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Dental hygienist, consultant detects own oral cancer

Source: www.dentistryiq.com Author: Shelli Castor Dental hygienist and practice-management consultant Barbara Boland discovered at the young age of 41 that she had oral cancer. Boland is now a 10-year cancer survivor, and she hopes her story and experiences will serve to start a continuing dialogue about oral cancer, especially among dental professionals. Boland graduated from Temple University in Pennsylvania in 1982 and has been working as a practice-management consultant for 24 years. In December 2002, she discovered a peculiar white spot on her tongue that she knew she hadn’t noticed before. She kept an eye on the spot for a month, and because it was changing, she showed her tongue to a head and neck surgeon. The surgeon responded that it couldn’t be cancer for various reasons: she didn’t smoke or drink, she was female, and she was “too young” — there was no way the spot could be cancer. While such an almost flippant response to a patient’s concerns seems wildly out of place and unexpected today, Boland notes that 10 years ago, dental and medical professionals were not well-educated on the signs, symptoms, and risk factors of oral cancer. For dental and medical professionals 10 years ago, the most common risk factors included tobacco and alcohol use, age, and the fact that males had a higher incidence of oral cancer than females. Boland fit none of those categories, and so her concerns were not seen as pressing. Still, the spot on her tongue “didn’t feel right” to her. [...]

2013-10-15T07:37:56-07:00October, 2013|Oral Cancer News|
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Michael Douglas: ‘Throat cancer’ was really tongue cancer

Source: cnn.com Author: Jen Christensen, CNN Michael Douglas never had throat cancer, as he told the press in 2010. The actor now says he had tongue cancer. Douglas said he hid the diagnosis at the urging of his doctor to protect his career. "The surgeon said, 'Let's just say it's throat cancer,' " Douglas told fellow actor Samuel L. Jackson for a segment that ran on British television as a part of Male Cancer Awareness Week. Douglas says that the doctor told him if they had to do surgery for tongue cancer, "it's not going to be pretty. You could lose part of your tongue and jaw." When Douglas first talked about his cancer diagnosis in the summer of 2010, he was on a worldwide publicity tour for the movie "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps." Douglas and Jackson joked that could have been the end of his acting career. Douglas said if he had surgery he could see the director saying, "What's your good side? I've got no side over here." "There really is no such thing as throat cancer per se," explained Brian Hill, an oral cancer survivor and the founder of the Oral Cancer Foundation. Douglas has taped a public service announcement to raise awareness about oral cancer for Hill's foundation. "Throat" cancer and tongue cancer are both colloquial terms that fall under the oral cancer umbrella. Throat cancer usually refers to cancerous tumors that develop in your pharynx, voice box or tonsils. Tongue cancer refers to cancerous [...]

2013-10-15T07:17:01-07:00October, 2013|Oral Cancer News|
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Positive results for Acacia in cancer drug trials

Source: http://www.businessweekly.co.uk/ Author: staff Positive results from a Phase II study of APD515 – a drug to treat xerostomia (dry mouth) in advanced cancer patients – have been reported by Cambridge UK medical technology business Acacia Pharma. The study showed that APD515 significantly reduced the symptoms of dry mouth compared to placebo. Dr Julian Gilbert, Acacia Pharma’s CEO said: “Dry mouth is a common and distressing issue in advanced cancer patients that is significantly under-recognised. “It is associated with a wide range of oral and systemic complications and can contribute to a greatly reduced quality of life. Our market research indicates that a locally delivered, liquid formulation of a suitable salivary stimulant would be of major benefit to many cancer sufferers, and these data indicate that APD515 should meet this profile.” The trial was conducted in 11 centres in the UK and Denmark and enrolled 32 patients with advanced cancer and a persistently dry mouth http://kodu.ut.ee/~roma1956/images/phocagallery2/gallery/generic-cialis.html. The study met its primary endpoint of a significant improvement in the subjective scoring of mouth dryness after one week of treatment with APD515 compared to placebo. Dr. Gabriel Fox, Acacia Pharma’s chief medical officer, added: “This was a robust trial, whose cross-over design allowed us to compare the effects of APD515 and placebo in the same patient. “The study has shown an unequivocal benefit for APD515 in advanced cancer patients suffering with a dry mouth. APD515 is the first product opportunity to be developed in this hitherto poorly managed patient group.” Initially, Acacia [...]

