regions, a complete lack of CLP was noted. This may be significant because calmodulin-like protein could be a marker for normal healthy oral cavity cells and diminished or complete loss of the [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-01-07T13:32:06-07:00January, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

YM Biosciences’s drug selected for Phase III head and neck cancer study

Source: www.pharmaceutical-business-review.com Author: staff YM BioSciences, an oncology company, has announced that the National Cancer Centre of Singapore has selected nimotuzumab, the company's EGFR-targeting drug, for evaluation in a multinational Phase III trial of more than 700 patients with cancers of the head and neck. The National Cancer Centre of Singapore (NCCS) said that it selected nimotuzumab because of its reported preferential safety profile compared with other epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-targeting cancer drugs. The trial is sponsored by the NCCS in collaboration with Innogene Kalbiotech, YM's licensee for nimotuzumab for the region. The NCCS is the lead cancer center coordinating this clinical trial, which will involve approximately 22 institutions from 12 countries worldwide. The trial will treat patients with locally advanced squamous cell cancers of the head and neck immediately following surgery - the 'adjuvant setting'. Along with standard chemotherapy and radiotherapy, half of the patients will be administered nimotuzumab weekly for an eight week period. The primary endpoint for this study is two-year and five-year disease-free survival; the secondary endpoint is two-year and five-year overall survival. The countries involved in the trial include Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Israel, South Africa and Cuba. The trial is expected to expand into Canada and additional sites may also be added from the Philippines, Australia and the UK. The NCCS anticipates reporting initial results from the trial in approximately five years. David Allan, chairman and CEO of YM BioSciences, said: "This trial further expands the [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-01-07T12:14:31-07:00January, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Drugmaker Merck seeks Gardasil approval for boys

Source: www.forbes.com Author: Linda A. Johnson Drugmaker Merck & Co. has asked federal regulators to approve use in males for its vaccine against the human papillomavirus, which causes cervical and other sexually transmitted cancers. The application was submitted in late December, Merck spokeswoman Amy Rose said Tuesday. It was long planned as part of Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based Merck's strategy to increase the market for Gardasil. It prevents infection with the sexually transmitted virus and thus cancers of the genital organs. Gardasil, launched in 2006 for girls and young women, quickly became one of Merck's top-selling vaccines, thanks to aggressive marketing and attempts to get states to require girls to get the vaccine as a requirement for school attendance. However, it is one of the priciest vaccines on the market, typically costing $360 for a three-dose regimen. Gardasil had 2007 sales of $1.5 billion, but sales began slowing in the second half of 2008, after a government-funded Harvard study concluded it was cost-effective for girls but not for women in their 20s. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has two months to decide whether the application for use in males meets its standards. Reviews can then take 10 months or more. The application includes research data from a Merck study including about 4,000 males, ages 16 to 26; Gardasil prevented 90 percent of cases of penile cancer and genital warts caused by the four common virus strains targeted by the vaccine. The agency approved use of Gardasil in females ages 9 [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-01-07T07:17:35-07:00January, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Coffee may protect against oral cancers

Source: www.reuters.com Author: Megan Rauscher New research indicates that drinking coffee lowers the risk of developing cancer of the oral cavity or throat, at least in the general population of Japan. The consumption of coffee in Japan is relatively high, as is the rate of cancer of the esophagus in men. To look into any protective effect of coffee drinking, Dr. Toru Naganuma of Tohoku University, Sendai, and colleagues, analyzed data from the population-based Miyagi Cohort Study in Japan. The study included information about diet, including coffee consumption. Among more than 38,000 study participants aged 40 to 64 years with no prior history of cancer, 157 cases of cancer of the mouth, pharynx and esophagus occurred during 13 years of follow up. Compared with people who did not drink coffee, those who drank one or more cups per day had half the risk of developing these cancers, Naganuma's group reports in the American Journal of Epidemiology. They note that the reduction in risk included people who are at high risk for these cancers, namely, those who were current drinkers and/or smokers at the start of the study. "We had not expected that we could observe such a substantial inverse association with coffee consumption and the risk of these cancers," Naganuma commented to Reuters Health, "and the inverse association in high-risk groups for these cancers as well." The researchers conclude in their article, "Although cessation of alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking is currently the best known way to help reduce the [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-01-07T07:13:14-07:00January, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Saliva Proteins May Help Spot Oral Cancer

Source: Smart Now Author: Krisha McCoy FRIDAY, Oct. 3 (HealthDay News) -- A simple test of saliva proteins may one day help doctors detect oral cancer, according to a new study in the Oct. 1 issue of Clinical Cancer Research. For their study, part of the U.S. National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research's Human Saliva Proteome Project, researchers collected saliva samples from 64 people with oral squamous cell carcinoma (a form of oral cancer) and 64 healthy people. Looking at five protein biomarkers in the saliva samples, the researchers determined that the biomarkers confirmed the presence of oral cancer 93 percent of the time. "This test is currently not available, but we are developing point-of-care microfluidic devices to detect these markers that we can use in clinical trials," Shen Hu, assistant professor of oral biology and proteomics at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Dentistry, said in an American Association for Cancer Research news release. This research may lead to a simple and noninvasive tool clinicians can use to diagnose oral cancer. "I believe a test measuring these biomarkers will come to a point of regular use in the future," said Hu. "We have demonstrated a new approach for cancer biomarker discovery using saliva proteomics." More information The Oral Cancer Foundation has more about oral cancer.

