3/22/2007 Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Lorianne Garrison OttawaCitizen.com For Donna Walsh, it began as a little nip on the tongue. It didn’t seem like much of a problem — sore, tender, but not a big deal. Then, on Christmas Day in 2005, she experienced a terrible pain that “felt like something had exploded” in her mouth. A doctor sent her to a specialist, and then another specialist. On Feb. 1 — her 53rd birthday — Ms. Walsh, an Ottawa public school teacher, wife and mother, was diagnosed with tongue cancer. “It surprised me incredibly, because I was never a smoker,” she said. “It was something I didn’t expect at all.” A little more than two weeks after her diagnosis, Ms. Walsh had surgery to remove one-third of her tongue, to stop the cancer from spreading. She became one of between 25 and 30 people each year in Ottawa who have a unique procedure called a radial forearm free flap, involving the domino-like replacement of flesh from arm to tongue, and leg to arm. Dr. Martin Corsten, a head and neck cancer specialist at the Ottawa Hospital, working with plastic surgeon Murray Allan, removed the cancerous portion of Ms. Walsh’s tongue, which was four centimetres long and one centimetre deep. Ms. Walsh was sedated, Dr. Corsten said, and the infected tissue cut out with an electric knife. In cases where little of the tongue is removed, the patient doesn’t have much trouble adjusting to having “a little bit less tongue,” Dr. Corsten [...]

3/22/2007 web-based article press release News-Medical.Net (www.news-medical.net) Roche has announced today that the United States (U.S.) Food & Drug Administration has accepted for review its applications for two human papillomavirus (HPV) tests. The Amplicor HPV Test is designed to enable accurate detection of 13 of the more common high-risk HPV genotypes in standard clinical samples. The Linear Array HPV Genotyping Test is designed to identify which of the 13 high-risk HPV genotypes are present in a sample. Persistent infection with HPV is the principal cause of cervical cancer and its precursor, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia. "DNA tests that are currently used in conjunction with Pap smear tests for cervical cancer screening can only tell if a woman has HPV infection, but cannot identify which type she has," said Daniel O'Day, head of Roche Molecular Diagnostics, the business area of Roche Diagnostics that developed the test. "We are pleased to be working with the FDA to bring both HPV detection and genotyping tests to the U.S. market. We believe availability of both tests could offer important, clinically relevant information to clinicians working to better identify and manage persistent, high-risk HPV infections before they progress to more serious forms of disease." According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, genital infection with HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the U.S. today. Over half of sexually active women and men are infected with HPV at some point in their lives. In most cases, infections with HPV are not serious. The majority [...]

3/22/2007 United Kingdom Nigel Nelson ThePeople.Co.UK (www.people.co.uk) ROLL-UPS are deadlier than ordinary cigarettes, frightening new research reveals. The DIY cigarettes are more likely to cause cancer in the mouth and throat because the tobacco is stronger. But despite the risks, the number of people smoking them has DOUBLED to 33 per cent since 1990. And the figures for women have rocketed SIXFOLD in the same period, with one woman smoker in eight rolling her own. Health minister Philip Hunt warned: "Smokers of hand-rolled cigarettes are more vulnerable to developing oral and throat cancer." But Mr Hunt insisted the Government could not try to crack down on the problem by raising the tax on rolling tobacco because that would only spark a boom in smuggling. At present, Whitehall spends £50million a year on anti-smoking programmes. But the success rate has been tiny, with the number of women smokers dipping by only two points from 27 to 25 per cent since 2001. Now health watchdogs hope ten of thousands of puffers will give up this summer when smoking is banned in public places.

