Oral Cancer News

CDC says graphic anti-smoking ads work, more on way

Source: USA Today The federal government says its graphic ad campaign showing diseased smokers has been such a success that it is planning another round next year to nudge more Americans to kick the habit. The ads, which ran for 12 weeks in spring and early summer, aimed to get 500,000 people to try to quit and 50,000 to kick the habit long-term. "The initial results suggest the impact will be even greater than that," says Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which spearheaded the $54 million campaign. The ads showed real Americans talking about how smoking caused their paralysis, lung removal and amputations. He says it's the first time the U.S. government has paid for anti-smoking ads, although some media ran them free. The CDC doesn't have a tally yet on how many people actually tried to quit, but it says the ads generated 192,000 extra calls — more than double the usual volume — to its national toll-free quit line, 800-QUIT-NOW, and 417,000 new visitors to smokefree.gov, its website offering cessation tips. That's triple the site's previous traffic. "We do plan to do another (campaign) next year," Frieden says, adding that he has no details yet on the ads or their timing. He says the amount the CDC spent this year is a pittance compared with the $10 billion the tobacco industry spends annually to market its products. The nation's two largest tobacco companies, Philip Morris USA and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, declined [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-08-07T10:39:19-07:00August, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Curry spice ‘kills cancer cells’

Source: news.bbc.co.uk An extract found in the bright yellow curry spice turmeric can kill off cancer cells, scientists have shown. The chemical - curcumin - has long been thought to have healing powers and is already being tested as a treatment for arthritis and even dementia. Now tests by a team at the Cork Cancer Research Centre show it can destroy gullet cancer cells in the lab. Cancer experts said the findings in the British Journal of Cancer could help doctors find new treatments. Dr Sharon McKenna and her team found that curcumin started to kill cancer cells within 24 hours. 'Natural' remedy The cells also began to digest themselves, after the curcumin triggered lethal cell death signals. Dr McKenna said: "Scientists have known for a long time that natural compounds have the potential to treat faulty cells that have become cancerous and we suspected that curcumin might have therapeutic value." Dr Lesley Walker, director of cancer information at Cancer Research UK, said: "This is interesting research which opens up the possibility that natural chemicals found in turmeric could be developed into new treatments for oesophageal cancer. "Rates of oesophageal cancer have gone up by more than a half since the 70s and this is thought to be linked to rising rates of obesity, alcohol intake and reflux disease so finding ways to prevent this disease is important too." Each year around 7,800 people are diagnosed with oesophageal cancer in the UK. It is the sixth most common [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-08-06T14:03:47-07:00August, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Oral cancer deaths declining among well-educated

Source: www.reuters.com Author: Genevra Pittman Deaths from mouth and throat cancer have dropped since the early 1990s, according to a new study -- but only among people with at least a high school education. Researchers said that may be due to higher rates of smoking and other oral cancer risks among less educated, poorer Americans, and because they're also less likely to have access to timely health care. Similar trends have been shown in rates of death from lung and breast cancers, for example, they added. "We have a lot more to do in terms of (the fact that) socioeconomic status probably is a really significant factor in mortality from oral and oropharyngeal cancers," said Dr. Joseph Califano, who studies those cancers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore but wasn't involved in the new research. "Clearly access to health care to detect cancer in early stages is very important." The study, led by Dr. Amy Chen at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, included mouth and throat cancer data from 1993 through 2007 in 26 states. Among adults age 25 to 64, there were about 19,300 deaths during that period. Cancer deaths declined during the 1990s and 2000s by two to five percent every year, on average, researchers found. By the end of the study period, the cancers killed three out of every 100,000 white men, six out of every 100,000 black men, and one each of every 100,000 white and black women annually. [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-08-06T13:59:07-07:00August, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Robotic surgery vs. radiation therapy: study will find which better for throat cancer

