Oral Cancer News – Page 136 – The Oral Cancer Foundation News Archive

Michael Douglas pleased that oral sex story raised public awareness

By Agence France-PresseTuesday, June 4, 2013 18:40 EDTSource: The Raw Story Michael Douglas said he would win a Nobel prize if he knew exactly what caused his throat cancer, in fresh comments Tuesday after a dispute with a British newspaper over an interview he gave. The “Fatal Attraction” star, whose spokesman already denied he blamed his throat cancer specifically on oral sex, also said that, regardless, he was happy to raise awareness about causes of the killer disease. “I never expected to become a poster boy for head and neck cancer,” Douglas said in comments issued by a representative. “But, if after what started out as trying to answer a couple of questions about the suspected sources of this disease results in opening up discussion and furthering public awareness, then I’ll stand by that.” In an interview with Britain’s Guardian newspaper, Douglas, who stars in the just-released biopic of flamboyant entertainer Liberace, “Behind The Candelabra,” said his cancer was caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV). “Without wanting to get too specific, this particular cancer is caused by HPV, which actually comes about from cunnilingus,” he said, in comments the newspaper said amounted to blaming oral sex for his cancer. Douglas’s spokesman Allen Burry said Monday that the 68-year-old actor was talking in general, not personal terms. “This is not the cause of his cancer,” he said. On Tuesday, Douglas himself added: “Head and neck cancer can be caused by many things including [...]

Charlotte Parker2013-06-05T09:36:15-07:00June, 2013|Oral Cancer News|

Researchers Investigate A Less Toxic Radiation Treatment For HPV-Positive Oropharynx Cancer

Source : BiocomparePosted: June 03, 2013 CHICAGO, IL (May 29, 2013)—Researchers from Fox Chase Cancer Center and other institutions have completed a phase II clinical trial that may help identify those patients with HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer who do not require the full radiation dose given in a standard regimen of Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT). Preliminary findings will be presented by Shanthi Marur, first author on the study and an oncologist at the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, at the 49th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology on Sunday, June 2. Patients enrolled in the trial received an initial regimen of chemotherapy followed by treatment with the targeted therapy cetuximab, a monoclonal antibody. In the study, a patient's response to those initial treatments determined the dose during radiation treatment. “Those patients who had a really good response to chemotherapy might also be more responsive to radiation,” says Barbara Burtness, senior author on the study and chief of head and neck medical oncology at Fox Chase. “Therefore, the use of a full dose of radiation for those patients might represent overtreatment.” Burtness is also chair of the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG), which sponsors this ongoing trial. ECOG is a a National Cancer Institute-funded team of researchers who organize and carry out clinical trials. According to the National Cancer Institute, more than 40,000 people will be diagnosed with cancer of the oropharynx—a swath of tissue at the back of the throat—in 2013, and nearly 8,000 will die [...]

Charlotte Parker2013-06-04T11:49:00-07:00June, 2013|Oral Cancer News|

ASCO: Actor’s Oral Sex Remarks May Aid HPV Prevention

By: Crystal Phend, Senior Staff WriterPublished: June 03, 2013Source: MedPage Today CHICAGO -- Actor Michael Douglas' apparent claim that he got throat cancer from human papillomavirus (HPV) contracted through oral sex may help aid prevention efforts, experts suggested. Douglas, now 68, was diagnosed with a "walnut-sized" stage IV tumor at the base of his tongue in 2010 after months of oral discomfort. His well-known tobacco and alcohol habits -- both risk factors for oropharyngeal cancers -- had been thought to be the cause, but he appeared to indicate otherwise in an interview appearing in British tabloid The Guardian yesterday. While one of his representatives has since challenged that interpretation of the interview, the spotlight on HPV as a cause of cancer should promote awareness of the need for HPV vaccination, head and neck cancer and HPV specialists contacted here at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting said. "It's no surprise to physicians such as myself, because probably 80% of the tonsil and tongue cancers I see are related to HPV," Eric Moore, MD, an oropharyngeal cancer specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., noted in an interview with MedPage Today. Most adults become exposed to the virus at some point but clear it like any other infection. Those who become chronically infected are at elevated risk of cervical, anal, and head and neck cancers, particularly from subtype 16. The tonsils and base of tongue are the predominant areas affected in the head and neck because of the [...]

