10/2/2006 Surrey, British Columbia, Canada Jeff Nagel The Surrey Leader (www.surreyleader.com) A doctor at Surrey Memorial Hospital is the first surgeon in the province using a new laser cutting technique to remove challenging cancerous tumours of the upper throat. Armed with a laser and microscope, Dr. Don Anderson is literally at the cutting edge of the new treatment that hospital officials say is making a major difference in the lives of patients. "It's absolutely spectacular," said Dr. Peter Doris, the head of surgery at SMH. Lasers are commonly used to burn away easy-to-access tumours, he said. But European hospitals have started to use them as a microsurgery scalpel to precisely carve out tumours in hard to reach areas like the base of the tongue and voicebox. Until now those cancers required either radiation treatment or major surgery to split open the neck - often involving a tracheostomy that could leave the patient voiceless, being fed by a stomach tube and having to slowly re-learn how to swallow. With the minimally invasive microsurgery procedure now being performed by Dr. Anderson, those patients experience very little pain, are out of hospital in some cases overnight and usually have speedy and easy recoveries. "I guess I'm kind of the pioneer in B.C.," Anderson said. He's now performed about a dozen of the tumour removals on patients this year using the laser microsurgery after undergoing training in England and Germany. "They've done well," he said. "The patients are happy. And the hospitals are happy [...]

9/30/2006 Chapel Hill, NC staff Sudbury, UK Scientists have identified a gene that controls the development of taste buds. The gene, SOX2, stimulates stem cells on the surface of the embryonic tongue and in the back of the mouth to transform into taste buds, according to the researchers. "Not only did we find that SOX2 is crucial for the development of taste buds, but we showed that the amount of SOX2 is just as important," said Brigid Hogan, Ph.D., chair of the Duke University Medical Center Department of Cell Biology and senior member of the research team. "If there isn't enough SOX2 present, or if there is too much, the stem cells will not turn into taste buds." The researchers made their discovery in mice, but they believe the same process occurs in humans. According to the researchers, the findings will help scientists better understand how the behavior of certain stem cells is controlled. The SOX2 gene is already known to be crucial in controlling whether embryonic stem cells remain undifferentiated and whether stem cells in the brain, eye and inner ear differentiate into specialized nerve cells. Taste bud cells, much like skin cells, continually slough off and are replaced by new ones. So the findings provide insights into the interactions between SOX2 and tongue stem cells during embryonic development, as well as into how stem cells continue to operate in adults, the researchers said. The researchers published the findings in the October 2006 issue of the journal Genes and [...]

9/30/2006 New Delhi, India staff The Hindu (www.hindu.com) For patients suffering from head and neck cancer, there is a new hope as a new therapy drug will be soon hitting the market. The cancer drug, Erbitux, got a clearance from the Drugs Controller General of India yesterday. "We got the clearance yesterday. It is an enormous step forward, providing more patients with the potential for a long term benefit," said Marek Dziki, the Managing Director of Merck Specialities that had also launched last month another cancer drug that treats colon cancer. He said it is the first and only monoclonal antibody to get an approval for the treatment of head and neck cancer by the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency. Head and neck cancer is very common in India because of the widespread habit of chewing tobacco and tobacco-related products. There are an estimated 3.5 million cancer patients in India. Every year around 8,00,000 cases are diagnosed every year, out of which 2,00,000 are head and neck cancer cases. According to Shyam Agarwal, chairperson of the medical oncology department in Sir Gangaram Hospital, the drug represents an important new option for so many patinets who are fighting head and neck cancer, a seious disease for which there is a tremendous unmet medical need. "In combination with radiotherapy, the drug provides a significant enhancemet in survival. This is a hallmark development." The drug is for all those whose cancer has not spread to other body parts. [...]

9/30/2006 New Delhi, India staff The Hindu (www.hindu.com) For patients suffering from head and neck cancer, there is a new hope as a new therapy drug will be soon hitting the market. The cancer drug, Erbitux, got a clearance from the Drugs Controller General of India yesterday. "We got the clearance yesterday. It is an enormous step forward, providing more patients with the potential for a long term benefit," said Marek Dziki, the Managing Director of Merck Specialities that had also launched last month another cancer drug that treats colon cancer. He said it is the first and only monoclonal antibody to get an approval for the treatment of head and neck cancer by the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency. Head and neck cancer is very common in India because of the widespread habit of chewing tobacco and tobacco-related products. There are an estimated 3.5 million cancer patients in India. Every year around 8,00,000 cases are diagnosed every year, out of which 2,00,000 are head and neck cancer cases. According to Shyam Agarwal, chairperson of the medical oncology department in Sir Gangaram Hospital, the drug represents an important new option for so many patinets who are fighting head and neck cancer, a seious disease for which there is a tremendous unmet medical need. "In combination with radiotherapy, the drug provides a significant enhancemet in survival. This is a hallmark development." The drug is for all those whose cancer has not spread to other body parts. [...]

