Nivolumab Could Change Head and Neck Cancer Treatment Paradigm

Source: www.Targetedonc.comAuthor: Laura Panjwani "To have an anti–PD-1 agent be proven to improve survival in head and neck cancer in a randomized phase III trial, and the potential for a new FDA approval in the near future is a game changer." - Robert Ferris, MD, PhD With the phase III CheckMate-141 trial being stopped early due to the anti–PD-1 agent nivolumab having met its primary endpoint of overall survival improvement in head and neck cancer, Robert Ferris, MD, PhD, couldn't be more elated. "This is what I've devoted my career to, and it is gratifying to see that really come to pass," said Ferris, professor and chief, Division of Head and Neck Surgery, vice chair for Clinical Operations, associate director for Translational Research, and coleader of the Cancer Immunology Program at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, in an exclusive interview with Targeted Oncology. "To have an anti–PD-1 agent be proven to improve survival in head and neck cancer in a randomized phase III trial, and the potential for a new FDA approval in the near future is a game changer. There is now hope for a lot of patients and physicians who have been frustrated by this difficult-to-treat disease. This opens up a whole new class of therapies for this population." Ferris, who acted as cochair/coprimary investigator for the trial alongside Maura Gillison, MD, PhD, Ohio State University, said the trial pitted nivolumab against the investigator’s choice of cetuximab (Erbitux), methotrexate, or docetaxel in patients with platinum-refractory squamous cell carcinoma [...]

2016-02-16T09:24:23-07:00February, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

e-Cigarette Use Tied to Tobacco Use in Teenagers

Source: www.Medscape.comAuthor: Diana Swift e-Cigarette smoking appears to promote progression to traditional cigarette smoking and may be helping form a new population of smokers, according to a prospective study published online September 8 in JAMA Pediatrics. Brian A. Primack, MD, PhD, from the Division of General Internal Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in Pennsylvania, and colleagues analyzed data on 694 young nonsmokers who were attitudinally nonsusceptible to smoking at baseline. The very small proportion (2.3%) who already used e-cigarettes at baseline proved more likely to progress to smoking or to being open to it. The cohort, which was more than 75% non-Hispanic white, consisted of 374 females. The mean age of the 16 baseline e-cigarette users was 19.5 years compared with 20 years for nonusers. Study data came from waves 2 and 3 of the US-based Dartmouth Media, Advertising, and Health Study, a national survey of adolescents and young adults aged 16 to 26 years who were recruited via random digit dialing using landline (66.7%) and cellular (33.3%) telephone numbers. The survey, conducted from October 1, 2012, to May 1, 2014, started tracking e-cigarette use at wave 2 (2012 - 2013), which served as the baseline, whereas wave 3 (2013 - 2014) served as follow-up for the current study. Eligible participants had to be never-smokers and attitudinally nonsusceptible to smoking at baseline. This was assessed with these questions: "If one of your friends offered you a cigarette, would you try it?" and "Do you think you will smoke a [...]

2016-02-10T17:34:33-07:00February, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Possible marker for recurring HPV-linked oropharyngeal cancers

Source: www.eureka.orgAuthor: John Hopkins Media Contact: Vanessa Wasta A look-back analysis of HPV infection antibodies in patients treated for oropharyngeal (mouth and throat) cancers linked to HPV infection suggests at least one of the antibodies could be useful in identifying those at risk for a recurrence of the cancer, say scientists at The Johns Hopkins University. A report on the study is published in the February issue of Cancer Prevention Research. HPV infections, which are virtually all sexually transmitted, are responsible for the recent rise in the incidence of oropharyngeal cancers in the United States, according to the National Cancer Institute, and now account for about 80 percent of these cancers. People with HPV-positive tumors of the throat, base of the tongue and tonsils have higher overall survival rates compared to people with similar tumors not caused by HPV, but studies show that more than 25 percent of HPV-positive cancers recur--usually within the first two years after treatment. "There are currently no reliable tests available to detect early recurrence, so we hope to find a biological marker that could help identify those most at risk," says Carole Fakhry, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and member of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. For the new study, Fakhry and her colleagues focused their attention on the antibodies, or immune system protein the body produces to fight HPV-related cancer proteins. One such antibody, called E6, is strongly linked to the diagnosis [...]

2016-02-08T12:03:57-07:00February, 2016|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

NCI-designated Cancer Centers Urge HPV Vaccination for the Prevention of Cancer

Source: www.medicine.wustl.eduAuthor: Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis Staff Approximately 79 million people in the United States are currently infected with a human papillomavirus (HPV) according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and 14 million new infections occur each year. Several types of high-risk HPV are responsible for the vast majority of cervical, anal, oropharyngeal (middle throat) and other genital cancers. The CDC also reports that each year in the U.S., 27,000 men and women are diagnosed with an HPV-related cancer, which amounts to a new case every 20 minutes. Even though many of these HPV-related cancers are preventable with a safe and effective vaccine, HPV vaccination rates across the U.S. remain low. Together we, a group of the National Cancer Institute (NCI)- designated Cancer Centers, recognize these low rates of HPV vaccination as a serious public health threat. HPV vaccination represents a rare opportunity to prevent many cases of cancer that is tragically underused. As national leaders in cancer research and clinical care, we are compelled to jointly issue this call to action. According to a 2015 CDC report, only 40 percent of girls and 21 percent of boys in the U.S. are receiving the recommended three doses of the HPV vaccine. This falls far short of the goal of 80 percent by the end of this decade, set forth by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s Healthy People 2020 mission. Furthermore, U.S. rates are significantly lower than those of countries such as [...]

2016-02-04T12:35:06-07:00February, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Japanese team invents movable tongue prosthesis to enable speech for cancer victims

Source: www.japantimes.co.jp Author: Tomoko Otake Dentistry researchers at Okayama University have come up with what could be the world’s first movable tongue prosthesis to help oral cancer patients who have partially lost the ability to speak. The invention, the product of a team led by Shogo Minagi, a professor of dentistry at the university, is good news for scores of oral cancer victims in Japan with speech problems. The number of oral cancer patients in the nation has surged to 7,800 in 2015, up from around 2,100 in 1975, according to estimates by the Japan Society of Oral Oncology. The figure does not include those with damaged tongues from traffic accidents and other physical injuries. Minagi’s work was inspired by Kenichi Kozaki, also a dentistry professor at Okayama University and an expert on dental pharmacology. Kozaki was diagnosed with tongue cancer in May 2014 and has had most of his tongue surgically removed. Kozaki asked Minagi to create a tongue prosthesis that he could use to speak. Minagi said he looked into tongue prostheses developed in the past but found just one paper in Japan, in which the artificial tongue was part of a denture and could not be moved. “Developing an oral prosthesis is a painstaking process for patients,” Minagi said by phone Monday. “This time, we could create a really good prosthesis quickly thanks to Kozaki, who is a dentist himself. He tried many different versions of the prosthesis and offered us detailed feedback.” When a person speaks, [...]

2016-02-01T13:11:30-07:00February, 2016|Oral Cancer News|
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