Oral Cancer News – Page 125 – The Oral Cancer Foundation News Archive

Medical overcharges becoming all too common

Source: Theava.comBy: Ralph NaderPublished: January 21, 2014 An epidemic of sky-rocketing medical costs has afflicted our country and grown to obscene proportions. Medical bills are bloated with waste, redundancy, profiteering, fraud and outrageous over-billing. Much is wrong with the process of pricing and providing health care. The latest in this medical cost saga comes from new data released last week by National Nurses United (NNU), the nation’s largest nurse’s organization. In a news release, NNU revealed that fourteen hospitals in the United States are charging more than ten times their costs for treatment. Specifically, for every $100 one of these hospitals spends, the charge on the corresponding bill is nearly $1,200. NNU’s key findings note that the top 100 most expensive U.S. hospitals have “a charge to cost ratio of 765% and higher — more than double the national average of 331%.” They found that despite the enactment of “Obamacare” — the Affordable Care Act — overall hospital charges experienced their largest increase in 16 years. For-profit hospitals continue to be the worst offenders with average charges of 503% of their costs compared to publically-run hospitals (“…including federal, state, county, city, or district operated hospitals, with public budgets and boards that meet in public…”) which show more restraint in pricing. The average charge ratios for these hospitals are 235% of their costs. The needless complications of the vast medical marketplace have provided far too many opportunities for profiteering. Numerous examples of hospital visit bills feature enormous overcharges on simple supplies [...]

Charlotte Parker2014-01-28T17:50:39-07:00January, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

Influence of fluorescence on screening decisions for oral lesions in community dental practices

Source: Cancer Prevention Research - American Association for Cancer ResearchBy: Denise M. Laronde, P Michele Williams, T Greg Hislop, Catherine Poh, Samson Ng, Chris Badjik, Lewei Zhang, Calum MacAuley, and Miriam Rosin Abstract Oral cancer is a global issue, with almost 300,000 new cases reported annually. While the oral cavity is cancer site that is easily examined, >40% of oral cancers are diagnosed at a late stage when prognosis is poor and treatment can be devastating. Opportunistic screening within the dental office could lead to earlier diagnosis and intervention with improved survival. Tools to aid screening are available but it is vital to validate them within the general dental office amongst clinicians with less experience than specialists in high-risk clinics. Fluorescence visualization (FV) is a tool used to assess alterations to tissue fluorescence. The goal of this study was to determine how clinicians made decisions about referral based on the risk classification of the lesion, how FV was integrated and how it affected the decision to refer. Information on FV rates in private practice and how FV affects decision making is vital to determine the feasibility of using this tool in a general practice setting. Methods: 15 dental offices participated in a 1-day workshop on oral cancer screening, including an introduction to and use of FV. Participants then screened patients (medical history, convention oral exam, fluorescent visualization exam) in-office for 11 months. Participants were asked to triage lesions by apparent risk: low, intermediate and high. Low-risk (LR) lesions were common and [...]

Charlotte Parker2014-01-24T17:40:44-07:00January, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

New RNA interference technique finds seven genes for head and neck cancer

Source: The Rockefeller UniversityPublished: Friday, January 24, 2014 In the hunt for genetic mutations that cause cancer, there is a lot of white noise. So although genetic sequencing has identified hundreds of genetic alterations linked to tumors, it’s still an enormous challenge to figure out which ones are actually responsible for the growth and metastasis of cancer. Scientists in Rockefeller’s Laboratory of Mammalian Cell Biology and Development have created a new technique that can weed out that noise — eliminating the random bystander genes and identifying the ones that are critical for cancer. Applying their technique to head and neck cancers, they’ve discovered seven new tumor-suppressor genes whose role in cancer was previously unknown. Interfering with cancer. A section of a head and neck tumor — red and green markers show the proliferation of cancer stem cells — that formed when one of several newly characterized genes, Myh9, was suppressed. A recently developed genetic screening technique using RNA interference identified Myh9’s protein, myosin IIa, as playing an important role in tumor suppression. The new technique, which the lab recently applied to a screen for skin tumor genes, is particularly useful because it takes a fraction of the resources and much less time than the traditional method for determining gene function — breeding genetically modified animals to study the impact of missing genes. “Using knockout mice, which are model organisms bred to have a particular gene missing, is not feasible when there are 800 potential head and neck cancer genes to [...]