Charlotte Parker2013-06-04T11:35:27-07:00June, 2013|Oral Cancer News|

It’s True. You Can Get Throat Cancer From Oral Sex

By: Alexandra SifferlinJune 03, 2013 Source: TIME On Sunday, in an interview with the Guardian, actor Michael Douglas revealed that his throat cancer was not caused by tobacco and alcohol, but by HPV, which was transmitted through oral sex. He has since called the statement a misunderstanding, but it’s still true: you can get throat cancer from HPV. In an eye-poppingly candid interview with the Guardian’s Xan Brooks, Douglas, who is married to actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, allegedly told the reporter his cancer was caused by the STD: The throat cancer, I assume, was first seeded during those wild middle years, when he drank like a fish and smoked like the devil. Looking back, knowing what he knows now, does he feel he overloaded his system? “No,” he says. “No. Because, without wanting to get too specific, this particular cancer is caused by HPV [human papillomavirus], which actually comes about from cunnilingus.” From what? For a moment I think that I may have misheard. “From cunnilingus. I mean, I did worry if the stress caused by my son’s incarceration didn’t help trigger it. But yeah, it’s a sexually transmitted disease that causes cancer.” He shrugs. “And if you have it, cunnilingus is also the best cure for it.” Right, I say. OK. So what he is suggesting is that it all evens out? “That’s right,” says Douglas. “It giveth and it taketh.” Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a sexually transmitted disease that can cause genital warts or present itself without symptoms. If left untreated, it can also [...]

Charlotte Parker2013-06-04T11:13:31-07:00June, 2013|Oral Cancer News|

Fact check: Michael Douglas on HPV and throat cancer

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com Author: Meredith Melnick A Michael Douglas interview in The Guardian caused waves when the publication reported that the "Behind the Candelabra" star revealed HPV, the human papilloma virus, to be the cause of his stage-4 throat cancer diagnosis in 2010. "Without wanting to get too specific, this particular cancer is caused by HPV, which actually comes about from cunnilingus," Douglas allegedly told The Guardian. Douglas, through his publicist, has said that the statement was misinterpreted: He wasn't saying that his cancer was caused by the sexually transmitted disease -- merely that many cancers like his are HPV-positive. As The Daily Beast points out, there is scant research evidence to directly link the act of cunnilingus with HPV infection. But regardless of the details of his own cancer, the actor is right about one thing: A growing majority of oral cancer cases are caused by HPV. While most strains of HPV clear up on their own, the sexually transmitted disease is responsible for an array of cancers. As Douglas describes, it's true that oral sex is an avenue through which a person can contract HPV and especially the strains, HPV-18 and HPV-16, the latter of which is responsible for half of oral cancer cases, according to the National Cancer Institute. HPV-16, HPV-18 and some less-common strains can also cause cancers of the cervix, vagina, vulva, anus and penis. Douglas' experience follows trends in cancer diagnosis, according to a January report from the American Cancer Society, which found a rise [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2013-06-04T07:22:57-07:00June, 2013|Oral Cancer News|

Oral cancer prognosis based on clinicopathologic and genomic markers using a hybrid of feature selection and machine learning methods

Source: 7thspace.com Author: staff Machine learning techniques are becoming useful as an alternative approach to conventional medical diagnosis or prognosis as they are good for handling noisy and incomplete data, and significant results can be attained despite a small sample size. Traditionally, clinicians make prognostic decisions based on clinicopathologic markers. However, it is not easy for the most skilful clinician to come out with an accurate prognosis by using these markers alone. Thus, there is a need to use genomic markers to improve the accuracy of prognosis. The main aim of this research is to apply a hybrid of feature selection and machine learning methods in oral cancer prognosis based on the parameters of the correlation of clinicopathologic and genomic markers. Results: In the first stage of this research, five feature selection methods have been proposed and experimented on the oral cancer prognosis dataset. In the second stage, the model with the features selected from each feature selection methods are tested on the proposed classifiers. Four types of classifiers are chosen; these are namely, ANFIS, artificial neural network, support vector machine and logistic regression. A k-fold cross-validation is implemented on all types of classifiers due to the small sample size. The hybrid model of ReliefF-GA-ANFIS with 3-input features of drink, invasion and p63 achieved the best accuracy (accuracy = 93.81%; AUC = 0.90) for the oral cancer prognosis. Conclusions: The results revealed that the prognosis is superior with the presence of both clinicopathologic and genomic markers. The selected features can [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2013-06-03T10:50:00-07:00June, 2013|Oral Cancer News|

Researchers discover potential biomarkers to identify patients with head and neck cancer

Published on June 1, 2013 at 4:16 AMSource: news-medical.net Researchers from Fox Chase Cancer Center will present data at the 49th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology on Saturday, June 1, which shows the discovery of potential biomarkers that may be used to identify patients with head and neck cancer whose tumors are unlikely to respond to treatment by the targeted therapy cetuximab-a type of monoclonal antibody. The FDA approved the drug, in combination with radiation or as a second-line drug after chemotherapy had failed, in 2006. In 2011, the drug was approved as a first-line treatment for metastatic disease, in combination with chemotherapy. "Targeted therapies should optimally be used in patients who are selected for sensitivity or the absence of sensitivity, and we've been handicapped by not knowing the resistance in head and neck cancers," says Barbara Burtness, MD, chief of head and neck medical oncology at Fox Chase and chair of the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG), a National Cancer Institute-funded team of researchers who organize and carry out clinical trials. Before cetuximab, head and neck cancer patients' only options were conventional platinum-based chemotherapy and radiation, says Burtness. But since tumors in different people may have different biologies, not all patients respond to same treatment in the same ways. Those whose tumors do not respond to cetuximab suffer the drug's side effects without gaining benefits. Biomarkers can help providers match appropriate treatments to disease. They may also provide inroads toward re-sensitizing tumors to treatment by [...]

