2009 – Page 47 – Oral Cancer News

Visual Screening for Oral Cancer is Cost Effective in Low-Income Countries

Source: Carolina News Wire Writer: Lisa Bistreich, Patrick Gibbons RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — Using visual inspection to screen for oral cancer is a cost-effective approach to earlier diagnosis in low- and middle-income countries, according to a study conducted by researchers at RTI International. The study, published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization, looked at health care workers in Southern India, where oral cancer is a major health problem, and found that visual oral screening, particularly among high-risk individuals is cost-effective. "Our results show that screening for oral cancers by visual inspection is comparable or less expensive than the more widely accepted practice of screening for cervical cancers," said lead author Sujha Subramanian, a senior health economist at RTI. "We hope that the findings of this study will increase screening for oral cancers and help reduce the devastating impact of this cancer on families." More than 160,000 people participated in the study, and the researchers found that targeted screening of the high-risk group of alcohol and tobacco users is the most cost-effective approach. They determined that visual inspection for oral cancer targeted to high-risk people could be performed for under $6 per person over the course of a nine-year screening program. According to GLOBOCAN, the Indian subcontinent alone accounts for one-third of the world burden and oral cancer is the most common form of cancer and cancer-related death among men in India. Two-thirds of all deaths from oral cancers occur in low income countries. Worldwide, 270,000 new cases and 145,000 [...]

Webmaster2009-02-12T16:14:33-07:00February, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Gwyneth Paltrow: Charity Chick

Source: Gossipgirls.com She’s always been interested in using her celebrity for the benefit of others, and last night Gwyneth Paltrow was spotted at the Women’s Cancer Research Fund’s ‘Unforgettable Evening.’ The “Shakespeare in Love” hottie was looking absolutely gorgeous as she arrived at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, sporting a white dress with a matching blazer and a pair of pink and yellow feathered heels as she mingled with guests including Courtney Cox and Rita Wilson. And Gwyn was more than just another attendee at the event - she also received the 2009 Courage Award for her dedication to cancer research. Gwyneth, along with her mother Blythe Danner and brother Jake Paltrow founded the Bruce Paltrow Oral Cancer Fund in memory of her father who suffered for years with mouth cancer, and finally lost his battle in 2002. The fund is part of the National non-profit Oral Cancer Foundation, (http://www.oralcancer.org)

Webmaster2009-02-13T00:43:23-07:00February, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Gwyneth Paltrow & More At Cancer Benefit Tuesday In LA

Source: LA News Reporter: Access Hollywood Tonight in LA for a cancer benefit, honorees Gwyneth Paltrow and Courteney Cox will join Jennifer Aniston, David Arquette, Sheryl Crow, Lisa Kudrow, Laura Dern, Jennifer Meyer and Tobey Maguire, Angie Harmon and Jason Sehorn, Josh Groban, Lisa Rinna and Harry Hamlin, Kirk and Anne Douglas, Jessica Capshaw, along with the Entertainment Industry Foundation’s (EIF’s) Women’s Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) honorary chairs Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks, and Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg. Also attending are EIF’s WCRF co-founders Kelly Chapman Meyer, Jamie Tisch, Anne Douglas, Quinn Ezralow, Marion Laurie, and Saks Fifth Avenue Beverly Hills’ Vice President & General Manager Larry Bruce. The event, at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, will feature a performance by Beyonce. The 14th Annual Saks Fifth Avenue’s Unforgettable Evening benefiting the Entertainment Industry Foundation’s Women’s Cancer Research Fund (EIF’s WCRF), raises much needed funds each year for innovative cancer research, and recognizes one remarkable individual for his or her unwavering commitment to the cause. Oscar winner Gwyneth Paltrow will receive the 2009 Courage Award. She, along with her mother, Blythe Danner, and brother, Jake Paltrow, established the Bruce Paltrow Fund in memory of her father who lived with oral cancer for several years. The Bruce Paltrow Fund, set up through The Oral Cancer Foundation and with support from the EIF, works to prevent oral cancer through public education, early detection and patient support. In 2008, Paltrow served as ambassador for EIF and Saks Fifth Avenue’s KEY TO THE CURE Initiative, appearing in a [...]

