2012 – Page 3 – Oral Cancer News

Larry Hagman dies of throat cancer, ‘Dallas’ co-stars pay tribute

Source: www.newstank.co.uk Dallas star Larry Hagman, who played the scheming oil tycoon J.R. Ewing in the television soap opera, passed away last Friday, at the age of 81. The Dallas actor was suffering from throat cancer. Larry Hagman’s sudden death is being mourned by friends and family alike. After receiving the shocking news of Larry Hagman’s death, his Dallas co-stars Linda Gray, Patrick Duffy, Victoria Principal and Ken Kercheval paid tribute to the actor. Brenda Strong was quoted as saying to E! News, “Being able to work with one of my childhood idols was a dream come true. He was one of the most resilient and positive people I’ve ever known. Larry’s tremendous talent and contribution as an artist is only surpassed by his gigantic heart and how beloved he was by his friends, especially Patrick and Linda.” Larry Hagman rose to fame in 1965 when he was cast in the sitcom I Dream of Jeannie as astronaut Major Anthony Nelson. He then went onto become famous for his villainous role as J.R. Ewing on Dallas from 1978 to 1991. Larry Hagman had once laughed off the idea of retiring, when he said, “I’d like to die onstage, so to speak. I love acting and I’ve had a wonderful career.” Barbara Eden, Larry Hagman’s I Dream of Jeannie co-star said, “I still cannot completely express the shock and impact from the news that Larry Hagman has passed…I can honestly say that we’ve lost not just a great actor, not [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-11-28T10:32:46-07:00November, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

PET/MRI detects head/neck lymph node metastases

Source: www.drbicuspid.com Author: DrBicuspid Staff PET/MRI outperformed diffusion-weighted MRI (DWI-MRI) for detecting lymph node metastases in the staging of head and neck cancer patients, according to a study presented November 25 at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual meeting in Chicago. Researchers from the University of Düsseldorf found that PET/MRI achieved accuracy of 93%, compared with 88% for DWI-MRI. PET/MRI also reached sensitivity of 72%, compared with 36% for DWI-MRI. Lymph node status has prognostic value in head and neck cancer because patients with metastases need neck dissection and adjuvant treatment. Therefore, precise lymph node staging is a necessity, noted lead author Christian Buchbender, MD. "Currently available imaging modalities are restricted in their diagnostic performance for lymph node metastases detection," he added. "For example, CT and MRI fall short in sensitivity when compared to FDG-PET or FDG-PET/CT. On the other hand, FDG-PET/CT suffers from a large amount of false-positive results." Thus, new modalities or a combination of modalities are needed to improve lymph node metastases detection in these cancer patients, he said. The prospective study included 14 head and neck cancer patients with a mean age of 67 years. Prior to surgery, the patients received both FDG-PET/CT and 3-tesla MRI, including diffusion-weighted imaging. The patients then underwent bilateral neck dissection. Using image fusion software, the researchers created two sets of images. One set consisted of PET/MR images, which were created by fusing FDG-PET results with contrast-enhanced, T1-weighted, fat-saturated MR images. The second set consisted of DWI-MR images, created [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-11-28T10:25:22-07:00November, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Do fruits and veggies offset tobacco/alcohol cancer risks?

Source: www.drbicuspid.com Author: DrBicuspid Staff Consuming fresh fruits and vegetables has been shown to reduce the risk of oral cancer, and now a new study suggests that these "protective effects" may impede the negative effects of tobacco and alcohol consumption with regard to cancer risk (Nutrition and Cancer, November 2012, Vol. 64:8, pp. 1182-1189). For the study, researchers from the University of São Paulo assessed the association between frequent consumption of fruits and vegetables and the risk of oral cancer, comparing results between nonsmokers and smokers and nondrinkers and drinkers. Their case-control study involved 296 patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma attended in three major hospitals in São Paulo, paired with 296 controls recruited from outpatient units of the same hospitals. The researchers found that eating both fruit and vegetables was associated with prevention of the disease in light (odds ratio [OR] = 0.46; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.27-0.78) and heavy (OR = 0.30; 95% CI = 0.14-0.65) smokers. For nonsmokers, no fruit (OR = 50; 95% CI = 0.22-1.12) or vegetable (for tomato, OR = 0.53; 95% CI = 0.31-0.93) was associated with reduced risk of oral and oropharyngeal cancer. Similar results were found with regard to drinking status, with OR = 0.51 (95% CI = 0.30-0.87) and 0.18 for fruits (95% CI = 0.07-0.45), respectively, for light and heavy drinkers. "This observation suggests that the protective effect of fruit and salad intake may modulate the deleterious effects from tobacco and alcohol," the researchers concluded.

