5/28/2007 London, England Mark Henderson and Lewis Smith The Times (www.timesonline.co.uk) A revolution in cancer screening and treatment within 15 years is heralded today with the announcement of a leap in the ability to identify genes that cause the disease. Researchers are confident that their findings will allow a screening programme, in which the inherited risk of developing cancer can be assessed for every patient, to be in place in an estimated 12-15 years. Four common genes were identified and a fifth is on the verge of being pinpointed by researchers investigating the causes of breast cancer, almost doubling the number of known rogue genes. One of the new genes, when found in a mutated form, increases the risk of developing the cancer by up to 60 per cent — giving a woman a one in six chance of the disease. Its most damaging variant is carried by one in six women, making it much more common than previously identified genes that contribute to breast cancer. The success of a new “trawling technique” to assess 200,000 blocks of DNA simultaneously instead of one by one is expected to transform the search for treatments for all common cancers. While the research concentrated on identifying genes linked to breast cancer, the same technique can equally well be used for other types of the disease and work has already started on applying it to prostate, bowel and lung cancer. One scientist described the findings as the most important in breast cancer genetics since [...]

5/26/2007 Paolo Boscolo-Rizzo, MD et al Annals of Surgical Oncology 14:1575-1582 (2007) Background: The aim of this retrospective analysis was to analyze the results of treatment of patients with cervical node metastases from carcinoma of occult primary with a policy including neck dissection and postoperative comprehensive radiotherapy. Methods: Ninety patients were treated with curative intent from 1990 to 2002. Results: The actuarial rate of neck disease control was 68.8% at 5 years (95% confidence interval [CI], 58.9%–78.7%). On multivariate analysis, the rate of neck disease control was significantly related to lymph nodal metastatic level (P = .006). The actuarial rate of developing head and neck primary tumors at 5 years was 8.9% (95% CI, 2.6%–15.2%). The 5-year actuarial rate of distant metastases was 19.1% (95% CI, 9.4%–28.9%). In multivariate analysis, a statistically significant difference in the rate of distant metastasis was obtained when patients were stratified according to the level of nodal involvement (P = .01) and the presence of extracapsular extension (P = .013). At the time of analysis, 50 of the 90 patients were alive. A total of 32 (35.6%) had died from causes related to their primary disease. Actuarial disease-specific survival at 2 and 5 years was 73.6% (95% CI, 64.3%–82.9%) and 62.8% (95% CI, 51.9%–73.7%), respectively. In multivariate analysis, a statistically significant difference in disease-specific survival was obtained when patients were stratified according to the level of nodal involvement and the presence of extracapsular extension. Conclusions: Our study seems to support the use of combined-modality therapy [...]

5/23/2007 web-based article Amy Dockser Marcus Checkbiotech.org In 2004, Marnie Kaufman was diagnosed with a rare, little-understood cancer. There was no effective chemotherapy. Her husband Jeffrey's first thoughts turned to how to jump-start research. "Jeff wanted to raise money and give it to anyone walking down the hall of the hospital," Mrs. Kaufman recounts. But after meeting with David Sidransky, director of head-and-neck-cancer research at Johns Hopkins University, and asking him to work on the organization they started, Dr. Sidransky told them to think about an issue they never anticipated: What if no one wanted their cash? Budgets are tight at the National Institutes of Health, labs are scrambling to find funding, and many private foundations and pharmaceutical companies don't invest in research for rare cancers. But for many patient advocates, there is a further obstacle. Sometimes they raise money and get no takers. A friend of the Kaufmans who started his own rare-cancer advocacy group gave the phenomenon a name: the doom loop. Some researchers -- tired of getting turned down for grants and fearing there will be no funding to sustain long-term research -- don't bother applying even when money becomes available. To avoid that trap, the Kaufmans tried something different. They raised more than $700,000 for Mrs. Kaufman's disease, a salivary-gland tumor called adenoid cystic carcinoma, or ACC, and then, instead of sending out a call for proposals and waiting for responses that might never arrive, they took matters into their own hands. Working with a small, [...]