Charlotte Parker2014-01-24T13:05:29-07:00January, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

Number of cancer stem cells might not predict outcome in HPV-related oral cancers

Source: Medical XpressPublished: January 22, 2014By: Amanda J. Harper (Medical Xpress)—New research from The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James) suggests that it may be the quality of cancer stem cells rather than their quantity that leads to better survival in certain patients with oral cancer. The researchers investigated cancer stem cell numbers in oral cancers associated with human papillomavirus (HPV) and in oral cancers not associated with the virus. Typically, patients with HPV-positive oral cancer respond better to therapy and have a more promising prognosis than patients with HPV-negative tumors. The latter are usually associated with tobacco and alcohol use. The OSUCCC – James team's findings, published in the journal Cancer, suggest that relying on the number of cancer stem cells in a tumor might inaccurately estimate the potential for the tumor's recurrence or progression. "We show that high levels of cancer stem cells are not necessarily associated with a worse prognosis in head and neck cancer, a finding that could have far-reaching implications for patient care," says principal investigator Quintin Pan, PhD, associate professor of otolaryngology and scientist with the OSUCCC – James Experimental Therapeutics Program. Head and neck cancer is the sixth most common cancer worldwide, with an estimated 600,000 cases diagnosed annually. Although the disease is often linked to alcohol and tobacco use, cancer-causing types of HPV are a major risk factor for the malignancy, and cases of HPV-associated oral cancers have [...]

Charlotte Parker2014-01-22T16:03:37-07:00January, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

Cancer survivors demand picture-based warnings on cigarette labels

Source: www.interaksyon.com Author: staff MANILA, Philippines -- More than 150 anti-smoking activists, including throat cancer survivors, marched to the Commission on Human Rights in Quezon City Thursday to urge government to fast-track the passage of legislation requiring tobacco firms to put graphic health warnings on cigarette packs. The “Right to Health Walk” is the third march organized by New Vois Association of the Philippines to push public health issues to the fore. “Ten percent of the world’s 1.3 billion smokers can be found in Southeast Asia where the Philippines belong. We are the second largest smoking population in this region with 17.3 million adults smoking. More than 87,000 Filipinos die every year because of smoking -- that’s more than the number of those who succumb to heart attack and stroke. This is clear and present danger that must be addressed at the soonest,” Emer Rojas, NVAP president, said. Rojas said graphic health warnings provide a clearer message about the harm smoking causes, especially to women, children, and the poor who are lured to the habit by the attractive designs of cigarette packs. The newly released Tobacco Atlas of the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance showed the Philippines among the three countries with the most number of smoking women in the region. It is estimated that nine percent of Filipino women smoke. This is statistically more than Indonesia, which has the most number of smokers in the region. Only 4.5 percent of Indonesian women smoke. The Tobacco Atlas also estimates that [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2014-01-19T08:34:50-07:00January, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

LED Medical, BC Cancer Agency, Genome British Columbia to develop test for oral cancer

Source: www.genomeweb.com Author: staff LED Medical Diagnostics this week announced an agreement to form a collaboration to develop and commercialize a progression-risk assessment test for oral cancer. The agreement is with BC Cancer Agency to form a relationship with Genome British Columbia. The test, LED said, is based on loss of heterozygosity. The Genome BC Strategic Opportunities Fund is funding the project called “Development of an actionable molecular test for risk assessment of oral precancers,” which is designed to leverage research that Canada’s National Institute of Health and the Terry Fox Research Institute funded. Catherine Poh, an associate professor of dentistry at the University of British Columbia, is the project leader. In a statement, LED Medical's Founder and Director Peter Whitehead said, "Until recently, a major barrier to oral cancer prevention has been the lack of validated risk predictors for oral premalignant lesions. …This test, which measures specific genetic changes that have been shown to predict aggressive tumor growth, has the potential to lower oral cancer morbidity and mortality rates." "Throughout the development process we will strive to create the first test that quantifies the likelihood that an oral lesion will progress to cancer,” he added. LED Medical is based in British Columbia and develops LED-based visualization technologies.

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2014-01-19T08:20:21-07:00January, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

Smoking causes diabetes, colon cancer, new report says

Source: USA TodayPublished: January 17, 2014By: Liz Szabo Smoking more deadly than thought The latest Surgeon General's report links smoking to a myriad of diseases that include diabetes, liver cancer and colorectal cancer. In addition to deadly cancers, smoking is tied to scores of other chronic diseases in the new report. A new report from the surgeon general finds that smoking causes even more physical and financial damage than previously estimated, killing 480,000 Americans a year from diseases that include diabetes, colorectal cancer and liver cancer. The report, released today, represents the first time the surgeon general has concluded that smoking is "causally linked" to these diseases. The report finds that smoking causes rheumatoid arthritis, erectile dysfunction and macular degeneration, a major cause of age-related blindness. Smoking causes inflammation, impairs immune function and increases the risk of death from tuberculosis, an infectious disease. Smoking also harms pregnant women and their fetuses by causing birth defects called cleft lips and palates and by causing ectopic pregnancy, which occurs when a fertilized egg implants in the fallopian tubes instead of the uterus. The new report — issued 50 years after the first surgeon general report on smoking — finds that exposure to secondhand smoke, previously linked to cancer and heart attacks, also causes strokes. "Amazingly, smoking is even worse than we knew," says Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Even after 50 years, we're still finding new ways that smoking maims and kills people." In spite [...]

