5/5/2008 Dublin, Ireland M Amin et al. Irish Medical Journal Abstract Most human beings will do almost anything to prolong their existence or to relieve the suffering of disease. Others will do anything to exploit these desires by selling what they claim to be pain killing remedies or life prolongation nostrums. We present three cases of head and neck cancer patients; two used complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) prior to presenting to our service and the third declined conventional treatment to seek CAM instead. We discuss here the diagnosis, the time delay between CAM and commencement of conventional treatment, and the outcome in each case. Our aim is to define Quacks and to heighten public awareness of the potential harm they can cause. Introduction In the face of the great leveller, Death, we are like children listening fearfully for the footsteps of doom, relieved only by the whisperings of hope. Quacks are peddlers of hope. Quackery is the promotion of false or unproven remedies for profit1. There is growing interest in complementary and alternative medicine at the present time; a significant number of cancer patients use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) as adjunct therapies to their cancer treatment2,3. Eisenberg et al4 reported that one-third of the US population used some form of unconventional medicine and seventy-five percent of patients did not inform their physicians of this practice. Alternative therapies may include any unproven therapy or cure which is promoted as cancer treatment and is used in place of conventionally accepted [...]

5/5/2008 Invercargill, New Zealand Sean Gillespie The Southland Times (www.stuff.co.nz) Some smokers are changing cigarette brands to avoid the graphic health warnings that became compulsory in late February. Faster selling brands tend only to be available with the anti-smoking graphics but some slower selling brands are still available without the pictures. Invercargill tobacconist Paul McKinlay said this had caused some of his customers to change to a brand with non-graphic boxes still available. "Most of them are disgusted by the images — they're very graphic." Retailers have been given until August 31 to sell any remaining stock that does not have the warning images. Mr McKinlay said some customers were also choosing between disease warnings when they bought their cigarettes. "They go `nah, I don't want the one with the pregnant lady; give me one with the toe tag'." There are seven images smokers can choose from, including warnings about blindness, gangrene, mouth cancer, lung cancers and heart attacks. Some smokers have been avoiding the warnings by buying cigarette pack covers. Sales of the covers had skyrocketed since the graphic health warnings started two months ago, Mr McKinlay said. Anti-smoking group Ash spokesman Michael Colhoun, in Wellington, said high sales of the covers were a positive sign. "The sheer fact that they're using them means that the warnings are effective." The Ministry of Health said the aim of the warnings was to help prevent some of the 5000-odd smoking-related deaths that happen in New Zealand each year. Quitline spokesman Hayden [...]

5/4/2008 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada M Guillaud et al. Cancer Res, May 1, 2008; 68(9): 3099-107 The importance of early diagnosis in improving mortality and morbidity rates of oral squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) has long been recognized. However, a major challenge for early diagnosis is our limited ability to differentiate oral premalignant lesions (OPL) at high risk of progressing into invasive SCC from those at low risk. We investigated the potential of quantitative tissue phenotype (QTP), measured by high-resolution image analysis, to identify severe dysplasia/carcinoma in situ (CIS; known to have an increased risk of progression) and to predict progression to cancer within hyperplasia or mild/moderate dysplasia. We generated a nuclear phenotype score (NPS), a combination of five nuclear morphometric features that best discriminate 4,027 "normal" nuclei (selected from 29 normal oral biopsies) from 4,298 "abnormal" nuclei (selected from 30 SCC biopsies). This NPS was then determined for a set of 69 OPLs. Severe dysplasia/CIS showed a significant increase in NPS compared with hyperplasia or mild/moderate dysplasia. However, within the latter group, elevated NPS was strongly associated with the presence of high-risk loss of heterozygosity (LOH) patterns. There was a statistical difference between NPS of hyperplasia or mild/moderate dysplasia that progressed to cancer and those that did not. Individuals with a high NPS had a 10-fold increase in relative risk of progression. In the multivariate Cox model, LOH and NPS together were the strongest predictors for cancer development. These data suggest that QTP could be used to identify lesions that [...]

