2015 – Page 11 – Oral Cancer News

Nova Scotia to include boys in HPV vaccination schedule

Source: www.theglobeandmail.com Author: Kelly Grant, Health Reporter Boys in Nova Scotia will begin receiving free vaccinations against the human papillomavirus next fall, a move that makes the Maritime province only the third in Canada to extend public funding of the cancer-thwarting shot to all children, regardless of gender. In the budget unveiled on Thursday, Nova Scotia’s Liberal government announced it would make the HPV vaccine available to Grade 7 boys as part of the regular school-based immunization program. The expansion is expected to cost $492,000 a year. Every province in Canada already covers the HPV vaccine for girls in an effort to prevent genital warts and cervical cancer, both of which can be caused by some strains of the virus, which is transmitted through sex and skin-to-skin contact. But in recent years, oncologists and major health organizations – including the Canadian Cancer Society and the National Advisory Committee on Immunization – have begun calling for HPV vaccinations for boys, too. Until this week, only Prince Edward Island and Alberta had heeded that call with a publicly funded program. HPV can lead to cancers of the penis, anus, oral cavity and throat in men, as well as genital and anal warts. “We have a vaccine. It can prevent cancers in men and women, so we want Canadians to be vaccinated against it, because we can actually prevent cancers from starting in the first place,” said Robert Nuttall, the assistant director of cancer control policy at the Canadian Cancer Society. Nova Scotia’s [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2015-04-12T07:33:38-07:00April, 2015|Oral Cancer News|

FDA Advisory Committee hesitates to endorse message of safe smokeless tobacco

Source: www.medpagetoday.com Author: Shannon Firth An FDA advisory panel were reluctant to recommend a gentler warning label for one brand of smokeless tobacco products at a committee hearing on Friday. Swedish Match North America (SMNA), the first company to be considered for a modified risk tobacco designation by the FDA, is asking to replace a current label warning, "This product is not a safe alternative to cigarettes," with this: "Warning: No tobacco product is safe, but this product presents substantially lower risks to health than cigarettes." It also wants to drop warnings required for other smokeless tobacco products about oral cancers, tooth loss, and gum disease. In a key vote, the eight-member FDA's Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee split 4-4 on whether the claim that snus offer a "substantially lower risk" claim relative to cigarettes is justified. Many members said the health risks were lower for certain tobacco-related illnesses, but not for all health concerns. Those who disputed the claim argued that it could not be taken as a "global statement" -- as there are known risks to pregnant women and uncertain risks for adolescents. As for the proposed label change, the whole committee agreed that the sponsor's statements would not suffice. Gary Giovino, PhD, chair of the department of Community Health and Health Behavior at the State University of New York at Buffalo, felt the statement was "dismissive of the health risks." The word "but" in any sentence seems to negate the first half, he said. Snus is a [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2015-04-12T07:26:40-07:00April, 2015|Oral Cancer News|

Curt Schilling: Letter to my younger self

Source: www.theplayerstribune.com Author: Curt Schilling Dear 16-year-old Curt, Tomorrow at lunch, a kid is going to dare you to take a dip of Copenhagen. If you say yes, like I did, you’ll be addicted for the rest of your life. Well, the rest of your life up to the point when you are diagnosed with cancer. I get what you’re thinking. You’re 16 — you’re invincible, just like all your buddies. If you were to jump ahead 33 years, you couldn’t write a better dream than the one your life is going to be. With one exception. If you say yes tomorrow, you will become addicted to chewing tobacco and you will get mouth cancer. I’m going to tell you a little story that I think may help guide you. (I saw this on a TV series called The West Wing — great show, you’re going to love it one day — and it very much rings true). There was a man — we’ll call him Joe. Joe lived in the same house his entire life. One day, a huge storm came. He turned on the radio: Prepare for torrential rains and deadly flash flooding. Everyone should evacuate to safety immediately. See, Joe was a devout Christian. He had the Lord in his life for as long as he could remember. Church every Sunday, prayed twice a day. “My faith in God is resolute. He will save me,” Joe thought. The rain kept coming down. About two hours later, water [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2015-04-12T07:18:05-07:00April, 2015|Oral Cancer News|

