November 2011 – Page 2 – Oral Cancer News

British throat cancer Europe’s highest thanks to obesity and alcohol

Source: www.lifeinsurance.co.uk Author: Lana Clements The UK suffers the highest rate of throat cancer in Europe, double the average rate, according to new analysis by the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF). Britain's high level of alcohol consumption and obesity are blamed for the figures. Using World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates, the WCRF found that around six out of every 100,000 people develop throat cancer in the UK, while the European average stands at about three. The findings come as the British Liver Trust reports a 74% increase of liver cancer deaths in England and Wales since 1997 as ten people a day now die from the disease. Liver and throat cancer are both strongly linked to obesity and alcohol consumption, while throat cancer is also linked to smokers and liver cancer to hepatitis B. Andrew Langford, chief executive of the British Liver Trust, attacked the government over the UK's strategy towards liver damage: "At the moment all we are seeing are weak policies or no action at all. "Our government-led alcohol policies are a joke and despite nearly every other developed nation having universal vaccination for hepatitis B we are still debating whether we should, while this debate continues many are being infected and for some this will lead to them dying of liver cancer." According to the British Liver trust, liver cancer survival rates have not improved during the last three decades, even though scientific treatment has moved forward, because of the advanced stage of the disease at diagnosis. [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-11-20T09:41:57-07:00November, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Obama hits Big Tobacco over labels opposition

Source: www.cbsnews.com Author: staff President Obama — pronounced tobacco-free in his latest medical checkup — has tough words for cigarette makers. Some tobacco companies, he says in a new White House web video, are fighting new cigarette warning labels because "they don't want to be honest about the consequences." The video, provided to The Associated Press in advance of its release, observes Thursday's 36th "Great American Smokeout" by the American Cancer Society. Mr. Obama says the country has made progress in reducing the number of Americans who smoke, but notes that 46 million are still addicted. "The fact is, quitting smoking is hard," he says. "Believe me, I know." Mr. Obama has fought the habit by chewing nicotine gum, and his last medical report, issued Oct. 31, declared him tobacco-free. "Tobacco remains the leading cause of preventable early deaths in this country," Mr. Obama says in the video. "We also know that the best way to prevent the health problems that come with smoking is to keep young people from starting in the first place." In 2009, Mr. Obama signed legislation to help keep young people from lighting up. In June, the Food and Drug Administration approved new warning labels that companies would have to place on the top half of cigarette packs. Some of the labels are powerfully graphic and include images of a man exhaling cigarette smoke through a tracheotomy hole in his throat, the corpse of a dead smoker, diseased lungs and a smoker wearing an oxygen [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-11-18T09:13:15-07:00November, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Valerie Simpson on Nick Ashford: ‘I’m not used to him not being here yet’

Source: The Chicago Tribune Valerie Simpson says she never really used to think much about posterity. After all, there was still so much work to be done with her musical partner and husband, Nick Ashford. But then Ashford died last August at age 70 of complications from throat cancer, and Simpson, 65, came to grips with mortality, both personal and artistic. "Nick's passing made me realize that one day we'll both be absent," she said in her first major interview since her longtime partner's death. "You see certain things that are happening now because of his passing, and I'm content to know that the music is everlasting. "I didn't think about it before, but now I realize this music has legs way beyond whatever we originally might have thought. The songwriting is the cornerstone of everything else we did. That's the hat we were most proud of wearing as a couple." Ashford's legacy will be honored Saturday when The HistoryMakers nonprofit group holds its annual gala at the Thorne Hall Auditorium at the Northwestern University School of Law. Simpson will be interviewed at the private event, which also will include performances by Patti Austin and Kindred Family Soul for broadcast in February, 2012 on PBS-TV. The HistoryMakers is building a digital archive of African-American innovators in a wide range of disciplines; it currently includes oral histories of more than 2,000 pioneers, said Julieanna Richardson, founder and executive director of The HistoryMakers in Chicago. “We can’t assume that time is on [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-11-17T11:36:08-07:00November, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Data Published in the Lancet Oncology Support High Efficacy Previously Demonstrated By Cervarix

