8/23/2004 Moscow, Russia The Moscow News The president on Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov, has issued a decree banning his people to chew nas in common places, Russia’s news agency Interfax reported on Friday. Nas or naswai is the country’s staple drug, made of tobacco, slacked lime and chicken excrement. People chew nas for its mild narcotic and stimulating qualities. According to medical reports, about 80 percent of Central Asian people diagnosed with throat cancer chew nas in their life. Niyazov’s decree, published on Friday, forbids to consume nas in ministries and public institutions, at all enterprises and organizations, in military units and border guard posts in educational and children’s establishments, in theaters, in public and private transport, in parks and shops. The list of the places gives the rough impression of how spread the habit is. The decree also banned selling nas everywhere except for specially assigned places — usually cattle markets. Those who violate the decree will face fine of two minimum wages — 500 thousand manat ($85). Illegal nas traders will be fined $170. OCF Note: We don't make this stuff up folks (like the title of this authentic news article), we just report and post the news as we find it........

8/19/2004 Baltimore, MD Johns Hopkins news release New Saliva Test Helps Detect Head and Neck Cancer in Early Stages A new noninvasive DNA test has been developed that simply swabs the mouth to diagnose head and neck cancer. The test could improve early detection of head and neck cancer, which would improve patient's survival and reduce the need for radiation therapy, chemotherapy and extensive surgery. "The test has been developed to detect head and neck cancer at an early stage," said David Sidransky, MD, director of head and neck cancer research at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, one of the researchers studying the new test. "If you look at oral cancer, about half of them are diagnosed at very advanced stages, so clearly, they're not being diagnosed at an early stage." The test works by first swabbing the entire area of the inside of the cheeks and the back of the tongue. Then the patient rinses with a solution and spits it out. Then the swab and the rinse are mixed together so as many cells as possible are obtained, he added. "The more cells we have, the better the genetic test is," Dr. Sidransky explained. First Phases of Testing In the first phase of the study, Dr. Sidransky and colleagues tested cells from the saliva of 21 patients who already had head and neck cancer and 22 cancer-free patients. They found genetic "clonal markers" in the cells of 71 percent of cancer patients compared to none of the cancer-free [...]

8/17/2004 See end of article for authors American Society for Microbiology Researchers from Maryland have developed a new DNA vaccine that targets proteins expressed in cervical cancer cells. Their findings appear in the August 2004 issue of the Journal of Virology. Human papillomavirus (HPV) is found in more than 99 % of cervical cancer cases, which is the second leading cause of cancer death among women throughout the world. Consistently identified in HPV cancer cells, proteins E6 and E7 are the determined cause of malignant transformation. In the study mice were immunized with a DNA vaccine encoding CRT (a binding protein with many cellular functions) and linked to E6 targeting HPV-associated lesions. Results showed a significant T-cell immune response specific to E6, indicating that a CRT/E6 DNA vaccine could also protect against E6 expressing tumors. "We have shown that DNA vaccines encoding E6 can generate strong E6-specific CD8+ T-cell immunity and can control the growth of E6-expressing tumor cells," say the researchers. "Therefore, E6 vaccines, and perhaps E6 and E7 vaccines in combination, may represent an important approach to controlling HPV-associated cancers." (S. Peng, H. Ji, C. Trimble, L. He, Y. Tsai, J. Yeatermeyer, D.A.K. Boyd, C. Hung, T.-C. Wu. 2004. Development of a DNA vaccine targeting human papillomavirus type 16 oncoprotein E6. Journal of Virology, 78. 16: 8468-8476.) OCF Note: As we have mentioned in previous reports on the development of this area of exploration, these vaccines have enormous ramifications for oral cancers, many of which are associated with [...]

8/16/2004 Canada Healthtalk.ca When high-profile Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts decided to go public with his battle against throat cancer, it did much more than shock us, it raised the awareness of this deadly disease. Sadly, there was a time when celebrities like Watts would keep their health issues secret, out of the public eye. However, those days appear to be behind us and we owe Charlie Watts a big "thank you", for his decision. It isn't easy telling the world you're ill. Charlie Watts has opened our eyes, it's now up to us to ensure the continued funding of cancer research to find a cure for this devastating disease. Watts, 63, was diagnosed with throat cancer in June, after he discovered a lump in this throat. He has been undergoing radiotherapy for about four weeks and is expected to make a full recovery.

