Oral Cancer News

Cancer-causing chemical found in smokeless tobacco

Source: www.foxnews.com Author: staff A chemical in smokeless tobacco products has been found to cause cancer, according to a new study in animals. The chemical was a strong inducer of oral tumors, the study showed. While use of smokeless tobacco products has been strongly linked to the development of cancer, no specific chemical in the products had been identified as a strong oral-cancer causing agent until now, the researchers say. The chemical, called (S)-N'-nitrosonornicotine, or (S)-NNN, "is the only chemical in smokeless tobacco known to cause oral cancer," study researcher Silvia Balbo, a cancer researcher at the University of Minnesota, said in a statement. The finding may explain how smokeless tobacco products cause cancer, Balbo said. Balbo said the findings are an affirmation that tobacco products should be avoided. Smokeless tabacco products are already required to carry warning labels saying the products can cause mouth cancer or are not a safe alternative to cigarettes, the Food and Drug Administration says. The most common type of smokeless tobacco product is moist snuff placed in the mouth. Previous studies have suggested that a group of chemicals called nitrosamines, of which (S)-NNN is a member, cause various types of cancer in animals, but no study has looked at the carcinogenicity of (S)-NNNspecifically, the researchers say. Balbo and colleagues administered (S)-NNN to 24 rats. The rats were given (S)-NNN or tap water. The total dose was approximately equivalent to the amount of (S)-NNN to which a smokeless tobacco user would be exposed from [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-04-03T08:59:01-07:00April, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Oral cancer breakthrough

Source: cancertreatmentmx.com Author: staff UCLA scientists have come up with a revolutionary new way of identifying oral cancer. Funded by the National Institute of Dental and Cranial Facial Research, they developed a simple saliva test that makes detecting oral cancer easy. No longer must patients wait until they find an unusual sore in their mouth or make a routine trip to their dentist:

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-04-03T08:50:11-07:00April, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Strong Oral Carcinogen Identified in Smokeless Tobacco

Source: ScienceDaily.com Although smokeless tobacco products have long been linked with certain cancers, including oral cavity cancers and esophageal cancers, this is the first study to identify a specific chemical present in smokeless tobacco products that induces oral cancer in animals, according to Silvia Balbo, Ph.D., research associate at the Masonic Cancer Center of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minn. "(S)-NNN is the only chemical in smokeless tobacco known to cause oral cancer," Balbo said. "This finding provides mechanistic underpinning for the epidemiologic observations that smokeless tobacco products cause oral cancer." Balbo and colleagues administered two forms of NNN called (S)-NNN and (R)-NNN to four groups of 24 rats. The rats were given either (S)-NNN alone, (R)-NNN alone, a combination of both or tap water. The total dose was approximately equivalent to the amount of (S)-NNN to which a smokeless tobacco user would be exposed from chronic use of these products. All rats assigned to (S)-NNN alone or the combination began losing weight after one year of exposure and died by 17 months. Rats assigned to (R)-NNN or tap water were terminated at 20 months. All rats assigned to (S)-NNN had esophageal tumors and demonstrated 100 percent incidence of oral tumors including tumors of the tongue, buccal mucosa, soft palate and pharynx. In contrast, researchers found oral tumors in only five of 24 rats given (R)-NNN and esophageal tumors in three of 24 rats assigned to (R)-NNN. Twelve rats given the combination of (S)-NNN and (R)-NNN had 153 esophageal [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-04-02T16:22:05-07:00April, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Tobacco Makers Must List Ingredients, Prove Safety Claims

Source: Businessweek.com Tobacco companies will have to begin reporting the amount of unsafe chemicals in their products and prove their so-called lower-risk alternatives to smoking such as snuff are actually safer, U.S. regulators said. The Food and Drug Administration moved today to implement pieces of a 2009 law giving the agency the authority to regulate tobacco products. The FDA released preliminary guidelines for the industry that it says can educate consumers on exactly what is in cigarettes, such as ammonia and formaldehyde, and police claims that certain tobacco products may be safer than others. The agency will share information on chemical amounts with the public within a year, Lawrence Deyton, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, said in a telephone call with reporters. On the issue of less-risky tobacco items, the draft guidelines set up two categories: one with a higher evidence standard that lets companies claim less harm than cigarettes; and another with a lower standard that permits companies to market products as reducing exposure to unsafe ingredients. “We are forging new territory to ensure that tobacco companies provide accurate information and do not mislead American consumers,” FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said in a statement. “We are committed to stopping such practices that may cause people to start or continue using tobacco products that could lead to preventable disease and death.” 93 Chemicals The FDA released a list of 93 chemicals that tobacco makers would have to report the quantity of in their products. The FDA is studying [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-04-02T09:56:47-07:00April, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