5/4/2008 Groningen, The Netherlands IM Lombaert et al. PLoS ONE, January 1, 2008 Head and neck cancer is the fifth most common malignancy and accounts for 3% of all new cancer cases each year. Despite relatively high survival rates, the quality of life of these patients is severely compromised because of radiation-induced impairment of salivary gland function and consequential xerostomia (dry mouth syndrome). In this study, a clinically applicable method for the restoration of radiation-impaired salivary gland function using salivary gland stem cell transplantation was developed. Salivary gland cells were isolated from murine submandibular glands and cultured in vitro as salispheres, which contained cells expressing the stem cell markers Sca-1, c-Kit and Musashi-1. In vitro, the cells differentiated into salivary gland duct cells and mucin and amylase producing acinar cells. Stem cell enrichment was performed by flow cytrometric selection using c-Kit as a marker. In vitro, the cells differentiated into amylase producing acinar cells. In vivo, intra-glandular transplantation of a small number of c-Kit(+) cells resulted in long-term restoration of salivary gland morphology and function. Moreover, donor-derived stem cells could be isolated from primary recipients, cultured as secondary spheres and after re-transplantation ameliorate radiation damage. Our approach is the first proof for the potential use of stem cell transplantation to functionally rescue salivary gland deficiency. Authors: IM Lombaert, JF Brunsting, PK Wierenga, H Faber, MA Stokman, T Kok, WH Visser, HH Kampinga, G de Haan, and RP Coppes Authors' affiliations: Section Radiation and Stress Cell Biology, Department of Cell Biology, [...]

5/2/2008 Scottsdale, AZ Michele Thompson, MS SheKnows.com Red, juicy, delicious strawberries are one of the healthiest fruits to include in your diet. Strawberries are chockfull of antioxidants and other essential nutrients that can flavorfully help you reduce your risk of cancer, heart disease, inflammatory diseases, and birth defects as well as mouthwateringly manage your weight. Here are the bountiful health benefits of strawberries. Strawberries help fight cancer Dozens of studies over the past 20 years have associated diets high in fruit and vegetables with reduced risk of cancer. Recently, researchers have been testing individual foods for their cancer-fighting ability. Studies examining the freeze-dried strawberries and strawberry extracts indicate that strawberries can fight breast, cervical and esophageal cancers. The compounds – such as antioxidants and other phytonutrients – found in strawberries (and other fruit and vegetables) are credited with health-protecting effects. Strawberries are a rich source of these antioxidants (vitamin C in particularly), flavonoids, and ellagic acid. According to the California Strawberry Commission, a serving of strawberries (about 8 strawberries) provides 160 percent of the recommended daily intake for vitamin C. Further, vitamin C has been associated with reduced rates of stomach, cervical, breast and non-hormone-dependent cancers. The flavonoids, such as anthocyanins, quercetin and kaempferol, exhibit antioxidant properties that have been proven beneficial in suppressing colon cancer cells, inhibiting prostate and breast cancer cancer cells, and inhibiting chemically-induced cancers of the lung, tongue, mouth, mammary and colon. The antioxidant power of strawberries has been measured and scored by researchers of the [...]

5/2/2008 Salt Lake City, UT press release BusinessWire.com BSD Medical Corporation announced today that the company will present its systems for cancer therapy at the 2008 World Congress of Brachytherapy (the annual meeting of the American Brachytherapy Society or ABS) from May 4-6, 2008, in Boston, Massachusetts. The company’s objective at ABS is to leverage the growing clinical interest in the use of hyperthermia therapy with brachytherapy. The ABS organization consists of BSD Medical’s primary customers, including oncologists, physicists and other health care providers practicing brachytherapy. A wide variety of national and international speakers have been invited to present data at the meeting. Founded in 1978, the American Brachytherapy Society is a nonprofit organization that seeks to provide insight and research into the use of brachytherapy in malignant and benign conditions. Clinical studies have shown hyperthermia to be a safe and well tolerated therapy when combined with brachytherapy for the treatment of certain types of locally advanced cancer. Brachytherapy is a form of radiation therapy where radioactive sources are placed inside or next to the area requiring treatment. BSD Medical systems deliver hyperthermia for use in combination with brachytherapy through small, interstitial microwave antennae that are inserted through the same catheters used to place the radioactive sources. Because it is less invasive than surgery and less disruptive to the patient, brachytherapy offers appropriate patients an effective alternative cancer treatment. Brachytherapy is used with hyperthermia to treat advanced localized prostate cancer, breast cancer, cervical cancer and cancers of the head and [...]

