11/22/2004 Dale Chenoweth In recent years, knowledgeable biomedical researchers have sometimes wondered aloud whether the first approved gene therapy would come from a U.S. company, or instead from one in Europe or maybe even Britain. The answer, apparently, is none of the above. China Steps Out Ahead In March of this year the Chinese company Shenzhen SiBiono GeneTech Company, Ltd. began marketing in China a cancer gene therapy called Gendicine. The therapy was approved in October 2003 by China’s State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) for use against squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN), a category of solid tumors originating in such sites as the pharynx, larynx, oral cavity, and nose. In a self-interview published online last May, the company’s founder and chair, Zhouhui Peng, MD, said several Phase II and III trials among 135 patients with advanced SCCHN showed 64 percent had a complete response (CR) to the adenovirus-p53 drug used in combination with radiotherapy, and 29 percent had a partial response (PR). That’s significantly better than the response to chemotherapy and radiotherapy regimens that are now standard treatment in the U.S. and elsewhere. Additional trials involving another 240 patients also were positive, said SiBiono, but their data was not released. In all the trials, the drug was given by direct injection into accessible tumors. The easy accessibility of head and neck tumors for direct injection and their high incidence in China made SCCHN a good target disease, the company said. Over 1.6 million people worldwide [...]

11/21/2004 Andrew Schotz Herald-Mail Online A lower rate of smoking in Maryland has cut the amount of money available for health officials to curtail smoking. It's an interesting dilemma, but Earl Stoner, the director of health services for the Washington County Department of Health, isn't complaining. "If anything, you'd want to work yourself out of a job," he said. It's been six years since major tobacco manufacturers agreed to pay $206 billion to 46 states, Washington, D.C., and U.S. territories to settle a lawsuit. Four other states previously had negotiated their own $40 billion deal, according to a summary of the agreement posted at the National Conference of State Legislatures' Web site. Maryland's share is $4.4 billion, to be paid over 25 years, according to Carlessia Hussein, the director of the cigarette restitution fund program for the Maryland Department of Health & Mental Hygiene In the current fiscal year, Washington County is getting $277,122 for cancer prevention programs and $232,852 for tobacco-use prevention programs, Hussein said. The sum of the two amounts has dropped two straight years. The Washington County Health Department's funding was cut 13 percent from 2003 to 2004, then another 13 percent in 2005, said Kimberly Rasch, the program manager for the department's cancer surveillance and control program. The funding cuts forced the department to scale back its media campaign on colorectal cancer - a local focus - and left no money for prostate cancer ads, said William Christoffel, the county's health officer. Hussein said Maryland's overall [...]

11/19/2004 MC Haya-Fernandez et al. Oral Dis, November 1, 2004; 10(6): 346-8 Objectives: To determine the relationship between oral leukoplakia (OL) and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), and to evaluate possible differences between those carcinomas with and without associated leukoplakia. Material and methods: A total of 138 patients were studied at the Stomatology Service of the University General Hospital, Valencia, Spain. These patients were divided into two groups: group 1, patients with oral cancer and leukoplakia, and group 2, patients with OSCC but with no associated premalignant lesions. The relationship between this precancerous lesion and the OSCC was evaluated, as well as the possible clinical and histological differences between the tumours of the two groups. Results: Leukoplakia was detected in 27 (19.56%) patients with OSCC. No differences were found between the two groups regarding age and tumour location. However, statistically significant differences were observed with respect to the form, tumour stage and the presence of adenopathies in the cancers with and without leukoplakia; in that the tumours associated with leukoplakia were diagnosed as being at a more initial stage. Conclusions: Those patients with OL associated with oral cancer presented with tumours at a less advanced stage than those where no associated leukoplakia existed.

