socioeconomic

Treatment delay in HNSCC tied to worse outcomes

Source: www.medpagetoday.com Author: Leah Lawrence, Contributing Writer Treatment delayed longer than 2 months from the time of diagnosis negatively affected survival and increased recurrence among patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), a retrospective study found. Looking at a group of 956 patients treated at a single urban academic center, those with a time to treatment initiation (TTI) longer than 60 days were significantly more likely to die from their disease (odds ratio [OR] 1.69, 95% CI 1.32-2.18) and have disease recurrence (OR 1.77, 95% CI 1.07-2.93) compared to those treated within this timeframe, reported Vikas Mehta, MD, MPH, of Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, and colleagues. As described in JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery, the 5-year overall survival for patients dropped from 64.5% to 47.0% when the TTI stretched beyond 60 days. "If I invented a drug that could give a 20% improved survival in head and neck cancer patients, a disease where survival has not changed for many years, I would probably be getting handed a large amount of funding," Mehta told MedPage Today. "This study is just as important," he continued. "Getting patients to treatment in a timely manner can independently improve survival." Initial diagnoses at the treatment institution decreased the odds of TTI delay by almost 50% (OR 0.53, 95% CI 0.37-0.76). However, patients with Medicaid as compared with commercial insurance were significantly more likely to have treatment delays (OR 2.17, 95% CI 1.28-3.66). As were African-American patients and those with a [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2019-09-13T05:50:07-07:00September, 2019|Oral Cancer News|

Poor oral health can be passed through generations

Source: www.dentistryiq.com Author: staff A new 27-year research project suggests that mothers with poor oral health are likely to have children who also have poor oral health when they reach adulthood. The long-term study of more than a thousand children born in New Zealand in 1972 and 19731 provides strong evidence that the children of mothers with poor oral health are more likely to grow up with above average levels of tooth loss, tooth decay, and fillings. The findings strengthen the notion from previous research that adult oral health is affected by a combination of genetic and environmental factors.2 The research compared the oral health of the children at the age of 5 in 1978, and again at the age of 32. The findings were compared with the mother’s own self-rated oral health measured in 1978. Analysis 27 years later indicated that approaching half of children (45.1%) whose mothers rated their oral health as "very poor" had severe tooth decay. Around four in every 10 children (39.6%) experienced tooth loss in adulthood. The research commented on the influence of environmental risk factors on oral health including socioeconomic status (SES), attitudes, beliefs, and oral health-related knowledge persisting across generations, providing further evidence of how a mother’s view of her own oral health can affect that of her child’s. Chief Executive of the British Dental Health Foundation Dr. Nigel Carter said: "These findings represent important confirmation of a trend that has long been recognised. Work by Per Axelsson in Sweden in the [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-07-11T14:22:45-07:00July, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Significant oral cancer risk associated with low socioeconomic status

Source: www.nature.com Author: Saman Warnakulasuriya Abstract Searches were made for studies in Medline, Medline In-Process and other Non-indexed Citations Embase, CINAHL, PsychINFO, CAB Abstracts 1973–date, EBM Reviews, ACP Journal Club, Cochrane Register of Controlled Trials, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects, Health Management Information Consortium database and Pubmed. Un-published data were also received from the International Head and Neck Cancer Epidemiology Consortium. Study selection Studies were identified independently by two reviewers and were included if their subject was oral and/ or oropharyngeal cancer; they used case–control methodology; gave data regarding socioeconomic status (SES; eg, educational attainment, occupational social classification or income) for both cases and controls; and the odds ratio (OR) for any SES measure was presented or could be calculated. Corresponding authors were contacted where there was an indication that data on oral and/ or oropharyngeal cancers could potentially be obtained from the wider cancer definition or grouping presented in the article, or if SES data were collected but had not been presented in the article. Methodological assessment of selected studies was undertaken. Data extraction and synthesis Countries where the study was undertaken were classified according to level of development and income as defined by the World Bank. Where available the adjusted OR (or crude OR) with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) were extracted, or were calculated for low compared with high SES categories. Meta-analyses were performed on the following subgroups: SES measure, age, sex, global region, development level, time-period and lifestyle factor [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-03-27T07:52:33-07:00March, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

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 [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-10-22T11:56:08-07:00October, 2008|Oral Cancer News|