10/26/2004 H Worthington, O Eden, and J Clarkson Cochrane Database Syst Rev, January 1, 2004; (4): CD003807 Background: Treatment of cancer is increasingly more effective but is associated with short and long term side effects. Oral side effects remain a major source of illness despite the use of a variety of agents to prevent and treat them. One of these side effects is oral candidiasis. Objectives: To assess the effectiveness of interventions (which may include placebo or no treatment) for the prevention of oral candidiasis for patients with cancer receiving chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy. Search Strategy: Electronic databases: Cochrane Oral Health Group's Trials Register, CENTRAL, MEDLINE, MEDLINE Pre-indexed, EMBASE, CINAHL, CANCERLIT, SIGLE and LILACS were searched. Date of the most recent searches April 2004 (CENTRAL Issue 2, 2004). Selection Criteria: Trials were selected if they met the following criteria: design - random allocation of participants; participants - anyone receiving chemotherapy or radiotherapy treatment for cancer; interventions - agents prescribed to prevent oral candidiasis; primary outcome - prevention of oral candidiasis. Data Collection and Analysis: Data were recorded on the following secondary outcomes if present: relief of pain, amount of analgesia, relief of dysphagia, incidence of systemic infection, duration of stay in hospital (days), cost of oral care, patient quality of life, death, use of empirical antifungal treatment, toxicity and compliance.Information regarding methods, participants, interventions, outcome measures and results were independently extracted, in duplicate, by two reviewers (HW & JC). The Cochrane Oral Health Group statistical guidelines were followed and relative risk [...]

10/26/2004 S Stahl, LH Meskin, and LJ Brown J Am Dent Assoc, September 1, 2004; 135(9): 1261-7 Background: The ADA conducted a public service campaign in late 2001 to raise awareness of oral cancer and of the dentist's role in early detection. Methods: To gather information about the impact of this campaign, the ADA undertook two surveys. A telephone survey was conducted among 1,270 adult consumers, and a second survey was mailed to a national sample of 2,500 dentists. Results: The majority of the consumers did not recognize the fact that dentists are responsible for examining their patients for oral cancer and that oral cancer claims more lives than melanoma or cervical cancer. The majority of dentists was aware of the ADA campaign and agreed that it helped raise the public's awareness of oral cancer and the importance of early detection. As a result, more dentists said that they are likely to educate their patients about early detection, adjust their own practice routines to include discussion about the disease, and look more closely for small oral lesions and test them with the brush biopsy test. Conclusions: The results of the survey of dentists demonstrated that the oral cancer awareness initiative sponsored by the ADA resulted in positive behavioral changes targeted toward the early detection of oral cancer. Clinical Implications: Continued efforts to provide health education and health promotion interventions aimed at consumers and dentists invariably will result in the detection of oral cancers at early and curable stages.

10/25/2004 no attribution Forbes.com Pharmaceutical company Oxigene Inc. reported Monday that researchers found one of its cancer drugs significantly reduced blood flow to tumors in lung cancer patients in an early stage clinical trial. The company said researchers found that eight patients with inoperable non-small cell lung cancer had reduced blood flow to their tumors four hours after being treated with the drug candidate Combretastatin A4P, or CA4P. Researchers confirmed that the blood flow to the tumors had not recovered after 72 hours, the company said. Oxigene said that researchers will be enrolling patients with prostate cancer and head and neck cancer in early stage clinical trials to study the effects of CA4P through early next year, with mid-stage clinical trials to follow. CA4P belongs to a class of drugs called vascular targeting agents, which restrict blood flow to solid tumors by attacking the vessels that feed them. The company also is studying the drug in early- and mid-stage clinical trials to treat wet age-related macular degeneration, a condition where abnormal and leaky blood vessels grow in front of the retina and cause blindness.

