2009 – Page 41 – Oral Cancer News

What Farrah Fawcett can teach us about anal cancer

Source: health.usnews.com/blogs Author: Deborah Kotz As much as I think celebrities should be afforded their privacy—like the rest of us—when they're battling life-threatening diseases, I sometimes blog about their conditions because I see them as teaching moments. Farrah Fawcett is in the news today with reports that she's been hospitalized for complications of anal cancer. She was first diagnosed with anal cancer in 2006. Speculation was running wild that she was "close to dying," but the latest reports say she's suffering from a blood clot that resulted from an "alternative" cancer treatment she had in Germany to fight the cancer's recurrence. Anal cancer is one of those cancers no one likes to talk about because it's, well, anal cancer. But we really should discuss it as much as, say, cervical cancer. Both are predominately caused by the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus. In fact, a 2004 study of 6,000 anal cancer patients (the majority of whom were women) found that 73 percent of the patients tested positive for the strain HPV-16, one of the strains that the Gardasil vaccine protects against. What's worrisome is that unlike cervical cancer, which has dropped dramatically since the advent of the Pap smear, anal cancer is on the rise. Incidence rates over the past 30 years have jumped by 78 percent in women and 160 percent in men, probably because more people now have more sexual partners and more people have anal sex (both among heterosexuals and gay men), says Lisa Johnson, a cancer epidemiologist [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-04-08T18:25:08-07:00April, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Swedish Match and Philip Morris International announce global joint venture to commercialize smokefree tobacco products

Source: www.swedishmatch.com Author: press release Swedish Match AB and Philip Morris International (PMI) today announced that they have entered into an agreement to establish an exclusive joint venture company to commercialize Swedish Snus and other smokefree tobacco products worldwide, outside of Scandinavia and the United States. The joint venture will utilize the strong combination of Swedish Match’s product development and manufacturing expertise in the smokefree category and PMI’s extensive sales and distribution infrastructure to develop business opportunities worldwide. Under the agreement, each company will own a 50% stake and will license their respective trademarks and intellectual property to the joint venture. “PMI is the ideal strategic partner for Swedish Match in the smokefree category. This agreement provides us with the opportunity to bring our quality products to consumers across a broader geography,” said Lars Dahlgren, Swedish Match President and CEO. “The smokefree category has demonstrated substantial growth in Sweden and Norway over a number of years and we believe that smokefree tobacco products, and especially Swedish Snus, have potential outside of their current markets.” “We are delighted to join forces with Swedish Match and are confident that this exclusive partnership will over time generate strong results for the benefit of our respective shareholders,” said Louis Camilleri, Chairman and CEO of PMI. Snus has been recognized by many in the scientific and public health community to be significantly less harmful than cigarette smoking. Both companies believe that there is a role for snus to play in tobacco harm reduction. The joint [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-04-08T18:18:50-07:00April, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Monoclonal Antibody Drugs for Cancer Treatment

Source: www.newswise.com Author: staff The strategy of using monoclonal antibodies for cancer treatment was first described in the late 1970s with the promise that they could be developed into therapies that were highly specific to cancer cells, killing them with few or no side effects. For several types of cancer, monoclonal antibodies have already offered this advantage to patients. For other cancer types, they have provided an additional therapeutic weapon, but with smaller benefits and sometimes new side effects. "The first efforts for monoclonal antibody cancer therapy were to find antibodies that would home in on tumors and bind to proteins on the surface of cancer cells," explained physician-scientist David A. Scheinberg. "We looked for unique proteins that were specific only to cancer cells. The idea was that the antibody would be used to stimulate an immune response in the body, which would kill the cancer cell." Dr. Scheinberg, who is Chair of Memorial Sloan-Kettering's Experimental Therapeutics Center and the Molecular Pharmacology and Chemistry Program within the Sloan-Kettering Institute, developed an antibody called M195, which targets a protein on leukemia cells, when working as a research fellow in collaboration with Memorial Sloan-Kettering immunologist Lloyd Old in the 1980s. This approach further evolved when researchers realized they could use the antibody as a carrier to deliver a radioactive isotope or a toxic drug directly to the cancer cell, where it would kill the cell while sparing nearby healthy tissue. Antibodies are proteins that help the immune system to identify foreign substances [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-04-05T11:28:05-07:00April, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Study links drinking hot tea to throat cancer

