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Cigarette smoking caused 14 million serious diseases in 2009

Source: www.medscape.com Author: Larry Hand Cigarette smoking remains a major cause of preventable diseases in the United States, with at least 14 million serious medical conditions attributable to smoking in 2009, according to an article published online October 13 in JAMA Internal Medicine. "These estimates demonstrate that smoking accounts for millions of serious medical conditions in the United States that could be avoided in the absence of cigarette use," write Brian L. Rostron, PhD, from the Center for Tobacco Products, US Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, Maryland, and colleagues. "Our results also indicate that previous estimates may have substantially underestimated smoking-attributable morbidity in the United States." The researchers analyzed multiple sources of data from 2006 to 2012, including 2009 population data from the US Census Bureau, smoking prevalence and disease risk from the National Health Interview Survey of US adults for 2006 to 2012, and data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey of US adults for 2007 to 2010. Current and former smokers were significantly more likely to have at least one smoking-attributable disease and multiple smoking-related conditions compared with never-smokers. Specifically, almost half of surveyed men and women (47.5% and 44.9%, respectively) aged 65 years and older reported having one or more smoking-related disorder, and almost 17% of men and more than 14% of women reported having multiple such disorders. In contrast, among never-smokers, 34.9% of men and 33.2% of women reported at least one such condition and 9.1% and 7.5%, respectively, reported two or more [...]

2014-10-14T07:24:18-07:00October, 2014|Oral Cancer News|
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Number of immune cells in tumors could soon help predict and treat cancers

Source: www.science20.com Authors: Emma King, University of Southampton and Christian Ottensmeier, University of Southampton Immune cells in the blood primarily defend us against infection. But we’re now learning that these cells can also keep us free from cancer. Patients with less efficient immune systems such as organ transplant recipients or those with untreated HIV, for example, are more susceptible to cancers. It is also becoming increasingly apparent that we can use immune cells to predict survival in people who do develop cancer. And that, in fact, there are immune cells within cancers. Head and neck cancer underway The number of immune cells inside a tumor can hugely vary: some patients have vast numbers while some have very few. In a recent study, we showed that in head and neck cancers, the survival of a patient depends on how many immune cells are within the tumor. This could be a valuable way of individualizing cancer treatments. Patients with lots of immune cells, for example, could be offered less toxic cancer treatment while those with few immune cells may need more aggressive treatment to improve their chances of survival. Not all immune cells within the tumor are able to “attack” the cancer. By looking at specific cell markers – proteins on the cell exterior that allow us to see whether, for example, cells are exhausted – we can determine which individual immune cells in the tumor will be effective in tackling the cancer, or if they are exhausted and not [...]

2014-09-26T06:21:57-07:00September, 2014|Oral Cancer News|
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E-Cigarettes fail to help cancer patients quit smoking

Source: www.cancernetwork.com Author: Anna Azvolinsky, PhD Among cancer patients who smoke, electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) users had greater nicotine dependence compared with traditional cigarette smokers, and e-cigarettes did not help patients quit smoking, according to the results of a study published in Cancer. E-cigarettes have been touted as possible tools for smoking cessation. According to the study authors, these are the first published results on e-cigarette use and smoking cessation among cancer patients and put into question the potential benefits of using e-cigarettes as part of a smoking cessation program for cancer patients. Those diagnosed with cancer who continue to smoke are advised to quit. The uptick in the use of e-cigarettes has raised the question of whether these newer types of cigarettes can facilitate or hamper the ability to quit smoking for good. In the new study, Jamie Ostroff, PhD, of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, examined 1,074 cancer patients who smoked and were enrolled in a tobacco treatment program between 2012 and 2013 at the cancer center. Using a complete case analysis, e-cigarette users were equally likely to still smoke as those who did not use e-cigarettes (odds ratio of 1). Using an intention-to-treat analysis, e-cigarette users were twice as likely to be smoking at the time of follow-up (odds ratio = 2, P < .01). The 7-day abstinence from smoking was 44.4% for e-cigarette users compared with 43.1% for non-users. Patients who were e-cigarette users at study enrollment were likely to be [...]

