August 2018 – Oral Cancer News

Cancer biology graduate student travels ‘ROCKy’ road toward a cure for post-radiation dry mouth

Source: medicalxpress.com Author: staff, University of Arizona The United States is in the midst of a head-and-neck cancer epidemic. Although survival rates are relatively high—after treatment with chemotherapy and radiation—survivors can suffer permanent loss of salivary function, potentially leading to decades of health problems and difficulties eating. It is unknown why the salivary gland sometimes cannot heal after radiation damage, but Wen Yu "Amy" Wong, BS, a University of Arizona cancer biology graduate student, may have taken a step toward solving that riddle. Radiation often comes with long-term or even permanent side effects. With a head-and-neck tumor in radiation's crosshairs, the salivary gland might suffer collateral damage. "When you get radiation therapy, you end up targeting your salivary glands as well," Wong said. Losing the ability to salivate predisposes patients to oral complications and an overall decrease in their quality of life. "Salivary glands help you digest food, lubricate your mouth and fight against bacteria. After radiation, patients could choke on their food because they can't swallow. They wake up in the middle of the night because their mouth is so dry. They often get cavities." Favorite foods may lose their flavor. "Saliva produces certain ions that help you taste," she said. "Patients lose the ability to enjoy food. The best steak is very bland to them." The quest to restore salivary function in post-radiation head-and-neck cancer patients starts with learning why the salivary gland is unable to heal itself after radiation damage. Wong's study may have helped to unravel [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2018-08-31T08:04:57-07:00August, 2018|Oral Cancer News|

How early do the effects of smoking start? Earlier than you think

Source: Author: Julia Mullaney Smoking’s destructive nature has been known for quite a while. But many people think that a cigarette here and there is okay, or smoking is fine as long as you quit while you’re young. But what’s the truth? How much — and for how long — do you need to smoke before it does irreversible damage to your health? We broke down all the facts. Put out the cigarette and prolong your life. BrianAJackson/Getty Images Smoking’s negative effects start with the first puff The moment you inhale a cigarette, there are instant effects — even if it’s only your first time. The tar in cigarette smoke instantly hits your teeth and starts damaging your enamel. It also hits the gums and starts to do damage. Over time, the gums turn black. The smoke then hits the throat, where it damages the esophagus lining. In time, this is what leads to throat cancer. It also damages the cilia in your trachea, preventing them from being able to clean away the tar. The smoke then travels to the lungs, where the tar builds up and stays. The tar damages the lungs’ natural cleaning process, which hurts lungs’ ability to work and makes them more susceptible to serious infections. Finally, inhaling that puff of smoke also means inhaling carbon monoxide, which gets absorbed in the blood stream instantly. You might feel tired and out of breath, and over time this leads to heart disease because it takes [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2018-08-31T07:54:24-07:00August, 2018|Oral Cancer News|

DCD: Oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma now and most common HPV associated with cancer

In 2015, oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma surpassed cervical cancer as the most common HPV-associated cancer in the U.S., with 15,479 cases among men and 3,438 cases among women, according to data from the CDC published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The report also showed that rates of HPV-related anal squamous cell carcinoma and vulvar cancer increased over the past 15 years, whereas rates of HPV-related cervical cancer and vaginal squamous cell carcinoma decreased. “Although smoking is a risk factor for oropharyngeal cancers, smoking rates have been declining in the United States, and studies have indicated that the increase in oropharyngeal cancer is attributable to HPV,” Elizabeth A. Van Dyne, MD, epidemic intelligence services officer in division of cancer prevention and control at the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion of the CDC, and colleagues wrote. “In contrast to cervical cancer, there currently is no U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended screening for other HPV-associated cancers,” they added. The trends in HPV-related cancers report included data from 1999 to 2015 from cancer registries — CDC’s National Program of Cancer Registries and NCI’s SEER program — covering 97.8% of the U.S. population. The CDC reported 30,115 new cases of HPV-associated cancers in 1999 compared with 43,371 new cases in 2015. During the study period, researchers observed a 2.7% increase in rates of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma among men and a 0.8% increase among women. Rates of anal squamous cell carcinoma increased by 2.1% among men and 2.9% among [...]

