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E-cigarette Vapor Filled With Dangerous Toxins Like Lead, Study Finds

Source: www.newsweek.com Author: Melissa Matthews Electronic cigarettes may have been deemed safer than traditional smoking by the American Cancer Society, but that doesn’t make it a risk-free habit. Past research has found that oils used to vape contain toxins, and a new study shows that the latest e-cigarette devices might leak dangerous amounts of metal, including lead, which could have serious health risks. Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty Images In a study published in the February 2017 issue of Environmental Research, public health expert Ana María Rule of Johns Hopkins University found that liquids used in the first generation of e-cigarettes could be potentially toxic and carcinogenic. However, things have changed in just one year as companies constantly offer new, more sophisticated devices. Plus, Rule was often met with questions about the safety of inhaled aerosol. “A lot of people were asking, ‘You found these metals in the liquid, but what does this mean?’ Are they getting into the vapor that I’m inhaling?’” Rule explained to Newsweek. So, the team began a new project studying the latest devices, called Mods, as well as the aerosol inhaled by smokers. For this study, 56 daily e-cigarette smokers lent their devices to Rule’s lab, where scientists tested the vaping liquid, liquid inside the e-cigarette tanks, and the aerosol. They looked for 15 different metals including lead, chromium, nickel and manganese, which are the most dangerous, according to Rule. Some of the refilling dispensers did contain small amounts of metal. However, liquids in the e-cigarette [...]

2018-02-24T08:08:27-07:00February, 2018|Oral Cancer News|
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Should kids be required to get the HPV vaccine?

Source: www.forbes.com Author: Bruce Y. Lee If a bill recently introduced in Florida passes, the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine would be mandatory for adolescents attending public school in the state. Currently, the vaccine is mandatory for boys and girls in Rhode Island and just girls in Virgina and Washington, DC. (AP Photo/John Amis, File) Florida isn't kidding about low human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination rates. If you are a kid enrolled in a Florida public school, come July 1, 2018, you may be required to get the HPV vaccine. That is if you are old enough and if a bill now being debated in the Florida state legislature ends up passing. If it gets through, Senate Bill 1558 would then become known as the "Women's Cancer Prevention Act", which is a much easier name to remember and also reflects some major benefits of the HPV vaccine. As the National Cancer Institute explains, HPV vaccine can help prevent not only cervical cancer but also many vaginal and vulvar cancers. In fact, two types of HPV (16 and 18) cause around 70% of cervical cancers. But just because you don't have a vagina, cervix, and vulva doesn't mean that you are in the clear. HPV is responsible for about 95% of anal cancers, 70% of oropharyngeal (the middle part of the throat) cancers, and 35% of penile cancers. Thus, the "Women's Cancer Prevention Act" is really a "Cancer Prevention Act." Regardless, Florida State Senator José Javier Rodríguez (D-Miami) filed this bill [...]

2018-02-13T14:05:18-07:00February, 2018|Oral Cancer News|
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Living with cancer in the country: Many Wyoming residents must leave home to seek the care they need

Source: trib.com Author: Katie King Bob Overton is all too familiar with the 140-mile stretch of land between Thermopolis and Casper. He and his wife, Sherry, made the two-hour trip in their white pickup dozens of times while Bob was undergoing treatment for lymphoma in 2015. Even with the help of Alan Jackson and Martina McBride’s music, the hours still lagged, with nothing to stare at except endless grassy plains. “That trip is pretty monotonous, and it doesn’t get any better with time,” he recalled. But the couple didn’t have a choice. Their hometown of Thermopolis, population 3,009, doesn’t offer the care Bob needed. And the Overtons aren’t alone. As the least populated state in the country, Wyoming appeals to those in search of space and wilderness. But the peace and quiet comes with drawbacks: Services that urban residents may take for granted, like advanced medical care, aren’t readily available for thousands of people living in small towns and rural areas. Many of those battling cancer in Wyoming subsequently end up seeking treatment in Casper, according to Rocky Mountain Oncology’s Patient Navigator Sam Carrick. She said the center is the only medical facility in the state that offers radiation, chemotherapy and Positron emission tomography scans. Other areas may offer one or two of those services, but many prefer the convenience of a one-stop shop, she said. About 15 percent of their patients are from out-of-town, added Carrick, who is responsible for guiding all patients through the treatment process. She said [...]

