gene expression – Oral Cancer News

New classification method for HPV-associated head and neck cancers

Source: www.techexplorist.com Author: Vidya Nagalwade Over the past few decades, the number of cases of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) related to the human papillomavirus (HPV+) has risen significantly and is still rising. The human papillomavirus (HPV) has been linked to an increase in cancer of the throat and tonsils, which is projected to become the most common form of head and neck cancer by 2030. Identifying the right patients with HPV-related cancers is a major challenge in reducing treatment intensity. A new study identifies a subclass of HPV+ head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC). It shows that treatment depends on the tumor type. The data show two distinct subtypes of HPV+ HNSCC, each with its features and treatment responses. The researchers examined data from 104 HPV+ HNSCC tumors and two publically available sources to find gene expression patterns that might reliably distinguish distinct tumor types. Among the 22 modules tested, one accurately classified HPV+ HNSCC tumors based on a different gene expression pattern. The NFKB classifier accurately predicted a favorable result in patients treated in the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group trial E1308, even with low-dosage radiation. Barbara Burtness, a Professor of Medicine at Yale School of Medicine, said, “This discovery opens new opportunities for treatment personalization, as we can now better understand the distinct requirements for tumor development in each subclass.” The findings have significant clinical implications. Clinicians treating HPV+ HNSCC are constantly looking for biomarkers that can be used to determine treatment intensity. The new [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2023-08-13T05:14:01-07:00August, 2023|Oral Cancer News|

Deactivating cancer cell gene boosts immunotherapy for head and neck cancers

Source: newsroom.ucla.edu Author: Brianna Aldrich By targeting an enzyme that plays a key role in head and neck cancer cells, researchers from the UCLA School of Dentistry were able to significantly slow the growth and spread of tumors in mice and enhance the effectiveness of an immunotherapy to which these types of cancers often become resistant. Their findings, published online in the journal Molecular Cell, could help researchers develop more refined approaches to combating highly invasive head and neck squamous cell cancers, which primarily affect the mouth, nose and throat. Immunotherapy, which is used as a clinical treatment for various cancers, harnesses the body’s natural defenses to combat disease. Yet some cancers, including head and neck squamous cell carcinomas, don’t respond as well to the therapy as others do. The prognosis for these head and neck cancers is poor, with a high five-year mortality rate, and there is an urgent need for effective treatments. The UCLA research team, led by distinguished professor Dr. Cun-Yu Wang, chair of oral biology at the dentistry school, demonstrated that by targeting a vulnerability in the cellular process of tumor duplication and immunity, they could affect tumor cells’ response to immunotherapy. The enzyme they focused on, KDM4A, is what is known as an epigenetic factor — a molecule that regulates gene expression, silencing some genes in cells and activating others. In squamous cell head and neck cancers, overexpression of KDM4A promotes gene expression associated with cancer cell replication and spread. It is well known that [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2021-03-25T13:21:05-07:00March, 2021|Oral Cancer News|

Deciphering molecular intelligence for early oral cancer detection

Source: www.openaccessgovernment.org Author: Muy-Teck Teh, Senior Lecturer, Queen Mary University of London Muy-Teck Teh, Senior Lecturer from Barts and the London School of Medicine & Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London discusses how a novel low-cost rapid digital diagnostic test could help save lives and reduce head and neck cancer burden worldwide: Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is a heterogenous group of diseases involving malignancies of the oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, nasal cavity, paranasal sinuses and salivary glands. It is the sixth most common cancer, with an incidence of around 600,000 cases worldwide. These numbers are expected to double by 2035, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Despite advances in treatment options for oral cancer (mostly oral squamous cell carcinoma, OSCC), the 5-year survival rate (~50%) has not improved over the last half century, mainly because many malignancies are not diagnosed until late stages of the disease. Published data showed that over 70% of OSCC patients have some form of pre-existing oral premalignant disorder (OPMD) lesions amenable to early diagnosis and risk stratification. Hence, the potential to reduce the morbidity and mortality of OSCC through early detection is of critical importance. Century old diagnostic method needs upgrading OPMDs are very common but clinicians are unable to differentiate between high- and low-risk OPMDs through histopathological gold standard method based on subjective opinion provided by pathologists. As there is currently no quantitative method to detect high-risk lesions, most OPMD patients are indiscriminately put on time consuming, costly and stressful [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2020-11-15T09:08:56-07:00November, 2020|Oral Cancer News|

