September 2016 – Oral Cancer News

Particular HPV strain linked to improved prognosis for throat cancer

Source: medicalxpress.com Author: provided by University of North Carolina Health Care When it comes to cancer-causing viruses like human papillomavirus, or HPV, researchers are continuing to find that infection with one strain may be better than another. In an analysis of survival data for patients with a particular type of head and neck cancer, researchers from the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center confirmed findings that a particular strain of HPV, a virus linked to a number of cancers, resulted in better overall survival for patients with oropharyngeal cancer than patients with other strains of the virus in their tumors. They believe their findings, reported in the journal Oral Oncology, are particularly important as physicians move to lessen treatment intensity for patients with HPV-linked oropharyngeal cancer in clinical trials to try to spare them negative side effects of radiation or drugs. They also found that a test used widely to determine patients' HPV status may not be sensitive enough to select patients for de-intensification. "What we demonstrate in this study is that the type of HPV can help us to better determine a patient's prognosis," said the study's senior author Jose P. Zevallos, MD, MPH, an associate member of UNC Lineberger and an associate professor in the UNC School of Medicine. "We think this is important because HPV positive patients do so well generally, and there's been a huge move nationally to take treatment down a couple notches to limit morbidity and side effects. The risk is that [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-09-29T08:04:03-07:00September, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Men with throat cancer will soon outnumber women with cervical cancer In The US

Source: www.houstonpublicmedia.org Author: Carrie Feibel The national increase in cases of oropharyngeal cancer related to the human papilloma virus is troubling, because there is no screening test to catch it early, like the Pap test for cervical cancer. The oropharynx is the area of the throat behind the mouth, and includes the tonsils and the base of the tongue. Oropharyngeal cancer is increasing in both men and women, but for reasons that aren’t well understood, male patients are outnumbering female patients by five to one, according to Dr. Erich Sturgis, a head and neck surgeon at MD Anderson Cancer Center. “It’s usually a man, and he notices it when he’s shaving. He notices a lump there,” Sturgis said. “That lump is actually the spread of the cancer from the tonsil or the base of the tongue to a lymph node. That means it’s already stage three at least.” In the U.S., the number of oropharyngeal cancers caused by HPV are predicted to exceed the number of cervical cancers by 2020, Stugis said. “With cervical cancer, we’ve seen declining numbers well before we had vaccination, and that’s due to the Pap smear being introduced back in the late 50s,” he said. “But we don’t have a screening mechanism for pharynx cancer.” Research on an effective screening test for early-stage pharynx cancer is still underway. The reasons for the disproportionate effect on men are unknown. One theory is that people are engaging in more oral sex, but that doesn’t explain why men [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-09-28T07:20:10-07:00September, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Cancer-Preventing Vaccines Given To Less Than Half Of US Kids

Source: www.houstonpublicmedia.org Author: Carrie Feibel U.S. regulators approved a vaccine to protect against the human papilloma virus (HPV) in 2006, but cancer experts say misconceptions and stigma continue to hamper acceptance by both doctors and parents. Eighty percent of Americans are exposed to the human papilloma virus in their lifetimes. Some strains of HPV can cause genital warts, but most people experience no symptoms and clear the virus from their systems within a year or two. But for an unlucky minority, the virus causes damage that, years later, leads to cervical cancer, throat cancer, and other types. Researchers at MD Anderson are frustrated that ten years after the first vaccine arrived on the market, only 42 percent of U.S. girls, and 28 percent of boys, are getting the three-shot series. The series can be given to girls and boys between the ages of 9 and 26, but the immune response is strongest at younger ages, before sexual activity begins. n 2007, then-Texas governor Rick Perry proposed making the HPV vaccine mandatory for all preteen girls. At the time, the vaccine was only approved and marketed for girls. Dr. Lois Ramondetta, a cervical cancer specialist at MD Anderson, remembers the outcry. “A lot of people felt that was the right idea, but the wrong way to go about it. Nobody really likes being told what to do, especially in Texas,” Ramondetta said. “I think there was a lot of backlash.” Eventually, the legislature rejected Perry’s plan, even though it included an opt-out [...]