Webmaster2009-02-11T14:09:48-07:00February, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Risk of cerebrovascular events after neck and supraclavicular radiotherapy: a systematic review

Source: Radiother Oncol, January 24, 2009 Author: Apryl S Scott, Luke A Parr, and Peter A S Johnstone Objective: Although low dose radiation therapy (RT) has been used to prevent re-occlusion of coronary arteries, it may also precipitate vascular damage. Specifically, irradiation to the neck is related to subsequent vascular wall thickening and atherosclerotic plaque formation. Several investigators, reporting patients with varied disease processes and using different methods, have described an increased risk of cerebrovascular events (CVEs) after RT to the neck for head and neck cancer, breast cancer, or lymphoma. Our purpose is to determine the rate and risk of CVEs in patients after receiving radiation therapy to the neck. Methods: We performed a pooled analysis of the published data to document the cumulative risk of subsequent stroke after RT to the neck. An extensive MEDLINE and PUBMED search yielded five articles involving 6908 patients describing institutional series or cohort analyses comparing the frequency of CVE in irradiated versus non-irradiated patients. Results: Sixty-six CVEs were reported in 2567 patients after neck RT, whereas only 12 CVEs were documented in 4119 non-irradiated patients. Crude risk of CVEs after neck RT was 2.6%, and was 0.29% in non-irradiated patients. This odds ratio of 9.0 was statistically significant (95% CI 4.9, 16.7; p<0.0001). Data for supraclavicular RT were more difficult to analyze given differences in populations and reporting between the three studies, but it appears a significant risk is unlikely. Conclusions: Neck RT increases the likelihood of CVEs, but this risk must [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-02-11T12:38:25-07:00February, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

USC study finds that green tea blocks benefits of cancer drug

Source: news.biocompare.com Author: staff Contrary to popular assumptions about the health benefits of green tea, researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) have found that the widely used supplement renders a cancer drug used to treat multiple myeloma and mantle cell lymphoma completely ineffective in treating cancer. The study, which found that a component of green tea extract (GTE) called EGCG destroys any anticancer activity of the drug Velcade in tumor-bearing mice, will be published in a future print edition of the journal, Blood. It is now available online at the journal's pre-publication First Edition website. "Our finding that GTE or EGCG blocked the therapeutic action of Velcade was completely unexpected," says lead author Axel H. Schönthal, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. "Our hypothesis was that GTE or EGCG would enhance the anti-tumor effects of Velcade, and that a combination of GTE with Velcade (or EGCG with Velcade) would turn out to be a superior cancer treatment as compared to treatment with Velcade alone." Herbal remedies, including green tea, have become a popular remedy for cancer patients dealing with side effects of chemotherapy. However, these supplements are unregulated and, for most, their beneficial and/or detrimental effects have not been qualified through research. Using preclinical models and tumor-bearing mice, the researchers found that the unusually effective blockage of Velcade's therapeutic activity was based on the chemical interaction between molecules. The EGCG molecule and the Velcade molecule were [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-02-10T13:47:46-07:00February, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Perceptronix reports clinical study underway to evaluate OralAdvance(TM) for early detection of oral cancer

Source: www.earthtimes.org Author: press release Perceptronix Medical Inc. announces that a clinical study of OralAdvance(TM), a test for the early detection of oral cancer, is now underway. The clinical study will assess the performance of OralAdvance(TM) compared to the gold standard biopsy and histology for its ability to differentiate between visually suspicious oral lesions with cancer or pre-cancer and visually suspicious benign oral lesions. "Unlike many other types of cancer, the incidence and mortality rates of oral cancer have not shown significant improvement over the past 30 years. By the time most oral cancers are diagnosed, they are already symptomatic late-stage disease. At Perceptronix we are dedicated to changing this paradigm towards early detection for better patient outcomes," says Dr. Bojana Turic, President and CEO of Perceptronix. Patients for the blinded study will be recruited from the BC Cancer Agency's Vancouver and Fraser Valley Centres. "We are pleased to be able to participate in the evaluation of the test in a clinical setting with technology that was developed in partnership with scientists at the BC Cancer Agency's Research Centre, and we are hopeful that the test will have a positive impact on the early detection of oral cancer," says Dr. Allan Hovan (Provincial Professional Practice Leader, Program in Oral Oncology/Dentistry, BC Cancer Agency). Currently, the death rate for oral cancer is higher than that of cervical cancer, Hodgkin's disease, cancer of the brain, liver, testes, kidney, or malignant melanoma. High death rate associated with oral cancer could be reduced significantly [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-02-09T16:56:36-07:00February, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Gene study finds link to cancer of thyroid

