4/16/2007 New Rochelle, NY press release Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (ww.genengnews.com) The Food and Drug Administration recently gave LED Dental Inc. clearance to use its VELscope Oral Cancer Screening System to assist dentists in detecting cancerous growths that may be missed with traditional examinations, and also help surgeons ensure that all diseased tissue is successfully removed when excising cancerous lesions. This approval is based on studies conducted by scientists at the British Columbia Cancer Agency. The studies reported cases that demonstrated VELscope's ability to facilitate the detection of lesions that were not visible by an expert under conventional white light visualization. Oral Cancer: The Forgotten Disease Oral cancer is one of the few forms of cancer that have not experienced a significantly decreased mortality rate in the past 30 years. Deaths from oral cancer are higher than from cervical, testicular, laryngeal or thyroid cancer. It is estimated that over 34,000 Americans will develop oral cancer in 2007, and that only about half of them will be alive in five years. One American dies of this disease every hour of every day. The traditional profile of an oral cancer victim is that of a heavy user of tobacco and alcohol who is at least 40 years old. However, the number of victims who do not fit this profile has been growing at an alarming rate in recent years. One reason may be the growth in the occurrence of the human papilloma virus (HPV), one strain of which is now thought [...]

4/15/2007 Los Angeles, CA BERNHARD G ZIMMERMANNa, NOH JIN PARKa AND DAVID T WONGabcde Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 1098: 184–191 (2007) Saliva, the most accessible and noninvasive biofluid of our body, harbors a wide spectrum of biological analytes informative for clinical diagnostic applications. While proteomic constituents are a logical first choice as salivary diagnostic analytes, genomic targets have emerged as highly informative and discriminatory. This awareness, coupled with the ability to harness genomic information by high-throughput technology platforms such as genome-wide microarrays, ideally positions salivary genomic targets for exploring the value of saliva for detection of specific disease states and augmenting the diagnostic and discriminatory value of the saliva proteome for clinical applications. Buccal cells and saliva have been used as sources of genomic DNA for a variety of clinical and forensic applications. For discovery of disease targets in saliva, the recent realization that there is a transcriptome in saliva presented an additional target for oral diagnostics. All healthy subjects evaluated have approximately 3,000 different mRNA molecules in their saliva. Almost 200 of these salivary mRNAs are present in all subjects. Exploration of the clinical utility of the salivary transcriptome in oral cancer subjects shows that four salivary mRNAs (OAZ, SAT, IL8, and IL1b) collectively have a discriminatory power of 91% sensitivity and specificity for oral cancer detection. Data are also now in place to validate the presence of unique diagnostic panels of salivary mRNAs in subjects with Sjögren's disease. Authors: Bernhard G. Zimmeran(a), Noh Jin Park(a), David T. Wont [...]

4/4/2007 Baltimore, MD press release Johns Hopkins Medicine (www.hopkinscancercenter.net) For Dr. Maura Gillison the human papillomavirus was a smoking gun. Having proven that the virus is present in tumor cells of a subset of patients with head and neck cancer—those patients that didn’t fit the risk profile for the disease—this new faculty member has now set out to discover how this new finding will affect screening, prognosis and treatment of head and neck cancers. There is a common factor among one quarter of all head and neck cancers. It is the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV). Maura Gillison, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of oncology, intrigued by evidence of HPV DNA in head and neck cancers wanted to find out what role this virus might be playing in this form of cancer. “The fact that the virus had been detected in some head and neck cancers was no secret, but most scientists attributed it to laboratory contamination. I couldn’t help but wonder what if it wasn’t,” she says. When she began the experiment, Gillison truly expected the results to be negative, that she would not find HPV in the tumor cells. Instead her studies not only confirmed the presence of HPV, but also uncovered another interesting outcome. She was able to prove infection with the virus was associated with head and neck cancers, primarily oropharyngeal cancers, including those of the pharynx, tonsils, and base of tongue. And to her surprise, she also found that these patients typically fared better than those [...]

