2010 – Page 18 – Oral Cancer News

Cancer survivor Byers driving to help others

Source: Standart.net Author: Staff Among the dozens of cars at this weekend's ARCA race at Pocono Raceway, one will stand out. Not for the color scheme or the lines. For the decals. When the No. 48 of Ricky Byers Racing rolls out onto the track, it won't be sporting the usual array of auto parts or alcoholic beverage stickers. Byers' red-and-black Ford Fusion will decorated for those who have made his dream a reality, the 90 or so people who have given the two-time throat cancer survivor a chance to fight back at the disease that nearly cost him his life. "It's the greatest feeling of my life," Byers said. "Those are the people who support what I'm doing, believe in what I'm doing and they've given me a chance to go out there and race for cancer." Byers has been around motorsports long as he can remember. His dad was a lifelong racer and little Ricky spent his early days racing motocross and go-carts before moving on to full-sized cars. The Birmingham, Ala., native went on to race for 20 years, winning five different track championships in Pony, Super Pony, Dwarf and Late Model cars. But when Byers was 33, his career took a back seat to something much bigger: a race for his life. Byers had lost his voice and wasn't able to get it back for weeks, but six different doctors told him it just was a sinus infection, that he had nothing to worry about. Then [...]

Charlotte Parker2010-07-30T16:13:29-07:00July, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Evaluation of a multifaceted social marketing campaign to increase awareness of and screening for oral cancer in African Americans.

Source: Sanford University Authors: JM Jedele and AI Ismail Jedele JM, Ismail AI. Evaluation of a multifaceted social marketing campaign to increase awareness of and screening for oral cancer in African Americans. Community Dent Oral Epidemiol 2010; 38: 371-382. (c) 2010 John Wiley & Sons A/S Abstract - Objectives: A 2-year social marketing media campaign and community education activities were organized to promote screening for oral cancer in a high-risk population in Detroit/Wayne County, Michigan. Long-term goals of the campaign were to reduce the oral cancer death rate, increase the proportion of oral cancers detected at an early stage, and increase the proportion of adults who report having been screened. The intermediate goals of the campaign were to increase awareness of oral cancer and of oral cancer screening. This article presents outcomes related to the intermediate goals of the campaign. Methods: The intermediate goals of the campaign were assessed by the number of calls to a toll-free hotline, which media venues led to calls, number of screenings conducted by the free screening clinic, number of precancers and cancers detected, and the number of sessions conducted, organizations involved, and persons participating in the community education program. The costs per screened case and cancers detected were also evaluated. The media campaign promoted screening using billboards, radio and newspaper ads, and a toll-free hotline. Culturally relevant messages were developed collaboratively with focus groups representing the target audience. Billboards were placed in highly visible locations around Detroit, Michigan. Sixty-second messages on the impact of [...]

Charlotte Parker2010-07-27T12:28:38-07:00July, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Does framing Human Papillomavirus Vaccine as preventing cancer in men increase vaccine acceptability?

Source: Stanford University Authors: AL McRee, PL Reiter, K Chantala, and NT Brewer Background: Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine is now approved for use in males in the United States to prevent genital warts. We conducted an experiment to see whether framing HPV vaccination as also preventing cancer in men would increase men's vaccination willingness. Methods: We conducted an online survey in January 2009 with a national sample of men ages 18 to 59 years who self-identified as gay/bisexual (n = 312) or heterosexual (n = 296). In the within-subjects experiment, men read four randomly ordered vignettes that described hypothetical vaccines that prevented either genital warts alone, or genital warts and either anal cancer, oral cancer, or penile cancer. We analyzed data using repeated measures ANOVA and tested whether perceived severity or perceived likelihood mediated the effect of disease outcome framing on men's HPV vaccination willingness. Results: Although only 42% of men were willing to receive HPV vaccine when it was framed as preventing genital warts alone, 60% were willing to get it when it was framed as preventing cancer in addition to genital warts (P < 0.001). The effect of outcome framing was the same for heterosexual and gay/bisexual men and for the three cancer types examined. Perceived severity of disease partially mediated the association between disease outcome and HPV vaccination willingness. Conclusions: Men may be more accepting of HPV vaccine when it is framed as preventing cancer, regardless which of the three most common HPV-related cancers in men is [...]

