1/9/2007 Baltimore, MD Maura L. Gillison Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vol 24, No 36 (December 20), 2006: pp. 5623-5625 Oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas are etiologically heterogeneous, with one subset attributable primarily to human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and another to alcohol and tobacco use. These subsets are clinically and molecularly distinct, and these distinctions extend to patient prognosis.1 In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Licitra et al2 report that patients with HPV DNA–positive oropharyngeal cancers have an approximately 60% reduction in 5-year mortality when compared with patients with HPV-negative tumors, who have a considerably worse prognosis. These data corroborate several previous single-institutional, retrospective analyses that reported similarly improved disease-specific and overall survival in HPV-positive patients.3-8 Retrospective analyses, such as those performed in this study, must be interpreted with caution because of limited quality of retrospectively collected data, sample size constraints, and the potential for residual confounding. However, in a prospective, population-based, observational study, the association between HPV status and prognosis strengthened after adjustment for potential confounders.9 Indeed, tumor HPV status was as important to patient prognosis as tumor stage. Therefore, the association between tumor HPV status and prognosis is now sufficiently strong and consistent such that its impact on clinical research involving head and neck cancer patients must be considered. As for any cancer prognostic biomarker with potential clinical utility, research involving HPV tumor status is strongly dependent on the performance of the assay used for HPV detection as well as the definition of a positive test.10 Classification [...]

1/8/2007 Charleston, SC press release Medical News Today (www.medicalnewstoday.com) Addiction experts at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) say the link between oral cancer and heavy drinking makes dentists ideal sources of alcohol intervention. The study that appeared in the December 2006 issue of the Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA) also finds that most patients don't mind discussing alcohol use with their dentist. The results were somewhat surprising, said Peter M. Miller, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at MUSC. "We thought alcohol was a sensitive topic," Miller said. "We thought people might feel it's okay if their doctor talked to them about [alcohol use], but not their dentist." MUSC researchers collected information from 408 adults. All were treated at an emergency walk-in dental clinic during a four-month period in 2005. Patients were asked questions about their drinking habits and their thoughts about having their dentist discuss alcohol use with them. About 80 percent of people in the study said that dentists should feel free to ask patients about their drinking habits. About 25 percent said they would be embarrassed if their dentist asked such a question. However, 90 percent said they would give an honest answer. More than 90 percent of the people in the study also agreed that if drinking were affecting their oral health, their dentist should advise them to reduce the amount they drink, or to quit. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAA) estimates that nearly 50 percent of [...]

1/7/2007 web-based article press release Genetic Engineering News (www.genengnews.com) IRX Therapeutics today announced that John W. Hadden II, Chief Operating Officer, will present at the upcoming 25th Annual JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, California on Tuesday, January 9, 2007 at 11:00 a.m. Mr. Hadden will provide an overview of the Company's product portfolio and business developments. IRX Therapeutics discovers and develops therapeutic treatments that act on multiple cellular targets to restore the immune system's ability to treat cancer and viral diseases. IRX-2 seeks to correct both dendritic cell and T-cell defects to stimulate an immune response to destroy tumor cells. IRX-2 received Fast Track designation by the Food and Drug Administration in November of 2003. An open label Phase 2 clinical trial in late-stage head and neck cancer patients was completed which demonstrated statistically significant improvement in the treatment group and a clinical response rate of 38%. After forty-eight months, the overall survival of IRX-2 treated patients was 61% versus 32% for the concurrent institutional control group. About IRX Therapeutics IRX Therapeutics is a privately held immunotherapy company focusing on the development and commercialization of treatments for advanced cancer and viral diseases. Founded in 1994 by John W. Hadden, M.D., a pioneer in the field of Immunopharmacology, IRX Therapeutics is developing an innovative approach that stimulates a coordinated cellular immune response to treat human diseases. The Company's product pipeline includes IRX-2, a therapeutic cancer therapy that seeks to stimulate a cellular immune response in the host to destroy [...]