4/14/2007 Toronto, Ontario, Canada Barbara Turnbull Toronto Star (www.thestar.com) Hi-tech radiation imaging, 3-D planning increase intensity with fewer downsides Once his mask is snapped to the table, Ross Harrison can barely blink. That's crucial to the course of radiation he'll finish at Princess Margaret Hospital in a few weeks. It follows surgery that removed a cancerous growth from his neck last February. Harrison is one of approximately 7,500 patients who receive radiation here each year, one of the largest and most respected cancer treatment facilities in the world. "They certainly go out of their way to make people comfortable," says the 65-year-old retired forestry products specialist. Harrison expects to fully recover, and anticipates a summer of golf, gardening and cycling when he returns home to his wife, a retired schoolteacher, and their two cats in Sault St. Marie. Almost 400 professionals plan and deliver radiation to cancer patients at PMH each year. The process begins with physicians, who spend hours on a computerized planning system with multiple images of the body site to be radiated. Slice by slice, millimetre by millimetre, a pattern for radiation – which can take between one and 42 treatments – is painstakingly contoured for each patient. "There is a lot of judgment," says Dr. Mary Gospodarowicz, PMH's head of radiation medicine. New technology allows the precise shaping of radiation beams to the tumour site, which minimizes the volume of tissue being treated, reducing toxicity and sparing healthy cells. "If you have a normal structure next [...]

4/14/2007 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada press release E-dental.com Free oral cancer screenings will be offered Saturday, April 14 at the second annual Oral Cancer Walk in Harlem. Screenings given with the VELscope device are completely free of pain and inconvenience and take only one or two minutes. The Oral Cancer Walk, which is being led by the New York University Chapter of the Student National Dental Association, is being conducted to raise awareness of a disease that kills one American every hour of every day. The 5-year survival rate for oral cancer is only 50-to-60 percent, but early detection can result in survival rates of 80 percent or higher. VELscope is intended to be used in conjunction with conventional "white light" examination to help dentists and other healthcare providers discover oral abnormalities, including those that may be, or lead to, oral cancer. Registration and oral cancer screenings begin at 9:00 a.m. at Marcus Garvey Park, 121st Street and Madison Avenue in Harlem. The walk starts at 11:00 a.m.

4/13/2007 Hartford, CT Anthony P. Polednak Alcohol and Alcoholism 2007 42(2):125-130 Aims: To examine secular trends in incidence rates for the cancer types most strongly associated with alcohol in African Americans (blacks) and whites. Methods: Average annual age-standardized incidence rates (ASIRs) for years of diagnosis 1973–1975 through 2000–2002 were analysed for squamous cell carcinomas of the oral cavity pharynx, oesophagus and larynx in U.S. blacks and whites by sex, using data from a group of high-quality population-based cancer registries. Also examined were National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) results on prevalence of current drinking and cigarette smoking among the U.S. population, and U.S. age-standardized mortality rates for alcoholic liver disease-damage from 1979 to 2003. Results: In 1973–1975, ASIRs were greater in blacks than whites for cancers of the oesophagus and larynx but not oral cavity pharynx, and peaks in the disparity reached in the 1980’s were followed by declines except for laryngeal cancer (the cancer most strongly associated with tobacco). By 2000–2002, black–white disparities in ASIRs were highest for oesophagus (black/white ratio 4.3 for males and 2.9 for females) but lower for laryngeal cancer and small or non-existent for oral cavity pharynx. NHIS data showed that by the 1970s the U.S. black/white ratios of prevalence were slightly > 1.0 for current smoking but 0.9 (and 0.7 by 1997 and 2003) for current drinking. Disparities in alcoholic liver disease had disappeared by 2003. Conclusions: Further declines in black–white disparities in cancer rates may occur (allowing for lag times), but the larger disparities [...]

