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 [...]

4/19/2005 Ann Arbor, MI press release University of Michigan Health Service A compound derived from cottonseed oil could help improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy at treating head and neck cancer, researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have found. The findings, which will be presented Tuesday, April 19, at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting, could lead to a treatment that provides an effective option to surgically removing the cancer, helping patients preserve vital organs involved in speech and swallowing. While new treatments in head and neck cancer have allowed some patients to undergo chemotherapy and radiation therapy instead of surgery, this form of cancer is often resistant to chemotherapy. When the cancer does not respond to these powerful drugs, patients must resort to surgery. “Patients really benefit long-term by avoiding surgery because the side effects of surgery for head and neck cancer can be particularly difficult for patients – it’s how you talk, and how you swallow and how you breathe,” says Carol Bradford, M.D., professor of otolaryngology at the U-M Medical School and co-director of the Head and Neck Oncology Program at the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center. The compound, (-)-gossypol, works to regulate a protein called Bcl-xL that’s overexpressed in cancer cells and makes these cells survive when they shouldn’t. Shaomeng Wang, Ph.D., co-director of the Molecular Therapeutics Program at the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center, discovered (-)-gossypol, a compound derived from a component of Chinese medicine. Gossypol comes from cottonseed oil and was once [...]

4/19/2005 Ann Arbor, MI Philip Svabik The Michigan Daily People diagnosed with brain cancer may soon have access to more effective therapy options, thanks to an advanced MRI scan that can chart the success of a particular treatment early on in the course of therapy, a new University of Michigan study suggests. Currently, once a patient is diagnosed with brain cancer, they enter into therapeutic treatment of either radiation therapy or chemotherapy for about six to seven weeks. Patients then must wait six to twelve weeks after the treatment period has ended to return for a follow up image that will prove if the treatment was effective or not. “If you didn’t respond to the treatment, then you have gone through almost three months of ineffective intervention,” said Brian Ross, a professor of radiology and biological chemistry at the University and one of the study’s 14 authors. “And now you are faced with the gloomy task of essentially deciding what you are going to select next in consultation with your physician,” he added. However, Ross and his colleagues have found that by using a special MRI scan, called an MRI diffusion map, they can evaluate the effectiveness of the treatment at a mere three weeks into it — roughly 10 weeks earlier than if standard MRI imaging procedures were used. Diffusion MRI works by measuring the flow of the water surrounding the brain through the tumor, which helps measure the density of the tumor. The researchers found that if after [...]

4/19/2005 Cori Vanchieri Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Vol. 97, No. 8, 552-553, April 20, 2005 Several cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) inhibitors have taken a beating from recent evidence that they can cause deaths from heart attack and stroke, but some cancer researchers say that the drugs are too promising as possible chemoprevention agents to abandon them completely. Rofecoxib (Vioxx) was withdrawn from the market in September when a colon cancer chemoprevention trial revealed an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes among long-term users (see News, Vol. 96, No. 23, p. 1734, "Vioxx Withdrawal Alarms Cancer Prevention Researchers"). Soon after, valdecoxib (Bextra) was shown to increase heart attacks in people who recently had coronary artery bypass surgery. Bad news for celecoxib (Celebrex), the COX-2 inhibitor used most frequently in prevention trials, came in December: It also increased the risk of heart attacks in a cancer prevention trial. Drug administration was stopped on dozens of cancer prevention trials, other studies were halted, and a U.S. Food and Drug Administration hearing was planned. Two FDA panels—the Arthritis Drug Advisory Committee and the Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee—met jointly in mid-February. Overall, they viewed the cardiovascular risk as a class effect among the group of COX-2 inhibitors. But they voted to keep on the market the two drugs that are still being sold—celecoxib and valdecoxib—with new black box warnings and limits on direct-to-consumer marketing. They also voted narrowly to leave the door open for Merck to return rofecoxib to the [...]

4/19/2005 Scotland, United Kingdom Scotland Today Cancer specialists say not enough people know about mouth cancer, even though the west of Scotland has the highest incidence of the disease in the UK. TV adverts will be back on our screens tonight to remind people of the tell-tale signs. Every year more than 500 Scots find out that they have mouth cancer. The west of Scotland has a much higher incidence rate than anywhere else in the UK and unfortunately the figures are rising. That is why a television advert which is designed to raise awareness of the disease and it's symptoms is being relaunched this week. Jim Baillie says that watching that very ad last November may well have saved his life. He said: "It related to me, the little tongue, I had the symptoms and I thought "I don't like the looks of this". The chaps that did that ad, I mean I owe them everything." Consultant surgeon John Devine said: "If a mouth cancer is picked up at an early stage the treatment is actually very straightforward and very quickly the patient can get back to a near normal quality of life." He added: "The main symptoms are an ulcer that hasn't healed up after three to four weeks but there are some other signs and symptoms like white patches in the mouth, red patches, sometimes if teeth become loose for no explained reason and the message from us is if in any doubt at all get along [...]

4/19/2005 E.J. Mundell Forbes (www. forbes.com) Smokers who've tried but failed to kick their habit may want to pop a daily aspirin, ibuprofen or naproxen (Aleve) to help cut their risk of mouth cancer, new research suggests. Previous studies have shown this family of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) effective in preventing other cancers, and the same may now be true for oral malignancies. "NSAIDs approximately halves the risk of [these] cancers in smokers," said lead researcher Dr. Jon Sudbo, of the Norwegian Radium Hospital in Oslo. It's not clear whether daily NSAID use can also reduce risks for the No. 1 cancer killer of smokers, lung cancer, however. "We will try and answer that question in the near future," Sudbo said. In their study, presented April 18 at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, in Anaheim, Calif., Sudbo's team looked through a Norwegian cancer database to compare daily NSAID use by more than 900 adults with a long history of tobacco use. Half of the group had been diagnosed with some form of mouth cancer, while the other half had not. They found that smokers who had taken a daily NSAID (such as aspirin, ibuprofen or naproxen) for at least six months were 65 percent less likely to develop oral malignancies than smokers who had not. Reductions in risk for oral cancer fell as years of NSAID use increased, the researchers add. Those benefits were not found in long-term users of a non-NSAID pain reliever, acetaminophen [...]

