10/4/2007 Sao Paolo, Brazil LP Kowalski and A Sanabria Acta Otorhinolaryngol Ital, June 1, 2007; 27(3): 113-7 More than 50% of patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity have lymph node metastases and histological confirmation of metastatic disease is the most important prognostic factor. Among patients with a clinically negative neck, the incidence of occult metastases varies with the site, size and thickness of the primary tumour. The high incidence rate of occult cervical metastases (> 20%) in tumours of the lower part of the oral cavity is the main argument in favour of elective treatment of the neck. The usual treatment of patients with clinically palpable metastatic lymph nodes has been radical neck dissection. This classical surgical procedure involves not only resection of level I to V lymph nodes of the neck but also the tail of the parotid, submandibular gland, sternocleidomastoid muscle, internal jugular vein and spinal accessory nerve. It is a safe oncological surgical procedure that significantly reduces the risk of regional recurrences, however it produces significant post-operative morbidity, mainly shoulder dysfunction. Aiming to reduce morbidity, Ward and Roben described a modification of the procedure sparing the spinal accessory nerve to prevent post-operative shoulder morbidity. Several clinical and pathological studies have demonstrated that the pattern of metastatic lymph node metastases occurs in a predictable fashion in patients with oral and oropharyngeal carcinoma. The use of selective supraomohyoid neck dissection as the elective treatment of the neck, in oral cancer patients, is now well established. However, [...]

10/3/2007 Stockholm, Sweden Mark Landler , Andrew Martin New York Times (nytimes.com) Cooling his heels outside a popular nightclub here recently, Jesper Froberg stubbed out his cigarette and reached for a less harmful pleasure: smokeless tobacco, neatly packed in tiny pouches that look like miniature used tea bags. “I’m really concerned about my health,” said Mr. Froberg, a maître d’hôtel, who tries to limit his smoking. “This stuff is safer than cigarettes, it’s discreet, and it’s really good.” Now this form of tobacco is coming to America, in the midst of an intensifying debate over how to define “reduced risk” tobacco products and how to market them. On Wednesday, a House committee is scheduled to hold hearings on whether the Food and Drug Administration should be given the power to regulate tobacco. Snus (rhymes with loose) is a moist ground tobacco that a user tucks between the cheek and the gum. Unlike chewing tobacco and moist smokeless tobacco — commonly known as dip — snus requires no spitting. Thanks partly to its popularity here, Sweden has the lowest smoking rates in Europe. It also has fewer incidences than its neighbors of smoking-related diseases, including lung and oral cancer. Snus is not without its dangers. It contains nicotine, which speeds the metabolism, and is as addictive as cigarettes. It has also been linked in a recent clinical trial to pancreatic cancer, though, unlike cigarettes, not to lung or mouth cancers. With the Sweden experience as a blueprint, the American tobacco industry [...]

10/2/2007 web-based article staff DrugResearcher.com GlaxoSmithKline has taken a step closer to a true targeted cancer therapy, and its vaccine, which 'educates' the immune system to kill tumour cells, has showed 'impressive' results in its latest clinical trials. The final results of the vaccine's Phase II trial were presented this week at the European Congress of Clinical Oncology (ECCO) in Barcelona, and it proves successful in Phase III, it will become the world's first antigen-specific cancer immunotherapeutic (ASCI). Over recent years, cancer drug development has increasingly focussed on targeted therapies - where the drug targets cancer cells in preference to normal cells. This concept is far more preferable to traditional chemotherapy, where the drugs show no preference between normal and tumour cells. However, even with targeted therapy, the 'marker' displayed by the cancer cells is also on normal cells, albeit to a lesser extent, and so some normal cells are also destroyed. The holy grail of targeted cancer drugs would be to find a marker that is only expressed on tumour cells and GSK has now taken one step closer to that dream. According to Dr Vincent Brichard, head of the cancer immunotherapeutics programme at GSK Biologicals, the MAGE-A3 antigen is not expressed at all in normal cells, except in testicular cells, but without the antigen presenting capabilities. The vaccine is based on this tumour antigen being presented to the immune system as a recombinant protein, which is designed to educate the immune system to mobilise antibodies and T-cells that [...]

