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Snus news & other tobacco products

Source: snus-news.blogspot.com Author: blog post by tobaccowatch.org 2/28/09 Twenty-six of the United States' leading tobacco control researchers and policy experts have called for regulatory control of all tobacco products. They also called for policies that encourage current tobacco users to reduce their health risks by switching from the most to the least harmful nicotine-containing products. This group met in a two-year process they called The Strategic Dialogue on Tobacco Harm Reduction - members met four times between December 2005 and August 2007. Their vision: a world in which virtually no one uses cigarettes. But the group acknowledged that smokeless-tobacco products are an option for reducing health risks for tobacco users. They also called for policies that encourage current tobacco users to reduce their health risks by switching from the most to the least harmful nicotine-containing products. Paper: Mitch Zeller et al., The strategic dialogue on tobacco harm reduction: A vision and blueprint for action in the United States, Tob Control 2009 0: 200802731, Abstract.. We’re all for this safer alternative if distribution could be limited to inveterate tobacco smokers (smokers who are either unable or unwilling to quit). The harm reduction component envisioned by the American Association of Public Health Physicians would be part of a larger program, with "marketing" limited to satisfying the nicotine addiction of inveterate smokers at substantially less health risk than smoking. Let's be realistic it would be impossible to limit distribution of smokeless tobacco products to inveterate tobacco smokers. As Professor John Britton, Chairman of [...]

2009-03-16T13:52:49-07:00March, 2009|Oral Cancer News|
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Landmarks in the History of Cancer Epidemiology

Source: Cancer Research, 10.1158/0008-5472 Author: Peter Greenwald & Barbara K. Dunn The application of epidemiology to cancer prevention is relatively new, although observations of the potential causes of cancer have been reported for more than 2,000 years. Cancer was generally considered incurable until the late 19th century. Only with a refined understanding of the nature of cancer and strategies for cancer treatment could a systematic approach to cancer prevention emerge. The 20th century saw the elucidation of clues to cancer causation from observed associations with population exposures to tobacco, diet, environmental chemicals, and other exogenous factors. With repeated confirmation of such associations, researchers entertained for the first time the possibility that cancer, like many of the infectious diseases of the time, might be prevented. By the mid-20th century, with antibiotics successfully addressing the majority of infectious diseases and high blood pressure treatment beginning to affect the prevalence of heart disease in a favorable direction, the focus of much of epidemiology shifted to cancer. The early emphasis was on exploring, in greater depth, the environmental, dietary, hormonal, and other exogenous exposures for their potential associations with increased cancer risk. The first major breakthrough in identifying a modifiable cancer risk factor was the documentation of an association between tobacco smoking and lung cancer. During the past four decades, epidemiologic studies have generated population data identifying risk factors for cancers at almost every body site, with many cancers having multiple risk factors. The development of technologies to identify biological molecules has facilitated the [...]

2009-03-11T06:43:10-07:00March, 2009|Oral Cancer News|
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Doctors pleased with robotic technique

Source: www.postbulletin.com Author: staff People heal faster with robotic throat-cancer surgery and have no major complications, Mayo Clinic research shows. The part of the throat behind the mouth can be difficult to reach for surgeons, says a Mayo statement. Surgery for throat tumor removal typically requires a hospital stay of seven to 10 days. But researchers say using a "da Vinci robotic surgical system" instead of traditional surgery led to average hospital stays of 2.3 days for 45 patients studied. Robotic surgery is now Mayo's "technique of choice" after more than 100 such procedures, Moore said. "The results of this research were even more positive than we expected. We found great advantages to using transoral robotic surgery for tonsil and base-of-the-tongue cancers," said head and neck surgeon Dr. Eric Moore.

2009-03-07T23:20:33-07:00March, 2009|Oral Cancer News|
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Tarceva® and Avastin® safe and effective for patients with squamous-cell head and neck carcinoma

Source: professional.cancerconsultants.com Author: staff Researchers from the National Cancer Institute and the University of Chicago have reported that the combination of Tarceva® (erlotinib) and Avastin® (bevacizumab) is well tolerated and produces sustained responses in some patients with recurrent or metastatic squamous-cell head and neck carcinoma. The details of this study appeared in the March 2009 issue of Lancet Oncology.[1] Tarceva is an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor. EGFRs are small proteins that are found on the surface of all cells. EGFR binds exclusively to small growth factor proteins circulating in the blood. The binding action between EGFR and growth factors stimulates biological processes within the cell to promote growth of a cell in a strictly controlled manner. However, in many cancer cells, EGFR is either abundantly over-expressed or the EGFR biological processes that normally stimulate cell growth are constantly active, leading to the uncontrolled and excessive growth of the cancer cell. Tarceva is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of non–small cell lung cancer and has significant activity in a variety of tumors, including hepatocellular carcinoma, pancreatic cancer, colorectal cancer, and renal cell cancer. Avastin is a humanized monoclonal antibody that is targeted against the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Avastin is approved by the FDA for the initial treatment of advanced colorectal cancer in combination with 5-fluorouracil-based therapy and has demonstrated an improvement in survival when combined with Camptosar® (irinotecan)-based chemotherapy in the treatment of this disease. Avastin was also [...]

