July 2008 – Page 2 – Oral Cancer News

Tobacco: What Is It and Why Do People Continue to Use It?

Source: RedOrbit.com Author: Paul C. Lewis In this issue of Medsurg Nursing, we are fortunate to have an article written by a nursing expert in the areas of tobacco use, addiction, and abstinence. Dr. Lewis provides an overview of the prevalence of tobacco use and the risks of exposure to tobacco and second-hand smoke for both adults and adolescents. He explains the challenges surrounding smoking cessation and encourages abstinence, starting at the grade school level. He concludes by emphasizing that nurses can provide a vital role in addressing this continued public health crisis. Additionally, Web sites that contain valuable information regarding smoking are included. Cigarette smoking among adults has remained at about 20.8% since 2004 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2005b). Those most likely to smoke include men, adults less than age 40, and those living below the poverty line. American Indians/ Alaskan Natives smoke at a much higher rate (32.4%) than non- Hispanic Blacks (23.0%), non-Hispanic Whites (21.9%), or Hispanics (15.2%). Cigarette smoking among adolescents has stopped declining since 2005 at a level of 23% (CDC, 2005c, 2005d). Adolescent males and females are equally likely to smoke (22.9% vs. 23.0%), with White adolescents smoking more often (25.9%) than Hispanic (22.0%) or non- Hispanic Black (12.9%) adolescents. While most people recognize the harmful effects of tobacco use, and particularly smoking, few are able to quit easily. Relapse is common among people trying to quit, with up to a 80% relapse rate (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-07-28T14:09:43-07:00July, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

Hopkins Doctor Urges Early Diagnosis To Avoid Cancer’s “Forgotten Killer”

Source: Medical, Health News and Articles (03530.com/2008/08/25) Author: staff On average, two Marylanders each day are diagnosed with potentially fatal oral cancers that are often curable if identified and treated early. The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Office of Oral Health reports that the state ranks in the country’s top 10 for number of deaths caused by oral cancers. Nationally, statistics show that the death rate from these cancers is higher than those of cervical cancer, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, testicular cancer, and thyroid and malignant melanoma. A sore in the mouth that doesn’t heal could be a warning sign of oral cancer, which kills more than 8,000 people a year. Of the 34,000 Americans newly diagnosed with oral cancer annually, only half will be alive in five years. According to the American Dental Association, early diagnosis and treatment could boost that rate to 75 or 80 percent. John O’Brien, 70, who had not smoked a cigarette in 33 years, was adamant about maintaining proper oral hygiene. But, in 2007, O’Brien, a national sales manager for an advertising agency, father of four and a grandfather of five, found a small lump that turned out to be a cancerous tumor at the base of his tongue. After 45 radiation treatments and six chemotherapy sessions, O’Brien says he is grateful to be alive. “I was just in disbelief. Nobody wants to hear that they have cancer,” says O’Brien. “But, for me I was lucky because the doctors caught it quickly.” “Often, oral [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-07-27T19:25:52-07:00July, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

Armstrong’s cancer summit puts spotlight on survivors

Source: Columbus Dispath (www.columbusdispatch.com) Author: Misti Crane Surgical scars have begun to fade. Chemo and radiation are a memory. The cancer appears destroyed. “The scariest moment is when all the treatment is over and they close that door,” Jeanette Ferguson said today as she stood outside Ohio State's Mershon Auditorium during a morning break in the Lance Armstrong Foundation's Livestrong Summit. Ferguson is one of a thousand people here this weekend who wants to give voice to a community of millions and sculpt a polished and sound cancer-care network from its uneven and, at times, weak existence. Her cancer bio: oral cancer, 2002, advanced, no known risk factors, treated at the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital with a protocol so aggressive that only the strongest of patients can withstand its side effects. She was 26 and had a 50-50 chance of living. She is, to use the term so often employed with this disease, a survivor. That idea is taking a new shape. People are talking about what that really means. This morning, former Surgeon General Richard Carmona told delegates to the summit that survivorship is often forgotten. “It's like dropping a citizen in a wilderness without a map or a compass and saying, ‘Find your way out.' ” He and three other surgeons general earlier this week called for invigorated efforts to combat cancer and its fallout. Among those: Former cancer patients should leave treatment with knowledge and resources, with a “survivorship plan.” The thing about survivorship is it [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-07-27T19:19:26-07:00July, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

