9/6/2007 web-based article press release Scoop Health (www.scoop.co.nz) Shocking pictures of smoking's health effects appearing on Australian cigarette packets have increased requests for quitting help by 91 percent. This dramatic increase was revealed to the Oceania Tobacco Control Conference in Auckland today by researcher Jacqueline Hickling of The Cancer Council South Australia. "Although graphic pictorial warnings have been introduced elsewhere, no one has researched their effect upon help lines," Ms Hickling told the 370 international delegates. “We monitored the number of calls to Quitline in Australia as the graphic images campaign was rolled out from February to July last year. During that time, the number of calls increased by 91 percent.” The close up images included a gangrenous foot, the contrast between a healthy lung and one with emphysema, a cancerous mouth and lips, a brain bleeding as a result of a stroke and a pair of cancerous lungs. The images were divided into two series which were rotated so the shock value would not be reduced. "The images were accompanied by a series of confronting television advertisements showing the little-known link between smoking and mouth cancer, and smoking and peripheral vascular disease which causes gangrene," Ms Hickling said. Countries planning to introduce such warnings should expect similar impact and flow on benefits to quitting. Ms Hickling said. Helen Glasgow, Executive Director of the Quit Group in New Zealand, said the Quit Group is gearing up for a busy year in 2008 when similar graphic warnings are introduced here, and [...]

9/6/2007 web-based article staff BBC News (news.bbc.co.uk) Almost one in 10 people in Wales referred for urgent cancer treatment by their GP wait longer than two months to be seen by specialists, figures show. But those seen within the two-month target rose from 86% in January to March to 91% during April to June. The Welsh Assembly Government said it was disappointed targets were not fully achieved, but noted improved figures. Simon Blackburn, of Macmillan Cancer Support, said the headline figures may be misleading. He told BBC Radio Wales: "I've noticed that the figure being released of 91% is actually an average and Macmillan and others would share the concern that behind that average are some more worrying figures. "Of particular concern for Macmillan are the lung, head-and-neck neurological figures. "The head-and-neck figure is actually 66%, which is pretty poor, and for cancers where the survival rates and the journey that the cancer patients go on can be more problematic, it's clearly vital that people receive treatment as soon as possible." However, the cancer charity Tenovus said it was "encouraged" by the overall results of the latest waiting times, despite them "falling short of the ideal". Tenovus said: "With the number of cancer cases diagnosed rising each year and the current limited resources available for cancer services, these figures have to be commended. "As with any patient-related issues there will always be room for improvement and these figures highlight the need for further funding into cancer screening and diagnostic facilities, [...]

9/3/2007 web-based article Ralph W. Moss, PhD Sage Journals Online (ict.sagepub.com) Despite recent comprehensive review articles concluding that supplemental antioxidants do not undermine the effectiveness of cytotoxic therapies, the use of antioxidants during cancer treatment remains controversial. Many oncologists take the position that antioxidants by their nature undermine the free radical mechanism of chemotherapy and radiotherapy and should therefore generally be avoided during treatment. For their part, many integrative practitioners believe that antioxidants taken during cancer treatment not only alleviate some of the adverse effects of that treatment but also enhance the efficacy of cancer therapy. Until recently, research attention has focused primarily on the interaction of antioxidants with chemotherapy; relatively little attention has been paid to the interaction of antioxidants with radiotherapy. This article reviews the clinical literature that has addressed whether antioxidants do in fact interfere with radiation therapy. Studies have variously investigated the use of -tocopherol for the amelioration of radiation-induced mucositis; pentoxifylline and vitamin E to correct the adverse effects of radiotherapy; melatonin alongside radiotherapy in the treatment of brain cancer; retinol palmitate as a treatment for radiation-induced proctopathy; a combination of antioxidants (and other naturopathic treatments) and external beam radiation therapy as definitive treatment for prostate cancer; and the use of synthetic antioxidants, amifostine, dexrazoxane, and mesna as radioprotectants. With few exceptions, most of the studies draw positive conclusions about the interaction of antioxidants and radiotherapy. Although further studies are needed, the preponderance of evidence supports a provisional conclusion that dietary antioxidants do not conflict [...]

