non-smokers – Oral Cancer News

Meet the ‘Young Tongues’— including suburban mom, 48, part of shocking tongue cancer diagnosis boom

Source: www.survivornet.com Author: Danielle Cinone Understanding Head & Neck Cancers Tongue cancer is on the rise among young people in the United States, according to a recent Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program analysis, and among those a diagnosed were a 48-year-old mom from Connecticut and a 22-year-old from England, both who are part of the “Young Tongues” group. Dr. Diana Kirke, an otolaryngologist at Mount Sinai Hospital who recently presented an analysis on “geographic trends in oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma among young individuals,” told TODAY.com, “since 2010, there seems to be a national shift to younger patients developing oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma. There is a very clear rise in patients that are non-smokers and non-drinkers.” Tongue cancer can be caused by a sexually-transmitted virus called HPV, and top experts suggest getting young adults vaccinated. “If I had any advice for you following a cancer diagnosis, it would be, first, to seek out multiple opinions as to the best care,” National Cancer Institute Chief of Surgery Steven Rosenberg told SurvivorNet in an earlier interview, “because finding a doctor who is up to the latest of information is important.” A recent Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program analysis has revealed an oral tongue cancer boom is underway in the United States. Included in this increased incidence is Susan Smith, a 48-year-old mom from Fairfield, Connecticut, who is part of the “Young Tongues” group. Smith didn’t receive her tongue cancer diagnosis until she saw a fourth doctor who [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2023-08-03T06:22:16-07:00August, 2023|Oral Cancer News|

Non-smokers with oral precancerous lesions at increased risk of cancer

Source: www.eurekalert.org Author: press release Precancerous lesions in the mouths of non-smokers are more likely to progress to cancer than those in smokers, new research from the University of British Columbia has found. Although tobacco use is still one of the strongest risk factors associated with mouth cancers, UBC dentistry PhD candidate Leigha Rock found that oral precancerous lesions in non-smokers are more than twice as likely to progress to cancer. Furthermore, lesions in non-smokers progressed to cancer faster than smoking-associated lesions. The study was published this week in Oral Oncology. "This is the first published study where the main focus was to examine the difference in risk of progression to oral cancer between non-smokers and smokers with oral precancerous lesions," said Rock, lead author of the study. "While other studies have also reported a higher rate of transformation among non-smokers, we looked at multiple risk factors including genetic markers." Rock and colleagues looked at case history of 445 patients with oral epithelial dysplasia (OED), a type of precancerous oral lesion, enrolled in the B.C. Oral Cancer Prediction Longitudinal study. One-third of the patients were non-smokers. "As smoking rates decline, we are seeing an increase in the proportion of these types of lesions in non-smokers," said Rock. Among the scientists' findings were that lesions on the floor of the mouth in non-smokers were 38 times more likely to progress to cancer than in smokers. The study is also the first to report on quicker progression to cancer in non-smokers: both [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2018-03-07T11:30:22-07:00March, 2018|Oral Cancer News|

Rise of tongue cancer in young, white females

www.medscape.com Roxanne Nelson - staff journalist for Medscape Oncology. The incidence of oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma has been rising in young white American women, according to a new report. For the past 3 decades, the incidence has been increasing in white men and white women 18 to 44 years of age, but the trend is most pronounced in young white women. In a report published online March 7 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the authors found that the incidence of oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma was declining for all age groups. The incidence of oral cavity and tongue cancer also was decreasing for nonwhite individuals. However, among people 18 to 44 years of age, the incidence of oral tongue cancer climbed 28% between 1975 and 2007. Among white people in this age group, the incidence increased 67%. The rising rates were most dramatic for white women, with a jump of 111%. "Lately, we have been seeing more oral tongue cancer in young white women in our clinic. So we looked at the literature, which reported an increase in oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma in young white individuals, but couldn't find any information about gender-specific incidence rates, so we decided we should take a look at the SEER [Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results] data," said lead author Bhisham Chera, MD, assistant professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill. The authors note that historically, cancer of the oral cavity was considered to be associated with older men with histories of significant tobacco and [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-03-23T11:14:20-07:00March, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Tongue cancer – experts warn against increasing incidence of tongue disease

Source: starglobaltribune.com Author: Matthew Bennett A UNC study released this week in the Journal of Clinical Oncology finds an increasing incidence of squamous cell carcinoma of the oral tongue in young white females in the United States over the last three decades. A team of researchers from UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center analyzed data from the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database and found that, between 1975 and 2007, the overall incidence for all ages, genders, and races of the disease was decreasing. However, the incidence of oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma rose 28 percent among individuals ages 18 to 44. Specifically, among white individuals ages 18 to 44 the incidence increased 67 percent. The increasing incidence was most dramatic for white females ages 18 to 44. They had a percentage change of 111 percent. Interestingly, the incidence decreased for African American and other racial groups. Historically, oral tongue cancer has been strongly associated with heavy tobacco and alcohol use. Other epidemiological studies have related the decreasing incidence of oral tongue cancer in the United States to the decreased use of tobacco products. Though the UNC research team verified the known decreasing incidence of oral tongue cancer, they were surprised to observe an increasing incidence in young white individuals, specifically young white females. “Lately we have been seeing more oral tongue cancer in young white women in our clinic. So we looked at the literature, which reported an increase in oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma in [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-03-12T11:35:27-07:00March, 2011|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|