Oral Cancer News

Doctors using mouthwash to detect head, neck cancer

Source: www.king5.com Author: Jean Enersen For a patient with head and neck cancer, the cure rate is only 30 percent. That's because the disease is often detected in the late stages. Now catching the cancer earlier may be as simple as gargling with mouthwash. Edie Acosta's niece and nephew gave her the courage to fight neck cancer. "They cut from here, all the way down here," she said. On her neck, the scar marks where a stage four tumor was removed. "It seemed bigger and bigger 'til it got to the size of a fist, a man's fist," she said. "And I couldn't even move my neck. You feel like a little bird whose wings got cut and you can't fly anymore. I just, I thought I was really gonna die." For patients like Edie, late stage diagnosis makes treating neck cancer more difficult. Now, researchers have developed a quick, inexpensive mouthwash to detect these cancers earlier. The patient rinses with the saline mouthwash. After they spit it out, doctors add antibodies. In about 48 hours, if there's cancer detected in the saliva, the molecules show up in color. "We've found that these molecules show up differently in the oral rinses from patients that have cancer compared to patients that don't have cancer," said Dr. Elizabeth Franzmann, otolaryngologist, Sylvester Cancer Center at the University of Miami. In a study that included 102 head and neck cancer patients and 69 patients with benign disease, the oral rinse detected the cancer nearly [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-12-25T11:07:06-07:00December, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Emory couples cancer drug with green tea extract to help fight cancers of the head and neck

Source: www.examiner.com Author: Kristina Bjoran Clinical researchers at the Emory University Winship Cancer Institute have discovered that pairing a popular cancer-fighting drug with green tea extract may help reduce the risks for neck and head cancers. The lead investigator in the trial is Dr. Dong Moon Shin, and he and his team have been working to combine the drug Erlotinib with an extract of green tea to observe the effects. Elrotinib is a drug that has been long used as an effective way to treat certain types of lung and pancreatic cancers. Neck and head cancers are more common than many know. The American Cancer Society touts that almost 50,000 Americans will be diagnosed with one of the two cancers this year alone, so this new trial at Emory may provide hope for those with pre-cancerous lesions related to the cancers. The chemical of interest in the green tea extract is called polyphenon E (PPE), and the lab experiments show that combing PPE with Elrontinib can potentially prevent the development of the cancers by targeting specific cellular activity in the pre-cancerous areas. Shin and his team are focusing on the lesions of the head and neck. Cancers of the head and neck have relatively low survival rates, and have not seen much of an increase over the past few decades. As the sixth most common type of cancer, this new study provides hope to those in need of a new, effective treatment.

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-12-25T11:02:51-07:00December, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Best face forward

Source: www.curetoday.com Author: Lacey Meyer When 16th-century astronomer Tycho Brahe lost part of his nose in a duel, his options for a prosthesis were limited — he donned a folded metal plate in the shape of a nose to cover his missing anatomy. Today, patients with head and neck cancer, who may lose bone, skin, teeth or cartilage as a result of cancer surgery, find that the focus is not only on cancer control, but also on facial restoration with specialists who see the process as not only functional but also aesthetic. For past patients, the evolved approach to treatment with a multidisciplinary team of specialists, each concentrating on a certain area within the full scope of maxillofacial prosthetic rehabilitation, can be life-changing. Joseph Huryn, DDS, says he has patients who were recluses for years, unaware of facial prostheses as a possibility. “It changes their life incredibly,” says Huryn, chief of dental service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. Depending on head and neck cancer location, size and treatment, maxillofacial prostheses can be intra-oral (within the mouth) or extra-oral (outside of the mouth). Maxillofacial prosthodontists can fabricate prostheses ranging from a resection appliance — used to replace part of the lower jaw — to an auricular (ear) prosthesis or an orbital prosthesis replacing the eye and surrounding tissues including the eyelid, socket and sometimes part of the cheek and nose. Professionals in anaplastology — the art and science of creating artificial anatomy — specialize in the fabrication [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-12-24T09:12:26-07:00December, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Adverse events associated with concurrent chemoradiation therapy in patients with head and neck cancer

