10/25/2001 Jennifer Huget The Washington Post It's not every day a dentist gets to play Star Wars. But that's not why more than 30,000 dentists in the United States are deploying OralCDx, a new diagnostic tool that incorporates technology developed as part of the Strategic Defense Initiative. OralCDx, launched nationwide last year, offers dentists a better shot at catching oral cancer lesions while there's time to treat them. About 8,000 Americans die of oral cancer each year. Nearly 30,000 new cases are diagnosed annually, and only 53 percent of all oral cancer victims are still alive five years after diagnosis. But among those in whom the disease -- which is most common among tobacco users and heavy drinkers and is more common among men, people over 40 and African Americans -- is caught early, five-year survival rates soar to 88 percent. The problem has been that early stage oral cancer lesions look like benign mouth lesions, even to vigilant dentists. By the time a lesion becomes obviously, visibly cancerous, successful treatment is difficult. In the past, dentists have had to make tough choices: Should they perform traditional scalpel biopsies (or refer patients to oral surgeons for the procedure) on all of the estimated 5 percent to 15 percent of their patients who have oral lesions? At up to $300 per procedure, plus lab analysis fees of up to several hundred dollars, scalpel biopsy is costly. Plus, the procedure requires the uncomfortable surgical removal of chunks of tissue, and only a [...]

5/16/2001 San Francisco, CA Daniel Q. Haney Associated Press A gene-therapy mouthwash shows promise of warding off oral cancer by killing ominous growths before they turn malignant. The idea is to attack these pre-malignant patches by unleashing viruses programmed to kill cells with cancer-causing genes. The first study of this approach is still under way, but doctors said yesterday that it appears to work in at least some patients, making ominous patches in their mouths disappear completely. In the past 20 years, scientists have learned that all cancer arises from genetic defects that accumulate during a lifetime, causing cells to grow rampantly and spread in the body. With this insight came the belief that it might be possible to target these bad genes to stop cancer. This was once one of the hottest ideas in cancer research. But enthusiasm cooled as scientists hit roadblocks. One was reaching and killing every cancer cell. Even reaching 80 percent of the cells is not good enough, because the rest keep growing. So researchers decided that the mouth might be an excellent target for gene therapy, since the problem can be so easily reached. "The advantage is that it's where we can see it," said Dr. Ezra Cohen of the University of Chicago. "We can get to it, and the therapy does not get absorbed into the body." White or red patches in the mouth, so-called dysplastic lesions, frequently are a forerunner of malignancy and are common in smokers and heavy drinkers. These cells [...]

5/13/2001 Janet McConnaughey AP A simple genetic test can help doctors accurately predict whether people with common white patches inside their mouths are likely to develop deadly oral cancer. The technique developed at the University of Oslo could help physicians assess patients with the patches, called oral leukoplakia, so they can be treated early if cancer appears likely. "I think there is a message to physicians: Beware of white patches," said Dr. Jon Sudbo, whose study was published in Thursday's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. "There is a message to consumers and patients: Beware of white patches. And get them investigated." The key is the number of chromosomes in the cells that make up those patches. If it's the normal 46, cancer is unlikely. If the number is doubled, cancer is more likely. And it becomes very likely if the number cannot be divided evenly by 23, the number of chromosomes received from each parent. More than 300,000 people around the world, including about 30,000 in the United States, are diagnosed each year with oral cancer, making it the nation's No. 11 cancer and the ninth most common worldwide. More than half of those people die within five years, largely because the cancers are hard to diagnose early. The death rate hasn't changed in more than 20 years. Because there is no way to know which white patches will develop into cancer, doctors often remove them as a precaution. But there is also no good way to [...]

5/12/2001 San Francisco Deena Beasley Reuters An experimental drug that stimulates cell growth can reduce the duration of severe mouth sores in cancer patients undergoing toxic treatments like chemotherapy, researchers said on Saturday. "Currently, there are no approved or consistently effective treatments for severe mucositis. This is a potential breakthrough," said Dr. Ricardo Spielberger, a staff physician at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California, and lead investigator in a midstage clinical trial of the recombinant human keratinocyte growth factor, or KGF. KGF, a human protein shown to protect certain tissues from damage, is being developed by Amgen Inc., which sponsored the studies of the drug. Mucositis, or severe inflammation of mucous membranes in the mouth and throat, is a serious and painful side effect of cancer therapy. Patients who develop the condition have difficulty swallowing, eating, drinking and talking. The mouth sores cause pain and lower the quality of life for patients but also make them more susceptible to infection, the researchers said. "Mucous membranes are affected by toxic cancer therapies because they are fast-dividing cells -- like tumor cells," explained Dr. Patrick Stiff of Loyola University in Chicago, a co-author of the study. He said mouth sores were the No. 1 complaint of lymphoma patients who could be successfully treated with intense doses of radiation therapy followed by stem cell transplants. PROBLEM HALVED In a trial of 129 of these patients, those who received injections of KGF, both before and after undergoing cancer therapy, experienced [...]

