Oral Cancer News – Page 241 – The Oral Cancer Foundation News Archive

Environmental cancer risks may be more dangerous than you think

Source: LA Times Author: Jill U Adams Pollutants and other chemicals in your environment — your home, your frontyard, your workplace — may be more toxic to your health than you know, according to a report released earlier this month. The President's Cancer Panel, an advisory group charged with monitoring the war on cancer, proposed in its May 5 report that environmental chemicals might contribute to a larger share of deaths from cancer than the 1% to 5% figure cited by the National Cancer Institute. Skeptical reactions to the report, most notably from the American Cancer Society, say that the report's focus on potential environmental risks may distract from known risks with much larger effects, such as smoking, sun exposure, diet and exercise. But others, such as David Kriebel, an epidemiologist at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell who testified before the panel in 2008, say the risks associated with environmental exposures are unclear and could easily be larger than assumed. "Isn't it disappointing that we don't know how much larger?" he asks. "It is always worth making the point that tobacco is the most important exposure to try to eliminate," but that message shouldn't preclude investigation of other exposures, says Shelia Hoar Zahm, deputy director of cancer epidemiology and genetics at the National Cancer Institute. The report, with its focus on the admittedly incomplete science on environmental cancer risks, helps the U.S. government to keep the broad picture in mind as it continues its war on cancer, she says. [...]

Charlotte Parker2010-05-25T15:17:24-07:00May, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

FDA tobacco chief says to industry: ‘Long way to go’

Source: Associated Press Staff: Michael Felberbaum WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — The head of the government's tobacco regulator says the Food and Drug Administration's new power to regulate tobacco is a promising tool to reduce the toll of disease and death caused by tobacco use. "This is an opportunity for me to serve my country by preventing its men, women and children from suffering and dying from tobacco-related diseases," Dr. Lawrence Deyton, director of the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products told attendees Monday at the Tobacco Merchants Association annual meeting in Williamsburg, Va. Deyton, who has held the job for about nine months, said his job is to address the "enormous toll of confusion, suffering and death caused by the current state of tobacco use in this country." "And frankly, we have a long way to go," he said. Deyton said his top priorities include stopping kids from picking up the habit, educating the public and applying standards based on science. While Deyton encouraged an open dialogue with the industry, he acknowledged that some believe regulation as a threat to the tobacco business and will "try and block FDA at every turn in implementing this law." For those who ignore the law, Deyton said, the FDA has multiple options to enforce compliance and the agency will "not hesitate to take these steps when warranted." The FDA's authority granted last June is the main area of discussion at the two-day gathering of tobacco manufacturers, growers and retailers. The agency is tasked with creating [...]

Charlotte Parker2010-05-25T13:27:43-07:00May, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Nano-bio-chip checks for oral cancer

Source: www.nanotech-now.com Author: press release The gentle touch of a brush on the tongue or cheek can help detect oral cancer with success rates comparable to more invasive techniques like biopsies, according to preliminary studies by researchers at Rice University, the University of Texas Health Science Centers at Houston and San Antonio and the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. A new test that uses Rice's diagnostic nano-bio-chip was found to be 97 percent "sensitive" and 93 percent specific in detecting which patients had malignant or premalignant lesions, results that compared well with traditional tests. The results of this study, which was led by John McDevitt, were published in the journal Cancer Prevention Research. Oral cancer afflicts more than 300,000 people a year, including 35,000 in the United States alone. The five-year survival rate is 60 percent, but if oral cancer is detected early, that rate rises to 90 percent. "One of the key discoveries in this paper is to show that the miniaturized, noninvasive approach produces about the same result as the pathologists do," said Dr. McDevitt, whose group developed the novel nano-bio-chip technology. Dr. McDevitt and his team are working to create an inexpensive chip that can differentiate premalignant lesions from the 95 percent of lesions that will not become cancerous. The minimally invasive technique would deliver results in 15 minutes instead of several days, as lab-based diagnostics do now. Instead of an invasive, painful biopsy, the new procedure requires just a light brush of the lesion [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-05-23T16:01:08-07:00May, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Boehringer Ingelheim will announce preliminary data in the area of head and neck cancer

