Oral Cancer News

Finally, a selfish reason to get boys vaccinated for HPV

Source: www.slate.com Author: Kent Sepkowitz A vaccine that prevents cancer is the dream of just about every patient, doctor, and public health official. Therefore, hopes were quite high five years ago, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a vaccine to prevent human papillomavirus, or HPV, a sexually transmitted virus that causes almost all cases of cervical cancer. But despite its clear efficacy, the vaccine has been something of a dud. According to a 2008 survey, only 34 percent of the target crowd, girls aged 13 to 17 years, had received it. The reasons for the slow uptake relate to generic vaccine issues (cost, pain, distrust) as well as a particular discomfort with this one, dubbed the "sex vaccine" by many conservatives, who object to it on the grounds that it somehow promotes licentious behavior (as if it were possible to make teenagers any hornier). However, a new study presented at last week's annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncologists makes the vaccine look even more valuable. Though preliminary and still unpublished, these findings have the potential to finally shift the perception that HPV is a woman's problem and convince parents to get their boys vaccinated against the virus, too. The researchers make the most compelling case to date that HPV causes yet another malignancy—oropharyngeal cancer, a disease that affects men three times more often than women. (It's a subcategory of "oral" or "head and neck" cancer, which also predominantly affect men.) Their work appears to have [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-06-17T12:56:58-07:00June, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Cancer death rate gap widens based on education

Source: apnews.myway.com Author: Mike Stobbe The gap in cancer death rates between college graduates and those who only went to high school is widening, the American Cancer Society reported Friday. Among men, the least educated died of cancer at rates more than 2 1/2 times that of men with college degrees, the latest data show. In the early 1990s, they died at two times the rate of most-educated men. For women, the numbers aren't as complete but suggest a widening gap also. The data, from 2007, compared people between the ages of 25 and 64. People with college degrees are seeing a significant drop in cancer death rates, while people who have spent less time in school are seeing more modest improvements or sometimes none at all, explained Elizabeth Ward, who oversees research done by the cancer society. The cancer society estimates there will be nearly 1.6 million new cancer cases in the United States this year, and 571,950 deaths. It also notes that overall cancer death rates have been dropping since the early 1990s, but the decline has been greater for some groups more than others. Experts believe that the differences have to do with education, how much people earn and where they live, among other factors. Researchers like to use education as a measuring stick because death certificates include that information. "Just because we're measuring education doesn't mean we think education is the direct reason" for the differences among population groups, Ward said. That said, the cancer death [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-06-17T06:43:24-07:00June, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Glowing Cornell Dots Target Cancer

SOURCE: Journal of Clinical Investigation, June 13, 2011 (Ivanhoe Newswire)-- New medical technology is showing that Cornell dots may be a potential cancer diagnostic tool. The U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently approved the first clinical trial in humans using Cornell Dots- brightly glowing nanoparticles that can light up cancer cells in PET-optical imaging. Cornell Dots are silica spheres less than eight nanometers in diameter that enclose several dye molecules. To make the dots stick to tumor cells, organic molecules that bind to tumor surfaces, or even specific locations within the tumors, can be attached to a polyethylene glycol shell. This shell, also referred to as PEG, prevents the body from recognizing the dots as foreign substances. When exposed to near-infrared light, the dots fluoresce much brighter than dye to serve as a beacon identifying the target cells. Researchers say this technology enables visualization during surgical treatment. Cornell Dots were first developed in 2005 by Hooisweng Ow, a coauthor of the paper on this study and once a graduate student working with Ulrich Wiesner, Cornell Professor of Materials Science and Engineering. Ow and other researchers of this technology are currently in the process of forming a new commercial entity in New York City that will help transition this research into commercial products that will benefit cancer patients. Michelle S. Bradbury, M.D, of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and an assistant professor of radiology at Weill Cornell Medical College, was quoted as saying, "This is the first FDA IND approved [...]

Charlotte Parker2011-06-15T11:14:48-07:00June, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Immunity Drugs Used to Fight Cancer

Source: The Wall Street Journal Scientists are scrambling to develop medications that fight cancer by spurring the body's immune system, a form of treatment that some cancer specialists believe may hold the key to keeping a patient permanently disease-free. The new efforts come in the wake of recent Food and Drug Administration approvals of Dendreon Corp.'s Provenge, an immunotherapy drug used to treat prostate cancer, and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s Yervoy, for melanoma. Other immunotherapy drugs are being developed for a number of other cancers, including lung, brain and kidney cancers. Unlike most traditional therapies that attack a cancer directly, immunotherapy uses the body's own internal defenses to ward off the disease, with the ultimate hope of building up a long-term resistance to the cancer. "If we are ever going to use the word 'cure', the immune system is going to have to come into play," says Stephen Hodi, director of the melanoma center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. One of the ways that cancer survives and ultimately spreads through the body is by exploiting a function in all cells that prevents the immune system from killing them. Researchers have found that cancer cells have multiple methods of avoiding detection and suppressing the immune system's response. "Why would cancer devote so much energy to avoid the immune system if the immune system didn't have the potential to reject the cancer?" says Robert Vonderheide from the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania. There are big hurdles to advancing the [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-06-14T10:26:14-07:00June, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Palifermin decreases severe oral mucositis after radiotherapy

