9/26/2006 Toronto, Ontario, Canada Benjamin S. Bleir, MD et al. MedicalNewsToday.com Over the past twenty years there has been a significant shift from surgery towards chemoradiation therapy as primary treatment for certain head and neck cancers. While primary chemoradiation allows many patients to avoid surgery and its concurring postoperative complications, it may be associated with significant post-treatment dysphagia, or difficulty in swallowing, which can be debilitating and potentially lethal. During treatment, radiation is typically given over a wide field which encompasses both the primary tumor and its associated lymphatic drainage. As a consequence, structures vital to swallowing are subjected to high doses of radiation which may result in complications such as silent aspiration and feeding tube dependence. The addition of chemotherapy to radiation provides a synergistic effect which has been shown to further improve locoregional control. While chemotherapeutic agents act as radiosensitizers and thereby increasing tumor control rates, they also result in increased acute toxicity as well as late complications secondary to collateral injury to surrounding healthy tissue. A team of scientists from Philadelphia, PA have conducted a study to identify which stages of swallow function are differentially affected by chemoradiation treatment for head and neck cancer, to describe the incidence of long term complications including clinical pneumonia and prolonged feeding tube dependence, and to correlate the clinical variables to the modified barium swallow findings. The authors of the study, “Post Chemoradiation Dysphagia” are Benjamin S. Bleier MD, Marc S. Levine MD, Rosemarie Mick PhD, Stephen E. Rubesin MD, Stephen [...]

9/26/2006 New York, NY Lauren Foster msnbc.msn.com Big Tobacco had more bad press this week after a US federal judge ruled people who smoked "light" cigarettes in the belief they were safer than higher-tar alternatives could proceed with a nationwide class action. The news follows a recent study that found the amount of nicotine in US cigarettes rose about 10 per cent between 1998 and 2004, potentially making it harder to quit and easier to become addicted. The message was clear: smokers are getting more nicotine than in the past and may need additional help in trying to break their powerful nicotine addiction. In the US, home to 44.5m adult smokers, 70 per cent want to quit and 40 per cent make a serious attempt each year, but fewer than 5 per cent succeed in any given year, according to the National Institutes of Health. Worldwide, an estimated 5m people die every year from tobacco-related diseases, and health officials predict the annual death toll will double by 2020 if current smoking trends continue. Faced with these figures, some public health experts are looking more closely at smokeless products, such as Swedish "snus" and traditional moist snuff, as a way to reduce tobacco-related deaths and diseases. They suggest these products are a potentially less harmful way of delivering nicotine. "Five million deaths worldwide is unconscionable when some of those could be prevented by offering some safer alternatives to smoking, which we know is very dangerous," said Philip Alcabes, associate professor of [...]

9/25/2006 Memphis, TN staff CancerConsultants.com In patients with squamous cell cancer of the mouth, imaging with fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) detected more hidden lymph node metastases in the neck than computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). These results were published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Oral cancer refers to cancer that involves the mouth, lips, or tongue. A majority of cases of oral cancer are linked with tobacco use. High alcohol intake also increases the risk of oral cancer. Because oral cancer can spread to lymph nodes in the neck, treatment of oral cancer may involve surgical removal or irradiation of these lymph nodes. While it would be optimal to reserve lymph node treatment for those patients with lymph node metastases, it can be difficult to determine in advance whether lymph node metastases are present. Some lymph node metastases are too small to be felt. They may also be missed by conventional imaging techniques such as computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). To determine whether an alternative imaging technique—FDG-PET—can be used to identify hidden lymph node metastases in the neck, researchers in Taiwan conducted a study among 134 patients with oral cancer. None of the patients had lymph node metastases that could be felt by palpating the neck. Before surgical removal of the lymph nodes of the neck, patients underwent imaging with FDG-PET and CT or MRI. - Surgery detected lymph node metastases in 26% of the patients. - FDG-PET detected more lymph node [...]