5/23/2007 Jenkintown, PA staff Natonal Comprehensive Cancer Network (www.nccn.org) The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) announces updates to the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology™ - Head and Neck Cancers. The NCCN Guidelines are updated continuously by panels of world-renowned experts and are widely recognized and applied as the standard of care in oncology in the United States in both the community and the academic practice settings. The NCCN Guidelines contain a newly modified risk categorization to assess whether patients should receive post-operative chemoradiation. The risk categorization lists potential major and minor risk features of the disease. Post-operative chemoradiation is indicated based on how many of these risk features a patient exhibits. For cancers of the oropharynx, hypopharynx, and glottic and supraglottic larynx, cisplatin (Platinol® - AQ, Bristol-Myers Squibb) is now listed as the preferred agent if using the treatment option of concurrent systemic/radiation therapy. Cetuximab (Erbitux®, ImClone/Bristol-Myers Squibb) plus concurrent radiation therapy has been added as a systemic therapy option for unresectable and recurrent disease and for specific sites (eg, oropharynx, hypopharynx, glottic and supraglottic larynx). Definitive radiation therapy plus cetuximab was added for patients with advanced head and neck cancer not able to tolerate cytotoxic chemotherapy. The NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology™ are available free of charge at www.nccn.org. The guidlines of interest to oral cancer patients can be seen on the OCF web site at http://www.oralcancerfoundation.org/treatment/guidelines.htm About the National Comprehensive Cancer Network The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), a not-for-profit alliance of 21 of the world’s [...]

5/23/2007 London, United Kingdom staff CancerResearchUK (info.cancerresearchuk.org) Doctors at the Royal Marsden Hospital are trialling a possible new treatment for head and neck cancer, using a genetically modified virus which is injected directly into the patient's tumour. Scientists at the Institute of Cancer Research, supported by Cancer Research UK, have modified a herpes virus so that it is attracted to growing cancer cells, but not to normal healthy tissue. Dr Alison Ross, science information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: "It's still early days but this is an exciting study, which highlights the potential of using genetically-modified viruses as a weapon against cancer. "This is one of a number of similar approaches for treating cancer that Cancer Research UK is supporting. But it'll be a number of years before we'll find out whether this particular treatment is effective." The modified virus is designed to enter cancer cells and quickly replicate until the cell bursts. The researchers have also introduced genetic material which produces molecules that the immune system can use to recognise the tumour. Lead researcher Dr Kevin Harrington told the BBC: "We think this is [an] enormously exciting opportunity to bring virus and gene therapy into front line treatment of cancer." A number of other trials are also being conducted using viruses to target other types of cancer, including breast and lung cancer.

5/23/2007 Hickory, NC staff MaxHealth (emaxhealth.com) Cancer drug Multikine was shown to significantly increase long term overall survival in a Phase II study of head and neck cancer patients. The data were presented on May 20, 2007 at the First International Congress of the International Association of Oral Oncology in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, by Dr. Eyal Talor, Senior VP of Research and Manufacturing at CEL-SCI Corporation. Dr. Talor's presentation focused on the results obtained in CEL-SCI's final Phase II clinical trial of Multikine that was conducted in patients with head and neck cancer (oral squamous cell carcinoma -- OSCC). This final Phase II clinical trial was designed to assess thoroughly the positive safety and efficacy observations made in patients treated with Multikine in CEL-SCI's early Phase II trials. In the trial Multikine was given prior to standard care to recently diagnosed and not yet treated cancer patients. The addition of Multikine to the first treatment (standard of care) of these patients resulted in a 33% improvement in the median overall survival at 3-1/2 years post-surgery, when compared to the survival results reported in 55 OSCC clinical trials published in the scientific literature between 1987 and 2007. Multikine first-line treatment also resulted in an improvement of the 2- year local regional over the published local regional control rate. It is clinically recognized that recurrence of disease in head and neck cancer is associated with a very poor prognosis. Multikine treatment did not result in any severe adverse events (SAE) in this [...]

5/22/2007 United Kingdom Jerome Burne Daily Mail (www.dailymail.co.uk) A cancer treatment that is less invasive and gruelling than conventional procedures - and cheaper - is the Holy Grail of oncology research. So imagine if that treatment already existed. The fact is, it does - but few people know about it and few hospitals offer it. Photodynamic therapy uses tumour-killing drugs that are activated by light. With skin cancer, first a cream is rubbed onto the affected area, then a light shone onto the cancer for 20 minutes. This creates a form of oxygen which destroys the tumour. The same technique can be used to treat cancers inside the body, if the area can be accessed with an endoscope (a flexible tube) containing a light The patient needs just one treatment - unlike the repeated doses required for radiotherapy or chemotherapy, and the side-effects (pain, swelling and nausea) are far milder. Photodynamic therapy is also cheaper - doctors offering the treatment claim it costs less than half the price of chemotherapy. But despite its promise as the next generation of cancer treatment, photodynamic therapy is not widely available. There are just seven hospitals in the UK offering it as a regular treatment, even though it is licensed by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence for cancers of the skin, head, neck and oesophagus. Now the veteran broadcaster Sir David Frost has agreed to help an appeal to increase awareness about the treatment, and to raise £50million to fund research. "I can't [...]

