Oral Cancer News

Electrochemical sensor spots oral cancer

Source: cen.acs.org Author: Erika Gebel Medical Diagnostics: A simple and inexpensive device detects multiple cancer biomarkers When doctors spot cancerous lesions in patients’ mouths, it’s often too late: The disease has already reached a difficult-to-treat stage. As a result, oral cancer has a high death rate. To help doctors catch the disease earlier, researchers have developed a simple, low-cost method to identify multiple oral cancer biomarkers at once (Anal. Chem., DOI: 10.1021/ac301392g). Scientists previously have shown that oral cancer patients have altered levels of several proteins, including vascular endothelial growth factor C (VEGF-C), in their blood (J. Clin. Pathol., DOI: 10.1136/jcp.2007.047662). Doctors would like to use these biomarkers to diagnose the disease. But James Rusling of the University of Connecticut, Storrs, says that to improve diagnostic accuracy, it’s necessary to detect multiple proteins at once. What’s more, current technology can’t easily measure subtle changes in the low concentrations of these proteins found in patients’ blood. Such tests would require trained technicians and expensive equipment, such as spectrometers, that most clinics don’t have. Rusling and his colleagues, including J. Silvio Gutkind of the National Institutes of Health, wanted to develop a low-cost test doctors could easily use. The team built a device that can measure concentrations of multiple biomarker proteins at once through easy-to-read electrical signals. For each protein they want to detect, the scientists use two antibodies that each bind to a different part of the biomarker. One antibody decorates magnetic microbeads. The team also coats these microbeads [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-06-22T21:11:32-07:00June, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Darwin’s Principles Say Cancer Will Always Evolve to Resist Treatment

Source: ScienceDaily.com According to researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center, cancer is subject to the evolutionary processes laid out by Charles Darwin in his concept of natural selection. Natural selection was the process identified by Darwin by which nature selects certain physical attributes, or phenotypes, to pass on to offspring to better "fit" the organism to the environment. As applied to cancer, natural selection, a key principle of modern biology, suggests that malignancies in distinct "microhabitats" promote the evolution of resistance to therapies. However, these same evolutionary principles of natural selection can be applied to successfully manage cancer, say Moffitt researchers who published an opinion piece in a recent issue of Nature Reviews Cancer. "Understanding cancer as a disease starts with identifying crucial environmental forces and corresponding adaptive cellular strategies," said Robert A. Gatenby, M.D., chair of the Department of Diagnostic Imaging. "Cancer is driven by environmental selection forces that interact with individual cellular adaptive strategies." Cancer cell development, like any natural selection (or Darwinian) process, is governed by environmental selection forces and cellular adaptive strategies, the authors wrote. Investigating cancer and its proliferation through genetic changes and ignoring the adaptive landscape is most likely futile. Under "selective pressure" of chemotherapy, in this case the "adaptive landscape," resistant populations of cancer cells invariably evolve. The authors say that tumors can be thought of as "continents" populated by multiple cellular species that adapt to regional variations in environmental selection forces. Their strategy in offering this metaphor, they wrote, is to "integrate microenvironmental [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-06-22T12:53:19-07:00June, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

More On Why The Adverse Event Reports On Gardasil Don’t Point To A Problem

Source: Forbes.com Readers are still commenting on my post on why the adverse event reports on Gardasil seem to indicate the vaccine is safe. One particularly persuasive line of comment comes from reader Stephanie Rehak, who does some reporting for me. Basically, she points out, many of these reports are third-hand and for problems that a vaccine would be unlikely to cause. Rehak writes: Have you read through the (currently) 107 reports of death on VAERS tied to Gardasil? It’s well worth the read. The first page has mostly cases of death with other underlying factors that contributed to the patient’s death (congenital heart disease, seizure disorders, DVT in patients taking Yaz BCP). The further in you get the crazier it becomes. There are several fourth and fifth hand reports such as VAERS ID 344385 “Information has been received from an office manager that the physician heard from the physician”s colleague that a 16 year old female colleague”s patient was given an unspecified dose of GARDASIL (Lot not reported) on a Friday and on Monday the patient passed away (specific dates were unknown).” There are at least a dozen regarding cases the reporter read about on the internet, heard about on the radio or saw on TV, like 383175 “Information has been received from a consumer via an internet newspaper concerning a patient who on an unspecified date was vaccinated with a dose of GARDASIL… It was also reported that polysorbato 80 or tween 80 that is a chemical that causes [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-06-21T09:33:11-07:00June, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Facing the Facts: HPV-Associated Head and Neck Cancers Get a Second Look

