December 2016 – Oral Cancer News

Why won’t our doctors face up to the dangers of radiotherapy?

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1089091/Why-wont-doctors-face-dangers-radiotherapy.html Author: Isla Whitcroft It's a life-saver for thousands - but the side-effects can be devastating. A year after he'd undergone treatment for cancer of the tonsils, Richard Wayman felt a painful tingling in his legs. Within weeks, the 59-year- old shopkeeper was struggling to walk. He was admitted to hospital, where doctors carried out scans, X-rays and tests. 'The scans revealed lesions on my lungs, which raised fears that the cancer had spread, so I was admitted to another hospital for a biopsy and, as a result, contracted MRSA and pneumonia,' recalls Richard, from Colchester in Essex. 'From 11-and-a-half stone I went down to eight-and-a-half stone. I thought I was never going to get out of there.' Finally, the lung lesions were diagnosed as a side-effect of the radiotherapy Richard had undergone for his cancer. However, his problems only got worse: a few weeks after a routine tooth extraction, the bone around the extraction started to crumble and become infected. Within months he had an open weeping wound, running from his lower cheek through his jaw and into his mouth. The diagnosis: bone necrosis as a direct result of radiotherapy damage to the jaw. Richard is one of the many thousands of cancer survivors who have developed terrible conditions as a result of the radiotherapy treatment that helped save them. Around 4 to 5 per cent of all head and neck cancer patients suffer problems with swallowing or breathing, fistulas (open holes) in the jaw and gum, loss [...]

Charlotte Parker2017-03-29T19:04:40-07:00December, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Hog jowls and clementines: A bid to awaken cancer patients’ ruined sense of taste

Source: www.statnews.com Author: Eric Boodman The medicines were rich and strange, their active ingredients so particular they sounded fictional. Credit: Molly Ferguson for Stat One regimen involved jowl bits from Red Wattle hogs; the pigs were bred from sows named Fart Blossom and Hildegard, and had spent the end of their lives gorging on acorns, hickory nuts, apples, and black walnuts. Another experimental drug included the flesh of the Ubatuba pepper, picked when it was red as a Santa suit, dried at precisely 90 degrees for five days, and then pulverized, seeds and all, into a fragrant, pinkish powder. These concoctions were meant to be therapeutic — but they hadn’t been devised by pharmacologists or biochemists or even lab techs. Their inventors had no scientific training whatsoever: They were celebrity Montreal chef Frédéric Morin and renowned Atlanta pastry-maker Taria Camerino, who would be facing off in an unusual culinary duel. They’d been challenged to help solve a problem that most clinicians and neuroscientists aren’t able to — the impairment of taste in cancer patients who undergo chemotherapy and radiation. This cook-off in the University of Kentucky’s demo kitchen was the opener for the second annual Neurogastronomy Symposium, which was born over a boozy, late-night chance encounter between neuropsychologist Dan Han and Morin in the chef’s restaurant. Together, they envisioned a conference that would combine neuroscience, agriculture, history, nutrition, medicine, and cooking — to understand the art and science of why we eat what we eat, and how we [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-12-21T09:06:48-07:00December, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Genetic variants are associated with susceptibility to mouth and throat cancer

Source: www.eurekalert.org Author: news release A number of genetic variants associated with susceptibility to oral cavity and pharyngeal cancer have been described in an international study published in the journal Nature Genetics. The most noteworthy finding was an association between cancer of the oropharynx and certain polymorphisms (alternative versions of a given DNA sequence) found in the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genomic region. HLAs, proteins found on the surface of most cells in the body, play an important role in recognizing potential threats and triggering the immune response to foreign substances. According to Eloiza Helena Tajara, a professor at the São José do Rio Preto Medical School (FAMERP) in São Paulo State, Brazil, and co-author of the article, a specific group of variants in this region, located on chromosome 6, is associated with enhanced protection against oropharyngeal cancer caused by human papilloma virus (HPV). "Previous research showed that these same variants confer protection against cancer of the uterine cervix, which is known to be associated with HPV," Tajara said. "Our findings suggest that the genes that control the immune system play a key role in predisposition to HPV-related tumors. This discovery points to the possibility of clarifying the mechanisms whereby such tumors develop and of designing methods for monitoring risk groups." The study was coordinated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and involved 40 research groups in Europe, the United States, and South America. The Brazilian participants are members of the Head & Neck Genome Project (GENCAPO), [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-12-17T11:02:17-07:00December, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Predicting throat cancer recurrence with a blood test

Source: knowridge.com Author: from University of Michigan Health System A new study suggests the possibility of predicting at its earliest stages when a type of head and neck cancer will come back. Oropharyngeal cancer — which occurs in the throat, tonsils and back of the tongue — is frequently linked to the human papilloma virus. That’s good news, in a way, as HPV-related cancers are generally more responsive to treatment. But for about 15 to 20 percent of these patients, the treatment won’t work and their cancer will return. There are no known biomarkers to predict when treatments are likely to fail. In a new study in Clinical Cancer Research, researchers found that patients whose oropharyngeal cancer recurred had higher levels of antibodies for two proteins, E6 and E7, which are found in HPV-fueled cancers. The finding suggests a potential blood-based marker that could predict when cancer is likely to return. For this study, researchers looked back at 52 patients with advanced oropharyngeal cancer who had enrolled in a prior study: 22 who had developed recurrence and 30 who had not. The two groups were similar in age, cancer classification and smoking status. All tumors were linked to the human papilloma virus. On average, cancer recurred 13 months after a patient’s treatment ended. Serum was measured via a blood test at diagnosis or start of treatment, then repeated after treatment ended and about every three months after. Initially, there was no difference in E6 and E7 antibody levels between those [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-12-17T10:55:56-07:00December, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Blood-borne HPV antibodies indicate head, neck cancer prognosis

