Source: www.journallive.co.uk
Author: Neil MacKay

It is a memorable moment in any mother’s life when her child utters their first word. But when Daniel Sewell said “Mam” for the first time it was an extra special for his mum Alison.

For Daniel was given a “new” tongue during pioneering surgery for mouth cancer at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary more than three years ago, and doctors warned Alison that he may never talk properly.

Surgeons had to take out three-quarters of his tongue and replace it with muscle from his abdominal lining. Now, after three years in remission, four-year-old Daniel is a happy, talkative primary school pupil.

Both he and Alison, 43, of Coronation Street, Crook, County Durham, are backing the British Dental Health Foundation’s Mouth Cancer Action Week, which runs next week.

Daniel’s father Richard spotted his badly swollen tongue when he was 13 months old and his quick action saved the tot’s life – early detection of oral cancer means a survival chance of 90%.

Alison said: “I was just as ignorant as anyone about mouth cancer. I always presumed it was about the older generation and was linked with smoking and the like.

“When we found out Daniel had cancer, we had the shock of our lives. It was so hard for the first few weeks and we didn’t know which way it was going to go. If we hadn’t noticed when we did I really don’t think he would have made it. Mouth cancer is a silent killer.

“Even hospital staff couldn’t believe a child of 13 months could get this disease. People need to be aware that this can happen to anybody. It is so important that people get themselves checked out.

“We were so nervous when he had the operation, and we were told he might never talk properly, so when he said ‘Mam’ for the first time I was just so happy, I was dancing round the kitchen.”

Alison added: “He has made a remarkable recovery, he has astounded the doctors and nurses, but his condition is always the last thing I think of before going to sleep and the first thing I think about on waking. You dread the cancer recurring.

“But his speech is coming on very well. The doctors warned us he may have difficulty saying his brother’s name, Thomas, for example, because the letter T is difficult to pronounce, but he says it perfectly.

“He cannot stick his tongue out properly like other children, but that is not necessarily a bad thing!

“We are delighted to support this campaign. If we help one family spot the symptoms in time. it will be worthwhile.”

One person dies every five hours from disease. Nearly 5,000 are diagnosed with mouth cancer annually. Mortality figures have remained above 1,500 deaths per year for a decade. Mouth cancer kills one person every five hours in the UK.

British Dental Health Foundation chief executive Dr Nigel Carter said: “It is time for action – which can be as simple as getting regular dental check-ups.

“Early detection of mouth cancer is vital to survival, increasing survival chances to more than 90%. It is no longer just older males who need to be worried about developing mouth cancer – the condition can strike anyone.”

The foundation is urging people to be aware of how to spot mouth cancer. Three easy-to-spot warning signs are:
- Mouth ulcers that do not heal within three weeks
- Red or white patches in the mouth
- Unusual swellings or lumps within the mouth or neck.

Source: newswire.ascribe.org
Author: staff

A call to explore a broader use of HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccines and the validation of a simple oral screening test for HPV-caused oral cancers are reported in two studies by a Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center investigator.

Leading HPV expert Maura Gillison, M.D., Ph.D., the first to identify HPV infection as the cause of certain oral cancers and who identified multiple sex partners as the most important risk factor for these cancers, reports her latest work in the November 3, 2008, journal Clinical Cancer Research and in a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) monograph. The CDC report on HPV-associated cancers appears on line November 3 and in the November 15, 2008, supplement edition of Cancer.

In the CDC report, believed to be the first and most comprehensive assessment of HPV-associated cancer data in the United States, investigators analyzed cancer registry data from 1998-2003 and found 25,000 cancer cases each year occurred at cancer sites associated with HPV infection. In additional analysis, Gillison and colleagues at the National Cancer Institute identified HPV infection as the underlying cause of approximately 20,000 of these cancers.

Gillison and team found approximately 20,000 cases of cancer in the United States each year are caused by HPV infection. Oral cancers are the second most common type of HPV-associated cancers and are increasing in incidence in the U.S., particularly among men. Add to that anal, penile, vaginal, and vulvar cancers that are also linked to HPV infection, and Gillison says these cancers, when combined, equal the number of cervical cancers, the most common and well known of the cancers caused by HPV.