5/10/2001 Journal of the National Cancer Institute The virus that causes most cases of cervical cancer has been linked to some head and neck cancers, particularly to cancer of the tonsils, according to an article published this month in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (JNCI, Vol. 92, No. 9). The findings are providing hope for treating a type of cancer that has not seen improvements in survival rates for the past three decades. The research by Maura Gillison, MD, and colleagues at Johns Hopkins Oncology Center, suggests some of the cancers that tested positive for the presence of the human papillomavirus (HPV) represent a distinct class of disease with a more favorable prognosis."We found that HPV-positive HNSCC [head and neck squamous cell carcinomas] had significantly improved disease-specific survival when compared with patients with HPV-negative tumors, even after adjustment for age, lymph node status and heavy alcohol consumption," the researchers wrote. What the Researchers Found Dr. Gillison and her colleagues tested tumor tissues from 253 patients with head and neck cancers and found 25 percent of the cases were HPV-positive. In 90 percent of those HPV-positive tumors, HPV16 - the type of the virus most often associated with cervical cancer - was present.Earlier research suggested a link between HPV and cancers of the tongue, tonsils and pharynx. This new study confirms a strong link between HPV and those cancers - particularly in cancer of the tonsils. "These findings are exciting because, in addition to providing a solid etiologic link [...]

4/26/2001 New England Journal of Medicine Risk of oral cancer can be predicted by the DNA content cells of oral leukoplakia, the most common premalignant lesion of the oral cavity. This finding marks an important advance in the molecular assessment of risk of oral carcinoma in patients with these white patches in their mouths. Such new molecular data have important implications for the standard of care these patients, redefining assessment of the risk and even helping to guide treatment. Oral cancer is the most common neoplasm of the head and neck, with an annual worldwide incidence of new cases exceeding 400,000. However, the five-year survival rate of less than 50 percent has not improved in more than two decades. Risk factors for oral carcinoma have previously been identified. Until now, there have been no reliable predictors of the outcome in individual patients with oral leukoplakia, which may develop into squamous-cell carcinoma. Participants in this study were 150 patients with oral leukoplakia classified as epithelial dysplasia. Researchers measured the nuclear DNA content (ploidy) of the lesions to determine whether DNA ploidy could be used to predict clinical outcome. Patients were followed for a mean of 8.6 years. The DNA content was found to be a powerful predictor of risk of malignant transformation at the site of the lesion. Of the dysplastic leukoplakias, 70 percent were low-risk diploid lesions, three percent of which progressed to cancer, 13 percent were intermediate-risk tetraploid lesions, 60 percent of which progressed to cancer; and 17 percent [...]

3/5/2001 NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net The on-again/off-again status of dietary fiber as a player in cancer prevention may be on again when it comes to cancers of the mouth, throat, and esophagus. Taking into consideration patients' age, gender, alcohol and/or tobacco use, education, and caloric intake, researchers in Italy report that the odds of developing oral, pharyngeal, and esophageal cancers were lower for study subjects who consumed more fiber in their diets. M. Soler and colleagues at Milan's Mario Negri Institute of Pharmacology Research based their conclusion on a food-frequency study of 902 cancer patients (271 with oral cancer, 327 with pharyngeal cancer, 304 with esophageal cancer) and 1,950 patients with acute, non-cancerous disease who served as controls ("Fiber intake and the risk of oral, pharyngeal and esophageal cancer," International Journal of Cancer, February 1, 2001;91(3):283-287). Fruit fiber conferred the highest protective value, followed by grain, then vegetable fiber. By fiber constituents, highest to lowest protective values were conferred by cellulose, insoluble non-cellulose polysaccharide, total (Englyst) fiber, lignin, soluble fiber, and total insoluble fiber. In October 2000, researchers reported in the journal The Lancet, that dietary fiber may be linked to increased recurrence of benign colorectal growths that often are precursors of cancerous tumors. The corresponding author for this study is C. Bosetti, Mario Negri Institute of Pharmacology Research, Via Eritrea 62, I-20157 Milan, Italy. Key points reported in this study include: * Dietary fiber may offer some protection against development of oral, throat, and esophageal cancers * Fruit fiber offers [...]

1/15/2001 Ohio Nancy Volkers InteliHealth News Service New information suggests that an ingredient still found in some dental products can increase the risk of potentially cancerous lesions. A study by researchers at Ohio State University found that people who used an older formulation of Viadent products (toothpaste and/or mouth rinse) were, on average, nearly 10 times more likely to develop the lesions - known as oral leukoplakia - than people who had never used the products. Sanguinarine, an antibacterial agent that comes from Sanguinaria canadensis, or bloodroot, was once a key ingredient in Viadent products but has been removed. The products are produced by Colgate-Palmolive. "The sanguinarine was the only thing we could identify that made [the Viadent products] unique," said Carl M. Allen, professor of oral pathology and dentistry at Ohio State University, who conducted the study with two colleagues. The researchers examined 148 people diagnosed with leukoplakia lesions in 1997 and 1998, and compared them with 148 people who did not have leukoplakia. Each patient was asked about tobacco use, alcohol use and the use of Viadent products. Tobacco and alcohol use both are linked to the development of leukoplakia, which can lead to oral cancer. The study showed that people who had used Viadent products were 9.7 times more likely to have been diagnosed with leukoplakia than with people who had not used the products. People who used the Viadent products several times each day were more likely than those who used it less frequently to be [...]