12/3/2005 Fairfax, VA staff Doctor's Guide (www.docguide.com) Patients suffering from advanced head and neck cancer affecting their larynx can maintain vocal function by undergoing a combination of radiation therapy and chemotherapy instead of surgery to remove the larynx, according to a study published in the December 1, 2005, issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics. Doctors in the Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich., studied 97 patients with advanced laryngeal cancer. All of the patients were given an initial course of chemotherapy and depending on their response to that treatment, they either underwent a laryngectomy to remove the larynx or received radiation therapy coupled with chemotherapy. The results showed that patients who were able to keep their larynx intact and underwent radiation therapy maintained a higher voice-related quality of life than those who had their larynx removed. While swallowing function was comparable between the two groups, understandability of speech was much better in patients who kept their larynx. In addition, 89% of patients with their larynx intact were able to obtain nutrition orally and without supplements, compared to 64% who underwent the laryngectomy. The overall three-year survival rate for all patients was 86%. "Undergoing the radiation, chemotherapy combination can increase toxicity levels in some patients, but maintaining the overall quality of life for those patients justifies the potential for added toxicity," said Kevin Fung, MD, FRCS(C), lead author of the study and currently a Head and Neck Surgeon [...]

11/30/2005 Toronto, Ontario, Canada press release PR Newswire (www. prnewswire.com) Cedara Software, a Merge Healthcare company (Nasdaq: MRGE; TSX: MRG) and a leading independent developer of medical software technologies for the global healthcare market, today announced its exhibition of a works-in-progress suite of software solutions for oncology diagnosis and treatment analysis at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America. Oncology is one of the fastest growing areas for medical imaging in healthcare. With a wealth of experience in developing disease centric solutions for healthcare specialists, Cedara will introduce a new clinical product line named Cedara OncologyWorks to the radiology community at RSNA. Applications demonstrated will include functional components designed to assist with therapy planning and response assessment through PET/CT fusion, magnetic resonance (MR) based functional diffusion mapping, tracking quantitative tumour measurements over time, patient follow-up management and more. Cedara OncologyWorks provides first of kind support for diagnostic and therapeutic assessment for radiologists and radiation oncologists; for PACS vendors, device manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies and other solution providers, Cedara OncologyWorks provides leading edge capability in oncology care. Cancer is a major public cost for healthcare in the United States as well as in other developed countries. In 2004 alone, a total of 1,368,030 new cancer cases and 563,700 deaths are predicted to have occurred in the United States alone. Among the products demonstrated at RSNA, Cedara will be highlighting progress in the development of its multi-modality workstation Cedara I-Response(TM). Cedara I-Response is a works-in-progress software solution that features an [...]

11/30/2005 Victoria, Australia Lorna Edwards The Age (theage.com.au) UP TO four Victorians are diagnosed with oral cancer every week, with more than a quarter of them dying from the disease. The cancer claimed the lives of 43 men and 22 women in Victoria in 2003, with 230 people diagnosed that year, according to Cancer Council Victoria figures released yesterday. "I'm sure the public aren't aware of the strong connection between tobacco use and mouth cancer," said council director Professor David Hill. Almost 60 per cent of those diagnosed with oral cancer are smokers. Alcohol significantly boosts the risk, with more than three-quarters of those diagnosed being frequent drinkers. Symptoms of oral cancer — which occurs in the tongue, gum, floor of the mouth or internal cheek — include swelling, non-healing ulcers, colour change and persistent bleeding. Five years after being diagnosed with the disease, just over half the patients will still be alive. Many face extensive surgery, facial disfigurement, loss of teeth and difficulty in speech, said Todd Harper, director of anti-smoking organisation Quit. But quitting smoking dramatically reduces the risk of contracting oral cancer. "Within five years, their risk has dropped by a half," Mr Harper said. A detailed colour picture of a mouth afflicted with oral cancer will appear as one of the new cigarette packet health labels next year. "Smokers are going to be shocked on March 1 when they start to buy packets with a very graphic picture of mouth cancer and bad teeth as a [...]

