Charlotte Parker, Author at Oral Cancer News

The Unforgiving Math That Stops Epidemics

Author: Tara C. Smith Source: www.quantamagazine.org Date: October 26, 2017 As the annual flu season approaches, medical professionals are again encouraging people to get flu shots. Perhaps you are among those who rationalize skipping the shot on the grounds that “I never get the flu” or “if I get sick, I get sick” or “I’m healthy, so I’ll get over it.” What you might not realize is that these vaccination campaigns for flu and other diseases are about much more than your health. They’re about achieving a collective resistance to disease that goes beyond individual well-being — and that is governed by mathematical principles unforgiving of unwise individual choices. When talking about vaccination and disease control, health authorities often invoke “herd immunity.” This term refers to the level of immunity in a population that’s needed to prevent an outbreak from happening. Low levels of herd immunity are often associated with epidemics, such as the measles outbreak in 2014-2015 that was traced to exposures at Disneyland in California. A study investigating cases from that outbreak demonstrated that measles vaccination rates in the exposed population may have been as low as 50 percent. This number was far below the threshold needed for herd immunity to measles, and it put the population at risk of disease. The necessary level of immunity in the population isn’t the same for every disease. For measles, a very high level of immunity needs to be maintained to prevent its transmission because the measles virus is possibly the most contagious [...]

Charlotte Parker2018-02-06T14:58:52-07:00November, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

FDA Cracks Down on Marijuana Cancer Treatment Claims

Author: Anna Edney; Jennifer Kaplan Source: www.bloomberg.com Date: November 1, 2017 U.S. officials sent a warning to the marijuana industry, alerting online sellers they cannot market their products as a treatment for cancer. The Food and Drug Administration sent letters to four companies on Tuesday, warning them about unsubstantiated claims that their marijuana-derived products can combat tumors and kill cancer cells. The firms sell products including oils and capsules made from cannabidiol, also known as CBD, a component of the marijuana plant that doesn’t cause the mind-altering effects of the other main component, tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. The agency told the companies they cannot make claims to treat or cure a disease when a product has never been studied as a treatment. Curbing the sale of CBD products with health claims could put a damper on the medical-marijuana market. Producers that are required to nix references to medical ailments may move toward the recreational side of the legal cannabis industry. Eight states and Washington, D.C., have legalized pot for recreational use. Twenty-one additional states have legalized for medical purposes. “We don’t let companies market products that deliberately prey on sick people with baseless claims that their substance can shrink or cure cancer and we’re not going to look the other way on enforcing these principles when it comes to marijuana-containing products,” FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a statement. The crackdown could also have a wider impact on the pharmaceutical industry. CBD is being researched in labs as potential treatment for certain diseases. [...]

Charlotte Parker2018-02-06T15:02:17-07:00November, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

Understanding personal risk of oropharyngeal cancer: risk-groups for oncogenic oral HPV infection and oropharyngeal cancer

Author: G D’Souza, T S McNeel, C Fakhry Date: October 19, 2017 Source: Academic.oup.com Abstract Background Incidence of human papillomavirus (HPV)-related oropharyngeal cancer is increasing. There is interest in identifying healthy individuals most at risk for development of oropharyngeal cancer to inform screening strategies. Patients and methods All data are from 2009 to 2014, including 13 089 people ages 20–69 in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), oropharyngeal cancer cases from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER 18) registries (representing ∼28% of the US population), and oropharyngeal cancer mortality from National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Primary study outcomes are (i) prevalence of oncogenic HPV DNA in an oral rinse and gargle sample, and (ii) incident oropharyngeal squamous cell cancer. Results Oncogenic oral HPV DNA is detected in 3.5% of all adults age 20–69 years; however, the lifetime risk of oropharyngeal cancer is low (37 per 10 000). Among men 50–59 years old, 8.1% have an oncogenic oral HPV infection, 2.1% have an oral HPV16 infection, yet only 0.7% will ‘ever’ develop oropharyngeal cancer in their lifetime. Oncogenic oral HPV prevalence was higher in men than women, and increased with number of lifetime oral sexual partners and tobacco use. Men who currently smoked and had ≥5 lifetime oral sexual partners had ‘elevated risk’ (prevalence = 14.9%). Men with only one of these risk factors (i.e. either smoked and had 2–4 partners or did not smoke and had ≥5 partners) had ‘medium risk’ (7.3%). Regardless of what other risk factors participants had, oncogenic oral HPV prevalence [...]