1/7/2007 Nashville, TN Teresa M. Walker Earthlink (earthlink.net) Bobby Hamilton, the longtime NASCAR driver who won the 2001 Talladega 500 and was the 2004 Craftsman Truck Series champion, died Sunday of cancer, said Liz Allison, a family friend who co-hosted a radio show with Hamilton. He was 49. Hamilton was at home with his family when he died, said Allison, the widow of former NASCAR star Davey Allison. "The thing I loved about Bobby Sr. so much is that he treated everybody the same," Allison said. "It didn't matter if you were one of the drivers he competed against or a fan he'd never laid eyes on before. "He didn't have a pretentious bone in his body. I think that's why people were drawn to him. He was just very real and had a way of relating to everyone." Hamilton was diagnosed with head and neck cancer in February. A malignant growth was found when swelling from dental surgery did not go down. "NASCAR is saddened by the passing of Bobby Hamilton," said Jim Hunter, NASCAR's vice president of communications. "Bobby was a great competitor, dedicated team owner and friend. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of the Hamilton family." Hamilton raced in the first three truck races of the season, with a best finish of 14th at Atlanta Motor Speedway, before turning over the wheel to his son, Bobby Hamilton Jr. The senior Hamilton then started chemotherapy and radiation treatment. By August, he had returned to work [...]

1/6/2007 Chapel Hill, NC Lauren L. Patton DDS et al. Oral Surgery, Medicine,Pathology, Radiation Vol 102, Issue 6, pp. 758-764 Objective: To assess the educational preparedness of medical and dental professionals to reduce the burden of OPC through planning effective cancer control strategies such as reducing tobacco consumption, suggesting healthy lifestyle and diet, and performing early detection through screening examinations and appropriate follow-up. Methods: Self-reported adequacy of training in oral and pharyngeal cancer (OPC) early intervention activities was compared among 4 health care provider groups in North Carolina. Pretested surveys were mailed to random samples of licensed professionals. Results: Nearly all providers agreed that early detection improves 5-year survival rates from OPC. Compared with 567 medical providers (273 family physicians and 294 nurse practitioners), 1235 dental providers (584 dentists and 651 hygienists) were significantly less likely to feel adequately trained in tobacco and alcohol cessation and to palpate neck nodes, but were significantly more likely to feel adequately trained to perform oral cancer examinations. Among dental providers, those who felt they had adequate training in tobacco and alcohol cessation were significantly more likely to assess these risk factors on patient medical histories. Conclusions: Education is needed to prepare dental providers to undertake OPC prevention activities, whereas medical providers would benefit from enhanced oral examination skills to improve their performance in early detection. Authors: Lauren L. Patton DDSa, , , Tanya E. Ashe MSDHb, John R. Elter DMD, PhDc, Janet H. Southerland DDS, MPH, PhDd and Ronald P. Strauss DMD, PhDe [...]

1/5/2007 Raleigh, N.C. Sabine Vollmer The NewsObserver (www.newsobserver.com) New test results suggest that a GlaxoSmithKline drug awaiting regulatory approval to treat late-stage breast cancer also has potential to corral the disease early on, before tumors spread. Scientists who studied Tykerb in women unresponsive to other therapies concluded that the GSK treatment shows promise as an early-stage tumor buster. GSK controlled the study and paid for it. Outcomes of the study, which was halted early because results in patients with late-stage breast cancer were so promising, were published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine. Early GSK research on Tykerb indicated that the drug could be a powerful cancer treatment with few side effects, said Dr. Neil Spector, a cancer drug researcher who oversaw the drug's clinical testing before joining Duke University last year. "This is great," Spector said of the conclusions. "The good news is there's so much interest. Everybody is moving very quickly in what will be a much more rapid development." Scientists associated with Harvard Medical School began a clinical trial last summer to study Tykerb in early-stage breast cancer. The conclusions from the GSK study "accelerate and reaffirm our expectations with Tykerb," said Dr. Paul Goss, a professor of medicine at Harvard and the director of the breast cancer program at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center in Boston. Goss and his colleagues control the study but GSK is paying for it. Results are expected in 2009 or 2010. GSK plans to use the study's results [...]

1/5/2007 Reston, VA Barbara Kram DotMed News (www.dotmed.com) "PET/CT in Cancer Patient Management" is the subject of a special supplement to the January issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine. SNM, the largest molecular imaging and nuclear medicine association, is publishing a unique collection of articles that explore the role of 18F-FDG PET/CT imaging in patient screening, cancer diagnosis, initial treatment planning, treatment monitoring and detection of early recurrence. "Oncologists, internists, general practitioners, radiologists and nuclear medicine physicians are frequently overwhelmed by the need to select-from among the different imaging modalities-the one that best serves the needs of their patients," notes the supplement's guest editor Johannes Czernin, the director of the Nuclear Medicine Clinic and professor and vice chair of molecular and medical pharmacology at the University of California, Los Angeles. "Despite the impressive growth of PET/CT, there is no consensus on the optimum clinical use of PET/CT and its implementation into patient management," he added, thereby prompting the publication of this exceptional resource. “Selecting the ‘best’ PET/CT protocol for a given clinical problem adds another layer of complexity for referring physicians and practicing imaging specialists who need to avoid redundancies in diagnostic tests that frequently involve radiation,” said Heinrich Schelbert, who is editor in chief of JNM, the most prominent peer-reviewed journal in nuclear medicine, molecular imaging and allied disciplines. Doctors use positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT) scans as standard imaging tools to pinpoint disease states in the body. When PET is used to image cancer, [...]