Louisville Researchers Make Breakthrough With HPV

Source: WLKY.com Author: staff Looking at Petri dishes and transferring chemical solutions may not look exciting, but if you understood what doctors Alfred Jenson and Shin-Je Ghim have discovered in doing just that, it could save your life. Now, the same scientists have made another discovery concerning the virus, and it could potentially save nearly 50,000 lives a year. "The reason it's so exciting is because we developed the vaccine for the cervical cancer because 100 percent of cervical cancer is caused by the human papillomavirus," said Jenson. "Now it looks like during the last year, up to 50 percent of head and neck cancers are caused by the human papillomavirus." So having a vaccine that's 100 percent effective against the human papillomavirus means the same vaccine is going to be able to prevent both cervical cancer and head and neck cancer. HPV is known to be transferred by sexual intercourse and through the birth canal. So how did it manifest in the head and neck? Doctors linked it to oral transmission. "There has been a change in the cause of head and neck cancers since 1972, and it's just been realized in the last couple of years," said Jenson. Cancer specialists realized there was a sharp rise, particularly in cancer of the tongue and tonsils. U of L's research team at the cancer center, led by resident Payal Desai, looked at the last seven years of patients who had cancerous tissue in those areas. Twenty-eight percent of the samples [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-07-27T18:40:45-07:00July, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

U.S. Cancer Authority Says Cell Phone Cancer May Be Real

Source: PR-Inside.com (www.pr-inside.com) Author: staff It's been rumored for years: Cell phones cause cancer. European cancer experts have been generating damning research on the subject for months, but now the first U.S. cancer center director has gone on record with a firm warning. 'I am convinced that there are sufficient data' to issue a warning on cell phone use, says Dr. Ronald Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and UPMC Cancer Centers. Other countries have recommended limits on cell phone exposure, and Toronto public health officials have advised young people to limit their use. A child's developing organs "are the most likely to be sensitive to any possible effects of exposure," Dr. Herberman warns. In clear recognition of the potentially catastrophic disease effects of cell phone use, the British government is launching a massive study. They hope to determine - Does long-term use of cell phones cause brain cancer, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease? Worldwide, 3.3 billion cell phones were in use in 2007 - enough for about half the world's people. 90% of the global population should have cellular coverage by 2010. A person's exposure level depends on such things as the number and length of calls, amount of cell traffic at the time of a call, distance to the nearest cell tower, and size of the handset. The phone's internal antenna is the main source of radiation. Hold the phone to your head and you're radiating your ear, brain, mouth and neck. Move the antenna away [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-07-25T03:15:28-07:00July, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

Positron Emission Tomography Offers Modest Improvement for Staging of Head and Neck Cancers: Presented at AHNS

Source: Doctor's Guide (www.docguide.com) Author: Arushi Sinha Use of positron emission tomography (PET) imaging offers modest improvement in positive predictive value, specificity, and accuracy compared with computed tomography (CT) for diagnosing head and neck cancers. Researchers at the American Head and Neck Society 7th International Conference on Head and Neck Cancer (AHNS) presented new data on the effectiveness of PET scans singly or in combination with CT compared with CT scans alone. "We used the scans in comparison to the gold standard, which was the pathology findings from neck dissections," explained study presenter Surjeet Pohar, MD, Department of Radiation Oncology, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, Virginia. The study, presented in a poster session on July 22, used information gathered from 36 patients diagnosed with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. All the patients underwent neck dissection as well as CT scans, PET scans, or combined PET and CT. In addition, all patients received a full medical examination, endoscopy, and X-ray imaging to help stage their disease. In addition, nodal involvement and information about the side of the neck were also documented. As a result of the full diagnostic workup, the researchers found that most patients exhibited locally advanced disease: 4 patients had stage II disease; 3 had stage III disease; and 25 had stage IV disease. Four patients had indeterminate staging at the time of the initial workup. Results showed that several parameters of the different imaging technique were comparable. CT scans exhibited sensitivity to the samples in 72% of [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-07-25T03:02:48-07:00July, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

Reynolds Tobacco Claims Show Litigation Discount (Update2)

Source: Bloomberg.com Author: William McQuillen Reynolds American Inc., which escaped a $145 billion class-action verdict against the tobacco industry two years ago, may see its market value cut by more than $2 billion as thousands of the same smokers press individual claims. Several victories among the 8,000 Florida plaintiffs may reduce the second-largest tobacco company's $15 billion value as much as 15 percent, said Brian Barish, who runs the Cambiar Aggressive Value Fund. That would equal a $2.3 billion decline. The revival of large-scale litigation may mean the return of the discount that plagued shares of tobacco companies after a jury trial in Miami led to the historic punitive-damages award in July 2000. ``If the tobacco companies were to start to lose cases, the market would wake up to this issue,'' said Timothy Ghriskey, chief investment officer at Solaris Asset Management, who oversees $2 billion. His Bedford Hills, New York, firm owns no stock in the companies named in the suit, he said. Reynolds fell $1.22, or 2.3 percent, to $50.99 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading, tracking the slide in Standard & Poor's 500 shares. Reynolds has declined 23 percent this year. Besides Reynolds, cigarette makers named in the latest round of Florida suits include Richmond, Virginia-based Altria Group Inc., the nation's biggest tobacco company, and Greensboro, North Carolina-based Lorillard Inc., the third- largest. Lorillard fell $2.62, or 3.8 percent, to $66.99. Altria dropped 40 cents, or 1.9 percent, to $20.81. Market `Distractions' Altria might fall 20 percent [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-07-24T20:52:30-07:00July, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

