3/20/2004 SHEILA BURKE The Tennessean When Melvin Wilson went to the doctor three years ago complaining of neck pain, he told his doctor he was concerned because his family had a history of cancer. Doctors performed a CT scan and assured him he was fine. But Wilson wasn't. He died last June at age 63. A Davidson County Circuit Court jury in Judge Walter Kurtz's court awarded his widow $1.8 million for Wilson's wrongful death. The jury's award last week will be challenged, defense attorneys said. His widow, Patricia Wilson, of Gallatin sued radiologist Dr. Gregory Weaver and his company, Radiology Alliance, claiming her husband wouldn't have died had the cancer been diagnosed earlier. The doctor's attorneys fiercely disputed that allegation. They claimed Wilson still would have had less than a 50% chance of survival. Melvin Wilson was diagnosed with tongue cancer a year after he had the CT scan. His widow's attorney said Melvin Wilson had two cancerous nodes when the CT scan was taken and said that Weaver had misread the results. There was no indication that the tongue cancer had spread past two nodes on his neck when he was given the CT scan in February 2001, said Daniel Clayton, the widow's attorney. Each side had its own set of medical experts. Two professors at Vanderbilt University Medical Center said the man would have had less than a 50% chance of survival with an earlier diagnosis, Weaver's attorney, Phillip North, said. Other expert testimony contended that Wilson [...]

3/19/2004 Toronto University of Pittsburgh University of Pittsburgh researchers have found the combined PET/CT scanner is the most powerful imaging tool available for localizing, evaluating and therapeutic monitoring of head and neck cancer and may be equally useful for other cancers that are difficult to pinpoint. Results of a study showing PET/CT has a distinct advantage over PET or CT alone were presented today at the annual meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine. According to the researchers, the prototype of the combined PET/CT machine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is able to effectively localize cancerous activity in the head and neck, an area of the body that presents substantial challenges to other imaging methods because of densely packed tissue structures and the frequent involvement of lymph nodes. Separately, computed tomography (CT) and positron emission tomography (PET) do not provide images with the necessary combination of clear structural definition and metabolic activity that is achieved with the PET/CT. "The PET/CT tells us the exact size, shape and location of the cancer and provides a specific target for surgery or other treatment," said Carolyn Cidis Meltzer, M.D., associate professor of radiology and psychiatry and medical director of the UPMC PET Facility. "The PET/CT can also be used to help us develop the best course of treatment for an individual, then monitor that individual's progress during treatment." Head and neck cancers often have already involved lymph nodes when first discovered and can spread rapidly if they are not found and [...]

3/18/2004 Irvine, Ca. Linda Marsa LA Times 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 spread to the lymph nodes in the neck. Consequently, patients often need aggressive, disfiguring surgical treatments. Half of those diagnosed will die of the disease. "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 UC Irvine Medical Center. But Meyskens and other scientists are testing a soy-derived experimental treatment that could reduce this deadly toll — by stopping oral cancers from developing in the first place. If the drug proves effective, it may be used routinely to protect against oral cancer in people who are at increased risk. "Survival rates haven't improved much over the years, so a preventive agent would be very useful," says Sol Silverman, a professor of oral medicine at UC San Francisco Medical School and spokesman for the American Dental Assn. in Chicago. "This approach seems promising." About 30,000 Americans are diagnosed with oral cancer each year, and only 57% survive more than five years. Tobacco use is the culprit behind about 75% of oral cancer cases, and alcohol also is a major contributing factor. Oral cancer is the leading cancer among men in India, and incidence [...]

3/17/2004 Eugene Russo thescientist.com Spit's potential diagnostic value has funding agencies putting money where the mouth is Human Saliva magnified 100x A trip to the doctor's office generally entails a deposit of blood or urine from which some diagnoses can be produced after a laborious process. Now, groups of biologists and engineers are working to make disease diagnoses quicker and more efficient by giving credit to a less conventional humor--the Rodney Dangerfield of bodily fluids--spit. In the past year and a half, the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) has used a set of seven grants totaling $27 million (US) through 2006 to form a Salivary Diagnostics Group for technology development. Once disparate disciplines, oral salivary biology and engineering are melding in order to give saliva its due respect as a diagnostic fluid. Scientists and healthcare workers have long known the power of saliva to indicate HIV exposure or drug abuse. Indeed, certain informative molecules or analytes in saliva, such as DNA, RNA, peptides, or fatty acids, could indicate a variety of conditions including cancer, Alzheimer, and heart disease. "It turns out that almost anything you can measure in blood, you can measure in saliva," says NIDCR director Lawrence Tabak. But often, informative saliva analytes are present in hard-to-detect levels--one hundredth to one thousandth of what's found in blood. Qualitative measures are feasible, for example, when someone tests positive for HIV antibodies. But quantitative measures, such as a precise glucose level, are not. Nanoscale [...]

