cancer treatment – Oral Cancer News

Doctors try CRISPR gene editing for cancer, a 1st in the US

Source: AP News Date: 11/6/19 Author: Marilynn Marchione The first attempt in the United States to use a gene editing tool called CRISPR against cancer seems safe in the three patients who have had it so far, but it’s too soon to know if it will improve survival, doctors reported Wednesday. The doctors were able to take immune system cells from the patients’ blood and alter them genetically to help them recognize and fight cancer, with minimal and manageable side effects. The treatment deletes three genes that might have been hindering these cells’ ability to attack the disease, and adds a new, fourth feature to help them do the job. “It’s the most complicated genetic, cellular engineering that’s been attempted so far,” said the study leader, Dr. Edward Stadtmauer of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. “This is proof that we can safely do gene editing of these cells.” After two to three months, one patient’s cancer continued to worsen and another was stable. The third patient was treated too recently to know how she’ll fare. The plan is to treat 15 more patients and assess safety and how well it works. “It’s very early, but I’m incredibly encouraged by this,” said one independent expert, Dr. Aaron Gerds, a Cleveland Clinic cancer specialist. Other cell therapies for some blood cancers “have been a huge hit, taking diseases that are uncurable and curing them,” and the gene editing may give a way to improve on those, he said. Gene editing is [...]

Charlotte Parker2019-11-06T12:30:16-07:00November, 2019|Oral Cancer News|

Tackling side effects in head and neck cancer treatment – the end of the road for hyperbaric oxygen?

Source: Cancer Research UK Date: May 2, 2019 Author: Katie Roberts Some side effects appear years after cancer treatment. That’s the case for one side effect of radiotherapy for head and neck cancer, called osteoradionecrosis. This painful condition results from damage to the jaw bone, which often doesn’t heal properly and can cause bone fractures or even bone death. It can develop without an obvious trigger, but it’s often linked to dental work like tooth extractions or implants. And it can happen even if the dental work is carried out 20 years after radiotherapy. Professor Richard Shaw, a Cancer Research UK-funded head and neck surgeon at the University of Liverpool, treats the difficult condition quite frequently through reconstructive surgery. Shaw says that these procedures are often bigger and harder than patients’ original cancer surgery, because they’ve already had so much treatment in that area. For that reason, researchers have looked for ways to prevent osteoradionecrosis from developing. And that’s where hyperbaric oxygen comes in. It started with a small trial in the 80s, which has influenced the way doctors prepare patients for dental surgery ever since. But new Stand Up To Cancer trial data, led by Shaw and published in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, shows the hyperbaric oxygen hype may have been a bit premature. The trial of hyperbaric oxygen Back in the 1980s, a small trial in the US showed that giving hyperbaric oxygen before dental surgery could reduce the risk of osteoradionecrosis developing. What is hyperbaric oxygen therapy? Hyperbaric oxygen treatment involves [...]

Charlotte Parker2019-05-06T10:21:09-07:00May, 2019|Oral Cancer News|

Five Things To Look Out For In Cancer Research In 2019

Date: 12/28/18 Source: Forbes.com Author: Victoria Forster 2018 was a remarkable year for cancer research, with great strides made in diagnosing and treating various types of cancer as well as important breakthroughs looking at the health of cancer survivors. What can we expect to see from cancer research in 2019? As a cancer research scientist, here are the top five topics that I'll be looking out for. 1. Immunotherapy. Who will respond, who won't respond and why? Immunotherapy is now seemingly everywhere, with several therapies approved for various cancer types, including CAR T-cells and immune checkpoint inhibitors and several more in development such as tumor infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy. TILs successfully cleared all tumors from a woman with metastatic breast cancer, in a research breakthrough which was one of the most reported in 2018. Over 2,500 trials are now registered worldwide, but as the use of immunotherapy grows, there are still major questions to be answered. One particularly important to the use of immune-checkpoint blocking drugs such as those which target PD-1 or CTLA-4 is 'why do some patients respond whereas others do not?' Several research teams worldwide are currently grappling with this question, which is unlikely to have a single, clear answer, but I expect to see much more research published on this in 2019, which will hopefully start to benefit patients by identifying who will and won't respond to these expensive drugs. 2. Liquid biopsy tests. More clarity on precisely what they do and more evidence that they [...]