Source: www.drbicuspid.com Author: Will Boggs, MD Palifermin (Kepivance) helps reduce the rate, severity, and duration of severe oral mucositis in head and neck cancer patients receiving chemoradiotherapy, two new studies show. "Combined data from both studies consistently indicated that palifermin has activities against radiochemotherapy-induced mucositis," said Dr. Quynh-Thu Le, who led one of the studies, in email to Reuters Health. "However, the lack of improvement in some of the secondary end points suggests that the doses and schedules tested were inadequate to overcome the severe mucositis brought on by concurrent radiochemotherapy." The recombinant keratinocyte growth factor palifermin is FDA-approved to treat severe oral mucositis in patients with hematologic malignancies receiving myelotoxic therapy requiring hematopoietic stem cell support. But Dr. Le said that unlike the mucositis related to chemotherapy for bone marrow transplant, mucositis from chemoradiotherapy is more severe and persistent and "may require more drug administered at a higher frequency." Dr. Le, from Stanford University, California, and colleagues tested palifermin, 180 mcg/kg IV once weekly, in 188 patients with locally advanced head and neck cancer receiving definitive chemoradiotherapy. The incidence of severe oral mucositis (grade 3 or 4) was significantly lower with palifermin versus placebo (54% versus 69%; p = 0.041). In addition, the median duration of severe oral mucositis was shorter in the palifermin group (5 versus 26 days), according to a report published online June 13 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. But mouth and throat soreness (MTS) scores averaged only slightly lower in the palifermin arm, and [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-06-14T10:16:17-07:00June, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

OCF is sad to report the loss of Laura Ziskin to cancer. Ms. Ziskin was an accomplished producer, studio executive and activist / co founder of Stand Up 2 Cancer.

Source: Stand up to Cancer Acclaimed film producer and cancer activist Laura Ziskin died today at her home in Santa Monica at the age of 61. Ziskin, who lived with breast cancer for seven years, is survived by her husband, screenwriter Alvin Sargent, with whom she frequently collaborated; daughter, producer Julia Barry, and son-in-law, writer Eli Dansky. The family requests that donations be made to Stand Up To Cancer: (via http://su2c.org or by mail: Attn: Stand Up To Cancer, c/o The Entertainment Industry Foundation, 1201 West 5th Street., T-700, Los Angeles, CA, 90017.) Ziskin had a trail-blazing career as a producer and studio executive for 35 years. After her cancer diagnosis, Ziskin embraced an additional, unsought role as a cancer activist, joining with other women in the entertainment and media businesses (including Sherry Lansing, Katie Couric, Rusty Robertson, Sue Schwartz, Ellen Ziffren, Pam Williams, Noreen Fraser, and the Entertainment Industry Foundation's Lisa Paulsen and Kathleen Lobb) to co-found Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C). The group marshals the entertainment industry's resources to engage the public in supporting a new approach to cancer research geared toward getting new therapies to patients quickly. Earlier this year, Ziskin was awarded The Producers Guild of America's Visionary Award for her work as a film producer and her humanitarian efforts in the fight against cancer. Speaking of herself and the other SU2C co-founders, Ziskin said, "We realized we had the potential to make cancer the first-tier issue it needs to be and to impact how cancer [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-06-14T10:10:00-07:00June, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Photodynamic therapy shows promise in head/neck cancer

Source: www.drbicuspid.com Author: staff Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been shown to be effective as a curative therapy for early cancers of the head and neck, according to research presented at the recent International Photodynamic Association World Congress in Innsbruck, Austria. Researchers from Ondine Biomedical presented two studies at the conference. In the first, 469 patients with various neoplastic diseases of the head and neck were treated with PDT with follow-up time of up to 250 months. Patients with primary or recurrent carcinoma in situ and T1 carcinomas responded after one PDT treatment, and 88% remained free of the disease, according to the researchers. The second study focused on the use of PDT to down regulate MMP-9 gene expression in cell cultures of precancerous leukoplakia and oral squamous cell carcinoma. MMP-9 is expressed by squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck, and is one of the factors responsible for the ability of these cancers to invade into tissue and also to spread to other tissues. After one treatment of methylene blue PDT, gene expression of MMP-9 was significantly decreased in both the precancerous leukoplakia cells and the oral squamous cell carcinoma cells. This work demonstrated that methylene blue mediated PDT can downregulate proteins that promote the spreading of head and neck carcinoma, therefore potentially reducing the ability of these cancers to invade tissue and spread, the researchers noted. "These abstracts clearly confirm a role of PDT in the treatment of head and neck cancer," stated Carolyn Cross, chairman and CEO [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-06-14T10:06:50-07:00June, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Palifermin Decreases Severe Oral Mucositis of Patients Undergoing Postoperative Radiochemotherapy for Head and Neck Cancer: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial

