suicide – Oral Cancer News

Suicide incidence and risk among patients with head and neck cancer in rural vs urban areas

Source: www.2minutemedicine.com Author: Davy Lau and Alex Chan Survivors of head and neck cancer (HNC) from rural American counties had double the rate of suicides compared to HNC survivors from metropolitan and urban counties. Evidence Rating Level: 2 (Good) Suicide has been in the top 10 leading causes of death in the United States since 2008. As well, the suicide rate is twice greater among cancer survivors, and 4 times as great with head and neck cancer (HNC) survivors. There is currently not much information on how living in an urban or rural setting may affect suicide rates for HNC survivors. This data is imperative due to the fact that cancer survival is lower in rural areas, and there is less access to cancer and mental health services rurally. The current study compared the incidence of suicide across metropolitan, urban, and rural counties for 134,510 HNC patients in the USA, from the years 2000 to 2016. Rural counties were defined as those with a population of less than 2500 people. The study found that In metropolitan counties, there were 59.2 suicides per 100,000 person-years; in urban counties, there were 64.0 per 100,000 person-years; and in rural counties, there were 126.7 per 100,000 person-years. Through cumulative incidence analyses, rural patients had the greatest incidence of suicide. Compared to those in rural counties, urban and metropolitan counties had around 50% the suicide risk (hazards ratio 0.51, 95% CI 0.28-0.92 and HR 0.48, 95% CI 0.28-0.82 respectively). Overall, this study underlies the need [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2021-07-29T05:28:25-07:00July, 2021|Oral Cancer News|

Suicide Among Cancer Survivors — Highest Risk in HNC

Author: Roxanne Nelson, RN, BSN Source: MedScape.com Date: Feb. 20, 2018 ORLANDO, Florida — Head and neck cancer (HNC) accounts for only about 4% of new cancer cases in the United States, but the risk for suicide among survivors is significantly higher than for survivors of all other cancer types, with the exception of pancreatic cancer. "The risk of suicide is significantly elevated across cancer sites, and the risk is especially high among HNC and pancreatic cancer survivors," said Nosayaba Osazuwa-Peters, BDS, MPH, CHES, instructor, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, Missouri. "Cancer survivors are candidates for suicide-related psychosocial surveillance," he added. Cancer is the number 2 cause of death in the United States and accounts for 1 of every 4 deaths. Suicide is the tenth cause of death, independent of cancer. "If you add cancer to it, you get the perfect storm," he said. "Survivorship does come at a cost, and this is one of the more unfortunate costs of cancer survivorship," Osazuwa-Peters told delegates here at the Cancer Survivorship Symposium (CSS) Advancing Care and Research. Currently, there are more than 16 million survivors in the United States. The good news is that more people are surviving cancer, and there is now more focus on competing causes of death and comorbidities, he explained. There is also more focus on the increased risk for acute and late toxicities, which needs to be addressed as the rate of survival increases. Osazuwa-Peters pointed out that there [...]

Charlotte Parker2018-02-27T17:02:46-07:00February, 2018|Oral Cancer News|

Suicide: A Major Threat to Head and Neck Cancer Survivorship

Source: www.jco.ascopubs.comAuthors: Nosayaba Osazuwa-Peters, Eric Adjei Boakye, and Ronald J. Walker , Mark A. Varvares TO THE EDITOR: The article by Ringash that was recently published in Journal of Clinical Oncology provided a compelling narrative of both the improvements made in head and neck cancer survivorship, as well as the challenges created by longer-term treatment and associated toxicities. There are currently at least 280,000 head and neck cancer survivors in the United States. As the article by Ringash stated, the upturn in head and neck cancer survivorship in the last three decades has coincided with the emergence of human papilloma virus-positive oropharyngeal cancer, as well as a decrease in tobacco use in the general population. These make it a challenge to isolate survival gains as a function of improved therapy from the natural prognostic value of a diagnosis of human papilloma virus-positive oropharyngeal cancer. Whatever the case, the fact that more than one-quarter million Americans are currently alive after a diagnosis of head and neck cancer means there needs to be a more deliberate effort in longer-term management of treatment-related toxicities, some of which are lifelong. We agree with Ringash’s conclusion that new models of care need to be developed in response to the significant quality-of-life issues faced by patients with head and neck cancer. The Institute of Medicine publication From Cancer Patient to Cancer Survivor: Lost in Transition, also cited by Ringash, called for a clear individualized survivorship plan for cancer patients. There is a serious need for this model to [...]

