12/3/2007 web-based article staff google-sina.com Lance Mackey beat cancer back in 2001 and on Tuesday he won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Nome, Alaska. Mackey was diagnosed with neck cancer in 2001 and received surgery and radiation for his treatment. Lance owns a kennel named Lance Mackey’s Comeback Kennel. He indeed made a comeback, he has back to back wins in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race and the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race. Mackey’s status as a cancer survivor and champion musher will inspire other people with cancer, said Christine Schultz, 42, of Nome, a medical social worker who stood out in subzero temperatures with co-workers from Norton Sound Regional Hospital to watch Mackey cross the finish line. “I think it gives people hope they can overcome cancer and live their dreams,” she said. Don’t ever doubt I can’t do something,” Mackey said in Nome after his win. “I lived through cancer.” OCF Note: This is a news story that we picked up off the general newswires. We put it here to show other cancer patients that even after a battle with this disease, that life can be more than survival, it can be good and that they can return to a full life. It is about cancer, not about the Iditarod. We have been contacted by advocates for the dogs used in these races, detailing the hard and sometimes harsh life, and sometimes even cruel manner in which they are treated. We are not endorsing [...]

12/2/2007 web-based article Katie M Applebaum et al. J Natl Cancer Inst, November 27, 2007 Background: Human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16) seropositivity and alcohol and tobacco use have been associated with risk of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). However, it is less clear whether HPV16 influences HNSCC risk associated with alcohol and tobacco use. Methods: Incident cases of HNSCC diagnosed between December 1999 and December 2003 were identified from nine medical facilities in Greater Boston, MA. Control subjects were frequency matched to case subjects on age, sex, and town of residence. A total of 485 case subjects and 549 control subjects reported information on lifetime smoking and alcohol consumption and provided sera, which was used to determine presence of HPV16 antibodies. Unconditional logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of HNSCC risk by alcohol consumption (drinks per week: <3, 3 to <8, 8 to <25, >/=25) and smoking (pack-years: none, >0 to <20, 20 to <45, >/=45), adjusting for age, sex, race, education, and HPV16 serology. Polytomous logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for the association of HPV16 serology, alcohol consumption, and tobacco use in site-specific analyses. All statistical tests were two-sided. Results: The strongest risk factors by tumor site were smoking for laryngeal cancer, alcohol for cancer of the oral cavity, and HPV16 for pharyngeal cancer. For pharyngeal cancer, risk increased with increasing alcohol consumption (OR(>/=25 versus <3 drinks per week) = 5.1, 95% [...]

12/2/2007 web-based article Joel B. Epstein et al. J Am Dent Assoc, Vol 138, No 12, 1555-1562. Background: Early diagnosis of oral premalignant lesions (OPLs) and oral squamous cell carcinoma facilitates treatment with less aggressive approaches and results in a better prognosis. The authors conducted a study to identify current practices in the diagnosis and management of these oral lesions by oral medicine professionals. Methods: The authors sent a questionnaire to 176 diplomates of the American Board of Oral Medicine and asked them to complete the questionnaires and return them by mail. Results: The initial clinical approach taken by most of the responders included visual examination, elimination of possible local causes and two-week follow-up. Adjuvant clinical tests included toluidine blue, oral brush biopsy and exfoliative cytology. If there was no clinical improvement after two weeks, most responders recommended that a biopsy be performed. Induration, red component, nonhomogeneous surface and ulceration were characteristics of lesions that increased the responders’ decisions to perform a biopsy. Lesion symptoms and location also contributed to their decisions to perform a biopsy. Follow-up more frequently than twice a year was recommended for red lesions, lesions with histologically confirmed dysplasia or both. Most clinicians recommend a biopsy during follow-up of an OPL whenever the lesion changes in appearance. Conclusions: The findings of this survey may provide background for initial guidelines to be used by oral practitioners to diagnose and manage OPL. Clinicians’ awareness of the complexity of OPL diagnosis and management is important, and referral to an [...]

