5/7/2008 Germany staff LifeGen.de In both breast and head and neck cancers the risk of local recurrence increases with longer radiotherapy waiting times, finds a Canadian meta-analysis. The study, published in Radiotherapy and Oncology, concludes that delays in radiotherapy treatment should be kept to the minimum time possible. Waiting times for radiotherapy were first identified as cause for concern around 20 years ago. Treatment delays can be attributed to increasing demands for radiotherapy caused by the growing incidence of cancer due to an ageing population and the discovery and adoption of new indications for radiotherapy. “When the increasing demand is not matched by a commensurate increase in treatment capacity, waiting lists for RT become inevitable,” write the authors Zheng Chen and colleagues, from Queen’s Cancer Research Institute ( Kingston, Ontario, Canada) and Cross Cancer Institute ( Edmonton, Alta, Canada). Experimental evidence has suggested that the probability of eradicating a tumour by radiotherapy can be inversely related to the number of clonogenic cells it contains, and there is also clinical evidence that the probability of local control in many different types of human cancer can be inversely related to the volume of the cancer. Two recent studies have demonstrated clear evidence of tumour progression in a high proportion of patients waiting to start radiotherapy for head and neck cancer. In the current study, Chen and colleagues set about trying to provide direct evidence that waiting times for radiotherapy influence patient’s clinical outcomes. The study was initiated in response to a request [...]

5/6/2008 New York, NY Lawrence K. Altman M.D. New York Times (nytimes.com) For people with early cancer of the larynx, the standard treatment can be grueling: a biopsy in an operating room followed by a six-week course of radiation that may lead to permanent hoarseness or speech impairment. But a team of Harvard doctors is reporting that a new outpatient laser procedure promises to eliminate the need for radiation, preserve speech, shorten treatment time and significantly improve care in other ways for many patients whose cancer is diagnosed early. The therapy, which uses heat from the laser to destroy the tumor’s blood supply and cancer cells, damages surrounding tissue far less than radiation and different types of lasers. It has been tested in only 28 patients, all at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Yet the initial findings hold promise because the laser was the patients’ only treatment and none have had a recurrence or needed surgery or radiation after a mean follow-up of 27 months, the team’s leader, Dr. Steven M. Zeitels, said in an interview. The longest is more than five years. Other experts expressed cautious optimism about the findings from the pilot study, which the Harvard team reported May 1 at a meeting of the Broncho-Esophagological Association in Orlando. The scientific report involved the first 22 of the 28 patients. The procedure “represents a radically new approach to treatment of these cancers,” said Dr. Gregory A. Grillone, an otolaryngologist at Boston University School of Medicine. Dr. Grillone, who [...]

5/6/2008 Denver, CO Katy Human The Denver Post (www.denverpost.com0 A sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer has been linked to cancers of the tonsil and tongue — diseases that have been on the rise in men for the past 30 years, according to a study by a Colorado Springs doctor and researcher. Among Colorado men, such throat cancers have become 37 percent more common since 1980, compared with a national increase of 11 percent. "Nobody knows that this is going on, and it's important to understand the risk," said Joel Ernster, a professor at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine and principal author of the study, which appeared in the journal Laryngoscope. The trends point to oral sex as a likely mode of transmission and have prompted some to call for boys to be vaccinated against the human papilloma virus, Ernster said. Girls can already receive a vaccine to prevent cervical cancer. "Based on what they know right now, why the hell aren't they giving it to boys?" asked Jon Helander, 56, a patient of Ernster's in Colorado Springs. Helander went through radiation and chemotherapy to fight a virus-related tongue cancer earlier this year and said he's frustrated that his son, 21, can't be vaccinated against the virus, as his daughter, 23, has been. While the rate of tonsil and tongue cancer is lower in Colorado than nationally — about 3.47 cases per 100,000 people versus 4.81 — it is increasing more quickly, Ernster and his colleagues [...]

5/5/2008 Chicgo, IL Monifa Thomas Chicago Sun-Times (www.suntimes.com) Though there's now a vaccine against HPV, a sexually transmitted disease that can lead to cervical cancer, most moms aren't willing to get their daughters vaccinated at the age recommended by federal health authorities. That's according to the first national study of mothers' attitudes toward the human papillomavirus vaccine, or HPV. The vaccine is approved for females ages 9 to 26. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that it be given to girls at age 11 or 12, when they receive adolescent booster shots. Sex discussion seen as barrier According to a survey of more than 10,000 mothers, only 49 percent said they would vaccinate a daughter if she were 9 to 12 years old. But moms were more willing to vaccinate a daughter who was 13 to 15 years old (68 percent) or 16 to 18 (86 percent). Study author Dr. Jessica Kahn said it's not surprising that parents would feel more comfortable letting an older daughter get the vaccine. "There's sort of an underlying assumption among some parents that recommending the vaccine means that someone, either a clinician or themselves, will have to have a discussion that HPV is ... transmitted sexually," said Kahn, a pediatrician at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. "I think that's a barrier." Parents and physicians also assume older girls have a higher risk of contracting HPV than preteens, so they may feel less urgency to vaccinate at a young age, Kahn said. [...]