While about one-quarter of HPV-linked cancers occur in men, vaccines are currently approved only for use in girls and young women for cervical cancer prevention. “We need to have a more comprehensive discussion of the potential impact the HPV vaccine could have on cancer rates among men and women in this country,” says Gillison, associate professor of oncology. “Currently available HPV vaccines have the potential to reduce the rates of HPV-associated cancers, like oral and anal cancers, that are currently on the rise and for which there no effective or widely-applied screening programs.” Gillison notes, however, that studies are needed to confirm that the vaccine effectively prevents HPV infections that lead to oral and anal cancers.

Gillison’s findings were part of a project known as ABHACUS (Assessing the Burden of Human Papillomavirus-Associated Cancers). The data studied came from the CDC’s National Program of Cancer Registries and the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program. More than 80 investigators from across the country participated in the project, which addressed a variety of HPV-cancer associated issues, including racial disparity, economic impact, behavioral risk factors, and cancer mortality.

Other then prevention, early detection is held by cancer experts as the best way to control cancer. In the Clinical Cancer Research study, the first to track the disease and related oral infections over an extended period, Gillison found that simple “swish and spit” oral rinses can successfully track oral HPV infection over time. These findings open the door to a potential, non-invasive screening test to detect the disease and monitor for tumor recurrence. Head and neck cancer is the broad term for a variety of cancers of the oral cavity, including the tonsils, base of the tongue, and the side and back wall of the throat.

The study found that oral rinses successfully detected high-risk HPV infections in patients with HPV 16-positive head and neck cancers for up to five years after treatment for their cancer. Gillison says the findings indicate a high rate of persistent infection and reaffirms the connection between high-risk types of HPV and HPV-positive head and neck cancers.

In the study, the researchers used oral rinses to collect cells shed from inside the mouths of 135 head and neck cancer patients. The researchers genetically sequenced the DNA obtained from the rinses and tumor samples to identify those with HPV-positive cancers and determine the HPV type. There are approximately 120 types of HPV, but HPV 16 is one of the two most common associated with cancer.

The analysis revealed 44 patients with HPV 16-positive tumors and found that these patients were more likely to have continuing oral HPV 16 infections both before and after cancer treatment. While this study did not link the continued post-treatment infections to tumor recurrence, it was noted that patients with high-risk oral HPV infections prior to therapy, maintained high rates of infection after completing therapy. The team plans further, long-term research to determine if this continued infection leads to cancer recurrence.

In 2000, Gillison identified HPV-positive head and neck cancer as a distinct subtype of the disease and linked it to improved survival.

“There is no question of cause,” says Gillison. “It has now become a question of tracking the infection over time to identify those at risk of developing cancer or cancer recurrence.”

Notes:
1. Other researchers participating in the study include Yuri Agrawal, Wayne M. Koch, Weihong Xiao, William H. Westra, Anna L. Trivett, and David E. Symer.
2. The research was funded by the Oral Cancer Foundation, the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, and the National Cancer Institute.

Source: www.dentistry.co.uk
Author: staff

A doctor who says he has a ‘mission to raise awareness’ of mouth cancer has won a top award in recognition of his work. Dr Vinod Joshi – founder of the UK’s leading mouth cancer charity, the Mouth Cancer Foundation – earned it for Best Patient Support Initiative at the Pfizer Oncology Awards. Dr Chris Nutting, President of the British Oncological Association (BOA), presented him with his award – and a £1,500 research grant.

Dr Joshi achieved outstanding success through the restorative dentistry oncology clinic initiative to create a patient website and patient support charity. In January 2002, he launched the UK website to cater for the unmet needs of his patients and similar patients across the nation, focusing on mouth cancer awareness, early Detection and patient information and support. The unique feature of the members’ forum and message board added in 2003 enables patients and carers to offer each other support, advice and encouragement.

The Pfizer Oncology Awards are designed to recognise and reward teams as well as individuals who stand out from their peers – whatever their speciality, level of expertise or position. Dr Chris Nutting says: ‘As President of the BOA, I am delighted to have chaired the awards again this year. It has been a genuine pleasure for me to review this year’s entries. They have all demonstrated a wide range of impressive achievements in oncology care.’ BOA provides a multidisciplinary forum for the presentation and discussion of cancer research and development.

Dr Vinod Joshi said: ‘Being awarded this award means so much. Mouth cancer is such a wicked, cruel disease and its treatment is debilitating. Unfortunately, many people have not heard of mouth cancer and so neglect the early signs; it is my mission to raise awareness of this disease.’