3/22/2007 web-based article staff CancerConsultants.com According to an article published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, smoking is responsible for the majority of laryngeal cancers in Central Europe. Cancer of the larynx, or voice box, is a type of head and neck cancer. The majority of head and neck cancers are cancers of the larynx. Central Europe has some of the highest incidence rates of laryngeal cancer in the world. Because smoking is known to contribute significantly to the development of laryngeal cancers, researchers continue to evaluate potential links between smoking and other environmental variables and the risk of laryngeal cancer. Researchers from Europe recently conducted a clinical study to evaluate the potential role of both tobacco and alcohol in the development of laryngeal cancers. This study included individuals involved in the Central and Eastern Europe Multicenter Study who had been diagnosed with squamous cell laryngeal cancers (the most common type of laryngeal cancers) between 2000 and 2002. Another group of individuals who did not have laryngeal cancers was also included in the study. Patterns of tobacco and alcohol use were evaluated among both groups. * Approximately 87% of laryngeal cancer is attributed to the use of tobacco. * 75% of laryngeal cancer is attributed to current tobacco use, while 12% is due to past tobacco use. * Nearly 40% of laryngeal cancers are attributed to the interaction between alcohol and tobacco. * Stopping smoking for five years or longer protected individuals against the development of laryngeal cancer. * Alcohol [...]

3/22/2007 Berlin, Germany staff Jurnalo (jurnalo.com) A diseased tongue fills the television screen before the camera depicts decaying teeth and sore lips in a new drive launched on Wednesday to shock smokers in Singapore into quitting. After years of less gruesome campaigns against smoking, the Health Promotion Board (HPB) said that the 30-second advertisement centres around frightening images to frighten smokers into giving up the habit. "Smoking causes oral cancer," says the woman in the ad as her eyes well up with tears. "Quitting is hard, but not quitting is harder. " The drive, depicting smoking-related mouth and throat cancers, is being aired in English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil. Print versions, inspired by a programme last year in Australia, are set to appear in newspaper and billboards. The hard-hitting images are necessary because most smokers are deep into the habit, HPB deputy director Choo Lin told The Straits Times. Posters carrying tips on quitting will also be displayed in clinics, offices, entertainment and eating outlets. The second phase of the campaign, beginning May 1 and ending on World No-Tobacco-Day on May 30, highlights testimonials from smokers who have stopped. Choo told the newspaper that the use of graphic pictures introduced in 2004 on cigarette packs has helped deter smokers. A recent survey showed that 47 per cent of respondents cut the number of cigarettes they were smoking after seeing the pictures of diseased organs, and 25 per cent said they were motived to quit. One in two smokers dies of [...]

3/22/2007 Durham, NC press release Sys.com Media (www.sys-con.com) Serenex, Inc., an integrated oncology-focused drug discovery and development company, announced today the issuance of a patent covering methods of treating or preventing mucositis by the European Patent Office ("EPO"). The patent, EP 212050B1, covers a broad class of compounds in various formulations that may treat mucositis of multiple mucosal surfaces. "We are pleased to have been awarded this patent from the EPO. The patent significantly strengthens our intellectual property estate surrounding SNX-1012 which now includes IP protection in both the U.S. and Europe," said Richard Kent, M.D., president and chief executive officer of Serenex. "The issuance of this patent is another important step toward the commercialization of SNX-1012, which we believe is a best in class product that will bring relief to cancer patients suffering from oral mucositis." Oral mucositis results in inflammation and ulceration of the mouth and throat tissue lining and is the most common debilitating toxicity induced by chemotherapy and radiation therapy regimens. In severe cases oral mucositis can lead to patients requiring total parenteral nutrition, IV narcotic analgesics to control pain, and hospitalization. A serious consequence of oral mucositis is that it frequently leads to the interruption of radiation or chemotherapeutic treatment, which results in an undesirable decrease in efficacy. There are no approved therapeutic agents for the prevention or treatment of oral mucositis in solid tumor patients receiving radiation or chemotherapy and yet these patients represent approximately 90% of all oral mucositis cases. The size of [...]