9/25/2006 Scottsdale, AZ Richard Johnson MarketDay.net Scientific evidence has shown that cancers of the oral cavity (lip, tongue,mouth, and throat), larynx, lung, and esophagus are associated with cigarsmoking. 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 heartand lung disease. Like cigarette smoking, the risks from cigar smoking increase withincreased exposure. For example, compared with someone who has neversmoked, smoking only one to two cigars per day doubles the risk for oraland esophageal cancers. Smoking three to four cigars daily can increase therisk 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 riskfor someone who has never smoked. Both cigar and cigarette smokers havesimilar 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 not as high as the rates for cigarette smokers. These [...]

9/24/2006 Montreal, Quebec, Canada Alison Palkhivala www.docguide.com Overexpression of the cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and Ki-67 proteins is a marker of poor outcome in patients with stage I or II glottic cancer and can be used to help tailor therapy, researchers reported here at the 26th International Congress of the International Academy of Pathology (IAP). Involvement of COX-2 in glottic cancer suggests that currently available COX-2 inhibitors may play a role in the treatment of this disease, the researchers said. Finding molecular markers that predict disease course and/or response to therapy is an important goal in the management of all cancers. The researchers say they looked at cyclooxygenase-2, Ki-67, and p53 expression in glottic cancer to see if they had any prognostic value, said Melanie K. Sackett, MD, pathologist, Centre hospitalier universitaire, L'Hôtel-Dieu de Quebec Hospital, Quebec, Canada. The researchers performed immunohistochemical analyses on preradiation biopsies taken from 301 patients with stage I or II glottic squamous cell carcinoma who were participating in a clinical trial evaluating the effect of vitamin E on rate of secondary recurrences of head and neck cancers. "We found a correlation between COX-2 overexpression and increased overall mortality, with a hazard ratio [HR] of 1.68 when we adjusted for age and trial arm," she said during a poster presentation on September 19th. Overexpression of Ki-67 was associated with all cause mortality, with an HR of 1.59 and with the development of a secondary primary cancer, with an HR of 2.34. There was no relationship between p53 overexpression [...]

9/24/2006 Sydney, Australia Clair Weaver The Sunday Telegraph (www.news.com.au) A graphic anti-smoking television advertisement that depicts a cancer-ravaged mouth with rotting teeth and sores has provoked the most complaints of the year. The Quit footage, which was shown nationally, offended viewers to the point that more than 170 official complaints have been lodged to the Advertising Standards Bureau (ABS) acheter cialis sur internet. Feedback included "foul and disgusting'' to "horrifying and scary'', with one parent claiming their nine-year-old daughter had suffered nightmares after watching it. However, the ABS dismissed these complaints at a hearing last month, ruling the advertisement's graphic images were justified "in the context of the important health message being conveyed to the public''. Nevertheless, the board noted that the imagery was "at the upper limit'' of what is appropriate on television. The commercial starts with a close-up image of the mouth and zooms out to a woman cancer patient warning of the grisly effects of mouth cancer. Quit Victoria, which developed the shock campaign, acknowledged the negative comments but insisted public response to the campaign had been "overwhelmingly positive''. "Trying to change behaviour where addiction is involved is an enormous challenge,'' a spokesperson said. OCF Note: While this image may be graphic, and even shocking, it does not represent what happens to oral cancer patients, and we believe that using a made up model does not reflect the disfigurements and pain that a patient can go through. Crooked teeth, and their discolorations have nothing to do with [...]

9/23/2006 Nashville, TN staff NewsChannel5.com Throat and neck cancer surgeries can leave patients with serious side effects like disfiguring scars and speech problems. But with the help of a robot, two surgeons are the first in the world to treat these types of cancers without making even one incision. Surgeons used to cut across the throat to remove the tumor. But the robot operates through the patient's mouth, so the only incisions are small and are made on the inside of the body. "Now, we do remove the entire tumor but we don't have to do things such as wide incisions on the neck, or breaking or splitting the jaw bone and moving the tongue aside," head and neck surgeon at the University of Pennsylvania Bert O'Malley Jr., MD said. Doctors O'Malley and Gregory Weinstein developed the technique. "The robot allows me to move my hands on the joysticks of the robotic consul, and it's as if my hands were made this small, and I could get them right into the mouth to do the operation," Weinstein said. The two surgeons partner on each operation -- one at the consul, and one by the patient's side. Patients lose less blood and can actually talk and swallow easier after the robotic surgery because there's no cutting. "We are now being able to do the surgery with decreased side effects," Weinstein said. These surgeries used to take up to 15 hours. Now, with the robot they take about three. Each year in [...]

