8/8/2005 New York, NY staff Financial Express (www.financialexpress.com) Gliding into the operating room for the first time to assist a surgeon, Penelope wasn’t nervous. Unlike other novice medical assistants scrubbing in, “she” felt nothing at all. That’s because Penelope is a robot, a machine that recently made medical history by becoming the first to act as an independent surgical aide during an operation. During a June procedure at New York-Presbyterian Hospital to remove a benign tumor from a patient’s forearm, Penelope responded to voice commands from a surgeon, handing over clamps, forceps and other instruments with her magnetized mechanical arm. Watching with digital cameras, the robot retrieved the instruments when the surgeon placed them down. Inside her computer brain, artificial intelligence software kept track of the implements to ensure none were misplaced and made predictions about what tool the surgeon would ask for next. “Penelope is just the first step,” said Dr. Michael Treat, a surgeon, physicist and lifelong robotics fan who founded the company that developed Penelope. “When you’re in the operating room and you’re trying to fight your way through a difficult trauma case, there could be a machine that’s helping you mind the instruments and not lose things and keep track of stuff, kind of watching your tail for you,” Treat said. “That’s a glorious vision.” It is a vision closing in on reality. Robots are playing an increasing role in surgery and health care across the country. Mobile robots in many hospitals aid patients by filling [...]

8/7/2005 Washington, DC Randy Dotinga Forbes (www.forbes.com) Besides raising the risk of oral cancer, smokeless tobacco -- also known as snuff, dip or chewing tobacco -- appears to boost the odds male users will die from heart disease, according to the largest study of its kind ever conducted. The findings contradict earlier research, finding instead that people who chew or "dip" tobacco are 20 percent more likely to be killed by a heart attack or stroke than nonusers. It isn't clear why smokeless tobacco might contribute to cardiovascular problems, and the study isn't the final word on the issue, said co-author Jane Henley, an epidemiologist with the American Cancer Society. Even so, the research, released this month in the journal Cancer Causes and Control, should give users another reason to kick their habit, she said. Some chew users are ex-smokers who turn to smokeless tobacco to "tide them over" as they try to kick the smoking habit. But "any form of tobacco is harmful to your health," Henley said. "We should be encouraging smokers who want to quit to use nicotine-replacement and other safe therapies." In their study, Henley and her colleagues examined two U.S. surveys of American adults, one spanning the years 1959-1972 and another from 1982-2000. Together, nearly 1 million men filled out questionnaires, including almost 10,000 smokeless tobacco users. The studies encompassed both chewing tobacco, found in pouches and kept between the cheek and gums, and "dip," also known as "snuff," which comes in small tins and [...]

8/7/2005 Cambridge, MA Jennifer Warner WebMD Health (my. webmd.com) New Technology Allows Drugs to Seek and Destroy Cancer Cells A big breakthrough in tiny technology may soon give doctors the power to deliver a one-two punch to cancerous tumors that knocks out cancer cells without harming the surrounding area. The anticancer "smart bomb" is based on a new dual-chamber "nanocell" that allows a staged release of two different anticancer drugs. The first shuts down the blood supply and surrounds the tumor while the second, a dose of chemotherapy, kills the imprisoned cancer cells. "Traditional chemotherapy kills tumor cells directly; some newer drugs work instead by cutting the tumor's blood supply. An innovative approach combines these strategies to pack a double whammy," writes David Mooney, PhD, of Harvard University, in an editorial that accompanies the findings in the current issue of Nature. Early tests of the strategy in mice showed the combined therapy shrank melanoma and lung cancer tumors and extended the life span of most mice by more than 60 days compared with the 30 days achieved by using either drug alone. "The effect of the sequential delivery of these two drugs on tumor growth is dramatic, but we cannot assume a quick translation of these results to therapy in humans," says Mooney. Creating an Anticancer Smart Bomb The technology combines cancer biology, pharmacology, and engineering, says researcher Ram Sasisekharan, a professor in MIT's biological engineering division, in a news release. "The fundamental challenges in cancer chemotherapy are its toxicity [...]

