5/20/2007 Wilmington, DE E. J. Mundell DelawareOnline.com Amid the controversy around mandated vaccination of young girls against the human papillomavirus, some experts are beginning to wonder whether the shot should also be given to boys. While males cannot get HPV-linked cervical cancer, they make up half of the equation when it comes to spreading the sexually transmitted virus. And a new study released last week shows that the virus is also a leading cause of throat cancer, which affects both sexes. “This is a viral infectious process, and the majority of the time it is passed through heterosexual contact. And I think it’s important to consider boys as equal players in that process,” said Dr. Michael Bookman, director of medical gynecologic oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. “Boys are not as prone to [HPV-linked] cancer as girls, but they are obviously involved in the transmission, and there is some risk of cancer in boys, as well,” he added. No one is debating the effectiveness of the vaccine, called Gardasil. The shot is targeted against the four strains (out of 15) of HPV that are thought to trigger 70 percent of cervical cancers. Since its approval for use in girls and women between the ages of 9 and 26 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last June, several states have moved to mandate Gardasil’s inclusion into routine school vaccination programs. That’s because vaccinating before the onset of sexual activity is most effective in preventing HPV infection. Those efforts [...]

5/20/2007 Tahlequah, OK Teddye Snell Tahlequah Daily Press (www.tahlequahdailypress.com) Although “Joe Camel” virtually disappeared after a 1998 settlement between the states and the tobacco companies, the industry’s marketing to children has not. And that concerns Louise Micolites. Micolites, coordinator for the Cherokee County Tobacco Control Program, and understands the need to prevent youth from using tobacco products. “Tobacco is so hard to quit; the best thing to do is never start,” said Micolites. “Big Tobacco knows most people who smoke begin before they turn 18, and most of those become lifelong customers.” Cherokee County Health Coalition Coordinator Carol McKiel gets angry just thinking about children being used as targets for boosting tobacco sales. “Tobacco may not be able to advertise on TV anymore, but you see smoking in Disney movies,” said McKiel. “A new study by Dartmouth Medical School shows smoking in movies has increased in recent years.” According to the press release issued by Dartmouth, the study McKiel refers to suggests exposure to movie smoking accounts for smoking initiation among more than one-third of the U.S. adolescents. It concludes that limiting exposure of young adolescents to movie smoking could have important public health implications. This report and others have led Congress to seek possible FDA regulation of tobacco. Dr. Elmer Huerta, incoming president of the American Cancer Society and director of the Cancer Preventorium at the Washington Hospital Center, testified before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions in February about such regulation. “The need for FDA [...]

5/18/2007 India staff SpiritIndia.com Until recently, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like aspirin and celecoxib (sold as Celebrex), were being hailed as promising cancer prevention drugs. However, the latest studies have concluded that in most cases the adverse side effect of these drugs -- including risk of cardiovascular and kidney disease -- outweigh the potential benefit. However, certain NSAIDs may be better suited to treating cancer, in combination with standard therapies, rather than preventing it, according to new research by scientists at the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine. "The real debate comes down to use of these compounds in two settings: cancer prevention, which involves long-term use of a drug, and cancer treatment involving short-term, focused use of the drug," said Douglas Trask, M.D., Ph.D., UI associate professor of otolaryngology – head and neck surgery. "Published studies show that heart and kidney problems occur with long-term use, especially when used for more than one year. While there appear to be cardiorenal effects of NSAIDs even with short-term use, these risks may be minor compared to the potential benefit to treat cancer more effectively. " Two new UI studies show that the NSAID celecoxib has potent anticancer activity, which is associated with the drug's ability to disrupt the cell cycle -- the orderly, multi-step process by which cells divide. In particular, the experiments showed that celecoxib specifically kills head and neck cancer cells in the S phase of the cell cycle, where the cell synthesizes [...]