Source: Journal of Clinical Oncology Purpose: Radiochemotherapy of head and neck cancer causes severe mucositis in most patients. We investigated whether palifermin reduces this debilitating sequela. Methods: We conducted a multicenter, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial in 186 patients with stages II to IVB carcinoma of the oral cavity, oropharynx, hypopharynx, or larynx. Patients received 60 or 66 Gy after complete (R0) or incomplete resection (R1), respectively, at 2 Gy/fraction and five fractions per week. Cisplatin 100 mg/m2 was administered on days 1 and 22 (and on day 43 with R1). Patients were randomly assigned to receive weekly palifermin 120 μg/kg or placebo from 3 days before and continuing throughout radiochemotherapy. Trained evaluators performed oral assessments twice weekly. The primary end point was the incidence of severe oral mucositis (WHO grades 3 to 4). Overall survival and time to locoregional progression were also assessed. Analysis was by intention to treat. Results: Severe oral mucositis was seen in 47 (51%) of 92 patients administered palifermin and 63 (67%) of 94 administered placebo (P = .027). Palifermin decreased the duration (median, 4.5 v 22.0 days) and prolonged the time to develop (median, 45 v 32 days) severe mucositis. Neither patient-reported mouth and throat soreness scores nor treatment breaks differed between treatment arms. After median follow-up of 32.8 months, 23 deaths (25%) had occurred in both treatment arms, and disease had recurred in 25 (27%) and 22 (24%) of palifermin- and placebo-treated patients, respectively. Conclusion: Palifermin reduced the occurrence of severe oral mucositis in [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-06-14T09:57:52-07:00June, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Certain head and neck cancer patients benefit from second round of treatment

Source: www.eureka.org Author: press release A new study has determined predictors that can better identify patients who will benefit from a potentially toxic second course of treatment, which offers a small but real chance of cure in select patients with head and neck cancer. Published early online in Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the findings could help guide treatment decisions for head and neck cancer patients. Radiation is often used to treat patients with head and neck cancer. If their cancer reappears, they have limited treatment choices: chemotherapy is not curative, and surgery can be curative but is often not possible. Chemotherapy and a second course of radiation have previously been shown to be another option. Joseph Salama, MD, formerly of the University of Chicago, and his colleagues conducted an analysis of prior studies to determine how patients tolerate this second round of treatment and which patients benefit the most from it. The investigators analyzed data from 166 patients with head and neck cancer who received a first round of radiation followed by a second round plus chemotherapy because their cancer recurred or they developed a new tumor. The second course of treatment could cure approximately 25 percent of patients at two years, but it was quite toxic. (Some patients lost the ability to speak or swallow. In addition, approximately 20 percent of patients died from treatment-related complications.) Certain patients benefited from the treatment over others. Those who were cancer-free for a longer period of time, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-06-13T21:30:52-07:00June, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Is there a relationship between coffee and tea intake and head and neck cancers?

Source: EBD- Evidence Based Dentistry Data sources Pooled individual-level data from nine case–control studies of head and neck cancers, including 5,139 cases and 9,028 controls. Study selection Nine case-control studies were selected from the International Head and Neck Cancer Epidemiology (INHANCE) consortium pool of 33 studies, which included information on coffee (caffeinated and decaffeinated) and tea drinking and cancer of the oral cavity and pharynx. Seven studies also included information on laryngeal cancer. Data extraction and synthesis Data from individual studies were checked for inconsistencies and pooled in a standardised way into a common database, including a range of sociodemographic, behavioural, lifestyle and health information. Data on consumption across studies were then converted into cups of de/caffeinated tea or coffee per day. The association between head and neck cancers and caffeinated coffee, decaffeinated coffee or tea intake was assessed by estimating the odds ratios (OR) and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) using a two-stage random-effects logistic regression model with the maximum likelihood estimator. Pooled ORs were also estimated with a fixed-effects logistic regression model. In addition, a test for heterogeneity among studies was conducted. Results Caffeinated coffee intake was inversely associated with the risk of cancer of the oral cavity and pharynx: the ORs were 0.96 (95% CI, 0.94–0.98) for an increment of one cup per day and 0.61 (95% CI, 0.47–0.80) in drinkers of >4 cups per day versus non-drinkers. This latter estimate was consistent for different anatomic sites (OR, 0.46; 95% CI, 0.30–0.71 for oral cavity; [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-06-13T09:58:16-07:00June, 2011|Oral Cancer News|