3/16/2004 New York Rueters Infection of oral epithelial cells with oncogenic types of human papillomavirus (HPV) is an independent risk factor for the development of head and neck cancer, investigators report in the March 17th issue of The Journal of the National Cancer Institute. In a case-control study, Dr. Elaine M. Smith of the University of Iowa and colleagues detected oncogenic HPV types in oral exfoliated cells from 22.9% of 201 patients with head and neck cancer and 10.8% of 333 cancer-free control subjects. HPV 16 was the most frequently detected type, present in 19% of cases and 10% of controls. In analyses adjusting for age, tobacco use, and alcohol intake, the risk of head and neck cancer was statistically significantly greater in subjects infected with high-risk HPV types, with an adjusted odds ratio of 2.6, but not in those infected with non-oncogenic HPV types (adjusted OR = 0.8)compared with HPV-negative individuals. There was also a significant synergistic effect between detection of high-risk HPV types and heavy alcohol use (OR=18.8) and an additive effect between detection of high-risk HPV and tobacco use (OR = 5.5). "Any biologic interaction effect with HPV is associated primarily with alcohol consumption and not with tobacco use," the researchers note. The team also found a significant association between detection of high-risk HPV in oral cells and detection of high-risk HPV in tumor tissue. Head and neck cancers cause "clinically significant morbidity and disfiguration," Dr. Smith and colleagues remind readers, making "early detection of disease and [...]

4/15/2004 Twin Falls Chad Baldwin Like many aspiring rodeo cowboys, Kent Cooper began chewing tobacco at a young age -- 13, to be exact. For close to 30 years -- most of those while he was on the pro rodeo circuit -- Copenhagen was his brand of choice, until friends say he dropped the habit four or five years ago. But the lifestyle change came too late for one of Idaho's most successful rodeo cowboys, attorneys for his ex-wife say. The Albion resident, a 13-time qualifier for the National Finals Rodeo in saddle bronc riding, was diagnosed with throat cancer in April 2002 and died later that year in Burley at the age of 47. Now, Cooper's ex-wife, Susan Smith, on behalf of their son, Will, 9, is suing the manufacturer of Copenhagen. The lawsuit contends that the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. and its predecessors "hooked" Cooper on the product, and that they falsely stated for years that chewing tobacco wasn't addictive and there was no proof that it caused harm to people. What's particularly intriguing about the case is the close relationship between the smokeless tobacco industry and the sport of rodeo. The U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. is a major sponsor of both the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association, according to their Web sites. Many professional rodeo cowboys have individual sponsorship deals with the company. Some rodeo broncs and bulls are named after chewing tobacco products. Country singer Chris LeDoux, a rodeo icon, even [...]

3/13/2004 Honolulu, HA International Association for Dental Research, Annual Meeting presentation Detailed molecular analysis of tumors is now providing molecular portraits which show the genetic basis of the different clinical presentations of disease. This technology will help identify metastasis signatures and provide logical targets for drug discovery. This moves us closer to a time when we will treat patients based on the genetic profile of the tumor rather than the clinical presentation of the disease. Finding targets that are differentially expressed in cancer and normal tissue will also provide better tests for early diagnosis. There is also increasing interest in utilizing knowledge about tumor biology to address the vexing question as to why tumors recur despite seemingly adequate treatment. A new generation of ultra-sensitive diagnostics has highlighted the problem of subcutaneous foci of residual tumors that may remain at the operative site, or be disseminated throughout the body. These approaches have also revealed that the extent of spread of a precancerous patch is often much greater than previously realized. Long-term follow-up of cases screened by these molecular diagnostics suggests that detecting these troublesome foci of disease can help to identify individuals at risk of developing local and distant recurrence. In a Keynote Address during the 82nd General Session of the International Association for Dental Research, Dr. Maxine Partridge (King's College Hospital, London, UK) reports that a host of novel therapeutic strategies is now on the horizon for management of these problems. These include gene-mediated strategies to replace defective sequences, blocking [...]