11/19/2004 Wang Hsiao-wen Tapei Times Every 8.5 minutes in Taiwan, one person is diagnosed with cancer, a report from the Department of Health unveiled yesterday. According to the Department's cancer registration report, some 61,000 people were found to have developed cancer in 2001 alone, a rise of 0.04 compared to 2000. For more than two decades, cancer has topped the list of causes of death in Taiwan. While liver and lung cancer are the most common cancers among men, cervical and breast cancer are the most common among women, the report said. An alarming trend is that oral and esophageal cancers have shot up among men. Compared to 2000, oral and esophageal cancer has leapt by 29.4 percent and 27.8 percent respectively. Most of these cases, health officials said, can be attributed to lifestyle factors. "It is impossible to fend off oral and esophageal cancers if people keep on smoking, drinking, and chewing betel nuts," said the bureau's deputy director-general, Chao Kun-yu. Chao said that oral cancer has spread from rural towns in central and southern Taiwan to the whole nation. Data on demographics also showed that 20-to-24-year-olds have seen biggest increase in oral cancer. "Most of the affected young people said they need to chew betel nut to keep them awake during work," Chao said, adding, "betel nut has become part of their life, and chewing it is ingrained in the culture here." The government has launched a publicity campaign to raise awareness of oral cancer, but addictive betel [...]

11/19/2004 Randall S. Johnson et al. Medical News Today The response of blood vessels to low oxygen levels may be the Achilles' heel of a developing tumor, according to a study led by University of California, San Diego biologists. The study, published in the November 15 issue of the journal Cancer Cell, is the first to examine how blood vessels respond to the low oxygen conditions that result from the presence of a growing tumor. Previous work by the UCSD group and others has shown that tumors, which need a blood supply to provide oxygen and nutrients, release chemical signals that summon the blood vessels to grow toward them. However, these latest findings show that the blood vessels themselves are actively responding to oxygen levels, not just to the signals sent by the tumor. According to the researchers, developing drugs that interfere with the blood vessels' response to low oxygen may be a potent anti-tumor strategy. “We show that the blood vessels' response to lack of oxygen is just as important as the response of cancer cells to lack of oxygen,” said Randall Johnson, a professor of biology at UCSD who headed the research team. “We identified a gene that turns on in the cells lining blood vessels when they are not getting enough oxygen and showed that without this gene the blood vessels cannot grow to nourish the developing tumor. Drugs that interfere with this gene, or another gene involved in the blood vessels' response, should block tumor growth.” [...]

11/19/2004 Harari PM, Giralt JL, Chinnaiyan P, et al. Annals of Oncology. 2004;15, supplement 3:iii13, abstract 46IN An international multi-center study has concluded that the addition of Erbitux™ (cetuximab) to radiation therapy reduces locoregional recurrences and improves survival in patients with advanced head and neck cancer. This study, carried out between 1999 and 2002, was reported at the 2004 meeting of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO). This study randomly allocated 424 patients with stage III/IV head and neck cancer to receive radiation therapy with curative intent alone or in conjunction with Erbitux™. The researchers reported that the addition of Erbitux™ decreased locoregional disease recurrences by 8% at 2 years and improved survival by 13% at 3 years. Erbitux™ was well tolerated and did not interfere with wound healing in patients undergoing post-radiation neck dissections. Comments: This study appears to be “proof of principle” that an EGFR inhibitor can improve outcomes of patients with head and neck cancer receiving radiation therapy. Whether this is better than adjuvant chemotherapy remains to be determined. A major advantage of this approach is lack of toxicity and the main disadvantage will be cost. It will probably be necessary to compare outcomes with chemotherapy before widely adopted. Reference: Harari PM, Giralt JL, Chinnaiyan P, et al. Results of an international phase III trial or radiation +/- cetuximab (Erbitux™) in patients with locoregionally advanced head and neck (H&H) cancer. Proceedings of the 2004 meeting of the European Society of Medical Oncology. Annals of Oncology. 2004;15, [...]

11/19/2004 Clara Pirani The Weekend Australian Researchers have discovered a way to accurately predict which tumours will recur in some cancer patients. Surgeons and researchers at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane and the Queensland Institute of Medical Research have identified genetic markers within human tissue that can be analysed to predict which cancers will recur after surgery or chemotherapy. Between 1997 and 2001, the researchers removed and stored tumours from 100 people suffering head and neck cancer. They examined the tumours to predict what would be the outcome, and then went back to confirm what had actually happened to the patients. "It was amazing," said Dr David Chin, a senior lecturer in head and neck disease in Princess Alexandra Hospital and the University of Queensland. "We were able to predict very accurately which cancer tumours would reoccur and which ones wouldn't." He said doctors will now be able to perform a biopsy, by removing tissue from inside the mouth, and then identify the genetic makeup by applying a stain to the tissue. "The markers identified have never been previously described in any human cancer before and are extremely accurate in identifying patients at risk of recurrence. "So now, by doing a routine biopsy before surgery, we'll be able to tell whether the tumour will be very aggressive or whether the patient needs surgery or radiation or chemotherapy." Dr Chin believes the method can be used to develop individual treatments for patients and avoid unnecessary surgery. "Patients suffer when they [...]

