Charlotte Parker, Author at Oral Cancer News

Alberta committee suggests free HPV vaccine for boys

Source: CBC News Cost to the province estimated between $5 million and $8 million The province is considering offering boys free immunizations against the human papillomavirus. The HPV vaccination is currently offered on a voluntary basis to all girls in Alberta entering Grade 5. The vaccine is said to prevent 70 per cent of cervical cancers, according to Alberta Health and Wellness. Two strains of HPV are also thought to be a cause of anal, penile and oral cancers. Susan Morgan's husband was diagnosed with Stage 4 oral cancer, which they later found out was caused by the HPV virus. She has been lobbying to have the vaccine for boys covered by the province and was astounded the HPV vaccination was only free for girls. Morgan says the effects of the radiation and chemotherapy treatment for the cancer were horrific. "You have open sores in your mouth,” she said. “You start to lose your ability to swallow; you end up on a feeding tube." Free vaccine for boys recommended A report by an advisory committee in Alberta recommends extending HPV coverage to boys. Chief medical officer Dr. Andre Corriveau says that would cost between $5 million and $8 million. Now he'll review the report and advise the province by the end of the month. "I have a responsibility right now to make sure our system has the capacity to deliver," he said. But, for the Morgans, waiting is not an option and they have decided to pay hundreds of dollars [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-05-07T13:25:56-07:00May, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Ongoing surveillance needed to monitor trends in HPV rates after vaccination

Source: HemOnc Today The ongoing monitoring of HPV-associated cancers via the National Program of Cancer Registries and the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results program indicate a decrease in the US rates for cervical cancer, yet disparities remain, according to data published in a recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Data pooled from the high-quality population-based cancer registry programs indicated that between 2004 and 2008, there were 12,080 HPV-associated cancers diagnosed annually among males and 21,290 among females. Of the overall cases, cervical cancer was the most common diagnosis (11,967 annually), followed by oropharyngeal cancer (11,726 annually). Compared with whites and non-Hispanics, blacks and Hispanics had the highest rates for cervical and penile cancer. Conversely, vulvar cancer rates were highest among whites and non-Hispanics. Anal cancer rates were highest among females (1.8 per 100,000) vs. males (1.2 per 100,000). Specifically, the rates were highest among white females and among black males. HPV-associated cancer rates were highest among females in West Virginia (16.3 per 100,000) and among males in Washington, D.C. (11.6 per 100,000). Rates in the lowest tertile for HPV-associated cancers were most common in Maryland, Colorado and Utah, whereas rates in the highest tertile were found in Kentucky, Louisiana and Tennessee. “The HPV vaccine will likely help decrease cervical cancer rates further and reduce the disparities,” the researchers wrote in the report. “Other HPV-associated cancers do not have approved screening programs; therefore, HPV vaccines are important prevention tools to reduce the incidence of non-cervical cancers.” In an accompanying editorial, CDC [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-05-02T11:06:43-07:00May, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Oncologists Favor Psychosocial Care, But Give It Short Shrift

Source: Oncology STAT MIAMI (EGMN) - Oncologists endorse the idea of connecting cancer patients to psychosocial care at the conclusion of active treatment. But practice doesn't align with beliefs, perhaps because they are unfamiliar with where to refer their patients for care. Among 57 oncologists who responded to a survey in the southeastern United States, 35, or 61%, considered psychosocial care to be beneficial. A majority thought it was "important" following cancer treatment, reported Laurie Freeman-Gibb at the annual conference of the American Psychosocial Oncology Society (APOS). But the oncologists said they spent just 4.2 minutes, on average, discussing psychosocial care during consultations, according to Ms. Freeman-Gibb, a lecturer in the department of nursing at the University of Windsor in Ontario, and her colleague Andrew Hatchett, Ph.D., of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette's department of kinesiology. And since only about 1 in 6 oncologists responded to the survey - it was sent to 350 practitioners - the findings may present an overly optimistic picture of what happens in real-life practice when a patient leaves active treatment and returns to the community for care. "I think it's sometimes a time constraint," said Ms. Freeman-Gibb. "If you only have 20 minutes to see this person and you open the floodgates to what's really going on, you might never get out the door ... especially if you don't know whom to tell the patient to call." Dr. Hatchett said the impetus for the study was a series of conversations he had with [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-05-02T10:45:02-07:00May, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Genes May Link Disparate Diseases

