depression – Oral Cancer News

Head and neck cancer survivors with dysphagia prone to anxiety, depression

Source: www.oncologynurseadvisor.com Author: Jennifer Larson Symptoms of anxiety and depression are increased in patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) who experience symptoms of dysphagia, according to researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). These findings were published in Oncology Nursing Forum. For this cross-sectional analysis, 228 survivors of head and neck cancer were recruited between October 2018 and January 2020. Participants completed questionnaires that assessed for outcomes such as swallowing dysfunction and symptoms of anxiety and depression. Patient-reported symptoms of dysphagia were measured with the 10-item Eating Assessment Tool (EAT-10), which assessed issues such as difficulties with consistencies, food sticking, coughing, and swallowing-related weight loss. Participants also completed the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) to assess for recent symptoms of anxiety and the Patient Health Questionnaire-8 (PHQ-8) to assess for recent symptoms of depression. Patients who self-reported symptoms of dysphagia were also more likely to report symptoms of anxiety and depression. Overall, 23% of the participants reported symptoms of anxiety and 29% reported symptoms of depression. “When comparing anxiety and depression levels in survivors who reported symptoms of dysphagia versus those who did not, statistical analysis showed a substantial positive correlation between increased swallowing dysfunction and more severe symptoms of anxiety and depression,” the researchers reported. The study was limited by its cross-sectional nature, and a causal association between patient-reported symptoms of dysphagia and psychological distress cannot be inferred by these data. Self-report questionnaires are intended to screen for certain symptoms, not diagnose [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2022-01-05T21:49:39-07:00January, 2022|Oral Cancer News|

Biotech exec facing death urges: Get the vaccine that prevents his cancer

Source: www.philly.com Author: Michael D. Becker Like most people who pen a new book, Michael D. Becker is eager for publicity. But he has an unusual sense of urgency. A former oncology biotech CEO, Becker has neck cancer. He expects his 49th birthday in November to be his last, if he makes it. What also drives him to get his message out, however, is this: Children today can get a vaccine that prevents the kind of oropharyngeal cancer that is killing him. As he collides with his mortality, Becker wants to share his story and raise awareness about the vaccine, which protects against dangerous strains of human papillomavirus, or HPV, the extremely common, sexually transmitted virus that caused his disease. His book, A Walk With Purpose: Memoir of a Bioentrepreneur (available on Amazon.com), was produced and self-published in a creative sprint between December, when his cancer recurred just a year after initial diagnosis and treatment, and April. He also has a blog, My Cancer Journey, and has been conducting media interviews. “I had a lot of motivation to write the book quickly,” he said wryly at his home in Yardley. In the final pages, he urges parents “to talk to their doctor about the HPV vaccine,” which “simply didn’t exist when I was a teenager, or it could have prevented my cancer.” The leading vaccine brand, Gardasil, was hailed as a breakthrough when it was introduced in 2006. It is approved to prevent cervical cancer and less common genital malignancies, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2017-07-06T09:33:47-07:00July, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

Heading back to the office following head and neck cancer

Source: blogs.biomedcentral.com Author: Daniel Caley In Cancers of the Head & Neck launching today publishes the first study looking at disability and employment outcomes in patients with head and neck cancer related to the human papillomavirus (HPV). Dr Shrujal Baxi, Section Editor for survivorship and patient related outcomes and author of this study, explains more about their work in this Q&A: The rates of patients diagnosed with HPV-related head and neck cancer is rising annually. By 2020, there will be more cases of HPV-related head and neck cancer than HPV-related cervical cancer in the United States. Numerous studies have shown that most patients with this diagnosis are likely to be cured of their disease, placing an increased emphasis on quality of life and non-cancer outcomes in this population of survivors. The majority of patients diagnosed with HPV-related head and neck cancer are working-age adults and employment is a serious issue both financially and psychologically. How can treatment for head and neck cancer impact employment? Treatment for head and neck cancer often involves a combination of chemotherapy and radiation given over a six to seven week period, often known as concurrent chemoradiation or combined modality chemoradiation. This process is considered toxic and can impact a patient’s ability to function normally including speaking, chewing, breathing and swallowing. Many patients require numerous supportive medications to get through treatment including narcotics for pain and anti-nausea medications. Patients can lose on average 10-15% of their weight within a few months and can suffer from severe [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-06-05T09:53:53-07:00June, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Head & Neck Cancer Patients Face Social Isolation, Financial Burdens