2009-03-06T22:41:40-07:00March, 2009|Oral Cancer News|
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Update FDA seeks more Erbitux data on head and neck cancer

Source: www.reuters.com Author: Ransdell Pierson U.S. regulators have declined to approve use of Erbitux as a first-line treatment for head and neck cancer until a new U.S. animal study is conducted showing how the medicine is absorbed by the body, drugmakers Eli Lilly and Bristol-Myers Squibb said on Monday. Lilly and Bristol-Myers had asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve first-line use of Erbitux based on favorable head and neck cancer data from overseas studies conducted by German drugmaker Merck KGaA. Merck sells Erbitux outside the United States. Lilly separately makes Erbitux and sells it in the United States in partnership with Bristol-Myers. The FDA wants an additional study to ascertain that both batches of Erbitux have the same pharmacokinetic profile, meaning the drug is absorbed in the bloodstream in similar fashion and amounts, said Lilly spokeswoman Judy Kay Moore. "They want an additional preclinical trial to study comparability" of Erbitux batches, Moore said. Lilly and Bristol-Myers recently withdrew their U.S. application to market Erbitux for advanced non-small cell lung cancer because of the same need to confirm comparability of batches made in different plants. "Essentially we will do one animal study and that will answer the pharmacokinetic comparability questions related to first-line treatment for both head and neck and lung cancer," Moore said. Lilly hopes to refile the lung cancer marketing application in the second half of 2009, Moore said. She said the company does not need to refile its application for first-line treatment of head and [...]

2009-03-02T12:42:43-07:00March, 2009|Oral Cancer News|
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Calcium intake may protect against cancer

Source: Author: Laurie Barclay, MD & Hien T. Nghiem, MD Calcium intake may protect against cancer, particularly gastrointestinal tract cancer, according to the results of a prospective study reported in the February 23 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. "Dairy food and calcium intakes have been hypothesized to play roles that differ among individual cancer sites, but the evidence has been limited and inconsistent," write Yikyung Park, ScD, from the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues. "Moreover, their effect on cancer in total is unclear." In the National Institutes of Health-AARP (formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons) Diet and Health Study, the investigators evaluated the association of dairy food and calcium intakes with incidence of total cancer and cancer at individual sites. A food frequency questionnaire was used to determine intakes of dairy food and calcium from foods and supplements. Linkage with state cancer registries allowed identification of incident cancer cases. Relative risks and 2-sided 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were determined with a Cox proportional hazard model. During follow-up (average, 7 years), 36,965 cancer cases were identified in men and 16,605 in women. In men, calcium intake was not associated with total cancer. However, calcium intake was nonlinearly associated with total cancer in women, with the risk decreasing up to approximately 1300 mg/day but with no further risk reduction above those levels. Dairy food and calcium intakes were inversely associated with cancers of the digestive system in both men and women. Multivariate relative risk [...]

2009-03-01T21:37:45-07:00March, 2009|Oral Cancer News|
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RF ablation linked to improved liver cancer survival

Source: www.medscape.com Author: David Douglas Pooled data from a review of randomized trials of percutaneous ablation therapies in hepatocellular carcinoma indicates that a radiofrequency (RF) approach offers a survival advantage, Korean researchers report in the February issue of Hepatology. Lead investigator Dr. Yun Ku Cho told Reuters Health, "Recent studies comparing RF ablation and percutaneous ethanol injection revealed no consistent survival benefit of RF ablation over percutaneous ethanol injection for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma." However, he explained, "By performing a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized trials, we demonstrated that RF ablation showed an improved 3-year overall survival status for patients with small hepatocellular carcinomas, compared to percutaneous ethanol injection." Dr. Cho of Seoul Veterans Hospital and colleagues analyzed data from 4 trials involving 652 patients. The pooled results showed that RF ablation was in fact significantly superior to the ethanol technique, which was associated with an odds ratio for 3-year survival of 0.477. Nevertheless, the researchers point out that in these studies the number of patients involved was insufficient to determine initial tumor response, and there was "no real consensus regarding the definition of major adverse events. Therefore, quantitative analysis could not be performed for the local tumor progression or adverse events." Source: Hepatology 2009;49:453-459.

