Tonsil Cancer – Oral Cancer News

WVU Medicine Head and Neck Cancer Team works to increase tonsil cancer awareness

Source: wvumedicine.org Author: staff, WVU Medicine News Head and neck surgical oncologists at WVU Medicine, the WVU Cancer Institute, and across the country are seeing increased incidences of tonsil cancer. “The majority of tonsil cancers, nearly 70 percent, are caused by human papilloma virus (HPV),” Meghan Turner, M.D., head and neck surgeon in the WVU Medicine Department of Otolaryngology, said. “In the last 10 years, tonsil cancer caused by HPV has become more common than cervical cancer caused by the same virus.” In most cases of HPV infection, the body fights off the virus like it would the common cold. In other cases, the virus remains in the body, increasing the risk of both tonsil and cervical cancer. Unlike cervical cancer, there is no regular screening for tonsil cancer. Most commonly, tonsil cancer is first diagnosed as a nontender mass in the neck. “Another common presentation for tonsil cancer is actually recurrent or persistent tonsil pain in spite of treatment for a throat infection,” Dr. Turner said. “This happens between the ages of 50 and 60. It may seem like recurrent strep throat, but it is uncommon for people in that age range to develop recurrent strep throat. If you’re having pain that isn’t resolved after a course of antibiotics, you should ask your doctor if it could possibly be something like tonsil cancer.” It is also regularly discovered during routine dental visits, appearing as asymmetrical tonsils. Those who have had their tonsils removed by tonsillectomy are not immune to [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2022-02-05T10:20:45-07:00February, 2022|Oral Cancer News|

Green Day Guitarist Jason White Diagnosed with Tonsil Cancer

Source: billboard.comAuthor: Jocelyn Vena Send Green Day your well wishes. The band confirmed on Dec. 5 that guitarist Jason White was recently diagnosed with tonsil cancer. The band shared the news with their fans on their official website. "We have some news to report regarding our brother Jason White, and wanted you to hear it from us before word spread. Jason recently underwent a routine tonsillectomy, and his doctors discovered a treatable form of tonsil cancer," the statement reads. Rolling Stone first posted the statement. "Thankfully they caught it early and he should make a full and speedy recovery. Please join us in sending him love and positive healing vibes during this time." The 41-year-old has been playing with Green Day since the late 90's, serving as the band's touring guitarist. In 2012, with the release of ¡Uno!, ¡Dos! and ¡Tre! he officially became a full-time member of the legendary punk band. He has also worked with lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong on the side project Pinhead Gunpowder. *This news story was resourced by the Oral Cancer Foundation, and vetted for appropriateness and accuracy.

Charlotte Parker2014-12-08T18:19:24-07:00December, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

Tongue and tonsil cancer patients surviving longer

Source: Dr.Biscuspid.com The five-year survival rate for U.S. patients with cancer of the base of the tongue or tonsils doubled between 1980 and 2002, according to a new study in Cancer Causes & Control (January 2012, Vol. 23:1, pp. 153-164). In addition, patients with human papillomavirus (HPV)-related cancers had greater survival rates than those with other oral cancers, and survival was greater for male patients than females regardless of age, according to the study authors, from the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, the University of Utah School of Medicine, and the University of California, Los Angeles School of Public Health. However, patients with subsequent multiple cancers showed no overall survival improvement. The incidence rates of tongue and tonsil cancers have increased significantly in recent decades in the U.S., particularly among younger patients, the researchers noted. At the same time, a number of studies have shown a strong association between HPV infection and tongue and tonsil cancers. For this study, they used data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) 1973-2006 registry system to examine changes in survival rates among patients with base of tongue, tonsil, and other tongue cancers in recent decades. The study included 10,704 patients with squamous tongue or tonsil cancer who were at least 20 years old. The researchers separated the patients into those with one primary cancer and those with subsequent multiple cancers, then compared trends using three nonoverlapped periods: 1980-1982, 1990-1992, and 2000-2002. The first group included those with only one primary base of tongue, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-01-04T15:27:37-07:00January, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Boys and HPV Vaccine: The Facts