1/5/2007 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada press release Emediawire.com The cancer-fighting abilities of berries have been put under the microscope at leading universities over the past decade, and researchers at Ohio State are putting them to the test again. Black raspberries are being used in a four-year study that began in July to see if they can slow or stop the return of oral cancer, which has one of the highest rates of recurrence. The study, funded by the American Cancer Society, will analyze the effects freeze-dried black raspberries have on 120 oral cancer patients. Initial short-term patient studies have shown promise, continuing the trend started by Dr. Gary D. Stoner in previous OSU research that found a diet rich in black raspberries slowed and reduced the growth of colon and esophageal tumors. At the heart of these studies is continued evidence of the health benefits found not just in black raspberries, but blackberries, blueberries, cranberries, red raspberries and strawberries. Mounting data are showing that the properties found in dark-skinned berries can have a positive effect on the body. The antioxidant and other health-friendly properties of these berries are a theory that has long been promoted by Berry Health Inc. founder Dr. Paul Gross, an expert on antioxidant drugs and founding member of the International Berry Health Association. "This effect from black raspberries, blackberries and strawberries has been seen only in laboratory animals to date, but is promising enough that Dr. Stoner has begun human clinical trials," said Dr. Gross, a [...]

1/3/2007 Berkeley, CA press release UCBerkeley News (www.berkeley.edu) While a newly marketed vaccine promises to drastically reduce human papilloma virus (HPV) infections, the major cause of cervical cancer, a new discovery by University of California, Berkeley, researchers could some day help the millions of people already infected and at constant risk of genital warts and cancer. One study found that 75 percent of sexually active men and women under 50 have, or have had, an HPV infection, while 10,000 women annually develop cervical cancer, more than 90 percent of which is caused by HPV. Four thousand women die of cervical cancer each year. In upper photo, the chromosomes of a dividing epithelial cell (red) have more than a hundred hitchhikers — DNA plasmids of the human papilloma virus (green). Treating a cell with a special peptide created by UC Berkeley researchers kicks the hitchhikers off (lower photo), and could lead to a drug that will prevent spread of the virus. (Photos courtesy Botchan lab/UC Berkeley) Once infected, it's difficult to rid oneself of the virus because it hides as a latent DNA in cells of the epithelial tissue, such as skin and the lining of the vagina and cervix, and spreads as these cells divide. The UC Berkeley team created a protein fragment, or peptide, that successfully prevents the virus from hitching a ride on a cell's chromosomes as the cell divides. If such a peptide - or more likely, a drug that mimics the action of the peptide - [...]

1/2/2007 web-based article staff Life Science News (news.biocompare.com) A research team at UT Southwestern Medical Center has for the first time identified several genes whose expression is lost in four of the most common solid human cancers – lung, breast, prostate and colon cancer. The findings, which researchers say could form the basis for a new early detection screen for certain cancers, are published today in the online journal Public Library of Science Medicine. The expression of genes that inhibit cancer development, so-called tumor suppressor genes, is often lost in tumor cells. This can occur through a mutation in the gene's DNA sequence or through deletion of the gene. Loss of tumor suppression function also can occur in a process called methylation, where a chemical called a methyl group is attached to a DNA region near the gene and prevents it from being activated, essentially "silencing" the gene. "These results show the power of studying tumors on a genome-wide basis, looking at many genes at the same time," said Dr. John Minna, the study's senior author and director of the W.A. "Tex" and Deborah Moncrief Jr. Center for Cancer Genetics and the Nancy B. and Jake L. Hamon Center for Therapeutic Oncology Research at UT Southwestern. In an effort to identify new tumor-suppressor genes that might be important to lung and breast cancer development, the UT Southwestern team examined which genes are active in those kinds of tumors and compared them to gene expression profiles from normal lung epithelial cells. [...]