Coffee and tea consumption and the risk of head and neck cancer: An updated pooled analysis in the International Head and Neck Cancer Epidemiology Consortium.

Introduction: The relations between coffee and tea consumption and head and neck cancer (HNC) incidence are unclear. With increasing global HNC burden, this study aims to examine the association between coffee, tea, and HNC.

Methods: A pooled analysis of 9548 HNC cases and 15,783 controls from 14 individual-level case-control studies was conducted from the International Head and Neck Cancer Epidemiology consortium.

Five-year outcomes of an oropharynx-directed treatment approach for unknown primary of the head and neck.

Purpose: Squamous cell carcinoma of unknown primary (SCCHNUP) is commonly treated with comprehensive radiation to the laryngopharynx and bilateral necks. In 1998, we established a departmental policy to treat SCCHNUP with radiation directed to the oropharynx and bilateral neck.

Methods: From 1998-2011, 60 patients were treated - N1: 18%, N2: 75% and N3: 7%.

Low rates of contralateral neck failure in unilaterally treated oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma with prospectively defined criteria of lateralization.

Background: Unilateral radiotherapy (RT) of oropharyngeal carcinomas is accepted for patients with lateralized primary and low-volume nodal disease. Utilizing prospectively defined criteria of laterality and staging positron emission tomography (PET)/CT, we studied outcomes in patients with advanced-stage oropharyngeal cancer undergoing unilateral RT.

Methods: Thirty-seven patients with oropharyngeal tumors >1 cm from midline regardless of node status underwent unilateral RT and were followed prospectively.

Molecular target based combinational therapeutic approaches in thyroid cancer.

Background: Thyroid cancer, as with other types of cancer, is dependent on angiogenesis for its continued growth and development. Interestingly, estrogen has been shown to contribute to thyroid cancer aggressiveness in vitro, which is in full support of the observed increased incidence of thyroid cancer in women over men. Provided that estrogen has been observed to contribute to increased angiogenesis of estrogen responsive breast cancer, it is conceivable to speculate that estrogen also contributes to angiogenesis of estrogen responsive thyroid cancer.

Reduced Cx43 gap junction plaque expression differentiates thyroid carcinomas from benign disease.

Objective: To investigate the expression of connexin 43 (Cx43) in benign vs malignant thyroid tissue for potential use as a diagnostic marker.

Design: Retrospective study.

Subjects: Thyroid specimens were obtained from 50 patients who underwent partial or total thyroidectomy at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, New York, New York, between 1999 and 2007.

Improved survival among patients with base of tongue and tonsil cancer in the United States.

Objective: To examine if survival has changed over the last 20 years in patients with base of tongue and tonsil cancers in the United States.

Methods: Using SEER data, we employed Kaplan-Meier method to draw survival curves and calculate survival rates, and estimated adjusted hazard ratios (HR).

Results: From the 1980s to the 2000s, the 5-year overall survival rates statistically significantly improved by 100% from 25 to 51% among patients with one primary base of tongue cancer and 28-60% among those with one primary tonsil cancer (p values for trend <0.

Estradiol-mediated tumor neo-vascularization.

Neo-vascularization is essential for tumor growth and metastasis and is presumably initiated by bone marrow-derived endothelial progenitor cells (BM-EPCs). These cells predominantly reside in the bone marrow and are recruited at sites of inflammation, tissue damage and tumors. The tissue-specific factors responsible for recruitment of BM-EPCs and neo-vascularization are the subject of intense investigation.

Estrogen induced metastatic modulators MMP-2 and MMP-9 are targets of 3,3'-diindolylmethane in thyroid cancer.

Background: Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine related cancer with increasing incidences during the past five years. Current treatments for thyroid cancer, such as surgery or radioactive iodine therapy, often require patients to be on lifelong thyroid hormone replacement therapy and given the significant recurrence rates of thyroid cancer, new preventive modalities are needed. The present study investigates the property of a natural dietary compound found in cruciferous vegetables, 3,3'-diindolylmethane (DIM), to target the metastatic phenotype of thyroid cancer cells through a functional estrogen receptor.

3,3'-diindolylmethane modulates estrogen metabolism in patients with thyroid proliferative disease: a pilot study.

Background: The incidence of thyroid cancer is four to five times higher in women than in men, suggesting a role for estrogen (E₂) in the pathogenesis of thyroid proliferative disease (TPD) that comprises cancer and goiter. The objective of this study was to investigate the antiestrogenic activity of 3,3'-diindolylmethane (DIM), a bioactive compound derived from cruciferous vegetables, in patients with TPD.

Methods: In this limited phase I clinical trial study, patients found to have TPD were administered 300 mg of DIM per day for 14 days.

3,3'-diindolylmethane inhibits migration and invasion of human cancer cells through combined suppression of ERK and AKT pathways.

Metastasis of cancer is a multifactorial disease and is the main cause of death in patients with malignancy. This disease demands treatments which may target multiple dysregulated cellular pathways in cancer cells. The anti-tumor and anti-metastatic properties of natural products in cancer prevention have been confirmed by several epidemiological studies, with cruciferous vegetables being especially protective against many cancers.

Population-based analysis of oral and oropharyngeal carcinoma: changing trends of histopathologic differentiation, survival and patient demographics.

Objectives/hypothesis: To examine demographic, histologic, and survival trends of oral cavity and oropharyngeal (OC/OP) squamous cell carcinoma (SCCA) patients over the past 3 decades. To test the hypothesis that decreased histologic differentiation and increased disease-specific survival is related to a decline in smoking rates and an increased percentage of human papillomavirus (HPV)-related tumors.

Study Design: Retrospective cohort analysis was done using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End-Results (SEER) database of the national cancer institute.

