Oral Cancer News – Page 295

Novel therapy may prove effective in treatment Of 30 percent of cancers

Source: www.sciencedaily.com Author: staff A ground-breaking Canada-wide clinical trial led by Dr. Katherine Borden, at the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) of the Université de Montréal, has shown that a common anti-viral drug, ribavirin, can be beneficial in the treatment of cancer patients. The study demonstrates that ribavirin suppresses the activities of the eIF4E gene in patients. This gene is dysregulated in 30 percent of cancers including breast, prostate, head and neck, colon and stomach cancer. The study, inspired by the exciting discoveries made by Dr. Borden at IRIC, was a joint project between her research group, who monitored molecular events in trial patients, and Dr. Sarit Assouline of the Segal Cancer Centre, Jewish General Hospital, who led the clinical part of the trial. The integration of these two teams made it possible to rapidly move from a research lab to patient tests. The study team targeted the gene by giving trial participants a mimic of its natural target, ribavirin. "Our results are the first to show that targeting eIF4E in humans is clinically beneficial," explains Dr. Borden. "We also found that ribavirin not only blocks eIF4E, it has no side effect on patients." The trial studied patients with M4/M5 acute myeloid leukemia who had undergone several other treatments that had previously failed. "We had striking clinical improvements with even partial and complete remissions," indicated Assouline. Dr. Wilson Miller, director of the Clinical Research Unit, Jewish General Hospital, and co-investigator in the trial added: "It's rare that [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-05-16T21:17:55-07:00May, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Cancers with virus less lethal, study says

Source: Columbus Dispatch (dispatch.com) Author: Misti Crane Oral-cancer patients with tumors that contain human papillomavirus are more likely to survive than those whose cancer does not involve HPV, a study found. The Ohio State Comprehensive Cancer Center doctor who led the new study said future research should focus on the differences between the groups. Dr. Maura Gillison, a medical oncologist and head and neck cancer specialist, shared her findings as part of a preview of studies to be presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Orlando, Fla., this month. Details of her work were released with a handful of other studies, several of which highlighted an increasing focus on individualized cancer care. Chemotherapy patients are likely to cheer the findings from one of the studies shared yesterday: It found that ginger significantly reduces nausea. A study of patients at 23 private oncology practices compared nausea in those who took a placebo with those who took 0.5-gram, 1-gram and 1.5-gram doses of ginger in capsule form. All of the patients received standard anti-nausea medications. Those who took 0.5-gram or 1-gram doses of ginger reported about a 40 percent reduction in nausea, said lead researcher Julie Ryan of the University of Rochester. The study didn't look at foods or drinks that contain ginger, but Ryan said she suspects ginger in other forms also would be beneficial. She cautioned that some products contain ginger flavoring, not actual dried or fresh ginger. A gram of ground ginger is [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-05-16T21:08:28-07:00May, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Studies find two new methods for curbing nausea of chemotherapy

Source: www.latimes.com Author: Shari Roan Chemotherapy could soon become less grueling. Simply adding about half a teaspoon of ginger to food in the days before, during and after chemotherapy can reduce the often-debilitating side effects of nausea and vomiting, a large, randomized clinical trial has found. And a newer type of anti-nausea drug, when added to standard medications, can help prevent such side effects as well. The ginger results will be presented this month at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting; the drug study was published this week in the Lancet Oncology journal. The findings are significant, cancer experts say, because about 70% of chemotherapy patients experience nausea and vomiting -- often severe -- during treatment. "Chemotherapy has come to be the thing cancer patients fear the most," said Dr. Steven Grunberg, a professor of medicine at the University of Vermont and lead author of the study in the Lancet Oncology. "We've made a huge amount of progress, but we haven't completely solved the problem." In the ginger study, 644 patients, most of them female, from 23 oncology practices nationwide received two standard anti-emetic medications at the time of chemotherapy. They also were given a capsule containing either 0.5 gram, 1 gram or 1.5 grams of ginger, or a placebo capsule. The patients took the capsules containing the placebo or ginger for three days before chemotherapy and three days after the treatment. All of the patients receiving ginger experienced less nausea for four days after chemotherapy, said lead [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-05-16T21:02:06-07:00May, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Tobacco lobby winning in texas

