Oral Cancer News

Improved quality of life for head and neck cancer patients with Nivolumab

Source: www.oncnursingnews.com Author: Jason Harris Patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) saw improved or stable quality of life (QOL) scores following treatment with single-agent nivolumab (Opdivo), according to results published in Lancet Oncology.1 In contrast, patients assigned to investigator’s choice of treatment saw clinical meaningful declines, defined as a decrease in ≥10% from baseline, across 8 of 15 (53%) domains on the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire. “The results of CheckMate-141 suggest that nivolumab is the first PD-1 inhibitor, to our knowledge, to show a significant improvement in overall survival, with better tolerability and a quality-of-life benefit, compared with standard therapy for platinum-refractory recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck,” investigators wrote. “In view of the major unmet need in this population and the importance of maintaining or improving quality of life for patients with recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, these data support nivolumab as a new standard of care option in this setting.” Investigators evaluated statistical differences in patient-reported adjusted mean changes from baseline between treatment groups as assessed by the EORTC QLQ-C30, EORTC QLQ-H&N35, and EQ-5D-3L at each time point, and the time to clinically meaningful deterioration per each individual scale’s criteria. Patient assessments were conducted before treatment initiation, at week 9, and then every 6 weeks during the treatment period using the EORTC QLQ-C30, EORTC QLQ-H&N35, and EQ-5D-3L questionnaires. Posttreatment assessments were made at follow-up visits 1 and 2 (35 days give or take 7 days [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2017-07-14T10:56:06-07:00July, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

An artistic representation of cancer

Source: www.vueweekly.com Author: Stephan Boissonneault Obstructed by Jude Griebel // Stephan Boissonneault One of the most terrifying phrases known to our current human existence is “you have cancer.” Those three words can break a person. “I would describe it as a terrible cyclone of information,” says head and neck cancer patient Kimberly Flowers. “You’re surrounded by all these medical teams, all these procedures and appointments, and you’re expected as [a] patient to make the best informed decisions while you’re in a state of emotional trauma. It’s just a whirlwind of confusion.” With their project and exhibition See Me, Hear Me, Heal Me, clinicians, researchers, patients, and artists aim to recreate that initial confusion and the universal experience of head and neck cancer with multiple works of art. “I thought art was the best way to express this because art presents an effective and visceral understanding to the experience,” head researcher of the project Dr. Minn Yoon says. Yoon, being an assistant professor with the School of Dentistry at the University of Alberta, initially started the project by interviewing patients with head and neck cancer. “My research has to do with the oral health of vulnerable populations, and patients with head and neck cancer fall into that category,” Yoon says. “I wanted to get a sense of what these people actually go through and how their lives change after learning they have head and neck cancer.” After an interview with a patient who had undergone surgery to reconstruct her [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2017-07-14T08:00:36-07:00July, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

House Committee Looks to Dilute Tobacco Control Act

Source: www.medpagetoday.com Date: July 12, 2017 Author: Salynn Boyles The U.S. House Appropriations Committee made a move Wednesday to greatly weaken the FDA's authority to regulate tobacco products, including flavored cigars and electronic cigarettes, and health advocacy groups were quick to condemn it. The committee approved a rider to the agriculture funding bill that would exempt certain cigars from FDA's authority and weaken its regulatory oversight over e-cigarettes, little cigars, and hookah tobacco. Prior to the vote, the House committee defeated an amendment by Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) to remove language from the bill that will effectively eliminate FDA's authority to review the health hazards of thousands of tobacco products. A second rider would exempt from FDA authority certain cigars, including many that are cheap, flavored and are most likely to appeal to children, said American Lung Association (ALA) President Harold Wimmer. "These dangerous riders were added to this bill for the benefit of the tobacco industry and come at a time when e-cigarettes are the most commonly used tobacco product among kids," Wimmer said in a written press statement. The riders are similar to those passed by the House Appropriations Committee last year, but the language restricting FDA's authority under the Tobacco Control Act was dropped from the final FY2017 bill later in the appropriations process. New language in the FY2018 bill does require the FDA to develop standards for the flavors added to e-cigarettes. ALA spokesperson Erika Sward told MedPage Today that it is not clear if the [...]