Source: The Wall Street Journal Diseases that strike different parts of the body—and that don't seem to resemble each other at all—may actually have a lot in common. Scientists have identified the genetic basis for many separate diseases. Now, some researchers are looking at how the genes interact with each other. They are finding that a genetic abnormality behind one illness may also cause other, seemingly unrelated disorders. Sometimes diseases are tangentially linked, having just one gene in common. But the greater the number of shared genetic underpinnings a group of diseases has, the greater the likelihood a patient with one of the illnesses will contract another. Researchers have found evidence, for example, that there is a close genetic relationship between Crohn's disease, a gastrointestinal condition, and Type 2 diabetes, despite the fact the two conditions affect the body in very distinct ways. Other illnesses with apparently close genetic links are rheumatoid arthritis and Type 1 diabetes, the form of the disease that usually starts in childhood, says Joseph Loscalzo, chairman of the department of medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. This network approach, known among scientists as systems biology, could change the way medical specialists view and treat disease, according to some researchers. Rather than only looking to repair the parts of the body that are directly affected by illness, "we should be looking at what the wiring diagram [inside of cells] looks like," says Albert-László Barabási, a physicist at Northeastern University's Center for Complex Network Research [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-05-02T10:33:24-07:00May, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

$27 Million Verdict Against R.J. Reynolds for Cancer Victim

Source: JDsupra.com A Florida man was awarded $27 million in compensatory and punitive damages against tobacco company R.J. Reynolds last month after doctors told him that 44 years of smoking caused his lung cancer. Plaintiff had lung removed due to cigarette addiction Thousands of lawsuits pending against big tobacco companies First payouts by big tobacco expected to be made today Addictive Habits Emmon Smith, a minister in Mariana, Florida, started smoking when he was a 13-year-old boy in 1944. Despite numerous attempts to quit, he couldn’t kick the addictive habit until he was forced to in 1992 by a cancer diagnosis and subsequent removal of one of his lungs. Smith sued tobacco company R.J. Reynolds in 2008, and in March of this year a jury awarded him $10 million in compensatory damages and $20 million in punitive damages; however, they found the plaintiff 30 percent at fault so he will receive only $7 million of the compensatory award, for a total of $27 million. Smith’s suit was led by attorney Richard Diaz as well as a team of attorneys from Crabtree & Associates and Ratzan Law Group. The Smith case was just one of more than 8,000 lawsuits against tobacco companies stemming from a 1990s class action known as the Engle case. In 2000, a Florida jury awarded class members a stunning $145 billion in punitive damages, finding that cigarettes are dangerous, addictive, carcinogenic, and most importantly, that tobacco companies knew all this and lied about it. “They found that [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-05-01T10:35:58-07:00May, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Robotic Surgery Is Useful Option for Oral Cancer

Source: Onclive.com Minimally invasive transoral robotic surgery (TORS), used alone or combined with adjuvant therapy, provides good functional and oncologic outcomes in patients with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC), new research suggests. The results were especially impressive in patients with human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, which is currently the most common cause of OPSCC in Europe and the United States. Eric J. Moore, MD, associate professor of Otolaryngology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and coauthors reviewed a prospective database of patients with previously untreated OPSCC arising in the tonsil or base of the tongue who underwent TORS at their institution during a recent 2-year period. In 2011, about 12,000 individuals in the United States were diagnosed with OPSCC, according to the authors. The most common sites are the tonsillar fossa and base of the tongue. Customarily, OPSCC has been treated with combined modality therapy, including open surgical resection through mandibulotomy, neck dissection, and adjuvant radiation therapy or combined chemotherapy and radiation therapy. TORS was later introduced to improve access to these tumors. Functional outcomes of the study included gastrostomy tube dependence and tracheostomy dependence. Oncologic outcomes included local, regional, and distant control and disease-specific and recurrence-free survival. Overall, 66 patients who underwent TORS as their primary treatment were followed for a minimum of 2 years. Sixty-four patients, or 97%, were able to tolerate an oral diet and maintain their nutritional needs before initiating adjuvant therapy at 4 weeks. Only 3 patients, or 4.5%, required long-term gastrostomy tube use, and [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-04-30T17:14:50-07:00April, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

It’s Time to Stop Letting Congress Stomp on Nonprofit Advocacy Rights

Source: The Chronicle of Philanthropy Nonprofit organizations have fewer rights to speak out about important public-policy matters today than they did last year. The latest assault on advocacy came in a spending bill Congress approved to provide money to education, health, and human-service groups. These new restrictions on advocacy were passed as part of a coordinated campaign by conservatives to quash popular democracy. Unfortunately, as contrasted with past “defund the left” efforts, charity leaders didn’t find out about them in time to take action to prevent their passage. The challenges to nonprofit advocacy began more than three decades ago when the Heritage Foundation started making new restrictions a priority. This attack was pushed by the Reagan White House in the early 1980s, took the form of major Republican congressional legislative efforts in the mid-1990s, and has arisen in various forms since then. Some conservative lawmakers and Republican White House officials have tried to go so far as to limit what charities can do with private contributions; others have tried to restrict the types of activities that nonprofits can conduct with federal funds. Most of their efforts were stopped by groups whose missions were to serve as watchdogs to protect charities’ rights and the coalitions they organized. Nevertheless, conservatives succeeded in several attempts to chip away at nonprofit advocacy rights. For example, Congress voted to prohibit social-welfare organizations classified under Section 501(c)(4) from receiving federal grants if they lobby. Additionally, grantees of the Legal Services Corporation face greater restrictions on advocacy [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-04-27T10:42:00-07:00April, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Pig mucus effective at blocking viruses associated with cervical and oral cancer