2018-02-04T09:47:02-07:00February, 2018|Oral Cancer News|
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Biofilms in tonsil crypts may explain HPV-related head and neck cancers

Source: www.genengnews.com Author: staff Human papilloma virus (HPV) encased in biofilms inside tonsil crypts (pictured) may explain why the roughly 5% of HPV-infected people who develop cancer of the mouth or throat are not protected by their immune systems. Tonsil crypts with HPV are shown in green; epithelial and biofilm layers are shown in red. [Katherine Rieth. M.D.] How can human papilloma virus (HPV) be prevalent in otherwise healthy people not known to carry it? A just-published study concludes that the virus may be lurking in small pockets on the surface of their tonsils. Researchers from University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) found HPV encased in biofilms inside tonsil crypts, where HPV-related head and neck cancers often originate. HPV is shed from the tonsil during an active infection and gets trapped in the biofilm, where it may be protected from immune attack. In the crypts, the virus likely lays in wait for an opportunity to reinstate infection or invade the tonsil tissue to develop cancer. “The virus gains access to the basal layer of stratified squamous epithelium through structural breaks in the stratified epithelial superstructure,” the investigators reported in the study. “Tonsillar crypt reticulated epithelium itself has been shown to contain numerous small blood vessels and has a discontinuous basement membrane, which may facilitate this infection and reinfection process.” The URMC researchers said their finding could help prevent oropharyngeal cancers that form on the tonsils and tongue—and may explain why the roughly 5% of HPV-infected people who develop cancer [...]

2018-02-01T09:46:22-07:00February, 2018|Oral Cancer News|
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NHS immunises girls but not boys against potentially deadly HPV virus because its ‘not cost-effective’

Source: www.thesun.co.uk Author: Jacob Dirnhuber Girls aged 12 to 13 are already vaccinated for free against the HPV virus, which can cause deadly tumours in the throat and mouth, but boys have to do without. Experts believe it would take £22 million a year to vaccinate every boy in Britain against the deadly disease - a fraction of the vast £148 billion NHS budget. But low overall infection rates mean that bean-counters refuse to sign off on any additional funding - condemning thousands to months of expensive, agonising cancer treatment. Cambridge University Professor Margaret Stanley blasted: "You cannot protect against these cancers by only vaccinating half the population." She told the Mail on Sunday: "Not to immunise boys is classic Treasury short-termism. You may not spend so much now, but it will cost far more years later. "We are in the midst of an HPV pandemic." HPV is generally spread through genital and oral sex, and can also be transmitted by kissing - meaning that some people who contract it are virgins. Only a tiny minority of those infected go on to develop cancer, often decades after they contract the virus. An estimated 80 per cent of all adults in the UK have been infected at some point. Throat and cancer specialist Professor Christopher Nutting said: "My patients are being struck down by a preventable cancer that will affect them for the rest of their lives. "It's unfair that women are protected but men are not. The vaccine will work. [...]

2018-01-29T07:18:30-07:00January, 2018|Oral Cancer News|
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New “soft” laser treatment to improve quality of life for cancer patients

Source: www.world-first.co.uk Author: staff A new "soft" laser therapy is to be used nationwide to help prevent patients undergoing treatment for neck and head cancer from suffering severe side effects. The low-level laser therapy (LLLT), or photomedicine, will help prevent patients suffering from soreness in the mouth and throat, dry mouth and swallowing problems. More than 90% of the 4,000 people a year in England and Wales who receive chemoradiotherapy for head and neck cancer experience side effects which can lead to hospital admissions and, in some cases, interrupt the course of radiotherapy. The new treatment, developed by the NHS foundation trusts of University Hospital Southampton and Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals, is being trialled nationwide as part of a £1.2 million study funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). One of the main complications of current treatments is oral mucositis (OM), which affects taste and speech. It causes excessive secretions of saliva, which result in nausea, vomiting and weight loss. Currently, patients are treated with a combination of painkillers and anti-sickness drugs and many require frequent hospital appointments to control their symptoms. Some also need nutritional support through nasal or stomach feeding tubes. LLLT is a drug-free treatment that stimulates damaged cells using a low energy laser beam to reduce pain and inflammation. It's more commonly used to treat musculoskeletal problems such as tendon, bone and nerve damage. Consultant clinical oncologist at Southampton General Hospital Dr Shanmugasundaram Ramkumar said the LLLT would improve quality of life for patients. [...]

2018-01-26T07:43:07-07:00January, 2018|Oral Cancer News|
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Dr. Califano discusses the role of surgery in head and neck cancer

Source: www.onclive.com Author: Joseph A. Califano, MD Joseph A. Califano, MD, professor of surgery, University of California, San Diego, discusses the role of surgery in head and neck cancer. The surgeon has evolved to have a more integrative role in patient care for those with head and neck cancer. Current surgical techniques used in the treatment of head and neck cancers have greatly evolved in the last two decades. Surgery is more precise, and leaves patients with excellent function and cosmetic results by incision through natural orifices, Califano says. Robotic surgery is the cornerstone of head and neck cancer surgery, says Califano. It is effective in terms of resecting tumors of the throat, tonsils, back of the tongue, and the nasopharynx—which are hard to reach without robotic instrumentation. Califano says that the benefits of robotic surgery in this setting are that it leaves patients with excellent function, swallowing, voice, and allows for a rapid recovery.