Source: http://www.windsorstar.com/ Author: Beatrice Fantoni, The Windsor Star In the first trial of its kind in the world, doctors in London, Ont., are comparing robotic surgery and radiation therapy to find out which method helps throat-cancer patients retain speech and swallowing functions - two very important functions that can have a serious effect on quality of life for cancer survivors. Dr. Anthony Nichols and Dr. David Palma of the London Health Sciences Centre are working with 68 test subjects who have cancer of the back of the throat (also known as oropharyngeal cancer) and measuring the swallowing functions of each patient one year after treatment. Because the cure rate for oropharyngeal cancer is pretty good, Nichols said, he and Palma want to focus on how to improve patients' post-treatment quality of life. In Canada, the standard way of treating oropharyngeal cancer is with a combination of radiation and chemotherapy. However, Nichols said, there can be some longterm side-effects with this treatment, such as dry mouth, hearing loss, taste changes and compromised swallowing function. "The side-effects are more than what we'd like," said Palma. "We want to improve the quality of life." Surgery using a robot is a newer treatment that could perhaps be more appropriate for some oropharyngeal cancer patients, Nichols said. London is currently the only site in Canada to offer what is known as transoral robotic surgery. The robot sounds promising, Palma said, and so it warrants more study. "We don't really know if the 'surgery first' approach [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-08-03T09:54:30-07:00August, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Study highlights success of nerve transfer surgery

Source: www.newswise.com A study in the August issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (JAAOS) by Hospital for Special Surgery researchers aims to raise awareness of this type of surgery among health care providers. In recent years, great strides have been made in nerve transfer surgery, allowing many patients with a nerve injury in their upper extremity to have a remarkable recovery and improved functional outcomes. “It’s obvious that many physicians don’t know what can be done, because often patients are referred too long after their injury. If we get these patients late, any nerve surgery is less likely to work,” said Steve K. Lee, M.D., director of Research at the Center for Brachial Plexus and Traumatic Nerve Injury at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS), lead author of the study. “A big thrust of this paper is to get the information out there that we need to see these patients earlier for better outcomes.” Nerve injuries can be caused by a variety of events, including car and motorcycle accidents, sporting accidents, falls from heights such as construction accidents, and surgeries for head and neck cancer. Once a nerve is cut from a muscle, it has to be reinnervated within about 18 months before the muscle atrophies. Since nerves only regenerate one millimeter per day, sometimes they cannot regenerate and reach the muscle before it wastes away. “It has been shown that if you do nerve reconstruction work and surgery before six months after a nerve is [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-08-02T17:39:59-07:00August, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Rising number of college students smoking hookah raises concern for oral cancer

Source: eon.businesswire.com Hookah smoking, where specially made flavored tobacco is heated, passed through water and drawn through a rubber pipe, has been around for centuries. According to a recent study conducted at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, however, these days hookah use is on the rise among college-age Americans. In fact, one in three college students has smoked a hookah at some point. In response to this alarming trend, the largest ear, nose, throat, allergy and audiology practice in the tri-state area, ENT and Allergy Associates, LLP (ENTA), which is highly involved with the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout, is calling for increased public awareness about the risks associated with hookah smoking. ENTA stresses the importance of quitting this unhealthy habit and provides tips on what young people can do to help decrease their chances of developing oral cancer. “Young people need to be made aware of the negative impact of hookah smoking on their health, including the increased risk for developing oral cancer,” explains Michael Bergstein, M.D., FACS, of the ENTA office in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y. “A typical hookah session can last up to one hour, with smokers taking long, deep breaths, so that the smoke inhaled can equal 100 cigarettes or more, according to a 2005 study by the World Health Organization. Therefore, it is critical that hookah smokers stop immediately and practice preventive measures against oral cancer.” Individuals should routinely perform simple oral self-exams of their mouth in order to help detect early changes [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-08-02T17:32:48-07:00August, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Stem cell therapy could offer new hope for defects and injuries to head, mouth

