9/12/2006 Oxford, England W Garavello et al. Annals of Oncology 2006 17(9):1459-1463 Background: A few studies have analyzed the role of lifetime anthropometric measures on laryngeal cancer risk. Patient and methods: This relation was investigated using a multicentre case-control study from Italy, conducted between 1992 and 2000, and including 460 incident, histologically confirmed laryngeal cancer cases, and 1088 controls admitted to the same network of hospitals as cases for acute, non neoplastic condition. Odds ratios (OR) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) were obtained from multiple logistic regression, including terms for major confounding factors, such as physical activity and energy intake. Results: An inverse association with laryngeal cancer risk was found for body mass index (BMI) in both sexes (OR for the lowest compared to the highest quintile was 1.47, 95% CI 0.93–2.33 in men and 8.11, 95% CI 1.38–47.66 in women) and for BMI at age 50 years (OR=1.65, 95% CI 0.88–3.11) in men and 7.84, 95% CI 0.69–88.58 in women). An inverse association was also observed with waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) at diagnosis in men only (OR=4.56, 95% CI 2.62–7.95 for the lowest compared to the highest quintile). Conclusions: This study supports the existence of a relation between leanness and laryngeal cancer risk. In particular, men with less abdominal fat (characterized by a lower WHR) had an increased risk of laryngeal cancer. Authors: W Garavello1,2, G Randi1, C Bosetti1, L Dal Maso3, E Negri1, L Barzan4, S Franceschi5 and C La Vecchia1,6 Authors' affiliations: 1 Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche [...]

9/12/2006 Palo Alto, CA L Davies and HG Welch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg, September 1, 2006; 135(3): 451-7 Background: Cancer rates of the head and neck are traditionally linked to public health issues. Objective: To describe the epidemiology of head and neck cancer in the United States. Design and Setting: National Cancer Institute's Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) program. Results: A total of 75,000 cases of head and neck cancer were diagnosed in 2001. Incidence is rising in thyroid (up 52%), bone (43%) soft tissues (20%), salivary (20%), tongue (16%), tonsil (12%), and nose (12%). Incidence is falling in lip (down 58%), hypopharynx (35%), cervical esophagus (32%), oropharyngeal mucosa (26%), and larynx (26%). There were 30,000 deaths from head and neck cancer in 2001. Mortality has decreased to some degree at all sites except thyroid where it was stable. Conclusion: Many head and neck cancers have changing incidence and mortality rates contrary to expected changes given trends in public health issues. Further investigation of risk factors, diagnostic practices, and management strategies is warranted. Authors' affiliations: VA Outcomes Group, Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, White River Junction, Vermont; Division of Otolaryngology and Department of Community and Family Medicine, Dartmouth Medical School.

9/12/2006 France J. Bourhis et al. Lancet, September 2, 2006; 368(9538): 843-54 Background: Several trials have studied the role of unconventional fractionated radiotherapy in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, but the effect of such treatment on survival is not clear. The aim of this meta-analysis was to assess whether this type of radiotherapy could improve survival. Methods: Randomised trials comparing conventional radiotherapy with hyperfractionated or accelerated radiotherapy, or both, in patients with non-metastatic HNSCC were identified and updated individual patient data were obtained. Overall survival was the main endpoint. Trials were grouped in three pre-specified categories: hyperfractionated, accelerated, and accelerated with total dose reduction. Findings: 15 trials with 6515 patients were included. The median follow-up was 6 years. Tumours sites were mostly oropharynx and larynx; 5221 (74%) patients had stage III-IV disease (International Union Against Cancer, 1987). There was a significant survival benefit with altered fractionated radiotherapy, corresponding to an absolute benefit of 3.4% at 5 years (hazard ratio 0.92, 95% CI 0.86-0.97; p=0.003). The benefit was significantly higher with hyperfractionated radiotherapy (8% at 5 years) than with accelerated radiotherapy (2% with accelerated fractionation without total dose reduction and 1.7% with total dose reduction at 5 years, p=0.02). There was a benefit on locoregional control in favour of altered fractionation versus conventional radiotherapy (6.4% at 5 years; p<0.0001), which was particularly efficient in reducing local failure, whereas the benefit on nodal control was less pronounced. The benefit was significantly higher in the youngest patients (hazard ratio 0.78 [0.65-0.94] for [...]

