Potential new treatment for head and neck cancers

Source: news.med.miami.edu Author: Charlotte Schubert, Ph.D. Treatment for head and neck cancers is largely stuck in the past. Patients typically receive some combination of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, treatment approaches that have not changed much over the decades. About 450,000 people die of head and neck cancer worldwide each year. A new study delves into the molecular underpinnings of some of these tumors and posits a more targeted approach toward treatment. The study provides evidence that some head and neck cancers may respond to the drug olaparib or the combination of olaparib with decitabine. Both olaparib and decitabine are approved for use in other tumors but are not used routinely for head and neck cancers. “There has not been a rationale to test them in these tumors,” said study co-leader Lluis Morey, Ph.D., a scientist at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. The new study provides such a rationale. The findings are in cells and preclinical models of disease. But Sylvester scientists are already conducting further research that could potentially lead to clinical trials in certain head and neck cancer patients. The new study appeared in the journal Genes & Development. Targeting the Histone Molecule Dr. Morey became intrigued by an earlier study showing that about 20% of head and neck tumors had specific types of defects in a molecule called a histone. Histones associate tightly with DNA and help control everything from replication to cell division. Dr. Morey, an associate professor [...]

2024-02-02T09:51:03-07:00February, 2024|Oral Cancer News|

Increased epigenetic age acceleration observed among patients with head and neck cancer

Source: www.healio.com Author: Ryan Lawrence Patients with head and neck cancer experienced an increase in epigenetic age acceleration, especially directly after treatment, which appeared associated with greater fatigue and inflammation, according to a study in Cancer. “Our findings add to the body of evidence suggesting that long-term toxicity and possibly increased mortality incurred from anticancer treatments for patients with head and neck cancer may be related to increased epigenetic age acceleration and its association with inflammation,” Canhua Xiao, PhD, RN, FAAN, acting associate professor at Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University, said in a press release. Because fatigue is prominent among patients with head and neck cancer and has been linked to poorer quality of life and survival, as well as symptoms that significantly impact diet and physical activity, Xiao and colleagues hypothesized that cancer-related and treatment-related adverse events or morbidities may represent accelerated aging trajectories. Their prospective, longitudinal analysis included 133 patients (mean age, 59.19 ± 10.16 years; 72% men; 82% white) with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, no distant metastasis and no uncontrolled major organ disease. Most of the patients (54%) had been diagnosed with oropharyngeal cancer, and 90% of those cancers were HPV related. The majority of patients (80%) underwent concurrent chemoradiotherapy, and 71% of those who underwent chemotherapy received cisplatin. Researchers assessed all patients at baseline (approximately 1 week before radiotherapy), immediately after completing radiotherapy, and at 6 months and 12 months after radiotherapy. They collected demographic and clinical variables [...]

Hopkins team shows methylation-specific ddPCR may help predict head and neck cancer recurrence

Source: www.genomeweb.com Author: Madeleine Johnson Oncologists probe the margins of surgical sites to detect epigenetic indicators that can anticipate cancer recurrence. But deep surgical margin analysis with biopsy can alter the site making it challenging to return to the exact spot if there is a problem. It also takes only a few rogue cancer cells to cause a recurrence and these may be missed by histological techniques. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have now developed a method using Bio-Rad's Droplet Digital PCR platform that is amenable to molecular methods and only requires a tiny sample from the surgical margin. Specifically, in a study published this week in Cancer Prevention Research, scientists examined an epigenetic signature of PAX5 gene methlyation previously determined to be specific to cancer, and found that it could be used to predict local cancer recurrence after tumor removal for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, or HNSCC. In a prospective study of 82 patients, if the tumors had methylated PAX5 then the presence of residual methylated cells in the surgical margins was a predictor of poor locoregional recurrence-free survival. And among patients on subgroup of patients who did not receive radiation treatment after surgery, the ddPCR method increased detection of the PAX5 maker from 29 percent to 71 percent. Compared to conventional methylation analysis, the ddPCR method also reduced the number of false negatives. Importantly, the authors noted in the study that the method can be performed within three hours by one person. Thus, [...]

Certain genetic alterations may explain head and neck cancer survival disparities

Source: www.sciencecodex.com Author: staff Certain genetic alterations to the PAX gene family may be responsible for survival disparities seen between African-American and non-Latino white men with head and neck cancer, according to results presented here at the Sixth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved, held Dec. 6-9. "During the last 30 years, the overall five-year relative survival rates for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) have increased, but despite that, the gap in overall survival rates between non-Latino white patients and African-American patients has remained unchanged," said Rafael Guerrero-Preston, Dr.P.H., assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md. "This disparity may be due to differences in genetic and epigenetic alterations among African-American patients." To test this theory, Guerrero-Preston and colleagues performed a two-stage epigenomic study. In the stage-one discovery phase, the researchers used next-generation sequencing and array-based technologies to evaluate 107 HNSCC samples. In the stage-two validation phase, they validated the findings of the discovery phase and evaluated their effect on survival rates in 279 patient samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas project. "Our results highlight the differential genomic and epigenomic alterations in PAX, NOTCH, and TP53 pathways between African-American and non-Latino white HNSCC patients, which underlie the complex biology of morphologically similar tumors and explain HNSCC survival disparities," Guerrero-Preston said. "If further validated in larger cohorts, these discoveries could be used to develop genomic and epigenomic panels that will enable more treatment options, a reduction in treatment [...]

2013-12-09T14:38:31-07:00December, 2013|Oral Cancer News|
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