2013-10-15T07:05:30-07:00October, 2013|Oral Cancer News|
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Blood clots a risk after head, neck cancer surgery

Source: www.medpagetoday.com Author: Salynn Boyles, Contributing Writer, MedPage Today Clinically relevant blood clots are common in head and neck cancer patients following surgery, and routine chemoproprophylaxis is warranted in post-surgical patients hospitalized for more than 72 hours, a prospective study has found. When the researchers followed 100 high-risk cancer patients for 30 days following surgery, they found that 13% developed venous thromboembolism (VTE), including seven who had deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and one with pulmonary embolism (PE). A total of 14% of the patients received postoperative anticoagulation therapy, and their rate of bleeding complications was 30% compared with 5.6% in patients who did not receive the therapy (P=0.01), Daniel R. Clayburgh, MD, PhD, of Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, and colleagues wrote online Sept. 26 in JAMA Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. While the study was not powered to detect differences in risk factors among patients who did and did not develop VTEs, there was a trend in those with VTEs toward lower mean Karnofsky-Performance status scores (72 versus 79 in patients without them; P=0.09) and higher Caprini risk assessment scores (7.6 in VTE patients vs 6.9 in those who did not develop blood clots; P=0.09). These risk factors did not reach statistical significance. The VTE incidence reported by Clayburgh and colleagues was higher than has been suggested in retrospective studies of the general otolaryngology population, with one recent study finding an overall VTE rate of just 1.3%. The incidence is also higher than the OHSU research team's own [...]

2013-09-30T13:22:47-07:00September, 2013|Oral Cancer News|
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How fatty acids aids cancer prevention

Source: www.ngrguardiannews.com Author: staff Omega-3 fatty acids, contained in oily fish such as salmon and trout, selectively inhibit growth and induce cell death in early and late-stage oral and skin cancers, according to new research from scientists at Queen Mary, University of London. In vitro tests showed omega-3 fatty acids induced cell death in malignant and pre-malignant cells at doses which did not affect normal cells, suggesting they have the potential to be used in both the treatment and prevention of certain skin and oral cancers. Humans cannot make omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in large quantities and so we must acquire them from our diet. The scientists were studying a particular type of cancer called squamous-cell carcinoma (SCC). Squamous cells are the main part of the outermost layers of the skin, and SCC is one of the major forms of skin cancer. However, squamous cells also occur in the lining of the digestive tract, lungs, and other areas of the body. Oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC) are the sixth most common cancer worldwide and are difficult and very expensive to treat. In the experiments, the scientists grew cell cultures in the lab from several different cells lines to which they added fatty acids. The cell lines included both malignant oral and skin SCCs, along with pre-malignant cells and normal skin and oral cells. Professor Kenneth Parkinson, head of the Oral Cancer Research Group at Queen Mary’s Institute of Dentistry, said: “We found that the omega-3 fatty acid selectively inhibited the [...]

2013-09-19T13:40:24-07:00September, 2013|Oral Cancer News|
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Psychosocial services underutilized by those with head and neck cancers

Source: www.healio.com Author: Allen Chen Despite high rates of depression among individuals with head and neck cancers after radiation therapy, mental health services are severely underutilized in this patient population, results of a cross-sectional analysis suggest. Allen M. Chen, MD, of the department of radiation oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and colleagues evaluated data on 211 patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. All patients underwent radiation therapy and were disease-free within at least 1 year of follow-up. Exclusion criteria included history of mood disorder, previous use of mental health services, or use of antidepressants or anxiolytics, not including sleep medications. The researchers pooled data from self-administered questionnaires to assess depression rates in these patients. The following scores were assigned to subjective responses of mood: 0, extremely depressed; 25, somewhat depressed; 50, neither in a good mood nor depressed; 75, generally good; and 100, excellent. Results suggested no differences in mean mood scores at 1 year (52), 3 years (55.7) or 5 years (62.1) after treatment. The presence of tracheostomy tube or laryngeal stoma (P=.01), gastrostomy tube dependence (P=.01) and continued smoking at the time of follow-up (P

2013-09-11T08:35:36-07:00September, 2013|Oral Cancer News|
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Head and neck cancer care increasingly regionalized

Source: http://www.oncologynurseadvisor.com/ Author: staff Care for head and neck cancer is becoming increasingly regionalized, according to research published online Sept. 5 in JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery. Neil Bhattacharyya, M.D., of Harvard Medical School in Boston, and Elliot Abemayor, M.D., Ph.D., of the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California in Los Angeles, analyzed data for 2000, 2005, and 2010 from a national health care database to assess regionalization of head and neck cancer care. The researchers observed an increase in the percentage of admissions for head and neck cancer to teaching hospitals, from 61.7 percent in 2000 to 64.2 percent in 2005 and 79.8 percent in 2010. A similar pattern was seen in the percentage of cases in large hospitals according to bed size, with increases from 69.2 to 71.4 and 73.3 percent, respectively. No significant change in the distribution of primary payers, including Medicare (39.6 percent), private insurance (33.3 percent), and Medicaid (17.4 percent), was observed for the calendar years examined in the study. "Head and neck oncologic care is increasingly being regionalized to teaching hospitals and academic centers," the authors write. "A better understanding of how care is distributed will improve our understanding of the financial and educational impact of compacting treatment of these patients."