Source: Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2009;135(12):1209-1217 Authors: Daniel J. Givens, BS et al. Objective: To assess toxicities, functional outcomes, and health-related quality of life associated with concurrent chemoradiation therapy (CRT) in patients with head and neck cancer. Design: Prospective and retrospective outcomes study. Setting: Tertiary care institution. Patients: Participants in the longitudinal Outcomes Assessment Project whose head and neck cancer was treated with CRT between February 1, 2000, and March 1, 2007 (n = 104). Interventions: Patients prospectively provided functional and health-related quality of life information, including data from the 1-year and most current follow-up visits. Medical records were reviewed to determine toxicity and survival rates. Main Outcome Measures: Well-defined acute and late toxicities; functional outcomes (diet, dentition, tracheostomies); head and neck cancer–specific, general health, and depression outcomes; and survival rates. Results: Most patients had oropharyngeal or laryngeal tumors (87.5%) and advanced-stage disease (75.0%). Approximately one-half had hematologic toxicities and toxicity-related treatment delays. Approximately one-quarter had neurotoxicities and/or ototoxicites, moist desquamation, pneumonia, nausea and vomiting requiring hospitalization or intravenous fluids, dehydration or malnutrition requiring hospitalization, and mild or moderate fever. Although patients receiving the current intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) protocol using the Pinnacle3 planning system had more toxicity-related treatment delays, they had fewer toxicities and better functional and health-related quality of life outcomes compared with those receiving conventional lateral opposing-field radiation or the initial IMRT protocol using the Best nomos PEACOCK planning system. Conclusions: Patients receiving CRT experience a substantial number of treatment-related adverse events, primarily affecting oropharyngeal and [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-12-23T14:52:45-07:00December, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

New artificial larynx helps people sound more human

Source: singularityhub.com Author: Aaron Saenz You may have a family member or friend who had throat cancer. Maybe you’ve seen a TV show where a heavy smoker needs an artificial larynx pressed to their neck to speak. Either way, you know the voice that they have to use: robotic, monotone, raspy. It works, but it can leave users unable to express themselves well. Researchers at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa have developed a new system that measures mouth movement to produce a more “human-like” voice. Their work was on display at the recent International Conference on Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Engineering. By placing a device called a palatometer under the tongue, users can try to speak as normal and have their words synthesized on a speaker. The South African artificial larynx can provide inflection, ending the dreaded monotone and providing the means to indicate you are asking a question. With proper calibration, researchers claim greater than 94% accuracy. That’s good news to those who want to regain a normal speaking voice. The palatometer, which measures tongue/mouth movements with 118+ pressure sensors, is an older device developed at BYU and produced by Complete Speech. It is most often used by speech therapists in instructing their patients and retails for around $200-$300. You can see a brief presentation of the palatometer after the break. University of Witwatersrand’s innovation comes in developing a selective way of using the mouth movement data to generate toned speech. After cataloging tongue motions, and using predictive-analysis, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-12-23T08:57:24-07:00December, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Tongue reconstruction

Source: www.wsoctv.com/health Author: staff Tongue cancer accounts for about 25 percent of all oral cancers. According to the National Cancer Institute, about 10,530 cases of tongue cancer will be diagnosed in the U.S. this year. Although the cancer can occur at any age, it’s most commonly diagnosed in older people, with a median age at diagnosis of 61. Men are affected about twice as often as women. Two important risk factors for tongue cancer are smoking and drinking. For people who smoke and drink, the risk may be up to 100 times that of those who neither smoke nor drink. Another risk factor for tongue cancer is HPV (human papillomavirus) infection. Douglas Chepeha, M.D., Microvascular Reconstructive Surgeon with the University of Michigan, says doctors are also seeing cases of tongue cancer in young and older women who neither smoke nor drink. The reasons for these cases are not clear. Overall five-year survival rates for tongue cancer are about 59.5 percent. However, the cancer has the potential to spread fairly quickly. If the cancer is detected when the condition is still localized, 5-year survival rates are over 77 percent. Once the cancer spreads regionally, survival rates drop to about 55 percent. Thus, early diagnosis is important. Patients who develop a sore on the tongue that doesn’t heal or bleeds easily should see a physician for evaluation. Treating Tongue Cancer: Reconstruction After Surgery Tongue cancer typically occurs on one side of the tongue. The main treatment is surgery, which can require removal [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-12-19T23:14:42-07:00December, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

FDA clears transoral robotic surgery – developed at Penn –for tumors of mouth, throat and voice box

Source: www.healthcanal.com Author: staff A minimally invasive surgical approach developed by head and neck surgeons at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine has been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The da Vinci Surgical System (Intuitive Surgical, Inc., Sunnyvale, California) has been cleared for TransOral Otolaryngology surgical procedures to treat benign tumors and selected malignant tumors in adults. Drs. Gregory S. Weinstein and Bert W. O’Malley, Jr. of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine’s Department of Otorhinolaryngology: Head and Neck Surgery founded the world’s first TransOral Robotic Surgery (TORS) programat Penn Medicine in 2004, where they developed and researched the TORS approach for a variety of robotic surgical neck approaches for both malignant and benign tumors of the mouth, voice box, tonsil, tongue and other parts of the throat. Since 2005, approximately 350 Penn patients have participated in the world’s first prospective clinical trials of TORS. These research trials compromise the largest and most comprehensive studies of the technology on record. “TORS has dramatically improved the way we treat head and neck cancer patients, completely removing tumors while preserving speech, swallowing, and other key quality of life issues,” said Bert O’Malley, Jr., MD, professor and chairman of Penn Medicine’s Department of Otorhinolaryngology:Head and Neck Surgery. “It is very exciting that a concept conceived at PENN, evaluated in pre-clinical experimental models at Penn, tested in clinical trials at Penn, and then taught to key surgeons and institutions both within the U.S. and internationally has been officially [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-12-19T23:10:00-07:00December, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Comparative prognostic value of HPV16 E6 mRNA compared with in situ hybridization for human oropharyngeal squamous carcinoma

