Oral Cancer News

Can HPV Vaccine Prevent Oral Cancer?

Source: WebMD.com June 23, 2011 -- Can HPV vaccines stop the explosive rise of HPV-related head and neck cancer? HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccines protect against the sexually transmitted strains of HPV that cause cervical cancer. The same HPV strains -- spread by kissing and by oral sex -- cause oropharyngeal (OP) cancer, the form of head and neck cancer that affects the back and sides of the throat, the base of the tongue, and the tonsils. There's strong evidence that HPV vaccines prevent cervical cancer. There's no direct proof that these vaccines prevent throat cancer, but the rapid rise in cases among young people has some experts wanting to vaccinate first and get proof later. "We don't need to wait until all these molecular events are understood," Dong Moon Shin, MD, of Emory University's Winship Cancer Center, tells WebMD. "The time is now. For the HPV vaccine, cost is the only issue as side effects are minimal. Routine HPV vaccination has to be implemented very soon, for both boys and girls." In the U.S., that recommendation is made by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). The ACIP now recommends routine HPV vaccination only for girls and young women in order to prevent cervical cancer. It permits vaccination of boys who want protection against HPV-caused genital warts. For two years, the ACIP has been mulling whether to recommend the HPV vaccine for boys. This would help prevent cervical cancer in unvaccinated women. It also would prevent HPV-related anal cancer and [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-06-24T08:50:47-07:00June, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Global Rise in Cancer Cost $300 Billion in 2010, Harvard Economist Says During Press Briefing Hosted by the American Cancer Society and the United Nations

23 June 2011 United Nations — Newly diagnosed cancer cases cost the global economy $300 billion in 2010, as illnesses once believed to be largely confined to wealthier countries took hold in developing nations, a Harvard University economist said during a press briefing hosted by the American Cancer Society Global Health Programs and the United Nations Department of Public Information. Tobacco use, alcohol intake, obesity and decreased physical activity have grown in poorer countries, causing the rise of cancer and diabetes, said David E. Bloom, professor of economics and demography at Harvard’s School of Public Health in Boston. Bloom and other researchers held a briefing today in advance of the United Nations High Level Meeting on noncommunicable diseases. The Sept. 19-20 meeting will be the first gathering of the UN Assembly dealing with cancer, cardiovascular illness, chronic lung conditions and diabetes. These diseases cause 60 percent of deaths worldwide, killing 36.1 million people annually, according to an April report by the World Health Organization. “Noncommunicable diseases will evolve into a staggering economic burden in the coming years,” Bloom said. “It’s a huge impediment to the mitigation of poverty.” Bloom said treating newly diagnosed cancer cases cost $300 billion globally in 2010, and obstructive pulmonary disease -- often correlated with smoking tobacco -- costs $4 billion a year. Not Confined to Health “Economic policy makers like ministers of finance and ministers of planning see noncommunicable diseases as an issue confined to the health sector,” a misperception that needs to be addressed, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-06-24T08:42:35-07:00June, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Michael Douglas Continues to Put Oral Cancer in the Spotlight

Source: Dr.Biscupid.com Actor Michael Douglas' recent revelation that he had stage IV oropharyngeal cancer has highlighted the growing incidence of oral cancer, and experts say dentists can help stem the alarming increase of the disease by checking for it during routine examinations. The actor's cancer included a walnut-sized tumor at the base of his tongue, requiring radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and surgery. Douglas says his doctors told him he had an 80% survival rate if it hadn't spread to his lymph nodes. While tobacco was the prime cause of oral cancer in the past, recent studies have attributed the steady increase of the disease to the human papillomavirus (HPV16). There are approximately 130 versions of HPV but only nine cause cancers, and the HPV16 version causes almost half of the oral cancers in the U.S., said Brian Hill, executive director of the Oral Cancer Foundation. "Tobacco is no longer the only bad guy," he told DrBicuspid.com. “HPV16 is increasing in incidence as the causative etiology, and if it continues on this trend line, it will replace tobacco as the primary cause of oral cancers." Dentists can play a key role in catching the disease in its early stages if they check for it during examinations, Hill pointed out. "But many dentists think it's such a rare disease that they don't bother to screen for it," he said. "Most Americans have never even heard of oral cancer, but it's not as rare or uncommon as people would like to think it is. [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-06-23T20:17:05-07:00June, 2011|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

Oral, Head and Neck Cancers Continue to Increase While Most U.S. Cancer Death Rates are on the Decline