Source: Forbes Magazine CNN reports on a study that argues that boys should get vaccinated for the human papilloma virus (HPV), which causes cervical cancer in women. But it misses the main reason that boys should be getting jabs of either Merck‘s Gardasil or GlaxoSmithKline’s rival Cervarix. Cue CNN: Men also carry the human papillomavirus, the virus that can lead to male cancers and genital warts. And they could spread HPV to their sexual partners, putting those people at risk for cervical cancer. So the HPV vaccine, that is often recommended for girls, should extend to boys as well, say researchers from Innsbruck Medical University in Austria. Their study was presented at the meeting of the American Urological Association on Tuesday. …. In the study, Dr. Michael Ladurner Rennau and his colleagues tested 133 men, between 7 months to 82 years old for the presence of HPV, one of the most common sexually transmitted infections. They used DNA extraction. They found 18.8% of the examined foreskins had the low-risk HPV genotypes and 9.77% had the high-risk HPV. via Males should get HPV vaccine too, study says – The Chart – CNN.com Blogs. Of course, the reason there’s not a big push to vaccinate men for HPV is because genital warts are treatable and penile and anal cancers are rare. And saying, “Let’s vaccinate your son so that the women he sleeps with won’t get HPV” is an uncomfortable and probably unconvincing approach for pediatricians to take with parents. Girls — [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-05-23T12:25:32-07:00May, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Dental professionals join The Oral Cancer Foundation to raise awareness as HPV is now the primary cause of Oral Cancers in America

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., April 4, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- A serious change in the cause of oral cancer is taking place nationally, and its implications are impacting the American public in a manner that a decade ago no one would have predicted. For decades, oral cancer (also known as mouth cancer, tongue cancer, tonsil cancer, and throat cancer) has been a disease which most often occurred in older individuals, who during their lifetimes had been tobacco users. Most cases were ultimately the result of lifestyle choices. Today that paradigm has changed. A common, sexually transferred virus has replaced tobacco as the number one cause of oral cancers, Human Papilloma Virus number 16 (HPV16). This is one of the same viruses that are responsible for the majority of cervical cancers in women. This year alone, approximately 37,000 Americans will be newly diagnosed with oral cancer, and one person will die every hour of every day from this disease. HPV16, one of about 130 versions of the virus, is now the leading cause of oral cancer, and is found in about 60% of newly diagnosed patients. Dr. Maura Gillison from the James Cancer Center, a long time researcher of the relationship between HPV and oral cancers, recently reported these new findings at the American Academy for the Advancement of Science meeting. This change in etiology, which has accelerated its influence over the last two decades as tobacco use in the US simultaneously was declining, has also changed the demographics of who is getting [...]

Charlotte Parker2011-04-07T10:39:32-07:00April, 2011|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

Cancer diagnosis keeps Fioretti out of mayor’s race

An upbeat Ald. Robert Fioretti, 2nd, announced Tuesday he has cancer and will not run for mayor of Chicago, but will be running for re-election in his ward. "I'm not afraid of the fight, and although I couldn't expect this one, I'm going to give it all I've got," Fioretti said. Fioretti, 57, is a first-term alderman who has differed with Mayor Richard Daley on budget issues. He was the only alderman still expected to get into the race for mayor, at least until Sheriff Tom Dart's surprise announcement last week that he would not run. Because he was expected to run for mayor and not alderman, Fioretti could find himself facing competition in a re-election effort for his booming 2nd Ward, which includes part of the Loop and areas on the Near Southwest and Northwest Sides. Fioretti said he does not know who he will support in the mayoral elections, but that he has been contacted by four candidates in the past few days, some of whom have asked to meet with him. "I will be sitting down in the next couple of weeks with some of the candidates once they qualify or once they submit their petitions to be on the ballot," Fioretti said. Dr. Steven DeAngeles, Fioretti's doctor, said that the alderman has stage III cancer of the tonsils but that the prognosis for his recovery is good. The form of cancer is fairly rare, DeAngeles said, and may have been caused by genetic predisposition or environmental [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-11-03T10:03:34-07:00November, 2010|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|

Speaking, eating possible after tonsil cancer surgery with reconstruction

Source: www.eurekalert.org Author: press release A new technique for reconstructing the palate after surgery for tonsil cancer maintained patients' ability to speak clearly and eat most foods, a new study shows. The technique, developed at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, is described in the September Archives of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery. "This is the area that triggers swallowing, that separates the mouth from the nasal cavity. It affects speech and eating – typically, patients have difficulty eating when they have this kind of tumor and undergo surgery. We can remove the cancer, but there are major quality of life issues," says study author Douglas Chepeha, M.D., M.S.P.H., associate professor of otolaryngology head and neck surgery and director of the microvascular program at the University of Michigan Health System. Tonsil cancer develops in the back of the throat, which means surgery could include parts of the palate, the tongue and the jaw. Traditional reconstruction efforts have meant taking a large, round piece of tissue to plug the hole left when the tumor is removed. But this impairs the way the palate and tongue function, and does not restore the complex components of the throat that allow a person to speak and swallow. With the new technique, surgeons first create a tube from the remaining palate by attaching the palate to the back part of the throat, next to where the tumor was removed. This tube separates the mouth from the nasal cavity and closes during swallowing, allowing [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-09-22T06:01:18-07:00September, 2009|Oral Cancer News|