Source: www.prwatch.org Author: staff An army of tobacco industry lobbyists been hard at work in Texas battling a clean indoor air law and a new formula for taxing spit tobacco. The industry employed 40 lobbyists, seven of whom are former state legislators, to beat back the popular proposals. The smoking ban had gained hard-won support from the state's restaurant association, and enjoyed support among voters, who had already approved public smoking laws in 28 cities within the state. More than half of the Texas House of Representatives had signed on as co-authors of the bill. The other bill would have taxed spit tobacco by weight rather than by retail price, raising an extra $9 million to be put towards paying down the student loans of 450 doctors in exchange for them working in medically underserved areas of the state. Some Republicans argued against the smoking ban by casting smoking as a property right, an industry argument aimed at re-directing attention to secondhand smoke onto a non-health-related topic to help defeat smoking bans. Lobbyists ultimately succeeded in watering down the clean indoor air bill by inserting a slew of exceptions to undermine the intent of the bill, a strategy also linked to the industry: a 1986 Philip Morris strategy document about defeating smoking restrictions states, "Most state and local laws are very stringent when initially proposed. In most cases we are able to water down the final product [so that] penalties are often minimal and the restrictions negligible." Lobbyists stalled the [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-05-16T20:52:22-07:00May, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

ASCO: HPV Infection Linked to Better Outcome in Oropharyngeal Cancer

Source: MedpageToday.com Author: Michael Smith TORONTO, May 14 -- Patients with oropharyngeal cancer had a 50% lower five-year mortality risk when they also had human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, according to data from a randomized clinical trial. HPV-positive patients had a two-year overall survival of 88% compared with 66% for HPV-negative patients (P<0.001), said Maura Gillison, M.D., of Ohio State University in Columbus. The difference between groups increased with follow-up. HPV infection also was associated with a reduced risk of locoregional recurrence and second cancers, Dr. Gillison reported at a press briefing in advance of the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting. Cancer of the oropharynx arises from two principal causes: chronic use of tobacco and alcohol or HPV infection. Previous studies had suggested that HPV status of a patient's tumor might have prognostic implications. "HPV-positive patients have important associations with other favorable prognostic factors," said Dr. Gillison. "They tend to be younger; they have smaller tumors; they present with better performance status. Therefore, improvement in survival for this patient population may be explained by these factors and not by HPV." To explore the role of HPV status in survival of oropharyngeal cancer, Dr. Gillison and colleagues reviewed data from a randomized clinical trial conducted by the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group. Its principal objective was to compare standard chemotherapy with an investigational regimen. The trial involved 721 patients. Of those, 60% had cancer of the oropharynx and 64% were HPV positive. The two-year results demonstrated a clear survival advantage associated [...]

Charlotte Parker2009-05-15T16:11:18-07:00May, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Personalised cancer diagnosis

Source: www.economist.com Author: staff If researchers could identify what it is that makes a tissue tumorous, they might be able to develop drugs aimed precisely at the cause of the cancer. At present, they know that certain molecules become active in tumours found in certain parts of the body. Both head-and-neck cancers and breast cancers, for example, have an abundance of molecules called epidermal growth-factor receptors (EGFRs). Now one group of researchers has developed a technique that could, in the long term, diagnose almost all cancers according to their molecular origin rather than what part of the body they had cropped up in. That might eventually allow doctors to apply more relevant treatment. Moreover, in the short term, the new technique can already reveal how advanced a person’s cancer is, and thus how likely it is to return after treatment. At present, pathologists assess how advanced a cancer is by taking a sample, known as a biopsy, and examining the concentration within it of specific receptors, such as EGFRs, that are known to help cancers spread. Peter Parker of Cancer Research UK’s London Research Institute had the idea of employing a technique called fluorescence resonance-energy transfer (FRET), which is used to study interactions between individual protein molecules, to see if he could find out not only how many receptors there are in a biopsy but also how active they are. The technique uses two types of antibody, each attached to a fluorescent dye molecule. Each of the two types is [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-05-13T12:57:59-07:00May, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Oral Sexual Behaviors and the Prevalence of Oral Human Papillomavirus Infection

Source: The Journal of Infectious Diseases Author: Aimée R. Kreimer EDITORIAL COMMENTARY National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland In this issue of the Journal, D’Souza et al. [1] demonstrate that oral sexual behaviors are associated with the detection of prevalent oral human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. With their study, D'Souza and colleagues have taken an additional step toward improving our understanding of the epidemiologic profile of oral HPV transmission. HPV is an important human carcinogen that is increasingly implicated in human cancers occurring at multiple anatomical sites [2]. Over the past decade, there has been accumulating molecular and epidemiologic evidence demonstrating that HPV causes a subset of head and neck cancers, specifically in the oropharynx [3, 4]. This evidence mandates the need for additional novel research along multiple areas of the disease continuum. Important research topics include (1) elucidating the natural history and epidemiologic profile of oral HPV infection in healthy individuals, (2) determining whether the HPV vaccine is efficacious in preventing oral HPV infections and related diseases, and (3) determining whether the HPV status of the tumor should be used in clinical decision‐making pertaining to treatment. D’Souza et al. [1] used 2 distinct populations and differing study methods to evaluate associations between self‐reported sexual behaviors and detection of prevalent oral HPV infection. The oral HPV point prevalence was 2.9% among 210 college‐aged men and 4.8% among 332 controls in a hospital‐based case‐control study. Although these percentages are not statistically different, it is noteworthy that the point prevalence among college‐aged men (median age, 19 [...]