2014-09-24T07:08:11-07:00September, 2014|Oral Cancer News|
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Baseball, youth, and smokeless tobacco

Source: businesswest.com Authors: Richard Pieters, M.D. & Anthony Giambardino, D.M.D. The headlines first came with baseball Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn. His all-too-early death at 54 was attributed to the long-term use of smokeless tobacco. Now it’s former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, who revealed on Aug. 20 that he was diagnosed in February with mouth cancer. “I do believe without a doubt, unquestionably,” said Schilling when making his condition public, “that chewing [tobacco] is what gave me cancer … I did it for 30 years. It was an addictive habit.” His physician agreed. Many of us who grew up with the game are used to seeing players chewing tobacco, but a new generation of children watching in the stands and on television may be seeing smokeless tobacco used for the first time. They are the ones most influenced by what baseball players do both on and off the field. And that behavior by professional athletes can be more powerful in shaping behavior than any advertising campaign by the tobacco industry. Although cigarette smoking in the U.S. continues to decline, a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates that the use of smokeless tobacco has held steady over the past nine years. CDC says 14.7% of high-school boys, and 8.8% of all high-school students, reported using smokeless products in 2013. The CDC further states that smokeless tobacco contains 28 carcinogens, which can cause gum disease, stained teeth and tongue, a dulled sense of taste and [...]

2014-09-24T06:55:44-07:00September, 2014|Oral Cancer News|
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Update on head and neck cancers, HPV: creating public awareness

Source: www.dentistryiq.com Author: Maria Perno Goldie, RDH, MS Public awareness of head and neck cancer (HNC) is limited, with the lack of awareness including the term head and neck cancer and common symptoms and risk factors, such as tobacco use and human papillomavirus (HPV).1 The online survey of 2,126 randomly selected adults in the United States. Most respondents lacked understanding of the organs or tissues affected by head and neck cancer, with 21% incorrectly identifying brain cancer as head and neck cancer. Only 0.8% of respondents identified HPV infection as a risk factor for mouth and throat cancer, but more were aware of the vaccine. The investigators projected that extensive HPV vaccination could prevent almost 9,000 cases of oropharyngeal cancer yearly. The conclusion was that self-reported and objective measures indicate that few American adults know much about HNC including risk factors such as tobacco use and HPV infection and common symptoms. Strategies to improve public awareness and knowledge of signs, symptoms, and risk factors may decrease the disease burden of HNC and are important topics for future research. The American Dental Association has a pamphlet titled “Get the Facts About Mouth and Throat Cancer.”2 Human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV-16) is a major contributory factor in oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC). The detection of primary OPSCC is often delayed due to the complicated anatomy of the oropharynx. One study examined the possibility of HPV-16 DNA detection in pretreatment and posttreatment plasma and saliva and its possible role as a marker of [...]

2014-09-17T19:26:13-07:00September, 2014|Oral Cancer News|
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Many throat cancer patients can skip neck surgery

Source: medicalxpress.com Author: Fox Chase Cancer Center A new study shows that patients with human papillomavirus (HPV) – the same virus associated with both cervical and head and neck cancer – positive oropharyngeal cancer see significantly higher rates of complete response on a post-radiation neck dissection than those with HPV-negative oropharyngeal cancer. Fox Chase Cancer Center researchers presented the findings at the American Society for Radiation Oncology's 56th Annual Meeting on Wednesday, September 17. "For patients that achieve a complete response, neck surgery is probably unnecessary," says Thomas J. Galloway, MD, Attending Physician and Director of Clinical Research at Fox Chase and lead author on the study. After radiation and chemotherapy to remove tumors from the tonsils or back of the tongue, many head and neck cancer patients still have persistent lumps in their neck, albeit perhaps smaller than when they were first diagnosed. "The question is: Do we need to remove those lumps, as well, or can we just let them dissolve on their own?" asks Dr. Galloway. To investigate, he and his colleagues reviewed the medical records from 396 patients whose oropharyngeal tumors had spread to at least one lymph node. Within 180 days after completing radiation therapy, 146 patients underwent neck surgery. For 99 patients, their records indicated whether or not their tumors had likely been triggered by HPV. Interestingly, patients with HPV often respond better to treatment for their oropharyngeal tumors than those without. The researchers noted the same trend here – people who tested positive [...]

2014-09-17T18:59:34-07:00September, 2014|Oral Cancer News|
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Targeted radiation, drug therapy combo less toxic for recurrent head, neck cancers

Source: medicalxpress.com Author: University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences Patients with a recurrence of head and neck cancer who have previously received radiation treatment can be treated more quickly, safely and with fewer side effects with high doses of targeted radiation known as Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT) in combination with a drug that also carefully targets cancerous tumors. These findings from a UPMC CancerCenter study were presented today at the American Society of Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) annual meeting in San Francisco. SBRT uses concentrated radiation beams in high doses to destroy tumors in difficult or hard-to-reach areas. The treatment is noninvasive, which minimizes damage to surrounding healthy tissue and organs. Clinicians at UPMC CancerCenter, partner with the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI), used SBRT in combination with the drug cetuximab for patients who had a recurrence of squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck after going through radiation. "The prognosis for patients who have a recurrence of head and neck cancer that cannot be surgically removed is already poor. Traditional treatments can be associated with significant side effects so severe that patients give up on the therapy altogether," said Dwight E. Heron, M.D., vice chairman of radiation oncology at UPCI and director of Radiation Oncology Services at UPMC CancerCenter. "By taking these patients through an abbreviated course of targeted drug and SBRT, we minimize the side effects of treatment." Doctors treated 48 patients with the combination therapy between July 2007 and March 2013. All of [...]

