1/27/2005 Larry K. Kvols, MD Society of Nuclear Medicine Jan 2005 as reported by RedNova.com The ideal radiation sensitizer would reach the tumor in adequate concentrations and act selectively in the tumor compared with normal tissue. It would have predictable pharmacokinetics for timing with radiation treatment and could be administered with every radiation treatment. The ideal radiation sensitizer would have minimal toxicity itself and minimal or manageable enhancement of radiation toxicity. The ideal radiation sensitizer does not exist today. This review outlines the concept of combining 2 modalities of cancer treatment, radiation and drug therapy, to provide enhanced tumor cell kill in the treatment of human malignancies and discusses molecules that target DNA and non-DNA targets. Combining drugs that have unique mechanisms of action and absence of overlapping toxicities with systemically administered radiotherapy should be exploited in future clinical trials. This is an exciting time in clinical oncology research, because we have a plethora of new molecules to evaluate. Surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy have been the mainstays of treatment for human malignancies for more than 40 years. The use of a combination of radiation and chemotherapy is often called chemoradiation in the medical literature. For most of the last 4 decades, this has involved the use of cytotoxic agents with external beam radiation. Recently, however, with newer molecules that target very specific pathophysiology or molecular pathways and the use of radiation delivered systemically by antibodies or hormones labeled with radionuclides, the concept of radiation sensitizers has been expanded. Heidlberger's preclinical [...]

1/26/2005 Paula R. Trumbo The American Society for Nutritional Sciences J. Nutr. 135:354-356, February 2005 Health claims are authorized for the labeling of foods when there is significant scientific agreement among qualified experts on the evidence for a relationship between a food or food component (substance) and a disease. Qualified health claims are permitted when there is less scientific evidence for a substance-disease relationship, therefore requiring qualifying language. The evidence for a relationship between vitamin E and heart disease and selenium and cancer was reviewed by the U.S. FDA. It was determined that there was insufficient evidence to permit a qualified health claim for vitamin E and cancer, whereas there was some evidence for permitting a qualified health claim for selenium and cancer. Author's affiliation: Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Food and Drug Administration, College Park, MD 20740

1/26/2005 H Okumura et al. British Journal of Cancer (2005) 92, 284-289. The p53 family regulates cell-cycle arrest, triggers apoptosis or is involved in repair of DNA damage. In the present study, we analysed the expression of some p53 family proteins and their responses to chemoradiation therapy (CRT) in cases of oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). We immunohistochemically investigated the relationship between p53, p53R2, and p21 expression in biopsy specimens of untreated primary tumours and their clinical and histological responses to CRT in 62 patients with ESCC. Chemoradiation therapy consisted of 5-fluorouracil plus cisplatin and 40 Gy of radiation. The rates of clinical and histological responses (complete or partial) to CRT were 71.0% (clinical) and 52.8% (histological). The rate of positive expression was 43.5% for p53, 37.1% for p53R2, and 54.8% for p21 expression. Statistically significant correlations were found between p53 or p53R2 expression and favourable response to CRT (P=0.0001 or 0.041 clinical, P=0.016 or 0.0018 histological, respectively). Furthermore, in p53-negative tumours, CRT was more effective in tumours with p53R2 negative expression than those with p53R2 positive expression (P=0.0014). We demonstrated that the negative expression of p53 and p53R2 expression was closely related to the effect of CRT and should predict the CRT outcome in patients with ESCC. Authors: H Okumura1, S Natsugoe1, M Matsumoto1, Y Mataki1, H Takatori1, S Ishigami1, S Takao1 and T Aikou1 Authors' Affiliations: 1Department of Surgical Oncology, Digestive Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Kagoshima University, Sakuragaoka 8-35-1, Kagoshima 890-8520, Japan