Thyroid cancer incidence and survival in the national cancer institute surveillance, epidemiology, and end results race/ethnicity groups.

Background: Thyroid cancer incidence has continuously increased for decades and the causes of this increase are still controversial. The objective of this study was to examine if the increased trend is different among the different National Cancer Institute (NCI) Race/Ethnicity Groups (REGs) within the NCI surveillance epidemiology and end results database for the United States.

Methods: Using recent 13-year surveillance epidemiology and end results data, we described the specific incidence trend of thyroid cancer for the REGs by tumor size, tested the statistical significance of the trend of incidence, and estimated the annual percentage change (APC) and 95% confidence interval.

Five-year survival rates and time trends of laryngeal cancer in the US population.

Objectives: To provide comprehensive temporal trend analysis of 5-year relative survival rates of laryngeal cancer using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database; and to expand on prior reports by including inclusion of laryngeal tumor location, stage, age at diagnosis, treatment strategy, and histologic grade.

Design: Retrospective cohort analysis using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database of the National Cancer Institute. The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results data were used to design 5 cohorts of patients with laryngeal cancer: 1977-1978, 1983-1984, 1989-1990, 1995-1996, and 2001-2002.

A hormonal association between estrogen metabolism and proliferative thyroid disease.

Objective: To illustrate a relationship between proliferative thyroid disease and estrogen metabolism through the analysis of urinary estrogen metabolites.

Study Design And Setting: Case-control study of 49 subjects with proliferative thyroid disorders and matching them to 49 controls. Urinary estrogen metabolite ratios were obtained, measuring 2-hydroxyestrone, an anti-proliferative metabolite, to 16alpha-hydroxyestrone, a proliferative metabolite.

Incidences and trends of second cancers in female breast cancer patients: a fixed inception cohort-based analysis (United States).

Objective: To determine incidences and time trends of second cancers among female breast cancer patients.

Methods: Using data of the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program, we designed three inception cohorts: 1975-1977 (n=25,920), 1983-1985 (n=32,722) and 1991-1993 (n=40,819), and analyzed their incidences of second cancers during the first 8 years after initial breast cancer diagnosis.

Results: Between the 1970s and the 1990s, the incidence rate of malignant second cancer significantly increased among female breast cancer patients, of which second non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and kidney cancer increased by about 150%, while second cancers of the thyroid, uterine corpus and skin melanoma increased 80%, and cancer of the lung increased 50%.

Planned neck dissection after concomitant radiochemotherapy for advanced head and neck cancer.

Objectives/hypothesis: Since 1998, at our academic, multidisciplinary head and neck cancer treatment center, it has been our policy to treat appropriate patients with locoregionally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) with concomitant radiochemotherapy followed within 6 weeks by planned neck dissection(s). Our objective was to investigate the oncologic efficacy of planned neck dissection, to date, in this patient population with a focus on outcomes in the neck.

Study Design: Retrospective analysis of a cumulative patient database.

The fluorescence of thyroid tissue.

Objective: To investigate the fluorescent characteristics of different thyroid tissues.

Study Design: Fresh ex vivo thyroid tissue was surfaced scanned with a fluorescence spectrophotometer. Resultant spectra were evaluated via interpeak ratios.

Detection of UGT1A10 polymorphisms and their association with orolaryngeal carcinoma risk.

Background: UGT1A10 exhibits glucuronidating activity against metabolites of the tobacco smoke carcinogen, benzo(a)pyrene, and is expressed highly in numerous target tissues for tobacco-related cancers including the upper aerodigestive tract. The current study was conducted to determine the prevalence of genetic polymorphisms in the UGT1A10-specific region of the UDP-glucuronosyltransferase family 1A locus and their relationship with risk for orolaryngeal carcinoma.

Methods: The authors analyzed UGT1A10-specific sequences in a population of black, white, and Asian individuals.

Epoxide hydrolase genotype and orolaryngeal cancer risk: interaction with GSTM1 genotype.

The human microsomal epoxide hydrolase (EH) gene contains polymorphic alleles which are associated with altered EH activity and may be linked to increased risk for tobacco-related cancers. The objective was to examine the role of EH polymorphisms in orolaryngeal cancer risk. The prevalence of the EH codons 113 and 139 polymorphisms were examined in 81 African American and 142 Caucasian incident orolaryngeal cancer patients and 335 controls frequency-matched on age, sex, and race.

Noninvasive native fluorescence imaging of head and neck tumors.

Fluorescence images were acquired from ex vivo head and neck tumor specimens. The excitation and emission wavelength combinations were selected to image emission from native tissue fluorophores (collagen, tryptophan, elastin and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide). Two dimensional intensity ratio maps were generated from the fluorescence images and compared to histology images.

Genetic differences detected by comparative genomic hybridization in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas from different tumor sites: construction of oncogenetic trees for tumor progression.

For a better understanding of genetic alterations in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), we applied comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) in the analysis of 75 HNSCCs, comprised of 18 pharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas (PSCCs), 23 laryngeal squamous cell carcinomas (LSCCs), and 34 oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCCs). The three subgroups of HNSCC showed significant differences in genetic alteration patterns. Overall, PSCC and LSCC had more copy number aberrations (CNAs) per tumor than did OSCC.

Head and neck cancer incidence trends in young Americans, 1973-1997, with a special analysis for tongue cancer.

Objective: To examine the temporal changes in head and neck cancer in young adults in the United States.

Methods: Using the cancer surveillance database from the National Cancer Institute Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program, we calculated age-adjusted incidence rates for head and neck cancers. Using the joinpoint regression model, we described tongue cancer incidence trends and established the statistical significance of temporal changes.