Charlotte Parker2013-06-03T10:31:21-07:00June, 2013|Oral Cancer News|

PTEN loss, PIK3CA mutation predicted resistance to cetuximab in HNSCC

June 2, 2013Source: Helio.com CHICAGO — PTEN loss or PIK3CA mutation predicted resistance to treatment with cisplatin plus cetuximab in a cohort of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, according to phase 3 study results presented at the ASCO Annual Meeting. “Cetuximab is the only targeted therapy in use in head and neck cancer, and although it prolongs survival, the effects are modest. For patients who receive [cetuximab] in the setting of metastatic or recurrent disease, median survival remains less than 1 year,” Barbara Burtness, MD, a medical oncologist at Fox Chase Cancer Center who specializes in head and neck cancers and a HemOnc Today Editorial Board member, said in an interview. “In colon cancer, patients are tested for KRAS mutations to detect patients with upfront resistance to cetuximab, but KRAS mutation is rare in head and neck cancer, and we haven’t had a biomarker to separate the sensitive from resistant patients.” Burtness and colleagues compared cisplatin plus placebo vs. cisplatin plus cetuximab (Erbitux, Eli Lilly) in 117 patients. The researchers also assessed PIK3CA mutations and loss of PTEN expression in the cohort. Results indicated that 34% of tumors studied had a loss of PTEN expression and 4% had PIK3CA mutations in the three hotspots studied. Researchers did not observe any statistically significant differences in OS, PFS or overall response rates. However, among patients with PIK3CA and PTEN expression, median PFS was 4.2 months for those assigned to cetuximab vs. 2.9 months for those assigned to placebo (adjusted [...]

Charlotte Parker2013-06-03T10:20:56-07:00June, 2013|Oral Cancer News|

No increased risk of infection for long-term sex partners of people with HPV-related oral cancers

June 1, 2013 in Cancer Source: Medical Express Spouses and long-term partners of patients with mouth and throat cancers related to infection with the human papilloma virus (HPV) appear to have no increased prevalence of oral HPV infections, according to results of a multicenter, pilot study led by Johns Hopkins investigators. The study's results suggest that long-term couples need not change their sexual practices, say the scientists. "While we can't guarantee that the partners of patients will not develop oral HPV infections or cancers, we can reassure them that our study found they had no increased prevalence of oral infections, which suggests their risk of HPV-related oral cancer remains low," says Gypsyamber D'Souza, Ph.D., M.P.H., associate professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is expected to present the results of her study June 1 at the 2013 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting. HPV-related oral cancers are rising in prevalence among white men in the United States, and fear of transmitting the virus can lead to anxiety, divorce, and curtailing of sex and intimacy among couples, says D'Souza. Persistent oral HPV infections are a risk for developing oropharyngeal cancers, located at the base of the tongue, tonsils, pharynx and soft palate. At the Johns Hopkins Hospital and three other hospitals, researchers conducted surveys and took oral rinse samples from 166 male and female patients with HPV-related oropharyngeal cancers and 94 spouses and partners. The scientists also studied patients' tumor samples and performed visual [...]

Charlotte Parker2013-06-03T10:07:24-07:00June, 2013|Oral Cancer News|

Michael Douglas: Oral sex gave me cancer

By DAVID K. LISource: NewYork PostLast Updated: 11:31 AM, June 3, 2013Posted: 8:49 PM, June 2, 2013 Michael Douglas has made a jaw-dropping revelation about his throat cancer: He didn’t contract it from smoking or drinking — but from oral sex. The Oscar-winning Hollywood star set tongues wagging after he told The Guardian newspaper that he contracted HPV, or human papillomavirus, through a sex act and it developed into cancer. “Without wanting to get too specific, this particular cancer is caused by HPV, which actually comes about from cunnilingus,” he told the British newspaper in an interview published yesterday. After Douglas was diagnosed with the life-threatening illness in 2010, he said on “Late Show with David Letterman” that the kind of cancer he had was caused by smoking and drinking. Ghetty Images Actor Michael Douglas said a virus from oral sex, not booze and cigarettes, gave him throat cancer. In yesterday’s interview, the 68-year-old actor speculated that his son Cameron’s legal woes may have borne some responsibility, too. “I did worry if the stress caused by my son’s incarceration didn’t help trigger it,” the “Wall Street” actor said of Cameron Douglas, who is serving 10 years in a federal prison for heroin possession and distribution. “But, yeah, it’s a sexually transmitted disease that causes [the] cancer.” A cancer-awareness advocate hailed Douglas for his blunt talk. “I’m really quite proud of Michael saying this,” Brian Hill, executive director of the Oral Cancer Foundation, told The Post yesterday. “This [oral sex] is [...]

Charlotte Parker2013-06-03T09:50:47-07:00June, 2013|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|