Source: SHOTS (NPR's Health Blog) The rate at which Americans die from cancer continues to fall, according to the latest estimates from the American Cancer Society. As a result, nearly 900,000 cancer deaths were avoided between 1990 and 2007, the group figures. Survival gains have come as mortality rates have declined for some of the most common malignancies, including colorectal cancer, breast cancer in women and prostate cancer. Still, the ACS estimates there will nearly 1.6 million new cancers diagnosed this year, and about 572,000 deaths from the disease. The incidence of cancers hasn't budged much for men in recent years, after falling quite a bit during the first half of the last decade. Cancer incidence for women has been falling since 1998. The report was just published online by CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. Lung cancer remains the biggest killer for both men and women. All told, about 160,000 people in the U.S. are expected to die from it this year. Starting in 1987, more women have died from lung cancer each year than breast cancer. One section of the report focuses on a persistent and, in some cases, widening gap in cancer death rates between people with the least education and those with the most. Educational attainment is often used in research as a proxy for socioeconomic status. American Cancer Society epidemiologist Elizabeth Ward, one of the report's authors, tells Shots, "People of a lower socioeconomic status are more likely to smoke and less likely to get [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-06-22T10:26:11-07:00June, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Scandinavia Snus Maker Plans to Push Product in the U.S.

Source: Convenience Store News STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- One of the largest snus makers in Scandinavia is looking to add to its dominance in the field by tackling the United States. In a move to capture part of the smokeless tobacco industry in America, Swedish Match AB is introducing two new versions of its General brand. The company is expanding its retail distribution this month, beginning in Chicago, Dallas and Philadelphia, according to the Wall Street Journal. To date, Swedish Match has had a comparably smaller toehold in the United States then it has in Scandinavia. As the news outlet reported, snus make up about 2.5 percent of the smokeless tobacco sales in the United States. Leaders in the American market include R.J. Reynolds' Camel Snus and the Altria Group's Marlboro Snus and Skoal Snus. Swedish Match plans to emphasize to consumers that General is an authentic Swedish snus that has been made in Sweden for more than 150 years. The new Nordic Mint and Classic Blend varieties will sell at a slight premium to Camel Snus, the WSJ reported. "We think snus in the U.S. is going to be a big category," said Clark Darrah, vice president for next-generation products for Swedish Match's U.S. division. "Globally, this is the biggest opportunity that we have." Across the Atlantic, Swedish Match holds approximately 85 percent of the snus market in Sweden and approximately 70 percent in Norway, according to the report. And now it wants its piece of the U.S. pie. The [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-06-21T09:55:49-07:00June, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

FDA issues graphic cigarette labels

Source: apnews.myway.com Author: Michael Felberbaum In the most significant change to U.S. cigarette packs in 25 years, the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday released nine new warning labels that depict in graphic detail the negative health effects of tobacco use. Among the images to appear on cigarette packs are rotting and diseased teeth and gums and a man with a tracheotomy smoking. Also included among the labels are: the corpse of a smoker, diseased lungs, and a mother holding her baby with smoke swirling around them. They include phrases like "Smoking can kill you" and "Cigarettes cause cancer" and feature graphic images to convey the dangers of tobacco, which is responsible for about 443,000 deaths in the U.S. a year. Each label includes a national quit smoking hotline number. The labels will take up the top half of a pack of cigarette packs. Warning labels also must appear in advertisements and constitute 20 percent of an ad. Cigarette makers have until the fall of 2012 to comply. Mandates to introduce new graphic warning labels were part of a law passed in 2009 that, for the first time, gave the federal government authority to regulate tobacco, including setting guidelines for marketing and labeling, banning certain products and limiting nicotine. The announcement follows reviews of scientific literature, public comments and results from an FDA-contracted study of 36 labels proposed last November. In recent years, more than 30 countries or jurisdictions have introduced labels similar to those being introduced by the FDA. [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-06-21T04:52:43-07:00June, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Early effect of the HPV vaccination programme on cervical abnormalities in Victoria, Australia: an ecological study

Source: The Lancet Summary: Background Australia introduced a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programme with the quadrivalent HPV vaccine for all women aged 12—26 years between 2007 and 2009. We analysed trends in cervical abnormalities in women in Victoria, Australia, before and after introduction of the vaccination program. Methods With data from the Victorian Cervical Cytology Registry between 2003 and 2009, we compared the incidence of histopathologically defined high-grade cervical abnormalities (HGAs, lesions coded as cervical intraepithelial neoplasia of grade 2 or worse or adenocarcinoma in situ; primary outcome) and low-grade cytological abnormalities (LGAs) in five age groups before (Jan 1, 2003, to March 31, 2007) and after (April 1, 2007, to Dec 31, 2009) the vaccination programme began. Binary comparisons between the two periods were done with Fisher's exact test. Poisson piecewise regression analysis was used to compare incident rate trends. Findings After the introduction of the vaccination programme, we recorded a decrease in the incidence of HGAs by 0·38% (95% CI 0·61—0·16) in girls younger than 18 years. This decrease was progressive and significantly different to the linear trend in incidence before introduction of the vaccination (incident rate ratio 1·14, 1·00—1·30, p=0·05). No similar temporal decline was recorded for LGAs or in older age groups. Interpretation This is the first report of a decrease in incidence of HGAs within 3 years after the implementation of a population-wide HPV vaccination programme. Linkage between vaccination and screening registers is needed to confirm that this ecological observation is attributable to vaccination and [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-06-20T10:53:42-07:00June, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

