Source: www.nytimes.com Author: Nicholas Bakalar Date: 04/06/2017 More than 42 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 59 are infected with genital human papillomavirus, according to the first survey to look at the prevalence of the virus in the adult population. The report, published on Thursday by the National Center for Health Statistics, also found that certain high-risk strains of the virus infected 25.1 percent of men and 20.4 percent of women. These strains account for approximately 31,000 cases of cancer each year, other studies have shown. Two vaccines are effective in preventing sexually transmitted HPV infection, and researchers said the new data lend urgency to the drive to have adolescents vaccinated. “If we can get 11- and 12-year-olds to get the vaccine, we’ll make some progress,” said Geraldine McQuillan, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and lead author of the new report. “You need to give it before kids become sexually active, before they get infected,” Dr. McQuillan said. “By the time they’re in their mid-20s, people are infected and it’s too late. This is a vaccine against cancer — that’s the message.” She and her colleagues also found that 7.3 percent of Americans ages 18 to 69 were infected orally with vHPV, and 4 percent were infected with the high-risk strains that can cause cancers of the mouth and pharynx. HPV is a ubiquitous virus, the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States. About 40 strains of the virus are [...]

Author: Lisa Miller Published online: 03/22/2017 Source: http://www.targetedonc.com/ Following the approval of 2 immunotherapy agents, pembrolizumab (Keytruda) and nivolumab (Opdivo) for the treatment of patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) over the last 6 months, immunotherapy is making its mark on the treatment paradigm for HNC. Due to the responses seen with these 2 agents, immunotherapies are being investigated further in the treatment of HNC. “Immunotherapy is a very potent treatment for some patients. In a way it shows you that we’re probably just scratching the surface with [immunotherapy treatment for HNC],” Tanguy Seiwert, MD, said during a presentation at the 1st Annual International Congress on Immunotherapies in CancerTM, hosted by the Physicians' Education Resource (PER). Findings from the KEYNOTE-012 trial led to the approval of pembrolizumab in patients with recurrent head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). The overall response rate was 18% with only 1 patient experiencing a complete response.1 However, about 50% of patients, both HPV-positive and HPV-negative, experienced a decrease in their target lesions. “I would like to point out that response is a terrible, terrible outcome measure for immunotherapy. In the end, what we really care about with immunotherapy is overall survival [OS],” commented Seiwert, associate program director of the Head and Neck Cancer Program, and assistant professor of medicine, The University of Chicago Medicine. “Many patients have prolonged stable disease and that likely contributes signicantly to the strong OS signal that we oftentimes see.” The phase III CheckMate 141 trial, which Seiwert said [...]

Source: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-03-self-persuasion-ipad-app-spurs-low-income.html Date: March 7, 2017 As health officials struggle to boost the number of teens vaccinated against the deadly human papillomavirus, a new study from Southern Methodist University, Dallas, found that self-persuasion works to bring parents on board. Currently public health efforts rely on educational messages and doctor recommendations to persuade parents to vaccinate their adolescents. Self-persuasion as a tool for HPV vaccinations has never been researched until now. The SMU study found that low-income parents will decide to have their teens vaccinated against the sexually transmitted cancer-causing virus if the parents persuade themselves of the protective benefits. The study's subjects—almost all moms—were taking their teens and pre-teens to a safety-net pediatric clinic for medical care. It's the first to look at changing parents' behavior through self-persuasion using English- and Spanish-language materials. "This approach is based on the premise that completing the vaccination series is less likely unless parents internalize the beliefs for themselves, as in 'I see the value, I see the importance, and because I want to help my child,'" said psychology professor Austin S. Baldwin, a principal investigator on the research. Depending on age, the HPV vaccine requires a series of two or three shots over eight months. External pressure might initially spark parents to action. But vaccinations decline sharply after the first dose. The new study follows an earlier SMU study that found guilt, social pressure or acting solely upon a doctor's recommendation was not related to parents' motivation to vaccinate their kids. The new [...]