Charlotte Parker2010-07-31T06:51:17-07:00July, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Ohio pastor to turn over dead brother’s estate

Source: Dayton Daily News Author: Staff MONROE, Ohio — The co-pastor of an Ohio megachurch where a 62-foot-tall Jesus statue was struck by lightning said she will turn her brother's estate over to her nephew after years of family feuding. Solid Rock Church co-pastor Darlene Bishop has held control of the estate of her brother, country music songwriter Darrell "Wayne" Perry, who died of throat cancer in 2005 at age 55. Perry's songs included Tim McGraw's "Not a Moment Too Soon," Toby Keith's "A Woman's Touch" and Lorrie Morgan's hit, "What Part Of No." Perry's four children say Bishop hastened her brother's death in 2005 by promising to use prayer, instead of medical treatment, to cure his throat cancer. Sixty-five-year-old Bishop says she encouraged her brother to see a doctor, but he refused. "All of (his children's) accusations against me were not warranted," Bishop said. Sixty-five-year-old Bishop and her husband, Lawrence, founded the Solid Rock Church in southwest Ohio in 1978. It grew from a dozen congregants in a tin-roofed building with folding chairs into a megachurch with 13 churches in the Philippines and an orphanage in Brazil. The Dayton Daily News reports that Darlene Bishop Ministries made more than $1.3 million in 2007, the last year for which complete IRS records were available. "She thrives on fame and stardom and shopping at Saks Fifth Avenue," said Bishop's nephew Bryan Wayne Perry. "I'm ashamed that the same blood runs through our veins." In one of Bishop's books, she says God [...]

Charlotte Parker2010-07-26T12:51:04-07:00July, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Vaccines might help fight throat cancer, but hurdles are high

Source: www.npr.org Author: Chao Deng There's been a big and controversial push to protect girls from cervical cancer by vaccinating them against the human papillomavirus. Turns out, the same vaccine might also protect boys from developing throat cancer later in life. Researchers estimate HPV causes more than 11,000 cases of throat cancers in the U.S. each year. Many are cropping up in younger people, especially in white men. Changes in sexual behavior have led to an increase in that could mean more than 20,000 cases annually by 2015, Forbes reports. So wouldn't you think that a growing market like that would be attractive to makers of HPV vaccines? Not so much, it turns out. Merck's Gardasil vaccine is approved for use in boys, but only to protect against genital warts. And a company spokeswoman told us in an email that Merck isn't looking to pursue approval of a throat-cancer indication anytime soon because of "competing research and business priorities." Same goes for Glaxo, according to Forbes. A big hurdle is that doctors can't screen for throat cancer the way they can for cervical cancer with a Pap smear. Without a simple test, it's harder to show the HPV vaccine reduces the risk of throat cancer. And that, in turn, makes it harder for vaccine makers to run a study that will pass muster with the Food and Drug Administration. But the outlook isn't completely bleak. Ohio State researcher Maura Gillison, who got funding for a pilot vaccine study [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-07-25T20:21:36-07:00July, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Dispatch: get vaccinated!

Source: American Council on Science and Health Author: Staff According to U.S. researchers, there are an estimated 11,300 throat cancer cases attributable to human papilloma virus (HPV) annually, although the government does not formally track the incidence rate since the connection between HPV and throat cancer was only made in the past few years. The rate is expected to rise since people have more sexual partners now than in decades past. “Unfortunately, many people are unaware of the connection between HPV and throat cancer since it is so underreported. I’m especially concerned for kids who engage in oral sexual activities under the mistaken belief that this is ‘safe sex,’ and it’s not,” warns ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. Though also alarmed by the increasing rate of throat cancer caused by infection with HPV, ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross was more perturbed to learn that drug makers are resistant to study the use of HPV vaccines — now used to prevent cervical cancer in women and anal warts in males — for the prevention of oral cancer. “I was disconcerted to read that the two manufacturers of the HPV vaccine, Merck and GlaxoSmithKline, are not interested in pursuing this topic of prevention,” laments Dr. Ross. “Since there is no easy way to detect pre-cancers in the oral cavity, a clinical trial could take 10 to 20 years to complete. However, it is obvious that eliminating the virus through the use of vaccination would stop our current epidemic.”

Charlotte Parker2010-07-25T20:14:29-07:00July, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Consistent condom use may cut men’s HPV risk

Source: MedScape Today Author: Staff NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Jul 16 - Men who use condoms every time they have sex are less likely to harbor human papillomavirus (HPV) than those who are less consistent about protection, a new study finds. The results, reported online June 22nd in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, may not sound surprising. In the past, however, some studies have suggested that condoms may do little to protect men from infection with HPV. Persistent HPV infection is best known as the primary cause of cervical cancer, but it can also lead to cancers of the anus and penis. Preventing HPV infection in men may help lower their risk for those cancers, and cut their chances of transmitting the virus to their female partners -- potentially helping to prevent some cases of cervical cancer. While condom use has been shown to lower the transmission of other sexually transmitted diseases, studies have yielded conflicting results as to whether condoms help lower men's HPV risk. One reason may be that HPV is easily transmitted, including any genital-to-genital contact, and some studies in which men have been tested for HPV in areas not protected by condoms have failed to show that condoms lower infection risk. For the new study, Dr. Carrie M. Nielson of Oregon Health and Science University in Portland and colleagues tested 463 men between the ages of 18 and 40 for 37 types of HPV. The testing was done on swabbed samples from the penis, as well [...]