8/5/2005 Bethesda, MD staff Medical News Today (www.medicalnewstoday.com) Drinking alcoholic beverages has been linked to an increased risk of upper gastrointestinal cancer and other types of cancer. Researchers looking for the potential biochemical basis for this link have focused on acetaldehyde, a suspected carcinogen formed as the body metabolizes alcohol. In the journal Nucleic Acids Research, scientists from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) report that polyamines - natural compounds essential for cell growth - react with acetaldehyde to trigger a series of reactions that damage DNA, an event that can lead to the formation of cancer. "We've long suspected acetaldehyde's role in the carcinogenicity of alcohol beverage consumption, but this study gives us important new clues about its involvement," says Ting-Kai Li, M.D., director of the NIAAA, part of the National Institutes of Health. "This work provides an important framework for understanding the underlying chemical pathway that could explain the association between drinking and certain types of cancer." The research team, led by P.J. Brooks, Ph.D., of NIAAA and Miral Dizdaroglu, Ph.D., of NIST, examined acetaldehyde's reaction with polyamines, small molecules found in all cells. "Polyamines are usually considered 'good guys,' because they have been shown to protect DNA from oxidative damage," says Dr. Brooks. Yet the researchers found the polyamines facilitated the conversion of acetaldehyde into crotonaldehyde (CrA), an environmental pollutant that has been shown to cause cancer in animals. This chemical in turn altered DNA, [...]

8/5/2005 Reston, VA Medhat M. Osman, MD, PhD et al. Journal of Nuclear Medicine Vol. 46 No. 8 1352-1355 PET/CT technology is in rapid evolution. It remains unclear if the unenhanced CT portion, performed for attenuation correction and lesion localization, provides additional independent diagnostic information not apparent on PET alone. The objective of the current study was to evaluate the incremental added value and frequency of potentially clinically significant incidental findings from the independent reading of the unenhanced CT portion of PET/CT studies by an expert CT radiologist. Methods: PET/CT was performed on 250 patients (123 men and 127 women; mean age, 56.5 y) referred for clinical evaluation of known or suspected cancer. Unenhanced CT studies were read without knowledge of findings from PET and PET/CT fused images. Findings from unenhanced CT were considered clinically significant if they were not detected or explained by PET findings and were considered, after examination of all available clinical data, to clearly require additional work-up. Small pulmonary nodules < 7 mm were not considered to require immediate work-up. Results: Unenhanced CT revealed potentially clinically significant incidental findings in 7 patients. Three patients had indeterminate renal lesions, 1 patient had a solid renal mass, 1 patient had sclerotic bone metastases (albeit inactive on PET), 1 patient had liver cirrhosis with portal hypertension, and 1 patient had a 5 cm abdominal aortic aneurysm. These findings were generally not detected on PET. Conclusion: Clinically significant findings from the unenhanced CT portion of PET/CT are relatively infrequent (3%) [...]

8/3/2005 New York, NY staff Yahoo! News (news.yahoo.com) Many cancer survivors celebrate their recovery by eating better, exercising more and making other lifestyle improvements, but some do not, according to new study findings. U.S. researchers found that men, older survivors, and less educated individuals are less likely to make healthy lifestyle changes that can reduce their odds of developing additional health problems, including second cancers. In addition, only up to 42 percent of cancer survivors eat enough fruits and vegetables, and approximately 7 out of 10 people who beat breast or prostate cancer are either overweight or obese. These findings suggest that many cancer survivors learn from their experiences, but there is "selective uptake of messages," write the researchers, led by Dr. Wendy Demark-Wahnefried of Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. The United States is home to a growing number of cancer survivors, the authors note in their report, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Cancer survivors now make up 3 to 4 percent of the entire U.S. population, or 9.8 million people. Today, a person diagnosed with cancer has a 64 percent chance of living at least another 5 years. As a result, researchers have become increasingly interested in long-term health issues that cancer survivors face. For instance, research shows that cancer survivors are more at risk of additional cancers, as well as osteoporosis and other functional limitations. To investigate how people react to a diagnosis of cancer, Demark-Wahnefried and her team reviewed all published research [...]

8/3/2005 Saipan, Northern Marianas Felix T. Cabrera Jr. Saipan-Tribune (www.saipantribune.com) Betel nut causes cancer. I am not referring to what you mix in it. I am specifically stating that betel nut by itself causes cancer. Numerous studies have proven betel nut to have carcinogenic chemicals that naturally grow in it, which causes cancer. Does this mean you will develop oral cancer if you chew just betel nut? Your risk does increase. It is near common knowledge that tobacco causes cancer. If you chew your betel nut with tobacco your risk of developing oral cancer doesn't double, it multiplies. By putting two cancer-causing agents in your mouth you greatly increase your risk of developing oral cancer and dying prematurely of it. Already too many families can attest to the lost of love ones because of this. These are people who probably could have lived a few decades longer if it was not for chewing. Betel nut use and the diseases that result are becoming a major public health issue. One that will become very prominent with very large numbers affected in the next decade, if not sooner. I implore anyone concerned with their health in relation to betel nut chewing to consult your physician and/or dentist. I implore all physicians and dentists to make betel nut chewing an integral part of your patient's care, if not already. Look around and you will see many young people, many minors chewing betel nut with tobacco. Have we forgotten that consuming, purchasing, and/or possessing [...]