Source: CureToday.com HPV causes surge in oral cancer rates. Kevin Pruyne knew he didn’t fit the stereotype of a hard drinker or heavy smoker who one day develops an oral cancer. The 52-year-old mechanic had been working a three-week stint in a remote section of northern Alaska, repairing trucks on an oil field, when he noticed a hard lump beneath his jaw while shaving. For nearly three months, as Pruyne was prescribed antibiotics for a possible infection and then later shuttled between physician specialists, he kept hearing the same thing: the lump could not be cancer. Pruyne only occasionally consumed alcohol and had never smoked. His wife, Kathy, began researching her husband’s symptoms, which included repetitive throat clearing, a nagging sensation that something was lodged in his throat and ringing in his ears. And the lump, which looked like the top half of an egg, felt solid to the touch. This wasn’t some inflamed lymph node from a lingering head cold, Kathy Pruyne says. “He had every symptom [of cancer], but nobody would listen to me.” Kevin Pruyne, with his wife, Kathy, is hopeful his HPV-positive oral cancer will be cured. Photo by Rick Bacmanski. Pruyne received a diagnosis of stage 4 oral cancer, which started with a tumor at the base of his tongue. He had already begun chemotherapy when he learned that researchers had discovered an association between the human papillomavirus (HPV) and increasing rates of oropharyngeal cancers. He asked that his tissue be tested; the results came [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-06-20T12:05:38-07:00June, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Allentown woman who lost jaw to cancer shares anti-smoking message

Source: LehighVallyLive.com People often stare at Christine Brader. Sometimes strangers ask the Allentown woman what happened to her. She tells them, "I used to smoke." Tobacco users flinch when they hear her response, Brader says. Smoking led to oral cancer, which eventually cost the 49-year-old all of her teeth and part of her lower jaw.Brader has had three bouts with the disease since her first diagnosis five years ago, but is now cancer free. "I have to go through life disfigured, all because I made a bad decision and smoked," she says. Brader doesn't want others to follow in her footsteps, so she is working with Tobacco Free Northeast Pennsylvania to spread the word about the dangers of smoking. The organization serves a 10-county area, including Lehigh and Northampton, spokeswoman Alice Dalla Palu said. Brader recently shared her story in a radio advertisement broadcast during the week of World No Tobacco Day, which was May 31. In the ad -- part of the Centers for Disease Control "Tips from Former Smokers" campaign -- she describes preparing liquid meals and consuming them through a feeding tube. Last year, Brader appeared in a TV commercial for Truth, a national smoking prevention campaign that targets youth. BREAK THE HABIT: Call 1-800-784-8669 or visit tobaccofreene.com to get help quitting smoking. She started smoking at 16 to fit in with her peers and continued for 28 years. Brader quit cold turkey at 44 after learning in June 2007 that the growth inside her cheek was cancer. [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-06-18T10:03:27-07:00June, 2012|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

Cross-sectional study on the prevalence of HPV antibodies in the general population of the Czech Republic

Source: BMJ Correspondence to Dr Eva Hamsikova, Department of Experimental Virology, Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion, U Nemocnice 1, 128 20 Praha 2, Czech Republic; [email protected] Contributors EH participated in the design and coordination of the study, evaluated results, performed statistical analysis and drafted the manuscript. VL prepared antigens for assessment of antibody presence. JS performed the immunoassays. RT participated in the design of the study and helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Abstract Objectives The assessment of the prevalence of antibodies to human papillomaviruses (HPV) in the healthy population is essential for effective planning of HPV vaccine implementation into the preventive programmes for HPV-associated diseases and for the prospective monitoring of the impact of HPV vaccines in the Czech population. Methods The seropositivity for HPV-6, 11, 16, 18, 31 and 33 virus-like particles was determined in sera from 3150 healthy individuals (age range 6–76 years) by means of enzyme-linked immunoassay. Results The seroprevalences for HPV-6, 11, 16, 18, 31 and 33 were 23.8%, 15.2%, 14.5%, 9.9%, 16.4% and 9.6% in women and 18.4%, 13.7%, 6.5%, 5.4%, 6.1% and 4.3% in men. For both genders, except for HPV11, these rates were age dependent. The prevalence of antibodies to HPV-16 and/or 18 reached the maximum of 27.0% in women 30–39 years of age and of 14.4% in men 50–59 years of age. The highest proportion of individuals' seropositive for any of the vaccine types HPV-6/11/16/18 was in 30- to 39-year-old women (50.0%) and in ≥60-year-old men [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-06-11T11:09:53-07:00June, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Part of jaw removed after mix-up

Source: 3news.co.nz A lab mix-up is being blamed for an operation on the wrong patient at an Otago dental hospital An Otago dental hospital has apologized to a woman who had part of her jaw removed after being wrongly diagnosed with mouth cancer. The misdiagnosis happened after a laboratory worker at Medlab Dental, part of the University of Otago Dental Hospital, dropped two samples on the floor and mixed them up, the Otago Daily Times reports. As a result the 63-year-old patient was wrongly diagnosed with cancer and had the right side of her upper jaw removed. An area on the woman's lower leg where bone and blood vessels were taken to reconstruct her jaw later became infected and she had trouble walking. "I can't for the life of me understand how you can get tissue samples mixed up," Nelson oral surgeon Iain Wilson, the woman's dentist, told the newspaper. "I am astonished and horrified by these lab mix-ups." University faculty of medicine dean, Professor Peter Crawford, says the university has apologized to the patient. "We have taken this incident very seriously, and have already taken all appropriate measures to minimise the likelihood of any such incidents occurring again," he said. "The patient was contacted very soon after the incident was discovered, and we offered a full apology at that time." The case is being investigated by the Health and Disability Commissioner and the patient has consulted a lawyer about compensation. The patient was one of six who had [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-06-11T10:07:33-07:00June, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Tobacco Smoking and Increased Risk of Death and Progression for Patients With p16-Positive and p16-Negative Oropharyngeal Cancer