11/29/2005 staff cancerconsultants.com A test to detect changes in the Cyclin D1 gene provides information about the probability of occult (hidden) lymph node metastases in patients with stage I or stage II squamous cell carcinoma of the mouth, according to a study published in the journal Cancer . Cancer of the oral cavity involves the tongue, gums, the inner lining of the cheeks and lips, the hard palate, or the floor of the mouth. Squamous cell carcinoma is the most common type of oral cancer; it refers to the type of cell in which the cancer originates. Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is strongly linked with tobacco use, and the combination of tobacco with alcohol further increases risk. Among patients with early (stage I or stage II) OSCC, an important clinical decision involves whether or not to remove and evaluate lymph nodes in the neck for evidence of occult metastases. The presence of lymph node metastases is an important indicator of prognosis and guides treatment decisions. Some patients are at greater risk of having lymph node metastases and are therefore more likely to benefit from lymph node dissection. One potential predictor of the presence of lymph node metastases is the Cyclin D1 gene. The protein produced by this gene plays a role in cell proliferation. To evaluate the relationship between numerical alterations in the Cyclin D1 gene and postoperative lymph node metastases, researchers in Japan conducted a study among 45 patients with stage I or stage II oral cancer. Patients [...]

11/28/2005 Sydney, Australia Amy Lawson The Sydney Morning Herald (www.smh.com.au) Australian cancer experts are spearheading the trial of a new drug that is dramatically improving the survival rates of patients with aggressive head and neck cancers. The drug, which has ramifications for the treatment of other aggressive forms of cancer including those in the lungs, cervix and oesophagus, could be available as soon as the end of next year if given the green light by drug administrators. Professor Lester Peters, a world leader in cancer research from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, is leading the trial for the drug tirapazamine. The trial is in its final testing phase and has already had some astounding results. Sandy Bodecker, the former husband of runner Cathy Freeman, participated in one of the trials. He made a full recovery from the throat cancer he was originally told was inoperable. In the first phase of the trial, only two of the 16 patients with advanced head or neck cancers had a recurrence of their tumours after receiving treatment with the drug. "It can be a cure, but not in everyone," Professor Peters said yesterday in Sydney. "But a huge proportion of patients have had their tumours eradicated if they've been treated with this drug. "It's a very gruesome way to die - of uncontrolled cancer in the head and neck. If we can prevent that . . . we've done them a service." Head and neck cancers are almost always found in smokers [...]

11/28/2005 Mount Vernon, WA press release Send2Press (www.send2press.com) PreViser Corporation (www.previser.com) announces that effective November 1, 2005 it will no longer charge for use of its Internet-based tool to assess risk for oral cancer, a component of their Oral Health Information Suite(TM), software used by dental professionals worldwide. "Early detection of oral cancer is essential to a successful outcome of treatment for this serious disease," states Carl Loeb, PreViser CEO. "Once oral cancer is visible, the disease has advanced significantly. Using our tool to identify high-risk patients allows clinicians to recommend appropriate tests and exam frequency, improving the odds of catching the disease early enough for intervention. Since the dental professional is the first line of detection for this cancer, we made the decision to promote our tool's usage by offering the service free of charge in the sincere hope that it will result in earlier detection of the disease." The OHIS(TM) Oral Cancer Risk Assessment requires no expensive or unusual testing. Most information can be provided by the patients themselves on a printed data input form while they wait, then the clinician can complete the assessment and immediately produce a printed report for the patient with a numeric score and recommendations targeted to each risk factor to prevent or detect the disease in the earliest stages. Current users have organized special events focusing on oral cancer, offering free risk screenings to new patients. This is an effective way for dental professionals to raise consumer awareness of the importance of [...]

11/28/2005 staff cancerconsultants.com An international randomized trial has determined that Ethyol (amifostine) protects against xerostomia while not affecting long-term outcomes in patients with head and neck cancer who undergo radiation therapy. The details of this study appeared in the November 15, 2005, issue of International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology and Physics. Radiation therapy is commonly used to treat patients with head and neck cancers. Mucositis and xerostomia are common side effects of treatment of head and neck cancers. Ethyol has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for prevention of radiation induced xerostomia but there has been concern that this agent could increase the rate of recurrences. Ethyol has also been used to prevent mucositis and renal toxicity in patients receiving chemotherapy. The goal of the present trial was determine whether or not Ethyol increased the recurrence rate. This trial included over 300 patients who underwent radiation therapy for treatment of head and neck cancer. Approximately half of the patients received a dose of Ethyol administered 15–30 minutes prior to each dose of radiation therapy, while the other half underwent radiation only and did not receive Ethyol. -Overall, dry mouth was improved and long-term outcomes were not compromised with the use of Ethyol. -At over 2 years follow-up, use of Ethyol resulted in a significantly reduced incidence of xerostomia with a clinically meaningful increase in saliva production. -Overall survival, progression-free survival, and local control were not different between the patients who received Ethyol and those who did [...]