Charlotte Parker2016-03-24T15:06:02-07:00March, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Head, Neck Cancer Patients May Be at Higher Risk for Suicide: Study

Source: www.health.usnews.comAuthor: Robert Preidt THURSDAY, Nov. 12, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- Head and neck cancer patients may be at raised risk for suicide, new research suggests. However, the overall risk is still small, the findings showed. The study included over 350,000 patients in the United States diagnosed with head and neck cancer between 1973 and 2011. Of those patients, 857 died by suicide. The investigators found that the suicide rate among head and neck cancer patients was three times higher than in the general population. And suicide rates were higher among patients treated with radiation alone compared to surgery alone. Suicide rates were highest among those with cancers of the lower part of the throat, including the larynx ("voice box") and hypopharynx, at five times and 12 times higher, respectively, than in the general population. "This may be linked to these anatomic sites' intimate relationship with the ability to speak and/or swallow. Loss of these functions can dramatically lower patients' quality of life," Dr. Richard Chan Woo Park, of Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, and colleagues wrote. "It is possible that the increased rates of tracheostomy [breathing tube] dependence and dysphagia [difficulty swallowing] and/or gastrostomy [feeding] tube dependence in these patients are . . . factors in the increased rate of suicide observed," the authors added. The study was published online Nov. 12 in the journal JAMA Otolaryngology--Head & Neck Surgery. "While there is a considerable body of research that examines survival outcomes for patients with head and neck cancer, additional [...]

Charlotte Parker2015-11-13T15:34:55-07:00November, 2015|Oral Cancer News|

SSRI Prevents Depression in Head, Neck Cancer

Source: MedPage TodayBy Salynn Boyles, Contributing WriterPublished: June 21, 2013 Prophylactic escitalopram cut the incidence of depression in head and neck cancer patients by more than 50% and improved quality of life, a clinical trial showed. Significantly fewer patients taking the antidepressant developed depression, when compared with those on placebo (10% vs 24.6%; stratified log-rank test, P=.04), according to a study in the June 20 issue of JAMA Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery. "Depression is very common among patients with this disease, but it is not easy to predict who will become depressed at the beginning of treatment," University of Nebraska Medical Center professor of head and neck oncology William Lydiatt, MD, told MedPage Today. "That's why the prevention paradigm may offer considerable benefit at an acceptable risk." As many as half of head and neck cancer patients develop clinical depression within months of their diagnosis and suicide rates are among the highest in patients with a medical illness, Lydiatt noted. "The burden of treatment is extensive and frequently includes dysphagia, disfigurement, voice alterations, mucositis, need for tracheostomy and feeding tubes, fatigue and depression," the researchers wrote. They chose the generic version of the popular SSRI Lexapro for the trial to give patients an affordable treatment option that's well tolerated in the elderly. The randomized, double-blind trial included 148 newly diagnosed head and neck cancer patients entering treatment who did not yet have a diagnosis of depression. The patients were stratified by sex, site of disease, stage, and primary modality of [...]

Charlotte Parker2013-06-21T14:10:07-07:00June, 2013|Oral Cancer News|

Suicide Rates Among Oral Cancer Patients on the Rise

Source: Dr.Bicuspid.com May 23, 2012 -- Suicide rates among patients with oral cavity and oropharyngeal (OC/OP) cancer have increased significantly over the past three decades, particularly among male patients during the first year after diagnosis. As many as half of patients with head and neck cancer suffer from depression, among the highest of all oncology patients (Clinical Advances in Hematology & Oncology, June 2009 Vol. 7:6, pp. 397-403). However, despite documented high rates of depression and suicide among patients with head and neck cancer, studies examining suicide and other noncancer-related deaths in patients with OC/OP have not been published. Brian Hill, executive director of the Oral Cancer Foundation, survived stage 4 bilateral cervical lymph node metastases from oropharyngeal cancer. This gap prompted researchers from the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, New York Medical College, and Peking University to analyze 32,487 patients with OC/OP cancer using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results cancer registry data for 1980-1984, 1990-1994, 2000-2003, and 2004-2007 (Archives of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, January 2012, Vol. 138:1, pp. 25-32). They found that from 1980-1984 to 2004-2007, deaths from suicide increased by 406.2% (p = .01), while cardiovascular disease-related and pneumonia-related deaths decreased by 45.9% (p < .001) and 42.9% (p = .009), respectively. Risk factors for mortality included age (55-64), marital status, advanced tumor stage, and tumor location. The researchers also calculated standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) for suicide, cardiovascular disease, and pneumonia and compared them with patient demographic and clinical characteristics. The risk of death from [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-05-24T10:21:11-07:00May, 2012|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|