Oral Cancer News – Page 245 – The Oral Cancer Foundation News Archive

Walk to raise awareness for oral cancer Saturday

Source: www.dailypennsylvanian.com Author: Miriam Nareem Penn Relays won’t be the only on-foot event on campus this weekend. Founded and run by students, the Oral Cancer Awareness Society will be holding their second annual 3.1 mile-long walk on April 24. The walk loops around University City and West Philadelphia. The event has drawn students from Penn, Temple University and other surrounding universities, as well as community members and cancer survivors. Individuals can register to walk or sponsor another participant. All walker registration fees and the majority of sponsorship money goes to the Oral Cancer Foundation. So far approximately $5,000 has been raised. The group will be holding free oral cancer screenings at on Locust Walk with faculty from the school. Additionally, the event will be attended by oral cancer survivors themselves who can share their experiences. Last year, the post-walk festivities featured live entertainment from School of Dental Medicine students. Between classes and extracurriculars, most Penn students do not have time for dental screenings as regularly as they should, Anna Yuan, a Penn Dental student and one of the walk’s organizers wrote in an e-mail. With a disease like oral cancer, regular visits to the dentist are crucial in detection and diagnosis — the same visits most Penn student’s either don’t have the time or resources to make. “When diagnosed early, oral cancer is highly treatable,” Yuan wrote. Missing dental appointments is an even bigger issue for international students who don’t have dental insurance in this country. College freshman Humna Bhojani [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-04-25T06:16:10-07:00April, 2010|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

Evaluation of a low-cost, portable imaging system for early detection of oral cancer

Source: 7thspace.com Author: staff There is an important global need to improve early detection of oral cancer. Recent reports suggest that optical imaging technologies can aid in the identification of neoplastic lesions in the oral cavity; however, there is little data evaluating the use of optical imaging modalities in resource limited settings where oral cancer impacts patients disproportionately. In this article, we evaluate a simple, low-cost optical imaging system that is designed for early detection of oral cancer in resource limited settings. We report results of a clinical study conducted at Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH) in Mumbai, India using this system as a tool to improve detection of oral cancer and its precursors. Methods: Reflectance images with white light illumination and fluorescence images with 455 nm excitation were obtained from 261 sites in the oral cavity from 76 patients and 90 sites in the oral cavity from 33 normal volunteers. Quantitative image features were used to develop classification algorithms to identify neoplastic tissue, using clinical diagnosis of expert observers as the gold standard. Results: Using the ratio of red to green autofluorescence, the algorithm identified tissues judged clinically to be cancer or clinically suspicious for neoplasia with a sensitivity of 90% and a specificity of 87%. Conclusions: Results suggest that the performance of this simple, objective low-cost system has potential to improve oral screening efforts, especially in low-resource settings. Notes: 1. Authors: Mohammed Rahman, Nilesh Ingole, Darren Roblyer, Vanda Stepanek, Rebecca Richards-Kortum, Ann Gillenwater, Surendra Shastri, Pankaj Chaturvedi 2. Source: [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-04-23T13:32:51-07:00April, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Poor awareness of head and neck cancer

Source: www.imn.ie Author: Kay Kinsella Eighty-three per cent of those surveyed on their knowledge of head and neck cancer (HNC) have admitted to knowing little or nothing about the disease. The study of 200 Irish people, published in the Irish Medical Journal, showed the majority (96 per cent) of those surveyed identified smoking as a major risk factor to developing HNC, but few (27 per cent) recognised excessive alcohol consumption as a risk. Less than 100 (50 per cent) would have concern about persisting hoarseness or a prolonged oral ulcer, despite them being common symptoms of HNC. HNC is the sixth most common cancer worldwide, with more than half a million new cases diagnosed every year and 200,000 deaths resulting from this cancer annually. Survival rates of the cancer, however, remain low with 50 per cent of those diagnosed with tongue cancer dying within five years. Early diagnosis of HNC could boost survival rates up to 70-80 per cent, however, it is reported that 60 per cent of patients diagnosed with HNC are at an advanced stage of the disease. The study reveals that 98 per cent of the public surveyed desired more information about the disease, however, there is little awareness being raised on the topic among the Irish public. The disease has higher mortality rates than any other form of cancer, including, breast, cervical, and prostate cancer, but these all have higher profiles in the public domain. Note: 1. The study was carried out in the Department of [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-04-23T12:29:01-07:00April, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Alcohol based mouthwash and oral cancer – too much confusion

