4/25/2005 Seattle, WA Bruce Taylor Seeman Seattle Times Chuck McDowell gave speeches. He sang with a band. But everything changed when his voice disappeared, leaving McDowell feeling frightened and isolated. "I was having to speak into an amplifier just to have a conversation at home," said the 46-year-old financial adviser from Duluth, Ga. "If I was in a restaurant, I could not be heard unless I put my amplifier on the table and turned it up." Eventually, McDowell had a growth removed from his vocal cords, a procedure he now jokingly recalls as easier than some haircuts. But in the 18 months it took to summon the courage for surgery, he experienced the unsettling questions familiar to nearly everyone at least once in a lifetime: Where did my voice go? How do I get it back? Experts believe that at any given time, more than 7 million Americans suffer from voice disorders, and that number is likely to grow. Longer lives may result in more voices muted by age-related fatigue. Meanwhile, the modern era — with so many service-sector jobs such as sales, and so much yapping on cellphones — is a recipe for voice strain. "Some people have a hypothesis, that the cellphone is the vocal endurance test for the new millennium," said voice-disorder specialist Dr. Michael Johns, director of the Emory Voice Center of Emory University in Atlanta. The key to effective voice production is healthy vocal cords, which experts call vocal folds. They lie horizontally in the [...]

4/25/2005 Lagos, Nigeria AI Ladehinde et al. Niger Postgrad Med J, March 1, 2005; 12(1): 18-22 Aims: This article reviews the present body of knowledge regarding the principle, transfer techniques, therapeutic strategies, clinical applications and limitations of gene therapy in the management of oral squamous cell carcinoma. Materials and Methods: Scientific publications on gene therapy between 1990 and 2003 were selected for the purpose of the review. These include clinical articles, experimental studies and review articles. Results: Viruses are the commonly used transfer system for the delivery of gene therapy. The viral vectors commonly used are: retroviruses, adenoviruses, herpesviruses, and adenoassociated viruses (AAV). Transfection of cancer cells in vivo with gene therapy is done by intralesional injection, and sometimes by topical application. Phase I and II clinical trials have established the safety and clinical efficacy of gene therapy in the treatment of oral squamous cell carcinomas in humans, especially in combination with chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Phase III clinical trials and studies of the use of gene therapy as an adjuvant following surgery are presently underway. Conclusions: Gene therapy represents a new and innovative approach to the treatment of oral cancer especially in recurrent disease and adjuvant treatment. Oral squamous cell carcinoma is especially an attractive tumour target due to its frequent genetic mutations and accessibility for intra-tumoural administration of gene therapy. However, gene therapy has not yet been shown to be suitable for systemic delivery in cancer patients, hence the control of regional and metastasis is presently difficult. Authors: AI [...]

4/25/2005 Bethesda, MD Cheryl A. Thompson Am. J. Health Syst. Pharm. 2005; 62(9): p. 890-894 While September 30, 2004, may be remembered as the day that clinicians and patients started reconsidering the available pain relievers, the negative news about rofecoxib sent a shock wave through the world of preventive oncology. December 17 brought bad news about celecoxib. Researchers had been exploring the potential of long-term therapy with rofecoxib or celecoxib, both cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitors, to reduce the risk of colorectal cancer. What the researchers found first was that the drugs apparently increased users’ risk for myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, and other cardiovascular events. The ability of COX-2 inhibitors to obstruct the activity of the inflammation-promoting enzyme and also interfere with inflammatory mediators such as interleukin-1 and nuclear factor kappa B had made that type of drug a potential chemopreventive for cancer, according to Ernest T. Hawk of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Buttressing this line of research was evidence that an excess of COX-2 played a role in the invasive and earlier stages of cancer at a large number of sites in the body, he explained. Hawk is a member of the steering committee for the NCI-sponsored Adenoma Prevention with Celecoxib study, which stopped administering the drug in December 2004 after an independent committee discovered an increased cardiovascular risk among drug recipients. He and an epidemiologist discussed the future for COX-2 inhibitors in cancer prevention at the American Society of Preventive Oncology annual meeting in San Francisco, held March 13–15. [...]