8/3/2005 Singapore K-C Soo et al. British Journal of Cancer (2005) 93, 279-286. The majority of the patients with squamous cell head and neck cancer (SCHNC) present with locally and/or regionally advanced disease and the use of radical surgery and/or radiotherapy in this setting yield low locoregional control rates and 5-year survival rates not exceeding 40%. The administration of chemotherapy and radiotherapy concurrently makes use of the resultant synergistic activity to improve tumour cell kill. This strategy has found success in anal canal carcinoma, allowing high cure rates while obviating the need for radical surgery. Studies carried out in the 1990s using combination chemotherapy with concurrent radiation in SCHNC have shown this treatment approach to be feasible despite the significantly higher toxicity and have produced encouraging results. Adelstein et al in a phase II trial using cisplatin (CDDP) and 5-fluorouracil (5FU) combination with concurrent split-course radiotherapy have reported a 4-year relapse-free survival of 45% and an overall survival of 49% (Adelstein et al, 1993). This when compared retrospectively with a similar patient population treated with radiation alone was shown to be improved. Adelstein next investigated the use of the same combination regimen concurrently with a continuous course of radiotherapy (Adelstein et al, 1994). In 19 patients treated in this fashion, despite significant toxicity, there were no treatment-related deaths. At a median follow-up of 20 months, the projected Kaplan-Meier estimate of locoregional disease control was 92%, with the projected relapse-free survival of 86%. Of significance was that primary-site resection was not [...]

8/2/2005 Newark, NJ Vicki Hyman The Star Ledger (www.nj.com) Robert O'Brien was staring at the mirror when he saw it -- a small crease forming in the corner of his mouth -- on the side of his face that had collapsed three months before. O'Brien, a retired Montclair police officer who now is security director at Ramapo College, had developed Ramsay Hunt Syndrome, a neurological complication of shingles that paralyzed the right side of his face. He drooled, slurred his speech, had difficulty moving food around in his mouth and had to tape his drooping eye shut at night. Some patients recover spontaneously; O'Brien was told there was nothing that could be done to help him. His wife, Jane, had studied speech therapy in college and knew that it could maximize his recovery, so she contacted a speech language pathologist at Mountainside Hospital in Montclair. Janet Kalina-Suarez had just been trained on VitalStim, a new device that uses electrical currents to stimulate inactive or atrophied muscles in the neck to facilitate swallowing. Therapists using VitalStim have reported promising results with stroke patients, those with neurological disorders such as ALS, Parkinson's Disease and multiple sclerosis, and those who had been treated for mouth or throat cancer. The device reportedly helped people when traditional treatment and therapy had failed; it even helped patients who had trouble swallowing their own saliva. As Jane O'Brien described her husband's symptoms over the phone, Kalina-Suarez thought he could benefit from the therapy, as well. It took [...]

7/29/2005 Thousand Oaks, CA press release Business Wire (www.businesswire.com) Amgen today announced that the European Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP), which is the scientific advisory panel to the European Medicines Agency (EMEA), has issued a positive opinion to approve marketing authorization for Kepivance(TM) (palifermin) in the European Union (EU). The CHMP opinion recommends authorization of palifermin to decrease the incidence, duration and severity of oral mucositis (mouth sores) in patients with hematologic (blood) cancers undergoing myeloablative therapy associated with a high incidence of severe oral mucositis, and requiring autologus bone marrow transplant. "Before palifermin, the best we could hope for in managing oral mucositis was to control the patient's pain with narcotics and oral rinses," said Jean-Luc Harousseau, M.D., head of the department of clinical hematology in the University Hospital of Nantes and former palifermin investigator. "With the potential approval of palifermin, physicians may be able to help protect transplant patients with hematologic malignancies from severe oral mucositis and may decrease their pain and discomfort." In patients with oral mucositis, the cells lining the mouth and throat are damaged by the chemotherapy drugs and/or radiation used in cancer treatment. Oral mucositis can be extremely painful and can have a devastating impact on patients. In fact, oral mucositis has been rated as the most debilitating side effect by patients with blood cancers undergoing bone marrow transplantation. Patients suffering from these debilitating mouth sores may require longer hospitalization, high doses of narcotics, such as morphine, and intravenous feeding to [...]