Source: OCF Press Release
Author: John Pohl

David Nasto was the kind of person many of us wish we could be. He was a surfer. A snowboarder. A kayaker. A bicycler. An artist. A world traveler. A free spirit. Not content to simply be a devoted fan of the Grateful Dead, he also designed their album covers. Simply put, David Nasto loved life, and he lived it on his own terms.

David Nasto was also his sister Susan’s hero. So when David developed oral cancer in 2005, Susan decided to learn as much about the disease as she could. And when David passed away the following year, she decided to honor her brother do by doing what she could to help prevent others from suffering the way he suffered.

“When David was diagnosed with oral cancer, I was shocked,” said Susan. “He was so athletic, so healthy, and he had never smoked a cigarette in his life. I didn’t think oral cancer struck people like him.” Susan tried to learn as much as she could about the disease, spending much of her free time doing online research. During that process she discovered the website of the Oral Cancer Foundation. “I learned a lot about oral cancer, but the most important thing I learned is the importance of early detection. So when David died, I wanted to find a way to raise money to help increase awareness of the need for everyone to get checked for oral cancer on a regular basis.”

After much study and contemplation, Susan decided that she would organize the David Nasto Memorial Walk for Oral Cancer, and donate all of the funds raised to the Oral Cancer Foundation. The first annual walk took place on September 27, 2008 just outside Andover, New Jersey, where David and Susan were raised. Susan started organizing the event in March, relying heavily on advice provided by Oral Cancer Foundation founder Brian Hill. “There’s no way I could have done this without Brian,” said Susan. “I learned so much from him about oral cancer, and about how to orchestrate an event like this. He guided me through every step of the way.”

And there were certainly a lot of steps involved. The event kicked off with a 9:00 am registration, where 85 registrants were given special t-shirts. For the next two hours, free oral cancer exams were conducted by three dentists. Then it was time for the walk, a two-mile stroll through scenic countryside in an area known as Perona Farms. Following the walk, lunch was served, including baked ziti, fruit, and hamburgers and hot dogs grilled by Susan’s husband, Harry Lauria. After lunch, an inspirational talk was given by Eva Grayzel, a 10-year oral cancer survivor, and five other oral cancer survivors in attendance were also introduced. The event concluded with a raffle of various gift cards, and an iPod was awarded to the person who recruited the most sponsors. All told, over $10,000 was raised, quite a feat for a first-time event.

Susan, who helps people for a living through her “On the Move” errand service, is quick to acknowledge the many people who helped her make this event such a success. Local stores donated all of the food as well as the raffled gift cards. CBS Outdoor donated a billboard that promoted the event for three months. Johnson & Johnson, where Susan’s aunt is employed, donated $2,500 in cash plus all of the t-shirts. And other family members also got into the act. Susan’s 91-year-old grandmother, who lives at the New Jersey shore where David Nasto once was a lifeguard, raised over $700 from the beach community through a letter-writing campaign. Susan’s mother made flyers for the event, and Susan’s sister who is 4 ½ months pregnant, flew in from Texas to work the registration desk. And Susan’s husband Harry and 15-year-old son Kevin provided much moral support throughout the entire planning process.

Susan is already thinking about her second annual walk, and she’s set a goal of raising twice as much money as the inaugural event raised. Fortunately, she’s already had several people volunteer to help her attain that goal. And speaking of volunteering, Susan has volunteered to help the Oral Cancer Foundation counsel other people who are organizing walks and other fund-raising events.

David Nasto was clearly an inspiration to his sister. And Susan Lauria is proving to be just as big of an inspiration to others, particularly to those who care deeply about reducing the incidence and impact of oral cancer. Brian Hill from OCF stated that “Susan’s passion was evident from the onset. It was clearly a labor of love, but beyond that, it was the realization that she personally could be part of positive change in the world while memorializing her brother. It think that her example, her ability to turn a tragedy into a positive that will impact others around her, raise awareness about a disease that we hear far too little about, and help fund outreach efforts that are remote from her local community through the funds donated to OCF, show her to be the kind of altruistic person person that we can all look up to. When our focus moves from the self to others, mountains can be moved. It was a privilege to be associated with her both personally and through the foundation in this effort. She is a remarkable lady.

