May 2012 – Page 3 – Oral Cancer News

New method of predicting the spread of throat cancer to other body parts found

Source: starglobaltribune.com Author: staff Independent of other factors, such as smoking history and HPV status, matted lymph nodes appear to signal increased chance of oropharyngeal cancer spreading to other parts of the body. Researchers at the University of Michigan Health System have found a new indicator that may predict which patients with a common type of throat cancer are most likely have the cancer spread to other parts of their bodies. Patients with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma who had “matted” lymph nodes – nodes that are connected together – had a 69 percent survival rate over three years, compared to 94 percent for patients without matted nodes, according to a study published online ahead of print publication in Head & Neck. The oropharynx is an area that includes the back of the tongue, soft palate, throat and tonsils. “The spread of cancer throughout the body accounts for about 45 percent of the deaths from oropharyngeal carcinoma,” says the study’s senior author, Douglas B. Chepeha, M.D., M.S.P.H., an associate professor of otolaryngology head and neck surgery at the U-M Medical School. “Our findings may help doctors identify patients who are at higher risk for having their cancer metastasize and who would benefit from additional systemic therapy. Conversely, some patients without matted nodes may benefit from a reduction of the current standard treatment, which would cut down on uncomfortable side effects.” Notably, the findings indicate an increased risk independent of other established prognostic factors, such as the patient’s history of smoking or [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-05-07T08:16:13-07:00May, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

200 Years of surgery: cutting to cure has come a long way

Source: abcnews.go.com Author: Katie Moisse The three-and-a-half-inch tumor in Cynthia Miller's throat threatened to choke her, leaving her no choice but to have it removed. "I had no idea I was even sick," said Miller, 55, who lives in Maitland, Fla. "I woke up in the middle of the night coughing. … The next thing I knew they were booking emergency surgery." Instead of radical surgery -- which would involved cutting her face, pulling teeth and breaking her jaw -- Miller had her tumor removed through her mouth by a miniature robotic arm guided by the surgeon. "With the robot, there are no cuts anywhere. No breathing tube, no broken bones," said Dr. Bert O'Malley, who pioneered the procedure at the University of Pennsylvania's Head and Neck Cancer Center in Philadelphia. "We go in through the mouth with a high-magnification 3-D camera and very small instruments, like a surgeon's fingers but very tiny, and we're able to remove the tumor without the side effects of traditional surgery." Side effects like spasms, difficulty with swallowing and speech, not to mention chronic pain. "The more you disrupt and injure tissue, the greater the risk of dysfunction and chronic problems," said O'Malley. Today's minimally invasive surgery is far different from the procedures of 200 years ago, when surgeons hacked through skin, muscle and bone briskly and brutally without anesthesia or antisepsis. "Pain and the always-looming problem of infection restricted the extent of a surgeon's reach," Dr. Atul Gawande, a surgeon at Brigham and [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-05-06T12:11:05-07:00May, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Ireland: mouth cancer awareness day yields results

Source: http://www.dentistryiq.com/ Author: staff Dentists are emphasizing the importance of early detection with mouth cancer, after 12 cases of the potentially deadly cancer were discovered on Mouth Cancer Awareness Day and one of these was discovered in Waterford. The Irish Dental Association estimates that 10,000 people availed of free mouth cancer examinations carried out by participating dentists countrywide on September 21 of last year. As well as the confirmed cases, 286 people were advised to attend their GP for other related problems. Mouth Cancer Awareness Day was set up by a group of mouth, head and neck cancer survivors in September 2010. It is now a joint initiative by the Irish Dental Association, Irish Cancer Society, Dublin Dental University Hospital, Cork Dental University Hospital, the Dental Health Foundation and Mouth, Head and Neck Cancer Awareness Ireland. The President of the IDA, Conor McAlister said the fact twelve cancers were discovered in one day showed the importance of early detection and the need for everyone to have a regular examination. He said, "Three hundred cases of mouth cancer are detected here each year with 100 deaths and this type of cancer actually kills more Irish people than cervical cancer or skin melanoma. "According to the National Cancer Register in Ireland, roughly 50% of all mouth cancers are diagnosed at an advanced stage. Hopefully the fact these 12 cases have been caught at an earlier stage means the impact on quality of life will be reduced." He added, "This year we saw [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-05-06T11:25:21-07:00May, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Ongoing surveillance needed to monitor trends in HPV rates after vaccination

