Oral Cancer News – Page 269

Does the negative node count affect disease-free survival in early-stage oral cavity cancer?

Source: J Oral Maxillofac Surg, November 1, 2009; 67(11): 2473-5 Authors: FL Ampil, G Caldito, GE Ghali, and RG Baluna Purpose: We performed a retrospective study to determine whether there is a relationship between disease-free survival and negative lymph node count in patients with resected early-stage oral cavity cancers. Materials and Methods: Of the 526 individuals diagnosed with carcinoma of the oral cavity between 1998 and 2005, 52 had undergone primary tumor resection and lymph node dissection of the neck for stage I or II disease. With a mean count of 27 examined negative nodes, these 52 patients were separated into groups with fewer than 27 or > or = 27 uninvolved lymph nodes and compared for disease-free survival. Results: The tumor recurred or progressed in 10 patients (19%) during a median follow-up of 27 months. The 2-year disease-free survival rates were 75% and 78% in individuals with fewer than 27 and > or = 27 uninvolved node counts, respectively (P > .78). Conclusion: The removal of a greater number of regional, uninvolved cervical lymph nodes does not correlate with disease-free survival in this particular cohort of patients. Authors' affiliation: Division of Therapeutic Radiology, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, Shreveport, LA 71130, USA

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-10-27T05:15:46-07:00October, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Oncolytics Biotech Inc. announces issuance of 33rd U.S. patent

Source: www.benzinga.com/press-releases Author: press release Oncolytics Biotech Inc. ("Oncolytics") today announced that it has been granted its 33rd U.S. Patent, # 7,608,257, entitled "Sensitization of Chemotherapeutic Agent Resistant Neoplastic Cells With a Virus." The patent claims cover methods of using reovirus in combination with currently approved chemotherapeutic agents to treat patients that are refractory to those chemotherapeutic agents alone. "This patent supports our expanding clinical program, including our first Phase III study, looking at Reolysin(R) in combination with a range of chemotherapeutic agents," said Mary Ann Dillahunty, Vice President of Intellectual Property for Oncolytics. "Many of our studies enroll patients that did not previously respond to chemotherapy, including our Phase III study in patients with platinum refractory head and neck cancers." About Oncolytics Biotech Inc. Oncolytics is a Calgary-based biotechnology company focused on the development of oncolytic viruses as potential cancer therapeutics. Oncolytics' clinical program includes a variety of human trials including a Phase III trial in head and neck cancers using Reolysin(R), its proprietary formulation of the human reovirus.

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-10-27T05:00:12-07:00October, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Cancers can vanish without treatment, but how?

Source: nytimes.com Author: Gina Kolata Call it the arrow of cancer. Like the arrow of time, it was supposed to point in one direction. Cancers grew and worsened. But as a paper in The Journal of the American Medical Association noted last week, data from more than two decades of screening for breast and prostate cancer call that view into question. Besides finding tumors that would be lethal if left untreated, screening appears to be finding many small tumors that would not be a problem if they were left alone, undiscovered by screening. They were destined to stop growing on their own or shrink, or even, at least in the case of some breast cancers, disappear. “The old view is that cancer is a linear process,” said Dr. Barnett Kramer, associate director for disease prevention at the National Institutes of Health. “A cell acquired a mutation, and little by little it acquired more and more mutations. Mutations are not supposed to revert spontaneously.” So, Dr. Kramer said, the image was “an arrow that moved in one direction.” But now, he added, it is becoming increasingly clear that cancers require more than mutations to progress. They need the cooperation of surrounding cells and even, he said, “the whole organism, the person,” whose immune system or hormone levels, for example, can squelch or fuel a tumor. Cancer, Dr. Kramer said, is a dynamic process. It was a view that was hard for some cancer doctors and researchers to accept. But some of [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-10-27T04:15:26-07:00October, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Swedish snuff more addicting?

