Oral Cancer…what does sex have to do with it?

Source: DentistryIQ.com The answer is … plenty! This issue will focus on oral cancer awareness. While there are many topics we can delve into regarding this dreadful disease, we will focus on a few topics. We will share two personal and very poignant stories. Kim Anzalotti, Bill Wislon, and Eva Grayzel impart information that will move you and make you think about your daily in-office procedures. JoAnn Gurenlian, RDH, PhD, will share insights on the human papillomavirus, or HPV, a sexually transmitted virus, and its relationship to oral cancer. And last, but certainly not least, Jamie O'Day, Treatment Facilities Coordinator, The Oral Cancer Foundation Inc., The Bruce Paltrow Oral Cancer Fund, will share her insight on oral cancer screening and the need for a thorough examination. One personal story is shared by Eva Grazel, an international motivational speaker, author, performer, and cancer survivor. I had the pleasure of meeting Eva a number of years ago. In 1998 at age 33, Eva, a non-smoker, saw a number of dentists and physicians for over two years for an “ulcer” on her tongue that became larger and more painful, without any resolution. She was finally diagnosed with advanced oral cancer, Stage IV squamous cell carcinoma, on the lateral border of her tongue. After the many missed opportunities for diagnosis, Eva was given a 15% chance of survival. While her late stage diagnosis is not uncommon, her recovery was unique, as she beat the odds. After diagnosis, Eva underwent a partial tongue reconstruction, a [...]

Late-stage cancer detection in the USA is costing lives

Source: The Lancet In the USA, cancer is the most common cause of death in people aged between 49 and 80 years. In 2007, 562 875 cancer deaths were reported, which account for about 23% of all deaths. Cancers of the lung, colorectum, breast, and prostate are the most common and have the highest mortalities. In high-income countries remarkable progress has been made in cancer management and care, and although cancer incidence continues to rise, due to the influences of ageing, lifestyle, and population growth, mortality has fallen and survival rates are improving for several cancers, largely because of advances in screening, early detection, and treatment. So in light of this progress, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report published last week makes for troubling reading, showing as it does that almost half of colorectal and cervical cancers and a third of breast cancers are being diagnosed at a late stage when treatment is less effective. The study is the first nationwide examination of stage-specific cancer incidence rates and screening prevalence for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer by demographics including age and race or ethnic origin. The study found a lower uptake of screening and the presentation of symptoms late in low-income and ethnic minority communities, who also had longer delays in getting their diagnosis and treatment after an abnormal test. All these factors have been well documented to be associated with a late diagnosis for over a decade, so it is disappointing to see that cancer care [...]

2010-12-03T11:14:15-07:00December, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Pertussis reaches epidemic proportions in California; New links identified between vaccine-preventable infections and cancer.

Source: Disabled World New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that adults remain largely unvaccinated against preventable infectious illnesses. At a news conference convened today by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID), experts in public health, infectious disease, oncology and other medical specialties discussed the data and the health consequences for adults who skip vaccines. They collectively called on all adults and health care providers to improve vaccination rates. "For more than six decades, vaccines have protected us from infectious illnesses that have a wide range of consequences, from lost work days and inability to meet our daily obligations, to pain, discomfort, hospitalization, long-term disability and death," said Susan J. Rehm, M.D., NFID medical director. According to Dr. Rehm, by foregoing needed vaccines, adults not only leave themselves vulnerable to sickness, but they expose those around them to unnecessary risks, too. This problem is evident right now, as pertussis (whooping cough) continues to claim the lives of infants in California, while adults, who are frequently responsible for transmitting the disease to infants, fail to get the one-time pertussis booster vaccine. The impact of other vaccine-preventable infections may not be as immediately apparent, but they are no less important. Other vaccines for adults protect against viruses that cause several types of cancer, reactivation of the chickenpox virus that causes shingles later in life, and infection with bacteria that are the leading cause of community-acquired pneumonia. New survey results from NFID suggest that doctor/patient communication challenges may [...]

