Oral Cancer News – Page 263

Holiday giving: How to choose a charity

Source: etaiwannews.com Author: Jeremiah A. Hall In June 2006, when Wendy Maholic learned that her husband, a master sergeant, had been killed in Afghanistan, her thoughts turned to her 10-year-old son. As she struggled with her grief, she wondered how to help fill the hole left by the loss of his father. As months passed, Mrs. Maholic learned of a small, up-and-coming charity in Colorado called Knights of Heroes, which provides free, all-inclusive summer camps and long-term mentoring programs for sons of fallen soldiers. A week of fishing, canoeing, and horseback riding with other children and adult male role models - especially ones who ostensibly knew what Andrew was going through - seemed perfect, but Maholic was apprehensive. The camp was located in Colorado Springs, Colo. She and Andrew were in Fort Bragg, N.C. No one in her immediate circle of friends and family had heard of the organization. It seemed promising. The camp even offered to arrange for mothers and sisters to be lodged nearby during the session. But she needed more. Like many parents in search of advice, she went online and discovered what she needed - and a new way to evaluate charities. With the explosion of social networking and user-generated online content, a new crop of websites promises to use similar techniques to help donors, volunteers, and clients assess nonprofits. In some, reviewers are asked to provide commentary on their personal experiences; others poll constituents. It's not fail-safe. But the approach arms donors with information that goes [...]

Charlotte Parker2009-11-30T12:02:13-07:00November, 2009|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

Colleen Zenk Pinter: Cancer survivor has much to be thankful for this year

Source: Acorn Online Author: Susan Wolf Thanksgiving will be more than a pleasant holiday gathering with family and friends this year for Colleen Zenk Pinter. It will be a celebration of life, of being thankful for those closest to her. Ms. Zenk Pinter approaches this Thanksgiving cancer-free after a long and often painful battle with oral cancer. Her journey has been fraught with setbacks, but she has emerged as a formidable opponent, one who now uses her celebrity to educate others about oral cancer. A two-time Emmy Award nominee, Colleen Zenk Pinter has played the character of Barbara Ryan since 1978 on the CBS daytime drama As the World Turns. Her own world was turned upside down in March 2007 when her oral cancer was diagnosed. A lesion under her tongue “that didn’t even look like cancer” was, in fact, cancer. Somehow she got through her daughter Georgia’s 14th birthday party, telling no one, not even her husband, actor Mark Pinter, who was out of town. Finally, the next day, she gave the news to her husband and mother and then went to see Jen Wastrom, a woman she affectionately calls the “ring leader” of her posse of friends. Eventually “the posse” was notified and thesupport that has come to mean so much to Ms. Zenk Pinter immediately materialized. After a second opinion from Dr. Clarence Sasaki of Yale-New Haven Hospital on how best to treat her cancer, Ms. Zenk Pinter put herself into his hands. He performed a partial [...]

Charlotte Parker2009-11-30T11:47:23-07:00November, 2009|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

Nonprofits brace for slowdown in giving

Source: The Wall Street Journal Author: Mike Spector Officials at charities are trying to devise creative ways to stand out. They are making urgent appeals through direct-mail and email campaigns and taking to the airwaves. Charities also are gearing up to tap their wealthy board members and other well-off supporters for extra cash. If they fail, charities may have to cut staff or seek loans. At Covenant House New York, the nation's largest adolescent-care agency, which serves homeless, runaway and at-risk youths, board members convened Thursday and discussed a possible "doomsday" scenario in case they lose upwards of 40% of their income, said Georgia Boothe, the nonprofit's associate executive director. The charity needs to raise about $3 million through direct mail in December, she said, adding, "We're worried." Direct-mail giving in July was off 15%, she said. New York-based City Harvest, which feeds the hungry and has counted Lehman among its top five corporate donors, had set a goal of raising $5.7 million between November and January and $3 million in December alone. Much of that was expected to come from Wall Street bonuses. "Things have changed drastically in the last week or two," said executive director Jilly Stephens, who said the need for her group's services is rising. "We're heading into a period of the unknown." Still, she said she was encouraged that about 525 people turned out for the group's first silent auction of photographs on Thursday night. The event raised about $217,000. Gordon J. Campbell, president and [...]