Charlotte Parker2019-01-02T13:07:21-07:00January, 2019|Oral Cancer News|

Immunotherapy: beyond melanoma and lung cancer treatment

Author: David Crow Source: www.ft.com Date: March 4, 2018 In the late 1800s, William Coley, a surgeon in New York, developed what scientists now think was the first cancer immunotherapy. Coley noticed one of his patients, Fred Stein, had started recovering from cancer after catching a serious infection. The observation made him wonder whether the bacteria had somehow stimulated the patient’s immune system and recruited the body’s natural “resisting powers” in the fight against Mr. Stein’s tumours. The surgeon began treating inoperable cancer patients with bacterial injections — known as “Coley’s toxins” — and recorded some success, but his poorly documented findings were dismissed by contemporaries who favoured radiation and chemotherapy. Mr. Coley died in 1936 and his theories were all but forgotten: it would take almost 80 years for oncologists to take cancer immunotherapy seriously. Today, immunotherapies are among the world’s best selling drugs and they have dramatically improved the survival prospects for some of the sickest patients, especially those with melanoma and lung cancer. “Immunotherapy is here to stay,” says Jill O’Donnell-Tormey, chief executive of the Cancer Research Institute. “It's not just a blip, it’s not overhyped — I think it is going to become the standard of care for many cancer types.” The most common immunotherapy drugs are known as checkpoint inhibitors, which work by removing brakes in the immune system so the body can attack cancer. Their discovery was made possible by the research of James Allison, now a professor at the MD Anderson Cancer Center [...]

Charlotte Parker2018-03-05T11:28:31-07:00March, 2018|Oral Cancer News|

FDA Cracks Down on Marijuana Cancer Treatment Claims

Author: Anna Edney; Jennifer Kaplan Source: www.bloomberg.com Date: November 1, 2017 U.S. officials sent a warning to the marijuana industry, alerting online sellers they cannot market their products as a treatment for cancer. The Food and Drug Administration sent letters to four companies on Tuesday, warning them about unsubstantiated claims that their marijuana-derived products can combat tumors and kill cancer cells. The firms sell products including oils and capsules made from cannabidiol, also known as CBD, a component of the marijuana plant that doesn’t cause the mind-altering effects of the other main component, tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. The agency told the companies they cannot make claims to treat or cure a disease when a product has never been studied as a treatment. Curbing the sale of CBD products with health claims could put a damper on the medical-marijuana market. Producers that are required to nix references to medical ailments may move toward the recreational side of the legal cannabis industry. Eight states and Washington, D.C., have legalized pot for recreational use. Twenty-one additional states have legalized for medical purposes. “We don’t let companies market products that deliberately prey on sick people with baseless claims that their substance can shrink or cure cancer and we’re not going to look the other way on enforcing these principles when it comes to marijuana-containing products,” FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a statement. The crackdown could also have a wider impact on the pharmaceutical industry. CBD is being researched in labs as potential treatment for certain diseases. [...]

Charlotte Parker2018-02-06T15:02:17-07:00November, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

The burden of cancer isn’t just cancer

Source: www.news.doximity.comAuthor: Carolyn Y. Johnson Money is low on the list of things most people want to think about after a doctor says the scary word "cancer." And it's not just patients — physicians also want to weigh the best treatment options to rout the cancer, unburdened by financial nitty gritty. But a growing body of evidence suggests that, far from crass, ignoring cost could be harmful to patients' health. In the age of $10,000-a-month cancer drugs and health plans that shift more of the cost of health care onto patients, research suggests we've been underestimating one of cancer's real harms: "financial toxicity." The financial difficulties that stem from dealing with cancer can lead people to avoid or delay care or drugs, studies suggest, and also may cause stress that can lead to mental and physical health problems. "When people are diagnosed, it behooves the provider to assess their financial risk at baseline — to find out if they’re at risk, and if they are, to be very aggressive with getting them to financial planning, to patient assistance programs to reduce their likelihood of having financial devastation," said Scott Ramsey, a health economist and physician at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle who showed in 2013 that people with cancer are 2.65 times more likely to file for bankruptcy than people without cancer. "We think unless you do, it’ll be hard to keep people from ending up in this situation." For years, the evidence has accrued that cancer patients experience greater financial challenges than other groups of sick people. A study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology found [...]

Charlotte Parker2016-04-11T10:54:10-07:00April, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Merck immunotherapy appears effective in head and neck cancer – study | Reuters