Source: www.upi.com Author: staff A Swedish tobacco company adds a substance to snuff products to heighten dependency, an investigative report concluded. The usual level for snuff or 'snus' is eight milligrams per gram but double that amount was found in one product produced by Swedish Match, the news program Kalla Fakta reported. The report alleges that Swedish Match added a substance known as E500 which raises "free" nicotine to increase craving. The tobacco company denies any wrongdoing. "There is no secret substance in snus," spokesman Henrik Brehmer said regarding the use of E500. "We use it to stabilize the pH value in snus and have done so for 200 years." Brehmer rejected an assertion by Harvard School of Public Health Professor Greg Connolly Swedish Match is deliberately using the substance to addict consumers. "In a study in 2008 he concluded that we are manipulating the pH value, something that we consider hugely speculative," Brehmer said.

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-10-26T18:47:47-07:00October, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Completion of Cel-Sci’s new facility signals that long awaited phase III trial is imminent

Source: www.reuters.com Author: press release BioMedReports, the news portal which covers Wall Street's biomedical sector and delivers financial and investment intelligence to a community of highly informed investors, was given an exclusive tour of CEL-SCI Corporation's new, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility near Baltimore, MD where the potentially ground breaking cancer immunotherapy treatment, Multikine, will be manufactured to support an upcoming Phase III clinical trial. Multikine is the company's flagship immunotherapeutic head and neck cancer treatment and is the first immunotherapeutic agent being developed as a first-line standard of care cancer treatment. Because it required a very specific cold-fill process for manufacturing, the Phase III trials have been on hold as Cel Sci dedicated the majority of their time and resources to build the new best-in-class production facility. Additionally, once the facility is validated, Cel Sci will become the only entity offering the 4°C cold fill on a contract basis, meaning the potential to bring in significant revenue as an added bonus does exist.

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-10-26T14:46:03-07:00October, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Calif. doctor, minister who promised herbal cancer cure to faithful arrested on fraud charges

Source: HealthNews Author: Greg Risling Calif. doc who hailed herbal cancer cure arrested LOS ANGELES — Dr. Christine Daniel promised to her patients what many considered the improbable — the chance to cure cancer through an herbal treatment. Using her influence as an ordained Pentecostal minister, Daniel tapped into the vessel of faith to entice people from across the nation to try her regimen. She even appeared on cable’s Trinity Broadcasting Network in December 2002 touting her cancer cure and its 60 percent success rate, according to federal investigators. Daniel, 55, of Los Angeles was arrested and charged Thursday with two counts each of wire and mail fraud and faces up to 80 years in prison if convicted. She is scheduled to appear in federal court Friday. A phone message left for Daniel’s attorney, Manuel Miller, was not immediately returned. Daniel was interviewed by investigators in August 2004, and she denied ever practicing alternative medicine for cancer, court documents show. She also attested that she never talked about a 60 percent cancer cure rate on television. In court documents, authorities contend Daniel took advantage of terminally ill cancer patients in their darkest hours, some of whom desperately sought alternative measures after enduring draining rounds of chemotherapy and radiation. In all, federal prosecutors said Daniel siphoned about $1.1 million from 55 families between 2001 and 2004. Six patients ranging in age from 4 to 69 died within seven months after seeing Daniel. One of those was Margaret Antwi, who traveled from [...]

Charlotte Parker2009-10-26T11:38:35-07:00October, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

HPV vaccine fails to get nod for routine use in boys

Source: Medscape.com Author: Robert Lowes October 21, 2009 — Despite hearing impassioned pleas to protect both men and women from cancer, a federal advisory panel today declined to recommend that a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine be routinely administered to boys to prevent genital warts. Instead, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) issued a "permissive" recommendation stating that physicians have the option of vaccinating boys with the HPV vaccine Gardasil(Merck) for genital-wart protection. ACIP noted that boys should receive the vaccine "before exposure to HPV through sexual contact." In 2006, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Gardasil for use in girls and young women to prevent cervical and other cancers as well as precancers caused by HPV types 16 and 18. Last week, the FDA also approved Gardasil for use in males aged 9 through 26 to prevent genital warts. In making its recommendation today, ACIP appeared to be swayed in part by published research questioning the cost-effectiveness of routine vaccination of boys with Gardasil. The committee's decision has far-reaching economic effects because third-party payers typically pay for vaccinations that are recommended for routine use, but not those coming with a permissive recommendation. More at Stake Than Genital Wart Prevention Proponents of routine vaccination of boys with Gardasil told the committee Wednesday during the public comment period that more was at stake than merely preventing genital warts. They underlined the need to also prevent oral, throat, penile, and anal cancers caused by HPV. David Hastings, a spokesperson for the [...]