9/30/2006 Baltimore, MD staff www.nbc4.com A Maryland doctor has helped develop a vaccine that could one day help in the fight against certain types of cancer. The vaccine, which is being tested now, is designed to target cancers of the head and neck. Doctor Scott Strome at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore helped develop the so-called Trojan peptide vaccines. "It's given as a shot, with a couple of other drugs that are designed to turn on the immune system," said Strome. The vaccines are made of specialized peptides, which are pieces of protiens found in certain cancer cells. The idea is that when they are injected, they will rev up the patients immune cells. Those cells will then seek out the peptides in the cancer cells and kill them. Strome likens it to a Trojan horse being used in a surprise attack. "We use it to kind of sneak into the cell," said Strome. "It kind of fakes out the body's immune system to turn on against a protein that we optimistically think will be on the tumor cell itself." The survival rate of head and neck cancers is about 50 percent and it's been that way for about 30 years. Doctor Strome thinks if the vaccine is effective it may change that. "We treat the cancer and then potentially we can give an adjuvant vaccine, to boost the immune system to make sure it doesn't come back," he said. The human trials of the vaccine [...]

9/28/2006 New York, NY Alejandro Garcia et al. Ann Thorac Surg 2006;82:1240-1243 Backgoround: Completely occlusive esophageal strictures may develop after head and neck radiotherapy or esophagectomy with gastric or colonic interposition. Major surgical intervention may be required to restore alimentary tract patency when endoscopic lumen reconstitution is not feasible by routine antegrade endoscopy. Retrograde endoscopic lumen identification and dilation is a useful method to reestablish alimentary tract patency, thereby avoiding surgical intervention. Methods: Patients requiring endoscopic dilation for completely occlusive esophageal strictures were identified by the gastroenterology, thoracic, and head and neck services. Retrograde access was obtained by balloon dilation of either a jejunostomy or gastrostomy tract, and an endoscope was passed to the area of stricture. Antegrade and retrograde endoscopy were performed simultaneously. A guidewire was passed either retrograde or antegrade under direct endoscopic visualization, followed by antegrade Savary dilation under fluoroscopic guidance. Results: From 2003 to 2006, 9 patients were identified with completely occlusive esophageal strictures requiring retrograde lumen identification and dilation. Stricture developed in 6 patients after radiotherapy for head and neck cancer and in 3 after esophagectomy with either gastric or colonic interposition for esophageal cancer. Endoscopic dilation was successful in all patients, without perforation. Conclusions: Retrograde endoscopic lumen identification and dilation is an option to reestablish lumen patency of completely occlusive esophageal strictures after esophagectomy with gastric or colonic interposition or after head and neck chemoradiotherapy. Authors: Alejandro Garcia, BA1, Raja M. Flores, MD1, Mark Schattner, MD2, Dennis Kraus, MD3, Manjit S. Bains, MD1, Richard [...]

9/28/2006 Zurich, Switzerland Nadja E. Tobler and Michael Detmar Journal of Leukocyte Biology. 2006;80:691-696 The extent of lymph node (LN) metastasis is a major determinant for the staging and the prognosis of most human malignancies and often guides therapeutic decisions. Although the clinical significance of LN involvement is well documented, little has been known about the molecular mechanisms that promote tumor spread via lymphatic vessels to sentinel and distal LN and beyond. However, recent discoveries have identified novel lymphatic-specific markers, and the newly discovered lymphangiogenesis factors vascular endothelial growth factor-C (VEGF-C) and VEGF-D were found to promote tumor-associated lymphatic vessel growth in mouse tumor models, leading to enhanced tumor spread to sentinel LN. Our recent findings indicate that VEGF-A also acts as a potent tumor lymphangiogenesis factor that promotes lymphatic tumor spread. VEGF-A overexpressing primary tumors induced sentinel LN lymphangiogenesis even before metastasizing and maintained their lymphangiogenic activity after metastasis to draining LN. Our recent studies showed that primary human melanomas that later metastasized were characterized by increased lymphangiogenesis and that the degree of tumor lymphangiogenesis can serve as a novel predictor of LN metastasis and overall patient survival, independently of tumor thickness. Tumor lymphangiogenesis also significantly predicted the presence of sentinel LN metastases at the time of surgical excision of the primary melanoma. Together, these findings suggest that tumor lymphangiogenesis actively contributes to cancer dissemination, that blockade of lymphatic vessel growth might inhibit tumor metastasis to LN, and that the extent of tumor-associated lymphangiogenesis could serve as a novel, [...]