The Oral Cancer Foundation Launches April Oral Cancer Awareness Month

Source: Yahoo NewsAuthor: The Oral Cancer Foundation NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., April 9, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- April is Oral Cancer Awareness Month. 2015 marks the 16th year that The Oral Cancer Foundation has lead the effort to raise awareness of this disease and the need for an annual screening. OCF has learned that although we accomplish a great deal as an organization, we can do so much more through the formation of strategic relationships with those who share our values and goals. OCF is grateful to the thousands of private dental offices that make time on multiple days during the month of April to offer free screenings to members of the public in their local communities across the nation. Besides the screening itself, these offices provide valuable information to the public related to risk factors and early signs and symptoms. An informed public can engage in self-discovery, which has generated early stage finds in so many other cancers. In addition to the 1,000's of private dental offices who will join with OCF this April, a coalition of professional organizations, private sectors companies, and educational institutions have chosen to partner with us. The professional organizations include; The American Academy of Oral Medicine (AAOM), The American Academy of Periodontology (AAP), The American Dental Hygienists Association (ADHA), The American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS), The Academy of General Dentistry (AGD), The American Dental Association (ADA), The American Academy of Oral & Maxillofacial Pathology (AAOMP), and The Canadian Dental Hygiene Association (CDHA). Our [...]

Charlotte Parker2015-04-09T10:53:10-07:00April, 2015|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

A Pastime Baseball Can Do Without

Source:http://www.wsj.com Author: Larry Thornberry The Major League Baseball season starts Monday, with many a pinch of tobacco between many a cheek and gum. Not everyone is happy about this (about the chewing tobacco, that is). The San Francisco board of supervisors is considering a measure to put chew off-limits at every ball field in the city, including AT&T Park, where the world-champion Giants play. A bill introduced February in the California Assembly would do the same in pro and league venues across the whole state. Major League Baseball supports this approach, since it cannot get the powerful players union on board with a chewing-tobacco ban. No word on how the laws would be enforced, but the sponsor of the state bill says don’t expect chew cops in dugouts or snuff-sniffing dogs in stands. Until relatively recently, tobacco around baseball clubhouses wasn’t considered much to worry about. As a young fan in the 1950s, I was used to players like Nellie Fox and Bill Tuttle, who stuffed so much chaw in their cheeks that they appeared to be trying to swallow a softball. One of my favorite players of the day, Rocky Bridges, looked like a chipmunk with a buzzcut. Baseball cards, an obsession with preteen boys for the better part of the last century, first came with packs of cigarettes, only later with bubble gum. Back in the day, sportswriters weren’t quick to link tobacco and the early deaths of former ballplayers. It was obvious in the case of Bill Tuttle, who died of mouth cancer at [...]

Charlotte Parker2015-04-09T10:45:16-07:00April, 2015|Oral Cancer News|

Young supports Oral Cancer Awareness with launch of new Burgundy Disposable Prophy Angle

Source: http://www.dentistryiq.comAuthor: DentistryIQ Editors Screening is the beginning of the end of oral cancer, and Young is joining the Oral Cancer Foundation in empowering hygienists to “Be Part of the Change.” Hygienists are on the front lines of oral cancer detection, and their involvement in early screening is paramount in the fight against oral cancer. Young is helping to support hygienists and keep oral cancer awareness in the forefront by launching the new Classic Burgundy Petite Web disposable prophy angle just in time for Oral Cancer Awareness Month in April. In addition to being the signature burgundy color of oral cancer awareness, the Classic Burgundy Petite Web disposable prophy angle packaging acts as a billboard to promote awareness through early detection. According to the Oral Cancer Foundation, more than 43,000 people are diagnosed with oral cancer in the U.S. each year, and only 57% will survive past five years due to late diagnosis. When found at early stages of development, oral cancer victims have an 80 to 90% survival rate. Thanks to engagement from the RDH community, we are on the cusp of a major change in this paradigm. With a commitment to screening for oral cancer warning signs during routine prophylaxis procedures, hygienists are helping to save lives through early detection. “Just doing ‘opportunistic’ cancer screenings during routine dental hygiene procedures would yield tens of thousands of opportunities to catch oral cancer in its early stages. One of our goals is to initiate an effort within the dental community to aggressively screen all [...]

Charlotte Parker2015-03-31T16:12:30-07:00March, 2015|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

Green tea polyphenol helps kill oral cancer cells by destroying mitochondria

Source: www.medicaldaily.com Author: Chris Weller First it targeted pancreatic cancer. Now it’s moved onto oral cancer. A new study from Penn State University shows the main antioxidant in green tea, epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), helps kill cancer cells through the destruction of the cells’ mitochondria. While highly effective at eradicating cancer cells, chemotherapy is quickly falling out of practice with doctors who seek targeted treatments. Instead of getting rid of just the harmful cells, chemo attacks healthy cells, which are often found in the hair and the intestines, resulting in the characteristic hair loss and frequent immune system-related illness. “You don’t see these sorts of side effects with green tea consumption,” said Joshua Lambert, associate professor of food science at Penn State, in a press release. Lambert and his colleagues carried out their study by looking at cell cultures, which they injected with the same amount of EGCG a person would normally have in her saliva after chewing green tea-flavored gum. They saw a number of promising reactions. “It looks like EGCG causes the formation of reactive oxygen species in cancer cells, which damages the mitochondria, and the mitochondria responds by making more reactive oxygen species,” Lambert explained. Over time, the mitochondria lose even more of its defenses with a breakdown in the expression of antioxidant genes. In their weakened state the cancer cells eventually succumb to EGCG in full, and they die. This isn’t the first time EGCG revealed its cancer-killing power. In May of last year, scientists from the [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2015-03-30T10:34:12-07:00March, 2015|Oral Cancer News|

