tumour

Study Finds a ‘Fat Burning Process’ Termed ‘Cachexia’ Kills about One Third Cancer Patients

Source: scicast.comAuthor: Staff Madrid, Spain (Scicasts) — Most cancer researchers are working on the biology of the tumour. However, Michele Petruzzelli, a member of Erwin Wagner's group at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), has been looking for ways to attack the disease indirectly. He focused on the effects of tumours on the rest of the body, and not on the tumour itself. His work on the body's response to a tumour has uncovered that cachexia—the extreme thinness and weakness eventually being the real cause of death in one third of patients with cancer—is triggered by a process that is heavily studied not to fight cancer, but to fight obesity: the conversion of white fat tissue into brown fat tissue. "It is the first time that this phenomenon we might call burning fat has been associated with a negative effect", says Erwin Wagner, the Director of the BBVA Foundation-CNIO Cancer Cell Biology Programme. "What we observe is that the transformation of white fat into brown fat, currently one of the most researched subjects because of its potential effects on obesity and diabetes, has very severe consequences in the context of cancer". The study is published in Cell Metabolism. The researchers also argue that if it is possible to reduce the transformation of fat tissue, the symptoms of cachexia will improve, although they do not completely disappear. The authors demonstrate this by blocking mediators of inflammation, a process linked to cachexia, specifically, to the expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-6. "Inhibiting [...]

Charlotte Parker2014-08-07T09:50:37-07:00August, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

Study finds the prognosis of HPV positive tumors in head and neck cancer patients to vary depending on site

Source: sciencecodex.comAuthor: Staff Vienna, Austria: Patients with cancer of the throat and who are positive for the Human Papilloma virus (HPV+) have a good prognosis, but until now the effect of being HPV+ on the prognosis of tumours located elsewhere in the head and neck was unknown. Danish researchers have now shown that HPV status appears to have no prognostic effect on the outcome of primary radiotherapy in head and neck cancer outside the oropharynx (the part of the throat located behind the mouth, and which contains the soft palate and the base of the tongue), the ESTRO 33 congress will hear today (Sunday). Presenting her results to the congress, Dr Pernille Lassen, MD, PhD, from the Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark, will say that head and neck cancers located outside the oropharynx should probably not be treated with the less intensive treatment strategies that are currently being investigated in clinical trials for HPV+ oropharyngeal tumours. "HPV status has a very potent prognostic impact in radiotherapy for oropharyngeal cancer, and DNA from HPV has been found in all types of head and neck cancer, although it is far more common in oropharyngeal tumours. We decided to investigate the impact of HPV status in non-oropharyngeal cancers in the DAHANCA database, which includes all Danish head and neck cancer patients," Dr Lassen will say. The researchers searched the database to identify patients with locally advanced cancers who had been treated primarily with radiotherapy, and identified 1606 patients with larynx and pharynx carcinomas. Overall, [...]

Charlotte Parker2014-04-07T12:38:17-07:00April, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

Mum’s two-year ‘earache’ was huge tumour

Source: Mirror News By: Jeremy Armstrong A mum told she had earache actually had a giant tumour. It took medics a year to spot Paula Bell's mouth cancer. Believing it harmless, they took another year to operate. Part of the tumour remains. Paula, 41, of Newcastle, said: "I got on my knees and begged the specialist to operate. I was that desperate." She was referred to Newcastle's Freeman Hospital in 2006 and said: "I was put on antibiotics as they thought it was an ear infection. That went on for months." In March 2007, a doctor suspected a dislocated jaw and sent her to the nearby General Hospital. It took two months for scans to find the tumour. Surgeons operated in April 2008 - then realised its severity. Paula got an undisclosed payout. Newcastle Hospitals Trust said it was not an "admission as to liability".

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-11-29T11:36:19-07:00November, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Terminal cancer patient is given the all clear

Source: www.northamptonchron.co.uk Author: staff A mouth cancer patient who was told he had only a year to live is celebrating after being given the all clear from doctors. In May this year, Brian Barford was given the awful news after he had been referred by a dentist to Northampton General Hospital where he was told he had mouth cancer. The 66-year-old said: "My mouth had been bleeding but I had no other signs. I had no idea – there had been no swelling or anything. "I saw the consultant who said the tumour was too near the vital organs to operate on and there was nothing they could do. It was just a matter of time. "They told me I had around a year to live. "It hit me like a ton of bricks. "I accepted it, though I was never going to give up, but I thought, 'I'm 66, and I've had a good life.'" Mr Barford, from Kings Heath, Northampton, decided to enjoy the time he had left and spend his days with loved ones. He went running, drank beer and, following a two-week course of radiotherapy, took a well-earned holiday with family and friends. On hearing the news Mr Barford had been diagnosed with cancer, colleagues at his former workplace, Phoenix Paving LTD, in Kettering, took their old workmate for a day to remember, watching the cricket at Lord's. With the onslaught of cancer, his weight plummeted from 14 to 11 stone. His wife Susan, aged 56, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-11-16T22:10:29-07:00November, 2009|Oral Cancer News|