Charlotte Parker2017-07-13T11:02:13-07:00July, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

Personalized cancer vaccines successful in first-stage human trials

Source: http://newatlas.com/cancer-personalized-vaccine-success-trial/50402/ Author: Rich Haridy Date: July 9, 2017 A cancer vaccine is one of the holy grails of modern medical research, but finding a way to stimulate the immune system to specifically target and kill cancer cells has proven to be a difficult task. Now two recent clinical trials that have produced encouraging results in patients with skin cancer are are providing hope for the development of personalized cancer vaccines tailored to individual patient's tumors. Both studies focus on neoantigens, which are mutated molecules found only on the surface of cancer cells. Neoantigens prove to be ideal targets for immunotherapy as they are not present on healthy cells. A vaccine's challenge is to train the body's immune cells, known as T cells, to hunt and kill only those specific tumor cells that hold the target neoantigens. In the first trial, at Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, samples of tumors were taken from six patients with melanoma. The patients were identified as having a high risk for recurrence after first having their tumors removed by surgery. For each individual patient the researchers identified up to 20 neoantigens specific to a subject's tumor. Computer algorithms were then utilized to help the researchers select which specific neoantigens would best stimulate the body's T cells. Those neoantigens were then synthesized, mixed with an adjuvant to stimulate immune response, and injected into the individual patients. Four out of the six patients in this first trial displayed no recurrence of their cancer 25 months after vaccination. [...]

Charlotte Parker2017-07-10T09:33:39-07:00July, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

Biotech exec facing death urges: Get the vaccine that prevents his cancer

Source: www.philly.com Author: Michael D. Becker Like most people who pen a new book, Michael D. Becker is eager for publicity. But he has an unusual sense of urgency. A former oncology biotech CEO, Becker has neck cancer. He expects his 49th birthday in November to be his last, if he makes it. What also drives him to get his message out, however, is this: Children today can get a vaccine that prevents the kind of oropharyngeal cancer that is killing him. As he collides with his mortality, Becker wants to share his story and raise awareness about the vaccine, which protects against dangerous strains of human papillomavirus, or HPV, the extremely common, sexually transmitted virus that caused his disease. His book, A Walk With Purpose: Memoir of a Bioentrepreneur (available on Amazon.com), was produced and self-published in a creative sprint between December, when his cancer recurred just a year after initial diagnosis and treatment, and April. He also has a blog, My Cancer Journey, and has been conducting media interviews. “I had a lot of motivation to write the book quickly,” he said wryly at his home in Yardley. In the final pages, he urges parents “to talk to their doctor about the HPV vaccine,” which “simply didn’t exist when I was a teenager, or it could have prevented my cancer.” The leading vaccine brand, Gardasil, was hailed as a breakthrough when it was introduced in 2006. It is approved to prevent cervical cancer and less common genital malignancies, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2017-07-06T09:33:47-07:00July, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

Mayo Clinic Q and A: Throat cancer symptoms

Source: newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org Author: Dr. Eric Moore, Otorhinolaryngology, Mayo Clinic DEAR MAYO CLINIC: Are there early signs of throat cancer, or is it typically not found until its late stages? How is it treated? ANSWER: The throat includes several important structures that are relied on every minute of the day and night to breathe, swallow and speak. Unfortunately, cancer can involve any, and sometimes all, of these structures. The symptoms of cancer, how early these symptoms are recognized and how the cancer is treated depend on which structures are involved. All of the passageway between your tongue and your esophagus can be considered the throat. It includes three main areas. The first is the base of your tongue and tonsils. These, along with the soft palate and upper side walls of the pharynx, are called the oropharynx. Second is the voice box, or larynx. It consists of the epiglottis — a cartilage flap that helps to close your windpipe, or trachea, when you swallow — and the vocal cords. Third is the hypopharynx. That includes the bottom sidewalls and the back of the throat before the opening of the esophagus. Tumors that occur in these three areas have different symptoms, behave differently and often are treated differently. That’s why the areas of the throat are subdivided into separate sections by the head and neck surgeons who diagnose and treat them. For example, in the oropharynx, most tumors are squamous cell carcinoma. Most are caused by HPV, although smoking and alcohol can [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2017-06-22T08:04:29-07:00June, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

Why drinking wine causes very dry mouth, and how eating cheese helps prevent it

Source: www.medicaldaily.com Author: Lizette Borreli The real reason why wine and cheese are often paired together has to do with creating a more balanced mouth feel to prevent dry mouth. Photo courtesy of Pexels, Public Domain At a happy hour, a dinner event, or a winery, we're likely to see wine and cheese together on the menu. This classic food pairing makes it less likely for us to get dry mouth when we drink wine, and science has found out why. The food combination pair of astringent wine with fatty cheese, opposing foods of sensory perception, help create a more balanced mouth feel. In the video, "Why Does Wine Make Your Mouth Feel Dry?" MinuteEarth explains the temporarily leather-like feel in our mouth is linked to the tannins in wine. The over consumption of tannins, like having a few glasses of wine, causes the slippery proteins in our saliva, tongues and cheeks to stick together, which produces a rough feeling on the tongue. Luckily, the bonds between the tannins and proteins are temporary, meaning once the mouth creates new saliva, it will dilute the tannins and carry them away. Instead of waiting for new saliva to develop, there are proteins in fatty foods that will bond with the tannins, rather than our mouth. In a 2012 study, published in the journal Cell, researchers suggest drinking wine and eating cheese together work as the mild astringent cuts fat. Astringents tend to have a strong effect each time the mouth [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2017-06-20T07:20:44-07:00June, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