12/1/2007 Denver, CO Regina Sass People'sMediaCompany (www.associatedcontent.com) Researchers at the University of Iowa Department of Radiation Oncology and Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery are recommending new, intensity-modulated radiation therapy for treating a variety of throat cancers, saying that it can improve the patient's quality of life better than the conventional radiation therapy. Oropharyngeal - throat - cancer, originates in the part of the throat - oropharynx.- just after the mouth. It can also be in the tonsils and th back of the tongue. Squamous cell carcinomas, which originate in from the cells that make up the lining of the mouth and throat make up in excess of 90% of oropharyngeal cancers. Lately, the cancer has been occurring in a growing number of younger patients as well as in nonsmokers The aim of the study was to get a comparison of the health related quality of life in the patients who were treated with the conventional CRT and the new IMRT. With the CRT, two or three beams of radiation are aimed at the tumor, but the surrounding tissues and organs such as the oral cavity and salivary glands, receive that same high dose as the tumor. In some of the patients, the salivary glands are totally destroyed and patients can also develop severe dryness in the mouth and a poor quality of life. On the other hand, the IMRT uses multiple radiation beams and they are broken down into what they call beamlets. This gives the radiation [...]

12/1/2007 web-based article Wendy Koch USA Today (www.usatoday.com) The Marlboro Man, that cigarette-smoking icon of the tobacco industry, is more than a half-century old. If he were conceived today, there might not be just a cigarette dangling from his mouth. He might also have, tucked into his pocket, a cellphone-size container holding a dozen pouches of snus Snus? It rhymes with "goose," (cynics might say "noose"), and is a Swedish type of smokeless tobacco that's not your grandfather's dip or chew. Snus comes in teabag-like pouches that a user sticks between the upper lip and gum, leaves there for up to 30 minutes and discards without spitting. As no-smoking laws sweep the nation and cigarette sales continue to fall, Big Tobacco is alarming the public health community by devising other ways to try to make tobacco appealing. With smokeless products representing the only booming part of the U.S. tobacco market, snus is an effort to boost sales with a product that — unlike most smokeless ones — doesn't require users to spit out the residue. Snus also represents something more: an attempt to move smokeless tobacco beyond stereotypical users such as baseball players and rodeo cowboys, and into offices or restaurants where people want a nicotine fix but can't light up. "This is a growth strategy for us," says Bill Phelps, spokesman for Philip Morris USA, the nation's biggest tobacco company and maker of Marlboro, the top-selling cigarette. In Dallas this month, Philip Morris is launching its first smokeless product [...]

11/28/2007 web-based article Marilynn Marchione apnews.myway.com Millions of Americans, especially children, are needlessly getting dangerous radiation from "super X-rays" that raise the risk of cancer and are increasingly used to diagnose medical problems, a new report warns. In a few decades, as many as 2 percent of all cancers in the United States might be due to radiation from CT scans given now, according to the authors of the report. Some experts say that estimate is overly alarming. But they agree with the need to curb these tests particularly in children, who are more susceptible to radiation and more likely to develop cancer from it. "There are some serious concerns about the methodology used," but the authors "have brought to attention some real serious potential public health issues," said Dr. Arl Van Moore, head of the American College of Radiology's board of chancellors. The risk from a single CT, or computed tomography, scan to an individual is small. But "we are very concerned about the built-up public health risk over a long period of time," said Eric J. Hall, who wrote the report with fellow Columbia University medical physicist David J. Brenner. It was published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine and paid for by federal grants. The average American's total radiation exposure has nearly doubled since 1980, largely because of CT scans. Medical radiation now accounts for more than half of the population's total exposure; it used to be just one-sixth, and the top source was the normal [...]

11/28/2007 Los Angeles, CA staff ScienceDaily (www.sciencedaily.com) Researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center are reporting, for the first time, that smoking marijuana may increase the risk of head and neck cancers. Previous laboratory and clinical studies have indicated that marijuana use may be related to molecular alterations in the respiratory tract, changes that may lead to cancer. This is the first study to examine whether smoking marijuana increases risk of head and neck cancers, said Dr. Zuo-Feng Zhang of UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center, a professor in the Department of Epidemiology in the UCLA School of Public Health and director of the cancer epidemiology training program at UCLA. "Most people don't think about marijuana in relationship to cancer," said Zhang, lead author of the journal article. "The carcinogens in marijuana are much stronger than those in tobacco. The big message here is that marijuana, like tobacco, can cause cancer." Zhang studied the relationship between marijuana use and head and neck cancers in 173 patients diagnosed with those diseases. He compared those findings to 176 cancer-free control patients, and found that those who habitually smoked marijuana were at higher risk for head and neck cancers. The epidemiological data was collected using a structured questionnaire, which queried patients about their histories of tobacco smoking, marijuana smoking and alcohol use. Zhang said researchers were able to evaluate the data on marijuana smoking independently from data on tobacco smoking and alcohol use, which also increase the risk of certain cancers. The results of the study [...]