2009-03-01T21:27:01-07:00March, 2009|Oral Cancer News|
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Pharmaceuticals, patents, publicity…and philanthropy?

Source: The Lancet, Volume 373, Issue 9665, Page 693, 28 February 2009 Author: editorial staff Tensions between provision of and payment for health care are familiar. Though doctors assume principal responsibility for patients' health, those who work for pharmaceutical companies view the patented medicines they design as key components of health care. Creative ways are continually found to make such drugs available to as many patients in high-income countries as possible, the profits contributing to future investment in development and leaving national drug budgets affordable, just. Yet, a few hours' flying away, patients in developing countries usually have no access to these very same patented drugs. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has grown in size and influence by successful drug development, timely takeovers, and shrewd management. Andrew Witty, who ascended to the vertiginous position of chief executive at GSK in the past year, has attracted attention by a surprising presentation at Harvard Medical School on Feb 13. He promises that GSK will now not only make its medicines available much more cheaply to patients in low-income countries, but also make a bolder commitment to research into neglected diseases. As one blogger puts it, “arise Sir Andrew Witty (or is it Saint Andrew?)”. Does this announcement mark a sea change in pharma's attitude to the provision of drugs in poor countries, or could it be more reminiscent of the zany hybrid vehicles that distract attention from car manufacturers' shamelessly polluting stock in trade? Witty's words were carefully weighed to cast a rosy glow around [...]

2009-03-01T21:22:17-07:00March, 2009|Oral Cancer News|
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Genetic signatures of HPV-related and unrelated oropharyngeal carcinoma and their prognostic implications

Source: Clinical Cancer Research 15, 1779, March 1, 200 Author: Jens P. Klussmann et al. Purpose: Patients with human papillomavirus (HPV)-containing oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC) have a better prognosis than patients with HPV-negative OSCC. This may be attributed to different genetic pathways promoting cancer. Experimental Design: We used comparative genomic hybridization to identify critical genetic changes in 60 selected OSCC, 28 of which were associated with HPV-16 as determined by HPV-specific PCR and fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis and positive p16INK4A immunostaining. The results were correlated with HPV status and clinical data from patients. Results: Two thirds of OSCC harbored gain at 3q26.3-qter irrespective of HPV status. In HPV-negative tumors this alteration was associated with advanced tumor stage (P = 0.013). In comparison with HPV-related OSCC, the HPV-negative tumors harbored: (a) a higher number of chromosomal alterations and amplifications (P = 0.03 and 0.039, respectively); (b) significantly more losses at 3p, 5q, 9p, 15q, and 18q, and gains/amplifications at 11q13 (P = 0.002, 0.03; <0.001, 0.02, 0.004, and 0.001, respectively); and (c) less often 16q losses and Xp gains (P = 0.02 and 0.03). Survival analysis revealed a significantly better disease-free survival for HPV-related OSCC (P = 0.02), whereas chromosome amplification was an unfavorable prognostic indicator for disease-free and overall survival (P = 0.01 and 0.05, respectively). Interestingly, 16q loss, predominantly identified in HPV-related OSCC, was a strong indicator of favorable outcome (overall survival, P = 0.008; disease-free survival, P = 0.01) and none of these patients had a [...]

2009-03-01T21:12:27-07:00March, 2009|Oral Cancer News|
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Experts in government, public health, public policy and science outline blueprint for reducing death and disease from tobacco in the United States

Source: Bulletin Board of Oral Pathology Author: Dorothy Hatsukami et al. To further the goal of eliminating smoking as the number one cause of preventable disease and death in the U.S., twenty six of the nation's leading tobacco control researchers and policy experts today called for regulatory control of all tobacco products. They also called for policies that encourage current tobacco users to reduce their health risks by switching from the most to the least harmful nicotine-containing products. This group of experts, who have devoted their careers to reducing tobacco use, met in a two-year process they called The Strategic Dialogue on Tobacco Harm Reduction (the Dialogue). Their vision: a world in which virtually no one uses cigarettes. Dialogue participants concluded that realizing that vision would have a profound impact on reducing death and disease from tobacco use. The Dialogue process was led by Dorothy Hatsukami, Ph.D., director of the University of Minnesota's Tobacco Use Research Center and Masonic Cancer Center's Cancer Control and Prevention Programs, and Mitchell Zeller, a former associate commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and currently a health policy expert with Pinney Associates. The Dialogue members' recommendations appear in the online version (posted February 25) of the peer-reviewed journal Tobacco Control. Their report recommends various ways to regulate tobacco products based on public health needs. It also recommends helping tobacco users who are unable or unwilling to quit to shift to the least harmful nicotine products. Prominent among the group's recommendations are: Regulation of [...]

2009-03-01T21:07:22-07:00March, 2009|Oral Cancer News|
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