10/31/2007 Orlando, FL Kate McHugh, Ivanhoe Health Correspondent www.ivanhoe.com Head and neck cancers affect more than 40,000 people in the United States every year and more than 500,000 worldwide. When caught early, the prognosis is promising, but survival rates decrease as the disease advances. Now, two treatment therapies are making a big difference in the survival of patients suffering from advanced head and neck cancers. Standard initial treatment for advanced head and neck cancers is chemotherapy. Two new studies show promising results with treatments following chemo. “I think that patients get very scared when they get this diagnosis, frightened and anxious. I think they should recognize that we are now clearly above the 50-percent [survival] level -- quite a bit above it,” Marshall Posner, M.D., medical director of the Head and Neck Oncology Center at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, told Ivanhoe. In a recent study out of Europe, researchers found a combination therapy treatment, known as TPF -- adding docetaxel to the standard PF therapy (cisplatin and fluorouracil) -- improved survival outcomes by 27 percent in patients with an unresectable cancer -- tumors that cannot be removed. “What the European trial demonstrates is that TPF is a reasonable therapy for patients with an unresectable disease and promotes an improvement in survival,” said Dr. Posner, the lead author of another new study, which reveals using the TPF therapy after chemotherapy and following with chemoradiotherapy -- a combination of chemotherapy with radiation therapy -- gives patients a 30-percent reduction in [...]

10/29/2007 Jerusalem, Israel staff The Future of Things (www.tfot.com) An oncologist from Michigan has devised a new approach to clinical medicine. Using DNA micro-array chips, Dr. Eric Lester analyzed gene expression profiles of tumors in patients with advanced incurable cancer. For each patient, he first identified certain genes associated with a favorable response to anti-cancer drugs, and then determined an individualized treatment plan according to these findings. New, targeted cancer therapies focus on specific genetic mutations in the patient's body in order to fight the disease. These therapies usually also have fewer side-effects than conventional chemotherapy. However, cancer is a complex, dynamic and unpredictable disease with a wide array of embodiments at the molecular level. For this reason, no single treatment is effective against every type of tumor. In order to effectively treat cancer we need to understand the biological mechanisms behind it. Since every cancer tumor is unique, doctors struggle to find the most suitable personalized treatment plan for each patient. Currently, they rely mostly on their instincts and personal experience to choose the appropriate treatment methods. Dr. Eric Lester, of the Oncology Care Associates in St. Joseph, Michigan, devised an experiment that illustrates the promise of personalized medicine. He had six patients with advanced, incurable cancer. In order to determine which anti-cancer drugs would benefit each patient, Lester analyzed his patients' tumors, seeking the expression of genes associated with responsiveness to various anti-cancer drugs. He then based his drug treatment plans on the experiment's findings. To analyze gene [...]

10/29/2007 web-based article Jan B. Vermorken et al New England Journal of Medicine (content.newm.org) Background: Phase 2 studies suggest that the standard regimen of cisplatin and fluorouracil (PF) plus docetaxel (TPF) improves outcomes in squamous-cell carcinoma of the head and neck. We compared TPF with PF as induction chemotherapy in patients with locoregionally advanced, unresectable disease. Methods: We randomly assigned eligible patients between the ages of 18 and 70 years who had stage III or stage IV disease and no distant metastases to receive either TPF (docetaxel and cisplatin, day 1; fluorouracil by continuous infusion, days 1 to 5) or PF every 3 weeks for four cycles. Patients without progression of disease received radiotherapy within 4 to 7 weeks after completing chemotherapy. The primary end point was progression-free survival. Results: A total of 358 patients underwent randomization, with 177 assigned to the TPF group and 181 to the PF group. At a median follow-up of 32.5 months, the median progression-free survival was 11.0 months in the TPF group and 8.2 months in the PF group (hazard ratio for disease progression or death in the TPF group, 0.72; P=0.007). Treatment with TPF resulted in a reduction in the risk of death of 27% (P=0.02), with a median overall survival of 18.8 months, as compared with 14.5 months in the PF group. There were more grade 3 or 4 events of leukopenia and neutropenia in the TPF group and more grade 3 or 4 events of thrombocytopenia, nausea, vomiting, stomatitis, and hearing [...]