Charlotte Parker2014-01-17T12:57:15-07:00January, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

LED Medical develops risk assessment test for oral cancer

Source: Dr. BicuspidPublished: January 16, 2014By: Donna Domino LED Medical Diagnostics has signed an agreement with the BC Cancer Agency to form a collaborative relationship with Genome British Columbia (Genome BC) to create and commercialize a progression risk assessment test for oral cancer. The test, which is the first genetic test for oral cancer, is based on a quantifiable genetic phenomenon known as "loss of heterozygosity" (LOH), the most common molecular genetic alteration observed in human cancers. LOH refers to genetic information that shows if a cell has developed into an abnormal state (dysplasia) and predicts what the outcome of the dysplasia will be, LED Medical Diagnostics' founder and director, Peter Whitehead, explained in an interview with DrBicuspid.com. "The test will show whether or not the dysplasia is going to turn into something you need to remove immediately or something you need to be concerned about and just watch," he said. The test will use the same technology that screened and diagnosed actress Angelina Jolie's breast cancer risk, Whitehead noted. "She had a hereditary high-risk gene, and the lump in her breast had lots of heterozygosity. They removed her breast based on the fact that the LOH in that tumor was high-risk," Whitehead said. "LOH has been around for a while, but no one has translated it from lab bench to a clinical test." When a patient is diagnosed with moderate dysplasia, they usually must see a specialist every six months for five years because there's a chance the dysplasia [...]

Charlotte Parker2014-01-17T12:57:42-07:00January, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

Saving Mr. Disney: What Walt Taught Us

Source: Huffington PostPublished: January 15, 2014By: Cary A. Presant, M.D. Walt showed us in Mary Poppins that Mr. Banks could be saved from his work addiction, as demonstrated in Tom Hanks wonderful portrayal in Saving Mr. Banks. However, he could not save Mr. Goff (P. L. Travers' father) from his alcohol addiction, leading to his fatal infection (influenza, not TB). And Walt, unfortunately, could not save himself. Not portrayed in the film was the most important lesson Walt taught us. Walt Disney's fatal illness which shortened his life and deprived us all of his extraordinary imagination and creations was lung cancer directly caused by his life-long chain smoking. When he died at the young age of 65 from lung cancer only 1 month after it was diagnosed, he had left us with the record 59 Oscar nominations and 22 Academy Awards, a record that still has not been broken. But could Walt have been saved? Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in America. 392,000 Americans die every year from smoking, including deaths from smoking-induced heart and lung disease and also 160,000 deaths from smoking-related cancers. America's 43 million smokers have a shortened life, 13.2 years less for men and 14.5 years less for women. Smoking causes not only lung cancer, but also throat, larynx, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, colon, cervix, kidney, bladder and ovary cancer and also leukemia. And of course, Walt Disney is only one of the well-known celebrities to have died from smoking addiction and then cancer. [...]

Charlotte Parker2014-01-16T17:57:38-07:00January, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

MD Anderson Research Shows More Targeted Form of Radiation Improves Survival in Patients With Head, Neck Cancers

Source: Bio News - TexasPublished: January 15, 2014By: Ayesha Khan Recent research conducted at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center suggests clinical outcomes in patients receiving intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) for head and neck cancers is more effective when compared to patients who receive traditional radiation therapy, thanks to the advanced technology of IMRT. IMRT precisely targets malignant cells without affecting the normal surrounding tissue, thereby reducing the risk of adverse effects and improving therapy associated effects. The results of this study were published online in the peer-reviewed journal Cancer. What is IMRT? Intensity-modulated radiation therapy, or IMRT, limits the exposure of radiation to normal tissue by employing multiple beams of radiotherapy that helps in setting the dosage by radiologists in accordance with the site and size of tumor. Assistant professor at MD Anderson’s Radiation Oncology, Beth Beadle explained: “Previous studies indicated that patients treated with IMRT did better when it came to treatment-related side effects, however these studies were not designed to examine survival. The survival data was not well-known because IMRT is intended to spare normal tissues but still deliver radiation to the tumor so previous models assumed it was equivalent survival at best.” The technique was approved in 1999, and since then has become increasingly popular mainly because of the high benefits and low toxicity profile. The risk of several common but problematic complications (such as tissue fibrosis, dry mouth, dental issues and musculoskeletal flexibility) can be significantly reduced when compared to conventional radiotherapy. Details [...]

Charlotte Parker2014-01-16T18:00:40-07:00January, 2014|Oral Cancer News|