9/12/2006 Iowa City, IA starf CancerConsultants.com According to an article recently published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) can help determine a head and neck cancer patient's response to the chemotherapy agent Platinol® (cisplatin). The American Cancer Society estimates that approximately 11,000 individuals in the United States will die of head and neck cancer in 2006. Head and neck cancer refers to several different types of cancers that begin in any region of the head or neck. Platinol is a common chemotherapy agent for the treatment of head and neck cancers. Although effective, there are a significant portion of patients who do not respond to Platinol. Researchers are evaluating ways to identify which patients will respond to Platinol and which tend to not respond to Platinol. Researchers from Toronto, Canada, recently conducted a clincial study to evaluate SNPs, or genetic variations, within genes that repair DNA among patients with advanced head and neck cancer. This study included 103 patients with advanced head and neck cancer who were treated with Platinol. - Patients with one genetic variant in the DNA repair genes had greater survival than those without these genetic variants. - The presence of seven of these genetic variants confers a 175-fold benefit in survival compared to those with no variants. - Anticancer responses were increased by nearly three-fold among patients with these genetic variants compared to those without. The researchers concluded that SNPs, or genetic variants, help to predict which patients with head and neck [...]

9/11/2006 Philadelphia, PA Susan Boni Philadelphia Inquirer (www.philly.com) Before-and-after portraits show the saving grace of surgery. A native of a small town in northern England, she longed to look normal and would do anything she could to distract people from her face. "I'd dye my hair all different colors," she said. "I'd go over the top with eye makeup to take the view away from my lower face." She has only a few pictures of herself before the age of 29. Today, 11 years later, Morgan-Elphick's face is a case study of what surgery can do. Her new smile has been enshrined in a six-foot oil painting in the "Saving Faces" exhibit that originated at London's National Portrait Gallery. Twenty-six paintings from the original exhibit went on display Friday at the Esther M. Klein Art Gallery, 3600 Market St. The show is in collaboration with the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, which is mounting a smaller version of the exhibit. "Saving Faces" was conceived by Iain Hutchison, an Oral and Maxillofacial surgeon at St. Bartholomew's and the Royal London Hospital. Hutchison, 58, who operated on Morgan-Elphick in 1995, believes that the public needs to know what is possible with modern facial surgery - and what isn't. The exhibit follows some of his patients as they are treated for severe deformities from facial injuries, cancer and congenital impairments. His collaborator, portrait painter Mark Gilbert, 37, has been a regular exhibitor at the National Portrait Gallery since 1993. At Hutchison's urging, Gilbert [...]

9/11/2006 Palm Beach Gardens, FL press release biz.yahoo.com The Cancer Cure Coalition announces its support for the nomination of Dr. Andrew Von Eschenbach as Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and calls for the approval of Advexin, a new gene therapy treatment for cancer. We believe it critical that a permanent director be in charge of this vitally important agency and that he has the special experience and ability required to deal with the complex problems confronting it. For too long this agency has lacked a permanent director and this has led to a slow down in its decision making and fearfulness to approve breakthrough treatments. This is holding back important new treatments for life threatening illnesses, especially those for cancer. One major example of this is the delay in approving Advexin, a P53 gene tumor suppressor now in U.S. Phase III clinical trials. Although the clinical trials are only for head and neck cancer this gene therapy has already shown its ability to successfully treat many other types of cancer including most recently breast cancer. The P53 gene is naturally present in the body and stops cell division when DNA damage occurs. When the P53 gene does not function normally genetic mutations can occur leading to potential cancer growth. What makes this treatment even more promising is the recent development by Genzyme Corp. of a new diagnostic test that detects specific mutations in the P53 gene. This allows the gene therapy treatment to be targeted to those [...]

9/10/2006 Madison, WI Katerina Strati et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 10.1073/pnas.0606698103 Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is a leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide. Recent reports have associated a subset of HNSCC with high-risk human papillomaviruses (HPVs), particularly HPV16, the same subset of HPVs responsible for the majority of cervical and anogenital cancers. In this study we describe a mouse model for HPV-associated HNSCC that employs mice transgenic for the HPV16 oncogenes E6 and E7. In these mice, E6 and E7 induce aberrant epithelial proliferation and, in the presence of a chemical carcinogen, they increase dramatically the animal's susceptibility to HNSCC. The cancers arising in the HPV16-transgenic mice mirror the molecular and histopathological characteristics of human HPV-positive HNSCC that distinguish the latter from human HPV-negative HNSCC, including overexpression of p16 protein and formation of more basaloid cancers. This validated model of HPV-associated HNSCC provides the means to define the contributions of individual HPV oncogenes to HNSCC and to understand the molecular basis for the differing clinical properties of HPV-positive and HPV-negative human HNSCC. From this study, we identify minichromosome maintenance protein 7 (MCM7) and p16 as potentially useful biomarkers for HPV-positive head and neck cancer. Authors: Katerina Strati, Henry C. Pitot, and Paul F. Lambert Authors' affiliations: McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, 1400 University Avenue, Madison, WI 53706