5/5/2008 Dublin, Ireland M Amin et al. Irish Medical Journal Abstract Most human beings will do almost anything to prolong their existence or to relieve the suffering of disease. Others will do anything to exploit these desires by selling what they claim to be pain killing remedies or life prolongation nostrums. We present three cases of head and neck cancer patients; two used complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) prior to presenting to our service and the third declined conventional treatment to seek CAM instead. We discuss here the diagnosis, the time delay between CAM and commencement of conventional treatment, and the outcome in each case. Our aim is to define Quacks and to heighten public awareness of the potential harm they can cause. Introduction In the face of the great leveller, Death, we are like children listening fearfully for the footsteps of doom, relieved only by the whisperings of hope. Quacks are peddlers of hope. Quackery is the promotion of false or unproven remedies for profit1. There is growing interest in complementary and alternative medicine at the present time; a significant number of cancer patients use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) as adjunct therapies to their cancer treatment2,3. Eisenberg et al4 reported that one-third of the US population used some form of unconventional medicine and seventy-five percent of patients did not inform their physicians of this practice. Alternative therapies may include any unproven therapy or cure which is promoted as cancer treatment and is used in place of conventionally accepted [...]

5/5/2008 Invercargill, New Zealand Sean Gillespie The Southland Times (www.stuff.co.nz) Some smokers are changing cigarette brands to avoid the graphic health warnings that became compulsory in late February. Faster selling brands tend only to be available with the anti-smoking graphics but some slower selling brands are still available without the pictures. Invercargill tobacconist Paul McKinlay said this had caused some of his customers to change to a brand with non-graphic boxes still available. "Most of them are disgusted by the images — they're very graphic." Retailers have been given until August 31 to sell any remaining stock that does not have the warning images. Mr McKinlay said some customers were also choosing between disease warnings when they bought their cigarettes. "They go `nah, I don't want the one with the pregnant lady; give me one with the toe tag'." There are seven images smokers can choose from, including warnings about blindness, gangrene, mouth cancer, lung cancers and heart attacks. Some smokers have been avoiding the warnings by buying cigarette pack covers. Sales of the covers had skyrocketed since the graphic health warnings started two months ago, Mr McKinlay said. Anti-smoking group Ash spokesman Michael Colhoun, in Wellington, said high sales of the covers were a positive sign. "The sheer fact that they're using them means that the warnings are effective." The Ministry of Health said the aim of the warnings was to help prevent some of the 5000-odd smoking-related deaths that happen in New Zealand each year. Quitline spokesman Hayden [...]

5/4/2008 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada M Guillaud et al. Cancer Res, May 1, 2008; 68(9): 3099-107 The importance of early diagnosis in improving mortality and morbidity rates of oral squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) has long been recognized. However, a major challenge for early diagnosis is our limited ability to differentiate oral premalignant lesions (OPL) at high risk of progressing into invasive SCC from those at low risk. We investigated the potential of quantitative tissue phenotype (QTP), measured by high-resolution image analysis, to identify severe dysplasia/carcinoma in situ (CIS; known to have an increased risk of progression) and to predict progression to cancer within hyperplasia or mild/moderate dysplasia. We generated a nuclear phenotype score (NPS), a combination of five nuclear morphometric features that best discriminate 4,027 "normal" nuclei (selected from 29 normal oral biopsies) from 4,298 "abnormal" nuclei (selected from 30 SCC biopsies). This NPS was then determined for a set of 69 OPLs. Severe dysplasia/CIS showed a significant increase in NPS compared with hyperplasia or mild/moderate dysplasia. However, within the latter group, elevated NPS was strongly associated with the presence of high-risk loss of heterozygosity (LOH) patterns. There was a statistical difference between NPS of hyperplasia or mild/moderate dysplasia that progressed to cancer and those that did not. Individuals with a high NPS had a 10-fold increase in relative risk of progression. In the multivariate Cox model, LOH and NPS together were the strongest predictors for cancer development. These data suggest that QTP could be used to identify lesions that [...]