Gardasil vaccine eradicating human papillomavirus infections

Source: news.com.au Author: Kate Sikora The new cervical cancer vaccine is expected to almost eradicate human papillomavirus (HPV) infections in Australian women by 2050 if the high rate of immunization amongst girls continues. Research to be released today by the Cancer Council NSW reveals the number of new HPV cases in women will fall by more than 50 per cent in the next two years. In 40 years, the number of cases will fall by 97 per cent. A national program launched last April has seen 3.7 million girls vaccinated with Gardasil, which has the potential to prevent up to 70 per cent of cervical cancers. Before the vaccination program, there were 108,000 new infections of HPV16 - responsible for 50 per cent of cervical cancers - every year, but that number is expected to fall to 47,000 by 2010. Dr Karen Canfell, lead author of the study, warned the reduction in HPV would only occur if girls continued to be vaccinated. "We expect to see a very fast reduction in the number of new HPV infections, largely due to the high school vaccination program, which we estimate has achieved high coverage of just over 80 per cent of 12-13-year-old girls," she said. "This reduction will only occur if we maintain this high vaccination coverage among younger age groups." Gardasil has attracted controversy over its rate of adverse reactions. Nationally, there have been 1013 reports of adverse side effects from Gardasil to the Therapeutic Goods Administration. Girls have reported allergic [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-07-24T21:12:24-07:00July, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

Greater Accuracy in Staging Can Influence Long-Term Treatment Options in Oropharyngeal Cancer: Presented at AHNS

Source: Doctor's Guide (www.docguide.com) Author: Arushi Sinha Primary surgical treatment does not appear to provide benefits to patients with stage I or II oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma, whereas in patients with occult metastases, these procedures offer the opportunity for upstaging and intensification of therapy, according to research presented here at the American Head and Neck Society 7th International Conference on Head and Neck Cancer (AHNS). Disease staging helps to determine treatment plans and prognosis in patients with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma, so accuracy in staging has definite clinical implications, the researchers noted during their presentation on July 22. To assess the accuracy of staging information, they reviewed the records of 49 patients with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas, including primary carcinomas of the tonsil (53%), base of tongue (33%), or posterior pharyngeal wall (14%). "When we went back to our results on surgical staging and actually looked at the pathology, some of the tumors were upstaged and some were downstaged," explained Rohan Walvekar, MD, Department of Otolaryngology -- Head and Neck Surgery, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans Louisiana Dr. Walvekar conducted the study while he was at the University of Pittsburgh Clinical staging data showed that 61% of patients were either stage I or II, and 39% were stage III. With reference to nodal involvement, 58% were N0 and 42% were N1. As part of the initial workup, neck dissections were performed in 46 of the 49 patients. When compared with clinical staging, neck dissection altered nodal status [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-07-24T14:51:22-07:00July, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

Nervous Tissue Involvement May Predict Progression of Oral Carcinomas: Presented at AHNS

Source: Doctor's Guide (www.docguide.com) Author: Arushi Sinha Among patients with early-stage squamous cell carcinomas, those with perineural involvement appear to have lower survival rates compared with patients who have no perineural involvement, according to research presented here at the American Head and Neck Society (AHNS) 7th International Conference on Head and Neck Cancer. While it is known that perineural invasion by the carcinoma has a negative impact on prognosis for squamous cell carcinomas in general, there is less information on the impact for early-stage oral cancers. "With perineural invasion, there is a possibility that even very small tumours can be very aggressive," explained Raquel Moysés, MD, Head and Neck Surgery Department, Sao Paulo University Medical School, Sao Paulo, Brazil. The retrospective study, presented in a poster session on July 22, examined the progress of 42 patients diagnosed with early-stage squamous cell carcinoma of the oral tongue or of the floor of the mouth. The tumours were stage I or II with no nodal involvement (N0). There were 16 patients with perineural invasion and 26 patients without. The average follow-up time was 49 months. Study endpoints included clinical and pathological characteristics as well as an analysis of treatment regimens and outcomes data. When compared with those without perineural involvement, patients with perineural invasion were found to have significantly larger tumour diameter (P = .046) and thickness (P = .002). They also had a higher rate of disease-specific death (P = .015) and lower global survival (P = .019), despite having a [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-07-23T19:22:12-07:00July, 2008|Oral Cancer News|