10/25/2004 Rosemarie Bernardo starbulletin.com Through education and improving access to health care, a coalition of government and private health agencies has developed a strategy to reduce cancer rates in Hawaii. "If we detect it early, we can save lives," said Dr. Virginia Pressler, chairwoman of the Hawaii Comprehensive Cancer Program. The effort by 75 health and community agencies to fight the second-leading cause of death in Hawaii is made up of eight strategies that include prevention, early detection, uniform access and insurance coverage issues. "The reason why it's so important for everyone to become involved in cancer care is because almost everybody in the state has been touched by cancer in some way whether it's themselves, a family member, their friend. Everybody has a role to play," said Pressler. About 70 percent of all types of cancer could be prevented by not smoking, having a healthy diet of fruits and vegetables and being physically active, said Pressler. Gov. Linda Lingle, who had a breast cancer scare two years ago, joined representatives of the American Cancer Society, the Cancer Research Center Hawaii and other groups to announce the plan yesterday. "Too many women, as it relates to breast cancers, have reached a point in their mind where 'if I don't know it, can't hurt me mentality,'" said Lingle. "Of course, what you don't know can not only hurt you in this case, it can kill you." Lingle related how, during a mammogram, doctors detected abnormal cells that later turned out not [...]

10/25/2004 Yung-Liang Wan et al. American Journal of Neuroradiology 25:1608-1612, October 2004 Background and Purpose: An accurate diagnosis of a parotid gland mass is essential for adequate management. We determined the clinical efficacy of USCNB in diagnosing parotid gland masses by using cutting needles of different bores. Methods: We reviewed records for 40 benign and 13 malignant parotid lesions. USCNB was performed by using 14–20-gauge needles (mean, 16.6 gauge) with one to five (mean, 2.43) passes and a 15-mm throw or specimen notch. Final diagnoses were established on the basis of surgicopathologic results in 31 cases, and on the basis of histopathologic analysis of biopsy specimens, clinical data, and/or imaging studies in 22, with a follow-up of 12.2–77.5 months (mean, 33.6 months). Results: Compared with surgicopathology, USCNB had a sensitivity of 83%, a specificity of 100%, and an accuracy of 97% in providing specific tissue diagnoses and in differentiating malignant from benign masses. Its positive and negative predictive values were100% and 96%, respectively, in diagnosing malignancy. One patient (2%) had a local hematoma without sequela after surgical removal of a Warthin tumor. Core biopsy results were completely concordant with surgical findings in 30 (97%) of 31 cases. Conclusion: USCNB is a safe and efficient diagnostic procedure with an accuracy of 97% in the pathologic diagnosis of parotid masses. It can be performed in an outpatient clinic and enables specific tissue diagnosis to obviate intraoperative frozen biopsy and unnecessary surgery. An 18-gauge needle is sufficient for accurate and specific tissue diagnosis [...]

10/25/2004 Paul M. Sherman, David M. Yousem and Laurie A. Loevner American Journal of Neuroradiology 25:1603-1607, October 2004 Background and Purpose: The growth of cross-sectional imaging has increased the detection of nonpalpable head and neck masses. We sought to determine the reliability of CT-guided fine-needle aspiration (FNA) over 216 consecutive cases. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed histopathologic findings and notes from 216 consecutive head and neck CT-guided FNA procedures performed between 1993 and 2003. Types of needles used, passes required, lesion location, initial cytologic diagnosis, and final histopathologic or clinical diagnosis were reviewed. Results: Diagnostic samples were obtained in 195 (90.3%) of the lesions, with 21 (9.7%) inadequate samples. A correct diagnosis was made in 191 cases (88.4%). Final FNA diagnosis was discordant in four (1.9%) specimens, with the parapharyngeal space and parotid gland having the highest rate of inaccuracy. The range in number of passes required for final diagnosis was one to six (mode, 2.0 passes per specimen; median, 2.0; mean, 2.6; standard deviation, 1.13). In 135 (63%) of 216 cases, definitive surgical pathologic results, including findings for the four discordant specimens, were obtained. Of the nondiagnostic specimens, six (29%) of 21 went to surgery, five (83%) of six were neoplastic, and one (17%) of six was fibrous tissue. The remainder underwent clinical and imaging follow-up. Conclusion: CT-guided FNA is a safe, well tolerated, and accurate for the diagnosis of head and neck lesions. In our series, the percentage of diagnostic samples obtained improved compared with prior reports. The low [...]