Source: Eurakalert (www.eurakalert.org)
Author: staff

Advances in understanding head and neck cancer over the last decade have led to more treatment options and improved quality of life for patients, according to a review published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The authors are Dong M. Shin, MD, Frances Kelly Blomeyer Distinguished Professor and associate director of Emory University School of Medicine¹s Winship Cancer Institute, and Robert Haddad, MD, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and clinical director of its Head and Neck Oncology Program.

At Winship, Shin is leading a head and neck cancer drug discovery program and conducting clinical trials aimed at preventing head and neck cancers from progressing or recurring. He and his co-workers recently showed that a compound from green tea enhances the effects of a FDA-approved drug (erlotinib) against head and neck cancer cells in animals, suggesting that it could work similarly in humans. The results are published in the September issue of International Journal of Cancer.

The majority of head and neck cancers arise from the soft tissues of the mouth, throat, and voice box. Symptoms can include a sore throat, difficulty swallowing, and a changing voice.

Even successful treatment can result in changes in the appearance of the patient’s face. However, over the last decade, techniques have been developed that allow doctors to better preserve organ function in cases of larynx or tongue cancers, Shin says.

Because smoking and alcohol consumption are risk factors, most patients are middle-aged males with a history of smoking and drinking. However, a recent increase in head and neck cancer cases among patients under 40 who do not share those risk factors has alarmed doctors, Shin says.

The increase appears to come from human papillomavirus, the same virus that causes cervical cancer in women, and may be linked with oral sex, he says.

Around 47,000 new cases and 12,000 resulting deaths in the United States are expected this year, making head and neck cancer the fifth deadliest type of cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.

In their review, Shin and Haddad describe:

* molecular pathways that lead to the development of head and neck cancer

* refinements in radiation, chemotherapy and surgery allowing doctors to preserve affected tissues and body parts

* evidence for the link between human papillomavirus and some types of head and neck cancer

* new therapies designed to target the out-of-control growth circuits in cancer cells

Some of the new therapies, such as erlotinib and cetuximab, work against the signals that come from epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), which drives out-of-control growth in head and neck cancer cells. Erlotinib inhibits EGFR’s signals inside the cell, while cetuximab consists of antibodies that block the signals from outside the cell.

As an illustration of progress, five-year survival rates for oropharynx and tonsil cancer have increased from 36 percent in the early 1980s to around 54 percent for patients diagnosed in 2000, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Still, Shin says early detection is an important strategy to increase survival.

“More than two-thirds of patients come to doctors with locally and regionally advanced disease, and their prognoses are dismal”, he says. “But head and neck cancers are potentially curable when diagnosed at an early stage.”

In clinical trials at Winship, Shin is testing drug regimens in an effort to prevent head and neck cancer in patients who have pre-cancerous growths. A separate trial seeks to prevent a second primary tumor in patients who have already had a first.

References:

1. R.I. Haddad and D.M. Shin, N Engl J Med 359: pages 47-59. Sept. 11, 2008
2. X. Zhang et al, Int J Cancer 123: pages 1005-14. Sept. 1, 2008.

Note:
1. Shin reports receiving lecture fees from Bristol-Myers Squibb (distributor of cetuximab) and Sanofi-Aventis (maker of docetaxel).

Source: MIT Review (www.technologyreview.com)
Author: Brittany Sauser

An ultrasensitive optical protein sensor analyzes saliva.

For the first time, an optical sensor, developed by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), can measure proteins in saliva that are linked to oral cancer. The device is highly sensitive, allowing doctors and dentists to detect the disease early, when patient survival rates are high.

The researchers are currently working with the National Institute of Health (NIH) to push the technology to clinical tests so that it can be developed into a device that can be used in dentists’ offices. Chih-Ming Ho, a scientist at UCLA and principal investigator for the sensor, says that it is a versatile instrument and can be used to detect other disease-specific biomarkers.

When oral cancer is identified in its early stages, patient survival rate is almost 90 percent, compared with 50 percent when the disease is advanced, says Carter Van Waes, chief of head and neck surgery at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD). The American Cancer Society estimates that there will be 35,310 new cases of oral cancer in the United States in 2008. Early forms are hard to detect just by visual examination of the mouth, says Van Waes, so physicians either have to perform a biopsy–remove tissue for testing–or analyze proteins in blood.