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-11-28T10:18:37-07:00November, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Seed planted in cancer research

Source: www.ivanhoe.com A cancer diagnoses usually means radiation therapy that will not only affect the tumor, but healthy cells as well. New approaches to cancer treatment have been tested and, according to data, one approach is working. The new procedure for treating solid tumors with radiation was highly effective and minimally toxic to healthy tissue in a mouse model of cancer. Brachytherapy is a technique for treating solid tumors, including prostate cancer, which involves the surgical implantation of radioactive seeds within a patient’s tumor. The seeds expose the tumor cells to high level of radiation while minimizing the negative side effects. However, brachytherapy has its limitations, said Wenge Liu, M.D., Ph.D., and associate research professor of biomedical engineering at Duke University in Durham, NC. “The most prominent factor is the need for survival implantation and removal of the seeds.” So the doctor and his team set out to eliminate the need for surgery. They did this by generating an injectable substance called a polymer that was attached to a source of radioactivity and spontaneously assembled into a radioactive seed after being injected into the tumor. “We believe that this approach provides a useful alternative to existing brachytherapy, which requires a complicated surgical procedure to implant the radioactive seeds,” Liu said. “Moreover, these injectable seeds degrade after the radiation is exhausted so they do not need to be surgically removed.” The tumors were eradicated by a single injection in 67 percent of the mice that received the treatment after being transplanted [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-11-20T19:16:41-07:00November, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

ONS Connections: External lymphedema scale developed for head and neck cancer

Source: www.oncologynurseadvisor.com Author: Kathy Boltz, PhD Lymphedema in patients with head and neck cancer can be described through an instrument that has been developed and validated, in research that was reported at the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) Connections: Advancing Care Through Science conference. Aggressive multi-modality treatment regimens for locally advanced head and neck cancer often lead to a damaged lymphatic system. Then, patients are at risk for developing secondary lymphedema. Assessing head and neck lymphedema had received little attention prior to this work. These researchers sought to develop a scale to grade external lymphedema in patients with head and neck cancer. They used a conceptual framework of the continuum from fibrosis to lymphedema to direct the study, which had two phases. The first phase of the study generated a proposed scale for head and neck external lymphedema. This scale came from the study conceptual framework, a literature review, and analysis of their previous study, which had compared and contrasted four current lymphedema scales to grade external lymphedema in patients with head and neck cancer. Then, they used expert feedback to revise the proposed scale. The second phase of the study tested the revised scale by physically examining 30 patients with head and neck cancer and facial swelling. The patients had a mean age of 57.67 years (standard deviation 6.54 years), and 40% had oropharyngeal carcinoma. The interrater reliability of the Head and Neck External Lymphedema Scale (HN-LE) was acceptable, since exact agreement on grading lymphedema severity occurred 83% of the [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-11-20T19:11:43-07:00November, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Study examines surgical outcomes after head and neck cancer at safety-net hospitals

Source: medicalxpress.com Author: staff Safety-net hospitals appear to provide head and neck cancer surgical care to a vulnerable population, without an increase in short-term mortality, morbidity, or costs, according to a report in the November issue of Archives of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery. "Safety-net hospitals provide a disproportionate amount of care to those who are uninsured or underinsured, including Medicaid beneficiaries and other vulnerable populations, compared with the average hospital," according to background information in the article. To determine the association between safety-net hospital care and short-term outcomes following head and neck cancer surgery, Dane J. Genther, M.D., and Christine G. Gourin, M.D., M.P.H., of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, reviewed data from adults who underwent an ablative procedure (a surgical removal or excision) for a malignant oral cavity, laryngeal (larynx; or voice box), hypopharyngeal (hypopharynx; area where the larynx and esophagus meet), or oropharyngeal (oropharynx; oral part of the pharynx) neoplasm in 2001 through 2008. Safety-net burden was calculated as the percentage of patients with head and neck cancer who had Medicaid or no insurance. Overall, 123,662 patients underwent surgery from 2001 through 2008, and were included in the analysis. The authors found that high safety-net burden hospitals were associated with an increase in length of stay but were not associated with an increase in costs of care, after controlling for all other variables, including hospital volume status. Additionally, safety-net burden was not associated with in-hospital mortality, acute medical complications or surgical complications, after controlling for all other [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-11-20T19:06:44-07:00November, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Neoadjuvant chemo does not improve oral cancer survival rates

