Higher level of education linked to decreased mortality rates for oral cavity, pharynx cancers

Source: www.hemonctoday.com Author: Camille Ragin, PhD, MPH Overall mortality rates for oral cavity and pharynx cancer declined for all patient groups from 1993 to 2007, but high school graduates experienced the largest reductions in mortality compared with those who attained less than 12 years of education. Black men (–4.95%) and women with 12 years of education (–3.72%) experienced the largest decline in mortality. Black women with more than 12 years of education were the only group that did not experience significant decreases in mortality. Mortality rates increased significantly among all white men, except for those with more than 12 years of education. “Mortality rates for patients with oral cavity and pharynx cancers decreased significantly among men and women with more than 12 years of education, regardless of race/ethnicity (except for black women), whereas rates increased among white men with less than 12 years of education,” the researchers wrote. “Throughout the entire study period, mortality rates have remained highest among the least educated and lowest among those with some college education, regardless of sex or race/ethnicity.” Only patients with at least 12 years of education experienced decreases in mortality for HPV-unrelated cancer sites. Mortality rates increased 2.72% per year for white men with less than 12 years of education (P,.01). Conversely, mortality rates for HPV-related cancers decreased among black men. Among white men, mortality rates increased 1.58% per year for HPV-related cancers during the study period. People with more education typically have higher income, more resources and they’re more likely to [...]

2011-12-05T09:24:59-07:00December, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

FDA panel finds ban on menthol cigarettes would ‘benefit the public health’

Source: www.washingtonpost.com Author: Lyndsey Layton An advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration that has been studying whether the government ought to ban menthol cigarettes said Friday that the “removal of menthol cigarettes from the marketplace would benefit the public health.” The panel, made up of scientists, doctors and public health experts, stopped short of recommending a ban on menthol cigarettes, which make up about 30 percent of the $80 billion U.S. cigarette market. The committee, which spent a year analyzing menthol cigarettes before releasing its draft recommendations, said that compared to standard cigarettes, the mint-flavored products do not pose greater individual risk to smokers in terms of lung cancer, stroke and other tobacco-related diseases. But menthol cigarettes are especially enticing to teenagers and to blacks and are more likely to turn them into lifetime smokers, the panel found. Smokers of menthol cigarettes also find it harder to quit, the panel said. Lawrence R. Deyton, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, said the agency will review the panel’s recommendations. The FDA is not required to follow the advice of its advisory panels but often does. “Now it’s up to us to do our job,” Deyton told the panel. The menthol question will be the first real test of how aggressively the FDA intends to regulate tobacco. Congress passed landmark legislation in 2009 that put tobacco under the authority of the FDA for the first time. The law prohibits the agency from outlawing tobacco or nicotine but gives [...]

Racial disparities exist in head and neck cancer outcomes

Source: www.forbes.com Author: staff Blacks and the poor have worse outcomes when it comes to head and neck cancer, researchers say. In a new study, published in the Nov. 15 issue of Cancer, researchers examined the data on diagnosis, coexisting conditions, and procedures performed among 20,915 cases of head and neck cancer. The found a worse prognosis was associated with race, poverty, age, gender, tumor site and stage, treatment type, and history of smoking and alcohol consumption. Specifically, the survival time among blacks was 21 months after being diagnosed with head and neck cancer, compared to 47 months among Hispanics and 40 months among whites. In addition, blacks were diagnosed at a younger age, were diagnosed with more advanced disease, and were less likely to have undergone surgery (45 percent versus 32 percent), when compared with whites. The treatment type did not seem to be the reason for the disparity in outcomes, however. Even among the patients who had surgery, blacks had a shorter survival time than whites. As for socioeconomic status, the patients who lived in communities where the poverty levels exceeded 15 percent were diagnosed with these cancers at a significantly younger age and with more advanced disease. Additionally, average survival time was shorter in patients who lived in areas of the highest poverty rates, regardless of the type of therapy that was received. The authors of the study concluded that racial disparities continue to exist in head and neck cancer outcomes, and that socioeconomic factors also play [...]

Disparities in head and neck cancer patients

Source: www.eurekalert.com Author: staff A new analysis finds considerable disparities in survival related to race and socio-economic status among patients with head and neck cancer. Published in the November 15, 2008 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study indicates that earlier diagnosis and greater access to treatment could improve outcomes for these cancers among African Americans and the poor. A number of studies have examined disparities in cancer survival among different groups to help identify interventions to improve patient outcomes. To investigate factors that impact survival from head and neck cancer, Dr. Leonidas Koniaris and colleagues at the University of Miami School of Medicine reviewed all head and neck cancer cases in Florida between 1998 and 2002. By mining information from the Florida Cancer Data System and the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration dataset, they were able to accumulate data on diagnoses, comorbid conditions, and procedures performed during every hospitalization or outpatient visit among 20,915 head and neck cancer patients during that time. The review found poorer outcomes were associated with race, poverty, age, gender, tumor site and stage, treatment type, and a history of smoking and alcohol consumption. Regarding race, the average survival time among Hispanics was 47 months, compared with 40 months among Caucasians and 21 months among African Americans. African American patients were diagnosed at a younger age and presented with more advanced disease compared with Caucasians. For all tumor stages, African American patients had a significantly shorter average survival [...]

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