Charlotte Parker2016-09-27T11:19:43-07:00September, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

HPV symptoms and health consequences

Source: www.kristv.com Author: Roland Rodriguez No one dreams of walking into his or her doctor’s office and hearing the words "you have been diagnosed with human papillomavirus, or HPV." Unfortunately, this scenario is all too real. HPV is the most common sexually-transmitted infection (STI) in the United States. In fact, it's so common that nearly all sexually active men and women get it at some point in their lives. There are over 100 different kinds of HPV but only some of them can cause serious health problems like genital warts or cancer of the cervix, vagina, vulva or anus. Testing positive for HPV does not automatically mean you will get cancer. Some studies estimate that 50 percent of those infected with HPV will clear the virus within eight months— and 90 percent will be cured within two years. It's only when your immune system isn’t able to fight off the infection that some strains of HPV can persist and possibly lead to cancer. The number of human papilloma virus (HPV)-associated cancers in the United States has increased by 17 percent, to nearly 39,000 cases a year, according to a report released from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While men cannot get HPV-linked cervical cancers, they are particularly vulnerable to HPV-related cancers of the mouth, tongue and throat, called oropharyngeal cancers. According to the new CDC report, the rates of mouth and throat cancers are more than four times higher among males than females. In the past, people always [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-09-20T08:55:25-07:00September, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Incisionless robotic surgery offers promising outcomes for oropharyngeal cancer patients

Source: medicalxpress.com Author: press release, Henry Ford Health System A new study from researchers at Henry Ford Hospital finds an incisionless robotic surgery – done alone or in conjunction with chemotherapy or radiation – may offer oropharyngeal cancer patients good outcomes and survival, without significant pain and disfigurement. Patients with cancers of the base of tongue, tonsils, soft palate and pharynx who underwent TransOral Robotic Surgery, or TORS, as the first line of treatment experienced an average three-year survival from time of diagnosis. Most notably, the study's preliminary results reveal oropharyngeal cancer patients who are p16 negative – a marker for the human papilloma virus, or HPV, that affects how well cancer will respond to treatment – have good outcomes with TORS in combination with radiation and/or chemotherapy. "For non-surgical patients, several studies have shown that p16 positive throat cancers, or HPV- related throat cancers, have better survival and less recurrence than p16 negative throat cancers," says study lead author Tamer Ghanem, M.D., Ph.D., director of Head and Neck Oncology and Reconstructive Surgery Division in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery at Henry Ford Hospital. "Within our study, patients treated with robotic surgery had excellent results and survival, irrespective of their p16 status." Study results will be presented Sunday, Sept. 18 at the 2016 American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) annual meeting in San Diego. Led by Dr. Ghanem, Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit was among the first in the country to perform TORS using the da [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-09-18T06:20:43-07:00September, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Why men need to start caring about HPV

Source: www.refinery29.com Author: Sarah Jacoby The human papillomavirus (HPV) is one of very few STIs that we have a vaccine for. And — bonus! — that vaccine prevents cancer. But a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released last month indicated that although we've made some improvements in the vaccination rates, they still aren't where we want them — especially for boys. This is despite the fact that pretty much everyone who's sexually active will get the virus at some point and men are at risk for their own unique set of HPV-related health consequences. Let's start with the basics: "HPV is a virus that’s sexually transmitted, but it’s incredibly common," explains Kathleen Schmeler, MD, of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Up to 80% of people get it at some point in their lives, she says, which is why some doctors refer to it as the "common cold" of STIs. For most people, the virus goes away on its own, without causing symptoms or needing treatment. Some people develop genital warts that can be treated with medication. But in some rare instances, the virus can go on to cause more serious health issues — including some types of cancer. "The problem is we don't know who’s going to clear it and who won’t," Dr. Schmeler says. Most notably, HPV is known to cause cervical cancer. In fact, nearly all cases of cervical cancer are attributed to HPV. In 2013, the most recent [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-09-11T06:23:50-07:00September, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Chronic sinusitis linked to head and neck cancers in elderly

Source: www.cancernetwork.com Author: Anna Azvolinsky Chronic sinusitis is associated with three rare types of head and neck cancer, including nasopharyngeal cancer, human papillomavirus (HPV)-related oropharyngeal cancer, and nasal cavity and paranasal sinus cancers, according to a new study published in JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery. Chronic sinusitis is local inflammation caused by either a virus or bacteria that lasts for longer than 12 weeks. Either the chronic inflammation from the sinusitis, the immunodeficiency that can accompany chronic sinusitis, or both may contribute to the development of these head and neck cancers. The effect is modest, however, wrote the study authors. “There are currently no general US guidelines for head and neck cancer screening, but given the low absolute risk, our findings do not support a need for head and neck cancer screening in individuals with chronic sinusitis,” wrote study authors Daniel C. Beachler, PhD, MHS, and Eric A. Engels, MD, MPH, of the infections and immunoepidemiology branch of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. The absolute risk of these cancer types was low. At 8 years after a chronic sinusitis diagnosis, they had a cumulative incidence of less than 0.07%. The authors conducted a case-cohort study using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)–Medicare database to assess this link among elderly individuals in the United States. The authors included 483,546 Medicare beneficiaries and an additional 826,436 individuals from the database who developed cancer, including 21,716 individuals who developed head and neck cancer. The mean age of individuals in the [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-09-11T06:05:29-07:00September, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Impact of cancer screening in California over past 15 years