Source: Therapeutics Daily Author: Staff LONDON, Nov. 9, 2011-An analysis published today in The Lancet Oncology reinforces previous findings showing that GlaxoSmithKline’s Cervarix®, provided protection against advanced precancerous lesions (CIN3+), above that expected from a vaccine that protects against human papillomavirus (HPV) types 16 and 18. CIN3+ is the immediate step before invasive cervical cancer and data showing protection against this type of lesion are considered the most stringent evidence of potential cervical cancer prevention.1 Results from the largest efficacy trial of a cervical cancer vaccine to date (PATRICIA), show that Cervarix provided 93%† efficacy against CIN3+ irrespective of the HPV type associated with the CIN3+ lesion.1This pre-defined, exploratory analysis was conducted in women with no evidence of past or current HPV infection.‡ These women are thought to be representative of young girls prior to the onset of sexual activity – the primary target population for organised vaccination programmes. These findings have been incorporated into the European label for Cervarix, updated by the European Commission in September 2011. Additional data from the same end-of-study analysis have been published in a separate article in TheLancet Oncology. These data demonstrate that Cervarix provided 82%* efficacy against CIN3+, associated with a composite of 12 cancer-causing HPV types not included in the vaccine, in the same population as the analysis discussed above.2 This analysis excluded cases co-infected with HPV 16 and/or 18 and is therefore a conservative estimate of cross-protective efficacy. Non-vaccine HPV types, including the 12 studied in this analysis, together account for approximately 30% of cervical cancers globally.3 The authors [...]

Charlotte Parker2011-11-16T12:04:02-07:00November, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Predictors of survival in mucosal melanoma of the head and neck.

Source:MedScape.com Jethanamest D; Vila PM; Sikora AG; Morris LG Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA. BACKGROUND: The head and neck is the most common site of mucosal melanoma, a cancer with poor prognosis. In contrast to cutaneous melanoma, mucosal melanoma of the head and neck (MMHN) is uncommon, with limited data regarding outcomes and prognostic factors drawn from small, single-institution case series. In order to identify factors predictive of survival, we analyzed MMHN outcomes in a large US cohort. METHODS: MMHN cases (n = 815) diagnosed in the USA between 1973 and 2007 were analyzed in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results registry, and cause of death was individually determined in 778 (95.5%) cases. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox proportional hazards regression were used to analyze prognostic variables. RESULTS: Disease-specific survival status was determined in 778 (95.5%) cases. The 5- and 10-year rates of overall survival (OS) were 25.2 and 12.2%; disease-specific survival (DSS), 32.4 and 19.3%. On multivariable analysis, anatomic primary site was an independent predictor of OS and DSS, with tumors in the nasal cavity and oral cavity associated with survival superior to tumors in the nasopharynx and paranasal sinuses. Age > 70 years, tumor size, nodal status, and distant metastasis status were additional independent predictors of poorer survival. CONCLUSIONS: In this large cohort of patients with MMHN, we have identified several novel factors robustly predictive of overall and melanoma-specific survival. This news story was resourced by the Oral Cancer Foundation, and [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-11-14T18:04:18-07:00November, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Although Most Smokers Want to Quit… Only a Fraction Actually Do

Source: The Wall Street Journal Author: Betsy McKay More than two-thirds of American smokers want to quit, but only a fraction actually do, underscoring a need for more services, messages, and access to medications to help them kick the habit, according to a new government report out today. Nearly 69% of adult smokers wanted to quit in 2010 and more than half tried, but only 6.2% succeeded, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those who try to quit can double or triple their chances with counseling or medications, but most of those who did try to quit in 2010 didn’t use either. Nor did they receive advice on how to quit from a doctor. The findings suggest more needs to be done to help smokers quit — particularly certain segments of the population with low quit rates, said Tim McAfee, director of the public health agency’s Office on Smoking and Health, in an interview. Nearly 76% of African-American smokers wanted to quit last year, and 59% tried — well above the national average, said McAfee. But a mere 3.2% succeeded, which is the lowest rate among measured races and ethnicities. American smokers with college degrees had a far higher rate of success at quitting — 11.4% — than smokers with fewer than 12 years of schooling, who had only a 3.2% success rate. Still, McAfee said, there are some encouraging signs. For example, the percentage of young adults between the ages of 25 and 44 who want to [...]

Charlotte Parker2011-11-11T15:22:32-07:00November, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Roger Ebert describes his cancer journey and a path to acceptance

The Guardian By Roger Ebert Guardian Note: Roger Ebert is regarded as one of the greatest film critics in the world. But after being diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2002, he was left unable to speak, eat or drink. In an extract from his new book, Life Itself, he explains how his life has been changed. OCF Note: We highly recommend reading Mr. Ebert book "Life Itself". For those that read this news feed - whether you do as a dental or medical professional, or as a patient, survivor, or caregiver; it holds much wisdom that you can apply in your own world. Life Itself: A Memoir My secret as an interviewer was that I was actually impressed by the people I interviewed: not only by Bill Clinton, John Wayne or Sophia Loren, but by Sandra Dee, Stella Stevens and George Peppard. I am beneath everything else a fan. I was fixed in this mode as a young boy and am awed by people who take the risks of performance. I become their advocate and find myself in sympathy. I can employ scorched-earth tactics in writing about a bad movie, but I rarely write sharp criticism of actors themselves. If they're good in a movie, they must have done something right. If they're bad, it may have been the fault of the filming conditions or editing choices. Perhaps they may simply have been bad. I feel reluctant to write in a harmful way; not always, but usually. My job involved [...]