10/2/2007 web-based article Darcy De Leon CancerWise.org Vaccination Encouraged in Boys If Warranted A link between throat cancer, oral sex and the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV) has prompted researchers to encourage vaccination of boys with the HPV virus if ongoing studies deem it safe and effective in preventing viral infection, according to a review article published in the Oct. 1 issue of the journal Cancer. Significance The recommendation for HPV vaccination in boys is one of the first to be publicly made by oncologists from a national cancer center. Erich Sturgis, M.D.M. D. Anderson's Erich Sturgis, M.D., an associate professor in the Department of Head and Neck Surgery, and Paul Cinciripini, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Behavioral Science, wrote the review. "We encourage the rapid study of the efficacy and safety of these vaccines in males and, if successful, the recommendation of vaccination in young adult and adolescent males," they write in the report. Research methods Sturgis and Cinciripini analyzed the most recent data containing head and neck cancer trends in the United States and reported the connection between throat cancer and HPV. Primary results Their review shows that a decline in smoking over the last 20 years (due to increased efforts to raise public awareness about the effects of tobacco use) has led to a decline in most head and neck cancers, except throat cancer. Also known as cancer of the oropharynx, throat cancer includes cancers of the tonsils, base of the tongue and soft palate, [...]

10/2/2007 Memphis, TN staff CancerConsultants.com The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved the chemotherapy agent Taxotere® (docetaxel), in combination with Platinol® (cisplatin) and 5-fluorouracil, for use prior to surgery and chemoradiation therapy for the treatment of locally advanced squamous cell head and neck cancer. Taxotere is also approved for breast, lung, gastric, and prostate cancers. Head and neck cancers originate in the oral cavity (lip, mouth, tongue), salivary glands, paranasal sinuses, and nasal cavity, pharynx (upper back part of the throat), larynx (voice box), and lymph nodes in the upper part of the neck. Worldwide, head and neck cancer is diagnosed in approximately 640,000 people and is responsible for approximately 350,000 deaths annually. Locally advanced head and neck cancer refers to cancer that has spread from its site of origin to nearby tissues in the head and/or neck, but not to distant sites in the body. Patients are often treated with several different treatment modalities, including chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and/or surgery. Pre-operative therapy including chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy is referred to as neoadjuvant therapy. Neoadjuvant therapy is often used to shrink the size of the cancer prior to the surgical removal, both to allow for a greater chance of complete removal and to provide initial systemic (full-body) therapy to kill cancer cells that may have already spread. If treatment is not administered until after surgery, the patient must wait until he/she has healed from surgery; this waiting period may allow cancer cells to grow and spread further. [...]

10/2/2007 India staff TimesofIndia.com People who drink can significantly reduce their likelihood of suffering from cancers of head and neck by quitting alcohol consumption, a research at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) has suggested. Principal Investigator Dr Jurgen Rehm says that his study has shown an association between alcohol consumption and an increased risk for cancer of the oesophagus, larynx and oral cavity. Dr Rehm and his team analyzed epidemiological literature from 1966 to 2006, and found that the risk of oesophageal cancer nearly doubled in the first two years following alcohol cessation, a sharp increase that might be due to the fact that some people only stopped drinking when they were already experiencing disease symptoms. The risk, however, decreased rapidly and significantly after longer periods of abstention. Dr Rehm clarified that the risk of head and neck cancer only reduced significantly after 10 years of cessation. He further said that after more than 20 years of alcohol cessation, the risks for both cancers were similar to those seen in people who never consumed liquor.” Alcohol cessation has very similar effects on risk for head and neck cancers as smoking cessation has on lung cancer. It takes about two decades before the risk is back to the risk of those who were never drinkers or never smokers,” he said. Dr Rehm said that further research was needed to determine what effects could alcohol cessation have on breast, liver and colorectal cancers.