1/26/2005 Gerald F. Combs, Jr The American Society for Nutritional Sciences J. Nutr. 135:343-347, February 2005 Selenium was recognized as a nutritional essential only in the late 1950s. That it might also be anticarcinogenic was first suggested a decade later based on ecological relationships of cancer mortality rates and forage crop Se contents in the United States. Since that time, a substantial body of scientific evidence indicated that Se can, indeed, play a role in cancer prevention. This is supported by a remarkably consistent body of findings from studies with animal tumor and cell culture models, and by some, but not all epidemiologic observations. The body of clinical trial data is less extensive, yet also supportive. The consistent findings from this evidence are that both inorganic and organic Se-compounds can be antitumorigenic at doses greater than those required to support the maximal expression of the selenoenzymes that are generally regarded as discharging the nutritional effects of the element. Although the plausibility of Se as a cancer-protective factor is clear, other research is required to support evidence-based evaluation of this hypothesis. In addition to further, well-planned clinical trials, that research must include the development of analytical tools for speciating Se in foods and biological tissues; the development of better means of assessing Se status in ways that are relevant to cancer prevention; and the determination of the minimal dose of Se that is both safe and effective in reducing cancer risk.

1/26/2005 Cancer, published online January 24, 2005 A new study debunks the theory that personality traits are risk factors for cancer. Scientists have hypothesized that a high degree of extroversion and a low degree of neuroticism are associated with an increased risk for cancer. The theory suggests extroverts have an increased risk because they seek social stimulation and as a result experience high levels of stress. People with low neuroticism have been thought to be at an increased risk for cancer because they tend to have a diminished emotional outlet and accumulate stress. However, some larger studies have found no such associations. Researchers at the Institute of Cancer Epidemiology in Copenhagen, Denmark, conducted one of the largest studies to date to examine this association. They followed 29,595 Swedish twins for 25 years examining cancer history, health behavior, and personality trait data. Collecting data on twins provides a unique opportunity, say the study authors, to look at the hypothesized association while adjusting for genetic factors and other risk factors. In the 1,898 cases of cancer reported among the group, no association was found between neuroticism or extroversion and any group of cancer. They also did not find any support for an indirect association where certain personality traits influence health behavior, such as smoking, and thus indirectly affect risk for cancer. Source: Cancer, January 24, 2005 as reported by Ivanhoe.com

1/25/2005 Mumbai, India Prachi Jatania Mumbai Newsline (cities.expressindia.com) A small, cramped office room at Bandra Reclamation. This is the war room for their ideas, which interestingly are a tad older than the thinkers themselves. The six of them, just out of college, can debate rock stars and oral cancer in the same afternoon, at an age when you usually discuss either rock stars or oral cancer—not both. Their mission—to stop the non-smoker from taking that first puff. ‘‘Cigarette companies need 4,000 new smokers everyday,’’ they rattle off. The group, with an average age of 20, met at the Bandra event management insitute where they study. And their big project right now is a rock concert they’re organising to spread the word. ‘‘Rock bands are usually associated with drugs and cigarettes, which the young blindly emulate. We thought why not use rock to say something positive,’’ says bespectacled Siddharth Jain aka ‘Squid’, the software whiz of the group. It all began with a college project that spiralled into a serious need to do “something constructive’’. The outcome was SWAT (Students Working Against Tobacco), which took off in October 2004, with a dozen additional members who felt the same way about tobacco. SWAT now has 30 full-time members and centres in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune. The core group focuses on college contact programmes where they make presentations and enact plays on the benefits of ‘‘staying off smoking’’. And the presentations are not amateur attempts at communication—they carry endorsements from youth icons like [...]

1/25/2005 Stanton Glantz et al. The Lancet (http:www.//thelancet.com) as reported by medicalnewstoday.com The strategies used by the tobacco industry to counteract research linking tobacco smoke to cancer-causing mutations in a gene called p53 are detailed in a study published online (Friday January 14, 2005) in The Lancet. (http:www.//thelancet.com) Damage to the p53 gene leads to uncontrolled cell division. Mutations in this gene are found in over 50% of all human tumours, including 60% of lung cancers. Benzo[a]pyrene, a potent carcinogen, was identified in cigarette smoke in 1952. In the 1990's, studies demonstrated patterned changes in p53 after exposure to benzo[a]pyrene. A 1996 landmark study showed benzo[a]pyrene's interaction with p53 mirrored mutations found in actual human lung tumours. This finding provided strong molecular evidence of the direct carcinogenic effect of a tobacco smoke constituent. Stanton Glantz (University of California, San Francisco, USA) and colleagues examined 43 previously confidential tobacco industry documents relating to p53 and tobacco smoke. The researchers found that prior to 1996, several tobacco companies supported research projects investigating the mechanisms of p53 mutations. Following the 1996 landmark study, tobacco companies planned a number of research projects in response and supported studies which appeared to cast doubt on a link between p53 damage and benzo[a]pyrene in tobacco smoke. In two instances research arguing against a connection was undertaken and published by individuals with links to tobacco companies. Both studies were published in a journal, whose editor-in-chief, has an extensive and undisclosed history of working as a tobacco industry researcher [...]

