Oral Cancer News

Idera obtains clinical milestone under collaboration with Merck

Source: www.tradingmarkets.com Author: staff Idera Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company, has achieved a milestone under its worldwide licensing and collaboration agreement with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. The milestone was achieved upon initiation of a Phase II trial by Merck KGaA of EMD 1201081, a novel agonist of toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9), in combination with cetuximab in second-line cetuximab-naive patients with recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. Under the terms of the agreement, the company is entitled to receive a payment of E3 million from Merck KGaA during the first quarter of 2010. The clinical trial is being conducted in eight countries, including the US. Idera Pharmaceuticals entered into a worldwide licensing and collaboration agreement with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany in December 2007 for the research, development and commercialization of Idera's TLR9 agonists, including IMO-2055, for the potential treatment of certain cancers. In addition to the clinical study announced today, under the company's collaboration with Merck KGaA, EMD 1201081 is currently being evaluated in a Phase Ib clinical trial in combination with Tarceva and Avastin in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer and in a Phase Ib clinical trial in combination with Erbitux and an irinotecan-containing treatment regimen in patients with colorectal cancer. Alice Bexon, vice president of clinical development at Idera, said: "We are very pleased with Merck KGaA's initiation of this randomized Phase II clinical trial of EMD 1201081 in combination with cetuximab in patients with head and neck cancer. "Under our collaboration with [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-01-22T09:59:21-07:00January, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Helping cancer patients with their self image

Source: www.wkowtv.com Author: staff Thirty-four-year-old Angela Gass has difficulty swallowing and speaking. She lost part of her tongue and jawbone to a 12-year battle with cancer. "They reconstructed all of it using other parts of my body," says Angela. The fight to survive the cancer and the numerous surgeries eventually took more than just a physical toll. "I was depressed. I was embarrassed and I didn't want to leave my house," says Angie. She enrolled in the pilot phase of a body image therapy program underway at MD Anderson Hospital in Houston. "Patients don't feel at times comfortable talking with their doctor or healthcare providers about these issues," says Michelle Fingeret, Ph.D., a behavioral scientist Issues like feeling guilty about appearance-related concerns and dealing with social situations. "A lot of times a patient will just start crying to me right away and saying you know no one's ever talked to me about this before and I don't feel, I feel so vain or I feel ashamed or guilty about bringing this up when I should just be happy I'm getting my cancer treated and I'm surviving cancer right now." "It kind of took weight off of me knowing it was okay to feel that way." A counselor initially meets with patients in person but also counsels them by phone for convenience. She discusses their concerns, helps them set goals and celebrates milestones with them. "I think my first assignment was to go to the grocery store and not cover my [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-01-22T09:54:04-07:00January, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

What’s in a cigarette? FDA will study the ingredients

Source: Yahoo Author: MICHAEL FELBERBAUM RICHMOND, Va. – The Food and Drug Administration is working to lift the smokescreen clouding the ingredients used in cigarettes and other tobacco products. In June, tobacco companies must tell the FDA their formulas for the first time, just as drugmakers have for decades. Manufacturers also will have to turn over any studies they've done on the effects of the ingredients. It's an early step for an agency just starting to flex muscles granted by a new law that took effect last June that gives it broad power to regulate tobacco far beyond the warnings now on packs, short of banning it outright. Companies have long acknowledged using cocoa, coffee, menthol and other additives to make tobacco taste better. The new information will help the FDA determine which ingredients might also make tobacco more harmful or addictive. It will also use the data to develop standards for tobacco products and could ban some ingredients or combinations. "Tobacco products today are really the only human-consumed product that we don't know what's in them," Lawrence R. Deyton, the director of the Food and Drug Administration's new Center for Tobacco Products and a physician, told The Associated Press in a recent interview. While the FDA must keep much of the data confidential under trade-secret laws, it will publish a list of harmful and potentially harmful ingredients by June 2011. Under the law, it must be listed by quantity in each brand. Some tobacco companies have voluntarily listed product ingredients online [...]

Charlotte Parker2010-01-19T18:12:08-07:00January, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Research Paper- clinical trial of nicotine patches for treatment of spit tobacco addiction among adolescents