10/29/2007 West Lafayette, IN staff Biocompare Life Science News (news.biocompare.com) Researchers have shown how tiny "nanorods" of gold can be triggered by a laser beam to blast holes in the membranes of tumor cells, setting in motion a complex biochemical mechanism that leads to a tumor cell's self-destruction. Tumor cell membranes often have an abnormally high number of receptor sites to capture molecules of folic acid, or folate, a form of vitamin B that many tumor cells crave. The Purdue researchers attached folate to the gold nanorods, enabling them to target the receptors and attach to the tumor cell membranes. "The cells are then illuminated with light in the near-infrared range," said Ji-Xin Cheng (pronounced Gee-Shin), an assistant professor in Purdue's Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering. "This light can easily pass through tissue but is absorbed by the nanorods and converted rapidly into heat, leading to miniature explosions on the cell surface." Scientists have recently determined that gold nanorods and other nanostructures can be used to target and destroy tumor cells, but it was generally assumed that cell death was due to the high heat produced by the light-absorbing nanoparticles. The Purdue team discovered, however, that a more complex biochemical scenario is responsible for killing the cells. "We have found that rather than cooking the cells to death, the nanorods first punch holes in the membrane, and cell death is then chemically induced, in this case by an influx of calcium," said Alexander Wei, an associate professor of chemistry at [...]

10/29/2007 Serena Gordon DentalPlans.com The addition of the chemotherapy drug, docetaxel, to the standard two-drug regimen used for head and neck cancers improved the efficacy of the treatment while reducing the toxicity, two new studies report. The triple drug chemotherapy regimen was so effective that it increased survival in both studies and more than doubled the average overall survival in one of the studies. "This is a study that demonstrates that a three-drug regimen is better by a substantial amount in terms of survival for head and neck cancer. There was a 30 percent reduction in mortality with less toxicity," said Dr. Marshall R. Posner, lead author of the first study and medical director of the head and neck oncology program at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. "This is a wonderful step forward for patients." Results from both clinical trials are published in the Oct. 25 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Both studies were funded, at least partially, by Sanofi-Aventis, the manufacturer of docetaxel. About 3 percent to 5 percent of all cancers in the United States are head and neck cancers, according to the National Cancer Institute. That means almost 40,000 Americans are diagnosed with these cancers each year. They most commonly occur in people over 50, and the biggest risk factor for head and neck cancers is tobacco use. Treatment for these cancers can be difficult, because surgical removal of tumors can affect the way a person chews, talks and swallows. In some cases, [...]

10/29/2007 Los Angeles, CA press release EurekAlert! (www.eurekalert.org) Results from a University of Pittsburgh study demonstrate that intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) for head and neck cancer can be uniformly delivered in a large health care system of academic and community cancer centers through a centralized planning and treatment process. The findings were presented today at the 49th annual meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO) in Los Angeles. “Our study demonstrates that it is feasible for head and neck cancer patients to receive IMRT in their own communities without sacrificing high-quality care,” said Dwight Heron, M.D., associate professor of radiation oncology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and director of radiation oncology, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). “This is possible through an integrated network in which treatment is standardized across all cancer centers.” According to study results, there were no significant differences in toxicity profiles and treatment outcomes in 604 head and neck cancer patients treated with IMRT at 12 community cancer centers and one academic flagship facility. Two hundred and forty-eight patients (41 percent) were treated at the flagship facility, and 356 patients (59 percent) received IMRT at one of the community centers. All 13 centers, connected through a telemedicine network, followed the same clinical pathway guidelines for the radiotherapy management of head and neck cancer, which included specific details on volumes for radiation treatment planning and recommended doses of IMRT. When the investigators compared outcomes between the academic center and the community centers, [...]

10/29/2007 Edmonton, Alberta, Canada press release CNNMoney.com Biomira Inc. announced today that preclinical data for its targeted anti-cancer drug candidates PX-478 and PX-866 were presented in a poster session yesterday at the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics, which is being held October 22-26 in San Francisco. The data may help to guide future clinical studies of these innovative small molecule compounds. A Phase 1 trial of PX-478 in patients with advanced metastatic cancers is in progress. Biomira expects to file an Investigational New Drug application for PX-866 early in 2008. The PX-478 data (Abstract #284) provide insight into how and under what conditions the compound inhibits the activity of its target, the transcription factor hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha (HIF-1 alpha). PX-478 works by a unique mechanism, decreasing both HIF-1 alpha gene expression and protein synthesis. This leads to a significant reduction in the amount and activity of HIF-1 alpha in the tumor. The results show that PX-478 is highly specific for HIF-1 alpha and does not inhibit the levels of any of the other proteins tested. Additionally, this inhibitory effect is independent of the tumor suppressor genes VHL and p53, genes that may significantly impact how cancer cells respond to a variety of therapeutic interventions. "Hypoxia is a feature of many solid tumors and HIF-1 alpha is the tumor's primary survival response to this stress," said Dr. Garth Powis, Director, Center for Targeted Therapy, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, and senior author of the abstract. "Inhibiting both [...]

