malignancies – Oral Cancer News

Tufts dental school to add oral medicine residency program

Source: www.drbicuspid.com Author: DrBicuspid Staff The Tufts University School of Dental Medicine will begin enrolling students in its new Advanced Education Program in Oral Medicine in July 2016, according to a Tufts Daily article. The program is a two-year postgraduate certificate with the option for a three-year master's degree track, according to the university. Teaching students how to treat oral symptoms of various diseases and conditions is the aim of the program. The program teaches dentists to be responsible for the early detection and diagnosis of oral cancer and other malignancies that manifest in the oral cavity. Dentists will be trained to treat the oral manifestations of infectious diseases, including HIV; autoimmune and immune-related diseases such as lupus; and metabolic disorders such as diabetes. Bhavik Desai, DMD, PhD, an assistant professor of oral medicine and temporomandibular joint disorder at the Virginia Commonwealth School of Dentistry, will begin as the program director on July 1. Oral medicine is not yet recognized as a specialty by the ADA; the American Academy of Oral Medicine (AAOM) oversees the discipline and is responsible for certifying dentists in the field, according to Interim Program Director Arwa Farag. The program received accreditation from the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) in August 2014. The AAOM has encouraged the expansion of training programs, because there are only six other dental schools in the U.S. that offer training in oral medicine. Only 3% of hospitals with cancer programs have oral medicine specialists, and patients are often directed to other [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2015-02-25T08:59:31-07:00February, 2015|Oral Cancer News|

Smoking associated with elevated risk of developing a second smoking-related cancer

Source: medicalxpress.com Author: staff Results of a federally-funded pooled analysis of five prospective cohort studies indicate that cigarette smoking prior to the first diagnosis of lung (stage I), bladder, kidney or head and neck cancer increases risk of developing a second smoking-associated cancer. This is the largest study to date exploring risk of second cancers among current smokers. An analysis of five large, prospective cohort studies indicates that lung (stage I), bladder, kidney and head and neck cancer survivors who smoked 20 or more cigarettes a day prior to their cancer diagnoses have an up to five-fold higher risk of developing a second smoking-associated cancer compared to survivors of the same cancers who never smoked. The association between smoking and developing a second primary smoking-associated cancer was similar to the association between smoking and developing a first primary smoking-associated cancer (patients who smoked more than 20 cigarettes per day had a 5.41-fold higher risk of developing cancer than individuals who have never smoked). Notably, current smoking at any level increased the risk of overall mortality across all cancer disease sites. The study, published on November 10 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, affirms the 2014 Surgeon General report's conclusion that patients and survivors who smoke are at a higher risk of developing a second cancer. Clinicians term an individual's initial diagnosis a first primary cancer. A second primary cancer is one diagnosed at some point after the first diagnosis. Second primary cancers are not metastases of the first cancer but [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2014-11-12T06:41:24-07:00November, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

Palifermin reduces severe mucositis in head and neck cancer

Source: http://www.medscape.com/ Author: Janis C. Kelly Palifermin (Kepivance), which is currently approved for preventing mucositis associated with total-body irradiation and stem-cell transplantation in hematologic malignancies, also prevents oral mucositis in patients with head and neck cancer undergoing radiation and chemotherapy, according to 2 randomized trials published online June 13 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Michael Henke, MD, who led both studies, told Medscape Medical News that "this shows for the first time that radiation-induced mucositis can be ameliorated — and this in a phase 2/3 design!" Dr. Henke is from the Department of Radiation Oncology at University Clinic in Freiburg, Germany. The multicenter studies included researchers from Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The first study was a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial of 186 patients with stage II to IVB carcinoma of the oral cavity, oropharynx, hypopharynx, or larynx. Treatment included radiation, 60 or 66 Gy, after complete or incomplete resection, delivered at 2 Gy per fraction and 5 fractions per week. Treatment also included cisplatin 100 mg/m2 on days 1 and 22 (and on day 43 with incomplete resection). Patients were randomized to weekly palifermin 120 μg/kg or placebo from 3 days before and throughout radiochemotherapy. The primary end point was the incidence of severe oral mucositis (World Health Organization [WHO] grades 3 to 4). Palifermin reduced oral mucositis incidence to 51% (41 of 92), compared with 67% (63 of 94) with placebo (P = .027), shortened median mucositis from [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-07-03T09:08:28-07:00July, 2011|Oral Cancer News|