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Neoprobe enrolling patients in head and neck cancer trial

Source: www.medcitynews.com Author: Brandon Glenn Cancer diagnostics company Neoprobe is continuing to enroll patients in a phase 3 head and neck cancer clinical trial of its radiopharmaceutical Lymphoseek. The trial is aimed at expanding Lymphoseek’s label to cover procedures known as sentinel lymph node biopsies, CEO Mark Pykett said in a conference call with investors. The sentinel lymph node is the first lymph node to which cancer is likely to spread from the primary tumor, according to the National Cancer Institute. Neoprobe on Wednesday announced that it had filed a New Drug Application for Lymphoseek, but that filing sought labeling for a different clinical indication: intraoperative lymphatic mapping, which is a surgical oncology procedure in which lymph nodes draining the area around a tumor are identified to determine if cancer has spread to the lymph nodes. That procedure is typically used for patients with breast cancer or melanoma. Neoprobe’s head and neck cancer clinical trial is expected to enroll 200 patients. The study’s estimated completion date is March 2013, according to information the company has filed with the National Institutes of Health. In addition to expanding Lymphoseek’s label, Neoprobe is looking to strike deals with potential European and Asian distribution, and sales and marketing partners for the drug. Cardinal Health is handling U.S. distribution and sales and marketing of Lymphoseek. Lymphoseek has not been approved for sales anywhere in the world, but could obtain approval in the U.S. by the middle of next year. Here’s how Pykett laid out his [...]

2011-08-11T12:49:35-07:00August, 2011|Oral Cancer News|
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Stroke and TIA risk doubled by radiotherapy, study finds

Source: www.imt.ie Author: Mary Anne Kenny The risk of transient ischaemic attack (TIA) or ischaemic stroke is at least doubled by head and neck radiotherapy, a problem increasing in urgency as patients survive their malignancies longer, an Australian review of the literature has concluded. Besides case reports, the reviewers found 77 studies of stroke, TIA or rates of carotid stenosis in patients who had received radiation therapy for primary or secondary cancers of the head or neck region. The 17 epidemiological studies revealed that the procedures appear to “at least double” the relative risk of TIA or stroke, with the exception of adjuvant neck radiotherapy for breast cancer where no association was found. Radiotherapy for breast cancer resulted in only the carotid artery only being minimally exposed to radiation, the authors reported in Stroke. The evidence for radiation vasculopathy (defined as chronic occlusive cerbrovascular disease affecting medium- and large-diameter arteries) was strongest where the exposure occurred in childhood, but the exact magnitude of the increase was unclear due to heterogeneity in the studies. Considering the 17 imaging studies, the reviewers found they repeatedly showed “an increased prevalence of haemodynamically significant carotid stenosis” when there was a history of head and neck radiotherapy. The most significant radiologic evidence implicating radiotherapy in TIA and stroke was the spatial distribution of the vascular disease itself, they said. “It signposts the [radiotherapy] field.” Two theories of the pathogenesis of radiation vasculopathy were presented in the literature, they said. One was that it was an [...]

2011-08-11T07:21:03-07:00August, 2011|Oral Cancer News|
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Uptake and fate of surface modified silica nanoparticles in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Source: 7thspace.com Author: Emina Besic Gyenge et al. Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is currently the eighth leading cause of cancer death worldwide. The often severe side effects, functional impairments and unfavorable cosmetic outcome of conventional therapies for HNSCC have prompted the quest for novel treatment strategies, including the evaluation of nanotechnology to improve drug delivery and cancer imaging. Although silica nanoparticles hold great promise for biomedical applications, they have not yet been investigated in the context of HNSCC. In the present in-vitro study we thus analyzed the cytotoxicity, uptake and intracellular fate of 200-300 nm core-shell silica nanoparticles encapsulating fluorescent dye tris(bipyridine)ruthenium(II) dichloride with hydroxyl-, aminopropyl- or PEGylated surface modifications (Ru@SiO2-OH, Ru@SiO2-NH2, Ru@SiO2-PEG) in the human HNSCC cell line UMB-SCC 745. Results: We found that at concentrations of 0.125 mg/ml, none of the nanoparticles used had a statistically significant effect on proliferation rates of UMB-SCC 745. Confocal and transmission electron microscopy showed an intracellular appearance of Ru@SiO2-OH and Ru@SiO2-NH2 within 30 min. They were internalized both as single nanoparticles (presumably via clathin-coated pits) or in clusters and always localized to cytoplasmic membrane-bounded vesicles. Immunocytochemical co-localization studies indicated that only a fraction of these nanoparticles were transferred to early endosomes, while the majority accumulated in large organelles. Ru@SiO2-OH and Ru@SiO2-NH2 nanoparticles had never been observed to traffic to the lysosomal compartment and were rather propagated at cell division. Intracellular persistence of Ru@SiO2-OH and Ru@SiO2-NH2 was thus traceable over 5 cell passages, but did not result in apparent changes [...]