4/25/2005 T Minamikawa, M Umeda, and T Komori Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol Endod, May 1, 2005; 99(5): 532-8 Objectives: Although sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) may reduce surgery-related complications related to unnecessary lymph node dissection and is now widely used for many patients with cutaneous melanoma and breast cancer, its use for oral cancer patients remains controversial. One of the main reasons for the reluctance to initiate SLNB for oral cancer is that the frequency of skip metastasis has not been clarified. The objectives of this study are to examine the frequency of skip metastasis and to evaluate SLNB for oral cancer. Study design: To shed light on these concerns, we first conducted a retrospective study of 296 patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity who underwent neck dissection. Next, the accuracy of lymph node biopsy with and without detecting sentinel lymph node was examined. Results: Ten patients showed skip neck metastasis in the level III-V region without level I-II involvement. Of these patients, 7 underwent neck dissection when their initially N0 neck progressed to N+, 2 underwent neck dissection when local recurrence occurred, and only 1 underwent surgery as an initial therapy. Most patients who underwent neck dissection as the initial therapy showed skip metastasis. Intraoperative lymph node biopsy without any attempt to detect sentinel lymph nodes by means of blue dye or lymphoscintigraphy was performed on 68 patients with oral cancer. Sixty-one (90%) were diagnosed correctly, whereas 7 diagnosed as N- actually [...]

4/22/2005 Anaheim, CA Charlene Laino WebMD Health (my.webmd.com) New studies presented at a major cancer meeting reinforce the old adage that you are what you eat (and drink). One study shows that green tea may stave off prostate cancer. Another study suggests that eating a lot of hot dogs, sausage, and other processed meats may raise the risk of pancreatic cancerrisk of pancreatic cancer. Loading up on red meat also seems to increase the chance of developing pancreatic cancer, one of the most deadly of tumors, says study researcher Ute Nothlings, DrPH, MSE. "The findings suggest that eating less processed meat and less red meat might help prevent pancreatic cancer," she tells WebMD. Nothlings is a researcher at the Cancer Research Center at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu. Red meat has also been linked to an increase in colon cancer.linked to an increase in colon cancer. Diving Into the Meat of the Matter For the study, the researchers examined the relationship between diet and pancreatic cancer among nearly 200,000 men and women. When they first entered the study in the mid-1990s, all the participants filled out a detailed questionnaire that asked what foods they had eaten in the past year, how frequently they had eaten them, and how much they had eaten. By an average of seven years later, 482 of the men and women had developed pancreatic cancer. Those who ate more than 1.5 ounces of processed meat a day were about two-thirds more likely to have pancreatic [...]

4/22/2005 Beverly, MA Roger W. Sachs, D.M.D Damvers Herald on Townline.com The majority of oral carcinoma is preventable and the earlier the diagnosis, the better the cure. Oral cancers that are caught early have probably well over a 90-95 percent cure ratio, whereas those cancers that have gone on for a year or more, have cure rates that are greatly reduced. Oral cancer can be seen in any part of the mouth. The most common areas are the sides of the tongue and back of the mouth, at the point where the lower ridge meets the back of the mouth. Other areas include the lips and cheeks and under the tongue. Oral cancer can certainly start at any age, but the average s between the ages of 50-75. In my over twenty-five years of practice, with the exception of three cases, all of the cancer cases I have treated have been caused by smoking or alcohol abuse. The more recent phenomena of chewing tobacco may also cause oral carcinoma, but at present there is no conclusive proof. In oral surgery there is a saying that states "if you smoke long enough, you will get cancer." The medical and dental community would practically go out of business if smoking completely ceased. There would be hardly any oral cancer, lung cancer, emphysema and heart disease would be greatly reduced. In addition to smoking and alcohol abuse, other causes of oral cancer include spreading from other cancer sites, called metastasis, or cancers from [...]

4/22/2005 Israel Medical News Today (www.medicalnewstoday.com) In a recent study published in Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science paired the active ingredient of a garden remedy with advanced bio-technology to deliver a powerful punch against cancer. The cancer killing effectiveness lies in their technique of arming a cancer-targeting antibody with the destructive potential of the dietary molecule otherwise known as "allicin." Allicin is the product of an interaction between an enzyme, alliinase, and the small chemical alliin, which occurs naturally in plants such as garlic and onion as a defense mechanism against soil fungi, bacteria and parasites. Allicin molecules can easily penetrate biological membranes and kill cells, but their potency is short-lived hence the difficulty in finding a system to deliver them to a specific site. "The medicinal value of garlic is no longer an ancient Chinese secret," says the Institute's Prof. David Mirelman. "Years of scientific research led to the identification and understanding of allicin's mode of activity and we are currently studying ways to target and deliver its toxic punch." The team, including Mirelman, Prof. Meir Wilchek, Drs. Fabian Arditti, Talia Miron and Aharon Rabinkov of the Biological Chemistry Department, and Prof. Yair Reisner of the Immunology Department, together with Prof. Berrebi of Rehovot's Kaplan Hospital, adopted an approach that fastens the enzyme alliinase onto a specific antibody already in clinical use, Rituximabâ, designed to target and lock on to the surface of certain types of cancer cells such as lymphoma. When administered alone, [...]