Detecting cancer biomarkers in saliva would be a much easier test to perform, but it is also technically more challenging: protein markers are harder to spot in saliva than in blood. To create the ultrasensitive sensor, researchers started with a glass substrate coated with a protein called streptavidin that enables other biomolecules to bind to the substrate and to one another. The researchers then added a molecule that would catch and bind the cancer biomarker–a protein in saliva called IL-8 that previous research has proved to be related to oral cancer. They also added molecules designed to keep the glass surface free of other proteins that might muddy detection of the biomarker. To visualize the target molecules, Ho’s team then added a set of fluorescently tagged proteins designed to attach to the captured IL-8 markers.

Because saliva has a lower concentration of proteins than blood does, the team needed a highly sensitive method to detect the tagged proteins among the background noise, stray molecules in saliva that also fluoresce. So the researchers used a confocal microscope–an imaging system that employs a laser to collect the light generated from a sample–to analyze the saliva. Ho and his team found that focusing the laser light on a specific part of the sample resulted in a lower signal-to-noise ratio, allowing them to detect lower concentrations of the cancer biomarker.

Indeed, Ho says, the device is 100 times more sensitive than the standard protein-detection technique, ELISA. A more extensive and invasive process, ELISA requires that the proteins be purified from the blood before testing.

“The confocal microscope is a sophisticated imaging system at the heart of the UCLA researchers’ work and what ultimately led to the improvement in detection,” says John McDevitt, a professor of chemistry at the University of Texas, who is also working in salivary diagnostics. The main challenge now facing the UCLA group is how to use this technique outside a laboratory setting, he says.

The UCLA researchers tested the optical protein sensor on 40 patients–20 healthy subjects and 20 individuals with oral cancer. The results proved 95 percent accurate, says Ho. The study was published online in the international journal Biosensors and Bioelectronics.

“The new sensor is a major step in salivary diagnostics, an area that is being looked at very carefully to see where it might be better to use saliva than blood,” says Spencer Redding, chair of the department of dental diagnostic science at the University of Texas Health Science Center, in San Antonio, who is working with McDevitt. Other possible applications of such technology include detection of heart disease, infectious disease, and asthma, Redding says.

• 5/14/2007
• Westchester, NY
• Linda Lombroso
• Gannett Co. Publishing

It was nearly five years ago that Margaret Belair received chilling news: The sensitive spot on her tongue was far more than a pizza burn or a cold sore.

It was oral cancer.

Belair, who’d just given birth to a baby boy, was stunned.

“It didn’t look or feel hard,” says the 41-year-old mother of two, who lives in Somers. “It was just a weird irritation of the tongue, just slightly discolored, and it felt like a big canker sore.”

Despite the shock of the diagnosis, Belair was fortunate. After an operation to cut out a portion of her tongue - and the precautionary removal of several lymph nodes in her neck - all she needed was eight weeks of speech therapy (to relearn how to pronounce certain sounds) and eight weeks of physical therapy (to build up the strength in her neck).

For Brian Hill, the news was not as good. By the time his oral cancer was caught in 1997, it had metastasized to his lymph nodes. Nobody expected him to survive.

Although the treatment was brutal - including radiation that destroyed his salivary glands and surgry which removed a portion of his neck - Hill ended up beating the odds.

He has since founded the Oral Cancer Foundation, a national nonprofit research and advocacy organization, and has become an outspoken champion for early detection of the disease.

One of the problems in catching oral cancer early, say experts, has been a longstanding lack of awareness on the part of patients and dental professionals. Although those at high risk for the disease continue to be tobacco users who are heavy drinkers - and African-American men - the Oral Cancer Consortium notes that 25 percent of oral-cancer victims have no known risk factors.

Hill says he wasn’t a smoker or drinker, and never imagined the hard lump on his neck had started out as oral cancer.

“I had no physical manifestation of pain or discomfort or illness all the way up to Stage Four,” says Hill, who lives in California. “That’s one of the dangers of the disease: that you can have it and not realize that some manifestation is taking place.”

Belair says she also had no risk factors, but remains convinced that an earlier bout with the human papilloma virus - which has been linked to cervical cancer - played a role in her diagnosis with oral cancer.

Researchers have made headway in establishing a link between HPV and oral cancer, says American Dental Association spokesman Dr. Sol Silverman Jr. Hill believes the connection is very real.