Source: pr-usa.net Author: press release Boehringer Ingelheim will announce preliminary data in the areas of head and neck cancer and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) for one of the company's investigational compounds, BIBW 2992. These data will be presented at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago. BIBW 2992 is an orally-administered small molecule under development that irreversibly inhibits the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR/HER1) and human epidermal receptor 2 (HER2) tyrosine kinases. BIBW 2992 data in head and neck cancer(1) New data will report preliminary best response analysis for 74/109 patients from an ongoing Phase 2 study of 124 patients with metastatic or recurrent squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) who did not respond to platinum-containing therapy. In this study, patients were initially randomly assigned to either BIBW 2992 or cetuximab. Twenty-two percent of the 34 patients receiving BIBW 2992 experienced reduction in tumor size (measured as partial response), compared to 13 percent of the 40 patients receiving cetuximab. Preliminary safety analyses revealed diarrhea and skin-related adverse events as the most common adverse events associated with BIBW 2992. "Metastatic head and neck cancer has a very poor prognosis, and patients are in desperate need for new treatment options," says Tanguy Y. Seiwert, M.D., lead investigator of the trial, University of Chicago Medical Center. "These findings, while preliminary, are encouraging and warrant further investigation of BIBW 2992 in head and neck cancer."

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-05-23T12:55:48-07:00May, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

UConn scientist may have way to detect pre-tumor cancer

Source: www.theday.com Author: staff A University of Connecticut researcher thinks he might have found a way to find cancer even before it reveals itself in a tumor or other symptoms. Jim Rusling, professor of chemistry and cell biology at the UConn Health Center, has been working with colleagues at the National Institutes of Health to detect specific proteins found in the blood of those with prostate or oral cancer. These biomarker proteins are detectable in early stages of these cancers, so the researchers believe they can be used for earlier detection and prevention than is now possible. Rusling noted that the approach has an advantage over genetic testing, because that can only assess the risk of getting the disease, whereas measuring biomarkers can reveal the actual presence cancer. He described the project, funded by a $1.5 million NIH grant, in a recent issue of Analytical Chemistry.

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-05-21T07:26:05-07:00May, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Fighting cancer through healthy living

Source: www.cancure.org Author: staff The National Cancer Institute estimates that roughly one-third of all cancer deaths may be diet related. What you eat can hurt you, but it can also help you. Many of the common foods found in grocery stores or organic markets contain cancer-fighting properties, from the antioxidants that neutralize the damage caused by free radicals to the powerful phytochemicals that scientists are just beginning to explore. There isn't a single element in a particular food that does all the work: The best thing to do is eat a variety of foods. The following foods have the ability to help stave off cancer and some can even help inhibit cancer cell growth or reduce tumor size. Avocados are rich in glutathione, a powerful antioxidant that attacks free radicals in the body by blocking intestinal absorption of certain fats. They also supply even more potassium than bananas and are a strong source of beta-carotene. Scientists also believe that avocados may also be useful in treating viral hepatitis (a cause of liver cancer), as well as other sources of liver damage. Broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower have a chemical component called indole-3-carbinol that can combat breast cancer by converting a cancer-promoting estrogen into a more protective variety. Broccoli, especially sprouts, also have the phytochemical sulforaphane, a product of glucoraphanin - believed to aid in preventing some types of cancer, like colon and rectal cancer. Sulforaphane induces the production of certain enzymes that can deactivate free radicals and carcinogens. The enzymes have [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-05-20T18:06:51-07:00May, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

UC Davis probes into oral cancer

Source: theaggie.org Author: Eric C. Lipsky UC Davis is searching for new and more effective methods to deal with oral cancer. Researchers have begun using a fluorescent oral probe to aid in the detection of malignant tissues. The probe allows doctors to differentiate between healthy and malignant tissue, along with having the capacity of working as a screening device. Although still a prototype, the fluorescent probe is showing that it can be helpful to doctors both prior to and during surgery. "The big picture is to improve the ability to diagnose tumors at an earlier stage," said Dr. Gregory Farwell, a head and neck surgeon at the UC Davis Medical Center. Farwell said that people's ability to survive oral cancer is significantly increased if the cancer is detected at an early stage. He said that oral cancer is primarily caused by smoking, drinking and human papillomavirus (HPV). Farwell said oral cancer through HPV usually takes 10 to 20 years to develop. 43,000 Americans are diagnosed with oral cancer each year. While the cancer is not the most prevalent in the United States, Farwell said it is a major problem worldwide, especially in countries like India and China. He said this probe could be of great utility for efficiently diagnosing different stages of cancer. "It is a very effective way to discriminate between normal tissue and tumor tissue," Farwell said. "We're showing better results in distinguishing differences in tissue. It can even help discriminate between pre-cancer and advanced cancer." The probe, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-05-20T12:26:51-07:00May, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

