- Email: [email protected]
JADA EDITOR TAKES NEW POST
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JADA EDITOR TAKES NEW POST
r. Michael Glick, editor of The Journal of the American Dental Association, has left New Jersey and moved west. In January, Dr. Glick took on two roles at A.T. Still University in Mesa, Ariz.: professor of oral medicine, Arizona School of Dentistry & Oral Health, and associate dean for oral-medical sciences, College of Osteopathic Medicine. The JADA editorial office has relocated to A.T. Still University as well; the phone number is 1-480-219-6101. However, all manuscript submissions still should be made via JADA Manuscript Central at “https://mc.manuscriptcentral. com/jada”, and the office’s e-mail address remains “[email protected]”.
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STEM CELL MARKER IDENTIFIED IN HEAD, NECK CANCER
esearchers have identified a marker on head and neck tumor cells that indicates which cells are capable of promoting the cancer’s growth. The finding, which appeared in the Jan. 16 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the first evidence of cancer stem cells in head and neck tumors. Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Ann Arbor, and Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, Calif., took tumor samples from patients undergoing surgery for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, including cancers of the tongue, larynx, throat and sinus. They separated cells from the samples according to
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whether they expressed a marker on their surface called CD44. They then implanted the sorted cells into immune-deficient mice to grow tumors. The cells that expressed CD44 were able to grow new tumors, while the cells that did not express CD44 were not. Researchers found that the tumors that grew were identical to the original tumors and contained cells that expressed CD44, as well as cells that did not. This ability to both selfrenew and produce different types of cells is a hallmark of stem cells. The percentage of cells within a tumor expressing CD44 varied from one sample to the next, with one sample having as high as 40 percent of these cells. Studies in other cancer types have found the stem cell population to be less than 5 percent. “The CD44-positive cells contain the tumorigenic cells, but we don’t think that’s a pure population of cancer stem cells,” said lead author Mark Prince, MD, assistant professor of otolaryngology, University of Michigan Medical School, and section chief of otolaryngology, VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System. “We still need to drill down further to find the subpopulation of those cells that is the pure version.” OLDER PATIENTS NOT LIKELY TO DISCUSS COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE WITH PHYSICIANS
ixty-nine percent of people 50 years or older who use complementary and alternative medicine do not mention it to their physicians, according to a survey conducted by AARP and the National Center for Com-
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plementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health. Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices and products that are not considered to be part of conventional medicine. It includes such products and practices as herbal supplements, meditation, homeopathy and acupuncture. A telephone survey, administered to a nationally representative group of 1,559 people aged 50 years or older, examined conversations between patients and their physicians regarding CAM use. The most frequently cited reasons for why doctor-patient dialogue was lacking were doctors never asked (42 percent), patients did not know they should discuss it (30 percent) and there was not enough time during the office visit (19 percent). Additional barriers included respondents’ perceptions that doctors were unwilling to discuss CAM therapies or would react negatively to disclosure of CAM use. The study also found other communication differences across demographic groups. Men who had seen a doctor were more likely than women to not discuss CAM because their doctors never asked (46 percent versus 38 percent). Women were more likely than men to have discussed CAM use (26 percent versus 16 percent) and what types of therapies to use (70 percent versus 51 percent). In addition, people with incomes of $75,000 or higher (31 percent) or $25,000 to $49,999 (25 percent) frequently discussed CAM use with doctors. Nearly three-fourths of re-
http://jada.ada.org March 2007 Copyright ©2007 American Dental Association. All rights reserved.
E
W
S
JADA EDITOR TAKES NEW POST
r. Michael Glick, editor of The Journal of the American Dental Association, has left New Jersey and moved west. In January, Dr. Glick took on two roles at A.T. Still University in Mesa, Ariz.: professor of oral medicine, Arizona School of Dentistry & Oral Health, and associate dean for oral-medical sciences, College of Osteopathic Medicine. The JADA editorial office has relocated to A.T. Still University as well; the phone number is 1-480-219-6101. However, all manuscript submissions still should be made via JADA Manuscript Central at “https://mc.manuscriptcentral. com/jada”, and the office’s e-mail address remains “[email protected]”.
D
STEM CELL MARKER IDENTIFIED IN HEAD, NECK CANCER
esearchers have identified a marker on head and neck tumor cells that indicates which cells are capable of promoting the cancer’s growth. The finding, which appeared in the Jan. 16 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the first evidence of cancer stem cells in head and neck tumors. Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Ann Arbor, and Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, Calif., took tumor samples from patients undergoing surgery for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, including cancers of the tongue, larynx, throat and sinus. They separated cells from the samples according to
R
296
JADA, Vol. 138
whether they expressed a marker on their surface called CD44. They then implanted the sorted cells into immune-deficient mice to grow tumors. The cells that expressed CD44 were able to grow new tumors, while the cells that did not express CD44 were not. Researchers found that the tumors that grew were identical to the original tumors and contained cells that expressed CD44, as well as cells that did not. This ability to both selfrenew and produce different types of cells is a hallmark of stem cells. The percentage of cells within a tumor expressing CD44 varied from one sample to the next, with one sample having as high as 40 percent of these cells. Studies in other cancer types have found the stem cell population to be less than 5 percent. “The CD44-positive cells contain the tumorigenic cells, but we don’t think that’s a pure population of cancer stem cells,” said lead author Mark Prince, MD, assistant professor of otolaryngology, University of Michigan Medical School, and section chief of otolaryngology, VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System. “We still need to drill down further to find the subpopulation of those cells that is the pure version.” OLDER PATIENTS NOT LIKELY TO DISCUSS COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE WITH PHYSICIANS
ixty-nine percent of people 50 years or older who use complementary and alternative medicine do not mention it to their physicians, according to a survey conducted by AARP and the National Center for Com-
S
plementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health. Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices and products that are not considered to be part of conventional medicine. It includes such products and practices as herbal supplements, meditation, homeopathy and acupuncture. A telephone survey, administered to a nationally representative group of 1,559 people aged 50 years or older, examined conversations between patients and their physicians regarding CAM use. The most frequently cited reasons for why doctor-patient dialogue was lacking were doctors never asked (42 percent), patients did not know they should discuss it (30 percent) and there was not enough time during the office visit (19 percent). Additional barriers included respondents’ perceptions that doctors were unwilling to discuss CAM therapies or would react negatively to disclosure of CAM use. The study also found other communication differences across demographic groups. Men who had seen a doctor were more likely than women to not discuss CAM because their doctors never asked (46 percent versus 38 percent). Women were more likely than men to have discussed CAM use (26 percent versus 16 percent) and what types of therapies to use (70 percent versus 51 percent). In addition, people with incomes of $75,000 or higher (31 percent) or $25,000 to $49,999 (25 percent) frequently discussed CAM use with doctors. Nearly three-fourths of re-
http://jada.ada.org March 2007 Copyright ©2007 American Dental Association. All rights reserved.