Source: www.drbicuspid.com Author: DrBicuspid Staff Patients with advanced resectable oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) who undergo surgery do not benefit from improved survival after induction with docetaxel, cisplatin, and fluorouracil (TPF), according to a new study (Journal of Clinical Oncology, November 5, 2012). Study author Zhi-yuan Zhang, MD, PhD, from Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, and colleagues assessed 256 patients with resectable locally advanced OSCC. A total of 222 patients completed the full treatment protocol. They received two cycles of TPF induction chemotherapy (75 mg/m2 of docetaxel on day 1, 75 mg/m2 of cisplatin on day 1, and 750 mg/m2 of fluorouracil on days 1 to 5) followed by radical surgery and postoperative radiotherapy versus upfront radical surgery and postoperative radiotherapy. The primary end point was overall survival. Secondary end points included local control and safety. After a median follow-up of 30 months, there was no significant difference in overall survival or disease-free survival between patients treated with or without TPF induction, the study authors noted. Patients in the induction chemotherapy arm with a clinical response or favorable pathologic response had superior overall survival and locoregional and distant control. "Our study failed to demonstrate that TPF induction chemotherapy improves survival compared with upfront surgery in patients with resectable stage III or IVA OSCC," the authors concluded. The lack of survival benefit indicates that TPF induction chemotherapy without selection could not benefit OSCC patients in general, Dr. Zhang told Reuters Health in a news story. "On the other hand, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-11-11T19:34:34-07:00November, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Temple researchers show targeted cancer drug may stunt heart’s ability to repair itself

Source: EurekaAlert! Date: November 6, 2012 (Philadelphia, PA) – Scientists for the first time have evidence showing how a widely used type of "targeted" cancer drug can be dangerous to the heart. Studying mice with the equivalent of a heart attack, researchers found that the drug sorafenib (Nexavar) – which inhibits proteins called tyrosine kinase receptors (RTKs), and is used in kidney and liver cancer treatment – can interfere with heart stem cell activity, affecting the heart's ability to repair itself after injury. The findings suggest that sorafenib and other similar drugs that target these kinds of protein receptors may raise the risk for heart attack for some cancer patients with underlying heart disease, as well as affect the heart's ability to repair damage. By understanding how these cancer drugs can affect the heart, scientists and clinicians may be able to devise new treatment strategies to lessen such potentially damaging effects of often vital cancer drugs. "The goal is not to take the drug off of the market – it's a very good and useful drug that cancer patients need. We're trying to understand how this cancer drug and others like it can affect the heart, and what types of individuals might be at risk for problems," said senior author Steven Houser, PhD, Professor and Chair of Physiology at Temple University School of Medicine and Director of Temple's Cardiovascular Research Center. "Our results are beginning to provide a clearer picture of some of the potential physiological mechanisms at play." Dr. [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-11-09T11:25:06-07:00November, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Oral cancer patient fights Medicare for coverage

Source: Dr.Biscuspid.com By Donna Domino, Features Editor November 6, 2012 -- Hank Grass has so far successfully fought his submandibular cancer. But the retired policeman is now facing bankruptcy in his losing battle to get Medicare to cover the oral surgeries, dental treatments, and dentures he needs following radiation treatment. The 77-year-old had his salivary gland removed after doctors found cancer at the base of his tongue three years ago. But the radiation and chemotherapy damaged his teeth and gums so much that he had to have all but three of his bottom teeth extracted. Recently, Grass needed periodontal surgery to treat an infection he developed in his mandible from radiation treatments. After Hank Grass developed submandibular cancer, radiation therapy caused osteoradionecrosis, requiring the extraction of all but three of his bottom teeth. All images courtesy of Hank Grass. So far, Grass has spent $8,000 for the dental treatment and dentures, but Medicare won't reimburse him, saying his dental work was not medically necessary and is cosmetic. And since Medicare has refused payment, Grass' insurance company also has refused to cover the dental procedures. "I've been through a living hell," he told DrBicuspid.com. "We're pinching pennies; we're in bankruptcy." Five doctors -- including his dentist, oncologist, oral surgeon, and the doctor who administered chemotherapy -- submitted letters confirming that Grass' dental procedures were directly related to his cancer treatments. But it was to no avail, he said. "You don't have to be a rocket scientist to look at all the [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-11-07T12:40:04-07:00November, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

First gene therapy study in human salivary gland shows promise

Source: National Institutes of Health (NIH) Date: Monday, November 5, 2012 Gene therapy can be performed safely in the human salivary gland, according to scientists at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), part of the National Institutes of Health. This finding comes from the first-ever safety, or Phase I, clinical study of gene therapy in a human salivary gland. Its results, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also show that the transferred gene, Aquaporin-1, has great potential to help head and neck cancer survivors who battle with chronic dry mouth. Aquaporin-1 encodes a protein that naturally forms pore-like water channels in the membranes of cells to help move fluid, such as occurs when salivary gland cells secrete saliva into the mouth. These initial results clear the way for additional gene therapy studies in the salivary glands. Although sometimes overlooked, salivary glands present an ideal target for gene therapy. They are easily accessible and, once a gene is introduced, it has no obvious escape route into the bloodstream, where it can have unintended consequences. “You cannot imagine how fulfilling it is to jot down an idea on a napkin in 1991 and then see it enter a clinical trial and help people.,” said Bruce Baum, D.M.D., Ph.D., lead author on the study and recently retired NIDCR scientist who spent the last 21 years moving gene therapy in the salivary glands from the research bench to the clinic. “Can a scientist ask for anything [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-11-06T14:45:46-07:00November, 2012|Oral Cancer News|