April: Oral Cancer Awareness Month

Source: Aspen Dental April is Oral Cancer Awareness Month. According to Brian Hill, founder and executive director of the Oral Cancer Foundation, as many as 40,000 people in the United States will be told they have oral or pharyngeal cancer in 2012. Some of them may be sitting in your dental chair today. With one person dying of oral cancer every hour of every day, and more than 50% of those diagnosed not living more than 5 years, this is a reminder to screen every patient yourself, and encourage your dental hygiene staff to do the same. The Statistics About 100 people are diagnosed with oral cancer every day in the United States. Few people are aware that the death rate for oral cancer is higher than for many other types of cancers, which is because oral cancer often is not discovered until it has reached later stages. This is particularly true for human papilloma virus number 16 (HPV16)-related oral cancer, which occurs most frequently in the posterior areas of the mouth—at the base of the tongue, around the tonsils, and in the oropharynx—where it’s harder to spot without a very thorough exam. To further complicate things, HPV16-related cancer does not always present the tell-tale physical characteristics, including lesions, that are easily distinguished from healthy oral tissues. This is not good news, because HPV16 has reached epidemic levels in the United States: of the 37,000 incidences of oral cancer, about 20,000 (up to 60%) can be linked to HPV, according [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-04-02T09:47:20-07:00April, 2012|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

HPV Vaccine Reduces All Subtypes of HPV Disease

Source: Medscape.com Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination substantially reduced the risk for subsequent HPV disease in women who already had 1 bout of HPV-related disease, according to a study published online today in BMJ. "These are, to our knowledge, the first results in vaccinated women who have undergone treatment for HPV-related disease," write the authors, headed by Elmar Joura, MD, from the Medical University of Vienna in Austria. The data come from a subgroup of women who participated in trials of the quadrivalent HPV vaccine Gardasil (Merck & Co). Women who had HPV infection at the time of vaccination and who developed cervical, vulvar, or vaginal HPV disease had a substantially reduced risk of developing subsequent HPV-related disease after the first definitive treatment. HPV vaccination substantially reduced the risk for subsequent HPV disease — not only that caused by the 4 viral strains in the quadrivalent vaccine (HPV subtypes 6, 11, 16, and 18), but also that caused by other strains of HPV-related disease. This study "reinforces much of what we already know about the protective properties of the quadrivalent vaccine, including cross-protection against nonvaccine HPV types and vaccine benefit despite HPV exposure," writes Jane Kim, assistant professor of health decision science at Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, in an accompanying editorial. Subgroup of Women The study analyzed data collected from 2 large company-sponsored placebo-controlled trials of Gardasil, known as FUTURE I and FUTURE II. Together, they involved 17,622 women 15 to 26 years of age who were randomized to receive [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-04-02T09:21:38-07:00April, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Nanoparticles kill head/neck cancer cells in mice

Source: www.drbicuspid.com Author: DrBicuspid Staff Using nanoparticles and alternating magnetic fields, University of Georgia scientists have found that head and neck cancerous tumor cells in mice can be killed in half an hour without harming healthy cells. The findings, published in Theranostics, mark the first time to the researchers' knowledge that this cancer type has been treated using magnetic iron oxide nanoparticle-induced hyperthermia in laboratory mice. The researchers successfully used small concentrations of nanoparticles to kill the cancer cells, noted Qun Zhao, lead author and assistant professor of physics, in a press release. They found that the treatment easily destroyed the cells of cancerous tumors that were composed entirely of epithelium (Theranostics, 2012, Vol. 2:1, pp. 113-121). Other research groups are exploring the use of heated nanoparticles as a potential cancer treatment, and previous studies have shown that high temperatures created by combining magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles with strong alternating magnetic currents can create enough heat to kill tumor cells. Zhao said he is optimistic about his findings, but explained that future studies will need to include larger animals before a human clinical trial could be considered. For the experiment, researchers injected 0.5 milliliter of nanoparticle solution directly into the tumor site. With the mouse relaxed under anesthesia, they placed the animal in a plastic tube wrapped with a wire coil that generated magnetic fields that alternated directions 100,000 times each second. The magnetic fields produced by the wire coil heated only the concentrated nanoparticles within the cancerous tumor and [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-03-30T05:34:26-07:00March, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Mouthing off against oral cancer