Source: Scienceblogs.com Author: Francis Mawanda (Please note, this post is an editorial opinion not a news article) If you are like me, you probably always and almost faithfully, include a bottle of mouthwash on your grocery list especially after watching and/or listening to the numerous commercials in the media which claim that you will not only get long lasting fresh breath, but also freedom from the germs that cause plaque and gingivitis. However, many proprietary mouthwashes including my favorite brand contain Alcohol (ethanol) which also gives them the characteristic burn we have to endure, albeit for a few seconds each day, but safe in the knowledge that the product is hard at work killing all the germs that give us bad breath and may cause plaque and gingivitis. But the question I continually ask myself is whether regular or long term use of these products is safe especially after reading the numerous research reports and newspaper articles suggesting a possible link between long term use of alcohol based mouthwashes and oral cancer. Several research studies have reported finding an association between long term mouthwash use and oral cancer (1, 2, 3). For example, in a study conducted by Wynder and colleagues (1), they found a significant association between mouthwash use and oral cancer. A bigger multi-site study by Guha and colleagues (3) comparing participants who reported having used mouthwash to those who reported never having used mouthwash found that individuals who reported using mouthwash more than twice a day were [...]

Charlotte Parker2010-04-23T12:26:22-07:00April, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

CDC urges 50-state anti-smoking effort

Source: CNN Author: Ann Curley In 2007, the Institute of Medicine, the medical branch of the National Academy of Sciences, released "Ending the Tobacco Problem: A Blueprint for the Nation," stating a goal of eliminating smoking as a public health problem in the United States. The strategies included strengthening and fully activating tobacco control methods similar to the CDC's plans, as well as tobacco regulation. In 2008, the World Health Organization's MPOWER program outlined additional steps that complemented and reinforced the other agencies' recommendations. As an example of the success of these strategies, the CDC cites the state of California, which has one of the oldest comprehensive tobacco control programs. California cut adult smoking rates from 22.7 percent in 1988 to 13.3 percent in 2006. That reduction in smoking accelerated the decline of heart disease deaths and lung cancer incidence in California, compared with the rest of the country. In 2009, 14 states and the District of Columbia implemented an excise tax on cigarettes. Those state tax hikes followed a 62-cent federal cigarette tax hike instituted by Congress in April 2009. Twenty-four states and D.C. have comprehensive smoke-free laws. Seven states do not have statewide smoke-free laws of any type: Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, West Virginia and Wyoming. While some progress has been made in getting more states to implement tobacco control measures, the report stresses that much more is still needed. The CDC's Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs 2007 noted that states could plan and [...]

Charlotte Parker2010-04-23T11:17:16-07:00April, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

West Michigan woman serves as test subject for voice recreation

Source: www.wwmt.com Author: staff For Steve and Annet Shannon it's a chance to maintain normalcy, and regain a voice that could be lost. Five years ago Annet Shannon was diagnosed with a rare form of tongue cancer, and doctors removed 30% of the back of her tongue followed by a series of radiation treatments, which Steve Shannon says were working, "Everything was going well with no evidence of recurrence until this last December where she found a lump on her neck. To make a long story short she will be having surgery May 4, 2010. There is a possibility she could be losing her tongue and voice box and her ability to speak." For the Shannons it's a grim reality that Annet's surgery could take her voice, but the couple had at least heard of famed film critic Roger Ebert, who lost his jaw to cancer surgery, but was given a new custom text to voice device where he was able to communicate using his own voice. To Steve Shannon, that seemed like just the thing for them, "My wife was very interested in this technology and she was searching to learn more. By fate we met Professor John Eulenberg, director of MSU's Artificial Language Lab. The Artificial Language Lab has begun a project as one of five sites to help people to create their own personal text-to-speech software systems." The Shannons learned that the underlying technology was created by Tim Bunnell and his team at the University of Delaware [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-04-23T08:45:18-07:00April, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Alcohol based mouthwash and oral cancer – too much confusion

Source: scienceblogs.com Author: Francis Mawanda If you are like me, you probably always and almost faithfully, include a bottle of mouthwash on your grocery list especially after watching and/or listening to the numerous commercials in the media which claim that you will not only get long lasting fresh breath, but also freedom from the germs that cause plaque and gingivitis. However, many proprietary mouthwashes including my favorite brand contain Alcohol (ethanol) which also gives them the characteristic burn we have to endure, albeit for a few seconds each day, but safe in the knowledge that the product is hard at work killing all the germs that give us bad breath and may cause plaque and gingivitis. But the question I continually ask myself is whether regular or long term use of these products is safe especially after reading the numerous research reports and newspaper articles suggesting a possible link between long term use of alcohol based mouthwashes and oral cancer. Several research studies have reported finding an association between long term mouthwash use and oral cancer (1, 2, 3). For example, in a study conducted by Wynder and colleagues (1), they found a significant association between mouthwash use and oral cancer. A bigger multi-site study by Guha and colleagues (3) comparing participants who reported having used mouthwash to those who reported never having used mouthwash found that individuals who reported using mouthwash more than twice a day were nearly six times more likely to develop oral squamous cell carcinoma compared [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-04-23T08:39:01-07:00April, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