Source: Tobacco Control Author: Staff Abstract Background:This study tested the efficacy of nicotine patches in combination with behavioural therapy for the treatment of adolescent spit tobacco addiction. Prior interventions had resulted in mean cessation rates below 15% at one year. Methods:This study, the PATCH Project, used a three group, placebo controlled, randomised clinical trial design. The control group received a standard 3–5 minute counselling followed by a two week follow up phone call. The two intervention groups received a six week behavioural intervention; in addition, one group received active nicotine patches while the other group received placebo patches. Both groups received quarterly stage based telephone counselling. Results:At one year, the usual care group’s spit tobacco cessation rate was 11.4% (exact 95% confidence interval (CI) 6.1% to 19.1%), placebo patch 25.0% (95% CI 16.9% to 34.7%), and the active patch 17.3% (95% CI 10.4% to 26.3%). When both patch groups were combined, the cessation rate was 21.2% (95% CI 15.7% to 27.6%). The cessation rates for active and placebo patch were not significantly different (exact two sided p = 0.22), while the combined patch groups had a significantly greater cessation rate than usual care (exact two sided p = 0.04). Conclusions:The behavioural intervention proved to be about twice as successful as previous interventions, but the nicotine patch offered no improvement in cessation rates. The behavioural intervention is based on publicly available materials and can be easily adapted for widespread use, particularly in high schools.

Charlotte Parker2010-01-19T11:52:42-07:00January, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Successful completion of second dose group in a Phase I/II Amphinex trial – strong anti-tumour response observed in all patients

Source: frontierindia.net Author: staff of Frontier India Pharmacetuicals News PCI Biotech reported today that it has completed the treatment of the second dose group in the phase I/II study of its proprietary photosensitiser Amphinex® used in combination with the cytotoxic agent bleomycin in cancer patients. To date seven patients have been given a single photochemical internalisation (PCI) treatment of Amphinex® with all the treated tumours in all patients disappearing within a few weeks of treatment. Furthermore, no drug-related serious adverse events have been recorded. “We are very excited by the positive results that have been reported from University College Hospital (UCH) in London. The strong antitumour response seen in all patients treated with Amphinex® is far better than expected at the first dose levels and indicates that the positive pre-clinical results obtained with our PCI technology are transferrable to treatment in humans”, says PCI Biotech CEO Per Walday. When activated by light, Amphinex® promotes effective local delivery of a variety of therapeutic molecules, e.g. bleomycin, through triggered endosomal release. The primary objective of the UCH study is to assess the maximum tolerated dose of Amphinex®, in PCI treatment with bleomycin. Secondary objectives include determination of the antitumor activity of the treatment, as well as the pharmacokinetics of Amphinex®. The study has also been designed to include patients with as wide as possible a range of cancers and has already included sarcoma, breast, and head and neck cancer patients. The effectiveness of the PCI treatment seems to be similar across all [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-01-19T08:19:56-07:00January, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

IBG wine tasting: affordable and fabulous

Source: www.prlog.org Author: press release For many of us, extravagant prices for wine with dinner on an average Wednesday night have gone the way of large holiday bonuses. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t still treat yourself to fabulous wine. Please join IBG Inc. for a wine tasting and silent auction on January 23, 2010 at the Wilshire Art Gallery in Beverly Hills where you can sample wines from around the world. These wines are unique, interesting and affordable. In addition to exploring these wines, attendees are eligible to bid on items donated by our generous sponsors, including items from Dior Beauty, modcloth.com, Louden Swain, “The Bonnie Hunt Show”, “The Soup” with Joel McHale, The Cheesecake Factory, Sprinkles and others. The best part? The $25 entrance fee and all proceeds from the silent auction will go to support IBG Inc’s charitable efforts throughout the year. Our planned support programs for the first half of 2010 include support for organizations on the front lines dealing with catastrophic illness, education, arts and culture and social services. Events, auctions and awareness campaigns are planned for the PKD Foundation (Polycystic Kidney Disease), Art Aids Art, the Oral Cancer Foundation, Children of the Night, Fezeka Scholoarship Fund, Kids Defense Team, Off The Street Kids and the Rape Treatment Center at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center. Founded in late 2008, IBG (http://www.ibginc.org) established a non-profit focusing on utilizing the power of philanthropy through the arts to benefit a broad range of charities worldwide. We act as [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-01-17T15:31:44-07:00January, 2010|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

Radiation exposure may increase risk of stroke and heart disease

Source: www.onmedica.com Author: OnMedica Staff Exposure to moderate levels of radiation may increase the rates of heart disease and stroke, according to new research. Several studies have shown that high doses of radiation to the heart or head and neck from radiotherapy cause an excess of deaths from heart disease or stroke in later years. But it is uncertain whether radiation exposures at relatively low dose levels (under 1 Gy) also increase the risk. To investigate this further, Dr Yukiko Shimizu and colleagues from the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Japan examined the risk of heart disease and stroke in 86,611 atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki who have been followed up for 53 years, from 1950 to 2003, as part of the Japanese atomic bomb survivor Life Span Study. Each member of the group had received an estimated radiation dose from 0-4 Gy (86% received less than 0.2 Gy) at the time of the bomb. Other risk factors for circulatory disease that could have affected the results, such as smoking, alcohol intake, education, occupation, obesity and diabetes were also taken into account. The researchers found an elevated risk of both stroke and heart disease at doses above 0.5 Gy, but the degree of risk at lower doses was unclear. Together, this represents about 210 excess deaths from circulatory disease associated with radiation exposure – about a third as many as the total excess number of cancer deaths (about 625) among atomic bomb survivors in the Life Span Study. [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-01-15T19:58:54-07:00January, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Saskatchewan students choose anti-tobacco ad for national non-smoking week