11/28/2007 web-based article staff ScienceDaily (www.sciencedaily.com) Heavy smoking and drinking are known to cause head and neck cancer. Infection with human papilloma virus type 16 (HPV16), a common strain of the sexually-transmitted HPV virus, is another known risk factor for head and neck cancer, which affects about 500,000 people each year worldwide. New Brown University research, however, shows that alcohol and tobacco use doesn’t further increase the risk of contracting head and neck cancers for people infected with HPV16. This finding, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, is the strongest evidence to date that these major cancers have two distinct causes — and may represent two distinct classes of cancer — and would require different prevention and treatment strategies. Karl Kelsey, M.D., a Brown professor of community health and pathology and laboratory medicine and the director of the Center for Environmental Health and Technology, said the research has public health policy implications. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that girls and young women receive the HPV vaccine to prevent cervical cancer — HPV16 causes about half of all cervical cancer cases — boys and men cannot get the vaccine. An estimated 20 million Americans are currently infected with genital HPV and 50 to 75 percent of sexually active men and women are infected with HPV at some point in their lives, according to the National Institutes of Health. “Our current HPV vaccine recommendations should change,” Kelsey said. “Head and neck cancers, regardless of their [...]

11/28/2007 web-based article Jennifer Lenhart www.soapopoeradigest.com Long running TV show As the World Turn's Colleen Zenk Pinter (character Barbara Ryan) spoke about her battle with tongue cancer in Digest's 11/27 issue, but her main goal is to encourage everyone to get screened. It's a quick, completely painless procedure. "You should demand a cancer screening from your denist," she advises. "They'll look in your mouth and feel down inside your jaw bone, outside and inside, upper and lower, they'll look at your tongue and throat." Here, she talks more about her initial diagnosis, and when she first decided to share her story. Soap Opera Digest: How did this all begin? Colleen Zenk Pinter: I first noticed it last summer, so it's been over a year now. [I constantly had] canker sores coming and going last summer into last fall. They finally stopped going away and started getting larger — you know how painful one is, these were multiplying. I said, "This isn't right," and that's when I called my physician to get my yearly, thinking I could get in right away, forgetting that it takes a while to book something like that. I called the second week of November and he couldn't get me in until the first week of January. I had actually talked to Eldo [Ray Estes, ATWT's key makeup artist] at work about it. I had shown him and said, 'I'm dealing with this nasty thing that won't go away.' So I went in and saw my doctor, [...]

11/27/2007 Napa Valley, CA Betty Rhodes Napa Valley Register (www.napavalleyregister.com) I have a fascinating article within an article for you today, but before we go there, let’s stop for a moment and give thanks for our many blessings especially at this time of the year. Carrying that thought a step further; we have wonderful opportunities to help give others a bit of our time to help make their lives a little better. Thanksgiving and Christmas just bring home to all of us the fact that, if possible, we really should step in and help make someone else’s life a little happier. Check the Register’s Sunday Community Bulletin Board for many volunteer opportunities. Recently, my dentist, Dr. Quinn, was telling me some of the serious consequences that can happen if you exercise careless dental hygiene. I asked him if he would be willing to write down a few things for our column and he graciously agreed to do so. So, here is Dr. Quinn’s article within an article. “Dentists often hear the comment, ‘If I had known I was going to live this long, I’d have taken better care of my teeth.’ Even though tooth loss has declined in recent years, still, in the U.S., 26 percent of people 65-69 have lost all of their teeth. Furthermore, 47 percent of the over 65 group have only 20 or fewer teeth remaining. The value of a healthy mouth goes far beyond a nice smile. The condition of the teeth, gums and bone [...]