LeHigh Valley linking to elite national cancer care

Source: www.mcall.com Author: Veronica Torrejón The National Cancer Institute is plugging the Lehigh Valley directly into more of the nation's most advanced cancer-fighting and research opportunities. The government's top agency for cancer research has selected two of the region's hospitals to receive grants totaling $3.8 million in federal stimulus funds. Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown and Salisbury Township and Geisinger Medical Center in Danville will join a national network of 30 community cancer centers in 22 states. ''The opportunity for the community is enormous,'' said Dr. Gregory Harper, medical director of Lehigh Valley Health Network's Breast Health Services. ''We now have access to the best there is and the best the National Cancer Institute has to offer.'' Both hospitals will be able to participate in advanced genetic research studies and early-stage clinical trials available at major teaching hospitals in Philadelphia and New York, Harper said. Previously, there were 16 community cancer center sites. The National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, is using $40 million in stimulus funds to expand the program, designed to reach rural areas, poor inner-city neighborhoods or any community outside a major academic medical center. Statistics indicate most cancer patients, as many as 85 percent, are diagnosed and get their initial treatment at community hospitals. ''It's really about bringing cancer research closer to patients and patients closer to research,'' said Frank Blanchard, spokesman for the contractor managing the program for the National Cancer Institute. The program began in 2007. The idea is to [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-04-23T07:01:25-07:00April, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Nicotine vaccine shows effectiveness in early tests

Source: CNN Author: Val Willingham (CNN) -- A vaccine that could help people stop smoking is showing promise in early clinical trials, researchers announced this week at a national meeting of addiction specialists. The vaccine is designed to stimulate the immune system to generate antibodies that would latch on to nicotine in a smoker's body and prevent it from ever entering the brain. The vaccine maker, Nabi Biopharmaceuticals, reported that those who responded best to NicVAX in earlier testing had been able to quit smoking for three times longer than those in the placebo group, with data from 19 to 26 weeks, and then for 12 months. These are considered statistically significant results and superior to the testing results of Zyban and Chantix, prescription medications already approved to help smokers over the age of 18 quit, Nabi officials told the National Institute on Drug Abuse conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In addition, those whose bodies responded most effectively to NicVAX cut the number of cigarettes smoked, from a baseline of 20 cigarettes per day to 10 cigarettes per day. Those who took the vaccine experienced few side effects, said Dr. Raafat Fahim, president and CEO of Nabi Biopharmaceuticals. In 2009, Zyban and Chantix were ordered by the Food and Drug Administration to carry "black box" warnings of the risk of depression and suicidal thoughts. Nabi began the first phase III trials for NicVAX last November, enrolling 1,000 people. In March, a second phase III trial began with another 1,000 participants. [...]

Charlotte Parker2010-04-23T07:03:24-07:00April, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Aspen Dental announces donation to Oral Cancer Foundation

Source: www.prnewswire.com Author: press release Aspen Dental announced today that the company will donate $2,300 to the Oral Cancer Foundation as part of its commitment to oral cancer detection and treatment. The amount represents a $5 donation for every Vizilite Plus® screening conducted at Aspen Dental offices during Oral, Head, and Neck Cancer Awareness Week (April 12-18, 2010). Vizilite Plus is a blue-light, "glowstick" technology that helps detect oral cancer. According to the Oral Cancer Foundation, more than 35,000 Americans are diagnosed with oral or pharyngeal cancer each year, and oral cancer is responsible for approximately 8,000 deaths annually. Oral cancer is often discovered late in its development, which means that the death rate is particularly high. Aspen Dental has a longstanding commitment to oral cancer awareness. Most recently, Aspen Dental sponsored Oral Health America's National Spit Tobacco Education Program (NSTEP, www.nstep.org), at the Little League Baseball World Series in August 2009. The NSTEP program educates youth and their parents about the risks of smokeless tobacco use. About Aspen Dental One of the largest and fastest-growing providers of denture and dental care services in the U.S., Aspen Dental practices are committed to providing patients with affordable, high-quality care under the Aspen Dental brand, ranging from preventive care to general dentistry to restoration. Aspen Dental has grown from 13 offices and three states in 1998 to more than 235 locations in 20 states. More than 350 licensed dentists and 200 dental hygienists work with Aspen Dental throughout Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-04-21T12:54:01-07:00April, 2010|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|