4/10/2007 web-based article Richard Johnson Market Day (www.market-day.net) Scientific evidence has shown that cancers of the oral cavity (lip, tongue,mouth, and throat), larynx, lung, and esophagus are associated with cigar smoking. Furthermore, evidence strongly suggests a link between cigar smoking and cancer of the pancreas. In addition, daily cigar smokers,particularly those who inhale, are at increased risk for developing heart and lung disease. Like cigarette smoking, the risks from cigar smoking increase with increased exposure. For example, compared with someone who has never smoked, smoking only one to two cigars per day doubles the risk for oral and esophageal cancers. Smoking three to four cigars daily can increase the risk of oral cancers to more than eight times the risk for a nonsmoker,while the chance of esophageal cancer is increased to four times the risk for someone who has never smoked. Both cigar and cigarette smokers have similar levels of risk for oral, throat, and esophageal cancers. The health risks associated with occasional cigar smoking (less than daily)are not known. About three-quarters of cigar smokers are occasional smokers. One of the major differences between cigar and cigarette smoking is the degree of inhalation. Almost all cigarette smokers report inhaling while the majority of cigar smokers do not because cigar smoke is generally more irritating. However, cigar smokers who have a history of cigarette smoking are more likely to inhale cigar smoke. Cigar smokers experience higher rates of lung cancer, coronary heart disease, and chronic obstructive lung disease than nonsmokers, but [...]

4/8/2007 New York, NY press release DrugNews Wire (www.drugnewswire.com) ImClone Systems Incorporated and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company announced today that a first line Phase III study of ERBITUX (Cetuximab) combined with platinum-based chemotherapy met the primary endpoint of increasing overall survival in patients with recurrent and/or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN). The randomized, multi-center study, known as EXTREME, studied more than 400 patients treated with ERBITUX in combination either with cisplatin plus 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) or carboplatin plus 5-FU, compared to patients treated with cisplatin plus 5-FU or carboplatin plus 5-FU alone. "We are excited by the results of this study, as it is the first large, randomized clinical trial to examine the impact of ERBITUX treatment in combination with platinum-based chemotherapy on overall survival in metastatic head and neck cancer," said Eric Rowinsky, M.D., Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President of ImClone Systems. "ERBITUX has already demonstrated improved survival when combined with radiation in locoregionally advanced head and neck cancer." "When ERBITUX was approved for head and neck cancer, it was not only hailed as the first new treatment for the disease in 45 years, but it was also the first drug approved to show a survival benefit in this population. Just one year later, this study adds to the growing body of clinical evidence with ERBITUX in these patients," said Martin Birkhofer, M.D., Vice President, Oncology Global Medical Affairs, Bristol-Myers Squibb. Results from this study have been submitted for presentation at the 2007 American [...]

4/3/2007 web-based article staff CancerConsultants.com Researchers in Sweden have reported that women with grade 3 cervical intraepithelial neoplasm (CIN) related to human papillomavirus (HPV) infection are also at increased risk for the development of cancer of the vagina, vulva and anus. The details of this study appeared in the April, 2007 issue of Lancet Oncology.[1] Human papilloma viruses are probably the sole cause of cancers of the cervix and have been associated with cancers of the anogenital tract in homosexual men. Epidemiologic and molecular biology studies have also suggested that HPV infection may be associated with cancers of the head and neck. The purpose of the present study was to determine the relationship between HPV related cervical CIN and other anogenital cancers. The main impetus of this study was to determine the possible effects of the newly available HPV vaccine on cancers other than cervical. These authors compared the incidence of cancer of the vagina, vulva and anus in women with CIN to those without CIN. This data base included all women in Sweden aged 18-50 in the years 1968 to 2004. These authors reported that women with grade 3 CIN had a 6.7 fold increase in the incidence of cancer of the vagina, 2.2 fold increased incidence of cancer of the vulva and a 4.68 fold increase in the incidence of anal cancer. They did not find an increased incidence of rectal cancer. They found that the increased incidence of these malignancies was age dependent and increased with time [...]

4/3/2007 web-based article staff Daily Yomiuri Online (www.yomiuri.co.jp) People whose faces turn red easily when they drink are more vulnerable to throat cancer, according to a study by the World Health Organization. In research published in the April issue of the British medical magazine, the Lancet Oncology, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which is affiliated to the WHO, reexamined the causal link between alcohol and cancer for the first time in 20 years, with the latest findings reflected in the study. According to the study, alcohol, or ethanol, is the most significant source of cancer. While an enzyme called ALDH2, a kind of aldehyde dehydrogenates, plays an important role in breaking down alcohol, the study pointed out that people with the enzyme poorly functioning due to partial deficiency increase the risk for throat cancer depending on the amount of alcohol, by up to 12 times more than those with the normal enzyme.