Oral Cancer News

Radiation safety a priority at Johns Hopkins

Source: www.nccn.org Author: Megan Martin, Communications Manager Recent media coverage surrounding treatment errors that have occurred in radiation therapy has only intensified discussions about the need to improve safety for patients with cancer. Joseph Herman, MD, a radiation oncologist at The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins and a featured panelist at the upcoming NCCN 2010 Patient Safety Summit, recently spoke with NCCN about policies Hopkins has implemented to ensure the safety of their radiation therapy patients. Radiation safety, an issue that has always received great attention at Hopkins, came to the forefront a few years ago as Hopkins was looking to develop a new program for high dose rate intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT) – delivered through brachytherapy – and discovered that there were no clear standard guidelines or quality indicators for how to develop such a program. “Safety is of particular concern in this type of treatment because due to the high dose of radiation being emitted, clinicians cannot remain in the same room as the patient, a specific cause of anxiety for anesthesiologists,” said Dr. Herman. Using a patient simulator, the team walked through a variety of practice scenarios, identified areas for concern, and developed strategies to address potential safety issues. For example, Hopkins now uses cameras to monitor patient vital signs in the room and also has pre-measured medications available that can be delivered via a pole from another room – basically a “long-distance” method of treatment. Furthering their aim to identify points in the [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-08-29T08:00:00-07:00August, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

E-cigarettes: battle continues

Source: www.miamiherald.com Author: staff A Broward e-cigarette distributor gave up a legal fight with Oregon over the sale of its products there, as the industry waits to see if it will sell its products as a drug device or tobacco product. A leading distributor of electronic cigarettes, Weston-based Smoking Everywhere, has agreed to halt sales in Oregon, Attorney General John Kroger announced Monday. The Oregon official said Smoking Everywhere did not seek U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval and provides no evidence to support claims that "e-cigarettes'' are a safe alternative to conventional tobacco products. He also expressed concern that the company geared its marketing toward young people. Oregon last year became the first state to go to court to block the sale of the devices, some of which are designed to look like traditional cigarettes. Smoking Everywhere's electronic cigarettes have a battery-powered heating element and a replaceable plastic cartridge that contains chemicals, including liquid nicotine. The heat vaporizes the liquid for inhalation. In settling the suit, Smoking Everywhere admitted violating Oregon's Unlawful Trade Practices Act. Besides no longer selling its products there, the company agreed to pay more than $95,000 to the Oregon Department of Justice. Elico Taieb, the company president, will pay another $25,000 and is barred from doing any business in Oregon that involves tobacco, nicotine or electronic cigarettes. Taieb's attorney, Jason Weaver, said, ``We believe the product is safe,'' and fought with Oregon on the premise of the product being sold when it was not approved [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-08-29T07:53:17-07:00August, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Medicare expands coverage of tobacco cessation

Source: thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch Author: Mike Lillis The Obama administration on Wednesday expanded Medicare to cover more seniors hoping to kick their tobacco habits. "Most Medicare beneficiaries want to quit their tobacco use," Health and Human Services Department (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement announcing the move. "Now, [they] can get the help they need." Under previous rules, Medicare covered tobacco-related counseling only for beneficiaries already suffering from a tobacco-related disease. Under the new policy, Medicare will cover as many as two tobacco-cessation counseling tries each year, including as many as four individual sessions per attempt. The move is the latest in a string of White House efforts to shift the nation's healthcare system toward prevention, in lieu of simply treating diseases after they've developed. If successful, the new tobacco policy could pay dividends. Of the 46 million Americans estimated to smoke, about 4.5 million are seniors older than 65, HHS says. And nearly 1 million more smokers are younger than 65, but eligible for Medicare benefits. They aren't cheap. Tobacco-related diseases are estimated to cost Medicare about $800 billion between 1995 and 2015. Donald Berwick, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the expansion lends seniors valuable help "to avoid the painful — and often deadly — consequences of tobacco use." The change affects Medicare Parts A and B — hospital care and physician services — but not Part D, which already covers smoking-cessation drugs for all beneficiaries.

