11/15/2007 Boston, MA Stephen Smith Boston.com Six years ago, Ronaldo Martinez and his wrenching plea to stop smoking - rendered in a tinny, robotic voice that is the legacy of throat cancer - vanished from the Massachusetts airwaves, a victim of politics and economics. Now, that landmark advertisement and a series of other commercials are being reprised, set to start airing again today on broadcast and cable channels, the most tangible evidence of a reinvigorated state antismoking campaign. There will be newly produced ads, too, with the same purpose: reducing tobacco use in Massachusetts. During the five years the ads ran previously, the percentage of adults who smoked dropped from 22.7 to 19.5. After the ads disappeared, the rate of decline slowed, and cigarette sales actually rose in 2006. State public health authorities unveiled the antismoking campaign yesterday, promising to spend about $1.5 million to run the ads for five months on television stations in Boston, Springfield, and Southeastern Massachusetts and to plaster the ads on the Internet and at transit stops. State authorities and the former smokers featured in the commercials pledged that the effort would restore the state's status as a world leader in tobacco control. "I felt so bad about it when the ads were taken off, but I had no control over it," Martinez, 54, said in an interview. "When they contacted me and they told me the campaign was coming back, I felt great." The Legislature and Governor Deval Patrick increased antismoking spending by $4.5 [...]

11/15/2007 London, England staff The Press Association (ukpress.google.com) Dental experts have called for more research into mouth cancer, which is killing as many people today as it did 30 years ago. Treatments for mouth cancer have also remained unchanged for the past three decades. Meanwhile, over the same period of time, the number of overall cancer deaths in the UK fell by 15%. Professor Saman Warnakulasuriya, chair in oral medicine at King's College London, said: "The failure to improve mouth cancer death rates over the last 30 years reflects the fact that people with the condition often don't visit the dentist until it is too late. "We need research into why this is and we also need clinical trials to find new generation anti-cancer medicines to combat the disease." He was addressing an audience of politicians, patients and leading experts at the launch of the Mouth Cancer Awareness Campaign at the House of Commons. Each year in the UK more than 4,750 cases of mouth cancer are diagnosed and the disease causes more than 1,700 deaths. However results from a British Dental Health Foundation survey show that only one in four people in the UK have heard of mouth cancer. Even fewer recognise the key risk factors such as smoking and alcohol. Dr Nigel Carter, the Foundation's chief executive, said: "Our survey proves that awareness of this condition is dangerously low. "Smoking is the most common cause of mouth cancer, but alcohol is almost as dangerous and the two together [...]

11/15/2007 Los Angeles, CA Veronica Jauriqui USC Public Relations (www.usc.edu) In the first epidemiologic study of oral cancer in ethnic subpopulations in California, two researchers from the USC School of Dentistry and one from the Keck School of Medicine of USC have identified a strong relationship between the incidence of oral cancer and race and ethnicity. Satish Kumar and Parish Sedghizadeh, clinical professors in the School of Dentistry’s Division of Diagnostic Sciences, along with Lihua Liu from the Keck School’s Department of Preventive Medicine, gleaned through 20 years of records from the California Cancer Registry – the state’s cancer surveillance database – for the incidence rates of invasive squamous cell carcinoma, the most common form of oral cancer. The good news about oral cancer: It has been on the decline for the past two decades. But the researchers discovered that different ethnic groups in California manifest the disease very differently. African-Americans and Caucasians, who have the highest oral cancer rates, are most likely to develop cancer of the tongue. Among Asian populations, Koreans had the highest incidence of tongue cancer, while Southeast Asians were more likely to develop the disease in the buccal mucosa, or inner cheek. Filipino women have the highest incidence of cancer of the palate. The research team theorized that cultural habits are to blame. Their findings will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, Oral Radiology and Endodontology and are currently available online at www.ooooe.net Up to two-thirds [...]