Source: www.marketwatch.com Author: staff April Is Oral Cancer Awareness Month According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 30,000 new cases of oral cancer are diagnosed each year, and more than 8,000 deaths occur annually. The five-year survival rate for oral cancers is roughly 50 percent. In observance of Oral Cancer Awareness Month, the Academy of General Dentistry (AGD) recommends that patients receive a dental exam from a general dentist every six months. Dental exams not only help to decrease a patient's risk of oral diseases, such as cavities and periodontal (gum) disease, but they also may help to diagnose other, sometimes life-threatening, medical conditions, such as oral cancer. "The next time you visit your dentist, ask about an oral cancer screening," says AGD spokesperson Seung-Hee Rhee, DDS, FAGD. "Your dentist will feel for lumps or irregular tissue changes in your neck, head, cheeks, and oral cavity and thoroughly examine the soft tissues in your mouth, specifically looking for any sores or discolored tissues. Although you may have already been receiving this screening from your dentist, it's a good idea to confirm that this screening is a part, and will remain a part, of your regular exam." Although oral cancer is sometimes difficult to self-diagnose, warning signs may include bleeding sores; sores that do not heal; lumps; thick, hard spots; soreness or feeling that something is caught in the throat; difficulty chewing or swallowing; ear pain; difficulty moving the jaw or tongue; hoarseness; and numbness of [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-03-30T05:19:13-07:00March, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

HPV-related head and neck cancer on the rise among middle-aged white men

Source: www.news-medical.net Author: staff Research led by Lauren Cole, a public health graduate student, and Dr. Edward Peters, Associate Professor of Public Health and Director of the Epidemiology Program at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, reports that the incidence of head and neck cancer has risen at sites associated with Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) infection, with the greatest increase among middle-aged white men. At the same time, younger, Non-Hispanic blacks experienced a substantial decrease in these cancers. They also found that the disease process for tumors associated with HPV is different from those caused by exposure to tobacco and alcohol, with implications for treatment. The findings are published this month in the PLoS ONE journal. Tobacco and alcohol are the most common risk factors for cancers of the head and neck, but HPV infection is emerging as an important risk factor as well. The objectives of this study were to assess the recent incidence of head and neck cancer in the United States and to investigate the trends of these cancers associated with HPV infection. Using incidence data for 1995-2005 from 40 US population-based cancer registries, the researchers described the epidemiology of head and neck cancer (HNC) in the US and examined the variation in cancer rates by age, sex, race/ethnicity, stage and cancer location. As some HNC sites are strongly associated with a tendency for HPV infection, they also examined if rates varied by those sites associated with HPV. "During 1995-2005, we observed a significant overall increase in [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-03-30T05:12:03-07:00March, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Prevalidation of Salivary Biomarkers for Oral Cancer Detection

Source: AACRJournals.org Abstract Background: Oral cancer is the sixth most common cancer with a 5-year survival rate of approximately 60%. Presently, there are no scientifically credible early detection techniques beyond conventional clinical oral examination. The goal of this study is to validate whether the seven mRNAs and three proteins previously reported as biomarkers are capable of discriminating patients with oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC) from healthy subjects in independent cohorts and by a National Cancer Institute (NCI)-Early Detection Research Network (EDRN)-Biomarker Reference Laboratory (BRL). Methods: Three hundred and ninety-five subjects from five independent cohorts based on case controlled design were investigated by two independent laboratories, University of California, Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA) discovery laboratory and NCI-EDRN-BRL. Results: Expression of all seven mRNA and three protein markers was increased in OSCC versus controls in all five cohorts. With respect to individual marker performance across the five cohorts, the increase in interleukin (IL)-8 and subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) was statistically significant and they remained top performers across different cohorts in terms of sensitivity and specificity. A previously identified multiple marker model showed an area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve for prediction of OSCC status ranging from 0.74 to 0.86 across the cohorts. Conclusions: The validation of these biomarkers showed their feasibility in the discrimination of OSCCs from healthy controls. Established assay technologies are robust enough to perform independently. Individual cutoff values for each of these markers and for the combined predictive model need to be further defined in large [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-03-29T16:06:49-07:00March, 2012|Oral Cancer News|