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-08-29T07:43:33-07:00August, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Man with short-term memory doesn’t know he’s dying

Source: www.wset.com Author: Ashley Singh A Pittsylvania County man is dying, but he doesn't know it. Stephen Kunze suffered a brain aneurysm 14 years ago. He has no short term memory. Stephen was recently diagnosed with tongue cancer and his wife, Martha, says they don't know how much time he has left. The only other choice she had, was to remove his tongue, but she couldn't do that to him. He'd wake up every morning not understanding what happened. She made the decision to enter the final chapter of their love story. Stephen thinks everyday is November 18th, 1996. That's the day he suffered a brain aneurysm and lost his short term memory. His wife, Martha, says it's so severe that her husband can watch an episode of M.A.S.H, rewind it, and watch it all over again. It's been like this for nearly 14 years. "His memory will last for the amount of the conversation, as soon as the conversation changes it's gone," she said. Last year, Stephen was diagnosed with tongue cancer. "It gets very hard to look at him and tell him that yes, you are going to die because you can't because it's like learning. Every time you say it to him it would be like learning it for the first time, all over again," said Martha. Martha believes not knowing he's about to die is what's keeping him alive. "He should be comatose in bed at those points but he's still up walking around," she said. [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-08-29T07:40:40-07:00August, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

New cancer drug gets dramatic results

Source: Technology Review Author: Emily Singer Researchers call the experimental drug a major success for targeted cancer therapies. An experimental drug designed to block the effects of a genetic mutation often found in patients with malignant melanoma, a deadly cancer with few existing treatments, significantly shrank tumors in about 80 percent of those who carried the mutation. The findings, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, signal a major success for so-called targeted cancer therapies, which are designed to block the effects of genetic mutations that drive the growth of cancer cells. "This study is a major breakthrough in cancer treatment, and for metastatic melanoma," saysMatthew Meyerson, an oncologist and researcher at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. Meyerson was not involved in the study. "It's a spectacular example of how genome-targeted therapies are beginning to help cancer patients." The drug in the current study inhibits activity of a protein called BRAF, which is overactive in 50 to 60 percent of malignant melanomas. Advances in genetic technologies over the last decade have allowed scientists to study the genetic mutations that underlie cancer in much greater detail. The result has been a new approach to drug design. Unlike chemotherapy, which can affect both healthy and cancerous cells and often triggers serious side effects, genetically targeted drugs act selectively on cancer cells that carry the mutation. Only a handful of such drugs have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and most target rare mutations. The BRAF mutation, [...]

Charlotte Parker2010-08-29T07:37:09-07:00August, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

How secondhand cigarette smoke changes your genes

Source: Time Magazine Author: Alice Park As if the growing number of smoking bans in restaurants, airplanes and other public places isn't sending a strong enough message, researchers now have the first biological data confirming the health hazards of secondhand smoke. Scientists led by Dr. Ronald Crystal at Weill Cornell Medical College documented changes in genetic activity among nonsmokers triggered by exposure to secondhand cigarette smoke. Public-health bans on smoking have been fueled by strong population-based data that links exposure to secondhand cigarette smoke and a higher incidence of lung diseases such as emphysema and even lung cancer, but do not establish a biological cause for the correlation. Now, for the first time, researchers can point to one possible cause: the passive recipient's genes are actually being affected. Crystal's team devised a study in which 121 volunteers — some of whom smoked and some of whom had never smoked — agreed to have samples of their airway cells studied for genetic activity. The subjects also provided urine so the researchers could measure the amount of nicotine and its metabolites, like cotinine, for an objective record of their exposure to cigarette smoke. Airway cells that line the bronchus, from the trachea all the way to the tiny alveoli deep in the lungs, are the first cells that confront cigarette smoke, whether it is inhaled directly from a cigarette or secondhand from the environment. Crystal's group hypothesized that any deterioration in lung function associated with cancer or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, including [...]

Charlotte Parker2010-08-29T07:36:37-07:00August, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

European Commission amends licence for Cervarix

Source: www.pharmpro.com Author: press release GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) confirmed today that the European Commission has granted Marketing Authorisation to amend the licence for its cervical cancer vaccine, Cervarix®. The approval from the European Commission is important as it recognises the extent of cervical cancer protection demonstrated by Cervarix®, which was not highlighted by the previous indication. The licence amendment is supported by data from the largest efficacy trial of a cervical cancer vaccine conducted to date, the PATRICIA study, and acknowledges that Cervarix® has shown efficacy beyond HPV 16 and 18, the two virus types contained in the vaccine. The summary of product characteristics (SPC) for Cervarix® will be updated to include the prevention of precancerous lesions and cervical cancer causally related to certain strains of the human papillomavirus (HPV) and will reflect data showing efficacy against the two vaccine types contained in the vaccine (HPV 16 and 18) and the three next most common cancer-causing virus types (HPV 31, 33 and 45).* Together these five HPV types (16, 18, 31, 33 and 45) account for 80 percent of all cervical cancers. Note: 1. Vaccine efficacy is different for each of the HPV types 16, 18, 31, 33 and 45, and varies in different cohorts and endpoints.

