reconstruction – Oral Cancer News

One-day jaw reconstruction: George’s story

Source: www.roswellpark.org Author: staff When a toothache turned out to be cancer, George quickly learned the state-of-the-art treatment he needed was right here in Buffalo, NY. Buffalo born-and-bred George Hofheins is happy with his “new” life and looking forward to becoming a Florida snowbird. On October 20, he marked the first anniversary of having his jaw replaced, in an innovative One-Day Jaw Reconstruction surgical procedure now offered at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center as a definitive treatment for oral cancer. “My life is good again. I’m thrilled that I’m living it the way I am,” he says. “The one-day surgery was what really convinced me to go with Roswell Park and I was very impressed with the teamwork and the people and the results.” Before the surgery, George had been healthy all of his 75 years, except for a few glitches he says were mostly minor and fixable: “I pride myself on exercising regularly, keeping a more-or-less healthy diet, maintaining a proper weight give or take a few pounds, and not indulging in any seriously bad habits, unless you count a glass of wine with dinner or an occasional martini.” But in June 2021, when he got a toothache and thought it might be an impacted wisdom tooth, George went to see his dentist. His dentist looked at the troublesome tooth and decided to refer George to an endodontist, who extracted the aching molar. George thought that was that. “A few months later the gum socket had not healed. So [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2022-12-29T16:36:18-07:00December, 2022|Oral Cancer News|

Grim reaper tattoo used in throat cancer reconstruction

Source: www.bbc.co.uk Author: staff Surgeons used skin from a man's arm - including a tattoo of the grim reaper - to reconstruct his tongue and voice box in a life-saving operation. Colin Reilly from Bristol, had to record his own voice before surgery in case he lost the ability to speak in the operation to remove a tumour. As part of the operation his jaw had to be split and the lower half of his face reconstructed when it was completed. Mr Reilly said there is "not enough" he can do for the hospital that saved him. Mr Reilly, 50, was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2020 and an endoscopy found a tumour at the back of his tongue. Between October and December 2020 he underwent six weeks of radiotherapy and was fed through a tube, but it became clear the tumour was very advanced and without treatment Mr Reilly would have six months to live. The grim reaper tattoo was taken from his forearm Mr Reilly amazed doctors when he was able to speak soon after the surgery Ear, nose and throat specialist Dr Oliver Dale said he was willing to carry out the surgery at the Bristol Royal Infirmary, despite the position of the tumour making the surgery high risk - with the chance Mr Reilly would not be able to speak or eat again. "Mr Dale was amazing," said Mr Reilly. "He told us that he believed he could do the surgery, despite [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2022-03-11T09:31:30-07:00March, 2022|Oral Cancer News|

Marine Corps corporal gets 3D-printed teeth with jaw reconstruction

Source: www.upi.com Author: Ed Adamczyk A Marine Corps member is the first recipient of the Defense Department's first jaw reconstruction using 3D-printed teeth, the Pentagon said on Friday. A tumor prompted the removal of most of Cpl. Jaden Murry's jaw in a November 2020 surgery. Murry is a member of Logistics Battalion 7, Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, Calif. The jaw was reconstructed using a portion of his fibula, or lower leg bone, but his lower teeth were made using a digital model, which was then printed into a physical replacement bridge and inserted in the new jaw. The surgery was conducted by a multi-department team of surgical specialists at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego. "All of the providers worked as a team to keep his recovery on track," Lt. Cmdr. Daniel Hammer, maxillofacial surgical oncologist and reconstructive surgeon, said in a press release. "We were able to safely remove his tracheostomy tube [inserted in a patient's neck when there are concerns about postoperative breathing] within a week of the surgery, and it was then we knew he was making strides in the right direction." Murry is recovering in the Naval Center's Wounded Warrior Battalion, and on a diet of soft foods. A final prosthetic set of teeth will be available to him in about two months. "Since his surgery, [OMFS specialists and I] see Jaden twice weekly for check-ups, and we're guiding his healing process," Hammer said in December. "To see him swallowing, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2021-07-12T18:56:32-07:00July, 2021|Oral Cancer News|

JOMS study: For jaw cancer patients, in-house 3D printing allows quicker restoration of teeth