“The fastest-growing segment of patients has had nothing to do with alcohol or tobacco. It has to do with the HPV virus,” says Hill. “So now, when a patient walks into a dental office, you can’t say they’re not at risk for oral cancer. Because anybody old enough to have had sex or is a smoker or drinker needs to be screened. It doesn’t matter what age they are or what gender.”

This year, according to the Oral Cancer Foundation, about 34,000 Americans will be diagnosed with the disease. Experts agree, however, that no matter what the cause of oral cancer, there is a bright side: If detected early, the five-year survival rate jumps to more than 80 percent.

That’s why the American Dental Association is urging patients to get regular oral cancer exams.

“If there’s no deviation from normal, it literally takes only 30 or 40 seconds,” says Silverman, professor of oral medicine at the University of California San Francisco School of Dentistry. “It’s not a big deal.”

What are some of the warning signs?

“If you find anything that deviates from normal - a red spot, a white spot, an ulcer, a lump - then it deserves more time to either do a procedure in that particular office or refer the patient,” says Silverman. “On top of that, if you find a deviation from normal and it’s been there for three weeks or so, and a diagnosis has not been established, that indicates that a biopsy should be performed to get a definitive diagnosis.”

When Dr. Larry Honigman, a dentist who practices in Hartsdale, sees an area in the mouth that looks suspicious, he does a brush biopsy. “You take what looks like a tiny wire brush, just scrape the lesion, fix it on a glass slide and put it into a mailer,” says Honigman. Within a few days, the results come back to the dentist.

“They’ll tell you for certain if there’s nothing there that requires further examination, and if they find something suspicious or potentially malignant, we call the patient back for a full biopsy or send them to the oral surgeon for a full histological evaluation.”

Honigman and his staff also palpate (examine by touch) the neck and jaw area, using their hands to feel for anything out of the ordinary. “Hygienists are a really important part of the team in evaluating for oral cancer,” says Honigman. “In my practice, in maybe the last 10 years, I’ve had hygienists pick up maybe two lesions that were malignant.”

Dr. Kenneth Magid, a professor of aesthetics and high technology at New York University, says it is unfortunate that most oral cancers are detected at Stage Three or Four, when 5-year survival rates are under 50 percent. “The problem, for the most part, is that early oral cancer looks like everything else. It looks like a million other injuries and changes in the tissue in the mouth,” says Magid, of Advanced Dentistry of Westchester in Harrison. “It’s a red spot or a white spot. We see them all the time.”

Magid, however, is particularly excited about a new FDA-approved device called the VELscope, which uses a bright blue light to highlight changes in the mouth that are not visible to the naked eye.

Using the device, says Magid, has an added an extra step to his regular oral-cancer screening.

“The first part of the oral-cancer examination is we ask the patient if there are any sores in the mouth, any swellings, any painful areas, any hoarseness that hasn’t gone away, or any difficulty swallowing,” he says. The subsequent visual and manual examinations include a look inside the mouth with the VELscope - which, says Magid, “makes things that would look like everything else stand out like sore thumbs.”

As he explains, under ordinary light, suspicious areas of the mouth can appear remarkably similar to healthy tissue.

“In the earlier stages, it’s not red or white. It looks like everything else,” he says. “The VELscope can actually find it before it breaks through the tissue.”

He routinely uses the VELscope to help examine patients like T.J. Lupero, a volunteer firefighter from Mamaroneck. During a recent checkup, Magid directed the blue light inside Lupero’s mouth, pushing the tongue down as he looked into the pharynx.

“When we’re looking through the lens, I don’t see the blue light. What I see is all the normal tissues in the mouth glowing green, and I’m looking for anything that doesn’t glow green.”

As Magid explains, however, a dark spot visualized through the VELScope can also be caused by a bruise or injury - and doesn’t necessarily mean oral cancer. That’s why Magid will likely call the patient back for a recheck in 10 days.

The VELscope, Magid stresses, is merely a focusing device to help catch changes in the mouth before they turn dangerous.

“It is not diagnostic,” he says. “To be diagnostic, you have to take a sample of the cells.”

Dentists and hygienists must also be adequately trained in order to do a proper oral exam, says Hill. They should not rely solely on high-tech devices.