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-08-25T05:27:36-07:00August, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

New procedure for head and neck cancer transoral laser microsurgery (TLM)

Source: www.healthcanal.com Author: staff Head and neck cancer can have a significant impact on a patient’s appearance after traditional open surgery, not only due to scarring but by altering the ability to eat and speak. However, surgeons at the Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine are using a different approach that avoids cutting a patient’s face and neck, instead using a face’s existing openings. Called transoral laser microsurgery (TLM), it’s a minimally invasive technique that Bruce Haughey, MD, director of head and neck cancer surgery at Siteman, has perfected over the last decade and is now teaching surgeons around the country. (For more information, watch this news story about TLM.) “It’s an efficient way to manage head and neck cancer by avoiding external incisions and perhaps more importantly, avoiding the dismantling the face’s musculoskeletal structure,” says Dr. Haughey. It’s estimated there are about 29,000 new cases of head and neck cancer diagnosed annually in the United States. The treatment of head and neck cancers has a dual focus: eliminating the cancers that affect the mouth, throat, voice box, upper swallowing passage or skull base and providing the latest reconstructive procedures to restore patients’ appearance and ability to communicate and swallow. “Traditionally, these areas have been approached by very wide operations where large incisions are made on the face and neck,” says Dr. Haughey. “Because this is cancer surgery, these are large operations with safety margins to make sure that cancer is removed.” Dr. Haughey [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-08-22T12:36:16-07:00August, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Should boys also get vaccinated for HPV?

Source: www.npr.org Author: Brenda Wilson Many adolescents are having back-to-school visits with their doctors. That usually means shots — including, for some, the HPV vaccine. It's mainly given to adolescent girls to protect against the human papillomavirus, which causes cervical cancer. But there's a debate among scientists about whether to immunize boys as well. 'Herd Immunity' If this were a high school debate, it would go something like this: Be it resolved that all adolescent girls and boys should be vaccinated against HPV before they are sexually active, since more than half of all sexually active men and women will get HPV at some point in their lives. In the affirmative, there's Dr. Doug Lowy, co-inventor of the HPV vaccine who works at the National Cancer Institute. He says that since just 11 percent of girls now get all three doses of the vaccine and less than half get even one dose, rates of HPV in the U.S. are unlikely to come down very much. So, he says, let's offer the vaccine to boys as well. "When the percentage of girls getting vaccinated are in the 30 to 40 percent range, vaccinating boys is suggested to have a substantial enhancing impact on trying to protect those girls who are not vaccinated," Lowy says. He says it would provide "herd immunity." Boys don't get cervical cancer, but they can transmit HPV. So vaccinating boys would reduce the amount of HPV circulating in the population. Practical Dilemmas Speaking for the opposing side, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-08-22T12:21:20-07:00August, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

New tobacco policy likely to help check smoking among teenagers

Source: topnews.net.nz Author: Ketan Mukherjee In England, the legal age limit for purchasing cigarettes has been increased from 16 to 18 years. Because of this, the number of youngsters who start smoking at a very early age has decreased significantly. Researchers at University College London interviewed as many as 1,000 people aged 16-17 before and after the age limit was changed in the month of October in 2007. It was found that previous to October 2007, 24% of teenagers said that they smoked regularly. After the implementation of the new policy, the number reduced to 17%. The percentage of those above 18 years of age remained the same. It is worth mentioning that 8 out of every 10 smokers acquired this habit before they reached 19 years of age and diseases like mouth cancer and other problems related to tobacco are increasing rapidly. Researchers believe that the new tobacco law will certainly bring down the number of teenagers who want to go for smoking. According to Jenny Fidler, one of the researchers of the study, "The new law looks to have helped reduce smoking prevalence among younger age groups". He further added that the new law is for the betterment of the young generation of the country. He also said that new law will certainly clamp down on those teenagers who start smoking before 19 years.

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-08-22T12:08:59-07:00August, 2010|Oral Cancer News|