Source: Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vol 27, No 36 (December 20), 2009: pp. 6213-6221 Authors: Wei Shi et al. Purpose: A significant proportion of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC) are associated with the human papilloma virus (HPV), particularly HPV16. The optimal method for HPV determination on archival materials however, remains unclear. We compared a quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) assay for HPV16 mRNA to a DNA in situ hybridization (ISH) method, and evaluated their significance for overall (OS) and disease-free (DFS) survival. Patients and Methods: Matched, archival biopsies from 111 patients with OSCC were evaluated for HPV16 using a qRT-PCR for E6 mRNA and ISH for DNA. Immunohistochemistry for p16, p53, and epidermal growth factor receptor were also performed. Results: HPV16 E6 mRNA was positive in 73 (66%) of 111 samples; ISH was positive in 62 of 106 samples (58%), with 86% concordance. P16 was overexpressed in 72 samples (65%), which was strongly associated with HPV16 status by either method. E6 mRNA presence or p16 overexpression were significantly associated with superior OS; E6 mRNA, HPV16 ISH, or p16 were all significantly associated with DFS. On multivariate analysis adjusted for age, stage, and treatment, positive E6 mRNA was the only independent predictor for superior OS; for DFS, p16 expression or HPV16 status determined by either method was significant. Conclusion: The prevalence of HPV16 in OSCC ranges from 58% to 66%, in a recently treated Canadian cohort. Classification of HPV-positivity by HPV16 E6 mRNA, HPV16 ISH or p16 immunohistochemistry (IHC) is [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-12-19T23:04:23-07:00December, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Scientists decode entire genetic code of cancer

Source: www.popsci.com Author: Jeremy Hsu And cigarette smokers get a free mutation in every pack In a major step toward understanding cancer, one of the biggest problems bedeviling modern medicine, scientists have now cracked the genetic code for two of the most common cancers. This marks just the beginning of an international effort to catalog all the genes that go wrong among the many types of human cancer, the BBC reports. Cracking the Cancer Code A cluster of breast cancer cells, with blue ones marking actively growing cells and yellow marking dying cells. Could scientists crack their code next? Too much time spent under the sun apparently leads to most of the 30,000 mutations contained within the DNA code for melanoma, or skin cancer. Outside experts told the BBC that no previous study has managed to link specific mutations to their causes. Wellcome Trust scientists also found more than 23,000 errors in the lung cancer DNA code, with most caused by cigarette smoke exposure. A typical smoker might get one new mutation, possibly harmless but also possibly a cancer trigger, for every 15 cigarettes that they smoke. The new cancer maps could lead to better blood tests for diagnosing the respective cancers, as well as better targeted drugs. Blood tests might even reveal the DNA patterns that suggest cancer lies on the horizon. The International Cancer Genome Consortium still expects to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in cracking the code of the many human cancers. The U.S. has the [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-12-17T19:52:17-07:00December, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Adapting the science of supplements and cancer prevention

Source: www.cancer.gov Author: Carmen Phillips Numerous studies suggest that avoiding excess weight, exercising regularly, and eating a diet heavy on fruits and vegetables decreases the risk of many diseases, including cancer. But as the expanding obesity epidemic has shown, there are major obstacles to getting broad swaths of people to adopt such a healthful lifestyle. So, for many years, cancer researchers have investigated whether specific nutrients—those that epidemiologic and animal model studies have suggested could sway cancer’s course—could decrease cancer risk. Much has been learned from this work, researchers in the field say, but, as is the case with treatment, each new discovery points to new areas of focus and other potential avenues of progress. With promising bioactive compounds in the pipeline, many prevention researchers are focused on figuring out not just whether something like sulforaphane, a natural compound found in broccoli and broccoli sprouts, can kill cancer cells in a test tube or animal model—which it does, quite well—but how, at the molecular level, it accomplishes this task, whether there are some cancer cells that are more likely to respond to it, and whether there are ways of discerning early on that the intervention is having its intended effect. Prevention: A Complex Matter A number of supplements have been tested in large prevention trials, including vitamins A, C, and E; selenium; beta-carotene; and folic acid. At least one trial has demonstrated a reduction in cancer deaths with a combination of supplements, while several others found no reduction or even [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-12-17T19:42:35-07:00December, 2009|Oral Cancer News|