9/7/2006 Iowa City, IA staff CancerConsultants.com Researchers in Canada have reported that the administration of 400 IU/day of vitamin E (alfa-tocopherol) is associated with a 38% increased rate of mortality in patients with head and neck cancer treated with radiation therapy. The details of this report appeared in the November 2006 issue of the International Journal of Cancer . There has been concern about patients taking anti-oxidant vitamins while receiving treatment for cancer. These concerns have been justified by the increased death rate in patients with lung cancer taking beta carotene. More recently researchers have reported that high doses of daily vitamin E appear to be associated with higher risks of mortality in persons with chronic diseases. The current trial originally randomly allocated 540 patients with head and neck cancer receiving radiation therapy to receive placebo or alfa tocopherol and beta carotene during treatment and for the following 3 years. Beta carotene was dropped from the study during the trial because of adverse reports in other studies. The median follow-up of this trial was 6.5 years at which time the group receiving alfa tocopheral had a 38% increased risk of dying compared to the control group. Comments: This study should caution individuals about taking high doses of vitamin E and other antioxidant vitamins during cancer treatment in hopes of a health benefit. This should also encourage individuals to get needed vitamins from fruit and vegetable sources rather than from medicinal sources. Reference: Bairati I, Meyer F, Jobin E, et al. [...]

9/7/2006 Los Angeles, CA press release www.tradingmarkets.com Introgen Therapeutics Inc. announced that in a Phase II study, it's investigational cancer therapy Advexin when combined with chemotherapy to treat breast cancer showed better results than what would be expected from chemotherapy treatment alone. In the clinical trial, Advexin was combined with chemotherapy to shrink the tumor before it was surgically removed. In the phase 2 clinical trial, Advexin was locally administered to breast tumors in conjunction with doxorubicin and docetaxel chemotherapy in twelve patients who subsequently underwent surgery to remove residual tumor. Over 50% reduction in tumor size was seen in patients treated with ADVEXIN and chemotherapy. Complete tumor removal by subsequent surgery was achieved in all the patients. At a median follow-up of 37 months, the estimate breast cancer-specific survival rate at 3 years was 84%. Advexin, indicated for treating head and neck cancer was granted Fast Track designation status by the FDA in September 2003. Each year about 40,000 Americans are affected with head and neck cancer. The activation of a local immune response at the site of the tumor was observed in patients treated with Advexin and chemotherapy. The company said that the novel finding suggests that Advexin may also work through additional immune mechanisms of action to eradicate tumor cells.

9/6/2006 Australia, Canada, Finland Rischen et al; Lau et al; Luukkaa et al TherapeuticsDaily.com Reports from Australia, Canada and Finland highlight recent research in head & neck cancer. Study 1: The risk of locoregional failure (LRF) in head and neck cancer patients receiving a nontirapazamine-containing chemoradiotherapy regimen could be related to tumor hypoxia. Researchers in Australia conducted a study "to determine the association between tumor hypoxia, treatment regimen, and LRF in patients with stage III or IV squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck randomly assigned to radiotherapy (70 Gy in 35 fractions over 7 weeks) plus either tirapazamine and cisplatin in weeks 1, 4, and 7 and tirapazamine alone in weeks 2 and 3 (TPZ/CIS) or cisplatin and infusional fluorouracil during weeks 6 and 7 (chemoboost)." "Forty-five patients were enrolled onto a hypoxic imaging substudy of a larger randomized trial," explained D. Rischin and colleagues, Peter MacCallum Cancer Center. "Pretreatment and midtreatment [F-18]-fluoromisonidazole positron emission tomography scans (FMISO-PET) were performed 2 hours after tracer administration, with qualitative scoring of uptake in both primary tumors and nodes. Thirty-two patients (71%) had detectable hypoxia in either or both primary and nodal disease." "In patients who received chemoboost, 1 of 10 patients without hypoxia had LBF compared with 8 of 13 patients with hypoxia; the risk of LRF was significantly higher in hypoxic patients (exact log-rank, p=.038; hazard ratio [HR]=7.1). By contrast, in patients who received the TPZ/CIS regimen, only 1 of 19 patients with hypoxic tumors had LRF; risk of [...]