Researchers find way to diagnose aggressiveness of oral cancer

Source: www.news-medical.net Author: staff Studying mouth cancer in mice, researchers have found a way to predict the aggressiveness of similar tumors in people, an early step toward a diagnostic test that could guide treatment, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. "All patients with advanced head and neck cancer get similar treatments," said Ravindra Uppaluri, MD, PhD, associate professor of otolaryngology. "We have patients who do well on standard combinations of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, and patients who don't do so well. We're interested in finding out why." Reporting in Clinical Cancer ResearchK/em>, the investigators found a consistent pattern of gene expression associated with tumor spreading in mice. Analyzing genetic data from human oral cancer samples, they also found this gene signature in people with aggressive metastatic tumors. "We didn't automatically assume this mouse model would be relevant to human oral cancer," said Uppaluri, who performs head and neck surgeries at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. "But it turns out to be highly reflective of the disease in people." Rather than use genetic methods to induce tumors in the mice, the research team repeatedly applied a known carcinogen, in much the same way humans develop cancer of the mouth. "Patients often have a history of tobacco and alcohol use, which drive the development of these tumors," Uppaluri said. "We felt that exposing the mice to a carcinogen would be more likely to produce similar kinds of tumors." The researchers, including first author Michael D. Onken, PhD, research assistant [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2014-06-29T20:25:48-07:00June, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

Five genetic subgroups revealed in head and neck tumor analysis

Source: www.onclive.com Author: Ben Leach Oncologists who treat patients with head and neck cancer are aware that those whose disease has been caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) have significantly better outcomes than those whose disease is caused by other factors such as smoking. However, new research suggests that there may be five distinct subgroups in which specific genetic profiles may be utilized to guide treatment decisions in patients. “Currently, we treat all patients with head and neck cancer in essentially the same way,” said Ezra E. W. Cohen, MD, co-director of the Head and Neck Cancer Program at the University of Chicago Medical Center. “But we do know that the prognosis for patients who are HPV-positive is much better.” To determine whether patients’ genetic profiles differed, Cohen and his colleagues at the University of Chicago, led by researcher Tanguy Seiwert, MD, took approximately 130 tumor samples from patients with stage IV squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck and performed gene expression (mRNA) analysis. The samples were gathered before patients received therapy, and all of the participants subsequently were treated with a 5-fluorouracil, hydroxyurea, and concurrent radiation (FHX)-based regimen. This way, the researchers could determine the outcome as a function of gene expression in the groups identified through the analysis, since patients received the same treatment across all the subgroups eventually identified. Cohen said that patients were enrolled regardless of whether they were HPV-positive or HPV-negative. Based on these findings, the University of Chicago team was able to classify [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2013-03-01T15:37:52-07:00March, 2013|Oral Cancer News|

Gene expression profiling predicts the development of oral cancer

Source: cancerpreventionresearch.aacrjournals.org Authors: Pierre Saintigny et al. Patients with oral premalignant lesion (OPL) have a high risk of developing oral cancer. Although certain risk factors, such as smoking status and histology, are known, our ability to predict oral cancer risk remains poor. The study objective was to determine the value of gene expression profiling in predicting oral cancer development. Gene expression profile was measured in 86 of 162 OPL patients who were enrolled in a clinical chemoprevention trial that used the incidence of oral cancer development as a prespecified endpoint. The median follow-up time was 6.08 years and 35 of the 86 patients developed oral cancer over the course. Gene expression profiles were associated with oral cancer–free survival and used to develop multivariate predictive models for oral cancer prediction. We developed a 29-transcript predictive model which showed marked improvement in terms of prediction accuracy (with 8% predicting error rate) over the models using previously known clinicopathologic risk factors. On the basis of the gene expression profile data, we also identified 2,182 transcripts significantly associated with oral cancer risk–associated genes (P value