Charlotte Parker2009-10-26T09:22:06-07:00October, 2009|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

Magic gel help Julie Andrews sing again

Source: www.dailymail.co.uk Author: Fiona Macrae The stage may soon be alive with the sound of her famous voice once more. Dame Julie Andrews could have her vocal cords, which were ruined during a throat operation, restored by one of the world's leading scientists. The Sound Of Music Star has been unable to sing since disastrous surgery to remove non-cancerous throat nodules in 1997. But a breakthrough by chemical engineer Robert Langer of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US, could give her back the clear soprano voice that won her many a lead role. He has created a rubbery gel that restores the elasticity to damaged and scarred vocal cords. Trials on rats and ferrets were successful, and the first human patients, perhaps including Dame Julie, could be treated in as little as a year. Professor Langer, who is collaborating with the singer's voice specialist Dr Steven Zeitels, said: 'So far the animal trials have been promising. It appears safe in animals. 'We hope we can start a clinical trial on this gel in a year or two. 'I don't want to promise we'll do it on Julie Andrews but she has been a big proponent of it.' Dame Julie, who received a £600,000 pay-out after the botched operation, is a regular visitor to the Professor's Boston laboratory. The scientist said: 'She can't really hold a note. She had a five octave voice at one point.' The treatment could help anyone whose voice may have been strained by frequent [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-10-23T07:40:12-07:00October, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Research uproar at a cancer clinic

Source: Author: Duff Wilson Two years after becoming vice president for research at the biggest hospital in this university town, Suzanne Stratton said she had finally seen enough She had clashed repeatedly with a doctor who oversaw the local patients enrolled in more than 130 federally sponsored cancer studies — work that the hospital promoted in local television advertisements but that Dr. Stratton, who has a Ph.D. in molecular biology, said was often putting patients and science at risk. In a meeting with Carle Foundation Hospital administrators late last year, Dr. Stratton demanded that they take action. She cited an outside audit that had found “major deficiencies” in 12 of 29 experiments being overseen by that doctor, potentially endangering patients or skewing the studies’ results. Dr. Stratton says her bosses responding by firing her, ushering her out of the hospital later that same day. But federal officials, alerted by Dr. Stratton, have corroborated many of the shortcomings she found. They are continuing to investigate — an inquiry with implications for the nation’s cancer research effort that go far beyond the Carle Cancer Center. In the last quarter century, among the hundreds of thousands of people around the nation who have enrolled in federally financed trials of cancer drugs and treatments, more than one-third have come through the doors of local medical centers like Carle. Together, these nearly 400 federally designated community research sites and the network of 3,400 participating physicians amass more evidence for cancer science than at any of [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-10-23T07:16:57-07:00October, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

US advisers decline to push Gardasil for boys

Source: Reuters.com Author: Maggie Fox * Committee advises that doctors free to use vaccine * Says needs more evidence of cost benefit * Did not consider value in preventing cancer (Updates throughout, adds quotes, share price) WASHINGTON, Oct 21 (Reuters) - U.S. vaccine advisers declined to press for the use of Merck & Co's (MRK.N) Gardasil in boys and men, opting instead on Wednesday to simply advise doctors they are free to use it. Despite some impassioned pleas from patients and doctors alike, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted almost unanimously for "permissive" use of the vaccine for boys. It protects against the human papillomavirus, or HPV, which causes a variety of cancers and genital warts. But the committee did recommend including Gardasil for eligible boys aged 9 to 18 in the Vaccines For Children program, a government-funded system that provides vaccines to children eligible for the state-federal Medicaid health insurance plan and other uninsured children. Merck's shares were down 1.7 percent at $33.16 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently recommends Gardasil for girls 11 and 12 years old and women 13 to 26 who have not been vaccinated. Earlier this month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Gardasil for preventing genital warts in boys and men ages 9 through 26. The main reason the vaccine was approved was to prevent cervical cancer, which kills 4,000 women a year in the United States alone. But various [...]

Charlotte Parker2009-10-21T14:45:00-07:00October, 2009|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|