Charlotte Parker2009-12-01T15:08:33-07:00November, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

A 25-year analysis of veterans treated for tonsillar squamous cell carcinoma

Source: Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg, November 1, 2009; 135(11) Authors: JJ Jaber et al. Objective: To determine the recurrence and survival outcome based on treatment date, type of treatment, stage of disease, and comorbidity and the recurrence and survival differences based on smoking status as a surrogate for human papillomavirus status in veterans treated for tonsillar squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Design: Outcome cohort study. Setting: Tertiary care Department of Veterans Affairs hospital. Patients: A consecutive sample from 1981 through 2006 of 683 patients treated for oropharyngeal SCC was screened, and 141 patients with tonsillar SCC without distant metastatic spread and a minimum of 2 years of follow-up were included. Main outcome measures: Disease-free survival (DFS), disease-specific survival (DSS), and overall survival (OS). Results: Disease-free survival was significantly better in cohort II (treated during or after 1997) compared with cohort I (treated before 1997) (2- and 5-year DFS, 82% vs 64% and 67% vs 48%; P = .02). Disease-specific survival was better in the surgical vs nonsurgical group (2- and 5-year DSS, 77% vs 46% and 67% vs 30%; P

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-11-28T08:01:30-07:00November, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Fentanyl buccal soluble film (FBSF) for breakthrough pain in patients with cancer: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study

Source: Annals of Oncology, doi:10.1093/annonc/mdp541 Author: R. Rauck et al. Background: Fentanyl buccal soluble film (FBSF) has been developed as a treatment of breakthrough pain in opioid-tolerant patients with cancer. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of FBSF at doses of 200–1200 µg in the management of breakthrough pain in patients with cancer receiving ongoing opioid therapy. Patients and methods: This was a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multiple-crossover study that included opioid-tolerant adult patients with chronic cancer pain who experienced one to four daily episodes of breakthrough pain. The primary efficacy assessment was the sum of pain intensity differences at 30 min (SPID30) postdose. Results: The intent-to-treat population consisted of 80 patients with 1 post-baseline efficacy assessment. The least-squares mean (LSM ± SEM) of the SPID30 was significantly greater for FBSF-treated episodes of breakthrough pain than for placebo-treated episodes (47.9 ± 3.9 versus 38.1 ± 4.3; P = 0.004). There was statistical separation from placebo starting at 15 min up through 60 min (last time point assessed). There were no unexpected adverse events (AEs) or clinically significant safety findings. Conclusions: FBSF is an effective option for control of breakthrough pain in patients receiving ongoing opioid therapy. In this study, FBSF was well tolerated in the oral cavity, with no reports of treatment-related oral AEs. Authors: R. Rauck1, J. North1, L. N. Gever2, I. Tagarro3 and A. L. Finn4 Authors' affiliations: 1 Carolinas Pain Institute, Winston-Salem, NC 2 Meda Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Somerset, NJ, USA 3 Meda Pharmaceuticals, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-11-28T07:38:27-07:00November, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Uninsured have higher mortality from head and neck cancer than insured

Source: professional.cancerconsultants.com Author: staff Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh have reported that patients with “Medicaid/uninsured and Medicare disability were at increased risk of death after the diagnosis of squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) when compared with patients with private insurance.” The details of this study were published online on November 20, 2009 in Cancer.[1] Unfortunately, underinsured or uninsured patients are reportedly at risk for impaired access to care, delays in medical treatment, and in some cases, substandard medical care. A recent article in the journal Cancer suggests that patients who are uninsured or those who receive Medicaid benefits may be at greater risk for developing postoperative complications and dying after surgery for colorectal cancer. Researchers from the Division of Cancer Prevention and Control and the Kentucky Cancer Registry have previously documented survival differences in patients with and without private health insurance. These findings were reported in the October 13, 2003 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. The current study evaluated outcomes of 1,231 patients with head and neck cancer treated at the University of Pittsburgh. Patients were divided into those with Medicaid and uninsured status plus those with Medicare disability versus patients with private insurance. The hazard ratio for survival was 1.50 for patients defined as Medicaid/uninsured versus private insurance. The hazard ration for survival of Medicare disability patients was 1.69 compared with patients with private insurance. These increased rates of death were presented and then corrected for competing risk factors such as alcohol [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-11-28T07:28:18-07:00November, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Should your son get the HPV vaccine?

Source: www.nbc-2.com Author: staff TAMPA: David Hastings is back to helping his wife Jo at their Cuban restaurant outside Saint Petersburg. He's grateful to be here after a very close call. "One morning I was shaving and I noticed this side of my neck was swollen," Hastings explained. The diagnosis: stage four oral cancer. Until then, David was a healthy non-smoker who exercised regularly. "Picture a male drinking and smoking everyday for years and years. That's who gets my cancer. I kept saying people, that's not me." It turns out David's cancer was caused by the human papillomavirus or HPV, a virus he didn't even know he carried. Nancy: "So David's case is not rare?" Dr. Anna Giuliano: "No! Not at all!" From her office at the Moffit Cancer Center in Tampa, Dr. Anna Giuliano is leading an international study on HPV in men. Right now the virus is best known for causing cervical cancer in women. But that is about to change. "Cervical cancer is going down and HPV related head and neck cancer is going up," she explained. Dr. Giuliano says every year between 6 and 8 thousand head and neck cancers in men are HPV-related. "Now we have very definitive evidence that HPV causes cancer in men; the most important being head and neck cancers, penile cancer and anal cancer," she told NBC2. In October, the FDA approved the use of the HPV vaccine Gardasil in males ages 9-26. But Dr. Giuliano worries misinformation will keep young [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-11-28T07:19:04-07:00November, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