Charlotte Parker2018-02-06T14:59:06-07:00October, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

3 Lessons From An Alarming Case Of Mistaken Cancer Gene Test Results And Surgery

Date: October 28, 2017 Source: Forbes.com Author: Elaine Schattner A horrifying story broke last week about a 36-year-old Oregon woman who had elective surgery to remove her uterus and breasts. Elisha Cooke-Moore underwent a prophylactic total hysterectomy and bilateral mastectomy, with nipple-sparing reconstruction and implants, after medical practitioners informed her she had cancer-causing genes. Only later, she learned she didn’t have the abnormality about which she’d been informed. There’s a lawsuit. As reported in The Washington Post, Cooke-Moore expressed concerns to a doctor about her family’s cancer history before getting tested for mutations in BRCA-1, BRCA-2 and related genes in 2015. A nurse practitioner reviewed the results and erroneously told her she had Lynch syndrome because of an MLH1 mutation. BRCA testing was “negative.” It’s not clear if any doctor directly reviewed the lab report. An obstetrician-gynecologist informed Cooke-Moore that her chances of developing breast cancer were 50% and for uterine cancer up to 80%. In 2016, at least two surgeons operated. Cooke-Moore discovered the mistake while looking over her medical records: The MLH1 result was “negative,” she noted in 2017. “I am damaged for the rest of my life,” Cooke-Moore told The Washington Post. Never mind the specifics. While it sounds like the plaintiff received egregious care, and I am sympathetic, I see this as a larger story of confusion over genetic test results leading to irreversible harm. My aim here is not to probe Cooke-Moore’s results or the circumstances of her decisions, but to consider the lessons for other patients and doctors. This case [...]

Charlotte Parker2018-02-06T15:02:34-07:00October, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

Lindsey Stirling Honors Her Late Father with Moving Routine on Dancing with the Stars: ‘I Felt Like I Was Dancing with My Dad’

Author: Karen Mizoguchi Source: People.com Date: October 9, 2017 Lindsey Stirling has had an incredibly tragic year. The violinist is mourning the loss of her father, Stephen, who died of throat cancer. And on Monday night’s episode of Dancing with the Stars, she honored him with her routine for Most Memorable Year Week, choosing 2017. “I am the woman I am today because of you and I love you so much,” she said on the reality dancing competition series. To celebrate her dad’s life, Stirling and pro partner Mark Ballas — who wore her father’s hat and scarf as part of his costume — performed a touching Viennese Waltz. “I felt like I was dancing with my dad,” said Stirling, who was awarded a 26/30 by judges. “I feel like I got to thank my dad in a way I’ve never been able to before. I was really looking forward to this dance, I was terrified to do it and I’m really happy,” she said. “When you’re dancing about something that is so important that means so much to you doing something I’ve never done before, I just wanted it to be so special. And I feel like it was.” In January, the YouTube star announced the sad news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, writing, “My dad passed away early this morning. There is nothing to say that could express my gratitude for this amazing, selfless man.” She added, “But I love you daddy. I’m the woman I am today because of you.” Along with the loving message, the America’s [...]

Charlotte Parker2017-10-29T20:10:43-07:00October, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

The Journey of a “Doctor” Who Joined the Cult of Alternative Medicine and Then Broke Out of It

Source: flipboard.com Author: Akshat Rathi Date: September 30, 2017 One Friday afternoon in May 2014, Britt Hermes was scheduled to treat one of her cancer patients with an injection of Ukrain. This wasn’t especially unusual; people often came to Hermes, a naturopath in Arizona, for the treatment. That day, though, an expected shipment of the drug hadn’t arrived, and Hermes’s patients weren’t happy. They had been promised that Ukrain given on a strict schedule would help them when nothing else was working. So she asked her boss what was going on. “In response, he made an off-hand remark: ‘Oh don’t worry. Most likely the FDA [Food and Drug Administration] confiscated it. It’ll just arrive late,’” Hermes recalls today. When she asked him what he meant, he fumbled. “He realized that he may have said something he shouldn’t have.” Complementary medicine therapies drawn from traditional practices, ranging from massage and vitamin supplements to acupuncture and meditation, are today becoming broadly incorporated into mainstream medicine as more scientific studies validate their efficacy. But naturopathy, a belief system built on the concept that “nature knows best” when it comes to healing, takes it a step further. Practitioners use a host of pseudoscientific techniques including energy healing and homeopathy that can be not only ineffective, but dangerous. Instead of thinking about the techniques as adjunct therapies to proven modern medicine, many naturopaths will reject the pharmaceuticals and other treatments that we know save lives. Over her seven years of training and practice, Hermes had [...]

Charlotte Parker2017-10-29T20:11:46-07:00October, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

A Wellness Blogger Who Lied About Having Cancer Has Been Fined $322,000

Source: Motherboard.vice.com Author: Kaleigh Rogers Date: September 28, 2017 There are serious consequences that come from hawking pseudoscience online, including harming your readers or yourself. But in case physical harm isn't enough motivation to quit slinging shady "wellness" advice online, here's another reason: you could wind up getting fined. That's what happened to disgraced Australian wellness blogger Belle Gibson, who has been fined $322,000 for claiming she treated her brain cancer without conventional medicine. Gibson had said she overcame an inoperable brain tumor, stroke, and cardiac arrests through clean eating, and avoiding dairy, gluten, and coffee. Conveniently, these claims helped her to sell her book The Whole Pantry, and app of the same name, raking in nearly half a million AUD. But in 2015, an investigation by Australian Women's Weekly—complete with Gibson's confession—revealed it was all a hoax. In response, Consumer Affairs Victoria brought a case to federal court, and in March Gibson was found guilty of five breaches of consumer law. On Thursday, Gibson was ordered to pay the fine of $410,000 AUD ($322,000 USD). It's not the first time shady wellness tips have caused controversy for bloggers. Gwyneth Paltrow's venture, Goop—the epitome of pseudoscience profiteering—has been called out for flogging all kinds of questionable goods, including a jade vagina egg that some gynecologists warned could cause infections. Or the wellness trend of eating whole aloe vera leaves that led one vlogger to be hospitalized after eating a poisonous agave plant by mistake. When wellness bloggers tell the truth, and really do try to fight off cancer without any conventional treatment, [...]