Charlotte Parker2009-05-12T16:03:58-07:00May, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

A case-control study on the combined effects of p53 and p73 polymorphisms on head and neck cancer risk in an Italian population

Source: 7thspace.com Author: Paola Galli et al. The purpose of this study is to analyze the combined effects of selected p53 and p73 polymorphisms and their interaction with lifestyle habits on squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) risk and progression in an Italian population. Methods: Two hundred and eighty-three cases and 295 hospital controls were genotyped for p53 polymorphisms on exon 4 (Arg72Pro), intron 3 and 6, and p73 G4C14-to-A4T14. Their association with SCCHN was estimated using a logistic regression analysis, while a multinomial logistic regression approach was applied to calculate the effect of the selected polymorphisms on SCCHN different sites (oral cavity, oropharynx, hypopharynx and larynx). We performed an haplotype analysis of the p53 polymorphisms, and a gene-gene interaction analysis for the combined effects of p73 G4C14-to-A4T14 and p53 polymorphisms. Results: We found a significant increased risk of SCCHN among individuals with combined p73 exon 2 G4A and p53 intron 3 variant alleles (OR = 2.22, 95% CI: 1.08-4.56), and a protective effect for those carrying the p53 exon 4- p53 intron 6 diplotype combination (OR = 0.67; 95% CI: 0.47-0.92). From the gene-environment interaction analysis we found that individuals aged <45 years carrying p73 exon 2 G4A variant allele have a 12.85-increased risk of SCCHN (95% CI: 2.10-78.74) compared with persons of the same age with the homozygous wild type genotype. Improved survival rate was observed among p53 intron 6 variant allele carriers (Hazard Ratio = 0.51 (95% CI: 0.23-1.16). Conclusion: Our study provides for [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-05-09T09:35:04-07:00May, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Early oral cancer detection: Why you? Why now?

Source: www.rdhmag.com Author: Jonathan A. Bregman, DDS, FAGD What motivates any of us as dental health-care providers? Specifically, what motivates us to do a complete early oral cancer screening? As I travel around the country discussing the topic of early oral cancer detection, four key motivators stand out. 1. Malpractice risk Are you familiar with these malpractice facts? - Lack of diagnosis or delayed diagnosis of oral cancer is the No. 2 reason for malpractice claims in the U.S. -The average claim is settled for approximately 1 million ? yes 1 million ? dollars - The average age of claimants is early 40s - It is the hardest suit to defend Did that get your attention? I hope so! Why do so many dentists lose these lawsuits, with some dentists literally now unable to purchase malpractice insurance at all? The answer is simple: The lack of a complete and properly recorded early oral cancer screening examination. Maybe this could be your motivator to incorporate an early oral cancer screening system into your office. 2. The right way to practice dentistry In dentistry, as with all professions, the terms "best practice" or "excellence in service/care" are very broad. How dentistry is performed on a daily basis is up to the individual practitioner and his/her dental team. Also, included in the mix is the number of "unique" or "different" procedures performed in the office. Thus, defining excellent care or "the right way to practice dentistry" varies. A complete early oral cancer screening may [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-05-09T09:25:08-07:00May, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

This Mr. America still pumps iron and turns heads at age 75

Source: OC Register Author: Staff Bill Howard, a former Mr. America, wears a silver hair piece styled in a pony tail. He doesn't spend his days lifting at Muscle Beach anymore, so he buys his sun-kissed look at a tanning bed near his apartment in Costa Mesa. Howard turns 75 next week and he's still turning heads with his rippling biceps and bulging chest. In fitness and life, Howard has built himself up from nothing over and over again. But before he tells his story, he's got to work his arms. ••• Howard arrives at Fitness Authority driving a red Chrysler with a vanity plate that reads "MUSCLEB." He's wearing what he calls his "show off" short denim shorts, and a black racer-back tank top. He keeps the same 8 a.m. lifting routine five mornings a week, isolating a different muscle group for an hour. As he does 12-rep sets of 100-pound bicep curls, he closes his eyes and grimaces and growls. His wrinkled face looks much older than his taut body. "I'm trying to make a statement," he says in his deep, booming voice. "We don't have to get old and decrepit." His friends revere him as a bodybuilding icon. "You look at the guy, you just go Holy Smokes," says Bernie Rubio, owner of Fitness Authority gym in Costa Mesa. "He was asked by Arnold to be in "Pumping Iron," but he went on his honeymoon instead. This guy was there. He was part of it." When asked [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-05-08T19:05:46-07:00May, 2009|Oral Cancer News|