Charlotte Parker2018-08-27T11:05:48-07:00August, 2018|Oral Cancer News|

E-cigarettes ‘could give you mouth cancer by damaging your DNA’

Source: metro.co.uk Author: Zoe Drewett Researchers say vaping could lead to an increased risk of developing mouth cancer. A study carried out by the American Chemical Society found evidence to suggest using e-cigarettes raises the level of DNA-damaging compounds in the mouth. If cells in the body are unable to repair the DNA damage after vaping, the risk of cancer can increase, the study claims. The long-term effects of e-cigarettes are not yet known but researchers say they should be investigated further (Picture: PA) The researchers admit the long-term health effects of using electronic cigarettes are still unknown. Researcher Dr Romel Dator said: ‘We want to characterize the chemicals that vapers are exposed to, as well as any DNA damage they may cause.’ Since they were introduced in 2004, e-cigarettes have been marketed as a safer alternative to smoking. But the team carrying out the study claim genetic material in the oral cells of people who vape could be altered by toxic chemicals. E-cigarettes work by heating a liquid – which usually contains nicotine – into an aerosol that the user inhales. It is often flavoured to taste like fruit, chocolate or bubblegum. ‘It’s clear that more carcinogens arise from the combustion of tobacco in regular cigarettes than from the vapor of e-cigarettes,’ Silvia Balbo, the project’s lead investigator said. ‘However, we don’t really know the impact of inhaling the combination of compounds produced by this device. ‘Just because the threats are different doesn’t mean that e-cigarettes are completely [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2018-08-22T12:57:31-07:00August, 2018|Oral Cancer News|

Why a patient paid a $285 copay for a $40 drug

Source: pbs.org Author: Megan Thompson Two years ago Gretchen Liu, 78, had a transient ischemic attack — which experts sometimes call a “mini stroke” — while on a trip to China. After she recovered and returned home to San Francisco, her doctor prescribed a generic medication called telmisartan to help manage her blood pressure. Liu and her husband Z. Ming Ma, a retired physicist, are insured through an Anthem Medicare plan. Ma ordered the telmisartan through Express Scripts, the company that manages pharmacy benefits for Anthem and also provides a mail-order service. The copay for a 90-day supply was $285, which seemed high to Ma. “I couldn’t understand it — it’s a generic,” said Ma. “But it was a serious situation, so I just got it.” A month later, Ma and his wife were about to leave on another trip, and Ma needed to stock up on her medication. Because 90 days hadn’t yet passed, Anthem wouldn’t cover it. So during a trip to his local Costco, Ma asked the pharmacist how much it would cost if he got the prescription there and paid out of pocket. The pharmacist told him it would cost about $40. “I was very shocked,” said Ma. “I had no idea if I asked to pay cash, they’d give me a different price.” Ma’s experience of finding a copay higher than the cost of the drug wasn’t that unusual. Insurance copays are higher than the cost of the drug about 25 percent of the time, [...]

Charlotte Parker2018-08-20T09:43:40-07:00August, 2018|Oral Cancer News|

Smoking, cancer, heart disease, and the oral-systemic link: Where we are with research

Source: www.dentistryiq.com Author: Richard H. Nagelberg, DDS Dr. Richard Nagelberg examines the links between smoking, lung cancer, and heart disease, as well as the types of research and studies that established the strength of their credibility over time. Likewise, he considers where we are today with the link between oral health and overall health as he evaluates the current state of oral-systemic research. Perhaps the most universally accepted facts in health care are the detrimental effects of tobacco, particularly cigarette smoking, for nearly every part of the body. It is safe to say that no one disputes the direct causal links between cigarette smoking, lung cancer, and heart disease. Listed below are only two statements regarding the state of this knowledge. ✔️The scientific evidence is incontrovertible: inhaling tobacco smoke, particularly from cigarettes, is deadly. Since the first Surgeon General’s Report in 1964, evidence has linked smoking to diseases of nearly all organs of the body. (surgeongeneral.gov. June 21, 2018) ✔️Smoking is by far the biggest preventable cause of cancer. Thanks to years of research, the links between smoking and cancer are now very clear. Smoking accounts for more than 1 in 4 UK cancer deaths, and 3 in 20 cancer cases. (cancerresearchuk.org) There is a boatload of research supporting this link. However, there has never been one large-scale double-blinded interventional study demonstrating that smoking causes lung cancer and heart disease. The fact that this link exists is based on the cumulative results of numerous smaller studies over a long period [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2018-08-18T16:04:12-07:00August, 2018|Oral Cancer News|

Study: Cetuximab, radiation inferior to standard HPV throat cancer treatment

Source: upi.com Author: Allen Cone Treating HPV-positive throat cancer with cetuximab and radiation had worse overall and progression-free survival results compared with the current method of treatment with radiation and cisplatin, the National Institutes of Health revealed Tuesday. The trial, which was funded by the National Cancer Institute, was intended to test whether the combination would be less toxic than cisplatin but be just as effective for human papillomavirus-positive oropharyngeal cancer. The trial, which began in 2011, enrolled 849 patients at least 18 years old with the cancer to receive cetuximab or cisplatin with radiation. The trial is expected to finish in 2020. Cetuximab, which is manufactured under the brand name Erbitux by Eli Lilly, and cisplatin, which as sold as Platinol by Pfizer, are used in chemotherapy. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration had approved cetuximab with radiation for patients with head and neck cancer, including oropharyngeal cancer. HPV, which is transmitted through intimate skin-to-skin contact, is the leading cause of oropharynx cancers, which are the throat at the back of the mouth, including the soft palate, the base of the tongue and the tonsils. Most people at risk are white, non-smoking males age 35 to 55 -- including a 4-to-1 male ratio over females -- according to The Oral Cancer Foundation. The NIH released the trial results after an interim analysis showed that cetuximab with radiation wasn't as effective. In a median follow-up of 4.5 years, the test combination was found to be "significantly inferior" to the cisplatin [...]