Source: HemOnc Today The ongoing monitoring of HPV-associated cancers via the National Program of Cancer Registries and the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results program indicate a decrease in the US rates for cervical cancer, yet disparities remain, according to data published in a recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Data pooled from the high-quality population-based cancer registry programs indicated that between 2004 and 2008, there were 12,080 HPV-associated cancers diagnosed annually among males and 21,290 among females. Of the overall cases, cervical cancer was the most common diagnosis (11,967 annually), followed by oropharyngeal cancer (11,726 annually). Compared with whites and non-Hispanics, blacks and Hispanics had the highest rates for cervical and penile cancer. Conversely, vulvar cancer rates were highest among whites and non-Hispanics. Anal cancer rates were highest among females (1.8 per 100,000) vs. males (1.2 per 100,000). Specifically, the rates were highest among white females and among black males. HPV-associated cancer rates were highest among females in West Virginia (16.3 per 100,000) and among males in Washington, D.C. (11.6 per 100,000). Rates in the lowest tertile for HPV-associated cancers were most common in Maryland, Colorado and Utah, whereas rates in the highest tertile were found in Kentucky, Louisiana and Tennessee. “The HPV vaccine will likely help decrease cervical cancer rates further and reduce the disparities,” the researchers wrote in the report. “Other HPV-associated cancers do not have approved screening programs; therefore, HPV vaccines are important prevention tools to reduce the incidence of non-cervical cancers.” In an accompanying editorial, CDC [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-05-02T11:06:43-07:00May, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Oncologists Favor Psychosocial Care, But Give It Short Shrift

Source: Oncology STAT MIAMI (EGMN) - Oncologists endorse the idea of connecting cancer patients to psychosocial care at the conclusion of active treatment. But practice doesn't align with beliefs, perhaps because they are unfamiliar with where to refer their patients for care. Among 57 oncologists who responded to a survey in the southeastern United States, 35, or 61%, considered psychosocial care to be beneficial. A majority thought it was "important" following cancer treatment, reported Laurie Freeman-Gibb at the annual conference of the American Psychosocial Oncology Society (APOS). But the oncologists said they spent just 4.2 minutes, on average, discussing psychosocial care during consultations, according to Ms. Freeman-Gibb, a lecturer in the department of nursing at the University of Windsor in Ontario, and her colleague Andrew Hatchett, Ph.D., of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette's department of kinesiology. And since only about 1 in 6 oncologists responded to the survey - it was sent to 350 practitioners - the findings may present an overly optimistic picture of what happens in real-life practice when a patient leaves active treatment and returns to the community for care. "I think it's sometimes a time constraint," said Ms. Freeman-Gibb. "If you only have 20 minutes to see this person and you open the floodgates to what's really going on, you might never get out the door ... especially if you don't know whom to tell the patient to call." Dr. Hatchett said the impetus for the study was a series of conversations he had with [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-05-02T10:45:02-07:00May, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Genes May Link Disparate Diseases

Source: The Wall Street Journal Diseases that strike different parts of the body—and that don't seem to resemble each other at all—may actually have a lot in common. Scientists have identified the genetic basis for many separate diseases. Now, some researchers are looking at how the genes interact with each other. They are finding that a genetic abnormality behind one illness may also cause other, seemingly unrelated disorders. Sometimes diseases are tangentially linked, having just one gene in common. But the greater the number of shared genetic underpinnings a group of diseases has, the greater the likelihood a patient with one of the illnesses will contract another. Researchers have found evidence, for example, that there is a close genetic relationship between Crohn's disease, a gastrointestinal condition, and Type 2 diabetes, despite the fact the two conditions affect the body in very distinct ways. Other illnesses with apparently close genetic links are rheumatoid arthritis and Type 1 diabetes, the form of the disease that usually starts in childhood, says Joseph Loscalzo, chairman of the department of medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. This network approach, known among scientists as systems biology, could change the way medical specialists view and treat disease, according to some researchers. Rather than only looking to repair the parts of the body that are directly affected by illness, "we should be looking at what the wiring diagram [inside of cells] looks like," says Albert-László Barabási, a physicist at Northeastern University's Center for Complex Network Research [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-05-02T10:33:24-07:00May, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

$27 Million Verdict Against R.J. Reynolds for Cancer Victim

Source: JDsupra.com A Florida man was awarded $27 million in compensatory and punitive damages against tobacco company R.J. Reynolds last month after doctors told him that 44 years of smoking caused his lung cancer. Plaintiff had lung removed due to cigarette addiction Thousands of lawsuits pending against big tobacco companies First payouts by big tobacco expected to be made today Addictive Habits Emmon Smith, a minister in Mariana, Florida, started smoking when he was a 13-year-old boy in 1944. Despite numerous attempts to quit, he couldn’t kick the addictive habit until he was forced to in 1992 by a cancer diagnosis and subsequent removal of one of his lungs. Smith sued tobacco company R.J. Reynolds in 2008, and in March of this year a jury awarded him $10 million in compensatory damages and $20 million in punitive damages; however, they found the plaintiff 30 percent at fault so he will receive only $7 million of the compensatory award, for a total of $27 million. Smith’s suit was led by attorney Richard Diaz as well as a team of attorneys from Crabtree & Associates and Ratzan Law Group. The Smith case was just one of more than 8,000 lawsuits against tobacco companies stemming from a 1990s class action known as the Engle case. In 2000, a Florida jury awarded class members a stunning $145 billion in punitive damages, finding that cigarettes are dangerous, addictive, carcinogenic, and most importantly, that tobacco companies knew all this and lied about it. “They found that [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-05-01T10:35:58-07:00May, 2012|Oral Cancer News|