Charlotte Parker2010-07-25T20:14:07-07:00July, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Gene may hold key to reducing spread of oral cancers

Source: University of Illinois Author: Sam Hostettler The spread of cancer cells in the tongue may be reduced if a gene that regulates cancer cell migration can be controlled, according to new research at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Oral cancer is an under-treated and poorly understood disease, says Xiaofeng "Charles" Zhou, assistant professor in the UIC Center for Molecular Biology of Oral Diseases and lead researcher of the study. More than 90 percent of oral cancers are squamous cell carcinomas that normally start on the gums, floor of the mouth, or tongue. About 30,000 Americans are affected each year, Zhou said. While new cancers of all types have risen 8 percent in the last five years, oral cancer increased 21 percent, according to the American Cancer Society. Tongue squamous cell carcinoma, one of the most frequent oral cancers, rose more than 37 percent in this period. And although overall cancer deaths decreased during this period, those due to oral cancer increased by 4 percent -- and those due to tongue squamous cell carcinoma by 10 percent. Improvements in patient survival require better understanding of tumor invasion and how cancer spreads, Zhou said, so that aggressive tumors can be detected early and targeted therapies can be developed. While researchers have tried to identify altered genes that contribute to the aggressive nature of tongue squamous cell carcinoma, most previous studies have focused on protein-encoding genes, Zhou said. The new study examines a noncoding gene called microRNA-138. MicroRNAs are small, noncoding [...]

Charlotte Parker2010-07-25T20:13:36-07:00July, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

The cancer-causing sex virus

Source: Forbes Author: Matthew Herper Martin Duffy, a Boston consultant and economist, thought he just had a sore throat. When it persisted for months, he went to the doctor and learned there was a tumor on his tonsils. Duffy, now 70, had none of the traditional risk factors for throat cancer. He doesn't smoke, doesn't drink and has run 40 Boston marathons. Instead, his cancer was caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV), which is sexually transmitted and a common cause of throat and mouth cancer. HPV tumors have a better prognosis than those caused by too many years of booze and cigarettes. But Duffy "is in the unlucky 20%" whose cancer comes back--despite rounds of chemotherapy and radiation that melted 20 more pounds off a lean 150-pound frame. Now the cancer has spread throughout his throat, making eating and talking difficult. "I made my living as a public speaker," he says. "Now I sound like Daffy Duck." Duffy believes he has only a few months left. "How do you tell the people you love you love them?" he asks. Nine Things You Need To Know About HPV Most strains of the HPV virus are harmless, but persistent infections with two HPV strains cause 70% of the 12,000 cases of cervical cancers diagnosed annually in the U.S. Other forms of the sexually transmitted virus can cause penile and anal cancer, and genital warts. The HPV throat cancer connection has emerged in just the last few years and is so new that [...]

Charlotte Parker2010-07-25T20:13:00-07:00July, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Mice with toys and friends have better anti-cancer responses

Source: Medscape Blogs Author: Alok Khorana, MD As clinicians, we know that patients with excellent support systems will (in general) do better than patients without. I had personally always thought of this as being secondary to better reporting and oversight - for instance, a patient with a spouse is more likely to be brought in with a fever whereas a patient living by him/herself is more likely to try and ride it out, leading to more dangerous complications. In a fascinating animal model study published in Cell, researchers led by Cao et al at identify even more of a therapeutic benefit for having such an "enriched environment". The authors show this by placing mice with different types of cancers (melanoma, colon cancer) in two different types of environments: one, the usual laboratory housing (5 mice per cage) and the other "enriched" with "groups (18-20 mice per cage) in large cages of 1.5 m x 1.5 m x 1.0 m supplemented with running wheels, tunnels, igloos, huts, retreats, wood toys, a maze, and nesting material". The results all clearly favored having an enriched environment: "In the mice housed in enriched environment for 3 weeks prior to tumor implantation, the mean volume of the tumor was 43% smaller than those in the control housing (p < 0.05). For the 6 week groups, the tumor mass in EE mice was reduced by 77.2% p < 0.001). Notably, all mice in the control groups developed solid tumors, whereas 5% of mice with 3 weeks [...]

Charlotte Parker2010-07-25T20:12:24-07:00July, 2010|Oral Cancer News|