Charlotte Parker2018-08-15T15:48:59-07:00August, 2018|Oral Cancer News|

Hundreds of Researchers From Harvard, Yale and Stanford Were Published in Fake Academic Journals

Source: motherboard.vice.com Author: Daniel Oberhaus In the so-called “post-truth era,” science seems like one of the last bastions of objective knowledge, but what if science itself were to succumb to fake news? Over the past year, German journalist Svea Eckert and a small team of journalists went undercover to investigate a massive underground network of fake science journals and conferences. In the course of the investigation, which was chronicled in the documentary “Inside the Fake Science Factory,” the team analyzed over 175,000 articles published in predatory journals and found hundreds of papers from academics at leading institutions, as well as substantial amounts of research pushed by pharmaceutical corporations, tobacco companies, and others. Last year, one fake science institution run by a Turkish family was estimated to have earned over $4 million in revenue through conferences and journals. The story begins with Chris Sumner, a co-founder of the nonprofit Online Privacy Foundation, who unwittingly attended a conference organized by the World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology (WASET) last October. At first glance, WASET seems to be a legitimate organization. Its website lists thousands of conferences around the world in pretty much every conceivable academic discipline, with dates scheduled all the way out to 2031. It has also published over ten thousand papers in an “open science, peer reviewed, interdisciplinary, monthly and fully referred [sic] international research journal” that covers everything from aerospace engineering to nutrition. To any scientist familiar with the peer review process, however, WASET’s site has a number [...]

Charlotte Parker2018-08-14T10:32:58-07:00August, 2018|Oral Cancer News|

How ablation destroys cancer to prolong lives

Source: The Guardian Author: David Cox Seven years ago, when Heather Hall was informed by her oncologist that her kidney cancer had spread to the liver, she initially assumed she had just months to live. “I’d been on chemotherapy for a while, but they’d done a CT scan and found three new tumours,” she says. “But they then said that, because the tumours were relatively small, they could try to lengthen my prognosis by removing them with ablation.” Hall underwent a course of microwave ablation, a minimally invasive treatment where surgeons use hollow needles to deliver intense, focused doses of radiation to heat each tumour until it is destroyed. While ablation technologies – they also commonly include radiofrequency ablation and cryoablation, which destroys tumours using intense cold – are not tackling the underlying cause of the disease, their impact can be enormous as they relieve pain and often prolong survival for many years, all at a low cost. Studies based on data gathered over the past 10 years show an increasing number of cases of terminally ill patients who have lived for well over a decade after being treated with repeated ablations. Hall’s treatment was successful, but two years later, another two tumours had appeared in her liver, in different locations. Once again they were removed with microwave ablation. Over the past seven years, she has had four separate treatments. “There’s some pain in the immediate aftermath and I’ve felt quite ill for a week afterwards,” she says. “But it [...]

Charlotte Parker2018-08-06T10:43:25-07:00August, 2018|OCF In The News|

The surge in throat cancer, especially in men

Source: newswise.com Author: UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center Humanpapilloma virus (HPV) is now the leading cause of certain types of throat cancer. Dr. Michael Moore, director of head and neck surgery at UC Davis and an HPV-related cancer expert, answers some tough questions about the trend and what can be done about it. Q: What is HPV and how is it related to head and neck cancers? A: There are about 150 different types of HPV, but HPV 16 is the one that most frequently causes cancers that affect the tissue in the oropharynx, which includes back of the throat, soft palate, tonsils and the back or base of the tongue. You can get non-cancerous lesions from other types of HPV that look like warts in the nose, mouth or throat, called papillomas. Some can develop in childhood just from exposure early in life. Some develop later in life and only occasionally turn into cancer. Q: How do you get HPV? A: HPV can spread from mother to her baby around the time of delivery. It also spreads through unprotected vaginal, anal or oral sex, and even open-mouth kissing. Some people have been found to be infected without an obvious cause. Q: How does HPV cause cancer? A: Most people who are infected clear the virus on their own. In a small group of people it hangs around and causes a persistent infection. Around 1% of US adults have a persistent HPV 16 infection, and in a small subset of [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2018-08-01T07:56:03-07:00August, 2018|Oral Cancer News|