Charlotte Parker, Author at Oral Cancer News

No increased risk of infection for long-term sex partners of people with HPV-related oral cancers

June 1, 2013 in Cancer Source: Medical Express Spouses and long-term partners of patients with mouth and throat cancers related to infection with the human papilloma virus (HPV) appear to have no increased prevalence of oral HPV infections, according to results of a multicenter, pilot study led by Johns Hopkins investigators. The study's results suggest that long-term couples need not change their sexual practices, say the scientists. "While we can't guarantee that the partners of patients will not develop oral HPV infections or cancers, we can reassure them that our study found they had no increased prevalence of oral infections, which suggests their risk of HPV-related oral cancer remains low," says Gypsyamber D'Souza, Ph.D., M.P.H., associate professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is expected to present the results of her study June 1 at the 2013 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting. HPV-related oral cancers are rising in prevalence among white men in the United States, and fear of transmitting the virus can lead to anxiety, divorce, and curtailing of sex and intimacy among couples, says D'Souza. Persistent oral HPV infections are a risk for developing oropharyngeal cancers, located at the base of the tongue, tonsils, pharynx and soft palate. At the Johns Hopkins Hospital and three other hospitals, researchers conducted surveys and took oral rinse samples from 166 male and female patients with HPV-related oropharyngeal cancers and 94 spouses and partners. The scientists also studied patients' tumor samples and performed visual [...]

Charlotte Parker2013-06-03T10:07:24-07:00June, 2013|Oral Cancer News|

Michael Douglas: Oral sex gave me cancer

By DAVID K. LISource: NewYork PostLast Updated: 11:31 AM, June 3, 2013Posted: 8:49 PM, June 2, 2013 Michael Douglas has made a jaw-dropping revelation about his throat cancer: He didn’t contract it from smoking or drinking — but from oral sex. The Oscar-winning Hollywood star set tongues wagging after he told The Guardian newspaper that he contracted HPV, or human papillomavirus, through a sex act and it developed into cancer. “Without wanting to get too specific, this particular cancer is caused by HPV, which actually comes about from cunnilingus,” he told the British newspaper in an interview published yesterday. After Douglas was diagnosed with the life-threatening illness in 2010, he said on “Late Show with David Letterman” that the kind of cancer he had was caused by smoking and drinking. Ghetty Images Actor Michael Douglas said a virus from oral sex, not booze and cigarettes, gave him throat cancer. In yesterday’s interview, the 68-year-old actor speculated that his son Cameron’s legal woes may have borne some responsibility, too. “I did worry if the stress caused by my son’s incarceration didn’t help trigger it,” the “Wall Street” actor said of Cameron Douglas, who is serving 10 years in a federal prison for heroin possession and distribution. “But, yeah, it’s a sexually transmitted disease that causes [the] cancer.” A cancer-awareness advocate hailed Douglas for his blunt talk. “I’m really quite proud of Michael saying this,” Brian Hill, executive director of the Oral Cancer Foundation, told The Post yesterday. “This [oral sex] is [...]

Charlotte Parker2013-06-03T09:50:47-07:00June, 2013|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

The Oral Cancer Foundation Honored as 2013 Top-Rated Nonprofit New GreatNonprofits.org Award is Based on Positive Online Reviews

Newport Beach, CA May 28, 2013 - The oral Cancer Foundation announced today that is has been honored with a prestigious 2013 Top-Rated Awarded by GreatNonprofits, the leading provider of user reviews about non-profit organizations. "We are honored to be named a Top-Rated 2013 Nonprofit," says Brian hill, Founder and Executive Director, The Oral Cancer Foundation. "We have found creative means to accomplish our missions; raise awareness, support patients, provide information, and sponsor research to accomplish important goals when our human and financial resources were minimal." The Top-Rated Nonprofit award was based on a large number of positive reviews that OCF received - reviews written by the patient population they serve and donors. Individuals could contribute more than a yes/no answer about questions regarding their personal experiences with the non-profit. For example, one person wrote, "I was 33 years old when I was diagnosed with Stage IV metastatic oral cancer. The treatments and surgeries that saved my life however left me disfigured, disabled and dependent on the opiate pain medication, Fentanyl. I felt lost and alone, without hope. I found the Oral Cancer Foundation website 11 months after diagnosis and it was a ray of light for me. I was able to connect with survivors and other patients who understood my struggle and related to where I was. With their advice and support I've been able to rebuild my body and free myself from the opiates, and begin to live again. I can't express the gratitude in my [...]

