metastatic disease

Cure Possible for Some HPV-Positive Oropharyngeal Cancers

Source: www.medscape.com Author: Fran Lowry In a subset of patients with human papillomavirus (HPV)-related oropharyngeal cancer, the goal of achieving a "cure" is a realistic one, even in patients who have limited distant metastases, a prospective study has shown. Of the patients with HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer and distant metastases, 10% survived more than 2 years after intensive treatment, which the researchers defined as a cure. The study was presented at the 5th International Conference on Innovative Approaches in Head and Neck Oncology (ICHNO) in Nice, France. The research was praised by Jean Bourhis, MD, head of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Centre Hospitalier Université Vaudois in Lucerne, Switzerland, and cochair of the ICHNO conference scientific committee. "This important piece of research adds substantially to what we know about the role and the importance of the human papillomavirus in oropharyngeal cancers and gives real hope of improvement in both diagnosis and treatment to those who are affected by the condition," he said in a statement. This study, from a world-leading group of head and neck cancer experts, is very interesting, and related to relevant clinical and interdisciplinary questions," said Daniel Zips, MD, professor of radiation oncology at the University of Tübingen in Germany. "HPV status is also important for the management of metastatic disease," he told Medscape Medical News. He agrees that for some patients with HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer, using the researchers' definition, a cure is possible. "I also agree that the results from this study might begin to change [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2015-03-12T07:00:10-07:00March, 2015|Oral Cancer News|

Harmless virus could be an answer to cancer

Source: www.dailyfinance.com Author: Melly Alazraki You'd think that infecting a cancer patient with a virus would be the last thing a doctor would want to do. But what if it was a virus that attacks and kills cancer cells? That's exactly the premise that led to the founding of Oncolytics Biotech, a Calgary-based biotechnology company. It's about to begin Phase 3 trials that could pave the way for a marketable cancer treatment based on this technology in two years, says CEO Dr. Brad Thompson (pictured) in an interview with DailyFinance. "We're working on a product that is widely applicable to quite a few indications of cancer and is based on a naturally occurring virus that's commonly found in the environment and that happens to have a preference of growing in cancer cells as opposed to growing in normal tissue." It's called a reovirus (short for Respiratory Enteric Orphan virus), and it's a type which most people pick up by age 12 through inhalation or contact that causes few or no health problems. But when the virus enters cancer cells, it kills them. On-Off Switch Viruses, naturally, prefer cells that can't fight them off. And these cancer cells all have a common characteristic: They have a certain growth pathway, called the Ras pathway, turned on. "If a cell doesn't have that pathway turned on, nothing happens, so it's like an on-off switch for the virus's growth," Thompson explained. In the human body, very few normal cells have that Ras pathway turned [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-02-06T12:11:49-07:00February, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

The Australian PET Data Collection Project is amassing more evidence that shows that PET positively changes management plans for cancer patients

Source: Journal of Nuclear Medicine (October 2008, Vol. 49:10, pp. 1593-1599) Author: Dr. Andrew Scott et al. Led by Dr. Andrew Scott, director of the Centre for PET at Austin Hospital in Melbourne, the newest research shows that PET provides important prognostic information in a large proportion of patients with untreated head and neck cancer, and detects additional sites of disease. The prospective study, published in the October issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine (October 2008, Vol. 49:10, pp. 1593-1599), was conducted at three Australian PET centers between December 17, 2003, and June 3, 2005. The criteria for enrollment included patients who previously had untreated carcinoma of the nasal cavity, nasopharynx, oral cavity, oropharynx, hypopharynx, or larynx, or had metastatic disease involving cervical lymph nodes from an unknown primary. Patients underwent examination under anesthesia and biopsy to confirm their diagnosis of cancer. Contrast-enhanced CT of the neck was required within six weeks of the PET scan. Patients fasted for a minimum of six hours before the PET study and received a dose of 120-440 MBq FDG intravenously. After a minimum uptake period of 45 minutes, researchers acquired PET data from the skull vertex to at least the lower abdomen. Treatment plans Before receiving the results of the PET scans, researchers asked referring clinicians to document their management plan for the patient, as if PET findings were not available, but with access to all other clinical and conventional imaging results. The management plan provided information on options such as surgery, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-10-10T03:50:59-07:00October, 2008|Oral Cancer News|