Charlotte Parker2011-11-09T17:29:52-07:00November, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Implications of the Oropharyngeal Cancer Epidemic

Source: Journal of Clinical Oncology Chaturvedi et al,1 analyzing specimens back to 1984, validate the long-held hypothesis that infection with human papillomavirus (HPV) has increased oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) incidence in the US. They find the incidence of OPSCC in men—who have higher risks of both HPV-positive and HPV-negative OPSCC than women—similar to that of cervical cancer in women. From 1988 to 2004, incidence of HPV-negative OPSCC decreased in parallel with smoking whereas incidence of HPV-positive OPSCC increased at about 7.5% per year, so the percentage of OPSCC that was HPV-positive went from less than 20% to more than 70%. HPV-positive and HPV-negative OPSCC are etiologically and clinically distinct,2,3 with HPV-positive disease having better outcome.4–6 In the current study,1 the hazard ratio of 0.3 for HPV-positive/HPV-negative in survival analysis essentially balances the difference in prevalence so each form of OPSCC now accounts for a similar number of deaths. Notably, the authors found that outcomes for HPV-positive OPSCC have improved over time, whereas outcomes for HPV-negative OPSCC are as dismal as they were 25 years ago. The authors argue convincingly that vaccination to prevent oral HPV infections should be evaluated and that better treatments for both types of OPSCC should be developed. We are unlikely to get a better picture of the recent history of OPSCC in the United States. This study used all available OPSCC specimens from the three Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registries that participate in the Residual Tissue Repositories Program, analyzed them in several ways, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-11-09T15:24:59-07:00November, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

FDA Approves Cetuximab for Late-Stage Head and Neck Cancer

Source: The Oncology Report The Food and Drug Administration on Nov. 7 approved cetuximab as an initial treatment of late-stage head and neck cancer in combination with chemotherapy. Cetuximab, marketed as Erbitux by Bristol-Myers Squibb, is an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) antagonist, administered as an intravenous infusion. Previously, it was approved in combination with radiation therapy for the initial treatment of locally or regionally advanced squamous cell carcinoma. It was also approved for use alone in patients with recurrent locoregional disease or metastatic disease whose disease has progressed following platinum-based chemotherapy. The newly approved indication is for the treatment of these recurrent or metastatic patients as an initial therapy in combination with platinum-based therapy with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), a BMS spokesperson said. (At press time, the company had not yet issued a statement on the approval.) Erbitux was initially approved in 2004 to treat EGFR-positive late-stage colon cancer after patients stopped responding to chemotherapy and was approved in 2006 for the treatment of head and neck cancer. The newly approved indication is for "recurrent locoregional disease or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck in combination with platinum-based therapy with 5-FU," according to the revised label, posted on the FDA Web site. The two previously approved indications for head and neck cancer were for "locally or regionally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck in combination with radiation therapy," and for "recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck progressing after platinum-based therapy. [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-11-09T11:05:16-07:00November, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

US FDA approval for expanded use of Erbitux

Source: www.pharmabiz.com Author: staff The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Erbitux (cetuximab), in combination with platinum-based chemotherapy with 5-fluorouracil (CT), for the first-line treatment of recurrent locoregional or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN). The approval, which is based on data from the landmark EXTREME (ErbituX in first-line Treatment of REcurrent or MEtastatic head & neck cancer) trial, makes Erbitux plus CT the first treatment regimen approved in 30 years with extended overall survival in patients with recurrent locoregional or metastatic SCCHN. Erbitux (cetuximab) is a monoclonal antibody (IgG1 Mab) designed to inhibit the function of a molecular structure expressed on the surface of normal and tumour cells called the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR, HER1, c-ErbB-1). In vitro assays and in vivo animal studies have shown that binding of ERBITU Erbitux GFR blocks phosphorylation and activation of receptor-associated kinases, resulting in induction of apoptosis (cell death), inhibition of cell growth, and decreased matrix metalloproteinase and vascular endothelial growth factor production. In vitro, Erbitux can mediate antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) against certain human tumor types. In vitro assays and in vivo animal studies have shown that Erbitux inhibits the growth and survival of tumour cells that express the EGFR. No anti-tumour effects of Erbitux were observed in human tumour xenografts lacking EGFR expression. EXTREME, which was previously published in the New England Journal of Medicine, was a phase III open label, randomized, multi-centre, controlled trial. This study was conducted outside the US by [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-11-09T06:24:41-07:00November, 2011|Oral Cancer News|