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-02-04T18:13:41-07:00February, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Mayo oral cancer study shows full tumor genome

Source: insciences.org Author: press release Mayo Clinic researchers along with collaborators from Life Technologies are reporting on the application of a new approach for sequencing RNA to study cancer tumors. Their findings from a proof-of-principle study on oral carcinomas appear in the current issue of PLoS One, the online science journal. To explore the advantages of massively parallel sequencing of genomic transcripts (RNA), the researchers used a novel, strand-specific sequencing method using matched tumors and normal tissues of three patients with the specific cancer. They also analyzed the genomic DNA from one of the tumor-normal pairs which revealed numerous chromosomal regions of gain and loss in the tumor sample. The key finding of this work was that alterations in gene expression which can arise from a variety of genomic alterations frequently are driven by losses or gains in large chromosomal regions during tumor development. In addition to the specific tumor findings, this study also demonstrated the value of this RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) method. It will allow researchers to measure strand-specific expression across the entire sample's transcriptome. This technology reveals far more detail about genome-wide transcription than traditional microarrays. "This method allows us to investigate genetic changes at a level that we were never able to see before," says David Smith, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic genomics researcher and corresponding author of the study. "This provides us with much more information about alterations during cancer development that could reveal important therapeutic targets. We can more completely understand the relationship between an individual's genome [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-03-06T14:16:56-07:00March, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Mayo oral cancer study shows full tumor genome

Source: www.eurekalert.org Author: public release Mayo Clinic researchers along with collaborators from Life Technologies are reporting on the application of a new approach for sequencing RNA to study cancer tumors. Their findings from a proof-of-principle study on oral carcinomas appear in the current issue of PLoS One, the online science journal. To explore the advantages of massively parallel sequencing of genomic transcripts (RNA), the researchers used a novel, strand-specific sequencing method using matched tumors and normal tissues of three patients with the specific cancer. They also analyzed the genomic DNA from one of the tumor-normal pairs which revealed numerous chromosomal regions of gain and loss in the tumor sample. The key finding of this work was that alterations in gene expression which can arise from a variety of genomic alterations frequently are driven by losses or gains in large chromosomal regions during tumor development. In addition to the specific tumor findings, this study also demonstrated the value of this RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) method. It will allow researchers to measure strand-specific expression across the entire sample's transcriptome. This technology reveals far more detail about genome-wide transcription than traditional microarrays. "This method allows us to investigate genetic changes at a level that we were never able to see before," says David Smith, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic genomics researcher and corresponding author of the study. "This provides us with much more information about alterations during cancer development that could reveal important therapeutic targets. We can more completely understand the relationship between an individual's genome [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-02-23T13:07:48-07:00February, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

DNA test could be key to targeting treatments for head and neck cancer

Source: news.biocompare.com Author: staff It is estimated that more than 7,000 people are diagnosed with head and neck cancer each year in the UK and approximately 3,500 cases result in death. These cancers include tumours of the mouth, lips, throat and voice-box, and some have been linked to the sexually transmitted infection, HPV-16. Scientists at Liverpool analysed the DNA of more than 90 cancerous tissue samples to look for genes that indicated infection. The team found that nearly two thirds of tonsil tumour samples showed evidence of the HPV-16 gene. It is thought that chemical alterations in the virus's DNA trigger the production of proteins that can alter the rate at which cells grow and repair. This strongly increases the possibility of subsequent cancer development. Recent studies have found, however, that patients who have the HPV infection when they are diagnosed with cancer, respond better to chemotherapy or radiation therapy than those that do not have the infection. The work will be presented at the National Cancer Research Institute's (NCRI) Cancer Conference in Birmingham today. Mr Richard Shaw, from the School of Cancer Studies, explains: "Recent evidence demonstrates the possible involvement of HPV in the development of tonsil cancer, particularly in non-smokers. Interestingly, the treatment efficiency of chemotherapy and radiation, seems to differ between HPV positive and negative cases. We also need to find out why only a small percentage of people with this common infection develop this cancer. Our study, however, gives us a new lead towards a risk [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-10-13T21:04:03-07:00October, 2009|Oral Cancer News|