Source: www.canadaviews.ca Author: Government of Saskatchewan Saskatchewan’s Health Minister is pleased to announce the winning anti-tobacco advertisement selected by Saskatchewan students participating in the View and Vote program. Students in Grades 6 to 12 were given the opportunity to view and vote on some of the best international, American and Canadian anti-tobacco television ads. Two hundred and fifty seven schools in Saskatchewan participated in this year’s View and Vote program, which generated 14,000 student ballots. Nearly 3,200 students rated the Australian ad “Mouth Cancer” as most effective. This ad will be aired on Saskatchewan television stations starting January 17 during the National Non-Smoking Week. “Encouraging our youth to be tobacco-free is an important step toward healthy, productive lives,” Health Minister Don McMorris said. “This project is an innovative way of reaching large numbers of young people and educating them about the addictive nature of tobacco and the effects of smoking. Studies show that if young people remain tobacco-free until they become adults, they are less likely to start using tobacco in the future.” Students played an active role in the project. The ads were used as a tool to generate classroom discussions about the effects of tobacco use. Students then voted on the ad that they felt would keep them from starting to use tobacco or, if they already use tobacco, the ad that made them think about quitting. View and Vote is one component of the provincial tobacco reduction strategy focusing on youth, which has three main goals: prevention [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-01-15T19:52:47-07:00January, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Kids may mistake new tobacco products for candy

Source: Clippertoday.com Author: Melinda Williams FARMINGTON — New tobacco products often look like candy, and their packaging may look like cell phones or other electronics. “But there’s no such thing as a safe tobacco product,” Davis County health educator Isa Kaluhikaua told Board of Health members Tuesday. Kaluhikaua brought examples of smoking alternatives to show board members, most packaged in bright colors with appealing logos. There’s Snus, a no-spit tobacco pouch meant to be placed under the upper lip, and Orbs, dissolvable breath-mint sized tobacco, with a camel imprinted on each. There’s also Strips, dissolvable strips, like breath freshening strips, containing tobacco, and dissolvable Sticks. And, there’s an electronic cigarette. The products all contain tobacco or nicotine and have not been approved by the Federal Drug Administration. Kaluhikaua said if a child ingested three Orbs, they would get ill, and 10 could result in serious illness. Yet, she said, they look much like Tic-Tacs and come in a variety of flavors that children may mistake for candy. She said the Federal Drug Administration has not approved most of the products, yet they are being put out on the market pouvez trouver. “Some are designed to fit into creative packaging,” and are marketed as a safe alternative to smoking. Not all the products are on the market in Utah yet, Kaluhikaua said. That sobering message was a portion of Kaluhikaua’s annual tobacco report to the board which indicates that during 2009, only 6 percent of adults and 8.6 percent of youth [...]

Charlotte Parker2010-01-15T12:41:31-07:00January, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

HPV, is it running rampant?

Source: WebMD Author: Bill Hendrick Jan. 14, 2010 -- Cancer-causing human papillomavirus (HPV) spreads readily and quickly among partners in new sexual relationships, new research indicates. Scientists at McGill University, reporting in the journal Epidemiology, say they detected the virus in 64% of couples who reported engaging in vaginal sex for a median of 3.9 months. In 41% of 263 college couples studied, both partners had the same type of HPV, a surprising finding “far more frequent than [the 11%] expected by chance” even though the virus is the most common sexually transmitted infection, the authors write. “[D]etection of the same type in persons initiating a sex relationship would be rare given type-specific prevalence rates,” says the study, whose lead author is Ann N. Burchell, PhD, of the division of cancer epidemiology, departments of oncology and epidemiology and biostatistics at McGill University in Montreal. Along with colleagues from the University of Montreal, Burchell and Eduardo Franco, DrPH, MPH, director of McGill’s Cancer Epidemiology Unit, analyzed self-reported data from partners of 263 couples. The women, college students between 18 and 24, enrolled in the study with their male partners. Women were sexually active with their male partners for no more than six months. Most used condoms, but 9% never used condoms. Self-collected vaginal swabs and clinician-collected swabs from the penis and scrotum were tested for 36 strains of HPV. Among 169 couples for whom at least one partner was infected, the scientists identified 583 type-specific HPV infections. Twenty-five percent of monogamous partners had the [...]

Charlotte Parker2010-01-15T19:49:41-07:00January, 2010|Oral Cancer News|