9/3/2007 Atlanta, GA press release DentalPlans.com The National Cancer Institute has awarded a five-year, $12.5 million Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant in head and neck cancer to Emory University's Winship Cancer Institute. This is the first SPORE grant ever received in the state of Georgia. SPORE grants are large, multidisciplinary federal grants that fund scientific research aimed at bringing new laboratory findings quickly to the clinic. They are highly competitive grants and are sought after by the most prestigious research and medical facilities across the country. With an expected 40,000 new cases and 11,500 deaths in 2007, squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck accounts for four percent to five percent of all newly diagnosed cancers in the U.S. When the more than two-thirds of head and neck cancer patients first receive a diagnosis it is considered a locally advanced disease, which has a poor five-year survival rate after treatment with surgery, radiation or chemotherapy. According to recent National Cancer Institute statistics, southeastern states rank among the highest in the nation in head and neck cancer incidence. "Head and neck cancer can be a devastating disease," says Dong Moon Shin, MD, professor of hematology and oncology at Emory Winship and principal investigator of the grant. "Our focus on this grant is to facilitate, critically review and rapidly move new discoveries to patients. Our goal is to decrease the morbidity, suffering, disability and death caused by this disease. "Because of the large number of aging smokers and ex-smokers [...]

9/1/2007 Little Falls, NJ Neil Osterweil MedPageToday.com A star chef with advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the oral tongue is undergoing aggressive chemoradiation hoping to avoid a resection that would cripple his sense of taste. Grant Achatz, the nationally known chef, who is just 33, announced his condition a few weeks ago. He is owner of Alinea, a restaurant named as the best in the country by Gourmet. According to Janet Adamy, a food writer in the Chicago bureau of the Wall Street Journal. Achatz is renowned for his meticulous plate preparations, audacious food pairings, and meals consisting of up to 30 tiny portions that can last up to seven hours and set diners back more than $200 each. But when he was diagnosed with stage IVb squamous cell carcinoma of the oral tongue -- a lesion most often treated by surgical resection, reconstruction, and irradiation, or in advanced cases palliative radiation alone -- Achatz feared that he would lose his sense of taste. For an artist of the palate, it was unthinkable. Instead, Achatz pinned his hopes on an investigational protocol in phase II trials at the University of Chicago. "We take an organ-preservation or primary non-surgical approach to treating these patients, because even if you're not a chef who needs to preserve your taste, many patients want to preserve their ability to speak and swallow, for obvious reasons," said Ezra Cohen, M.D., a member of the University of Chicago team treating Achatz. Achatz is one of about 40 [...]

9/1/2007 Little Falls, NJ Crystal Phend MedPageToday.com Human papillomavirus infections are likely buoying up oropharyngeal cancer rates while other head and neck cancers decline, researchers said. Cancer-causing HPV strains have been implicated in half of oropharyngeal cancers, and 90% of HPV-related cases have been pinpointed to HPV-16 in studies, said Erich M. Sturgis, M.D., M.P.H., and Paul M. Cinciripini, M.D., both of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center here, in a review published online in the journal Cancer. One of the reasons, the researchers suggested is the "changing sexual practices, such as more frequent oral sex in adolescents and young adults." To hasten throat cancer's decline, vaccination of boys and and men against oncogenic strains HPV-16 and HPV-18 should be considered, they suggested. "The current vaccination strategy [suggested for girls and young women ages nine to 26] will only benefit men secondarily as the cohort of vaccinated women age and the incidence of chronic oncogenic HPV infection in the sexually active female population declines," the investigators wrote. This effect may take a generation to achieve, they said. To speed up the potential benefit in the prevention of HPV-related oropharyngeal cancers, Drs. Sturgis and Cinciripini recommended "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." Tobacco smoking has been the major cause of head and neck cancers overall. But when smoking prevalence started to slide in the 1970s, the incidence of head and neck cancers [...]