Source: American Chemical Society Scientists are reporting that the mucus lining the stomachs of pigs could be a long-sought, abundant source of "mucins" being considered for use as broad-spectrum anti-viral agents to supplement baby formula and for use in personal hygiene and other consumer products to protect against a range of viral infections. Their study appears in ACS' journal Biomacromolecules. In the report, Katharina Ribbeck and colleagues point out that mucus, which coats the inside of the nose, mouth and vagina, is the immune system's first line of defense. The slimy secretion traps disease-causing microbes, ranging from influenza virus to HIV (which causes AIDS) before they can cause infection. That has led to consideration of mucin, the main component of mucus, for use as an anti-viral agent in a variety of products. However, existing sources of mucins, such as breast milk, cannot provide industrial-sized quantities. Large amounts of mucus exist in the lining of pigs' stomachs, and the authors set out to determine if pig mucus - already used as a component of artificial saliva to treat patients with "dry mouth," or xerostomia - has the same anti-viral activity. They found that pig mucus is effective at blocking a range of viruses, from strains of influenza to the human papilloma virus, which is associated with cervical and oral cancer. They report that pig mucins could be added to toothpastes, mouthwashes, wound ointments and genital lubricants to protect against viral infections. "We envision porcine gastric mucins to be promising antiviral components [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-04-26T17:17:40-07:00April, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Study: Oral cancers take financial toll

Source: Dr.Biscuspid.com April 26, 2012 -- The cost of treating individuals with oral, orapharyngeal, and salivary gland cancers is significant, particularly for patients who undergo all three forms of treatment, according to a new study by Delta Dental of Michigan's Research and Data Institute. And for many that is only the beginning of the financial impact of the disease. The project, which involved Thomson Reuters, Delta Dental of Wisconsin, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry, began in March 2010. It is the first retrospective data analysis of a large number of head and neck cancer patients in the U.S. analyzing direct and indirect costs and comparing those costs to a matched comparison group, according to the authors (Head Neck Onc, April 26, 2012). Using data from the 2004-2008 Thomson Reuters MarketScan Databases: Commercial Claims and Encounters Database, Medicare Supplemental and Coordination of Benefits Database, Medicaid Multi-State Database, and the Health Productivity and Management Database, the researchers retrospectively analyzed claims data of 6,812 OC/OP/SG patients with employer-sponsored health insurance, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits. They found that, on average, total annual healthcare spending during the year following diagnosis was $79,151, compared with $7,419 in a group comprising similar patients without these cancers. They also found that the average cost of care almost doubled when patients received all three types of treatment: surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. Healthcare costs were higher for oral cancer patients with commercial insurance ($71,732, n = 3,918), Medicare ($35,890, n = 2,303), and [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-04-27T10:16:48-07:00April, 2012|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

Debt Collector Is Faulted for Tough Tactics in Hospitals

Source: The New York Times Hospital patients waiting in an emergency room or convalescing after surgery are being confronted by an unexpected visitor: a debt collector at bedside. This and other aggressive tactics by one of the nation’s largest collectors of medical debts, Accretive Health, were revealed on Tuesday by the Minnesota attorney general, raising concerns that such practices have become common at hospitals across the country. The tactics, like embedding debt collectors as employees in emergency rooms and demanding that patients pay before receiving treatment, were outlined in hundreds of company documents released by the attorney general. And they cast a spotlight on the increasingly desperate strategies among hospitals to recoup payments as their unpaid debts mount. To patients, the debt collectors may look indistinguishable from hospital employees, may demand they pay outstanding bills and may discourage them from seeking emergency care at all, even using scripts like those in collection boiler rooms, according to the documents and employees interviewed by The New York Times. In some cases, the company’s workers had access to health information while persuading patients to pay overdue bills, possibly in violation of federal privacy laws, the documents indicate. The attorney general, Lori Swanson, also said that Accretive employees may have broken the law by not clearly identifying themselves as debt collectors. Accretive Health has contracts not only with two hospitals cited in Minnesota but also with some of the largest hospital systems in the country, including Henry Ford Health System in Michigan and Intermountain [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-04-25T13:13:36-07:00April, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

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