Source: www.sciencedaily.com Author: University of California - Davis Health System A new report from the UC Davis Institute for Population Health Improvement (IPHI) shows the impact of cancer screening over the past 15 years, identifying areas where increased screening and other cancer-control efforts would save lives and significantly benefit population health. The CalCARES report uses heat maps to show areas with higher proportions of particular cancers diagnosed at a late stage, pointing to a need for increased screening. The CalCARES report uses heat maps to show areas with higher proportions of particular cancers diagnosed at a late stage, pointing to a need for increased screening. "We have effective screening tests for several cancers, which allow physicians and other health-care providers to identify the disease at an earlier stage -- often before symptoms surface -- when treatment is more likely to result in a cure," said senior author of the report and IPHI Director Kenneth W. Kizer. "However, too many Californians are not getting screened and, as a result, many persons are not being diagnosed until their cancers have progressed to an advanced stage. "With cancer now surpassing heart disease as the leading cause of death in California and 22 other states, we need to increase cancer screening efforts to save lives," he said. IPHI's California Cancer Reporting and Epidemiologic Surveillance (CalCARES) Program works in partnership with the California Department of Public Health to manage the day-to-day operations of the California Cancer Registry (CCR), the state mandated population-based cancer surveillance system. [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-09-05T06:36:46-07:00September, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Google and UCLH to develop AI to improve cancer therapies

Source: www.phgfoundation.org Author: Julian Harris Google’s Artificial Intelligence research group announced a new partnership with University College London Hospitals, applying machine learning to radiotherapy treatment for head and neck cancer. The new partnership is the third since the launch of DeepMind’s health division in February 2016. The partnership aims to assist clinicians in the segmentation process – designating which areas of the body to target with radiotherapy – which in the case of head and neck cancer is highly time consuming, taking around four hours. The agreement will give DeepMind access to the anonymised scans of around 700 patients, as well as the expertise of UCLH’s world leading team at their specialised head and neck cancer centre. Google DeepMind hopes to utilise machine learning to make the planning of radiotherapy treatment more efficient and reduce the duration of the segmentation process. Ultimately , clinicians will still be responsible for deciding on treatment plans, but the reduced workload will free up their time to focus on patient care. If successful, the team hope that they will be able to adapt their segmentation algorithm to other parts of the body and other cancers which can also be treated with radiotherapy. Machine learning continues to be a promising new area of health technology, with the potential to provide novel solutions to a range of problems in healthcare. In the UCLH press release, the Co-Founder of DeepMind, Mustafa Suleyman said that "this real-world application of artificial intelligence (AI) technology is exactly why we set [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-09-05T06:10:59-07:00September, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Expert Asserts Pembrolizumab to Play Important Role in Head and Neck Cancer Treatment

Source: www.targetedonc.com Author: Laura Panjwani The FDA approval of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) as a treatment for patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) in August 2016 was extremely significant for this patient population, which previously had limited options following progression on a platinum-based chemotherapy. The approval was based on the phase Ib KEYNOTE-012 study, which demonstrated that pembrolizumab had an overall response rate (ORR) of 18% and a stable disease rate of 17% in patients with recurrent/metastatic HNSCC. Several other studies are further evaluating the immunotherapy agent in HNSCC.Preliminary results of the phase II KEYNOTE-055 study—which included 92 evaluable patients who received pembrolizumab after failing platinum and cetuximab therapies—were presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting. In an interview with Targeted Oncology, lead study author Joshua M. Bauml, MD, an assistant professor of Medicine, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and the Veteran's Administration Medical Center, discusses the impact of pembrolizumab’s success in HNSCC, the results of the KEYNOTE-055 study, and what he sees on the horizon for the PD-1 inhibitor in this field. TARGETED ONCOLOGY: What role do you envision pembrolizumab having in this patient population? Baumi: It is going to play a critical role in head and neck cancer. The other agents that are available have limited efficacy, and are associated with significant toxicities. This is a clear improvement for our patient population with limited options. TARGETED ONCOLOGY: What were the key takeaways from KEYNOTE-055? Baumi: Patients with recurrent/metastatic head and neck cancer that [...]

Charlotte Parker2016-09-22T14:29:26-07:00September, 2016|Oral Cancer News|