11/15/2007 San Francisco, CA Rishi Sawhney, M.D. insideBayArea.com The introduction of "smart" laser targeted bombs and guided missiles with pinpoint accuracy have revolutionized modern warfare. A similar revolution is sweeping the world of cancer care. Targeted and smart anticancer drugs are increasingly being used in the treatment of a wide variety of cancers. Thanks to the collaborative efforts of scientists, clinicians, the pharmaceutical industry and the government, more of these modern therapies are available in your oncologist's office today. Simplistically speaking, cancer results when a single cell continues to divide and produces more cells in an unregulated fashion. Understanding this basic fact led to the development of the first generation of anti-cancer drugs, which attack all actively dividing cells. These drugs known as cytotoxic chemotherapy have been the mainstay of most medical oncology practices. They are effective, but are also associated with toxicities of hair loss, mouth sores, nausea, vomiting and bone marrow suppression as they affect all actively dividing cells. Increasing understanding of the biology and molecular profile of cancer cells has led to the realization that the regulation of certain cell surface molecules, genes and proteins is vital for the development of certain cancers. Through these changes, cancer cells are able to escape death, divide faster, spread to other parts of the body and can even recruit their own blood supply. Identification of some of these cell surface receptors, genes and proteins has provided the basis for the development of drugs against such targets. These drugs seek out [...]

11/14/2007 web-based article staff ScienceDaily.com The GPRC5A gene, which is under-expressed in human lung cancer cells, suppresses lung tumors in mouse models and could provide a key to attacking lung cancer in humans, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the Nov. 21 edition of The Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The study found that mice with both of their GPRC5A genes suppressed developed normally until their second year of life, when 76 percent developed precancerous lesions called adenomas in their lungs and another 17 percent developed malignancies called adenocarcinomas. Only 10 percent of mice with both GPRC5A genes intact developed adenomas, and only 11 percent with one working version of the gene. None of the mice in the latter two groups developed lung cancer. "In humans, lung adenocarcinomas are the most common type of lung cancer and the major cause of death from this disease," says senior author Reuben Lotan, Ph.D., professor in M. D. Anderson's Department of Thoracic/ Head and Neck Medical Oncology. "Further study substantiating the role of the GPRC5A gene in human lung cancer could lead to the development of novel approaches for lung cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment." Lung cancer is the leading cause of deaths by cancer, killing 160,000 Americans annually. Lotan and colleagues earlier had shown that Gprc5a protein is detected in the lungs more than in any other tissue and that it is underexpressed in human non-small cell lung cancer and in head and neck [...]

11/13/2007 web-based article staff ScienceDaily.com Positron emission tomography or PET scans can help clinicians diagnose and treat some cancers, but it is not clear yet whether the imaging technology helps people with cancer live longer and healthier lives, according to a comprehensive review by the U.K. National Health Service. PET scans are one of the latest tools used to detect and determine a cancer's activity in the body. PET is generally more accurate than other imaging technologies such as computerized tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. Using tiny radioactive elements, a PET scan can zero in on the distinctive biochemical fingerprints that distinguish cancerous cells from normal tissue. The most common type of PET scan, called FDG-PET, appears to lead to the best therapy for patients who have a newer diagnosis of non-small cell lung cancer and in those who have undergone treatment for Hodgkin's lymphoma. FDG-PET can also help identify the best treatment for patients with colorectal cancer, and it can detect small, potentially malignant lung growths called solitary pulmonary nodules, say review authors led by Karen Facey. "For other cancers, PET can often improve the accuracy of detecting a tumor, but it is unclear how this affects a patient's treatment and ultimately their outcome," said Facey, an evidence-based health policy researcher. The most reliable evidence "would suggest that FDG-PET is cost-effective [in the United Kingdom] in non-small cell lung cancer and Hodgkin's lymphoma," she added. Facey said this is the first comprehensive review of PET for [...]

11/13/2007 Eugene, OR staff Register-Guard (www.registerguard.com) The popular image of cancer patients facing their condition with a mixture of defiance and determined optimism is so pervasive that oncologists sometimes refer to it as the “prison of positive thinking.” “In the breast-cancer culture, cheerfulness is more or less mandatory, dissent a kind of treason,” journalist Barbara Ehrenreich wrote in Harper’s magazine after her own breast cancer diagnosis. For better or for worse, the treason has been pardoned and those prison doors have been pried open by a University of Pennsylvania research team. A study led by psychologist James Coyne that will be published in the December issue of the journal Cancer concludes that emotional well-being had no effect on overall cancer survival rates. But if previous reaction to similar findings is any indication, many prisoners of positive thinking will elect to remain in their cells. There’s really nothing wrong with that, Coyne says. There can be lots of emotional and social benefits to taking a positive approach as long as it isn’t tied to an expectation that it actually enhances cancer survival. The real downside of the “live strong, think positive” mantra is that when cancer patients experience the normal cycles of sadness, depression and self-pity, they exaggerate the consequences. They feel weak and defeated, and fear they’re letting their loved ones down. Even worse, they feel they may actually be reducing their chances of survival. Depression equals death. Coyne’s study is the largest ever to focus specifically on the relationship [...]

