treatments – Oral Cancer News

Why won’t our doctors face up to the dangers of radiotherapy?

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1089091/Why-wont-doctors-face-dangers-radiotherapy.html Author: Isla Whitcroft It's a life-saver for thousands - but the side-effects can be devastating. A year after he'd undergone treatment for cancer of the tonsils, Richard Wayman felt a painful tingling in his legs. Within weeks, the 59-year- old shopkeeper was struggling to walk. He was admitted to hospital, where doctors carried out scans, X-rays and tests. 'The scans revealed lesions on my lungs, which raised fears that the cancer had spread, so I was admitted to another hospital for a biopsy and, as a result, contracted MRSA and pneumonia,' recalls Richard, from Colchester in Essex. 'From 11-and-a-half stone I went down to eight-and-a-half stone. I thought I was never going to get out of there.' Finally, the lung lesions were diagnosed as a side-effect of the radiotherapy Richard had undergone for his cancer. However, his problems only got worse: a few weeks after a routine tooth extraction, the bone around the extraction started to crumble and become infected. Within months he had an open weeping wound, running from his lower cheek through his jaw and into his mouth. The diagnosis: bone necrosis as a direct result of radiotherapy damage to the jaw. Richard is one of the many thousands of cancer survivors who have developed terrible conditions as a result of the radiotherapy treatment that helped save them. Around 4 to 5 per cent of all head and neck cancer patients suffer problems with swallowing or breathing, fistulas (open holes) in the jaw and gum, loss [...]

Charlotte Parker2017-03-29T19:04:40-07:00December, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Can your own immune system kill cancer?

Source: www.cnn.com Author: Jacqueline Howard There was another big win in the advancement of immunotherapy treatments for cancer this week. The Food and Drug Administration approved an immunotherapy drug called Keytruda, which stimulates the body's immune system, for the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer. In other words, the drug could be the very first treatment a patient receives for the disease, instead of chemotherapy. Keytruda is the only immunotherapy drug approved for first-line treatment for these patients. So it seems, the future of cancer care may be in our own immune systems, but how exactly does it work, and what are its pros and cons? "It's certainly going to become an independent way of treating cancers," said Dr. Philip Greenberg, head of immunology at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, during a Q&A session at the International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference in New York in September. "We always talk about the three pillars of cancer therapy -- radiation therapy, chemotherapy and surgery -- and it's become quite clear now that there's going to be a fourth pillar, which is immunotherapy," he said. "There are times where it will be used alone, and there will be times that it will be used in conjunction with the other therapies, but there's very little to question that this is going to be a major part of the way cancers are treated from now on, going forward." Here's a look at the past, present and future of cancer immunotherapy. It [...]

Charlotte Parker2016-10-26T09:42:45-07:00October, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Cancer patients rarely request unnecessary testing

Source: www.cancernetwork.com Author: Anna Azvolinsky, PhD A new study suggests that cancer patients tend not to request unnecessary and sometimes costly tests or treatments. Of the 5,050 interactions between a clinician and patient analyzed, only 1% resulted in a patient request for a clinically unnecessary or inappropriate test or therapy. Clinicians complied with only 7 of 50 requests (14%). The study goes against a common assumption that the high cost of healthcare in the United States is partly due to extra or unnecessary treatments and analyses done as a result of patients’ requests. The results of the study were published in JAMA Oncology. Researcher Ezekiel J. Emanuel, MD, PhD, of the department of medical ethics and health policy at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues analyzed a total of 5,050 outpatient interactions among 60 clinicians and 3,624 patients that occurred between October 2013 and June 2014 at three Philadelphia-area hospitals. The 60 clinicians—34 oncologists, 11 oncology fellows, and 15 nurse practitioners and physician assistants—were interviewed by trained research assistants on each patient-clinician encounter. “We decided to look specifically at cancer patients’ demands because oncology is a setting where there are life-and-death stakes for patients and the drugs and tests can get very expensive,” said Emanuel in a statement. “However, we found, contrary to expectations, that patient demands are low and cannot be a key driver of increasing healthcare costs.” Most of the patients in the study were women (58.7%), and of the 5,050 encounters, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2015-02-21T07:59:44-07:00February, 2015|Oral Cancer News|

Researchers discover genetic fingerprint of HPV virus in some head and neck cancers