8/15/2004 Berkeley, CA University Of California - Berkeley New research at the University of California, Berkeley, may add yet another boost to the healthy reputation of the humble soybean. A study published Oct. 15 in the journal Cancer Research shows that mice with the soy protein lunasin applied to their skin had significantly lower rates of skin cancer than mice without the lunasin treatment. More than two years ago, the same UC Berkeley researchers discovered that injecting the lunasin gene into cancer cells in a culture stopped cell division. In their latest work, they tested whether the lunasin protein could prevent normal cells from becoming cancerous in both cell cultures and in mice. In the study, varying doses of lunasin were applied to groups of mice over a period of 19 weeks. They were compared with a control group that had received no lunasin treatments. After the mice were exposed to chemical carcinogens, the group that had received the highest lunasin dose of 125 micrograms twice a week had a 70 percent lower incidence of tumors than the control group. "In the high dose group, some mice did develop some tumors, but there were fewer tumors per mouse and there was a two-week delay in their appearance compared with the control group," said Ben O. de Lumen, nutritional sciences professor in UC Berkeley's College of Natural Resources and principal investigator of the study. De Lumen is a member of UC Berkeley's Health Sciences Initiative, a partnership among biomedical sciences and [...]

8/15/2004 Salt lake City, UT by Philip J. Moos, Kornelia Edes, James E. Mullally, and Frank A. Fitzpatrick University of Utah, and the Huntsman Cancer Institute Curcumin (diferuloylmethane) is being considered as a potential chemopreventive agent in humans. In vitro it inhibits transcription by NF-B, and the activity of lipoxygenase or cyclooxygenase enzymes, which facilitate tumor progression. In vivo it is protective in rodent models of chemical carcinogenesis. Curcumin contains an ,ß-unsaturated ketone, a reactive chemical substituent that is responsible for its repression of NF-B. In compounds other than curcumin this same electrophilic moiety is associated with inactivation of the tumor suppressor, p53. Here we report that curcumin behaves analogously to these compounds. It disrupts the conformation of the p53 protein required for its serine phosphorylation, its binding to DNA, its transactivation of p53-responsive genes and p53-mediated cell cycle arrest. Source: Department of Oncological Sciences and Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Utah, Huntsman Cancer Institute, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA

8/12/2004 New York, NY By Will Boggs, MD Reuters Health An effective vaccine based on seven human papillomavirus (HPV) types could prevent most cervical cancers worldwide, according to a report in the August 20th International Journal of Cancer. "HPV vaccines offer today the best strategy to combat cervical cancer," Dr. Nubia Muñoz from International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France told Reuters Health. Dr. Muñoz and colleagues conducted a pooled analysis of all HPV types in cervical cancer from an international survey and from a multicenter case-control study, involving more than 3600 women with histologically confirmed cervical cancer from 25 countries. Overall, the HPV DNA prevalence was 92.5%, the authors report, ranging from 83.6% of squamous cell carcinomas in Europe/North America to 96.5% of squamous cell carcinomas in south Asia, and from 93.3% of adenocarcinomas in south Asia to 100% of adenocarcinomas in sub-Saharan Africa and Europe/North America. HPV genotypes 16 and 18 accounted for most of the cases in each region of the world, including 63.9% in sub-Saharan Africa, 78.9% in northern Africa, 65.0% in Central/South America, 73.5% in south Asia, 71.5% in Europe/North America, and 70.7% overall. Seven genotypes (HPV 16, 18, 45, 31, 33, 52, and 58) accounted for 87.4% of all cervical cancer cases worldwide, with little regional variation, the researchers note. "Generating a vaccine with seven HPV types would be technically feasible," the investigators conclude. "However, the production cost may be high, and the protection conferred by the less common HPV types may be [...]

8/12/2004 St. Paul, MN by Michael Rohrer, D.D.S., M.S. The Pilot-Independent When people think about cancer, the mouth is not usually the first place that comes to mind. Breast, lung and prostate cancer are all forms of the illness we read and hear a lot about. But oral cancer is a major cause of severe disability and death every year, killing more people nationwide than cervical cancer, Hodgkin's disease, cancer of the brain, kidney, liver, testes or malignant melanoma skin cancer. While oral cancer is not much talked about, dentists and physicians would like to change that. Although those who use tobacco and drink alcohol heavily are at a higher risk for contracting oral cancer, 25 percent of people with oral cancer don't use either substance. One possible culprit is the human papilloma virus, the virus that causes cervical cancer, which also has been linked to the disease. Oral cancer appears initially in the mouth as small, unexplained white or red spots, as well as lumps, bumps, thick or crusty patches, or sores that don't heal. If a dentist suspects oral cancer, the dentist or an oral surgeon will take a biopsy of the tissue to look for abnormal precancerous or malignant cells. If those are found, treatment generally includes surgery to remove all of the abnormal cells. If the abnormal cells have already progressed to cancer, extensive surgery, often combined with radiation treatment, may be required. The best way to survive oral cancer is to prevent its occurrence. If [...]