Source: Journal of Clinical Oncology Purpose Tobacco smoking is associated with oropharynx cancer survival, but to what extent cancer progression or death increases with increasing tobacco exposure is unknown. Patients and Methods Patients with oropharynx cancer enrolled onto a phase III trial of radiotherapy from 1991 to 1997 (Radiation Therapy Oncology Group [RTOG] 9003) or of chemoradiotherapy from 2002 to 2005 (RTOG 0129) were evaluated for tumor human papillomavirus status by a surrogate, p16 immunohistochemistry, and for tobacco exposure by a standardized questionnaire. Associations between tobacco exposure and overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were estimated by Cox proportional hazards models. Results Prevalence of p16-positive cancer was 39.5% among patients in RTOG 9003 and 68.0% in RTOG 0129. Median pack-years of tobacco smoking were lower among p16-positive than p16-negative patients in both trials (RTOG 9003: 29 v 45.9 pack-years; P = .02; RTOG 0129: 10 v 40 pack-years; P < .001). After adjustment for p16 and other factors, risk of progression (PFS) or death (OS) increased by 1% per pack-year (for both, hazard ratio [HR], 1.01; 95% CI, 1.00 to 1.01; P = .002) or 2% per year of smoking (for both, HR, 1.02; 95% CI, 1.01 to 1.03; P < .001) in both trials. In RTOG 9003, risk of death doubled (HR, 2.19; 95% CI, 1.46 to 3.28) among those who smoked during radiotherapy after accounting for pack-years and other factors, and risk of second primary tumors increased by 1.5% per pack-year (HR, 1.015; 95% CI, 1.005 to [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-06-11T10:02:05-07:00June, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Cannabis chewing gum targets oral side effects

Source: Author: staff The company Medical Marijuana has acquired a 50% stake in CanChew, a cannabinoid (CBD)-based chewing gum developed as a pharmaceutical delivery mechanism to relieve pain, xerostomia, and other side effects of disease and disease treatment. The acquisition gives Medical Marijuana worldwide exclusive rights to develop, manufacture, market, and distribute both tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and non-THC hemp-derived cannabinoid-infused chewing gum to medical marijuana consumers, according to the company. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration currently considers non-THC based hemp products to be "food-based" and therefore legal without a medical marijuana license. Cannabinoids have had positive effects in clinical trials on neuralgic pain, multiple sclerosis, and spinal cord injuries, nausea and vomiting from chemotherapy and radiation treatment, as well as palliative treatment of various cancers and HIV/AIDS, the company stated. According to Sanammad, the company that developed CanChew, the gum can: Alleviate acute and chronic pain Diminish nausea and vomiting, as well as cachexia, which is a syndrome common in cancer patients on chemotherapy that causes appetite loss and loss of weight and muscle-mass Enhance appetite Improve muscle relaxation, coordination, and mobility Diminish xerostomia Promote fresh breath and maintain oral hygiene "Functional chewing gum is well-established as an effective way to deliver pharmaceutical active ingredients," said Michael Llamas, president of Medical Marijuana. "A great example is Nicorette. Within 10 minutes of chewing Nicorette gum, the consumer's symptoms of nicotine withdrawal begin to ease. Our formulations also have an exceedingly safer side-effect profile compared to the currently available analgesics such as [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-06-08T08:02:29-07:00June, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Head and neck cancer presentation highlights

Source: www.dailyrx.com Author: Travis Giddings The field of head and neck cancer from ASCO 2012 A recent presentation at the American Society of Clinical Oncology expanded on several molecular breakthroughs concerning head and neck cancers, and a team of doctors gave an overview of recent conclusions from their respective fields. The newly identified molecular pathway for cancers of the head and neck that involves the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) led to developments of highly effective drugs specific for the cancerous cells, EGFR inhibitors. Soon afterwards, scientists discovered the increasingly important role that the human papillomavirus (HPV) played in the development of cancers in the head and neck. Following the explosion of research in the field of molecular pathways involved in head and neck cancers, doctors quickly found that the cancer was a lot more complicated than previous believed. Additional research continues as scientists try to make sense of the data. Approaching the treatment of head and neck cancer from their perspectives from surgery, radiology, and oncology, doctors on the panel discussed the difficulties the field currently faced. The director of Johns Hopkins' Head and Neck Cancer Research department, oncologist David Sidransky, MD, opened the meeting. “The genetic and epigenetic alterations in human tumors are becoming increasingly important for devising and implementing personalized oncology approaches,” said Dr. Sidransky. “Unlike in some other cancers, in head and neck cancer the common mutations that have been identified have not been very helpful for treatment.” The chair of the conference was held by [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-06-08T07:56:18-07:00June, 2012|Oral Cancer News|