11/12/2007 Denver, CO Regina Sass AssociatedContent (www.associatedcontent.com) Researchers at Imperial College, London, United Kingdom, have shown that by using a combination of light activated cancer drugs with antibodies targeted to find cancerous tumors, the antibodies might be able to be a much more effective treatment for many different types of cancers. In the study, the researchers show how they have been able to attach 10 light activated molecules of a potent cancer drug to an antibody that is known to seek out the cancerous cells. They have been able to prove that this method makes it possible to deliver the powerful drug molecules to the cancer targets more efficiently than when they are not attached to an antibody. The process is called photodynamic therapy (PDT). It focuses on getting the drugs to the cancerous tissues and then lighting the area with a cold laser. The cold laser starts off a chain reaction by converting oxygen to a very toxic type of oxygen-like bleach. The bleach then destroys any cells in its vicinity. If it has been targeted right to the tumor, then the tumor is destroyed, if it misses the tumor, like in other methods of delivery, healthy tissue can be destroyed. This has been shown to be a successful method for treating cancers of the head and neck, prostate and skin. But there is a limitation to the current PDT. And that is the fact that the light activated drugs are not the efficient in hitting the tumors. Basically [...]

11/12/2007 Boston, MA Scott Allen Boston Globe Scientists are only beginning to discover the hidden role of some viruses and bacteria The almond-shaped lump on Brian Hill's throat didn't make sense to him. The doctor said it was a symptom of advanced oral cancer, but Hill had never smoked a cigarette or chewed a plug of tobacco, considered the main causes of the disease when he was diagnosed in 1997. So why was it there? Not until four years later did Hill get an explanation for his brush with death: a microbe called human papilloma virus-16 had apparently moved into his tonsils, gradually turning normal cells into cancer. Hill, now 59, had become part of a wave of relatively young nonsmokers who contracted oral cancer from the sexually transmitted virus, fueling an overall increase in new cases. Viruses such as human papilloma may be the most overlooked bad guys in the war on cancer, silent invaders that contribute to more than a dozen malignancies and may cause 15 percent of the cancer cases worldwide each year. "What we know about HPV-16 as a cancer causer is just the tip of the iceberg," said Hill, founder of the Oral Cancer Foundation, which funds research for a disease that strikes 34,000 Americans annually and is caused by the same virus that can lead to cancers of the cervix, vulva, anus, and penis. The cancer toll from germs - both viruses and bacteria - may turn out to be higher as researchers discover [...]

11/11/2007 Bolton, England Jane Lavender Bolton News (www.theboltonnews.co.uk) Cancer patients are to be given "on the spot" test results following the introduction of a speedier diagnosis system at the Royal Bolton Hospital. People with suspected head and neck cancer can be in and out of hospital in less than four hours. In that time they will have been tested and diagnosed - a vast improvement on previous times which saw many patients wait weeks for results. People who find a lump see their GP and may be referred to hospital for further checks. If they arrive at 9am on the day of their hospital appointment, they could be told by a consultant whether or not they have cancer by 11.30am the same day. It is the first scheme of its kind at the hospital. Karenza Graves, head and neck specialist nurse at the Royal Bolton Hospital, said: "This certainly speeds things up. There is a good prognosis with head and neck cancer if there is an early diagnosis." "Finding a lump is an extremely worrying time for a patient, so making this process faster eases their concern, especially if the tests show there is nothing to worry about." Around three patients are referred to the head and neck cancer clinic every week with an average of 75 people diagnosed with the disease every year. The fast scheme was piloted in January and ran until the summer, but the scheme was not introduced full-time until a few weeks ago. Among those [...]