11/19/2004 Anna Krejci Green Bay News Chronicle Governor joins the fight Gov. Jim Doyle gave parents good news on Thursday - fewer of their children are smoking. Thirty-eight percent of Wisconsin high school students smoked in 1999 only 21 percent of high school students smoke today, Doyle announced at Bay Port High School in Howard. The numbers come from the 2004 Wisconsin Youth Tobacco Survey which polled 1,443 high school students. According to the survey, 28 percent use any tobacco product and 52 percent have smoked cigarettes. During the presentation, Doyle told students that no one has ever heard of a 25-year-old deciding to take up smoking because adults know it is a bad choice. He said more than 80 percent of smokers begin before they reach 18 years of age. "The fact is, they've (tobacco companies) gotta get you early, and that's what they're trying to do," he said. Doyle's announcement coincided with the launching of two anti-tobacco industry commercials that are the result of the state's partnership with American Legacy Foundation. The foundation has matched the $1 million that Wisconsin has spent on smoking prevention. The backdrops for both Crazyworld ads - part of a campaign Doyle began in Wisconsin in July - are a busy New York city sidewalk opposite an office building of a tobacco company. One ad counters a Virginia Slims slogan, "Get your voice." A female throat cancer survivor speaks into a microphone with the robotic tone of her artificial voice box, saying, "Is [...]

11/18/2004 Sweden IARC meeting report The Local- Sweden's news in English Major study links 'snus' to cancer Visitors to Scandinavia could be forgiven for thinking that a significant number of the men have a congenital malformation of the upper lip. Actually they're just stuffing small pouches of chewing tobacco, or 'snus' under it. As if the horrific breath and stained teeth aren’t argument enough to stop, researchers have now sounded a new cancer warning bell about the snus habit. A study carried out by the World Health Organisation and released this week followed 10,000 Norwegians, of whom two-thirds were snus-lovers. The results show that users of the popular chewing tobacco increase their risk of contracting mouth or pancreatic cancer by 67%. At the same time a study has been commissioned by Sweden's National Institute of Public Health to assess the risk of using the small tobacco pouches under the lip. "Chemical substances such as nitrosamines, as well as the way the snus is used, the frequency and the level of mouth hygiene all contribute to the risk of cancer," says Anders Ahlbom, Professor of Epidemiology at the Karolinska Institute and the Swedish delegate to the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Chewing tobacco of the snus type is also widely used in the United States, with other forms of chewing tobacco prevalent in Asian and African countries. "In earlier studies it was difficult to establish a link between mouth cancer and the type of chewing tobacco we use in Sweden," [...]

11/18/2004 Newark, OH Melissa Knific Newark Advocate Sarah Pastorius, 15, doesn't smoke because she'd rather spend her money on a car than cigarettes. Shaylynn Whetstone, 16, decided not to do it because she's allergic. Gary Dennis, 62, quit after he was diagnosed with throat cancer. "You don't know how many times I think about what I'd done and what I'd almost done to my family," he said. The three Licking County residents, along with people across the country, will join together in support of today's 28th Annual Great American Smokeout, an initiative by the American Cancer Society to educate the public on the risks of tobacco use. Becky Voris, a health educator for Licking County, hopes people will also use it as a day to quit smoking forever. On Wednesday, she was one of the guest speakers for the Just Say No Club at John Clem Elementary School. Several events will be held nationwide today for the Smokeout, including Blow Bubbles Not Smoke in Columbus. Activities are planned on the Statehouse lawn from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., including free "cold- turkey" sandwiches to those who turn in their cigarettes and exhibit booths for cessation providers. This year alone, the American Cancer Society estimates nearly 174,000 new cases of lung cancer will be diagnosed in the United States, and almost 160,000 people will die. Dennis, of Hanover, admits he came close to experiencing death, but is glad he survived and is able to tell his story. "About six years ago, [...]