AAOMS Supports Goals of Oral Cancer Awareness Week

ROSEMONT, Ill., April 1, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The 2011 Oral Cancer Awareness Week, set for April 11-15, is intended to educate people of all ages and socio-economic levels about the risk factors and symptoms of oral, head and neck cancer and the importance of early detection. The American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS) agrees with the Oral Cancer Foundation, which conceived the awareness week observance, that it is critical oral cancers receive the national media attention necessary to raise public awareness. The Oral Cancer Foundation points out that the high death rate traditionally associated with oral cancer is not because it is hard to discover or diagnose, but because the cancer has historically been discovered late in its development.  In its early stages, oral cancer may – and often does - go unnoticed because there are no blatant symptoms or pain.  This only underscores the importance of establishing a regimen to include regular self-examinations and examination by a dentist or oral and maxillofacial surgeon at least annually. The mouth is one of the easiest parts of your body to examine yourself. Also, changes in the mouth can be easily seen, so oral cancer can be detected in its early stages. The key to early detection is performing a self-examination regularly. Examining your mouth each month will help you identify changes or new growths early. And, early detection is important in increasing the chance of a cure. Factors That May Cause Cancer According to the National Institutes of Health, [...]

Skin from her arm gives woman a new tongue

Source: www.wptv.com Author: Amanda Kahan Getting her kids out the door, in the car, and to school is a daily mission for mom Lisa Bourdon-Krause. It's also one she doesn't take for granted. A few years ago, Lisa was diagnosed with tongue cancer. Doctors said surgery would mean removing half of Lisa's tongue. One of her doctors told her she might not ever talk again. At the time, Lisa's son was just two. She didn't know if he'd hear his mom's voice again, so she recorded herself. Thanks to surgeon, Douglas Chepeha, Lisa never had to give her son those recordings. In a 10-hour surgery, surgeons cut out the cancerous part of Lisa's tongue. Then, doctor Douglas Chepeha took skin from her own forearm and attached it to her tongue -- using a pattern as a guide. The result: A tongue that looked and felt much like the real thing. Lisa was able to talk a few days after her surgery. After a couple of weeks, she could eat. It was a relief -- but not the biggest one for Lisa. A mom who's grateful for every moment -- and every word she can speak. Background: According to the Mayo Clinic, tongue cancer is a serious type of head and neck cancer. It usually appears as squamous cells (a lump, white spot or ulcer) on the outer layer of the tongue. When it's caught early, tongue cancer is highly curable. When the cancer forms in the front two-thirds of the [...]

CEL-SCI gets Israeli nod to commence phase III trial of multikine in head and neck cancer

Source: www.pharmabiz.com Author: staff CEL-SCI Corporation announced that the State of Israel's Ministry of Health has given approval to begin enrolment of subjects for a phase III clinical trial of Multikine in Israel. Israel is one of nine countries to participate in this global phase III trial. The phase III trial will be conducted in approximately 48 clinical centres. CEL-SCI's partner Teva Pharmaceutical Industries will be conducting the trial at three clinical centers in Israel. The phase III trial started in the United States in late December 2010 and is expected to commence in other countries around the world within the next 30-60 days. Multikine is the company's flagship immuno-therapy developed as a first-line standard of care in treating head and neck cancer. CEL-SCI's phase III clinical trial is an open-label, randomized, controlled, multi-centre study designed to determine if Multikine administered prior to current standard of care (surgery plus radiotherapy or surgery plus concurrent chemo radiotherapy) in previously untreated subjects with Advanced Primary Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Oral Cavity/Soft Palate (Head and Neck cancer) will result in an increased overall rate of survival, versus the subjects treated with standard of care only. CEL-SCI's 880 patient phase III trial is expected to be the largest clinical study of head and neck cancer ever conducted. It is also the first trial in which immunotherapy will be administered before any other traditional means of care are attempted. This is significant because conventional cancer therapy weakens the immune system and likely compromises the [...]

We owe it to our sons to protect them against human papilloma virus – the new oral cancer peril

Source: www.dailymail.co.uk Author: Professor Lawrence Young The seemingly unstoppable rise of throat and mouth cancers over the past two decades has left experts baffled and deeply concerned. These are truly horrible diseases. More than 15,000 new patients are diagnosed each year in Britain alone and almost 8,000 die from the most common type, cancer of the oesophagus. Two-thirds of sufferers are men. And those that survive are often left horrifically disfigured by aggressive radiotherapy and surgery. Most worryingly, numbers of new cases have doubled since 1989. We used to think most oral and throat cancers - which also include laryngeal (voice box), tracheal (windpipe) and oropharyngeal (soft-palate) tumours - were due to a lifetime of smoking and heavy alcohol consumption, and only really occurred in old age. But as health messages hit home, numbers of smokers and drinkers dropped, fewer older men and women developed these cancers and a new group of patients - middle-class, middle-aged men who drank moderately and had never smoked - emerged. This was a surprise. Small studies, in which tumours were analysed, indicated a new culprit: the human papilloma virus (HPV), the same virus that we knew was the cause of cervical cancer in women. For years there have been whisperings among oncologists that this could become one of the most significant cancer challenges of the 21st Century. And six weeks ago, evidence published by two American universities showed that these fears were becoming a reality. Researchers found that about half of the [...]

Facebook deems UNF paper cover photo a ‘violation’

Source: International Business Times Popular Social Networking Site Facebook has deemed the controversial cover photo of University of North Florida newspaper Spinnaker as "violation" of Terms of Use. University of North Florida's student newspaper Spinnaker has run into trouble after printing a picture of simulated oral sex on its front cover to promote an article about how oral sex spreads human papillomavirus (HPV). In the photograph, a fully clothed man is shown simulating oral sex on a woman sitting atop a stool. Neither's face is shown. However, Josh Gore, the paper's editor, defended the decision. "HPV is a problem everywhere," said Gore. "It's happening and that's why we put it on cover. This is not obscene. This is not obscene at all." "It complimented the story, it got people to read the story and this was not pornography," Gore said. Meanwhile, Spinnaker's web editor Ian Albahae said when they went to print the photo as the Facebook image, the social networking site saw a problem with the image and took it down. "I received an email at about 6:30 this morning saying that my account was under warning for posting obscene imagery," First Coast News reported quoting Albahae. The email went on to say Facebook "does not allow photos that attack an individual or group or that contain nudity, drug use, violence or other violations of the Terms of Use." Facebook prompted Albahae to re-agree to the terms of use, terms he still doesn't think the image violated, the report [...]

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