5/15/2007 San Francisco, CA KT Vakharia, MJ Ali, and SJ Wang Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg, March 1, 2007; 136(3): 405-10 Objective: To assess if participation by patients in a head and neck cancer support group improves perceived quality of life (QOL). Study Design and Setting: Subjects for this study included 47 patients at a tertiary Veterans Affairs Medical Center who were previously treated for head and neck cancer. This was a quasi-experimental, post-test study comparing the QOL of 24 patients who participated in a head and neck cancer support group with 23 patients who did not participate. The validated University of Michigan Head and Neck Quality of Life (HNQOL) instrument was used to evaluate head and neck cancer-related QOL. Results: Patients who participated in the head and neck cancer support group exhibited significantly better scores in the domains of eating, emotion, and pain as well as in the global bother and response to treatment questions of the HNQOL instrument compared with those patients who did not participate. Additional subgroup analysis comparing age, type of treatment, and length of time since cancer diagnosis suggests that these variables were less important predictors of QOL than was support group participation. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that patient participation in a head and neck cancer support group is associated with improved QOL. SIGNIFICANCE: Support groups may be beneficial in improving QOL after head and neck cancer treatment. Authors' affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of California-San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

5/15/2007 Edinburgh, Scotland staff TherapeuticsDaily.com A drug treatment given the go-ahead yesterday could help save the lives of head and neck cancer patients, doctors said. Taxotere, used to treat sufferers from the aggressive cancer, has been recommended for use by the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC). Trials found that patients taking the drug with their regular treatment had a 30 per cent lower mortality than those receiving the standard treatment alone. Dr Elizabeth Junor, consultant clinical oncologist at Edinburgh's Western General Hospital, said: "Compared with some other tumours, there are fewer treatment options for head and neck cancer. "We hope [SMC approval] will result in many more lives being saved across Scotland." Squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck is the generic term given to 90 per cent of all head and neck cancers. Around 760 people in the UK are diagnosed with the disease each year. It can affect the mouth, tongue and throat. Ex-Beatle George Harrison and journalist John Diamond, husband of Nigella Lawson, were victims of the cancer. Only around 40 per cent of those diagnosed with the condition survive more than five years. Taxotere is recommended for use in combination with current chemotherapy treatment for patients with inoperable locally advanced head and neck cancer. A typical course of the combined treatment will cost around GBP4500, its manufacturers said.

5/15/2007 Sydney, Australia staff TherapeuticsDaily.com An Australian biotechnology firm said on Thursday it had developed a means of delivering anti-cancer drugs directly to cancer cells, which aims to avoid the debilitating toxicity associated with chemotherapy. The method uses nanotechnology, which involves molecules far smaller than a human cell. Direct targeting of chemotherapy drugs would allow dosages thousands of times lower than that in conventional chemotherapy and be more easily tolerated by patients, said the firm. Writing in the May issue of U.S.-based Cancer Cell journal, the biotech firm EnGeneIC said it had developed nano-cells containing chemotherapy drugs. Via antibodies on their surface, these nano-cells target and latch on to cancer cells. Once attached, the nano-cell is engulfed and the drug is released directly inside the cancer cell. The firm said the bacterially derived nano-cell, called EnGeneIC delivery vehicles, had proven safe in primate trials and resulted in significant cancer regression. It hoped to carry out human trials later in 2007 if it gained approval from Australian, U.S., European and Japanese regulatory authorities. "For the first time there is a real possibility that this technology could lead to the use of multi-drug combinations and eventual custom-made therapies in cancer patients," research scientist Jennifer MacDiarmid said in a statement. "In terms of tumor therapy, most late-stage cancer patients carry tumor cells that exhibit various forms of drug resistance. Our technology may provide the first in-vivo (inside an organism) solution to this serious hurdle."

5/15/2007 web-based article staff EurekAlert.org Cigarette smoking is more strongly associated with head and neck cancers than drinking alcohol, according to a study in the May 16 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The study found that smoking is responsible for a quarter of head and neck cancers among individuals who do not drink alcohol. At least 75 percent of head and neck cancers are caused by a combination of cigarette smoking and drinking alcohol, but researchers have not known the individual contributions of these risk factors because people who smoke are more likely to drink than the general population and vice versa. In a new study, researchers sought to tease out the independent effect of each risk factor on head and neck cancer development. Mia Hashibe, Ph.D., of the International Agency for Cancer Research in Lyon, France, and colleagues examined head and neck cancer risk among smokers who never drank alcohol and people who drink but never used tobacco products. They pooled data from 15 case–control studies, which included 10,244 head and neck cancer patients and 15,227 controls. About 16 percent of the patients and 27 percent of the controls never drank, and about 11 percent of the patients and 38 percent of the controls never smoked. Cigarette smoking was associated with an increased risk of head and neck cancer—especially cancer of the larynx—among patients who never drank alcohol. About 24 percent of head and neck cancers were due to smoking among patients who never drank. [...]

