Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Dental oncology: Meeting a growing need

Source: Dr.Biscuspid.com The good news is more cancer patients are surviving than ever before. The bad news is it creates new challenges for the medical community to provide adequate and appropriate aftercare and treat the many short- and long-term side effects of cancer treatment. For example, chemotherapy and radiation often cause oral problems such as mucositis, xerostomia, oral and systemic infections, and accelerated caries development. But many dentists refuse to treat cancer patients with these conditions due to the increased risk of osteonecrosis from radiation treatment or bisphosphonate use. Enter Ryan Lee, DDS, MPH, MHA, who is finishing a postgraduate clinical fellowship in dental oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. He hopes to help solve the shortage of dentists with the training to treat the growing number of cancer patients who need specialized oral care. Ryan Lee, DDS, is one of a handful of dentists specializing in dental oncology. Dr. Lee is one of two fellows in Sloan-Kettering's dental oncology fellowship program, which has been offering the specialty training for at least a decade. "All along I've liked working on medically complex cases with dental needs, so cancer fit into that niche very well," he told DrBicuspid.com. "I've come to realize how much of a growing need it is and how little is available to meet that need," he explained. Currently, only two cancer hospitals offer fellowship training programs for dental oncology: the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-06-07T10:09:20-07:00June, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Head and Neck Cancers Linked to HPV are on the Rise

Source: The Wall Street Journal A form of head and neck cancer associated with the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus is on the rise, especially in men, the WSJ reports. Fast-rising rates of oropharyngeal cancer — tumors in the tonsil and back-of-the-tongue area — have been linked to changes in sexual behavior that include the increased practice of oral sex and a greater number of sexual partners. But HPV-positive cancer has also been reported in individuals who report few or no sexual partners. It may also be possible for the virus to be transmitted to an infant via an infected mother’s birth canal. An HPV vaccine is routinely recommended for girls because the virus can cause cervical cancer. The rise in HPV-positive head and neck cancers is leading to a new focus both on treatment of the disease, and whether recommending routine vaccination for boys could prevent oral infections and cancers. (A CDC advisory panel said in 2009 that it was fine for boys to get the vaccine, but recommended against routine administration.) Eric Genden, chief of head and neck oncology at Mt. Sinai Medical Center, tells the Health Blog that when treated appropriately, patients with HPV-positive cancers have an 85% to 90% disease-free survival rate over five years. By contrast, patients with HPV-negative head and neck cancers, which are often associated with smoking and drinking, typically have more advanced disease when the cancer is detected and face a five-year survival rate of only 25% to 40%, Genden says. HPV-induced head [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-05-31T11:00:57-07:00May, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Michael Douglas compliments Canadian health care

Source: The Globe and Mail Hollywood star Michael Douglas offered up high praise for Canadian health care on Tuesday in a nod to the Montreal medical staff who made the breakthrough diagnosis of his throat cancer. Mr. Douglas said a doctor at Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital detected the disease that had eluded specialists in the United States. In gratitude, the Oscar winner agreed to add a new role to his résumé: fundraising draw for Canadian medical research. The actor travelled to Montreal from New York on Tuesday to act as leading man for McGill University’s annual fundraiser for head and neck cancer research. In an interview at a Montreal ballroom where he was about to be honoree for the evening, a dapper-looking Mr. Douglas said getting the news was like being “hit by a truck.” Yet when it came, he said, he had suspected it for months. He said he’d been having bothersome symptoms over the course of nine months: pain in his throat, in the back of his gums and up toward his ears. He consulted various ear, nose and throat doctors and was prescribed antibiotics for what was thought to be an infection. But while summering last year in Quebec’s Mont Tremblant, where he shares a home with his wife, actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, Mr. Douglas went to see Dr. Saul Frenkiel at the Jewish General, a McGill teaching hospital. The doctor put a tongue depressor in the actor’s throat. “I looked in his eyes and I immediately knew [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-05-05T09:49:17-07:00May, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Manual Drainage for Lymphedema Investigated in First-Ever RCT

Source: Medscape Today By: Zosia Chustecka December 11, 2010 (San Antonio, Texas) — Manual lymph drainage (MLD) in the form of massage was not effective in preventing arm lymphedema in patients with breast cancer who had undergone axillary lymph node dissection. The results come from a randomized clinical trial in 160 patients with breast cancer, reported here today at the 33rd Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. "This is a very nice study," commented session moderator Hiram Cody, MD, from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. "This has been a data-free zone, and this [study] is a very nice addition," he added. The results were presented by Nele Devoogdt, from University Hospitals Leuven, in Belgium, who undertook the study as part of her doctoral thesis. She was the recipient of a scholarship awarded by the American Association for Cancer Research Translational Research Scholars and funded by Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Massage to Increase Lymph Drainage MLD is a kind of massage where the skin is stretched, Ms. Devoogdt explained. The theory is that it would help to prevent the development of lymphedema by increasing the resorption of lymph, increasing lymph transport, and creating collateral pathways to aid in lymph drainage. However, she pointed out that its effectiveness in preventing lymphedema has never been tested in a randomized controlled clinical trial. So this is what her group set out to investigate. They compared a program consisting of information and exercises therapy, with and without the addition [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-12-13T11:44:05-07:00December, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

NIH grant awarded to the NYU College of Dentistry to identify bacteria associated with oral cancer

Source: New York University By: Ami Finkelthal The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, part of the NIH, has awarded a two-year, $245,000 grant to an New York University dental research team to identify bacteria in the oral cavity that may be associated with oral cancer. The team will collaborate with researchers at the NYU School of Medicine and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. The principal investigator, Dr. Deepak Saxena, an Assistant Professor of Basic Science & Craniofacial Biology at the NYU College of Dentistry (NYUCD), said that the pilot study will compare the bacterial profiles of healthy, premalignant, and malignant oral tissue. Samples will be collected from 35 patients at NYUCD and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Saxena will use genetic sequencing to identify the bacteria present in each sample and to assess which of the bacteria spur an inflammatory process known to be associated with the development of oral cancer. “Our ultimate goal is to develop a risk assessment protocol for oral cancer based on the bacterial profile of premalignant lesions and malignant tumors,” said Dr. Saxena. Plans call for a follow-up study involving a larger number of tissue samples. Dr. Saxena’s co-investigators include Dr. Zoya Kurago, Assistant Professor of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, Radiology & Medicine; Dr. Yihong Li, Professor of Basic Science & Craniofacial Biology; Dr. Robert G. Norman, Research Associate Professor of Epidemiology & Health Promotion; and Dr. Peter Sacks, Professor of Basic Science & Craniofacial Biology, all of NYUCD. Additional [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-11-09T20:52:13-07:00November, 2010|Oral Cancer News|