Source: www.prnewswire.com/ Author: News provided by Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery In-house 3D printing allows patients with malignant disease to more quickly receive immediate tooth restoration – treatment that had been regarded as of low importance for these patients due to the severity of their disease, a new study found. The 3D digital workflow eliminates the wait in providing replacement teeth using the conventional approach and is less costly, according to the study published in the August issue of the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, the official journal of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS). For the study, 12 patients underwent virtual surgical planning (VSP) for a procedure called free fibula maxillofacial reconstruction, which replaces bone and soft tissues in the face removed to treat cancer with bone and soft tissue from the patient's leg. A dental prosthesis was created for each patient to be placed at reconstruction. For five patients, a dental laboratory made the prostheses. For the other patients, a surgeon designed the prostheses and 3D printed them in-house. Four of the patients who received a prosthesis from the in-house 3D printing had malignant tumors. Researchers found time and cost were less for developing the prostheses in-house than using a dental laboratory. Sending production of a prosthesis to dental laboratories leads to delays in the prosthesis being ready to give to the patient soon after cancer surgery, the study notes. "Such a delay has limited the usefulness of this treatment to benign conditions," [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2020-08-12T09:02:48-07:00August, 2020|Oral Cancer News|

Silent no more: Woman lends voice to hope after cancer

Source: health.ucsd.edu Author: Yadira Galindo Singing hymns in church has always brought Cynthia Zamora joy. Today, her once sharp intonation has given way to a raspy voice. But Zamora is thankful that she has a voice at all after spending three months without the ability to utter even one syllable. “I miss going to church and singing with people,” said Zamora. “Although, if I am in the back I'm still singing. I'm just hoping they don't hear what sounds like a 13-year-old pubescent boy back there, because that's how I sound. I know God thinks it's beautiful, so I don't worry about it. I just go on with life.” In 2017, Zamora bit her tongue while sleeping, splitting her tongue nearly in half. She was referred to a specialist when her wound would not heal. They found a 5.4-centimeter tumor that enveloped more than half of her tongue. To save her life, her surgeon, Joseph Califano, MD, delivered grim news: Zamora would have to undergo a glossectomy — the surgical removal of all or part of the tongue. “By the time I saw her she was really having a hard time speaking and swallowing,” said Califano, director of the Head and Neck Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health. “With Cynthia that was a difficult discussion because it was unclear how much tongue we would save and how good the function would be with the remaining tongue that would be preserved.” A multidisciplinary team of experts that included medical oncology, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2018-07-10T10:03:53-07:00July, 2018|Oral Cancer News|

Hopkins team shows methylation-specific ddPCR may help predict head and neck cancer recurrence

Source: www.genomeweb.com Author: Madeleine Johnson Oncologists probe the margins of surgical sites to detect epigenetic indicators that can anticipate cancer recurrence. But deep surgical margin analysis with biopsy can alter the site making it challenging to return to the exact spot if there is a problem. It also takes only a few rogue cancer cells to cause a recurrence and these may be missed by histological techniques. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have now developed a method using Bio-Rad's Droplet Digital PCR platform that is amenable to molecular methods and only requires a tiny sample from the surgical margin. Specifically, in a study published this week in Cancer Prevention Research, scientists examined an epigenetic signature of PAX5 gene methlyation previously determined to be specific to cancer, and found that it could be used to predict local cancer recurrence after tumor removal for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, or HNSCC. In a prospective study of 82 patients, if the tumors had methylated PAX5 then the presence of residual methylated cells in the surgical margins was a predictor of poor locoregional recurrence-free survival. And among patients on subgroup of patients who did not receive radiation treatment after surgery, the ddPCR method increased detection of the PAX5 maker from 29 percent to 71 percent. Compared to conventional methylation analysis, the ddPCR method also reduced the number of false negatives. Importantly, the authors noted in the study that the method can be performed within three hours by one person. Thus, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2015-08-27T14:39:59-07:00August, 2015|Oral Cancer News|