5/4/2008 Groningen, The Netherlands IM Lombaert et al. PLoS ONE, January 1, 2008 Head and neck cancer is the fifth most common malignancy and accounts for 3% of all new cancer cases each year. Despite relatively high survival rates, the quality of life of these patients is severely compromised because of radiation-induced impairment of salivary gland function and consequential xerostomia (dry mouth syndrome). In this study, a clinically applicable method for the restoration of radiation-impaired salivary gland function using salivary gland stem cell transplantation was developed. Salivary gland cells were isolated from murine submandibular glands and cultured in vitro as salispheres, which contained cells expressing the stem cell markers Sca-1, c-Kit and Musashi-1. In vitro, the cells differentiated into salivary gland duct cells and mucin and amylase producing acinar cells. Stem cell enrichment was performed by flow cytrometric selection using c-Kit as a marker. In vitro, the cells differentiated into amylase producing acinar cells. In vivo, intra-glandular transplantation of a small number of c-Kit(+) cells resulted in long-term restoration of salivary gland morphology and function. Moreover, donor-derived stem cells could be isolated from primary recipients, cultured as secondary spheres and after re-transplantation ameliorate radiation damage. Our approach is the first proof for the potential use of stem cell transplantation to functionally rescue salivary gland deficiency. Authors: IM Lombaert, JF Brunsting, PK Wierenga, H Faber, MA Stokman, T Kok, WH Visser, HH Kampinga, G de Haan, and RP Coppes Authors' affiliations: Section Radiation and Stress Cell Biology, Department of Cell Biology, [...]

5/2/2008 Scottsdale, AZ Michele Thompson, MS SheKnows.com Red, juicy, delicious strawberries are one of the healthiest fruits to include in your diet. Strawberries are chockfull of antioxidants and other essential nutrients that can flavorfully help you reduce your risk of cancer, heart disease, inflammatory diseases, and birth defects as well as mouthwateringly manage your weight. Here are the bountiful health benefits of strawberries. Strawberries help fight cancer Dozens of studies over the past 20 years have associated diets high in fruit and vegetables with reduced risk of cancer. Recently, researchers have been testing individual foods for their cancer-fighting ability. Studies examining the freeze-dried strawberries and strawberry extracts indicate that strawberries can fight breast, cervical and esophageal cancers. The compounds – such as antioxidants and other phytonutrients – found in strawberries (and other fruit and vegetables) are credited with health-protecting effects. Strawberries are a rich source of these antioxidants (vitamin C in particularly), flavonoids, and ellagic acid. According to the California Strawberry Commission, a serving of strawberries (about 8 strawberries) provides 160 percent of the recommended daily intake for vitamin C. Further, vitamin C has been associated with reduced rates of stomach, cervical, breast and non-hormone-dependent cancers. The flavonoids, such as anthocyanins, quercetin and kaempferol, exhibit antioxidant properties that have been proven beneficial in suppressing colon cancer cells, inhibiting prostate and breast cancer cancer cells, and inhibiting chemically-induced cancers of the lung, tongue, mouth, mammary and colon. The antioxidant power of strawberries has been measured and scored by researchers of the [...]

5/2/2008 Salt Lake City, UT press release BusinessWire.com BSD Medical Corporation announced today that the company will present its systems for cancer therapy at the 2008 World Congress of Brachytherapy (the annual meeting of the American Brachytherapy Society or ABS) from May 4-6, 2008, in Boston, Massachusetts. The company’s objective at ABS is to leverage the growing clinical interest in the use of hyperthermia therapy with brachytherapy. The ABS organization consists of BSD Medical’s primary customers, including oncologists, physicists and other health care providers practicing brachytherapy. A wide variety of national and international speakers have been invited to present data at the meeting. Founded in 1978, the American Brachytherapy Society is a nonprofit organization that seeks to provide insight and research into the use of brachytherapy in malignant and benign conditions. Clinical studies have shown hyperthermia to be a safe and well tolerated therapy when combined with brachytherapy for the treatment of certain types of locally advanced cancer. Brachytherapy is a form of radiation therapy where radioactive sources are placed inside or next to the area requiring treatment. BSD Medical systems deliver hyperthermia for use in combination with brachytherapy through small, interstitial microwave antennae that are inserted through the same catheters used to place the radioactive sources. Because it is less invasive than surgery and less disruptive to the patient, brachytherapy offers appropriate patients an effective alternative cancer treatment. Brachytherapy is used with hyperthermia to treat advanced localized prostate cancer, breast cancer, cervical cancer and cancers of the head and [...]