Source: www.firstpress.comAuthor: Bill Berkrot A Merck & Co drug that helps the immune system fight cancer was about twice as effective as the current standard therapy for patients with recurrent or advanced head and neck cancers, according to study data released on Friday. A quarter of the 132 patients who received the drug, Keytruda (pembrolizumab), saw their tumors shrink by at least 30 percent. Fifty-six percent of patients experienced at least some tumor shrinkage in the ongoing single drug Phase I study dubbed Keynote-012, researchers reported. "This is remarkable because we don't usually see this level of activity with new agents. We have a track record of failure," said Dr. Tanguy Seiwert, lead investigator of the study from the University of Chicago. Advanced head and neck cancer is currently treated with Eli Lilly's Erbitux, known chemically as cetuximab, which typically has a response rate of 10 percent to 13 percent. "The only thing that works is cetuximab and this looks at least twice as good," said Seiwert, who was presenting the Keytruda data at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago. ADVERTISING Merck shares rose more than 1 percent to $60.43 on the New York Stock Exchange. Keytruda and Opdivo from Bristol-Myers Squibb Co are at the forefront of a promising new class of drugs called PD-1 inhibitors that block a mechanism tumors use to evade the immune system. Keytruda is approved to treat advanced melanoma and awaits a decision for use in lung cancer. It is being [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2015-06-02T11:56:50-07:00June, 2015|Oral Cancer News|

News on cancer breakthroughs: Curb your enthusiasm

By: Christopher Johnson, MDSource: KevinMD.comDate: July 20, 2013 Hardly a day goes by when some news outlet does not report, often breathlessly, some new breakthrough in cancer research. We need to turn a skeptical eye on most of these reports, particularly those that contain information about very preliminary research findings. The always astute Gary Schweitzer gives a good perspective on this in his HealthNewsReview.org; it’s a good site to bookmark if you follow the medical news. The key thing to remember is that many, many substances have been found to attack and kill cancer cells in the laboratory. The cartoon above, from the wonderful site xkcd, illustrates the problem. This is generally how promising anti-cancer agents are first identified: we test them against cancer cells growing in a dish. These are called in vitro (“in glass”) studies. But once a potential cancer treatment is found there is a long way to go. First of all, can the concentrations of the agent that showed cancer-killing activity in the dish be safely achieved in the body? And, if they can, does the agent still show that ability in the incredibly complex system of the body? Often such in vivo (“in life”) studies are first done in experimental animals before they are tried in humans. The testing process in humans is long and complicated. By convention it is divided into several phases. These are worth knowing about because the media will often enthusiastically report results from phase I trials, which represent very preliminary [...]

Charlotte Parker2013-07-22T12:19:54-07:00July, 2013|Oral Cancer News|

Dental oncology: Meeting a growing need

Source: Dr.Biscuspid.com The good news is more cancer patients are surviving than ever before. The bad news is it creates new challenges for the medical community to provide adequate and appropriate aftercare and treat the many short- and long-term side effects of cancer treatment. For example, chemotherapy and radiation often cause oral problems such as mucositis, xerostomia, oral and systemic infections, and accelerated caries development. But many dentists refuse to treat cancer patients with these conditions due to the increased risk of osteonecrosis from radiation treatment or bisphosphonate use. Enter Ryan Lee, DDS, MPH, MHA, who is finishing a postgraduate clinical fellowship in dental oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. He hopes to help solve the shortage of dentists with the training to treat the growing number of cancer patients who need specialized oral care. Ryan Lee, DDS, is one of a handful of dentists specializing in dental oncology. Dr. Lee is one of two fellows in Sloan-Kettering's dental oncology fellowship program, which has been offering the specialty training for at least a decade. "All along I've liked working on medically complex cases with dental needs, so cancer fit into that niche very well," he told DrBicuspid.com. "I've come to realize how much of a growing need it is and how little is available to meet that need," he explained. Currently, only two cancer hospitals offer fellowship training programs for dental oncology: the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-06-07T10:09:20-07:00June, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Targeting Cancer Treatment

Source: Medical News Today Cancer treatment is depending more and more today on specific factors of a patient's tumor, including gene mutations, or proteins that are commonly typical of certain cancer cells, rather than focusing on where in the body the cancer started. Before, treatment was based on finding where in the body the cancer originated, such as the breast or lung. Targeted therapy is all about the cancer's genes, tissue environment that contributes the tumor's growth and survival, and its proteins. Nowadays, cancer therapy is designed to interfere with a signal that tells the cancer cells not to die or tells it to divide, while before, chemotherapies had the goal of interfering with cancer cells as division was already underway, when the cells were dividing into new ones. The human body is made of various types of cells, including skin cells, brain cells, or blood cells. Each one has a specific function. Cancer occurs when healthy cells change and start growing out of control; they eventually form a tumor - a mass. A benign tumor is noncancerous, whereas a malignant one is cancerous, it can spread to other parts of the body. Cancer cells either divide too quickly or do not die when they should do Specific genetic mutations within a cell change the way it behaves. When the genes that control cell division mutate (change), they can multiply too quickly; the cell has become cancerous. Cells are genetically programmed to die, when the specific genes that tell the [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-06-13T09:47:33-07:00June, 2011|Oral Cancer News|