Charlotte Parker2017-10-29T20:13:04-07:00September, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

B.C. to begin providing free HPV vaccines for Grade 6 boys

Source: ctvnews.ca Author: Darcy Matheson Date: September 26, 2017 For the first time in British Columbia, boys in Grade 6 will be receiving free vaccinations for the Human Papillomavirus. HPV is one of the most commonly sexually transmitted infections and B.C. health authorities say three out of four sexually active people will get it at some point in their lives. Often showing no physical symptoms, HPV can lead to cervical, vaginal, and vulvar cancers in women and penile cancer in men – and can also cause anal and throat cancer in both men and women. Up until now, the vaccine to protect against HPV was only provided free to girls in Grade 6, with the assumption that boys would be indirectly protected through “herd immunity.” Vancouver Coastal Health will soon be sending out letters to parents and caregivers through children's schools regarding upcoming clinics for both girls and boys. People can also be immunized through health-care providers, family doctors and local public health units. Dr. Meena Dawar, medical health officer for Vancouver Coastal Health, said that immunizations are key because the symptom-less virus is often passed onto others without knowing it. “Most often an HPV infection will clear on its own but sometimes HPV won’t go away and cells infected with the virus can become cancerous," Dawar said in a statement. Cancer survivor Sandy Yun had her 14-year-old daughter immunized as part of the B.C. program. She was going to pay for her 11-year-old son to get the vaccine but now she [...]

Charlotte Parker2017-10-29T20:12:48-07:00September, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

Treatment That’s Easy to Swallow in HPV+ Throat Cancer

Source: Medscape.com Author: Nick Mulcahy Date: September 27, 2017 SAN DIEGO, California ― Daniel Ma, MD, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, treats a lot of relatively young patients with human papillomavirus (HPV)-related oropharyngeal cancers who are cured by various standard combinations of surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy and then have "another 30 to 40 years of life ahead of them." But that life expectancy can be marred by the "potentially life-altering side effects" of standard treatment, including dry mouth, loss of taste, and, in about one half of patients, difficulty swallowing, he said. These patients inspired the genesis of Dr. Ma's phase 2 study of an "aggressive dose de-escalation" of adjuvant radiation in this setting, he said. The investigators evaluated experimental radiation doses of 30 to 36 Gy, which is a 50% reduction from the current standard of 60 to 66 Gy. At a median of 2 years' follow-up among 80 patients, the treatment de-escalation has resulted in locoregional control rates comparable to historical controls, low toxicity, and, perhaps most notably, no decrement in swallowing function or quality of life, Dr. Ma reported here at the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) 2016 Annual Meeting. The toxicity and swallowing results are "the most exciting data," Dr. Ma told a standing-room-only crowd at a meeting session today. "It's the first clinical trial in head and neck cancer to demonstrate no injury to swallowing function after radiation," he told Medscape Medical News. In other words, patients' ability to swallow was no [...]

Charlotte Parker2017-10-29T20:12:22-07:00September, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

This Man Tried An ‘Alternative’ Cancer Treatment—and Ended Up Poisoning Himself

Source: Menshealth.com Author: Alisa Hrustic Date: September 12, 2017 Being diagnosed with cancer is one of the scariest things that can happen to you, but what follows can be even scarier. Treatment for the disease is expensive, painful, and extensive, so it’s not uncommon for people to ponder alternative solutions. That’s all well and good, as long as it’s approved by your doctor. As for taking medicine into your own hands? That’s not always the best idea, since some alternative treatments can be extremely dangerous. Just recently, one Australian man learned that the hard way, according to a recent case report published in the British Medical Journal. The 67-year-old man—who had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, which had gone into remission—consumed homemade apricot kernel extract daily for five years, since it’s typically marketed as a preventive medicine for cancer. He was also taking a fruit kernel supplement called Novodalin. While he was undergoing a routine surgery, his doctors noticed that his oxygen levels had severely dropped while he was under anesthesia, leading to a condition known as hypoxia, which can be deadly. Once they performed blood tests on the patient, the doctors concluded that his blood contained 25 times the accepted level of cyanide, a potentially deadly chemical, according to the report. That’s because apricot kernels contain amygdalin, also known as laetrile. Amygladin is a known cyanogenic glycoside, meaning it’s processed and converted into cyanide in your body, according to the Food and Drug Administration. While laetrile has been talked up for its anticancer properties, no human studies have [...]

Charlotte Parker2017-10-29T20:12:07-07:00September, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

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