Source: www.scoop.co.nz Author: Megan Anderson Hot tea drinkers are being warned to slow down and cool down, after a recent study has linked drinking hot liquids to an increased risk of throat cancer. Oesophageal cancers kill more than 500,000 people per year. The Iranian study, published in the British Medical Journal, found that drinkers of hot tea (65-69 degrees celsius) and very hot tea (over 70 degrees celsius) were more at risk of developing oesophageal cancer. Risk of cancer was also increased with fast, hot tea drinkers, especially those who drank their tea under four minutes. Drinking tea in under two minutes increased the risk of cancer five-fold. The study, begun in the 1970s, investigated the Golestan province of Iran, in which cases of oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma cancer (OSCC), the most common form of throat cancer, were extremely high. While tobacco and alcohol are known causes of OSCC and other oesophageal cancers, in the Golestan province tobacco consumption and drinking rates were low. While it is common in western countries for OSCC to occur more frequently in men than women, this pattern was absent in the province, where rates of cancer were similar for both sexes. These anomalies were detected also in Linxian, China. Earlier studies of OSCC in Golestan had pointed to the common and widespread practice of drinking extremely hot tea as a possible cause. Drinking hot tea, without milk, is the norm throughout Iran and the Middle East. In the Golestan region it is common for [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-04-05T11:07:08-07:00April, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

PhRMA honors Gardasil(r) researchers with Discoverers Award

Source: sev.prnewswire.com/medical-pharmaceuticals Author: press release The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) will honor recipients of its 2009 Discoverers Award and 2009 Clinical Trial Exceptional Service Award tonight at PhRMA's annual meeting in San Antonio, TX. The awards will be presented to biopharmaceutical company scientists and other researchers who helped discover, develop and advance Gardasil(r), a breakthrough vaccine from Merck & Co., Inc. that can help prevent cervical cancer. (See footnote for more detailed description.) Cancer vaccines represent an emerging type of biological therapy. With 500,000 new cases of cervical cancer and 250,000 deaths from it each year worldwide, human papillomavirus (HPV) infections and the resulting cancers are a major human health threat. HPV infection typically occurs in adolescent and young adult women. "The recipients of these awards should all be proud that they have played such an incredible role in advancing healthcare here in America and around the world. Millions of patients will live healthier, longer lives because of the critical research that was done by these dedicated researchers," says PhRMA President and CEO Billy Tauzin. "These extraordinary honorees certainly deserve this recognition because they are the heroes behind a medicine that helps patients prevent a life-threatening cancer before it can get started." PhRMA's Discoverers Award recognizes scientists whose research and development of medicines have greatly benefited mankind, and whose dedication to improving the quality of patients' lives exemplifies the best among research-based company scientists today. Discoverers Award recipients are Merck's Eliav Barr, M.D., Vice President, Oncology Clinical [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-04-07T18:14:04-07:00April, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Combination of chemo and common virus continues to show remarkable results in advanced cancer patients

Source: www.newswise.com Author: press release Chemotherapy—as any cancer patient will tell you—is not for the faint of heart, but it can kill many forms of cancer. Some form of chemotherapy, originally discovered as a cancer treatment almost seventy years ago, is still routinely prescribed for most types of the disease. The treatment works by targeting fast-growing cells, like those typically found in rapidly growing tumors. But while chemotherapy can shrink tumors, they often grow back and become resistant, or refractory to chemotherapy. To combat this resistance, chemotherapy is now often used in combination with other treatments that have different mechanisms for attacking and killing cancer cells. But doctors must be cautious when combining treatments to ensure that the regimen does not become too toxic for patients to tolerate. The goal is to introduce drugs that can be used synergistically with chemotherapy to not only extend life, but to provide cancer patients with good quality of life while undergoing treatment. One such complimentary drug may be Reolysin®, now being developed from the naturally occurring reovirus, by Oncolytics Biotech Inc. The reovirus preferentially replicates in cancer cells with an activated RAS pathway, while sparing normal cells. Approximately two thirds of all cancers have an activated RAS pathway, including most metastatic disease. Viral replication within cancer cells causes them to burst open, releasing more virus to infect other cells. Reolysin is demonstrating impressive results in clinical trials on its own, but particularly in combination with certain chemotherapeutics. Recently, Oncolytics announced positive results from [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-04-04T05:44:15-07:00April, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Bill would bar sales of dissolvable tobacco

Source: wvgazette.com Author: Alison Knezevich In 2007, public health officials in West Virginia warned consumers about "snus," ground tobacco packaged in a teabag-like pouch. Now, some lawmakers want to draw more attention to the growing variety of smokeless tobacco products. A bill approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday would bar the sale of "dissolvable tobacco products" in West Virginia. Sen. Mike Oliverio, D-Monongalia, said it was highly unlikely the bill would pass this late in the legislative session. But he introduced it to start a discussion about the increasing use of smokeless tobacco products among teens, he said. "I just thought we should start a public debate," he said. Earlier this week, members of the teen anti-tobacco group Raze visited the Capitol for Tobacco Free Day, he said. Students from Oliverio's district told him about new dissolvable tobacco products, which take the form of dissolvable sticks, strips, and tablets. The kids said some teens use the smokeless tobacco products while sitting in class, Oliverio said. "It's scary stuff out there," he said. One of the newest products are Camel Orbs, dissolvable tobacco tablets packaged like mints. They hit the shelves in January. So far, the product is only available in three U.S. cities, said R.J Reynolds Tobacco Co. spokesman David Howard: Columbus, Ohio; Portland, Ore. and Indianapolis. They are made of finely milled tobacco and food-grade binders, he said. "These types of products, we believe, meet the needs of adult smokers," Howard said. Howard said such products let [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-04-03T13:35:16-07:00April, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Discovery may result in new test to determine predisposition to cancer