9/28/2006 Frazer, PA staff Chron.com Drug maker Cephalon Inc. has received Food and Drug Administration approval to market its cancer pain treatment Fentora. The company expects to launch the drug in October. Cephalon said late Monday the drug is the first oral cancer-pain reliever that is absorbed directly into the blood stream via the cheek lining. Conventional short-acting oral opioids are swallowed and absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract, which can take up to 30 to 45 minutes to take effect. Fentora is currently indicated for those cancer patients who are already receiving and are tolerant to opioid therapy for breakthrough pain, a common component of chronic pain characterized by its rapid onset, intensity and relatively short duration. An estimated 800,000 cancer patients will experience breakthrough pain this year, based on data reported by the American Cancer Society. "Our longer-term clinical strategy is focused on developing Fentora for patients with breakthrough pain associated with other conditions, including neuropathic pain and back pain," said Frank Baldino, Cephalon chairman and chief executive, in a statement. Cephalon will manufacture Fentora in five dosage strengths _ 100, 200, 400, 600 and 800 micrograms. Under an agreement, the FDA approval allows Barr Laboratories to launch a generic version of Actiq, the painkiller Fentora is meant to replace.

9/28/2006 Reading, United Kingdom Riina Rautemaa et al. J. Med Microbiol 55 (2006), 1447-1451 Traditional sampling methods for the diagnosis of oral candidosis in head and neck cancer patients, i.e. saliva collection or tongue scrapings, are often impossible to perform. The aim was to determine the optimal sampling method. Eighteen oral cancer patients and five control subjects were sampled semi-quantitatively from the labial sulcus, dorsum of the tongue, dental plaque and saliva for cultivation of yeasts. The patients were examined prior to all cancer treatment (n=5), or 2–4 weeks (n=5) or 8–12 weeks (n=8) post-operatively. The incidence of Candida was found to increase from 40 % at the control and pre-operative level up to 73 % 8–12 weeks post-operatively. Candida albicans was found to be the only species until 4 weeks post-operatively. Thereafter, the incidence of species other than C. albicans was 38 %. The most sensitive sampling site was found to be the vestibular sulcus, from which all culture-positive cases could be confirmed. Tongue surface scraping was found to be more sensitive than saliva collection in detecting Candida. All sampling methods and sites were equally sensitive in detecting the different Candida species. Dental plaque was found to have the highest density of Candida colonization, and was thus found to be the most significant source of Candida infection, which emphasizes the role of dental care in these patients. Authors: Riina Rautemaa1,2,3, Peter Rusanen1,4, Malcolm Richardson1,3 and Jukka H. Meurman2,4 Authors' affiliations: 1 Department of Bacteriology and Immunology, Haartman Institute, University [...]

9/27/2006 Scottsdale, AZ Richard Johnson www.market-day.net There are two types of smokeless tobacco--snuff and chewing tobacco. Snuff,a finely ground or shredded tobacco, is packaged as dry, moist, or insachets (tea bag-like pouches). Typically, the user places a pinch or dipbetween the cheek and gum. Chewing tobacco is available in loose leaf, plug(plug-firm and plug-moist), or twist forms, with the user putting a wad oftobacco inside the cheek. Smokeless tobacco is sometimes called "spit" or"spitting" tobacco because people spit out the tobacco juices and saliva that build up in the mouth. Chewing tobacco and snuff contain 28 carcinogens (cancer-causing agents).The most harmful carcinogens in smokeless tobacco are the tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs). They are formed during the growing, curing, fermenting, and aging of tobacco. TSNAs have been detected in some smokeless tobacco products at levels many times higher than levels of other types of nitrosamines that are allowed in foods, such as bacon and beer. Other cancer-causing substances in smokeless tobacco include N-nitrosaminoacids, volatile N-nitrosamines, benzo(a)pyrene, volatile aldehydes,formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, crotonaldehyde, hydrazine, arsenic, nickel,cadmium, benzopyrene, and polonium-210. All tobacco, including smokeless tobacco, contains nicotine, which is addictive. The amount of nicotine absorbed from smokeless tobacco is 3 to 4 times the amount delivered by a cigarette. Nicotine is absorbed more slowly from smokeless tobacco than from cigarettes, but more nicotine per dose is absorbed from smokeless tobacco than from cigarettes. Also, the nicotine stays in the bloodstream for a longer time. Smokeless tobacco users increase their risk for cancer of the oral cavity. [...]