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 [...]

7/29/2005 Seattle, WA Mary L. Disis Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vol 23, No 22 (August 1), 2005: pp. 4840-4841 The last decade has resulted in the identification of a multitude of tumor-associated antigens and the initiation of clinical trials to determine whether cancer patients can be vaccinated. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Carbone et al1 present an extensive analysis of the immunogenicity and potential clinical efficacy of vaccinating advanced-stage cancer patients against specific K-ras and p53 mutations present in their tumors. This report provides long-term follow-up after vaccination over a period of several years, so the length of time between initiation and publication of the trial allows evaluation of the data in the context of the evolution of more refined methods of vaccination. The authors also present data detailing the pitfalls of the clinical application of targeted therapy, which includes the need to evaluate large numbers of patients to find the few patients who may derive therapeutic benefit. Finally, the authors demonstrate an intriguing association between the development of an antigen-specific immune response and prolonged survival. The vaccination strategy used in the trial was to incubate mutated K-ras and p53 peptide sequences with peripheral-blood mononuclear cells obtained from each patient. Presumably, antigen-presenting cells present in the peripheral blood would uptake K-ras and p53 peptides, process the peptides, and present the fragments in the context of class I major histocompatibility complex molecules, resulting in the stimulation of antigen-specific cytotoxic CD8+ T cells. It has only been in [...]

7/27/2005 Tampa, FL Tania Hershman Business 2.0 (www.business2.com) What do you get when you cross a dentist with an engineer? A high-tech remedy for dry mouth. Granted, it's not much of a punch line, but it's also no joke. In fact, the dental implant developed by Saliwell Medical Systems -- an Israeli startup founded by dentist Andy Wolff and engineer Benzi Beiski -- could unlock a $2 billion market. Triggered by radiation therapy, blood-pressure medication, and autoimmune diseases, dry mouth, or xerostomia, interferes with swallowing, sleeping, and speech. But drugs to treat it often have debilitating side effects. Saliwell's implant, the Crown, is equipped with electrodes, sensors, and a 16-bit microprocessor. If the sensors detect dryness, the electrodes stimulate the lingual nerve to jump-start saliva flow. The company hopes to have the Crown on the market by 2006. If it does, Wolff and Beiski will pocket nearly all of the profits, thanks to the clever strategy they used to launch the company. Rather than relying on venture funding, the duo landed a $2 million European Union grant for medical R&D, which meant they didn't have to give up any equity -- a deal sweet enough to make any entrepreneur salivate.