11/27/2005 San Diego, CA press release Medical News Today (www.medicalnewstoday.com) Inovio Biomedical Corporation announced today that the European Journal of Surgical Oncology published an article, entitled "The role of intratumour therapy with electroporation and bleomycin in the management of advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck." Co-authors of the article were Dr. David Bloom, now at the Department of Otolaryngology/ Head and Neck Surgery, Portsmouth Naval Hospital, Portsmouth, Virginia and Dr. Paul Goldfarb, Consulting Medical Director at Inovio Biomedical and Clinical Professor of Surgery at University of California, San Diego, California. The article reported the safety and efficacy of Inovio's Selective Electrochemical Tumor Ablation therapy, which uses electroporation in conjunction with bleomycin, in patients with head and neck advanced squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Two open-label, multicenter, single-arm Phase II studies enrolled 62 patients with 86 squamous cell carcinoma tumors of the head and neck. Twenty-five patients were treated with bleomycin alone. Fifty-four patients (17 initially treated with bleomycin alone) were treated with electroporation and bleomycin therapy. The local control rate of treatment for patients with recurrent HNSCC, consisting of surgery, radiation therapy and/or systemic chemotherapy, ranges between 10% and 20%. Thus, there is a need for alternative approaches. In this trial, 57% of patients had an objective response with either a partial or complete response to electroporation with bleomycin. Electroporation therapy in combination with bleomycin demonstrated a significantly (p<0.001) greater number of patients showing an objective response to the therapy when compared to bleomycin alone, which resulted in [...]

11/27/2005 Hamilton, Ontario, Canada staff Medical News Today (www.medicalnewstoday.com) The role of melatonin for the treatment of cancer is looking compelling, according to a new study published in the Journal of Pineal Research. Researchers say that the results are so compelling that cancer funding agencies should be eager to support clinical trials to evaluate its therapeutic role in a variety of cancers. Melatonin is a hormone naturally found in humans. Its association with cancer has been shown in many studies assessing links between shift work and cancer rates, and shown a consistent relationship. The association between melatonin levels and cancer progression has suggested to some that melatonin may be a modifier of cancer progression. In this latest study, researchers examined all clinical trials assessing the role of melatonin as a therapy for solid tumor cancers. They used a methodology called meta-analysis, a technique of analyzing multiple studies. The authors reviewed 10 randomized clinical trials that included a total of 643 cancer patients with a variety of different solid tumor cancers. The types of cancers involved included lung, brain, skin, renal and breast cancer. "In this analysis, the effects appeared to be consistent across studies" say the authors. The researchers examined the effect of large doses of melatonin (10-40mg/day) on survival rates at one year. Melatonin reduced the risk of death at one year by 34%. "Effects this large certainly warrant further clinical trials" say the authors. The study also showed that melatonin was predominantly safe and had a beneficial effect [...]

11/27/2005 Sweden BG Hansson et al. Acta Otolaryngol, December 1, 2005; 125(12): 1337-44 Conclusions: The results of this study demonstrate a strong association between infection with high-risk types of human papillomavirus (HPV) and oral and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OOSCC), suggesting that high-risk HPV types play a key role in carcinogenesis. The estimated proportion of OOSCC cases attributable to HPV infection was 35%. Objective: HPV appears to have an aetiological role in OOSCC, despite the fact that the reported prevalences of HPV in both OOSCC patients and healthy individuals have varied widely. We aimed to investigate the presence and spectrum of both high- and low-risk HPVs in all consecutive cases of OOSCC in a Swedish healthcare region over a 3-year period and in population-based, matched healthy controls. Material and methods: A total of 131 patients with OOSCC were studied. Samples taken from the surface of the tumour and from the tonsillar fossa using cotton-tipped swabs were investigated, together with exfoliated cells collected using a mouthwash. Tonsillar fossa and mouthwash specimens were collected in the same way from 320 matched controls. All samples were tested for HPV DNA by nested polymerase chain reaction using the primer pairs MY09/MY11 and GP5 + /GP6+, and in positive cases the HPV type was determined by DNA sequencing. Results: Infection with high-risk HPV was shown to be a strong risk factor for OOSCC (OR = 63; 95% CI 14-480). Forty-seven (36%) of the cancer patients had >/=1 specimen that was positive for a high-risk HPV [...]