2010-11-23T10:17:29-07:00November, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Smokeless Tobacco Rates on the Rise

Source: WebMD By: Bill Hendrick Even after a generation of warnings from public health officials about the dangers of tobacco use, about 20% of Americans still smoke cigarettes, a CDC report says. The report also shows the rate of smokers who also use smokeless tobacco, such as chewing tobacco and snuff, is rising. Using smokeless tobacco can keep the nicotine habit alive, making it even harder to quit than going cold turkey, Terry Pechacek, PhD, of the CDC, tells WebMD. More Americans are turning to smokeless tobacco because of laws that prohibit smoking in public places such as bars, restaurants, and airplanes -- and also because smokeless forms can be used in offices and on the job, Pechacek says. Immediate Benefits of Smoking Cessation The tobacco companies market smokeless tobacco as a substitute for smokers, but they don’t help people quit smoking, Pechacek tells WebMD. “We are making no progress in getting people to quit smoking,” he says. “This is a tragedy. Over 400,000 people are dying prematurely and won’t be able to walk their children down the aisle or see their grandchildren.” Contrary to common beliefs of smokers, the benefits of quitting start immediately, Pechacek tells WebMD. “We see lower rates for heart attacks within months of quitting,” he says. “And lower rates for lung cancer, too. Stopping a decline in lung function is one of the biggest benefits of quitting smoking.” The national smoking prevalence rate was 20.6% in 2008 and 2009. About 23% of males smoke, compared [...]

2010-11-22T12:24:26-07:00November, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Snus smokeless tobacco: Less harmful than cigarettes, but not safe.

Source: WebMD By: Daniel J. DeNoon If you use snus, do you win or lose? Snus -- alternately pronounced snoose or snooze -- is a smokeless, flavored tobacco product very different from snuff. When placed between cheek and gum, it doesn't make you spit. Even its critics admit that snus is less harmful than other forms of smokeless tobacco. And it is far less harmful than cigarette smoking. So is snus a good thing? It would be a good thing if everyone who smoked cigarettes or dipped snuff switched to snus instead. It would be a good thing if snus were a way station on the road to quitting all forms of tobacco. It would even be a good thing if kids who would have become smokers became snus users instead. But despite all of that, mounting evidence suggests snus isn't a good thing -- and may be far worse than they appear. Snus: Less Harmful, But Not Safe Cigarettes are the world's most efficient nicotine delivery device. They are also the most deadly. Many of the most dangerous byproducts of cigarettes are created during the burning process. Smokeless tobacco products obviously don't burn. But smokeless tobacco is a major cause of oral cancer, pancreatic cancer, and esophageal cancer. Much of this risk comes from cancer-causing chemicals called nitrosamines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). And snuff products actually deliver more cancer-causing nitrosamines than cigarettes do. But nitrosamine content is far lower in snus than in snuff, says Stephen S. Hecht, [...]

2010-11-22T12:16:34-07:00November, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Oral Cancer Foundation founder named Survivor Circle Award winner by ASTRO

The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) has named Brian Hill of Newport Beach, Calif., as its 2010 Survivor Circle Award winner. Hill will be recognized with a trophy and a $1,000 prize during the Awards Ceremony on Tuesday, November 2, 2010, during ASTRO's 52nd Annual Meeting in San Diego. He has chosen to donate the funds from the award to benefit The Oral Cancer Foundation, the nonprofit he started a decade ago. The Survivor Circle Award recognizes a cancer survivor who has given back to the community by devoting his or her time to helping others with cancer. Hill was diagnosed with Stage 4 metastatic tonsil cancer in 1997. When he was going through treatment, he had many questions about side effects and realized there was a lack of information and awareness about head and neck cancer even though the disease has a very high death rate, due to it being caught at a late stage in most cases. "There was a huge lack of information available, and I was desperate to find someone to talk to who had gone through the same thing I was experiencing," Hill said. "I knew that if I was feeling this way, there had to be others feeling my frustrations too. I then became a student of the disease. " After Hill completed his grueling but successful radiation treatments at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, he and his wife Ingrid founded The Oral Cancer Foundation in 1999, which is now a national [...]

Decreases in adolescent tobacco use leveling off

Source: HemOncToday.com Declines in rates of adolescent tobacco use have stagnated in the past few years, prompting the CDC to call for better prevention efforts, according to a recent report. “Smoking continues to be the leading preventable cause of death and disability in the United States; and among adult established smokers in the United States, more than 80% began smoking before age 18 years,” CDC researchers wrote. To evaluate behaviors and attitudes toward tobacco use during the critical period of adolescence, the researchers used National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) data collected from 2000 to 2009. The NYTS, which presents school-based survey responses from a cross-sectional, nationally representative sample of middle school and high school students, gleans information on youth tobacco use; smoking cessation; tobacco-related knowledge and attitudes; access to tobacco; media and advertising and secondhand smoke exposure. The study has been conducted every 2 years since 2000. From the 205 participating schools, 22,679 students responded. They were polled about any use of, current use of and experimentation with certain tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco, pipes, bidis and kreteks. Survey questions also investigated students’ willingness to initiate tobacco use. Results indicated that 8.2% of middle school students and 23.9% of high school students reported current tobacco use in 2009, the researchers said, with 5.2% of middle school and 17.2% of high school students reporting current cigarette use. The researchers also noted that 21.2% of middle school and 24% of high school students were willing to start smoking cigarettes. Data [...]

