October 6, 2008, 10:24 PM CT

Disparities in head and neck cancer patients

A new analysis finds considerable disparities in survival correlation to race and socio-economic status among patients with head and neck cancer. Reported in the November 15, 2008 issue of CANCER, a peer-evaluated journal of the American Cancer Society, the study indicates that earlier diagnosis and greater access to therapy could improve outcomes for these cancers among African Americans and the poor.

Many studies have examined disparities in cancer survival among different groups to help identify interventions to improve patient outcomes. To investigate factors that impact survival from head and neck cancer, Dr. Leonidas Koniaris and his colleagues at the University of Miami School of Medicine evaluated all head and neck cancer cases in Florida between 1998 and 2002. By mining information from the Florida Cancer Data System and the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration dataset, they were able to accumulate data on diagnoses, comorbid conditions, and procedures performed during every hospitalization or outpatient visit among 20,915 head and neck cancer patients during that time.

The review found poorer outcomes were linked to race, poverty, age, gender, tumor site and stage, therapy type, and a history of smoking and alcohol consumption.

Regarding race, the average survival time among Hispanics was 47 months, compared with 40 months among Caucasians and 21 months among African Americans. African American patients were diagnosed at a younger age and presented with more advanced disease compared with Caucasians. For all tumor stages, African American patients had a significantly shorter average survival time than Caucasians, regardless of poverty level. Treatments also differed between these two races: Caucasians were more likely than African Americans to have undergone surgery (45 percent vs. 32 percent), while African Americans were more likely than Caucasians to receive chemotherapy (26 percent vs. 19 percent) and radiation (66 percent vs. 56 percent). However, even among patients who received surgery, African Americans had a shorter survival time than Caucasians......... Posted by: Andria      Read more         Source

September 24, 2008, 6:17 PM CT

Molecular imaging technology for gastric cancer

Modern cancer care is critically dependent on imaging technologies, which are used to detect early tumors and guide their therapy or surgery. Molecular imaging technologies provide information about the functional or metabolic characteristics of malignancies, tumor stage and therapeutical response, and tumor recurrence; whereas conventional imaging technologies predominantly assess the tumor's anatomical or morphologic features including its size, density, shape, etc.

The research team led by Dr. Sun used PET/CT, which is based on information about the functional or metabolic characteristics of malignancies, to study the early recurrence in gastric cancer patients with suspected recurrence and in asymptomatic patients with gastric cancer. This will be published on Augest 7, 2008 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology address this question.

PET/CT was positive in 14 patients and negative in 9 patients. When correlated with final diagnosis, which was confirmed by histopathologic evidence of tumor recurrence in 8 of the 23 patients and by clinical follow-up in 15. Overall, the accuracy of PET/CT was 82.6%, negative predictive value was 77.7%, and positive predictive value was 85.7%. Especially, PET/CT revealed true-positive findings in 47.8% patients who had negative or no definite findings by computed tomography. PET/CT demonstrated extra-abdomen metastasis in 7 patients and additional esophageal carcinoma in one patient. Clinical decisions of treatment were changed in 30.4% patients after introducing PET/CT into their conventional post-operative follow-up program......... Posted by: Andria      Read more         Source

September 22, 2008, 10:35 PM CT

Proton therapy lowers chance of later cancers

Boston Patients who are treated with proton treatment (a specialized type of external beam radiation treatment using protons rather than X-rays to treat cancer) decreases the risk of patients developing a secondary cancer by two hundred percent, in comparison to being treated with standard photon radiation therapy, as per a first-of-its-kind study presented September 22, 2008, at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology's 50th Annual Meeting in Boston.

This study contradicts recent theories that have suggested that proton radiation might actually increase instead of decrease the occurence rate of secondary cancers because of what is called scatter radiation. When proton radiation is delivered, neutrons are produced by nuclear interactions and are therefore scattered as a result.

"This study could have a substantial impact on the care of patients," Nancy Tarbell, M.D., senior author of the study and a radiation oncologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, said. "Since cancer patients are surviving for longer periods of time, side effects of treatment are becoming increasingly important for doctors to consider when developing therapy plans. Since this is a retrospective study, however, we will need additional studies to further prove this hypothesis"......... Posted by: Andria      Read more         Source

September 10, 2008, 7:31 PM CT

As head and neck cancer risks evolve

Advances in understanding head and neck cancer over the last decade have led to more therapy options and improved quality of life for patients, as per a review published this week in the New England Journal (NEJM)

The authors are Dong M. Shin, MD, Frances Kelly Blomeyer Distinguished Professor and associate director of Emory University School of Medicines Winship Cancer Institute, and Robert Haddad, MD, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and clinical director of its Head and Neck Oncology Program.