3/22/2007 web-based article Miranda Hitti WebMD.com CDC Study: More Than 1 in 4 U.S. Women Aged 14-59 Has HPV Infection Human papillomavirus is common among U.S. women, especially those in their early 20s, says the CDC. Human papillomavirus (HPV) is America's most common sexually transmitted infection. HPV infection typically clears within two years, and most infected people don't realize they have the virus. However, some strains of HPV can cause cervical, anal, and other genital cancers, note the CDC's Eileen Dunne, MD, MPH, and colleagues. Dunne's team calculated the total number of U.S. women aged 14-59 with HPV infection from 2003 to 2004. More than one in four U.S. women in that age range -- nearly 27% -- had HPV infection. That equals nearly 25 million U.S. women, according to the CDC. About 3 million had any of the four HPV strains targeted by Gardasil, a vaccine designed to prevent cervical cancer and genital warts, the CDC estimates. HPV Infection in Young Women HPV infection was most common among women aged 20-24. Nearly half of the women in that age group (49%) had HPV infection. A third of women aged 14-24 had HPV infection. That's nearly 7.5 million -- far more than previous estimates that 4.6 million women in that age range had HPV. Older women were less likely to have HPV infection, the study shows. Data came from 1,921 women who submitted self-collected vaginal swabs for a national health study conducted from 2003 to 2004. The findings appear in [...]

3/22/2007 New York, NY staff Cancer Page (www.cancerpage.com) An intensive nutrition counseling program significantly improves dietary intake in radiation oncology patients, according to a report in the March issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. "Nutritional issues need to be considered during the planning stages of a patient's treatment, as we know they impact on outcomes," Dr. Elisabeth A. Isenring from Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia told Reuters Health. "We know it is easier to minimize deteriorations in nutritional status rather than treating patients who are already malnourished." Dr. Isenring and colleagues investigated the impact of a nutritional intervention using the American Dietetic Association's medical nutrition therapy protocol for radiation oncology compared with standard practice. The dietary intake of protein, energy and fiber was assessed in 54 subjects at baseline and at 4, 8 and 12 weeks. The patients were undergoing radiotherapy for cancers in the gastrointestinal or head and neck area. At the end of 12 weeks, the nutrition intervention group had significantly higher mean energy and protein intakes, and a nonsignificant increase in fiber intake, compared with the standard practice group, the researchers report. More patients in the nutrition intervention group than in the standard practice group were assessed as well-nourished and fewer were assessed as malnourished. Compared with the standard practice group, the nutrition intervention group experienced a significantly smaller decrease and faster recovery in global quality of life and physical function, the report indicates. "We recommend having effective nutritional screening and intervention [...]

3/22/2007 Los Angeles, CA Shari Roan Los Angeles Times (www.latimes.com) Human papillomavirus is common in men too. Studies are With human papillomavirus, girls and women have been getting all the attention. Parents across the nation have rushed to have their daughters vaccinated against the virus. States are wrestling with whether to require that adolescents get the vaccine. 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% 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 confirms, 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, 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 in the U.S. each year. Gardasil, a three-shot regimen, was approved [...]

3/22/2007 New Orleans, LA Alan Mozes Washington Post (www.washingtonpost.com) Simple, cheap diagnostic tests based on the analysis of saliva are within spitting distance of development, says a consortium of American researchers. Scientists say the novel protocol could be available as a standard of care as early as 2011 to screen for a variety of major diseases. "The ability to detect and monitor diseases through noninvasive means is a highly desirable goal in health care," said Dr. David T. Wong, director of the Dental Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles. "Saliva, a totally noninvasive fluid, holds this ability but is not currently used in (the) mainstream. All of this is just about to change." Wong was scheduled to describe the new tests Thursday at the International Association for Dental Research annual meeting, in New Orleans. To develop the saliva-based screens, Wong has teamed up with researchers at the U.S. National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research; the University of California, San Francisco; and the Scripps Research Institute. Together, the team is engaged in a painstaking mapping of so-called "diagnostic alphabets" present in saliva. Identifying the components of such alphabets is key to "reading" the signs of disease. So far, two such alphabets are substantially decoded: one based on salivary proteins and another based on salivary messenger RNAs (mRNA) -- molecules integral to the formation of proteins. More than 1,500 salivary proteins have been identified, the authors noted, alongside about 3,000 mRNAs. Based on their detective work, Wong's group [...]