2017-10-29T20:14:13-07:00August, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

A tough one to chew on: smokeless tobacco and teens

Source: Medscape Today Author: Mary E. Muscari, PhD, CPNP, APRN-BC, CFNS Introduction One would think that the mere image of a bulgy cheek spewing brown, foul-smelling goo would be more than enough to turn anyone, especially appearance-conscious teens, off of using smokeless tobacco (ST). But then, these media-savvy adolescents probably have discovered snus, a smoke- and spit-free tobacco. According to a recent article in Reuters,[1] the use of ST is on the rise among US teens, reversing a downward trend in tobacco product use by adolescents. The Reuters article cites comments made by Terry Pechacek, PhD, Associate Director for Science, Office on Smoking and Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in a report to a US Congressional Panel. Among his comments is the suggestion that ST-using Major League Baseball® (MLB) players may be influencing young men to take up the cancer-causing habit. In his report, Dr. Pechacek noted that "the recent increases in ST use by adolescent boys and young adult men and the increasing dual use of cigarettes and ST products may portend a leveling off or even a reversal in the decline in smoking, the perpetuation of nicotine dependence, and continuing high levels of tobacco-related disease and death in the country."[2] Given this grim outlook, healthcare professionals need to kick up their fight against teen tobacco use by increasing their focus on smokeless forms of tobacco. Smokeless Tobacco ST (also known as spit, plug dip, chaw, rack, spits, grizz, [...]

2010-07-10T06:34:38-07:00July, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

CDC: Global tobacco marketing is reaching young women

Source: CDC Author: Staff As World Recognizes “World No Tobacco Day 2010” Although women account for only about 20 percent of the world’s 1.3 billion smokers, tobacco use among women is on the rise.  Particularly troubling is new data from three countries —Bangladesh,Thailand, and Uruguay—indicating greater exposure to cigarette marketing among young women (ages 15 to 24) than older women, according to a CDC study. In Bangladesh, exposure to bidi cigarettes (80.1 percent) and smokeless tobacco (69.9 percent) marketing was widespread among women and did not vary by age.  Bidi cigarettes are hand rolled cigarettes made of tobacco that are primarily used in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. Launched in 2007, the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) is a nationally representative household survey of persons ages 15 years and older being implemented in 14 countries around the world.  Bangladesh, Thailand and Uruguay are the first three countries for which 2009 data is available.  Before GATS, no one standard global survey for adults has consistently tracked tobacco use and other tobacco control measures. “Tobacco kills more people each year than HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria combined, and tobacco deaths are increasing steadily,” said CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. “The results of these surveys show one of the key reasons for the tobacco epidemic – marketing, including to women and girls. Countries around the world should establish and enforce comprehensive bans on advertising, sponsorship, and promotion of tobacco products,” he said. Other report highlights: In Bangladesh, 1.5 percent of women are current smokers, compared with 44.7 percent [...]

2010-06-14T19:58:02-07:00June, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

U.S. cigarette brands tops in cancer causing chemicals

Source: CNN Author: Miriam Falco Smokers of U.S. brand cigarettes may get more bang for their buck in the worst way according to a small study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Researchers found U.S. made cigarettes contain more cancer-causing chemicals than some cigarettes brands made elsewhere around the world. “Not all cigarettes are made alike” says Dr. Jim Pirkle, deputy director for science at the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health. He says this is the first study to show that “U.S. cigarettes have more of the major carcinogen [TSNAs] than foreign made cigarettes." TSNAs are “tobacco-specific nitrosamines,” the major cancer-causing substance in tobacco. 126 smokers in five cities – Waterloo, Ontario; Melbourne, Victoria (Australia); London, England, Buffalo, New York, and Minneapolis, Minnesota – were recruited for this study. They were between the ages of 18 and 55 and smoked at least 10 cigarettes a day for the past year and had been brand loyal for at least three months. The cigarettes smoked by the study recruits represented some of the more popular brands for each country including: Players light and DuMaurier in Canada; Marlboro, Newport Light, Camel Light in the U.S.; Peter Jackson and Peter Stuyvesant in Australia; and Benson & Hedges and Silk Cut Purple in the United Kingdom. Scientists analyzed more than 2,000 cigarette butts to get the data they are reporting today, says Pirkle. When researchers compared cigarette brands in the U.S. to those in Canada and Australia, they found three times higher [...]

2010-06-04T13:06:10-07:00June, 2010|Oral Cancer News|
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