“If I gave you a car and said, ‘Here are the keys to it’ and you didn’t know the first thing about roads, driving and what signs look like, do you think you’d be a very good driver? No,” says Hill. “So if you don’t know how to do a proper exam to begin with, using this device doesn’t improve your lot in life very much as far as being a good screener.”

Yet Hill is optimistic that a simple test of saliva will one day become the gold standard, pinpointing genetic markers for oral cancer long before the disease strikes. “Salivary diagnostics in the future will mean, say, five years from now when you go to your dentist, the screening will initially be you spitting into a test tube, and you know the assistant who puts the little napkin around your neck?” he says. “She’s going to collect it and test it.”

Until then, however, vigilance remains the best weapon against oral cancer.

“The trick, whether you come to this through tobacco or through a virus, is that if we find it early, the survival rates are extremely high,” says Hill. “So early detection is the key.”

• 3/30/2005
• Chesapeake, VA
• U.S. Newswire

Chesapeake, Va. resident Minnie Ashworth, who successfully battled oral cancer two years ago, wants fewer people to have to withstand the ordeal she survived. She has joined a national effort to reduce the death rate from the disease, which can be conquered if caught in its early stages.

A Walk for Awareness will take place Saturday, April 9, at Chesapeake City Park in Chesapeake, Va. Proceeds will benefit the non-profit Oral Cancer Foundation - Web: http://www.oralcancerfoundation.org

Event Includes Free, Fast, and Painless Oral Cancer Screenings

During the fund-raising walk, doctors from the VCU School of Dentistry and from the Eastern Virginia Medical School will conduct free oral cancer screenings. These quick and painless examinations of the mouth, if conducted as part of everyone’s annual dental exam, could dramatically reduce the number of deaths from oral cancer. 30,000 individuals are newly diagnosed with oral cancer each year in the US, and it kills almost 9,000 Americans annually. The five-year survival rate is only about 50 percent. Early detection would drastically reduce the death rate.

It was a dentist who raised the alarm when Ashworth told him her gum still hadn’t healed long after she’d had a tooth extracted. The dentist immediately referred Ashworth to an oral surgeon, whose biopsy revealed cancer. Ashworth underwent radiation to shrink the tumor, then surgery to remove half her lower jaw, which was reconstructed using bone from her lower leg. During her recovery, Ashworth discovered the Oral Cancer Foundation’s web site, and used its educational section and discussion forums to research her condition, and get support from others. Now healed from her treatments, she has begun to participate in the forums again — this time as a survivor giving back advice and support of her own to those newly diagnosed.

Given the statistics associated with this cancer, Ashworth knows she is lucky; she’s back to her 1,000-mile-a-minute life as a cheer organization coach, wife, mother of eight, and grandmother of three. On top of it all, she’s organizing the OCF’s Walk for Awareness. Among the walkers will be fellow survivors with whom Ashworth corresponded on the Oral Cancer Foundation’s online forums.

“It’s amazing to see a woman who’s undergone as much as Minnie has, and whose life is as busy as hers, work so hard to raise awareness about this deadly disease,” says Brian Hill, founder of the Oral Cancer Foundation, and himself an oral cancer survivor. “Her desire to give something back now that she has survived the cancer will help thousands of others.” The Oral Cancer Foundation works nationally to raise awareness about the disease and promote annual screenings for early detection.

In addition to the walk and oral cancer screenings, the Walk for Awareness will feature a variety of booths where besides the usual T-shirts and pins, information about the risk factors, and warning signs and symptoms for oral cancer will be distributed to participants. Registrations will begin at 8 a.m., and the walk at 9 a.m. The event will end at approximately 3 p.m. For information, call 757-962-3709.

About the Oral Cancer Foundation

The Oral Cancer Foundation is a national non-profit 501(c) 3, public service charity that provides information, support, and advocacy related to this disease. It maintains a web site at http://www.oralcancer.org that receives over 15 million hits per month. At the forefront of this year’s agenda is the drive to promote solid awareness in the minds of the American public about the risk factors and warning signs of early oral cancer, and the need to undergo an annual oral cancer screening, with an outreach to the dental and medical community to provide this service as a matter of routine practice. Supporting the foundation’s goals is a scientific advisory board composed of leading cancer authorities from varied medical and dental specialties, and from prominent cancer educational, treatment, and research institutions in the United States.