Author: StaffSource: cancerreasearchuk.orgA large US study(link is external) has pinpointed genetic errors that mark out head and neck cancers caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV). If confirmed in further studies this could be used to develop potential new treatments. Head and neck cancers include tumours of the throat, mouth, nasal cavity, larynx, salivary gland among other tissues and organs. Some are linked to tobacco or alcohol use, while others are caused by infection with HPV, more commonly associated with cervical cancers. Rates of HPV-linked head and neck cancers are on the increase. The US study, published in the journal Nature, was carried out as part of The Cancer Genome Atla (TCGA) project. Using cutting-edge DNA analysis, the team found several similarities between the DNA from head and neck tumour cells and other cancer types - as well as new subtypes of smoking-related head and neck cancer. The US team studied samples from 279 head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC) from untreated patients, around eight in 10 of whom were smokers. Most of the samples were oral cavity cancers and larynx cancers (61 per cent and 26 per cent respectively). The researchers found that specific alterations in genes called FGFR3 and PIK3CA – which produce important protein molecules that help cells grow – were common in many patients with HPV-related cancers. These genes are also present in a wider set of faults found in smoking-related tumours. But faults in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene, which produces another important growth molecule, were rare among HPV-positive cancers, despite being frequently [...]

Charlotte Parker2015-01-30T10:22:47-07:00January, 2015|Oral Cancer News|

HPV and on HPV oral cancers need to be treated differently to reduce toxicity and improve out comes in each type

The National Cancer Institute In a large randomized European clinical trial, accelerated radiation therapy for locally advanced, inoperable head and neck cancer—given either with or without chemotherapy—did not prolong the time to disease progression compared with standard radiation therapy plus concurrent chemotherapy, which has been the standard of care in Europe and the United States. Results from the study were published online January 18 in Lancet Oncology. Another trial published in 2010, by the U.S. Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG), showed similar results, but the two research teams have drawn different conclusions, which will affect ongoing clinical trials and, potentially, future research collaborations. The researchers, from the European Groupe d'Oncologie Radiothérapie Tête et Cou (GORTEC), compared two experimental regimens with standard chemoradiotherapy in the trial, called GORTEC 99-02. All participating patients had stage III or stage IV head and neck squamous-cell carcinoma that had not metastasized but that could not be removed surgically. The 244 patients in the conventional chemoradiotherapy arm received three cycles of chemotherapy with the drugs carboplatin and fluorouracil plus 70 Gy of radiation given over the standard 7 weeks. In one experimental arm, 245 patients received "accelerated chemoradiotherapy," which consisted of two cycles of the same chemotherapy drugs plus radiation therapy accelerated by 1 week. In the second experimental arm, 242 patients received only "very accelerated" radiation therapy, which consisted of a total dose of 64.8 Gy given over 3.5 weeks. The GORTEC trial results are somewhat difficult to interpret because the trial "didn't change just one variable, it changed two—in addition to the radiation regimen, it also changed the chemotherapy," explained Dr. Bhadrasain [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-02-16T15:19:01-07:00February, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

George Karl takes cancer message to fundraiser in Spokane

Source: www.nba.com Author: Aaron J. Lopez, Nuggets.com Nuggets coach George Karl will be the first person to admit that his fashion sense is more faux pas than je ne sais quoi. He prefers shorts and golf shirts over dress shoes and designer ties, and he often jokes that his clothing choice for the day is determined by what’s on top of the hamper. When it comes to assisting in the fight against cancer, Karl will meet even the strictest of dress codes. Karl, who has survived head and neck cancer and prostate cancer in the past six years, will don a tuxedo this weekend when he serves as the guest speaker at a Coaches vs. Cancer fundraiser in Spokane, Wash. It is the 10th year of the event founded by Gonzaga men’s basketball coach Mark Few and his wife Marcy. “I enjoy speaking about cancer,” Karl said. “It’s become my hobby/ambassadorship, whatever word you want to use. I play amateur sociologist and try to help people become more aware about what is going on.” Karl, 60, has become extremely educated about cancer treatments, research and funding options since recovering from his latest battle over the past 20 months. He is a spokesman for the Cancer Care Initiative at Swedish Medical Center in Englewood and St. Jude Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. He also is active with the Cancer League of Colorado and the American Cancer Society. “With all the information and knowledge we have our hands on now, it seems [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-08-27T12:38:02-07:00August, 2011|Oral Cancer News|