Surgery beats chemotherapy for tongue cancer, U-M study finds

Source: www.eurekalert.org Author: press release Patients with tongue cancer who started their treatment with a course of chemotherapy fared significantly worse than patients who received surgery first, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center. This is contrary to protocols for larynx cancer, in which a single dose of chemotherapy helps determine which patients fare better with chemotherapy and radiation and which patients should elect for surgery. In larynx cancer, this approach, which was pioneered and extensively researched at U-M, has led to better patient survival and functional outcomes. But this new study, which appears in JAMA Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, describes a clear failure. "To a young person with tongue cancer, chemotherapy may sound like a better option than surgery with extensive reconstruction. But patients with oral cavity cancer can't tolerate induction chemotherapy as well as they can handle surgery with follow-up radiation. Our techniques of reconstruction are advanced and offer patients better survival and functional outcomes," says study author Douglas Chepeha, M.D., MSPH, professor of otolaryngology – head and neck surgery at the University of Michigan Medical School. The study enrolled 19 people with advanced oral cavity cancer. Patients received an initial dose of chemotherapy, called induction chemotherapy. Those whose cancer shrunk by half went on to receive additional chemotherapy combined with radiation treatment. Those whose cancer did not respond well had surgery followed by radiation. Enrollment in the trial was stopped early because results were so poor. Ten of [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2013-12-30T06:42:46-07:00December, 2013|Oral Cancer News|

Study highlights success of nerve transfer surgery

Source: www.newswise.com A study in the August issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (JAAOS) by Hospital for Special Surgery researchers aims to raise awareness of this type of surgery among health care providers. In recent years, great strides have been made in nerve transfer surgery, allowing many patients with a nerve injury in their upper extremity to have a remarkable recovery and improved functional outcomes. “It’s obvious that many physicians don’t know what can be done, because often patients are referred too long after their injury. If we get these patients late, any nerve surgery is less likely to work,” said Steve K. Lee, M.D., director of Research at the Center for Brachial Plexus and Traumatic Nerve Injury at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS), lead author of the study. “A big thrust of this paper is to get the information out there that we need to see these patients earlier for better outcomes.” Nerve injuries can be caused by a variety of events, including car and motorcycle accidents, sporting accidents, falls from heights such as construction accidents, and surgeries for head and neck cancer. Once a nerve is cut from a muscle, it has to be reinnervated within about 18 months before the muscle atrophies. Since nerves only regenerate one millimeter per day, sometimes they cannot regenerate and reach the muscle before it wastes away. “It has been shown that if you do nerve reconstruction work and surgery before six months after a nerve is [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-08-02T17:39:59-07:00August, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Oral cancer treatment and reconstruction

Source: www.cancernewstoday.com Author: staff Trace the steps of Carolyn Coogan, a patient who discovered she had oral cancer and her subsequent treatment options as Dr. Neal Futran, director of otolaryngology head and neck surgery at the University of Washington Medical Center, leads a discussion of the processes. Discover how Coogans treatment crossed medical disciplines as it involved surgeries to remove cancer, reconstruct the jaw and install the dental prosthesis.

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-07-04T14:53:01-07:00July, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Plastic surgery gives ‘ green’ doctor his tongue & voice back

Source: www.thefreelibrary.com Author: staff His lifelong mission has been to save trees. He used to spend a lot of time delivering lectures, shouting slogans and transplanting trees. But three months ago, all this came to an abrupt end as Dr Nitin Pandey was diagnosed with tongue cancer of the second stage. A paediatrician by profession, he could hardly speak and doctors at the Capital's Max hospital had no option except chopping off half his tongue carrying the deadly cancer cells But thanks to reconstructive plastic surgery, Pandey has now got not only a new tongue but also his voice back. Today he is back doing what he loves best -- creating awareness about our vegetation at his hometown in Dehradun. But all this would have been impossible had not the doctors at the hospital made a timely intervention. "Generally people chewing tobacco and tobacco products suffer from tongue cancer. But Pandey was unfortunate that he caught the disease without using tobacco. We had to perform a surgery to remove his left half of the tongue," said Dr Vedant Kabra, consultant surgical oncologist at the hospital. After half his tongue was removed, Pandey could neither speak nor drink or eat. Hence, a reconstruction became necessary. Doctors carried out a complex 10- hour surgery to help Pandey speak again. "We took tissue from his forearm and reconstructed his tongue. The arm has two arteries and it can do with one only. So we took an artery from the forearm along with a [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-05-09T10:32:37-07:00May, 2010|Oral Cancer News|