Charlotte Parker2013-05-29T16:05:54-07:00May, 2013|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

Noninvasive Detection, Diagnosis of Oral Cancer

Source: Science DailyDate: May 23, 2013 More effective detection and diagnosis of oral cancer could result from an advance in noninvasive imaging of epithelial tissue by a Texas A&M University researcher. The research is thought to have the potential to change the way doctors initially look for precancerous and cancerous areas in a patient's mouth. The imaging technique, which is detailed in the Journal of Biomedical Optics, is being developed by Kristen Maitland, assistant professor in the university's Department of Biomedical Engineering. It combines two separate technologies -- confocal microscopy and fluorescence lifetime imaging -- to noninvasively evaluate both the structural changes of tissue as well as molecular changes that take place on a cellular and tissue level. These morphological and biochemical changes are key factors in determining if tissue is precancerous or cancerous, Maitland says. Fluorescence lifetime imaging with a 16x16 mm2 field of view detects tissue biochemical changes on the macroscopic scale, and (inset) confocal microscopy with a 0.4 mm diameter field of view is used to characterize size, shape, and spacing of cell nuclei to detect oral precancer and cancer (Credit: Texas A&M University) Typically, such evaluations are made from lab analysis of biopsies, small amounts of surgically removed tissue. The challenge for doctors, Maitland says, is determining from what areas to take a biopsy. These determinations, she says, are largely based on visual evidence. In other words, doctors rely on the naked eye to look for problematic areas that warrant a biopsy. For [...]

Charlotte Parker2013-05-28T14:02:44-07:00May, 2013|Oral Cancer News|

U.S. panel finds lack of evidence for oral cancer screening

Source: Dr. BicuspidBy: Dr. Bicuspid StaffApril 9, 2013 A U.S. government-backed task force issued a statement this week saying that there is not enough published evidence to recommend for or against screening for oral cancer by primary care professionals. Evidence is lacking on whether screening can accurately detect oral cancer and if earlier treatment of cancers found during those tests improves long-term health, according to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). Their draft recommendation statement applies to people who do not have any signs or symptoms of oral cancer and is meant for primary care professionals screening for oral cancer. It is not a recommendation about the practices of dentists and oral health professionals, the panel noted. The task force -- an independent volunteer panel of national experts in prevention and evidence-based medicine -- reviewed the current literature and found: Inadequate evidence that the oral screening examination accurately detects oral cancer Inadequate evidence that screening for oral cancer and treatment of screen-detected oral cancer improves morbidity or mortality Inadequate evidence on the harms of screening; no study reported on harms from the screening test or from false-positive or false-negative test results Seven studies (n = 49,120) examined the performance characteristics of the oral screening examination. These studies were generally conducted in settings with an increased incidence of and mortality from oral cancer (India, Taiwan) compared with U.S. rates, the panel reported. The studies also had considerable heterogeneity and demonstrated great variation in test performance characteristics. Across the seven studies, sensitivity [...]

Charlotte Parker2013-05-26T07:36:08-07:00May, 2013|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

Big Data Unveils Exciting Head and Neck Cancer Targets

BioscienceTechnology.comCynthia FoxMonday, May 20, 2013 Genome sequencing of head and neck cancers may quickly—and soon—spur new therapies. There are 20 tumor types being studied by the massive, $100 million Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project. Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is the eighth to be unveiled. The first, glioblastoma, has been cited in a whopping 2000-plus manuscripts. “That’s an enormous number of citations,” said University of North Carolina medical oncologist David Hayes at the recent American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) meeting. Yet, “the squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck dataset is much, much bigger. “This is a very big project.” Much clinically relevant HNSCC data was released at AACR, and more will be released at the May American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting, Hayes said in an email. Hayes is national co-chair of TCGA's Data Analysis Subgroup. The frequently fatal HNSCC is the fifth most common cancer globally; sixth in the US. It is overwhelmingly associated with smoking (80% attributable risk). The rest is linked to an epidemic of the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). Conducting an exhaustive series of genomic tests on tumor samples from 279 patients, the overarching find made by Hayes’ hundreds-strong TCGA group was that HNSCCs fall into four clinically relevant subtypes: basal, mesenchymal, atypical, and classical. Furthermore, there are surprising, major similarities between lung cancer and non-HPV (smoking) related HNSCCs, and between cervical cancer and HPV-related HNSCCs. For instance, in non-HPV-driven cancers, the group located more than 30 sites of significant “somatic [...]

Charlotte Parker2013-05-22T14:06:21-07:00May, 2013|Oral Cancer News|

Bankruptcy Rate Doubles With Cancer Diagnosis

Nick MulcahyMay 15, 2013Medscape Today Adults diagnosed with cancer are 2.65 times more likely to declare bankruptcy than adults without cancer, according to a new study. In addition, bankruptcy rates are 2- to 5-fold higher among younger cancer patients than among older cancer patients, report the study authors, led by Scott Ramsey, MD, PhD, an internist and health economist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington. Dr. Ramsey and colleagues used various databases to match cancer patients diagnosed from 1995 to 2009 with adults without cancer in western Washington. Of 197,840 adults who were diagnosed with cancer in that region during the study period, 4408 (2.2%) filed for bankruptcy protection after diagnosis. Of the age- and sex-matched control population without cancer, only 2291 (1.1%) filed for bankruptcy. "This study found strong evidence of a link between cancer diagnosis and increased risk of bankruptcy," the authors write in their paper, which was published online today in Health Affairs. The relation between a cancer diagnosis and bankruptcy is less well understood than that between high medical expenses and the likelihood of a bankruptcy filing, according to a press statement. "This is an important study," said Melissa Jacoby, JD, from the University of North Carolina School of Law in Chapel Hill, in an email to Medscape Medical News. She is is an expert in bankruptcy, but was not involved in this research. The relative — not the absolute — rate of bankruptcy among cancer patients is most notable here, she said. "Remember that bankruptcy filings, at [...]