Source: www.journals.lww.com/oncologytimesAuthor: Robert H. Carlson SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.—Locally advanced head and neck cancer (LAHNC) has high morbidity and is expensive to treat. The cost of the disease, not only in financial burden but also degradation of the patient's quality of life, was highlighted in a recent study from University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. The study, using data from 73 treatment-naïve LAHNC patients, showed that 69 percent relied on one or more lifestyle-altering cost-coping strategies while managing their cancer, including spending savings (62 percent), borrowing money (42 percent), selling possessions (25 percent), and having family members work more hours (23 percent). A more subtle disruption of patients' lives was also identified, that of perceived social isolation— defined as a lack of social support coupled with increased loneliness—as a risk factor for less than optimal medication adherence and use of health care resources during treatment. That meant more days of missed medication, more missed appointments, and longer inpatient hospital stays. The study was presented at the 2016 Multidisciplinary Head & Neck Cancer Symposium, sponsored by the American Society for Radiation Oncology and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. “Physical side effects are not the only ones our head and neck cancer patients endure,” said Sunny Kung, a second-year medical student and lead author on the study. “It is important for physicians to screen for social isolation just as we screen for depression and identify patients with high social isolation so we can intervene earlier on before they experience these negative financial side [...]

Charlotte Parker2016-04-18T17:15:40-07:00April, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Suicide: A Major Threat to Head and Neck Cancer Survivorship

Source: www.jco.ascopubs.comAuthors: Nosayaba Osazuwa-Peters, Eric Adjei Boakye, and Ronald J. Walker , Mark A. Varvares TO THE EDITOR: The article by Ringash that was recently published in Journal of Clinical Oncology provided a compelling narrative of both the improvements made in head and neck cancer survivorship, as well as the challenges created by longer-term treatment and associated toxicities. There are currently at least 280,000 head and neck cancer survivors in the United States. As the article by Ringash stated, the upturn in head and neck cancer survivorship in the last three decades has coincided with the emergence of human papilloma virus-positive oropharyngeal cancer, as well as a decrease in tobacco use in the general population. These make it a challenge to isolate survival gains as a function of improved therapy from the natural prognostic value of a diagnosis of human papilloma virus-positive oropharyngeal cancer. Whatever the case, the fact that more than one-quarter million Americans are currently alive after a diagnosis of head and neck cancer means there needs to be a more deliberate effort in longer-term management of treatment-related toxicities, some of which are lifelong. We agree with Ringash’s conclusion that new models of care need to be developed in response to the significant quality-of-life issues faced by patients with head and neck cancer. The Institute of Medicine publication From Cancer Patient to Cancer Survivor: Lost in Transition, also cited by Ringash, called for a clear individualized survivorship plan for cancer patients. There is a serious need for this model to [...]

Charlotte Parker2016-03-24T15:06:02-07:00March, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Depressed Head and Neck Cancer Patients Have Lower Survival and Higher Recurrence Risk

Source: www.OncologyNurseAdvisor.comAuthor: Kathy Boltz, PhD Depression is a significant predictor of 5-year survival and recurrence in patients with head and neck cancer, according to a new study published in Pyschosomatic Medicine (doi: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000000256). These findings represent one of the largest studies to report on the impact of depression on cancer survival. Although depression can have obvious detrimental effects on a person's quality of life, its impact on cancer patients is more apparent, explained lead author Eileen Shinn, PhD, assistant professor of Behavioral Science at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston. Increasing evidence shows modest associations between elevated symptoms of depression and greater risk for mortality among patients with lung, breast, ovarian, and kidney cancers. The research team sought to clarify the influence of depression on survival, focusing their analysis on a single cancer type. By limiting the sample set and adjusting for factors known to affect outcome, such as age, tumor size, and previous chemotherapy, they were able to uncover a more profound impact of depression. The researchers followed 130 patients at MD Anderson with newly diagnosed oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), a type of cancer in which the tumor originates at the back of the throat and base of the tongue. At the beginning of their radiation therapy, Patients completed a validated questionnaire at the beginning of their radiation therapy to identify symptoms of clinical depression. Researchers monitored the participants, all of whom completed treatment, until their last clinic visit or death, a median period of [...]