1/25/2005 Mississauga, Ontario, Canada press release Yahoo! Finance (biz.yahoo.com) Results Permit Pediatric Brain Cancer Trial to be Converted into Pivotal Randomized First-Line Therapy Trial YM BioSciences Inc. today announced that it has been advised by its European partner, Oncoscience AG, that the Phase II trial in children with brain cancer (glioma) utilizing the EGF receptor monoclonal antibody (h-R3) as a monotherapy achieved the clinical milestone that permits conversion of the trial into a pivotal trial in this population. The new study will be a randomized Phase III trial comparing radiation (the standard-of-care) to radiation plus h-R3 as a first-line therapy following surgery. YM has been advised that the trial is expected to enroll 100 patients and is targeted for completion in the second quarter of 2006. Results from the original trial will be formally presented at the "European High-Grade Glioma Meeting" on February 25-26, 2005 in Regensburg, Germany. "Although the results are preliminary in nature, we have been advised that at least three patients responded to the treatment, allowing the early conversion of the trial into a more significant pivotal trial. This is a welcome and unanticipated result in a patient population for whom no other therapy is available and prognosis is very poor," said David Allan, Chairman of YM BioSciences. The study is being conducted in Germany by YM's partner in Europe, Oncoscience AG, and is the first trial of this antibody as a monotherapy and its first trial in children. "Early termination of the trial for success in [...]

1/24/2005 J Huston J Hum Nutr Diet, December 1, 2004; 17(6): 577-8 The Time Out Project at Barts and the London NHS Trust is designed to allow allied health professionals (AHP) to develop their research skills. This is done by funding a locum to cover an AHP's post for 10 working days to allow them to undertake a mini research project. Background: Head and neck cancer (HNC) patients are at high risk of nutrition-related problems due to the nature of their disease and the side effects of cancer treatment. Emergency admissions to hospital for nutrition-related and dehydration problems are common in this group of patients due to difficulties associated with administering nutrition and fluids. The aim of this project was to examine the efficacy of prophylactic gastrostomy tubes in HNC patients undergoing cancer therapy. The objectives were to review current literature relating to the use of feeding tubes in such patients and to develop guidelines on which group of patients benefit from prophylactic placement of a gastrostomy. Method: The Medline database, 1996 to February 2003, was searched for relevant papers. Other papers cited in these were also used, if they were pertinent to the project. Medline was also searched between 1966 and March 2003 for any randomized controlled trials in this clinical area. The Cochrane Database was reviewed to see whether any systematic reviews relating to the subject matter were available. Inclusion criteriaExclusion criteriaStudies looking at enteral feeding in HNC patientsStudies looking at total parenteral nutrition, immunonutrition or jejunal feedingStudies [...]

1/24/2005 HealthDayNews The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the Amgen intravenous drug Kepivance (palifermin) to prevent mucositis, a common side effect among blood cancer patients who have chemotherapy before bone marrow transplants. Patients with mucositis, characterized by debilitating, painful sores in the lining of the mouth and throat, often have trouble eating, drinking and swallowing. Some 11,000 adults with hematologic cancers -- including non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease, leukemia and multiple myeloma -- have bone marrow transplants each year, Amgen said. The new drug works to stimulate the growth of cells in the mouth and throat that protect tissue from the harmful effects of chemotherapy and/or radiation. The most common side effects of Kepivance use were skin rash, tingling sensations in the mouth and throat, and an increase in certain blood proteins that signal pancreatic irritation. None of these conditions is considered serious, the FDA said. as reported by rednova.com