At Winship, Shin is leading a head and neck cancer drug discovery program and conducting clinical trials aimed at preventing head and neck cancers from progressing or recurring. He and his co-workers recently showed that a compound from green tea enhances the effects of a FDA-approved drug (erlotinib) against head and neck cancer cells in animals, suggesting that it could work similarly in humans. The results are reported in the recent issue of International Journal of Cancer.

The majority of head and neck cancers arise from the soft tissues of the mouth, throat, and voice box. Symptoms can include a sore throat, difficulty swallowing, and a changing voice.

Even successful therapy can result in changes in the appearance of the patient's face. However, over the last decade, techniques have been developed that allow doctors to better preserve organ function in cases of larynx or tongue cancers, Shin says......... Posted by: Andria      Read more         Source

September 9, 2008, 9:40 PM CT

Clon cancer and gatekeeper gene

The absence or inactivation of the RUNX3 gatekeeper gene paves the way for the growth and development of colon cancer, Singapore researchers report in the Sept. issue of the journal Cancer Cell Prior studies have shown that RUNX3 plays a role in gastric, breast, lung and bladder cancers.

The inactivation of RUNX3 occurs at a very early stage of colon cancer, as per the Singapore scientists' studies with human tissue samples and animal models.

Because the inactivation of RUNX3 is relatively easy to detect, and it is possible that inactivated RUNX3 can be reactivated, this new research may prove to be a crucial step in the development of an early diagnostic test as well as a therapeutic target for colon cancer.

Previous to these new findings, researchers knew that a tumor suppressor gene called APC is disrupted in most cases of human colon cancer. APC disruption activates bete-catenin and TCF4, a protein complex that plays an important role in cancer development. For decades, this has been considered the molecular basis for colon cancer.

These latest findings are the first to show that the activity of beta- catenin/TCF4 also is inhibited by RUNX3.

The Singapore researchers are based at the National University of Singapore's (NUS) Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB), one of the 14 research institutes under the country's Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)......... Posted by: Andria      Read more         Source

July 30, 2008, 0:11 AM CT

Adult survivors of childhood cancer smoke

One-fifth of British adult survivors of childhood cancers are current smokers, and nearly a third have been regular smokers at some point in their lives, as per a research studyin the July 29 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute

Adult survivors of childhood cancer are at increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease, lung problems, and second malignancies, relative to the general public. These increased risks are due to long-term effects of the original cancer and its therapy, as well as to genetic conditions that predispose the survivors to multiple cancers. Smoking would be an additional source of risk for this population.

To learn what fraction of adult survivors are current smokers or have smoked regularly in the past, Clare Frobisher, Ph.D., of the University of Birmingham, UK, and his colleagues sent surveys to all those who could be contacted from among 14,836 eligible survivors of childhood cancer in the National Registry of Childhood Tumors. To be eligible for the study, survivors had to have been diagnosed with their primary cancer between 1940 and 1991 and be aged 16 years or older at the time of the survey. Of those survivors, 10,326 returned completed study questionnaires and were included in the current analysis......... Posted by: Andria      Read more         Source

July 20, 2008, 2:30 PM CT

Mechanism that regulates cell movement

A study performed by scientists at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), in collaboration with scientists at the Instituto de Biologa Molecular of the CSIC, reveal a mechanism that controls the movement of cells in a tissue by regulating cell adhesion. This same mechanism may be defective in diseases such as cancer and its metastasis, when tumour cells lose their adhesion to neighbouring cells and migrate through the organism. The results of this research have been published in this week's Nature Cell Biology