10/24/2004 Onlypunjab.com Team Onlypunjab.com The University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) has received a five-year, $10 million Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) federal grant to examine innovative treatment strategies designed to improve survival outcomes for patients with head and neck cancer. The grant, awarded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), is the second SPORE awarded to UPCI – the first was awarded to the cancer institute's Lung Cancer Program in 2001 – and is one of only four SPORE grants in head and neck cancer awarded nationally. "Head and neck cancer is one of the most physically and emotionally debilitating cancers," said Jennifer Grandis, M.D., principal investigator of the grant and professor of otolaryngology and pharmacology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and director of UPCI's Head and Neck Cancer Program. "Treatment options are limited and often leave a patient with disabling side effects that can have a devastating impact on quality of life. This grant will enable us to enhance the quality of life for head and neck cancer patients and greatly improve their prognoses through the collaborative efforts of our researchers in the laboratory and clinic." The grant funds four major translational research projects that focus on genetic changes that are potential risk factors for head and neck cancer, intracellular signaling proteins activated during head and neck cancer, and new treatment strategies designed to reduce the morbidity and mortality from head and neck cancer. According to Dr. Grandis, each project within the grant has two co-leaders, one [...]

10/15/2004 Landis K. Griffeth, MD, PhD Cure Magazine, Fall 2004 PET/CT is the latest innovation in oncology imaging, but is, in reality, just the combination, in a single device, of the two most useful imaging instruments in cancer care. In order to understand the benefits of a PET/CT device, we first must consider the two pieces separately. Computerized tomography (CT) scanning has been the primary tool of oncologic imaging for three decades. It is unrivaled in demonstrating the precise anatomy of the structures within the body, including tumors. CT works by passing X-rays through the body, while the X-ray source and the X-ray detector (on the opposite side of the body) swing in a circle around the patient’s body. The scanner measures the absorption of the X-rays along all these angles passing through the body and, using special computer programs, constructs images that are “slices” through the body, showing great anatomical detail. A general term for imaging slices of the body is tomography. Virtually all tomographic types of imaging studies today are computerized, but CT was the first of this type. Advances in CT scanners in recent years have made it such that these scanners can now make very high-resolution images (very thin slices through the body) and can cover large parts of the body very quickly as the patient on the table travels through the “doughnut” of the CT scanner gantry. The limitation of CT is that, as accurate as it is for showing the internal anatomy of the [...]

10/22/2004 Seattle, WA Press Release Introgen Therapeutics, Inc Introgen Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: INGN - News) today announced preclinical data demonstrating the promise of its INGN 225 therapy as a cancer vaccine. The data were presented yesterday at the Third Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research, being held in Seattle. INGN 225 is a therapeutic consisting of a cancer patient's own immune cells treated with an adenovector carrying the human p53 gene, Ad-p53. INGN 225 is currently in Phase 1/2 trials in patients with small cell lung cancer and breast cancer. Introgen is also developing Ad-p53, or ADVEXIN®, in phase 3 clinical trials for head and neck cancer, and for a variety of other cancers. Previous studies have shown that p53 is a critical tumor suppressor gene, whose function is to prevent tumor formation. Mutations in p53 are required for tumor formation. These characteristics make p53 protein an ideal target for a cancer vaccine. In normal cells, p53 is found at very low levels and its expression is very tightly controlled. In cancer cells however, p53 fails to function normally and often accumulates to high levels. This high level of abnormal expression of p53 is used by the immune system to identify and destroy tumor cells following INGN 225 vaccination. "We believe that these studies highlight the great potential of INGN 225 for the treatment of cancer, and we are equally excited by the prospect of using this technology to prevent cancer," said Sunil Chada, Ph.D., Introgen's [...]

10/22/2004 Linda Marsa The Grand Rapids Press Because the early signs of oral cancer -- white spots or red areas in the mouth -- are painless and difficult to detect, diagnosis usually occurs only after the disease has reached the point of requiring aggressive, disfiguring treatments. Half of those diagnosed will die of the disease. But a soy-derived experimental treatment is being tested that could reduce this deadly toll by stopping oral cancers from developing. "Mortality rates haven't changed in 40 years because we don't have any good treatments beyond surgery and no way of preventing cancers from returning," says Dr. Frank L. Meyskens Jr., an oncologist at the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California (Irvine) Medical Center. Meyskens and other scientists hope if the drug proves effective, it may be used to protect against oral cancer in people who are at increased risk. "This approach seems promising," says Sol Silverman, a professor of oral medicine at the University of California (San Francisco) Medical School and spokesman for the American Dental Association. About 30,000 Americans are diagnosed with oral cancer each year, and only 57 percent survive more than five years. Tobacco use is the culprit behind about 75 percent of oral cancer cases, and alcohol also is a major contributing factor. Oral cancer is the leading cancer among men in India, and incidence rates can be as high as 40 percent in Southeast Asia, where people chew betel nuts, which contain lye, or tobacco laced [...]