Source: www.newswise.com In the first human study of its kind, researchers found that using stem cells to re-grow craniofacial tissues—mainly bone—proved quicker, more effective and less invasive than traditional bone regeneration treatments. Researchers from the University of Michigan School of Dentistry and the Michigan Center for Oral Health Research partnered with Ann Arbor-based Aastrom Biosciences Inc. in the clinical trial, which involved 24 patients who required jawbone reconstruction after tooth removal. Patients either received experimental tissue repair cells or traditional guided bone regeneration therapy. The tissue repair cells, called ixmyelocel-T, are under development at Aastrom, which is a U-M spinout company. "In patients with jawbone deficiencies who also have missing teeth, it is very difficult to replace the missing teeth so that they look and function naturally," said Darnell Kaigler, principal investigator and assistant professor at the U-M School of Dentistry. "This technology and approach could potentially be used to restore areas of bone loss so that missing teeth can be replaced with dental implants." William Giannobile, director of the Michigan Center for Oral Health Research and chair of the U-M Department of Periodontics and Oral Medicine, is co-principal investigator on the project. The treatment is best suited for large defects such as those resulting from trauma, diseases or birth defects, Kaigler said. These defects are very complex because they involve several different tissue types—bone, skin, gum tissue—and are very challenging to treat. The main advantage to the stem cell therapy is that it uses the patient's own cells to [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-07-31T14:01:48-07:00July, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Aspirin Protects Against Barrett’s Esophagus, Study Suggests

Source: ScienceDaily.com Aspirin use appears to reduce the risk of Barrett's esophagus (BE), the largest known risk factor for esophageal cancer, according to a new study in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the official clinical practice journal of the American Gastroenterological Association. "The protective effect of aspirin use appears robust because the analyses suggests a dose-response relationship in which high-dose aspirin was significantly associated with decreased Barrett's esophagus risk," said Chin Hur, MD, MPH, of the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute for Technology Assessment and lead author of this study. "It would not be advisable at this time for patients to start taking aspirin, particularly at higher doses, if preventing Barrett's esophagus is the only goal. However, if additional data confirms our findings and an individual at high risk for development of Barrett's esophagus and esophageal cancer also could derive additional benefits, most notably cardiovascular, aspirin could be a consideration." Dr. Hur and his team of researchers analyzed characteristics of 434 BE patients for factors that might be used in screening and management. In addition to finding that those taking aspirin were 44 percent less likely to have BE, they also found that men were more than three times more likely to develop BE than women. The incidence of esophageal cancer has been increasing at an alarming rate during the past few decades; current attempts at targeted screening for this type of cancer focus on identifying BE. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), particularly aspirin, have been associated with reduced esophageal cancer incidence. Although [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-07-26T15:26:31-07:00July, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

The Impact of Timing of EGFR and IGF-1R Inhibition for Sensitizing Head and Neck Cancer to Radiation

Source: AntiCancer Research Abstract Background: Targeting the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) improved radiotherapy outcome by 10-15% in head and neck tumors (HNSCC). We tested the therapeutic benefits of co-targeting EGFR and insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (IGF-1R) to further enhance tumor response to radiation. Materials and Methods: Mice bearing FaDu tumor xenografts were treated with ganitumab (previously known as AMG479, an anti-IGF-1R antibody), panitumumab (an anti-EGFR antibody), or both in combination with fractionated doses of radiation. Tumor growth delay and tumor cure/recurrence served as end-points. Results: The best tumor growth delay was achieved when ganitumab and panitumumab were given concurrently with radiation. Tumor cure/recurrence studies showed that combining ganitumab, panitumumab and radiation resulted in significantly higher radiocurability rates than use of either of the agents given with radiation. Conclusion: These findings provide the rationale for clinical testing of the combination of ganitumab and panitumumab for the treatment of HNSCC. This news story was resourced by the Oral Cancer Foundation, and vetted for appropriateness and accuracy.

Charlotte Parker2012-07-26T09:29:45-07:00July, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Oral Cancer in Swedish Snuff Dippers

Source: Anticancer Research Abstract Over recent decades there has been debate over whether or not Swedish snuff is carcinogenic in humans. Animal studies and molecular biological and experimental studies have shown the carcinogenic potential of Swedish snuff, but this has not been proved in prospective randomized studies. We present a case series of patients with oral squamous cell carcinomas diagnosed at the sites where the patients had used Swedish snuff for several years. Sixteen male patients were referred to and treated at Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Departments and Ear, Nose and Throat clinics at seven different hospitals in Sweden. The mean age of the patients at the time of diagnosis was 72.9 years and the mean time of snuff use prior to cancer diagnosis was 42.9 years. This case series shows that Swedish snuff may not be a harmless alternative to smoking. This news story was resourced by the Oral Cancer Foundation, and vetted for appropriateness and accuracy.

Charlotte Parker2012-07-26T09:25:39-07:00July, 2012|Oral Cancer News|