5/22/2007 Toronto, Ontario, Canada Sheryl Ubelacker Canadian Press If the risk of losing all your teeth to gum disease isn't incentive enough, researchers have found another preventative reason to brush and floss religiously - tongue cancer. Researchers at the University of Buffalo and Roswell Park Cancer Institute say they have found a possible link between long-standing periodontitis, or gum disease, and the risk of developing tongue cancer. The study, published in the May issue of the Archives of Otolaryngology, found the risk of tongue cancer due to chronic periodontal disease increased fivefold with every millimeter of lost alveolar bone - the bone in the jaw that holds teeth in place. Periodontal disease is a chronic bacterial infection that affects the gums and bone supporting the teeth. It begins when the bacteria in plaque - the sticky, colorless film that forms on teeth - causes the gums to become inflamed. An estimated 15 per cent of Canadian adults have the condition to varying degrees. "We expected to see an association, given the results of earlier studies linking chronic infections and inflammation to cancer risk in other organs," said lead author Dr. Mine Tezal, a professor of periodontics and endodontics at the University of Buffalo and a research scientist at Roswell Park. "But we didn't expect to see such a clear association with a relatively small sample size." In the 1999-2005 study, the researchers compared panoramic (full-mouth) dental X-rays of 51 males newly diagnosed with tongue cancer against those of 54 men [...]

5/20/2007 Wilmington, DE E. J. Mundell DelawareOnline.com Amid the controversy around mandated vaccination of young girls against the human papillomavirus, some experts are beginning to wonder whether the shot should also be given to boys. While males cannot get HPV-linked cervical cancer, they make up half of the equation when it comes to spreading the sexually transmitted virus. And a new study released last week shows that the virus is also a leading cause of throat cancer, which affects both sexes. “This is a viral infectious process, and the majority of the time it is passed through heterosexual contact. And I think it’s important to consider boys as equal players in that process,” said Dr. Michael Bookman, director of medical gynecologic oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. “Boys are not as prone to [HPV-linked] cancer as girls, but they are obviously involved in the transmission, and there is some risk of cancer in boys, as well,” he added. No one is debating the effectiveness of the vaccine, called Gardasil. The shot is targeted against the four strains (out of 15) of HPV that are thought to trigger 70 percent of cervical cancers. Since its approval for use in girls and women between the ages of 9 and 26 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last June, several states have moved to mandate Gardasil’s inclusion into routine school vaccination programs. That’s because vaccinating before the onset of sexual activity is most effective in preventing HPV infection. Those efforts [...]

5/20/2007 Tahlequah, OK Teddye Snell Tahlequah Daily Press (www.tahlequahdailypress.com) Although “Joe Camel” virtually disappeared after a 1998 settlement between the states and the tobacco companies, the industry’s marketing to children has not. And that concerns Louise Micolites. Micolites, coordinator for the Cherokee County Tobacco Control Program, and understands the need to prevent youth from using tobacco products. “Tobacco is so hard to quit; the best thing to do is never start,” said Micolites. “Big Tobacco knows most people who smoke begin before they turn 18, and most of those become lifelong customers.” Cherokee County Health Coalition Coordinator Carol McKiel gets angry just thinking about children being used as targets for boosting tobacco sales. “Tobacco may not be able to advertise on TV anymore, but you see smoking in Disney movies,” said McKiel. “A new study by Dartmouth Medical School shows smoking in movies has increased in recent years.” According to the press release issued by Dartmouth, the study McKiel refers to suggests exposure to movie smoking accounts for smoking initiation among more than one-third of the U.S. adolescents. It concludes that limiting exposure of young adolescents to movie smoking could have important public health implications. This report and others have led Congress to seek possible FDA regulation of tobacco. Dr. Elmer Huerta, incoming president of the American Cancer Society and director of the Cancer Preventorium at the Washington Hospital Center, testified before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions in February about such regulation. “The need for FDA [...]