Source: nytimes.com Author: Nicholas Wade Scientists have identified two genetic variations that account for 57 percent of cases of thyroid cancer, a finding that could lead to earlier detection among people at high risk for the disease. The report, from the Icelandic company Decode Genetics, may also lead to a resurgence of interest in the quest for the genetic roots of other common maladies like heart disease and schizophrenia. Genetic variants for many such diseases have been identified, but most have turned out to account for a disappointingly small percentage of cases. A scientific team led by Julius Gudmundsson of Decode Genetics reported Friday in the journal Nature Genetics that the two variants each lie at a site on the human genome near genes that control development of the thyroid gland. The variants are changes in a single chemical unit of the genome, which is some three billion units in length. Compared with people who have neither variant, “the risk associated with these variants was almost sixfold, which is quite extraordinary,” said Dr. Erich M. Sturgis, a head and neck surgeon at the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston who was not connected with the research. Dr. James A. Fagin, chief of endocrinology at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, said the new study was a significant advance, noting that the Decode Genetics scientists had bolstered their results by replicating the findings among Icelanders in two other populations of European descent, in Columbus, Ohio, and in Spain. [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-02-08T18:21:44-07:00February, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Regular aspirin use may reduce stomach cancer risk: researchers

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk Author: Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor Aspirin is recommended for the prevention of heart attacks in people at high risk and some studies have suggested it may reduce the risk of colon cancer. New research based on 17 studies of a total of more than 300,000 people aged between 50 and 71, found taking the drug weekly or daily reduces the likelihood of some forms of stomach cancer. In the UK there are around 8,000 people diagnosed with stomach cancer each year and most occur in people aged over 50. Rates of the cancer have halved in the UK since the 1970s but it remains extremely lethal with only 15 per cent of people surviving for five years after diagnosis. Stomach cancer is mostly associated with a bacterial infection in the lining called Helicobacter pylori. The study, published in the British Journal of Cancer also found a 36 per cent reduction in the cancer found in the middle or lower part of the stomach in people who had used aspirin at least once in the past year. People who used other drugs in the same class, called non-steriodial anti-inflammatory drugs, had a 32 per cent reduced risk of the cancer if they had taken them at least once in the past year. In contrast to results of previous studies, the researchers found that aspirin does not protect against oesophageal or throat cancer and cardia gastric cancer, which is cancer of the top of the stomach. The study authors acknowledge [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-02-07T13:56:08-07:00February, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Avastin, Erbitux combo proves dangerous

Source: www.newsinferno.com Author: staff Combining Avastin and Erbitux with chemotherapy to treat colon cancer may actually make patients sicker, and cause their tumors to grow faster. According to a new Dutch study, using Avastin and Erbitux to increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy is a complete failure, and could actually cut the survival time of patients by as much as a month. Avastin was approved by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in 2004 to treat colon cancer, and in 2006, the agency approved it as a treatment for non-small cell lung cancer. Last year, the FDA also approved Avastin as a breast cancer treatment. Avastin was the first approved therapy designed to inhibit angiogenesis, the process by which new blood vessels develop and carry vital nutrients to a tumor. Erbitux is indicated for the treatment of patients who have colorectal cancer that has spread to other parts of the body and whose tumor expresses a protein called an Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor. Erbitux was approved by the FDA to treat advanced colon cancer in 2004, and again in 2006 for treating squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck It was theorized that adding Erbitux and Avastin to chemotherapy could boost benefits, but unfortunately, the Dutch study has proven the opposite to be true. The study looked at 732 patients; 378 patients where treated with chemo plus Avastin. The remaining patients received chemo along with Avastin and Erbitux. Median progression-free survival was 10.7 months among those receiving only Avastin with [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-02-07T13:44:11-07:00February, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

A noninvasive genetic screening test to detect oral preneoplastic lesions

Source: Laboratory Investigation (2005) 85, 1481–1488. published online 29 August 2005 Authors: Jantine F Bremmer et al. Early diagnosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) may have a major impact on survival and quality of life. Recent studies have shown that the majority of OSCC is preceded by precursor lesions characterized by genetic alterations. The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate a noninvasive screening test for oral preneoplastic lesions, based on genetic alterations as marker. Various methods to obtain a high yield of cells by brushing a small area of the oral mucosa were compared. A novel genetic assay, multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA), was applied that enables the measurement of gains and losses at 40 different chromosomal locations in one PCR reaction using 150 ng DNA. MLPA was performed on DNA of normal and dysplastic oral mucosa as well as of OSCC with the intention to select a specific probe set for accurate detection of precursor lesions in the oral cavity. The assay was correlated to loss of heterozygosity analysis using microsatellite markers, and evaluated on noncancer subjects and patients with oral leukoplakia. A noninvasive sampling method was developed with DNA yields ranging from 150 to 600 ng. Using 120 probes, we could detect large differences with MLPA in the number of alterations between normal vs dysplastic and dysplastic vs tumor tissue with P-values <0.001. A significant correlation was found between the number of alterations as detected by MLPA and the analysis for allelic loss. The [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-02-07T13:21:08-07:00February, 2009|Oral Cancer News|