4/20/2005 Ann Arbor, MI University of Michigan News Service The Detroit Oral Cancer Prevention Project has launched a citywide campaign to lower the oral cancer death rate in Detroit. “Our best hope for decreasing the rate of oral cancer is to get Detroiters in for a screening,” said project director Dr. Amid Ismail, from the University of Michigan School of Dentistry. “If caught early, oral cancer has a 90 percent cure rate.” The effects of later-stage oral cancer treatments, by contrast, can be devastating. Some patients require full or partial removal of the tongue, teeth, gums or oral tissues. Detroit has one of the highest rates of oral cancer in the nation. According to a recent study, 46 percent of all deaths from oral cancer in Michigan occur in the Detroit area. In African-American men, Detroit reported an oral cancer rate of 31 cases per 100,000 people, which was the highest rate reported among all states. The Detroit area, with one of the highest incidence and mortality rates of oral cancer in the state, had only 35 percent of its oral cancer cases detected at an early (localized) stage. Among the risk factors of oral cancer are tobacco use, moderate or heavy alcohol use, a diet low in fruits and vegetables, lack of access to early screening and dental care, and poor oral hygiene. The Detroit Oral Cancer Prevention Program seeks to reduce the oral cancer death rate in Detroit by half in the next five years. The campaign, titled [...]

4/20/2005 Anaheim, CA www.cancerpage.com Using microarray analysis, cancer researchers have identified an 11-gene signature that is strongly associated with a poor response to treatment, increased risk of metastatic spread, and shorten survival in patients with a variety of primary tumor types. The data "seem to indicate the presence of a conserved BMI-1 oncogene-driven pathway similarly engaged in both normal stem cells and a highly malignant subset of human cancers diagnosed in a wide range of organs and uniformly exhibiting a marked propensity toward metastatic dissemination as well as high probability of treatment failure," the researchers explain in an abstract of the 96th annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. Early identification of cancer patients with the 11-gene so-called "death from cancer signature" will allow clinicians and patients to consider therapeutic strategies beyond the conventional at the time of diagnosis, said Dr. Gennadi V. Glinksy from the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center in San Diego. According to the team, 93% of human and 87% of mouse tissues analyzed manifest negative (non-stem cell-like) expression profiles of the 11-gene signature. They evaluated the prognostic power of the 11-gene signature in several independent therapy outcome data sets of clinical samples obtained from 1566 cancer patients diagnosed with 10 different types of cancer: prostate, breast, lung, ovarian, bladder, lymphoma, mesothelioma, medulloblastoma, glioma, and acute myeloid leukemia. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that a stem cell-like expression profile of the 11-gene signature in primary tumors was a "consistent powerful predictor" of a short time to disease recurrence, [...]

4/19/2005 Anaheim, CA press release EurekAlert! To most, the mere mention of the word "virus" stirs up memories of pain, fever and varying levels of suffering. But in recent years, scientists have been trying to turn these long-time medical foes into allies in the fight against cancer. Through genetic engineering, viruses are being re-programmed to take advantage of their natural abilities to infiltrate, commandeer, replicate and destroy, but only in tumor cells and not surrounding healthy tissue. Several of these "oncolytic" (cancer-killing) viruses are in varying stages of development, including modifications of the virus that causes measles and another, the herpes simplex virus, responsible for those lip blisters known as cold sores. In studies presented this week at the 96th meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), researchers describe their latest studies with their engineered versions of these viruses. Cold Sore Virus Modified to Halt Growth and Spread of a Variety of Tumors: Abstract 5292 A modified herpes simplex virus, built with a potent immune stimulant to thwart the spread of cancer cells, is being tested in patients with a variety of tumor types, including melanoma, breast, head and neck, and colorectal cancer. In early clinical studies, the engineered virus -- developed by Biovex Ltd. under the trade name OncoVEX -- showed promise of causing necrosis (death) of tumors cells in most patients. "Tumor necrosis was evidenced clinically and/or by histology in biopsies taken about two weeks after the final dose in a number of patients," said Jennifer [...]