2/29/2004 Houston, TX MD Anderson Cancer Center Press Release Nearly 38,000 men and women in this country will develop head and neck cancers in 2002, according to the American Cancer Society. Now, the first Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant to study these cancers has been awarded to a national cancer center. The National Cancer Institute recently presented M. D. Anderson with a $12 million SPORE grant to study head and neck cancers, which include cancers of the: * jaw * mouth * throat * nose * nasal cavity * salivary gland * sinuses * thyroid * larynx “M. D. Anderson has made great strides in treating head and neck cancer patients while maintaining quality of life for our patients,” says Dr. Waun Ki Hong, the lead investigator on M. D. Anderson's latest SPORE lire ici. Hong is head of the institution's Division of Cancer Medicine and chairman of the Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology. The grant's co-lead investigators are Drs. Reuben Lotan, professor of medicine, and Gary Clayman, professor of head and neck surgery, both in the Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology. “We are already hard at work, and with this addition, we hope to make more progress in reducing head and neck cancer and ensure that patients with these diseases receive state-of-the-art medical care with cutting-edge therapeutic approaches.” The head and neck SPORE grant will support research in five key areas: Genetic Susceptibility Markers: Although head and neck cancer is known to be [...]

2/28/2004 Baltimore, Maryland Michael Day New Scientist Print Edition Oral sex can lead to oral tumours. That is the conclusion of researchers who have proved what has long been suspected, that the human papilloma virus can cause oral cancers. The risk, thankfully, is tiny. Only around 1 in 10,000 people develop oral tumours each year, and most cases are probably caused by two other popular recreational pursuits: smoking and drinking. The researchers are not recommending any changes in behaviour. The human papilloma virus (HPV), an extremely common sexually transmitted infection, has long been known to cause cervical cancers. Several small studies have suggested it also plays a role in other cancers, including oral and anal cancers. "There has been tremendous interest for years on whether it has a role in other cancers. Many people were sceptical," says Raphael Viscidi, a virologist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, a member of the team that did the latest work. The researchers, working for the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France, compared 1670 patients who had oral cancer with 1732 healthy volunteers. The participants lived in Europe, Canada, Australia, Cuba and Sudan. HPV16, the strain seen most commonly in cervical cancer, was found in most of the oral cancers too. Antibodies against HPV The people with oral cancers containing the HPV16 strain were three times as likely to report having had oral sex as those whose tumour did not contain HPV16. There was no difference between [...]

2/18/2004 By Daniel DeNoon, Reviewed By Brunilda Nazario, MD WebMD Medical News Evidence Mounts: Aspirin Prevents Cancers of Esophagus, Blood Regular use of aspirin is a cost-effective way to prevent cancer of the esophagus. And it may also prevent Hodgkin's disease. The findings come from two separate reports in the Feb. 18 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The most provocative of these reports suggests that regular aspirin use may prevent Hodgkin's disease, a lymphoma or cancer of the white cells in the blood. The finding holds true only for aspirin and not for other drugs of its class such as ibuprofen. "If aspirin use is indeed found to protect against Hodgkin's lymphoma, this relationship could afford insight into the [cause] of the disease and offer possible clues toward its prevention," conclude Harvard researcher Ellen T. Chang, ScD, and colleagues. Regular use of another common pain reliever, acetaminophen (Tylenol), seemed to increase the odds of having Hodgkin's disease. It's not the first time acetaminophen has been linked to cancer. However, the researchers think this association is more likely due to the fact that people coming down with Hodgkin's disease may have used more pain relievers. In the second study, Massachusetts General Hospital researcher Chin Hur, MD, and colleagues find that aspirin is the key to preventing esophageal cancer. Hur's team looked at whether aspirin is a good way to prevent a condition known as Barrett's esophagus, a result of chronic acid reflux. People with Barrett's esophagus are [...]