Don’t start, be smart: Local, Reno Rodeo competitor advocates being tobacco-free

Source: mynews4.com Author: Kenzie Bales Date: June 13th, 2017 RENO, Nev. (News 4 & Fox 11) — As a country phenomenon, Garth Brooks once said, "It's bulls and blood, it's dust and mud, it's the roar of a Sunday crowd. It's the white in his knuckles, the gold in the buckle, he'll win the next go 'round. It's boots and chaps, it's cowboy hats, it's spurs and latigo, it's the ropes and the reins, and the joy and the pain and they call the thing rodeo." 2017 Reno Rodeo competitor Cody Z Kiser has been riding and roping for as long as he can remember. Born and raised to Carrie and P.D. Kiser in Carson City, Nevada, Cody started riding bulls as a Dayton High School student. A horrific injury would set Kiser back, but by no means did it keep him from chasing his dreams. Kiser says a bull stepped on his face and crushed all the bones in the left side of his face. After recovering, Kiser transitioned from bull riding to bareback bucking horses and hasn't looked back since. If traveling to rodeos all the time wasn't enough to keep someone completely preoccupied, Cody competed while pursuing a Bachelor's Degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno. After testing the waters in the engineering field for awhile, Kiser decided it was time to chase his lifelong dream and give rodeo his full attention. During his endeavors as a cowboy, Cody was fortunate enough to establish a [...]

Charlotte Parker2017-06-14T12:17:21-07:00June, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

HPV Vaccination Linked to Decreased Oral HPV Infections

Author: NCI Staff Date: June 5th, 2017 Source: www.cancer.org New study results suggest that vaccination against the human papillomavirus (HPV) may sharply reduce oral HPV infections that are a major risk factor for oropharyngeal cancer, a type of head and neck cancer. The study of more than 2,600 young adults in the United States found that the prevalence of oral infection with four HPV types, including two high-risk, or cancer-causing, types, was 88% lower in those who reported receiving at least one dose of an HPV vaccine than in those who said they were not vaccinated. About 70% of oropharyngeal cancers are caused by high-risk HPV infection, and the incidence of HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer has been increasing in the United States in recent decades. In the United States, more than half of oropharyngeal cancers are linked to a single high-risk HPV type, HPV 16, which is one of the types covered by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved HPV vaccines. “In an unvaccinated population, we would estimate that about a million young adults would have an oral HPV infection by one of these vaccine HPV types. If they had all been vaccinated, we could have prevented almost 900,000 of those infections,” said senior study author Maura Gillison, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Gillison presented the new findings at a May 17 press briefing ahead of the 2017 annual American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting, held June 2–6 in Chicago. A Rapidly Rising Cancer Oropharyngeal [...]

Charlotte Parker2017-06-05T14:39:41-07:00June, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

Novel vaccine therapy can generate immune responses in patients with HPV-related head and neck cancer

Source: www.news-medical.net Author: staff A novel vaccine therapy can generate immune responses in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCCa), according to researchers at the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania. The treatment specifically targets human papillomavirus (HPV), which is frequently associated with HNSCCa, to trigger the immune response. Researchers will present the results of their pilot study during the 2017 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting in Chicago (Abstract #6073). HNSCCa is a cancer that develops in the mucous membranes of the mouth, and throat. While smoking and tobacco use are known causes, the number of cases related to HPV infection - a sexually transmitted infection that is so common, the Centers for Disease Control says almost all sexually active adults will contract it at some point in their lifetimes - is on the rise. The CDC now estimates 70 percent of all throat cancers in the United States are HPV-related. Sixty percent are caused by the subtype known as HPV 16/18. "This is the subtype we target with this new therapy, and we're the only site in the country to demonstrate immune activation with this DNA based immunotherapeutic vaccine for HPV 16/18 associated head and neck cancer," said the study's lead author Charu Aggarwal, MD, MPH, an assistant professor of Hematology Oncology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The vaccine is delivered as an injection of antigens - which leads the immune system to start producing antibodies and [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2017-06-01T13:08:47-07:00June, 2017|Oral Cancer News|