2011 – Page 30 – Oral Cancer News

Multivitamins Don’t Lower Cancer and Cardiovascular Risk

Source: MedScape Today By: Leigh Krietsch Boerner Will taking multivitamins protect you from dying of cancer or cardiovascular disease? The answer is no, according to new research published online February 22 in the American Journal of Epidemiology. In a study of more than 180,000 people, researchers saw the same number of deaths from cancer and heart disease among multivitamin-takers and those who didn't take the supplements. "People need to understand that just taking these multivitamins is not sufficient to prevent disease," said Dr. Jennifer Hsiang-Ling Lin, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, who didn't work on the study. Multiple past studies have shown no link between multivitamins and reduced risk of cancer or heart disease. Other recent research couldn't prove that multivitamins protect against diabetes, either. Some small studies in the past have shown that specific vitamins, not multivitamins, may be protective against heart disease or cancer later in life. However these studies looked at undernourished people, not generally healthy adults like the U.S. population, said co-author Dr. Song-Yi Park of the University of Hawaii Cancer Center in Honolulu. On its web site, the U.S. National Institutes of Health advises that doctors should prescribe multivitamins only "for patients who need extra vitamins, who cannot eat enough food to obtain the required vitamins, or who cannot receive the full benefit of the vitamins contained in the food they eat." But more than half of U.S. adults choose to take multivitamins, according to Dr. Lin. Altogether, Dr. Park's team looked at [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-04-06T13:46:55-07:00April, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

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, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-04-04T09:53:47-07:00April, 2011|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

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 [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-04-03T10:07:02-07:00April, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

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 [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-04-03T09:45:51-07:00April, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

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 [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-04-03T09:40:53-07:00April, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

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 [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-04-03T09:29:48-07:00April, 2011|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

DNA repair biomarker profiling of head and neck vancer: Ku80 rxpression predicts locoregional failure and death following radiotherapy

Source: American Association for Cancer Research Abstract Purpose: Radiotherapy plays an integral role in the treatment of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Although proteins involved in DNA repair may predict HNSCC response to radiotherapy, none has been validated in this context. We examined whether differential expression of double-strand DNA break (DSB) repair proteins in HNSCC, the chief mediators of DNA repair following irradiation, predict for treatment outcomes. Experimental Design: Archival HNSCC tumor specimens were assembled onto a tissue microarray and stained with antibodies raised against 38 biomarkers. The biomarker set was enriched for proteins involved in DSB repair, in addition to established mechanistic markers of radioresistance. Staining was correlated with treatment response and survival alongside established clinical and pathologic covariates. Results were validated in an independent intramural cohort. Results: Ku80, a key mediator of DSB repair, correlated most closely with clinical outcomes. Ku80 was overexpressed in half of all tumors, and its expression was independent of all other covariates examined. Ku80 overexpression was an independent predictor for both locoregional failure and mortality following radiotherapy. The predictive power of Ku80 overexpression was confined largely to HPV-negative HNSCC, where it conferred a nine-fold greater risk of death at two years. Conclusions: Ku80 overexpression is a common feature of HNSCC, and is a candidate DNA repair-related biomarker for radiation treatment failure and death, particularly in patients with high-risk HPV-negative disease. It is a promising, mechanistically rational biomarker to select individual HPV-negative HNSCC patients for strategies to intensify treatment. Clin Cancer Res; [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-04-03T09:28:48-07:00March, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

RoboDoc: deft mechanized hands aid Memphis surgeons in operating rooms

Source: www.commercialappeal.com Author: Tom Charlier The cancer in James Entrekin's throat has curdled around the base of his tonsils, way too far down for a traditional surgeon to reach without doing a lot of cutting and bone-breaking. But there's nothing traditional about the surgery going on in this Methodist University Hospital operating room. Employing nimble, cable-thin arms, a robot reaches into Entrekin's mouth while wielding four instruments at once -- removing tumors, cauterizing vessels, suctioning fluids and transmitting three-dimensional video images of the whole thing. In a couple of hours, it's over. And since there was no need to cut open his face and throat and break his jaw, as is done in conventional oral-cancer surgeries, Entrekin will enjoy a lower risk of complications and a much shorter recovery period, while avoiding extended difficulties swallowing and speaking. "You avoid all that because that natural anatomy is not violated," says Dr. Sandeep Samant, who guided the robot from a console in a corner of the operating room. Although there are many types of surgeries where they can't be used, robots such as the nearly $2 million device used in Entrekin's case are carrying an ever-growing workload in the operating rooms of Memphis hospitals. Less than a decade after robotic surgery was introduced in Memphis, there now are five robots -- one each in Methodist University, Methodist North and Methodist Germantown and two at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis -- performing roughly 1,000 operations annually. They're doing hysterectomies, removing prostates and kidneys, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-03-30T10:43:22-07:00March, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Smokeless tobacco may be on its way out of Major League Baseball parks

Source: www.latimes.com Author: Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times Major League Baseball begins the 2011 season in two days, and if public heath officials have their way it will be the last season during which players will be able to chew and spit smokeless tobacco on the field. The leaders of 15 public health departments in cities with professional baseball teams sent a letter Monday to MLB Commissioner Bud Selig and Michael Weiner, executive director of the union representing major league players, urging them to forbid the use of smokeless tobacco products. Tobacco has been banned in baseball’s minor leagues since 1993. “The use of smokeless tobacco endangers the health of Major League ballplayers and sets a terrible example for the millions of young people who watch baseball at the ballparks and on TV,” the health chiefs wrote. The letter continues: Tobacco use is the number one cause of preventable death in the United States, killing more than400,000 people each year. As cigarette smoking has declined, the tobacco industry has increased its marketing of smokeless products and is spending record sums to promote them. But smokeless tobacco use is itself very dangerous, causing serious diseases of the mouth, including oral cancer. In addition, there is reason to worry that smokeless tobacco use by young persons may serve as a gateway to cigarette smoking, this nation’s leading preventable cause of premature death and disease. As officials in Major League cities around the country, we know that baseball is important to civic life [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-03-30T10:26:31-07:00March, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Orofacial pain onset predicts transition to head and neck cancer

Source: ScienceDirect.com David K. Lam and Brian L. Schmidt Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA Bluestone Center for Clinical Research, New York University, New York, NY, USA Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, New York University, New York, NY, USA Abstract Contrary to a clinical aphorism that early head and neck cancer is painless, we show that patients who develop head and neck cancer experience significant pain at the time of initial diagnosis. We compared orofacial pain sensitivity in groups of patients with normal oral mucosa, oral precancer, and newly diagnosed oral cancer. The University of California San Francisco Oral Cancer Pain Questionnaire was administered to these patients at their initial visit, before being prescribed analgesics for pain and before any treatment. In contrast to those with biopsy-proven normal oral mucosa and oral precancer, only oral cancer patients reported significant levels of spontaneous pain and functional restriction from pain. Moreover, oral cancer patients experienced significantly higher function-related, rather than spontaneous, pain qualities. These findings suggest an important predictor for the transition from oral precancer to cancer may be the onset of orofacial pain that is exacerbated during function. Screening patients who have new-onset orofacial pain may lead to a diagnosis of early resectable head and neck cancer and may improve quality of life and survival for head and neck cancer patients.

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-03-29T15:16:08-07:00March, 2011|Oral Cancer News|