2011-08-11T12:56:09-07:00August, 2011|Oral Cancer News|
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Oral Cancer Prevention international lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson claims actions expected to cause over 7,300 oral cancers

Source: www.marketwatch.com Author: press release A lawsuit filed by Oral Cancer Prevention International (OCPI) against Johnson & Johnson in Federal Court in Trenton New Jersey claims that J&J's actions to protect the reputation of its Listerine mouthwash, which has been linked to oral cancer, can be expected to result in over 7,300 cases of otherwise preventable oral cancer across the US and over 1,120 such cancers in New York State alone. Some of the key markets impacted include: California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington. "Oral cancer kills as many Americans as melanoma and twice as many as cervical cancer," says Mark Rutenberg, CEO of OCPI. "It is also rising sharply among women, young people and non-smokers. Because there has previously not been an easy way to test routine oral spots for precancerous cells, the disease is generally not detected until it is an already invasive cancer with a high mortality rate that has changed little in the last 50 years." The lawsuit, which seeks compensatory and punitive damages, claims that J&J blocked an agreement between OCPI and a then J&J subsidiary to sell its test for oral precancer. The lawsuit claims that J&J was concerned that such sales could draw attention in the $1B US Listerine market to recent studies suggesting that the mouthwash may be linked to oral cancer. J&J was particularly concerned about a 2008 study in the Australian Dental Journal -- which concluded that mouthwashes with high alcohol content could [...]

2011-08-11T07:08:35-07:00August, 2011|Oral Cancer News|
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New Study for Head and Neck Melanomas

Source: MDNews.com ANN ARBOR, MI — A common technique for determining whether melanoma has spread can be used safely and effectively even in tumors from the head and neck area, according to a new study from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center. Sentinel lymph node biopsy involves injecting a special dye to identify the first node where cancer would likely spread. If that node is clean, patients can avoid further debilitating surgery to remove multiple lymph nodes. If that node shows cancer, patients know they need the more extensive surgery or further treatment with radiation, chemotherapy or a clinical trial. Patients with larger melanomas are routinely offered this procedure. But many surgeons believed that the complex anatomy combined with the critical nerves and blood vessels in the head and neck area made sentinel lymph node biopsy unsafe and inaccurate for melanomas in that region. In the current study, which appears online in Cancer, researchers looked at 353 head and neck melanoma patients who had received sentinel lymph node biopsy at U-M over a 10-year period. After reviewing patients’ records, the researchers found that the sentinel lymph node could be identified in all but one patient, and no patients sustained permanent nerve injuries during the procedure. About 20 percent of the patients had at least one sentinel node positive for cancer and were referred for a complete dissection to remove additional lymph nodes. Among the remaining 283 patients with negative sentinel nodes, 12 patients recurred in the region where the [...]

2011-08-09T10:30:24-07:00August, 2011|Oral Cancer News|
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Aerosmith’s Bassist is Treated for Tongue Cancer with Laser Surgery

Source: KSAT.com Aerosmith will be performing in Mexico and South America this fall and one of the band members will be along for the tour thanks to a radical medical procedure. In one Aerosmith song, bassist Tom Hamilton sends a message to his throat and tongue cancer with the lyrics "you've got no business with me." Five years ago, Hamilton underwent chemotherapy and radiation for tongue-base cancer, but it came back and extended into his voice box. That is when he turned to Dr. Steven Zeitels. "This is not your classic way, or even traditional way, to try and remove a cancer from the tongue base," Zeitels said. Radical surgery was now Hamilton's only option. But that could leave his voice and breathing passage permanently damaged. "I was just terrified," Hamilton said. "I really though, 'Oh, I am looking at not being able to talk.'" Zeitels has treated vocal cord cancer with the green-light KTP laser, so Hamilton agreed to be the first person treated that way for tongue base cancer. The laser emits a green light, which is concentrated in the extra blood running through the cancer. "Where there is a lot of cancer, there will be a lot of blood," Zeitels said. "Where there is a lot of blood, there will be a lot of combustion so that you are actually watching the tissues burn completely different" But not everyone is a candidate for this surgery. "The second I had a tiny bit of consciousness, the first thing I did was make [...]