Webmaster2009-01-06T15:45:03-07:00January, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

HPV-16 oncoprotein vaccine protects against head and neck cancer in mice

Source: www.medscape.com Author: staff Immunization with a vaccine that targets the E6 and E7 oncoproteins of human papillomavirus-16 (HPV-16) prevents mice with HPV-16-positive head and neck squamous cell cancers (HNSCCs) from expressing these two oncoproteins by mounting a potent immune response. The vaccine may become part of a treatment regimen, along with surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy, in patients with HPV-16-positive HNSCCs, investigators report in the December issue of the Archives of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. Dr. John H. Lee and colleagues at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Iowa City generated an adenoviral recombinant vaccine expressing HPV-16 E6/E7 oncoproteins (adenovirus 5 (Ad5) E6/E7). Mice inoculated with the vaccine "completely cleared E6/E7-expressing tumor cells implanted 2 weeks after immunization." (Dr. Lee is now at the Sanford School of Medicine, University of South Dakota, Sioux Falls.) "A time course of interferon-gamma response showed that E6/E7-specific interferon-gamma production is significantly increased in the first 2 weeks after administration of the vaccine and is substantially maintained for up to 70 days," the investigators report. "At all dosages of vaccine, mice inoculated with Ad5 E6/E7 completely cleared E6/E7-expressing tumor cells implanted 2 weeks after either intratracheal or submucosal inoculation, with significant E6/E7-specific interferon-gamma production," the team reports. "Inoculated mice cleared E6/E7-expressing tumor 70 days after implantation." "In accord with this, our data show that immunization with HPV-16 E6/E7 is an effective method for protecting a host from E6/E7-expressing HNSCCs via generation of a potent immune response," Dr. Lee and colleagues write. "Therapeutic vaccines may [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-01-06T11:20:59-07:00January, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Head and neck cancer worse in blacks

Source: www.curetoday.com Author: staff African Americans and economically disadvantaged patients face a worse prognosis than other patients with head and neck cancer, according to a report in the journal Cancer. "The head and neck cancer manuscript is the first in a series of manuscripts we have written to examine disparities in cancer," Dr. Michael Cheung told Reuters Health. "We have observed disparities in a number of different cancers," including those of the esophagus and the reproductive organs. Cheung and colleagues at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, sought to determine the impact of race and socioeconomic status on outcomes for almost 21,000 patients with cancers of the head and neck diagnosed between 1998 and 2002. Typical survival times were significantly higher for whites (40 months) than for African Americans (21 months), for Hispanics (47 months) than for non-Hispanics (37 months), and for women (41 months) than for men (36 months), the authors report. Patients living in communities with poverty rates above 15 percent were diagnosed with head and neck cancer at a significantly earlier age, and survival times were decreased across all age groups in such communities. Consistent with previous research, alcohol and tobacco use also adversely affected survival in patients with head and neck cancer, the report indicates. Other predictors of survival included the location and stage of the tumor as well as the surgical, medical, and radiology treatments used. The inequalities seen in the study are "not explained completely by demographics, (other medical) conditions, or undertreatment [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-01-01T17:08:51-07:00January, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Vitamins C and E and Beta Carotene supplementation and cancer risk: A randomized controlled trial

Source: JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute, doi:10.1093 Authors: Jennifer Lin et al. Background: Observational studies suggested that a diet high in fruits and vegetables, both of which are rich with antioxidants, may prevent cancer development. However, findings from randomized trials of the association between antioxidant use and cancer risk have been mostly negative. Methods: From 8171 women who were randomly assigned in the Women's Antioxidant Cardiovascular Study, a double-blind, placebo-controlled 2 x 2 x 2 factorial trial of vitamin C (500 mg of ascorbic acid daily), natural-source vitamin E (600 IU of {alpha}-tocopherol every other day), and beta carotene (50 mg every other day), 7627 women who were free of cancer before random assignment were selected for this study. Diagnoses and deaths from cancer at a specific site were confirmed by use of hospital reports and the National Death Index. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to assess hazard ratios (represented as relative risks [RRs]) of common cancers associated with use of antioxidants, either individually or in combination. Subgroup analyses were conducted to determine if duration of use modified the association of supplement use with cancer risk. All statistical tests were two-sided. Results: During an average 9.4 years of treatment, 624 women developed incident invasive cancer and 176 women died from cancer. There were no statistically significant effects of use of any antioxidant on total cancer incidence. Compared with the placebo group, the RRs were 1.11 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.95 to 1.30) in the vitamin [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-01-01T17:05:09-07:00January, 2009|Oral Cancer News|