9/1/2007 Boston, MA Marshall Posner The Oncologist, Vol. 12, No. 8, 967-974, August 2007 Introduction: Head and neck cancers account for 3%–5% of all cancer cases in the U.S., annually [1]. The American Cancer Society estimated that 34,360 new cases of oral cavity and pharynx cancers will be diagnosed in the U.S. in 2007, and approximately 7,550 deaths will be attributed to these diseases [2]. While therapeutic options for head and neck cancers have evolved over the past 30 years, the prognosis and disease-free survival interval for patients with locally advanced head and neck cancers, those patients presenting with stage III or stage IV disease, have remained less than optimal [3]. Treatment of locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) is complicated by disease site and volume, prognosis, functional deficits associated with therapeutic choices, therapy-associated toxicities, and the needs and condition of individual patients. Initially, standard therapy focused on surgical resection with or without radiation or radiation therapy alone for technically unresectable cancers. However, in an effort to increase the probability of organ preservation, locoregional control, and survival, advanced clinical studies were directed toward refining the use of chemotherapy and radiotherapy in a combined-modality setting. Emerging data on the benefits of induction, concurrent, and sequential therapy regimens now suggest the possibility of better prognosis and organ preservation, with less morbidity [4–14]. These data offer new insights into optimal treatment regimens for SCCHN. COMBINED-MODALITY REGIMENS While SCCHN is potentially curable in its early stages, >60% of patients [...]

8/30/2007 web-based article staff FDANews (fdanews.com) Merck’s Gardasil for Boys: How Will Those Ads Play? (CNBC’s Pharma’s Market) In his blog, Mike Huckman writes about Merck testing Gardasil, its cervical cancer vaccine, on young men. The company said it expects data from clinical trials next year and hopes to win approval for both males and females. Merck hopes to have the shot approved as a treatment for oropharyngeal cancer, a type of oral cancer that occurs as a result of HPV-16/18. Huckman cites an article in the medical journal Cancer written by doctors at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center that backs the use of the vaccine in young men: “‘Although the cervical cancer...prevention policy of the HPV-16/18 (another leading cancer-causing strain) vaccination of young women and adolescent females are commended, we fear that vaccination programs limited to females will only delay the potential benefit in prevention of HPV-16/18-associated [oropharyngeal] cancers, which typically occur in men. 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.’”

8/30/2007 web-based article staff MediaSource (www.mediasourcetv.com) The next time you reach for the guacamole and chips, you’ll be doing something good for your body. Avocados are loaded with healthy monounsaturated fat,* and now researchers say they might also help your body fight off cancer. Renee Bean always tries to make fresh fruits and vegetables a part of her recipes. As a chef, she says they can make her dishes taste better. As an oral cancer survivor, she believes they might actually help her feel better. “I try to eat things that are supposed to keep you from getting any recurrences. Lots of berries and broccoli,” says Bean. And now there’s a new fruit Renee may want to add to her diet – the avocado. The green meat inside is rich in more than 20 vitamins and minerals, and it may offer much more than that. For the first time, researchers at Ohio State University’s Comprehensive Cancer Center have discovered that certain compounds in avocados have the ability to find and destroy oral cancer cells, even before they do any damage. “It’s significant in that the compounds that we’re interested in will only target the pre-cancerous cells and potentially the cancerous cells and not affect the normal cells,” says Steven D’Ambrosio, PhD at Ohio State’s Comprehensive Cancer Center. Researchers still aren’t sure exactly how the avocados do it, but they think it has something to do with phytonutrients and their ability to help regulate the signals that your body sends to [...]

8/30/2007 Memphis, TN staff CancerConsultants.com According to an article recently published in the journal Cancer, women have a higher risk than men that smoking will increase their risk of developing head and neck cancer. Head and neck cancer refers to several types of cancers including, but not limited to, cancer of the tongue, gums, oral cavity, nasal cavity, voice box, and back of the throat. Although men have a higher rate of head and neck cancer than women, incidence of head and neck cancer in women has been increasing significantly throughout the world. Once head and neck cancer has spread from its site of origin, survival rates decrease dramatically. As well, treatment for more advanced head and neck cancer is often associated with significant declines in quality of life, as surgery often disfigures patients and/or severely impairs their ability to perform basic functions such as chew, swallow, or speak. Radiation that includes the salivary glands may also cause extremely dry mouth or sores in the mouth. Smoking has already been established as a risk factor for developing head and neck cancer. However, data is limited about female smokers and their particular risk of head and neck cancer. Researchers affiliated with the National Cancer Institute recently conducted a clinical study to explore the association between cigarette smoking and head and neck cancer in women. This study included over 476,000 men and women, aged 50–71 years. From 1995 through 2000, 584 men and 175 women were diagnosed with cancer. * Overall, men [...]