After being diagnosed, Zenk Pinter is an oral cancer spokesperson

Source: www.acorn-online.com Author: Susan Wolf Colleen Zenk Pinter of Redding, an actor who stars as Barbara Ryan on As the World Turns, has partnered with the Oral Cancer Foundation, Yale New-Haven Hospital and Roswell Park Cancer Institute to be a spokesperson for oral cancer. Ms. Pinter was diagnosed with oral cancer in March 2007 and is now cancer-free. “I had no risk factors for this ‘old man’s cancer,’ she said, but her doctors said hers was probably due to human papilloma virus (HPV), which is most often associated with cervical cancer. HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the country, and it is estimated that about 70% of American men and women will be infected at some point in their lives. According to Ms. Zenk Pinter, a growing number of women are being diagnosed with oral cancer, from one in 10 to now a 50-50 split. “The difference is HPV,” she said. She is a proponent of the Gardasil® vaccine against HPV for both girls and boys. It doesn’t help if only half of the population (girls) is being vaccinated. Why boys? “Simple. HPV is sexually transmitted.” Physicians and researchers advocate that the vaccine be given to both sexes, Ms. Zenk Pinter said. During her speech at New York University School of Dentistry graduation, where she received the 2009 Harry S. Strusser Memorial Award for Public Service and Outstanding Contributions to Public Health, Ms. Zenk Pinter implored the graduating doctors and surgeons to thoroughly check their patients for [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-11-28T07:11:44-07:00November, 2009|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

Dental hygiene students screen for oral cancer

Source: uscnews.usc.edu/health Author: Beth Dunham Members of the USC School of Dentistry’s Dental Hygiene Class of 2010 provided oral health screenings and tobacco cessation advice for USC students, staff members and visitors during the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout on Nov. 19. Marked every November with outreach events across the nation, the American Smokeout is designed to help smokers find effective methods to help them quit smoking and highlight the benefits of giving up tobacco. Better oral health and dramatically decreased risk of deadly oral cancer is one huge benefit, said dental hygiene student Allison Clark. Just outside of Bovard Auditorium, the student manned a table stocked with information on oral cancer - including shocking photographs of the damage caused by the disease - and helpful advice on how to successfully quit smoking. Dental hygiene student Lauren Levine said that smokers who turned in at least one cigarette received a prize pack that included a toothbrush and tube of toothpaste, as well as smoking cessation supplies such as gum and information on quitting resources and techniques. They also received a raffle ticket for a chance to win an electric toothbrush. Dental hygiene students conducted oral health screenings at both the USC Pharmacy and School of Dentistry on the University Park campus. Even nonsmokers took the opportunity to receive a free oral health checkup. Staff member Todd Henneman said he thought having a screening was a good idea even though he doesn’t smoke. “I figured that I might as well [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-11-23T14:41:49-07:00November, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

American Cancer Society, ENT and Allergy Associates once again partner to fight smoking, especially among teens

Source: www.earthtimes.org Author: press release The American Cancer Society and ENT and Allergy Associates, LLP (ENTA) are once again teaming up to bring a strong and relevant anti-smoking message to teens and ENTA patients through a strategic partnership that includes outreach to local high schools and patient education. “The most effective way for us to fight cancer is to partner with systems in our communities to reach the largest number of people possible,” said Dee McCabe, Executive Vice President, American Cancer Society. “ENTA has been a great partner, reaches thousands of people a day, and truly is committed to improving health of their patients.” “At ENTA, we see far too many patients-each and every week-afflicted with cancer…so our partnership with the American Cancer Society allows us to educate people about the dangers of smoking, and point them toward smoking cessation and cancer prevention” said Dr. Wayne Eisman, President of ENT and Allergy Associates. “We are delighted to do everything we possibly can to help the ACS fight smoking, particularly among young people.” A key part of the alliance is ENTA’s support of the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout, held on November 19th. Throughout the month of November, ENTA will offer patients materials on how to quit smoking in its 30 offices throughout the Greater New York and New Jersey area. Also, several ENTA doctors will speak at local high schools to teens about the dangers of smoking, how to deal with peer pressure, and how the tobacco industry targets [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-11-18T16:31:56-07:00November, 2009|Oral Cancer News|