9/23/2006 San Francisco, CA Maricris Macabeo-Ong et al. Molecular Diagnostics in Cancer Therapeutic Development, Sep 12-15, 2006 Diagnostic Technologies and Molecular and Cellular Profiling: Biomarkers in Early Detection and Diagnosis Introduction: Cervical lymph node metastasis (N+ node) is the critical prognostic factor for oral cancer patients. Detection of N+ node remains problematic because there are no biomarkers available to predict regional spread. Therefore, the goal of this study is to use proteomics technology to identify candidate biomarkers that may be associated with cervical lymph node metastasis. Method: Frozen tissues of a buccal mucosa SCC and associated node containing metastatic tumor (N+) were obtained from one patient. Lesional tissue was microdissected, proteins extracted and separated by two-dimensional (2D) gel electrophoresis. The gels were stained with Colloidal Coomassie Blue and imaged using ImageMaster 2D Platinum software. The 2D gels were differentially analyzed to identify proteins both common and unique to the primary tumor and N+ node. Proteins less than 50 kDa were cut from the gels, trypsin digested and identified using MALDI-TOF peptide mass fingerprinting and LC MS/MS analysis. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used on the tissues to confirm, localize and compare the expression of proteins identified by mass spectrometry. Results: 353 proteins were resolved in the primary SCC while 376 proteins were resolved in tumor within the lymph node. 210 proteins between the primary tumor and N+ node showed identical migration and percent spot volume. 166 and 143 proteins were unique spots to primary tumor and N+ node, respectively. Based on differential [...]

9/23/2006 Paris, France staff Forbes.com Sanofi-Aventis said its Taxotere drug received a positive opinion from the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) in Europe for the treatment of patients with inoperable advanced head and neck cancer. Following the CHMP review, the positive opinion for the new application will be transmitted to the European Commission. The treatment, by injection, in combination with a classic treatment of the condition with cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil, was found in a study to prolong median survival among patients to 18.6 months from 14.5 with the classic treatment. Very few treatment options are currently available for patients with head and neck cancer, Sanofi quoted Dr Jan B Vermorken, Head of Oncology at University Hospital Antwerp, who led the study, as saying. He said the study is the first to identify a chemotherapy treatment preceding the main treatment that extended life for patients with inoperable head and neck cancer. This additional application for Taxotere is also currently under priority review by the US Food and Drug Administration.

9/21/2006 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia ZY Usof et al. Oral Health Prev Dent, January 1, 2006; 4(3): 165-71 Objectives: To assess whether or not opportunistic oral cancer screening by dentists to detect pre-malignant or early cancer lesions is feasible. The objective was to analyse the patterns of dental attendance of a national representative sample over a period of 10 years to ascertain whether individuals at high-risk of oral cancer would be accessible for opportunistic oral cancer screening. Methods: Secondary analysis of data extracted from the British Household Panel Survey, a national longitudinal survey (n=5547). Analysis to ascertain whether patterns of attendance for dental check-ups for a period of 10 years (1991-2001) were associated with risk factors for oral cancer such as age, sex, education, social class, smoking status and smoking intensity. Results: Males, aged over 40 years, less educated manual workers and smokers were significantly less likely to attend for dental check-ups compared with females and younger, higher educated, higher socio-economic class non-smokers (p < 0.05). Throughout the 10-year period, young people, more than older people, had progressively lower odds ratios of attending. Those with more education used dental services more. Heavy smokers were infrequent attendees. Conclusions: This study suggests that opportunistic oral cancer screening by dentists is not feasible to include high-risk groups as they are not regular attendees over 10 years. Those who would be screened would be the low-risk groups. However, dentists should continue screening all patients as oral precancers are also found in regular attendees. More should [...]