Charlotte Parker2013-05-20T13:53:29-07:00May, 2013|Oral Cancer News|

Cancer jabs for girls

Katharine Child & Denise Williams 16 May, 2013 01:15Source: Times Live Image by: Gallo Images/Thinkstock Fresh from his battle to reduce HIV infections and make antiretrovirals freely available to almost two million South Africans infected with the virus that causes Aids, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi is now taking on cervical cancer. In parliament yesterday, Motsoaledi announced that girls as young as nine at poorer primary schools would be given free vaccinations against human papilloma virus (HPV) from February. As many as 520000 girls aged between nine and 10 will be vaccinated against HPV, which causes cervical cancer. It is important that girls be vaccinated before they are sexually active if they are to be protected against HPV. More South African women are killed by cervical cancer than by any other type of cancer. Black women and HIV-positive women are particularly vulnerable to the disease. The drive to vaccinate schoolgirls was prompted by the severity and prevalence of the disease in young women, said Motsoaledi. He said it was not known what the vaccination roll-out would cost but he was negotiating with pharmaceutical companies on the pricing of the vaccine. "It's not about the money; it's about the human suffering ... we are obliged at all times to put money aside for treatment but we are not obliged at all times to put money aside for prevention," said Motsoaledi. He said about 6000 women were treated each year for cervical cancer in public hospitals at a cost of R100000 [...]

Charlotte Parker2013-05-16T15:26:32-07:00May, 2013|Oral Cancer News|

Drug Designed To Restore Cell Suicide In HPV-Related Head And Neck Cancer

Article Date: 10 Apr 2013 - 1:00 PDT Source: Medical News Today Researchers have discovered a new mechanism by which the human papilloma virus (HPV) causes head and neck cancer, and they have designed a drug to block that mechanism. Though further research is needed, the new agent might offer a safer treatment for these tumors when combined with a tapered dose of standard chemotherapy. HPV-positive head and neck cancer has become three times more common since the 1970s, and it could reach epidemic levels in the future, say researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC - James) who led the study. "We believe these findings will help meet the real need for more effective and safer therapy for a growing number of HPV-positive head and neck cancer patients," says principal investigator Dr. Quintin Pan, associate professor of otolaryngology at the OSUCCC - James. The study was published in the journal Oncogene. The research, which mainly used head and neck cancer cells, shows that a protein produced by the virus blocks a protein made by the host cell. The cell protein, called p300, regulates a gene called p53. This gene both controls cell division and protects the body against cancer by causing cells to die before they become malignant. By blocking the cell protein, HPV forces the host cell to live instead of die and to proliferate and form tumors. The prospective new drug, called [...]

Charlotte Parker2013-05-09T16:09:59-07:00May, 2013|Oral Cancer News|

Nearly 6 Percent Of Lung Cancer Tissue Samples From Non-Smokers Show Signs That HPV May Have Triggered The Tumors

Article Date: 12 Apr 2013 - 1:00 PDT Source: Medical News Today A common virus known to cause cervical and head and neck cancers may also trigger some cases of lung cancer, according to new research presented by Fox Chase Cancer Center at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013. Examining tissue samples from lung cancer patients, the researchers found that nearly 6% showed signs they may have been driven by a strain of human papillomavirus (HPV) known to cause cancer. If HPV indeed plays a role in lung cancer in some patients, the next step is to better understand those tumors so they can be treated more effectively. "The ultimate goal," says study author Ranee Mehra, MD, attending physician in medical oncology at Fox Chase, "is to determine if we can target our therapies to the specific characteristics of these tumors." Studies from Asia have shown that lung tumors are frequently infected with HPV. The pattern makes sense, explains Mehra - the lungs are located very near the head and neck, which are known to be at risk of tumors upon exposure to some strains of HPV. To investigate, she and her colleagues examined 36 tissue samples from people diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer who had never smoked, part of the Fox Chase Cancer Center Biosample Repository. The reason they chose non-smokers, Mehra explains, is that smoking is a major cause of lung cancer - but in non-smokers, the explanation is often less obvious. The researchers found that 4 out [...]

Charlotte Parker2013-05-09T15:55:12-07:00May, 2013|Oral Cancer News|

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