Specialists in development, Daniel Shaye, Jordi Casanova and Marta Llimargas, have studied the mechanisms that control cell movements during trachea development in the fly Drosophila. In this process, cells that initially form column of two cells deep, change their position to line up one after the other in a single file. A key element in the regulation of these movements is the amount of adhesive protein E-Cadherin located in the cellular membrane. Jordi Casanova, head of the Morphogenesis in Drosophila at IRB Barcelona, explains that "when movement starts, the levels of this protein in the cells decrease, thereby allowing them to slide one on top of the other, and once in this position the levels of this protein are re-established in order to seal the new binding alignment". The in-depth study of this phenomenon has led to the finding that the amount of E-Cadherin on the cell surface is controlled by the trafficking of this protein inside the cell and the identification of the elements that regulate this transport. During the experiments, the scientists induced or blocked cell movement by modifying the elements that control the trafficking of adhesive protein towards the membrane. "We demonstrate a mechanism that explains how cells can change their position within a given tissue. The sequence is clear: the greater the amount of protein, the greater the adhesion and the smaller the movement", recaps Casanova......... Posted by: Andria      Read more         Source

July 16, 2008, 8:30 PM CT

Predicting outcomes for stomach cancer patients

Scientists at Rhode Island Hospital have identified two potential molecular markers that may predict outcomes for patients with stomach cancer, one of the most common and fatal cancers worldwide.

As per the study, reported in the July 1 issue of Clinical Cancer Research, patients who had poor outcomes following surgery for stomach cancer also had extremely low amounts of two proteins, known as gastrokine 1 and 2 (GKN1 and GKN2), which are produced by normal stomach cells.

The study's findings confirm prior research showing that once stomach cells become malignant, they manufacture very low amounts of GKN1 and GKN2. However, this is the first known study to link these low protein levels with outcomes following stomach cancer surgery. Scientists say this discovery could eventually help physicians better determine and individualize treatment for stomach cancer, including which patients should be offered chemotherapy and other therapys in addition to surgery.

"Unfortunately, stomach cancer is difficult to cure unless it's discovered early, but because the early stage of the disease has very few symptoms, the cancer is commonly advanced by the time it's diagnosed," says lead author Steven Moss, MD, a gastroenterologist with Rhode Island Hospital and an associate professor of medicine at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University......... Posted by: Andria      Read more         Source

July 7, 2008, 9:53 PM CT

Cancer preventive properties of Resveratrol

Early laboratory research has shown that resveratrol, a common dietary supplement, suppresses the abnormal cell formation that leads to most types of breast cancer, suggesting a potential role for the agent in breast cancer prevention.

Resveratrol is a natural substance found in red wine and red grapes. It is sold in extract form as a dietary supplement at most major drug stores.

"Resveratrol has the ability to prevent the first step that occurs when estrogen starts the process that leads to cancer by blocking the formation of the estrogen DNA adducts. We think that this could stop the whole progression that leads to breast cancer down the road," said Eleanor G. Rogan, Ph.D., a professor in the Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer and Allied Diseases at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

Rogan was the lead author of the report that was reported in the July 2008 issue of Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

For the current study, Rogan and his colleagues measured the effect of resveratrol on cellular functions known to contribute to breast cancer.

The formation of breast cancer is a multi-step process which differs depending on type of disease, a patient's genetic makeup and other factors. However, researchers know that a number of breast cancers are fueled by increased estrogen, which collects and reacts with DNA molecules to form adducts. Rogan and his colleagues observed that resveratrol was able to suppress the formation of these DNA adducts......... Posted by: Andria      Read more         Source

July 1, 2008, 9:43 PM CT

Cancer cells revert to normal at specific signal threshold

Cancer starts when key cellular signals run amok, driving uncontrolled cell growth. But researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine report that lowering levels of one cancer signal under a specific threshold reverses this process in mice, returning tumor cells to their normal, healthy state. The finding could help target cancer chemotherapy to tumors while minimizing side effects for the body's healthy cells.

The scientists identified a precise threshold level of the signaling molecule Myc that determined the fate of tumor cells in a cancer of the immune system in mice. Above the threshold, high levels of Myc drove immune cells to grow too large and multiply uncontrollably. When the scientists lowered Myc levels below the threshold, the same cells shrank to normal size, stopped multiplying and began dying normally.

"This is a new concept," said Catherine Shachaf, PhD, an instructor in microbiology and immunology who shared lead authorship of the study with colleague Andrew Gentles, PhD, a research associate in radiology. Prior research demonstrated that turning Myc and other cancer signals all the way off can kill a tumor, but this is the first time researchers have demonstrated a specific midway point at which a cancer signal reverted to a healthy level, Shachaf said. The findings would be reported in the July 1 issue of Cancer Research........ Posted by: Andria      Read more         Source