End of cervical cancer is possible

Source: The News and Observer Author: Martha Quillin May 19--RALEIGH -- North Carolina could be among the first states to eliminate cervical cancer, according to a group of health care experts who launched an effort Tuesday with that goal. More than 100 clinicians, researchers, community activists and some cancer survivors attended the launch of the Cervical Cancer-Free Initiative at a Raleigh hotel. That's almost as many women -- 114, on average -- who die of cervical cancer in North Carolina each year. While the number of deaths from the illness has dropped over three decades in the state and across the nation, all cervical-cancer deaths are preventable, said Noel T. Brewer, director of the initiative. Brewer is also an associate professor in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, which is a partner with the N.C. Division of Public Health, in the initiative. "This is an illness that kills people in countries where people don't have access to health care," Brewer said. In the United States, 4,070 women died of the disease last year, according to the National Cancer Institute. "We are a rich country," Brewer said. "This shouldn't be happening here." Participants talked about ways to get more girls vaccinated against HPV, or human papillomavirus, which is present in every case of cervical cancer, and to increase screening for cervical cancer in women who weren't vaccinated. Those two steps could prevent most of the deaths, Brewer said. In North Carolina, only a third of girls aged 13 to [...]

Charlotte Parker2010-05-20T12:20:57-07:00May, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Radiation planning reduces dysphagia in oropharyngeal cancer

Source: www.medscape.com Author: Nick Mulcahy In patients with oropharyngeal cancer, modifying radiotherapy to spare swallowing structures appears to be an effective strategy to reduce the long-term dysphagia that accompanies chemoradiotherapy, according to a small longitudinal study. Importantly, the strategy did not come at the expense of locoregional control, report investigators in a study published online April 26 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Dysphagia has emerged as perhaps the most important late adverse effect in this setting, supplanting xerostomia, said the study's senior author, Avraham Eisbruch, MD, professor of radiation oncology at the University of Michigan Medical School and Comprehensive Cancer Center in Ann Arbor. "Aggressive chemoradiotherapy approaches produce more dysphagia than in the past," he told Medscape Oncology. Meanwhile, the late adverse effect of xerostomia is on the wane, because the use of intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) has allowed radiation oncologists to spare most patients' salivary glands from radiation, he said. To address the problem of dysphagia, Dr. Eisbruch and colleagues at the University of Michigan used IMRT in combination with chemotherapy. Their treatment planning for 73 patients with stages III to IV oropharyngeal cancer included sparing any swallowing structure that did not have tumor involvement. The structures included pharyngeal constrictors, glottic and supraglottic larynx, and esophagus. One year after concurrent chemotherapy and IMRT, all 73 of the patients had either absent or minimal observer-rated dysphagia (scores, 0 to 1), with the exception of 4 people: 1 who was feeding-tube dependent and 3 who required a soft diet. The results [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-05-19T20:47:25-07:00May, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

New biomarker technique could provide early detection for cancer

Source: www.physorg.com Author: press release provided by University of Connecticut Modern genetic testing can predict your risk of contracting particular diseases based on predispositions discovered in your DNA. But what if similar biotechnology could tell you that you’ve got a disease before you notice any symptoms? What if it could even tell you, before any signs of a tumor, that you have cancer? Jim Rusling, professor of chemistry at UConn and professor of cell biology at the UConn Health Center, ponders these questions on a daily basis. Since 2006, he and colleagues at the University and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have been developing techniques to detect biomarker proteins - the physiological traits that indicate that a person has a specific disease - for prostate and oral cancer. Because these biomarkers are often present in the blood in a disease’s early stages, they can be used for early detection and prevention. “DNA predicts which proteins can be made, but it can’t predict which proteins are actively expressed,” Rusling says. “It only assesses the risk of a disease. There’s a big push now to measure proteins as biomarkers.” In a recent publication in the journal Analytical Chemistry, Rusling and his colleagues describe a system they developed to detect with record sensitivity the bloodstream levels of a protein associated with several types of oral cancer, including head and neck squamous cell carcinomas. The project was funded by a $1.5 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences at NIH. [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-05-19T20:29:55-07:00May, 2010|Oral Cancer News|