Source: medicalxpress.com Author: provided by Brown University People with head and neck cancers with evidence of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection generally have a better prognosis than people without evidence of infection. A new study in JAMA Oncology suggests that to produce a strong, reliable prognostic signal, all that's needed is a blood serum test for two specific HPV antibodies, rather than lab work on a biopsy. Further, the researchers said, the study shows that this blood-based biomarker is predictive of outcome for all types of head and neck cancer. The human papillomavirus causes not only cervical cancer but also cancers of the head and neck. Credit: National Cancer Institute "What this adds is that it helps us know how best to measure clinically the HPV contribution to this disease," said study senior author Karl Kelsey, a professor of epidemiology and of pathology and laboratory medicine at Brown University. Kelsey collaborated with lead author Heather Nelson of the University of Minnesota Masonic Cancer Center in making the findings. Moreover, Nelson, Kelsey and their colleagues wrote, referring to the common HPV16 strain of the virus: "These data are among the first to demonstrate a convincing relationship between HPV16 and improved patient survival for tumors of the larynx and oral cavity." Appraising antibodies The study examined blood serum samples and five-year survival rates among more than 1,000 Boston-area head and neck cancer patients diagnosed between 1999 and 2011. Overall, those who tested positive for antibodies to the oncogenic HPV proteins E6 [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-12-11T09:48:32-07:00December, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

US Surgeon General Says Vaping Among Young People is a ‘Major Public Health Concern’

Report calls for higher taxes and stronger regulations on the e-cigarette industry Author: Amar Toor Source: http: www.theverge.com The US surgeon general says that the increased use of e-cigarettes among young people represents a “major public health concern,” The Washington Post reports, and is calling on lawmakers to implement regulations that would curb their use among American youth. In a report to be released on Thursday, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy says that although there is a need for further research on the long-term effects of e-cigarettes, exposure to nicotine through vaping poses serious health risks to young people. “We know enough right now to say that youth and young adults should not be using e-cigarettes or any other tobacco product, for that matter,” Murthy said in an interview with the Post. “The key bottom line here is that the science tells us the use of nicotine-containing products by youth, including e-cigarettes, is unsafe.” “Young adults should not be using e-cigarettes or any other tobacco product.” The report, which focuses on vaping among young people, acknowledges that e-cigarettes are less harmful than traditional cigarettes, as previous research has shown. But the surgeon general says there is not strong evidence that the devices are effective at helping people to quit smoking cigarettes, and concludes that vaping is “strongly associated” to the use of other tobacco products. A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that 3 million American teenagers used e-cigarettes in 2015, marking a ten-fold increase over [...]

Charlotte Parker2017-03-29T19:04:55-07:00December, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

I get by with help from my friends: Maintaining immune cells in head and neck cancer

Source: www.eurekalert.org Author: Medical University of South Carolina In an article published September 22, 2016 in Frontiers in Immunology, researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center report that inhibiting prostaglandin production slows the progression of premalignant lesions to head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Preclinical studies showed that treatment of premalignant lesions with indomethacin, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) similar to aspirin, increased the presence of immune cells and lessened tumor burden. Cancers of the head and neck begin with lesions in the oral cavity, including the larynx, pharynx, throat, lips, mouth, salivary glands, and nasal passages. Although the incidence of HNSCC has been on the decline over the past several decades, the National Cancer Institute reports that approximately 3% of all cancers in the U.S. result from HNSCC, with men being diagnosed twice as often as women. Treatment for HNSCC includes surgical removal and chemo-radiation treatment; however, these interventions often fail, and patients have a five-year survival rate of only 50%. It is critical to determine better treatment options for HNSCC patients. One way researchers at MUSC are trying to improve the treatment of HNSCC is by enhancing the body's own immune system to attack the tumor. "There's a lot of effort to stimulate immune reactivity using immunotherapy. The problem with that is cancer can protect itself against the immune defenses. Head and neck cancer is notorious for that," said immunologist M. Rita Young, Ph.D., senior author for [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-12-01T14:54:58-07:00December, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Bioscientists help throat cancer patients speak again

Source: medicalxpress.com Author: staff, provided by the University of Kent Voice Prosthesis Biofilm. Credit: Dr Campbell W. Gourlay, University of Kent Through the work of the School of Biosciences team, in collaboration with East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, Kent has developed a new method of care for patients who have to have their larynx removed. The Biosciences team found that the replacement voice boxes would last much longer if they dealt with the fungal infection Candida albicans that was causing the silicone versions to fail. For the first time, scientists were able to extend the life of the replacement voicebox by dealing with the fungal infection. The team has developed clinical care for patients that has now been taken up by many NHS Trusts in the UK and which is anticipated could be used worldwide for throat cancer patients. It means patients may be able to carry on using silicone voice prosthesis for much longer, enabling them to still speak and reducing the risk of dangerous secondary chest infections. Dr Campbell Gourlay, Senior Lecturer in Cell Biology at Kent, said the University's work, funded by the NHS and Kent Cancer Trust, will enable people who lose their larynx to maintain speech and enjoy a better quality of life.

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-12-01T14:49:14-07:00December, 2016|Oral Cancer News|