4/18/2005 Mark A. Schattner, MD, Holly J. Willis, RD et al. Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, Vol. 29, No. 3, 2005 198-203 Background: Optimization of body mass index (BMI) among cancer survivors is a priority. Long-term enteral nutrition is required by many head and neck cancer survivors and may be utilized to affect changes in BMI. Methods: We used a retrospective review of head and neck cancer survivors dependent on enteral nutrition. Patients were grouped according to their BMI at initiation of enteral feeding. Patients with normal, low, or elevated BMI were assigned a goal of weight maintenance, weight gain, or weight reduction, respectively. Changes in BMI over time were recorded. Results: We identified 39 head and neck cancer survivors requiring enteral nutrition. Median time on enteral nutrition was 32 ± 39.6 months. At the initiation of enteral feeding, 51% of patients had a normal BMI and were assigned to the weight maintenance group, 84% successfully maintained a normal BMI (mean 22.4 ± 1.7 kg/m2), and 18% had a low BMI and were assigned to the weight gain group. In all, 85% achieved or trended toward a normal BMI (from 16.5 ± 1.9 to 19.2 ± 1.6 kg/m2; p = .02). When enteral feedings began, 31% of patients had an elevated BMI and were assigned a goal of weight reduction; all were able to reduce their BMI (from 30.2 ± 5 to 27.3 ± 6 kg/m2; p < .001). Conclusions: Long-term enteral feeding facilitates body weight optimization among ambulatory [...]

4/18/2005 Palm Beach, FL Dan Moffett Palm Beach Post So, I'm sitting here, feeling a bit dehydrated as I try to work up the courage to do something about lunch. I've come to accept the likelihood that anything I put into my mouth will hasten my departure from the planet. This tends to diminish one's appetite. I read a New York Times story last week that changed my thinking about health and medical science, probably permanently. The story told of research on hundreds of runners in the 2002 Boston Marathon. Dozens of them finished the race suffering from something called hyponatremia, a potentially life-threatening condition of abnormally low blood-sodium levels in the blood. The runners developed the problem because they drank too much water. The finding is nothing short of astonishing. For decades, health experts have told athletes to drink plenty of water — all you can hold — to avoid dehydration. The idea that a runner, football player, Little Leaguer or construction worker could drink too much was laughable. Now, we're told that it's possible to commit suicide with a pair of jogging shoes and a bottle of Evian. What a fool I've been. I thought we at least had water figured out. I have lost all faith in medical science when it comes to eating and drinking. One study contradicts another; the prevailing wisdom of today turns 180 degrees from yesterday. Who knows what to believe? If you don't like the latest research, just wait for the next [...]

4/18/2005 San Francisco, CA Inside Bay Area (insidebayarea.com) Those who import and market green tea and tea products can, by law, only say what elements are in green tea. They point out that a fully brewed cup of green tea is very high in polyphenols, flavenols, fluoride, and the cancer preventative EGCG. It also contains vitamins C, P, K and B. Studies show that all tea contains catechins, the polyphenols that are unique to tea, but research suggests that green tea is higher in those elements than black tea, perhaps because it is a slightly fresher product than black tea. Black tea gets its flavor from oxidizing the leaves before they are dried. Exactly what those various compounds do for the human body is being studied all over the world, at institutions such as Harvard Medical Center, University of California, Berkeley, University of Kansas, University of Geneva in Switzerland, and University of Shizuoka in Japan. Their findings have been printed in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Rutger's University and in the American Journal of Cardiology. Listed here are some of the believed benefits of drinking four to 10 cups of fully steeped green tea every day. The astringency in fully brewed green tea, it should be noted, is because of the great volume of antioxidants. -The polyphenols, or antioxidants, in tea are extremely efficient at ridding the body of free radicals that tend to speed up the aging process. The polyphenols in tea were found to be more than [...]

4/17/2005 Boston, MA Laurel J. Sweet Boston Herald (news.bostonherald.com) Cancer "survivalist" state police Lt. Billy Coulter's mind-boggling grit in tackling tomorrow's 109th Boston Marathon comes down to one simple incentive: That somehow, some way, a red hardtop Corvette at the finish line might be his chariot home. "When you're sick, all of a sudden you become the pretty girl at the dance," Coulter, 53, said laughing yesterday at the Hynes Convention Center, where he volunteered to help fellow elite athletes iron out their problems before the 26-mile race. This will be Coulter's 22nd consecutive Boston Marathon, but because he was diagnosed with terminal head and neck cancer last June, it is the first for which his training has been limited almost entirely to walking and short jogs. Unable to ingest solid food or generate his own saliva, the 146-pound cop will have to stop at every other mile marker and pour 12 ounces of water or Gatorade down a tube inserted into his stomach. "Because it's my life, I'm fully prepared to walk off (the course) if I have to. I'm not going to die in this marathon," Coulter said. And while there will be some 20,425 runners in his company, Coulter is counting on only two to watch his back: Boston police Superintendent Paul Joyce and Dr. Marshall Posner, head oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. "I fully expect he's going to finish ahead of me," Joyce said of Coulter, his friend of 15 years. "It's just an honor [...]