Source: www.biocompare.com Author: staff Researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have developed an assay that may be used to help identify new genes that can predict a predisposition to cancer. The study, published in the April issue of Radiation Research, was done in yeast and mammalian cells. Cancer cells show persistent genetic instability and the researchers, led by Robert Schiestl, have discovered a mechanism that switches on that genetic instability. If they can uncover and understand the molecular pathways at work in promoting genetic instability, they may be able to develop ways to switch that mechanism off, restoring stability. "We all have several hundred cells in our body that go crazy every day, and they're taken out by our immune system," said Schiestl, a professor of pathology, radiation oncology and environmental health sciences and a Jonsson Cancer Center scientist. "What's important is that those cells don't grow and spread and invade other regions of our body. Cancer cells are able to grow, spread and invade because the continued genetic instability can disturb the cellular program and create a growth advantage. Unfortunately, the immune system is not very effective at taking cancer cells out." The assay determines the efficiency of the repair mechanism when DNA suffers a double-strand break, when both strands in the double helix are severed. These breaks cause genetic instability and are particularly dangerous because they can lead to genome rearrangements or deletions of certain genes that, when gone, result in cancer. "Every cell has double strand [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-04-02T13:52:45-07:00April, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Mucositis versus tumor control: the therapeutic index of adding chemotherapy to irradiation of head and neck cancer

Source: Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys, March 20, 2009 Authors: Irwin H Lee and Avraham Eisbruch Purpose: To determine whether the addition of concurrent chemotherapy to radiation for head and neck cancer (HNSCC) improves the therapeutic ratio regarding tumor control vs. mucositis. Methods and Materials: Data were taken from 14 randomized trials of radiation with or without concurrent chemotherapy for HNSCC. Mucositis-bioequivalent dose (mBED) was computed for each study using mBED = D [1 + d/(alpha/beta)] - 0.693(T - Tk)/Tp. An "S-value," relating the increase in the rate of Grade 3 (confluent) mucositis to the increase in mBED with radiation alone, was determined using data from trials of radiation alone with altered fractionation. We then determined the difference in the rate of mucositis and used the S-value to estimate the apparent difference in mBED in the chemoradiation and radiation alone arms for each trial. After accounting for differences in the radiation schedules, we estimated the mBED attributable to adding chemotherapy and compared it with previously published estimates of increases in tumor BED. Results: Computed S-values ranged from 0.4 to 1.7. For S = 1, the mean increase in mBED attributable to chemotherapy was 8.3 Gy(10) (SD = 6.4). The average difference between tumor-BED and mBED was 2.8 Gy(10) (SD = 6.0). Increasing the S-value decreases the estimated increase in mBED due to chemotherapy. Conclusions: Concurrent chemotherapy improves the therapeutic index for radiation of HNSCC. Further refinements are needed in quantifying the therapeutic gain attributable to specific radiosensitizing agents in [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-04-02T13:38:55-07:00April, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

High dosage brachytherapy obtains excellent results in head and neck tumors

Source: www.health.am/cr Author: staff High-dosage perioperative brachytherapy (applied within the surgical process) obtains excellent results in the treatment of head and neck tumours, at the same time as reducing the period of radiation. These are the conclusions of research undertaken jointly by three Departments at the University of Navarra Hospital and which was published in the latest issue of Brachytherapy, official journal of the American Society of Brachytherapy. The work describes the application of this new radiotherapy technique to 40 patients between 2000 and 2006. Given the size of the sample, the article is a description of the greatest number of patients treated with high-dosage brachytherapy for head and neck tumours in world medical literature. According to results, after a seven-year follow-up, the illness was controlled in 86% of the cases and the percentage of survival was 52%. In concrete, the research focused on the treatment of tumours in the oral cavity, those affecting the tongue and the floor of the mouth, and those in the oropharyngeal region, such as tumours of the tonsils. Involved in the study was a multidisciplinary team of seven specialists from three departments at the University of Navarra Hospital: the Radiotherapy Department, the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and the Ear, Nose and Throat Department. Intensifying radiation dosage As is known, brachytherapy is a radiotherapy treatment involving the placing of radioactive sources within the tumour or nearby. In the case in hand, the work analysed the application of brachytherapy as complementary post-surgery treatment, explained [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-03-30T19:22:09-07:00March, 2009|Oral Cancer News|