5/15/2007 Minneapolis, MN Shari Roan StarTribune.com With human papillomavirus, girls and women have been getting all the attention. Parents nationwide have rushed to have their daughters vaccinated against the virus. States are wrestling with whether to require that adolescents be vaccinated. And recent research found that many more girls and women are infected with human papillomavirus than was previously thought -- more than one-quarter of females ages 14 to 59. Now the attention is turning to boys and men. As many as 60 percent of men ages 18 to 70 are infected with HPV, according to data not yet published, raising the question of whether the new vaccine will be effective in reducing diseases linked to the virus unless men, not just women, are immunized. Several studies are underway to better understand the virus in males and whether the new HPV vaccine, Gardasil, also will work for them. As researchers already know and as the new data confirm, HPV is not just a women's issue. "With any transmittable disease, you want to understand the entire cycle of how things spread," says Thomas Broker, an HPV expert and professor of biochemical and molecular genetics at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. "With HPV, men are clearly part of that equation." Human papillomavirus is best known for causing cervical cancer, with about 9,700 cases diagnosed in women nationwide each year. Gardasil, a three-shot regimen, was approved last year for girls and women ages 9 to 26. It protects against four strains of [...]

5/15/2007 web-based article Carey Cowles Hem/Onc Today (www.hemonctoday.com) Aspirin’s many mechanisms of action against cardiovascular events may also help to explain reported resistance to therapy. Aspirin’s effect on homeostasis is well-known. Low-dose aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid, 81 mg) inhibits the enzyme Cox-1, which produces thromboxane A-2, necessary for platelet aggregation. “The primary effect of aspirin as an anticoagulant is thought to involve platelet function; however, aspirin is also an anti-inflammatory,” said Kenneth Mann, PhD, a professor from the department of biochemistry at the University of Vermont. Less clear are other methods by which aspirin acts as an anticoagulant. In a review article published in "Blood", Mann, Anetta Undas, MD, PhD, and colleagues presented an overview of other possible antithrombotic properties of aspirin. Thrombin formation Thrombin (activated Factor II [IIa]), a serine protease, converts fibrinogen into insoluble strands of fibrin. Fibrin, a protein, crosslinks with Factor XIII enzyme (fibrin stabilizing Factor FXIII) and combines with platelets to form a clot. Studies of microvascular injury models have demonstrated that aspirin at a daily dose of 30 mg administered for one week decreased thrombin formation in healthy patients. Aspirin at higher doses (75 mg and 300 mg) decreased concentrations of thrombin markers similarly, as did a single dose of 500 mg following a period of aspirin therapy. This thrombin-lowering effect was found in healthy individuals and patients with increased risk for coronary artery disease. A seven-day course of low-dose (75 mg) aspirin was associated with slower prothrombin consumption (by 29%), thrombin formation (by 27.2%) [...]

5/15/2007 web-based article Dan Jones Nature Reviews (www.nature.com) With the approval of the first active immunotherapy pending, are we poised to enter the era of clinically effective cancer vaccines? On 29 March this year, the US FDA's Office of Cellular, Tissue and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee met to discuss the fate of Dendreon's leading cancer vaccine candidate Provenge (Sipuleucel-T). The Committee voted by 17–0 that Provenge was safe and 13–4 in favour of its efficacy in the treatment of metastatic, hormone-refractory prostate cancer. If things go in Dendreon's favour, Provenge might be approved as soon as mid-May. Provenge represents an extreme of 'personalized medicine'. Dendritic cells, which mop up antigens and present them to other cells of the immune system to stimulate a response, are taken from patients and then sent to one of Dendreon's repositories where they are treated with the prostate-specific antigen prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP), which is found in 95% of prostate cancers. Once returned to the patient, these activated dendritic cells should, in principle, activate T cells to attack and destroy cancer cells that are expressing PAP, leading to the eradication of the tumours. The cell-based approach taken by Dendreon is one of several options being pursued by cancer vaccine developers. Another popular approach is to use viral vectors to deliver genes encoding proteins that stimulate the immune system to attack cancer cells. Since the first such tumour antigens were identified in the early 1990s by Thierry Boon, a biologist at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer [...]