Researchers ID potential prognostic marker for recurrence of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Source: medicalxpress.com Author: press release A new study provides the first evidence that the mediator complex subunit 15 (MED15) may play a crucial role in the pathophysiology of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). MED15 overexpression was found to be associated with higher mortality rates in HNSCC patients with cancer recurrence, particularly in oral cavity/oropharyngeal tumors, according to the study published in The American Journal of Pathology. MED15 overexpression was also associated with heavy alcohol consumption, which is an HNSCC risk factor. HNSCC is the sixth most common cancer worldwide and has a high rate of recurrence and early metastatic disease, resulting in approximately 350,000 deaths each year. "Our findings suggest that MED15 may serve as a prognostic marker for HNSCC recurrence and as a therapeutic target in HNSCC patients suffering from recurrences," said lead investigator Sven Perner, MD, PhD, of the Department of Prostate Cancer Research, Institute of Pathology, and the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at the University Hospital of Bonn (Germany). Mediator is a multiprotein complex that regulates many signaling pathways. In humans, it consists of 30 subunits including MED15, which has been implicated in breast and prostate cancer, with particular attention being given to its link to transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) signaling. "The evidence that multiple aberrant pathways account for the progression of HNSCC calls for a much deeper understanding of the effect of molecules involved in these signaling pathways upon HNSCC progression," noted Dr. Perner. To investigate the role of MED15 in HNSCC, the researchers analyzed tissues from 113 patients [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2015-03-23T06:29:12-07:00March, 2015|Oral Cancer News|

Head and neck cancer on rise in young men

Source: www.healthcanal.com Author: staff “The head and neck cancers we have found in younger men with no known risk factors such as smoking are very frequently associated with the same HPV virus that causes cervical cancer in women." said Kerstin Stenson, MD, a head and neck cancer surgeon at Rush and a professor of otolaryngology at Rush University. The cancer develops from an HPV infection, likely acquired several years earlier from oral sex. "Men are more susceptible to these cancers because they don’t seem to have the same immune response as women and do not shed the virus like women do,” Stenson said. 'Epidemic proportions' According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cancers of the oropharynx (back of the throat, including the base of the tongue and tonsils) are usually caused by tobacco and alcohol, but recent studies show that about 72 percent of oropharyngeal cancers are caused by HPV. “There has been significant change in the last decade. Overall, head and neck cancers account for approximately 3 to 5 percent of all cancers, but what’s changed in the past decade is the HPV-associated oropharyngeal cancer. It has reached epidemic proportions,” said Stenson. The American Cancer Society estimates that 45,780 Americans will be diagnosed with cancer of the oral cavity and oropharynx in 2015. If this trend continues, the number of cases of HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer will surpass the number of cervical cancer cases. Early detection is key The current vaccine has been shown to decrease the incidence [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2015-03-23T06:22:35-07:00March, 2015|Oral Cancer News|

Asia’s deadly secret: the scourge of the betel nut

Source: www.bbc.com Author: staff It is used by almost a tenth of the world's population. It gives people a buzz equivalent to six cups of coffee and is used variously as a symbol of love, marriage and a cure for indigestion and impotence. But it is also leading tens of thousands to an early grave. The culprit? The humble betel nut. Found across Asia, these nuts are harvested from the Areca palm and are chewed for their warming glow and stimulating properties. Such is its effectiveness, that alongside nicotine, alcohol and caffeine, betel nuts are believed to be one of the most popular mind-altering substances in the world. Although used by women and children, the nuts are especially popular among working-age men, who chew to stay awake through long hours of driving, fishing or working on construction sites. But the short-lived benefits come at a terrible cost. High rates of oral cancer are destroying the lives of many who buy betel nuts, often decades after their first taste. Now in Taiwan, where the nuts are affectionately known as 'Taiwan's chewing gum', the government is taking action to curb this centuries-old habit and reduce the thousands of lives lost each year. Dangerous combination Regular betel nut chewers stand out from the crowd with their red-stained lips and teeth The betel nut is a key part of many Asian cultures and can be consumed dried, fresh or wrapped up in a package known as a quid. Although the exact preparation [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2015-03-23T06:12:23-07:00March, 2015|Oral Cancer News|