2014-09-17T18:54:50-07:00September, 2014|Oral Cancer News|
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HPV vaccine: Why boys are less likely to get it

Source: http://topnews.us/ Author: Prakash Sharma A Conservative MP's tongue and throat cancer alarm is reigniting the verbal confrontation over whether young people ought to get the HPV antibody free of charge. Amid his nine-month episode of cancer, Peter Kent says, specialists persuaded him its vital to inoculate young men against human papillomavirus. MP beats throat malignancy, urges HPV immunization for young men. Two sorts of HPV reason 70 per cent of cervical malignancy in ladies, as indicated by the Canadian Cancer Society. In men, the infection is in charge of a high rate of mouth, nose and throat growths, and also a few malignancies of the penis and anus. Young ladies between ages nine and 13 going to class anyplace in Canada can pick to get a free HPV inoculation. Just two regions, Alberta and Prince Edward Island, offer the same option to youngsters. Outside of those two areas, young men can in any case be immunized, yet just if their guardian or watchman decides to pay out-of-pocket. "Our huge concern is that its out there and that individuals aren't exploiting it," Dr. Robert Nuttall, the Canadian Cancer Society's executive of cancer control policy, said.

2014-09-09T07:22:58-07:00September, 2014|Oral Cancer News|
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Three shots that could stop cancer

Source: tucson.com Author: Meredith Wadman Not so long ago, when my sons still had smooth cheeks and children's voices, I had them vaccinated against human papillomavirus, the most common sexually transmitted disease. It was late 2011, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had just recommended that boys join girls in being vaccinated at age 11 or 12. I was certainly receptive: HPV, as it's commonly called, causes cervical cancer, cancer of the tonsils, cancer of the back of the tongue and, less often, cancers of the vulva, vagina, anus and penis. It seemed important to ensure that my kids were protected. Yet numbers released last month by the CDC show that my sons, now 14 and 15, are among a small minority of adolescent males who have been vaccinated. In 2013, just 14 percent of American boys ages 13 to 17 had received all three recommended doses of the HPV vaccine. (The CDC also recommends "catch-up" vaccination for males up to age 21.) Not that parents are rushing to have their girls vaccinated either, even though the CDC first recommended the vaccine for prepubescent girls in 2007 and virtually all insurers pay for it. In 2013, fewer than 38 percent of American girls between 13 and 17 had received the full three-dose course. It is heartbreaking to watch a safe, effective vaccine go unused. Consider this: The CDC estimates that increasing the vaccination rate of American girls to 80 percent would prevent 53,000 cervical cancers during the lifetimes [...]

2014-08-26T06:24:27-07:00August, 2014|Oral Cancer News|
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Finding better ways to treat, prevent HPV

Source: www.fhcrc.or Author: Diane Mapes - Fred Hutch News Service Twenty-nine years ago, scientists didn’t know what caused many of the genital-tract cancers they studied, much less how to stop them. Today, not only has human papillomavirus been pinpointed as the viral perpetrator behind nearly all genital-tract and some head and neck cancers, there’s now an incredibly effective vaccine that can prevent high-risk HPV infections from ever developing into cancer. “You can almost say on the street, ‘I’m doing HPV research’ and ordinary people will know what that is,” said Aaro Turunen, an HPV researcher from the University of Turku in Finland. “It’s a sexy subject, especially for the media.” While scientific advancements, public awareness and yes, media coverage, have grown exponentially in the last three decades, there is still much to learn and do – particularly with regard to getting the vaccine to the people who most need it, both here in the U.S. and around the world. That’s where the International Papillomavirus Conference, currently in its twenty-ninth year, comes in. The HPV2014 conference, now underway at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle, has drawn the brightest minds in HPV research, including nearly 1,300 basic scientists, public health researchers, physicians, providers and others dedicated to eliminating the suffering caused by the human papillomavirus. The goal of the conference is to share cutting-edge scientific advances in the field of HPV infection and disease and come up with new ways to collaborate to advance science and public health. The conference [...]

2014-08-26T06:18:49-07:00August, 2014|Oral Cancer News|
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