2013-09-11T08:30:04-07:00September, 2013|Oral Cancer News|
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The lack of evidence for PET or PET/CT surveillance of patients with treated lymphoma, colorectal cancer, and head and neck cancer: a systematic review

Source: jnm.snmjournals.org Authors: Kamal Patel et al PET and PET/CT are widely used for surveillance of patients after cancer treatments. We conducted a systematic review to assess the diagnostic accuracy and clinical impact of PET and PET/CT used for surveillance in several cancers. Methods: We searched MEDLINE and Cochrane Library databases from 1996 to March 2012 for English-language studies of PET or PET/CT used for surveillance of patients with lymphoma, colorectal cancer, or head and neck cancer. We included prospective or retrospective studies that reported test accuracy and comparative studies that assessed clinical impact. Results: Twelve studies met our inclusion criteria: 6 lymphoma (n = 767 patients), 2 colorectal cancer (n = 96), and 4 head and neck cancer (n = 194). All studies lacked a uniform definition of surveillance and scan protocols. Half the studies were retrospective, and a third were rated as low quality. The majority reported sensitivities and specificities in the range of 90%–100%, although several studies reported lower results. The only randomized controlled trial, a colorectal cancer study with 65 patients in the surveillance arm, reported earlier detection of recurrences with PET and suggested improved clinical outcomes. Conclusion: There is insufficient evidence to draw conclusions on the clinical impact of PET or PET/CT surveillance for these cancers. The lack of standard definitions for surveillance, heterogeneous scanning protocols, and inconsistencies in reporting test accuracy preclude making an informed judgment on the value of PET for this potential indication. Authors: Kamal Patel, Nira Hadar, Jounghee Lee, Barry A. [...]

2013-09-04T07:09:32-07:00September, 2013|Oral Cancer News|
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Cancer waiting times ‘could cost lives’

Source: www.rochdaleonline.co.uk Author: staff Statistics released by the Department of Health reveal costly delays that could jeopardize the lives of suspected head and neck cancer patients. According to the 2012/13 Cancer Waiting Times annual report1, 1,252 suspected head and neck cancer patients had to wait longer than three weeks to be seen by a specialist, a delay that could potentially cost lives. With mouth cancer cases on the increase, campaigners the British Dental Health Foundation are calling for suspected head and neck cancer patients to be seen within the two-week referral target due to the very nature of the disease. Without early detection, the five year survival rate for mouth cancer is only 50 per cent. If it is caught early, survival rates over five years can dramatically improve to up to 90 per cent. Between April 2012 and March 2013 over one million patients were seen by cancer specialists following an urgent referral. A total of 96.1 per cent of suspected head and neck cancer were seen within 14 days of referral, compared to 96.3 per cent in 2010-20112. More than 50,000 patients were not seen within 14 days of referral. Cancer waiting times are monitored carefully by the Foundation, which organises the Mouth Cancer Action Month campaign, sponsored by Denplan also supported by Dentists’ Provident and the Association of Dental Groups (ADG), in November each year to help raise awareness of the disease and its symptoms. Tobacco use, drinking alcohol to excess, smoking, poor diet and the human [...]

2013-09-04T07:03:39-07:00September, 2013|Oral Cancer News|
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Most head, neck surgeons discuss risk factors, HPV

Source: www.doctorslounge.com Author: staff Most head and neck surgeons discuss risk factors for head and neck cancer, including human papillomavirus (HPV), with their patients, according to a study published online Aug. 29 in JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery. Kelly M. Malloy, M.D., from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and colleagues conducted an online survey of 297 members of the American Head and Neck Society (AHNS) to assess knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs regarding HPV education and vaccination. The researchers found that the majority (more than 90 percent) of respondents reported discussing risk factors for head and neck cancer, including HPV as a specific risk factor. About half (49.1 percent) reported discussing the importance of vaccinating preadolescents for HPV, with 38.7 percent not relating to this issue because their patients are adults. More than two-thirds (68.9 percent) of the respondents with daughters reported that their daughters had received or were scheduled to receive the HPV vaccine. For respondents with sons, only 55.8 percent reported that their sons had been vaccinated or that they intended for them to be vaccinated. Attitudes toward HPV vaccine safety and efficacy were divergent. There was considerable support of potential future AHNS activities relating to education, increasing public awareness, and advocacy of health policy related to HPV. "Head and neck surgeons are knowledgeable about HPV and show generally positive attitudes and beliefs about HPV education and vaccination," the authors write. "They endorse AHNS actions to improve public and patient education, as well as health policy on [...]

2013-09-01T15:58:16-07:00September, 2013|Oral Cancer News|
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