For the first time in nearly four decades, smokeless tobacco has no hand in sponsoring the College National Finals Rodeo

Source: Billings Gazette CASPER, Wyo. — The once steadfast coupling of chewing tobacco and the collegiate cowboy extravaganza is no more. There are no Copenhagen banners, there are no Skoal flags. There are no free samples. For the first time in nearly four decades, smokeless tobacco has no hand in sponsoring the College National Finals Rodeo. “It’s a tremendous and tragic loss to college rodeo,” National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association Commissioner Roger Walters said during the weeklong 2011 CNFR, which ended Saturday night at the Casper Events Center. “Who lost? Our students.” For 37 years, U.S. Smokeless Tobacco gave hundreds of thousands of dollars in the form of scholarships to college rodeo. While the presence of the company’s banners and flags at the CNFR ceased in 2009, the company — acquired by Altria that same year — continued giving scholarship money through last year. Walters said the company, in a time of economic hardship, gave roughly $250,000 in scholarships each year to college rodeo performers. The sponsorship pullout by the company, he said, constituted an 80 to 85 percent loss in money available for the performers. “I understand the reasons (for their departure), but in the long run, it hurts our students,” he said. “And that’s what this rodeo is for, first and foremost.” Health officials, however, applauded the move. “It is never a good idea to promote a product that is a deadly killer,” said Niki Mueller, the program director of Wyoming Through With Chew. “Rodeo is a family event, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-06-20T10:32:05-07:00June, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Researchers find protein that could help predict head and neck cancer

Source: www.medindia.net Author: Sheela Philomena Researchers have identified a protein that could pave way to predict the spread of head and neck cancer nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). The study by Van Andel Research Institute (VARI) researchers found the protein could also serve as part of a treatment strategy to stop the spread of the disease. Though uncommon in the United States, NPC is one of the most common malignant tumours in southern China and Southeast Asia with incidence rates nearly 25 times that of most of the rest of the world. VARI researchers worked with scientists in Singapore, China, and the United States on the study. "This study does not just report another molecular marker for metastasis of nasopharyngeal cancer, these investigators have revealed an important process related to this molecule," Wei Zhang, Ph.D., Professor at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, explained. "Characterization of this process will open diverse opportunities for effective inhibition of this novel target for cancer metastasis," Zhang said. NPC is the most common cancer originating in the nasopharynx area of the throat and has the highest metastasis rate among head and neck cancers. By the time patients are diagnosed, the disease has usually spread to lymph nodes or distant organs such as the liver. Working together with physicians and scientists at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center in China, VARI researchers found that the protein serglycin is a marker of metastasis for NPC. Higher levels of serglycin correlated with an unfavourable prognosis and the increased likelihood that cancer would [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-06-18T11:30:33-07:00June, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Matthew Algeo’s ‘The President is a Sick Man’ vindicates an old story, and its reporter

Source: www.cleveland.com/books Author: teve Weinberg Stephen Grover Cleveland, born in 1837, would become one of the most unusual U.S. presidents, in multiple ways. Living in the east, he planned to make his way to the boomtown of Cleveland, in 1854, seeking riches. His prospects looked good, given the influence of his distant relative, Moses Cleaveland, often credited with founding the city. The young man never made it past Buffalo, N.Y., however, where an uncle made him an employment offer. The rest of his life, Grover Cleveland (he dropped Stephen in favor of his middle name) would be bound up in New York state politics, except when he spent two nonconsecutive terms in the White House, 1885-1889 and 1893-1897. Matthew Algeo, a historian and radio journalist, focuses on a dramatic, little-known event in his new book, "The President Is a Sick Man." Algeo, a strong writer, nevertheless saddles his work with a ponderous subtitle "Wherein the Supposedly Virtuous Grover Cleveland Survives a Secret Surgery at Sea and Vilifies the Courageous Newspaperman Who Dared Expose the Truth." Suffering from mouth cancer in 1893, Cleveland disappeared to undergo surgery on the yacht of a friend. The president, his doctors and political advisers feared that news might exacerbate a financial recession and trigger panic. Cleveland's popular wife, Frances, young enough to be his daughter, lied to journalists about the president's whereabouts. Cleveland's press aide lied, too. Reporters accepted the falsehoods, misleading the citizenry into believing the nation's leader vanished for five days to undergo [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-06-18T11:22:17-07:00June, 2011|Oral Cancer News|