2018-01-25T13:32:44-07:00January, 2018|Oral Cancer News|
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Study provides new guidelines for assessing severity of head and neck cancers

Source: eurekalert.org Author: press release Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Cedars-Sinai investigators have developed a new, more accurate set of guidelines for assessing the severity of head and neck cancers and predicting patient survival. The new guidelines, outlined in a study recently published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, center around counting the number of malignant lymph nodes found in each patient. "The greater the number of malignant lymph nodes, the less favorable the patients' chances of survival," said Allen S. Ho, MD. Ho is director of the Head and Neck Program at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute at Cedars-Sinai and lead author of the study. "This new approach could dramatically simplify staging systems." For decades, doctors have determined the stage and predicted the progression of head and neck cancers based primarily on nodal size, location and how far the cancer has spread beyond the lymph nodes, but they have given less importance to the number of cancerous nodes. As a result, staging and treatment recommendations, based on current national guidelines, "are the same whether a patient has two or 20 positive lymph nodes," said Zachary S. Zumsteg, MD, assistant professor of Radiation Oncology at Cedars-Sinai and the study's senior author. With the new system, based on the number of cancerous lymph nodes, patients are separated into similarly sized groups with distinct outcomes, Zumsteg said. "Our study demonstrated a better way to assess cancer severity, which will improve our ability to predict outcomes and give patients more personalized treatment." The Cedars-Sinai [...]

2018-01-24T09:24:42-07:00January, 2018|Oral Cancer News|
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Cancer survivors are transforming their radiation masks into art

Source: www.artsy.net Author: Ryan Leahey Photos by Ulf Wallin Photography In a Baltimore basement, behind foot-thick walls, there is a room, and in that room there is a table. Every morning, Monday through Friday for seven weeks, my dad entered the room at 7:40 a.m. sharp. I accompanied him there on a few occasions, sitting outside in the waiting room as the door closed behind him. A minute or two would pass, followed by a barely audible buzz, then the door would slide open again and he’d walk out, another radiation treatment X’d off the calendar. My dad’s experience in that room, one of many in the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University, will be familiar to other throat cancer patients. A radiation technician bolted him down to the table with the help of a white mesh mask perfectly molded to the contours of his face. Wrapped tightly around his head and neck, the bizarre-looking armature ensured that powerful radiation beams targeted his cancer in the exact same position each session, even as his skin deteriorated and his body mass dropped. Before his first treatment, he had been measured and fitted for his own custom mask. Plastic mesh was draped over his face until it hardened, forming a new face—what some patients call their second skin. For my dad, the object came to symbolize something, just as it symbolizes something for me, our family, and for the countless other people who have survived or helped [...]

2018-01-23T07:43:41-07:00January, 2018|Oral Cancer News|
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Bacteria linked to periodontitis may play role in onset of cancer

Source: en.brinkwire.com Author: press release The bacteria that cause periodontitis, a disease affecting the tissues surrounding the teeth, seems to play a part also in the onset of pancreatic cancer, say the researchers at the University of Helsinki and the Helsinki University Hospital, Finland, and the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. The researchers have investigated the role of bacteria causing periodontitis, an inflammation of the tissues surrounding the teeth, in the development of oral cancers and certain other cancers, as well as the link between periodontitis and cancer mortality on the population level. The study, published in the British Journal of Cancer, has for the first time proven the existence of a mechanism on the molecular level through which the bacteria associated with periodontitis, Treponema denticola (Td), may also have an effect on the onset of cancer. Researchers found that the primary virulence factor of the Td bacteria, the Td-CTLP proteinase (an enzyme), occurs also in malignant tumors of the gastrointestinal tract, for example, in pancreatic cancer. According to another study finding, the CTLP enzyme has the ability to activate the enzymes that cancer cells use to invade healthy tissue (pro-MMP-8 and -9). At the same time, CTLP also diminished the effectiveness of the immune system by, for example, inactivating molecules known as enzyme inhibitors. In another study, published in the International Journal of Cancer, it was proven that on the population level, periodontitis is clearly linked with cancer mortality. An especially strong link to mortality caused by pancreatic cancer was found. [...]

2018-01-17T08:44:04-07:00January, 2018|Oral Cancer News|
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