2011-08-09T10:30:12-07:00August, 2011|Oral Cancer News|
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Reirradiation Effective in Post-Radiation Sarcoma

Source: MedScape Today News Reirradiation plus hyperthermia is an effective treatment for radiation-associated sarcoma (RAS) and could even cure some of these rare tumors, a small new study suggests. "The reirradiation plus hyperthermia as we used it appears to be quite successful with a very high response rate and reasonable local control rate," Dr. Geertjan van Tienhoven of the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam, one of the study's authors, told Reuters Health. RAS develops in areas previously reirradiated with 25 to 80 Gray, usually with a latency period of three years or more, and with a different histology from the original tumor, according to a June 28th online paper in Cancer. Dr. van Tienhoven predicts that "radiation-associated sarcomas are going to be more frequent in the future, because of an increasing prevalence of breast cancer survivors who are at risk, be it a low risk, for RAS." These tumors are usually resected with radical surgery and sometimes adjuvant chemotherapy. To date, according the paper, there haven't been any randomized trials or other prospective studies of reirradiation for RAS. "Many papers and textbooks state that radiation shouldn't be done in these tumors because they are caused by radiation. Indeed it sounds counterintuitive to irradiate again," Dr. van Tienhoven said in an interview. But using hyperthermia with reirradiation allows for a lower radiation dose, he and his coauthors explain. The Academic Medical Center and the Institute Verbeeten have "extensive experience" with this approach, for example in breast cancer recurrence in previously irradiated [...]

2011-08-09T10:29:53-07:00August, 2011|Oral Cancer News|
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Morning smoking linked to higher risk of head and neck cancer

Source: www.nursingtimes.net Author: staff Smokers who light up first thing in the morning have a higher risk of developing head and neck cancer than those who wait that little bit longer for their first cigarette of the day, a study has suggested. A research team from the Penn State College of Medicine in America investigated whether nicotine dependence, as characterised by the time smokers take to have their first cigarette after waking, affects smokers’ risk of lung, head and neck cancers independent of cigarette smoking frequency and duration. They analysed 1,055 people with head and neck cancers and 795 who did not have cancer, all of whom were cigarette smokers. Individuals who smoked 31 minutes to an hour after waking were 1.42 times more likely to develop head and neck cancer than those who waited more than hour before having a nicotine fix. Those who waited less than half an hour to have their first cigarette of the day were 1.59 times as likely to develop head and neck cancer. According to Cancer, a journal of the American Cancer Society, the results of the study may help identify smokers who have an especially high risk of developing cancer and would therefore benefit from targeted smoking interventions. Dr Joshua Muscar, lead researcher, said: “These smokers have higher levels of nicotine and possibly other tobacco toxins in their body, and they may be more addicted than smokers who refrain from smoking for a half hour or more.”

2011-08-08T09:05:20-07:00August, 2011|Oral Cancer News|
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Shortchanging cancer patients

Source: nytimes.com Author: Ezekiel J. Emanuel Right now cancer care is being rationed in the United States. Probably to their great disappointment, President Obama’s critics cannot blame this rationing on death panels or health care reform. Rather, it is caused by a severe shortage of important cancer drugs. Of the 34 generic cancer drugs on the market, as of this month, 14 were in short supply. They include drugs that are the mainstay of treatment regimens used to cure leukemia, lymphoma and testicular cancer. As Dr. Michael Link, the president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, recently told me, “If you are a pediatric oncologist, you know how to cure 70 to 80 percent of patients. But without these drugs you are out of business.” This shortage is even inhibiting research studies that can lead to higher cure rates: enrollment of patients in many clinical trials has been delayed or stopped because the drugs that are in short supply make up the standard regimens to which new treatments are added or compared. The sad fact is, there are plenty of newer brand-name cancer drugs that do not cure anyone, but just extend life for a few months, at costs of up to $90,000 per patient. Only the older but curative cancer drugs — drugs that can cost as little as $3 per dose — have become unavailable. Most of these drugs have no substitutes, but, crazy as it seems, in some cases these shortages are forcing doctors to use [...]

2011-08-07T20:40:33-07:00August, 2011|Oral Cancer News|
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Cancer Survivor Gears Up for 25 Mile Bike Ride at the Age of 77

Newark, Ohio — A 77-year-old woman and cancer survivor has biked 25 miles routinely in preparation for this month's Pelotonia bicycle race. Beverly Cote started out biking four miles a day and worked her way up to 25 miles, the distance of Pelotonia, 10TV's Andrea Cambern reported Tuesday. Her inspiration came from someone who made history on a bicycle. "I have been bragging about my grandfather ever since I was a kid," Cote said. Her grandfather, John LaFrance, rode from New York to San Francisco in 22 days and made headlines, Cambern reported. "My grandfather did not have a 10-speed back in 1896," Cote said. "If he could do it, I could do it." He was not the only reason she will ride in the annual bike tour to fight cancer.  Cote is a survivor. Over a year ago, she was diagnosed with stage-four throat and tongue cancer. She endured 35 radiation treatments and seven rounds of chemotherapy. "On my last exam with Dr. Old at the James, he said, 'Are you going to ride in Pelotonia, next year?' I told Dr. Old that if he kept me well, for one year, I will ride in it," Cote said. Pelotonia is scheduled to begin on August 19. This news story was resourced by the Oral Cancer Foundation, and vetted for appropriateness and accuracy.

2011-08-05T12:44:45-07:00August, 2011|Oral Cancer News|
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