5/2/2008 United Kingdom staff Economist.com The prospects for using genes as a therapy may be improving For around 40 years scientists have understood how genes work. They have known the structure of genes, how they replicate, how they are controlled and expressed and, crucially, how to manipulate them. Such knowledge has been the basis of a genetic revolution that offers the power to rewrite the material from which all living organisms are made. There has been great progress in realising some of this promise, in the form of genetically modified organisms. But ways to correct the genetic mistakes that cause many human diseases have been slower to arrive. Gene therapy has been plagued with problems—naivety, false promises, over-optimism and fatalities. Although thousands of patients have received gene therapy for a variety of conditions, only a few have shown any clinical benefit. Could that be about to change? There was news this week of a successful attempt to correct a faulty gene that leads to blindness. An international team of scientists, led by a group at the University of Pennsylvania, used a genetically engineered virus to introduce the correct version of a gene called RPE65 into six people suffering from a retinal disease known as Leber's congenital amaurosis. In four patients vision improved. Earlier work with the same technique on dogs suffering from a naturally occurring form of blindness has also been successful. Katherine High, of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Maryland, and one of the directors of the study, [...]

5/1/2008 New York, NY Tara Parker-Hope New York Times (nytimes.com) Cancer patients and their doctors often focus on beating the disease first. But new research shows they also benefit by early monitoring for lymphedema, a devastating side effect of cancer treatment that can show up years later. Lymphedema is a painful swelling of an arm or leg that can occur months or even years after cancer treatment. Breast cancer patients, who often have lymph nodes removed during diagnosis and treatment, are particularly susceptible. But any cancer patient whose lymphatic system has been damaged by radiation or the removal of lymph nodes is vulnerable. That includes patients treated for prostate and gynecological cancers, head and neck cancers, testicular cancer, bladder cancer, colon cancer and melanoma. The lymphatic system normally helps transport body fluids, but in someone with a compromised system, fluid can build up in an arm or leg, depending on where the lymph nodes were removed. If lymphedema sets in, a limb can swell far out of proportion to the rest of the body, and if not treated quickly, the condition can be irreversible. But an important new study conducted by the National Institutes of Health and the National Naval Medical Center shows that cancer patients benefit if their treatment plans include early interventions to monitor risk for lymphedema. During the five-year study, researchers measured the upper limb volume of 196 newly diagnosed breast cancer patients to establish a baseline before they had surgery. After surgery, doctors developed a lymphedema [...]

5/1/2008 web-based article staff money.cnn.com A Phase I clinical trial, using a DUSA Pharmaceuticals, Inc. product, has been launched by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to study an entirely new approach for the prevention of oral cancer, which may affect more than 30,000 Americans this year.(1) Chronic mouth lesions, the most common of which is a condition known as oral leukoplakia, are early indicators of oral cancer. There is currently no effective treatment for preventing the progression of oral leukoplakia to cancer. The long-term goal is to examine aminolevulinic acid (ALA) photodynamic (PDT) therapy as a preventive treatment for oral cancer by the selective removal of oral leukoplakia. Oral leukoplakia is a condition involving the formation of white spots on the surfaces of the mouth and tongue. Previous studies have shown that ALA PDT may be used to identify and treat the condition.(2)(3)(4) ALA, the active ingredient in DUSA's product, Levulan®, is a chemical that is produced naturally at low levels in humans. If ALA is given to the body at higher levels, the drug can build up inside of pre-cancerous cells. When a laser light is pointed at a pre-cancerous cell, ALA may increase the effect of the laser causing the cell to die. This is called photodynamic therapy (PDT). The purpose of the present trial is to examine the safety and tolerability of orally administered ALA PDT and to determine the optimal dose of light therapy. "The commencement of this trial is a critical first step towards identifying [...]

5/1/2008 web-based article staff dentistry.co.uk The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has today issued a Final Appraisal Determination (FAD) recommending the use of cetuximab (Erbitux®) in combination with radiotherapy for the treatment of locally advanced head and neck cancer in patients for whom platinum-based chemoradiotheraphy is inappropriate. Cetuximab is the first new treatment in more than 40 years that significantly prolongs patient's survival and control of the disease. This news follows the Mouth Cancer Foundation's successful appeal last year to the Appeal Panel of NICE to ask its Appraisal Committee's to reverse its previous appraisal decision not to recommend the drug for head and neck cancer patients in England and Wales in May 2007. The Appraisal Committee accepted that cetuximab plus radiotherapy caused less severe adverse effects than the chemoradiotherapy regimens. This announcement means that patients with head and neck cancer in England and Wales will soon have access to this life-saving treatment like patients in Scotland already do. Once the full guidance has been published, expected on 29 May 2008, it will be available across the NHS within three months. Dr Vinod Joshi of the Mouth Cancer Foundation said: ‘The Mouth Cancer Foundation welcomes NICE's decision. "It is something that oncologists and patients alike have been fighting for. It will go a long way to correcting the present postcode lottery in head and neck cancer for patients in the UK."