10/26/2007 New York, NY staff CBS News (www.cbsnews.com) Colleen Zenk Pinter, Of "As the World Turns," Had Oral Cancer On Her Tongue Doctors tell us to wear sunscreen and hats to prevent skin cancer, and get tested for prostate cancer and cervical cancer. But did you know oral cancer kills more people than any of those others? And it's been occurring in more and more women, and has now been linked to the same HPV virus associated with cervical cancer. Colleen Zenk Pinter, who's played Barbara Ryan on the CBS soap opera "As the World Turns" for almost 30 years, has been involved in a real-life drama, fighting oral cancer, a potential killer few people have even heard of, for the past seven months. She discussed the medical and professional challenges it posed with co-anchor Hannah Storm on The Early Show Thursday. Pinter, 54, who doesn't smoke or drink, told Storm that, at first, she thought she had a common canker sore, which went away. But when it came back and persisted, she saw her doctor, who had her go to a specialist the next day. Three surgeries later, including removal and reconstruction of part of, and the insertion of radioactive beads in her tongue, she's been declared cancer-free. The only noticeable lingering effect is a slight lisp, and she's been back at work. Pinter says fans thought she'd had a stroke, or dental work done. She stressed to Storm that everyone should be screened for oral cancer on a [...]

10/24/2007 Newport Beach, CA Keri Kramer Forbes.com For the public health, we need to fast-track research and approvals now, says foundation On the heels of a study published this month in the journal Cancer, and recent supporting science related to HPV and oral cancer in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Oral Cancer Foundation is urging researchers to expedite investigations on the safety of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccinations for males, and the FDA to fast track the approval once scientific due diligence has been accomplished. “The study affirms what we have long believed, namely that the vaccine can reduce oral cancer rates if given to both males and females,” says Brian Hill, Founder and Executive Director of the foundation. Currently, the vaccine, which shields against HPV strains 6, 11, 16 and 18, is administered to girls and adolescent females to protect against cervical cancer. Deaths from cervical cancer, which number about 3,700 annually, have steadily declined due to improved methods of early detection, and a population that knows the importance of annual screenings. Oral cancer also lends itself to early detection through a simple visual and tactile examination which could easily be implemented, but does not have a nationally adopted program of public awareness and compliant professionals engaged in such a screening process. In the US, 93 people per day will develop oral cancer, and one person will die from it every hour. This is more than double the death rate of cervical cancers, and is higher than that [...]

10/23/2007 Colorado Springs, CO Brian Newsome Colorado Springs Gazette (gazette.com) Several years ago, Dr. Joel Ernster noticed something strange in his Colorado Springs ear, nose and throat practice. A man with no history of heavy smoking or drinking developed an uncommon throat cancer usually caused by such habits. Over time, there were dozens more like him. Ernster investigated the trend and after three years of research has found what appears to be the answer: a virus likely transmitted by oral sex. In a study to be published in coming months in The Laryngoscope, a leading medical journal for ear, nose and throat specialists, the physician connects a significant increase in throat-cancer cases among men to the human papilloma virus that causes cervical cancer in women. Men probably obtain the virus by performing oral sex on women who have an HPV infection of the cervix. Ernster said the cancer could develop as late as 20 years after the oral sex occurred. “Oral sex has implications that are way beyond what we first thought,” he said. Ernster’s research is the latest in a growing body of studies that have established a connection between the HPV virus and oropharyngeal (throat) cancer. A study published online in August and in print this month in the journal Cancer similarly suggests that a rise in throat cancer among men younger than 45 can be attributed to the HPV virus. Why cases among young men are increasing is unclear, but Ernster and others believe oral sex generally [...]