Charlotte Parker2015-12-30T18:15:58-07:00December, 2015|Oral Cancer News|

Depression and smoking linked to worse prognosis in oral cancer

Source: medicalresearch.com Author: staff MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Eileen H. Shinn PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Behavioral Science Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences, MD Anderson Cancer Center Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Shinn: Recent studies with leukemia, breast, lung, renal and liver cancer patients have shown that patients with depression have worsened survival. These effect sizes are small, but independent of any of the traditional factors that are known to impact survival, such as extent of cancer, types of treatment administered and baseline health and age of the patient. The current thinking is that cancer patients who are depressed have chronically heightened responses to stress; the constant release of stress hormones trigger changes in the tumor itself (such as noradrenergically-driven tumor angiogenesis) or may weakens the body’s immune function and ability to resist tumor growth. When we measured depression in newly diagnosed patients with oropharyngeal cancer (cancer of the base of tongue and tonsil), we found that those patients who scored as depressed were 3.5 times more likely to have died within the five year period after their diagnosis, compared to non-depressed patients. We also found that patients who were depressed were also 3.8 times more likely to have their cancer recur within the first five years after diagnosis. We also found that patients who continued to smoke after diagnosis were more likely to recur within the first five years. These effect sizes were larger than those typically found in [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2015-12-13T08:51:57-07:00December, 2015|Oral Cancer News|

ASCO Launches New Survivorship Guidelines

Author: Roxanne NelsonSource: medscape.com The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has issued 3 new evidence-based clinical practice guidelines on the prevention and management of common symptoms that affect a large number of cancer survivors — neuropathy, fatigue, and depression and anxiety. The number of cancer survivors in the United States has risen exponentially, from 3.0 million in 1971 to about 13.7 million currently. That is good news, but the downside is that survivors often face long-term health issues related to their disease and treatment. Thus, there is an outstanding need for comprehensive guidance to assist clinicians in this management process. The ASCO recommendations reinforce the fact that both physical and psychological needs have to be addressed in this population. The guidelines, published online April 14 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, are the first in a series that will focus on survivorship care. Peripheral Neuropathy Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is a common treatment-related adverse event and can affect a patient's long-term quality of life. It is estimated that about 38% of patients who are treated with multiple agents develop CIPN, but this can vary, depending on the actual regimen and duration of treatment. Chemotherapy combinations associated with a higher incidence of CIPN are those that involve platinum drugs, vinca alkaloids, bortezomib, and/or taxanes. Symptoms vary, and range from numbness and tingling to shooting pain in the arms and legs. If symptoms are really severe, dose reduction or another regimen might be necessary. For a minority of patients, severe symptoms can last for years. [...]

Charlotte Parker2014-04-30T12:32:48-07:00April, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

After-effects of oral cancer surgery forces patients into unemployment and depression

Source: economicvoice.comAuthor: Economic Voice Staff Cancer Patients are being forced into unemployment due to the after-effects of surgery and higher levels of depression. Research into head and neck cancer patients discovered the rate of those employed fell by more than 40 per cent five years after diagnosis, where only one in three managed to secure work. They also reported unemployed cancer survivors had lower social well-being and higher depression scores For those cancer sufferers out of work prior to diagnosis, their reasons for not returning to work also included the knock-on effect of surgery as well as dangerous levels of alcohol consumption. Figures from Cancer Research UK reveal more than 331,000 people were diagnosed with cancer in 2011 – around 910 every day. According to mouth cancer campaigners, the problems are exacerbated for mouth cancer patients. Previous research identified mouth cancer survivors face a diminished quality of life. Survivors reported poor oral function, resulting in persistent eating problems and long term depression. More than half of respondents (51.6 per cent) reported problems with eating, while on average one in four survivors who lived for five or more years still experienced speech problems. It was a similar story when it came to a patient’s physical and mental health, with more than a third (36.7 per cent and 39.3 per cent respectively) recording low functionality after the five year analysis. According to Chief Executive of the British Dental Health Foundation, Dr Nigel Carter OBE, the study highlights the problems mouth cancer sufferers face on a daily basis. Dr [...]

Charlotte Parker2014-03-31T15:05:13-07:00March, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

Psychosocial services underutilized by those with head and neck cancers

Source: www.healio.com Author: Allen Chen Despite high rates of depression among individuals with head and neck cancers after radiation therapy, mental health services are severely underutilized in this patient population, results of a cross-sectional analysis suggest. Allen M. Chen, MD, of the department of radiation oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and colleagues evaluated data on 211 patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. All patients underwent radiation therapy and were disease-free within at least 1 year of follow-up. Exclusion criteria included history of mood disorder, previous use of mental health services, or use of antidepressants or anxiolytics, not including sleep medications. The researchers pooled data from self-administered questionnaires to assess depression rates in these patients. The following scores were assigned to subjective responses of mood: 0, extremely depressed; 25, somewhat depressed; 50, neither in a good mood nor depressed; 75, generally good; and 100, excellent. Results suggested no differences in mean mood scores at 1 year (52), 3 years (55.7) or 5 years (62.1) after treatment. The presence of tracheostomy tube or laryngeal stoma (P=.01), gastrostomy tube dependence (P=.01) and continued smoking at the time of follow-up (P

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2013-09-11T08:35:36-07:00September, 2013|Oral Cancer News|