9/30/2007 Minneapolis, MN MA Biel Photochem Photobiol, September 1, 2007; 83(5): 1063-8 Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a nonsurgical, minimally invasive treatment that uses a light source to activate light-sensitive drugs or photosensitizers in the treatment of cancer and other diseases. PDT has been successfully employed to treat early carcinomas of the oral cavity and larynx preserving normal tissue and vital functions of speech and swallowing. Two hundred seventy-six patients with early carcinomas of the oral cavity and larynx were treated from 1990 to 2006. Cure rates with a single treatment for early laryngeal and oral cancers were 91% and 94%, respectively. PDT is an effective primary and alternative treatment modality for early oral cavity and laryngeal cancers. Author's affiliation: Ear, Nose and Throat Specialty Care of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, and Department of Head and Neck Oncology, Virginia Piper Cancer Institute, Abbott Northwestern Hosptial, Minneapolis, MN, USA

9/30/2007 Lisle, IL David Liu foodconsumer.org Drinking alcohol increases risk of head and neck cancer, but stopping use of alcoholic drinks reduces the risk, according to a new study published in the September 2007 issue of the International Journal of Cancer. The study led by researchers at the Centre for Addition and mental Health (CAMH), Ontario, Canada, showed a relationship between alcohol consumption and an increased risk for cancer of the esophagus, larynx and oral cavity. In the epidemiologic study, CAMH Principal Investigator Dr. Jürgen Rehm and colleagues analyzed literature from 1966 to 2006 and found that the risk of esophageal cancer almost doubled in the first two years following cessation of alcohol drinking. The researchers explained that many people stopped drinking at a time they might have developed a condition, which might manifest two years after the cessation of alcohol drinking. But the risk decreased rapidly and significantly later. They found after ten years of cessation, risk of head and neck cancer decreased significantly. After 20 years, the risks for both cancers were similar to those for people who had never been drinking alcoholic beverages. Dr. Rehm said "Alcohol cessation has very similar effects on risk for head and neck cancers as smoking cessation has on lung cancer. It takes about two decades before the risk is back to the risk of those who were never drinkers or never smokers." Drinking alcohol has been associated with a number of other cancers including breast, liver and colorectal cancers. But further [...]

9/29/2007 web-based article staff www.wnct.com Medical care is something we all need. Health care costs continue to rise and employment is no longer a guarantee that you'll be covered. Millions of Americans work just to have health insurance - and still find themselves sick and broke. Lisa Cristia is a cancer survivor. She was diagnosed with tongue and throat cancer four years ago. Her medical bills continue to pile up, even though she has health insurance. Lisa says, "I did have insurance. I thought it was enough and it would cover me and that the only battle that I would have to fight was the battle against cancer". After going through $5,000 in savings and $14,000 in her 401-K, Lisa was still $65,000 in debt because of what her insurance didn't cover. Eventually, she was forced to file for bankruptcy. Lisa still needs follow up visits and medications, and that means more medical bills. She says, “It’s a lost future. I’m 38 years old, I am never gonna be able to buy a house. I'm never gonna be able to buy a brand new car, no matter how hard I work, no matter how much money I make. My credit is completely ruined”. According to Ron Pollack, executive director of the consumer heath advocacy group Families USA -- Lisa's story is not unusual. He says health care cost is the #1 cause for people declaring bankruptcy in the United States today. In fact, nearly 47 million Americans or 16% of [...]

9/27/2007 London, England staff TradingMarkets.com Despite improvements in surgical techniques and the development of novel chemoradiotherapy strategies, survival rates in patients with head and neck cancer has remained relatively unchanged over the last 30 years. While this could be due to the absence of any significant advancements in treatment techniques, newer targeted therapies now hold out great promise for the future. Pharmaceutical companies that succeed in increasing efficacy, lowering toxicity and improving survival rates can expect to gain position in the emerging European head and neck cancer therapeutics markets. "Unlike traditional chemotherapy drugs, which not only attack tumours but harm healthy tissues as well, newer agents work by specifically targeting cancer cells," notes Frost & Sullivan Programme Leader Paljit Mudhar. "A growing number of targeted therapies that predominantly attack cancer cells, leaving most healthy cells intact, are proving to be effective against a range of cancers including breast, colon, lung, kidney and head and neck cancers and lymphoma." Therefore, targeted therapies are expected to be a major growth driver for the head and neck cancer therapeutics market in Europe. A number of these are undergoing clinical trials and in future, many more molecules could be identified as potential therapeutic targets for cancer. A good example of targeted therapy is Erbitux (cetuximab). This is a first in class IgG1 monoclonal antibody (mAb), specifically targeting the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). mAbs are highly specific therapeutics and have improved side effect profiles. This apart, there is considerable scope for newer treatment options [...]