Oral Cancer News – Page 256 – The Oral Cancer Foundation News Archive

Oral Cancer Foundation donates screening devices to West Virginia Free Clinics

Source: www.prnewswire.com Author: press release In 2009 the Oral Cancer Foundation initiated a program of donating VELscope® Oral Cancer Screening Systems to free clinics. The most recent recipients of this program are two West Virginia clinics: WV Health Right in Charleston, and the Susan Dew Hoff Memorial Clinic in West Milford. "Our intent is to identify free clinics in areas that have a high concentration of people who are both at risk for oral cancer and without the financial means to pay for comprehensive oral exams," said Oral Cancer Foundation founder and executive director Brian Hill. "It is difficult to think of an area that better fits those criteria than West Virginia." The state ranks highest in the country in tobacco usage, and next-to-last in per capita income. In identifying free clinics to be potential recipients of the device which identifies loss of tissue auto-fluorescence, an indicator of abnormal tissues, the Oral Cancer Foundation is careful to ensure that each candidate clinic has at least one dentist on staff who can be trained to use the device and can train other staff members. Oral cancer belongs to the head and neck cancer group, and is often referred to by other names such as; tongue cancer, mouth cancer, tonsil cancer, lip cancer, and throat cancer. While some people think this is a rare cancer, it is not. Approximately 100 people in the U.S. will be newly diagnosed with oral cancer each day, and it takes a life in the U.S. every [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-02-23T12:46:22-07:00February, 2010|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

Roger Ebert: the essential man

Source: Esquire Magazine Author: Chris Jones It has been nearly four years since Roger Ebert lost his lower jaw and his ability to speak. Now television's most famous movie critic is rarely seen and never heard, but his words have never stopped. For the 281st time in the last ten months Roger Ebert is sitting down to watch a movie in the Lake Street Screening Room, on the sixteenth floor of what used to pass for a skyscraper in the Loop. Ebert's been coming to it for nearly thirty years, along with the rest of Chicago's increasingly venerable collection of movie critics. More than a dozen of them are here this afternoon, sitting together in the dark. Some of them look as though they plan on camping out, with their coats, blankets, lunches, and laptops spread out on the seats around them. The critics might watch three or four movies in a single day, and they have rules and rituals along with their lunches to make it through. The small, fabric-walled room has forty-nine purple seats in it; Ebert always occupies the aisle seat in the last row, closest to the door. His wife, Chaz, in her capacity as vice-president of the Ebert Company, sits two seats over, closer to the middle, next to a little table. She's sitting there now, drinking from a tall paper cup. Michael Phillips, Ebert's bearded, bespectacled replacement on At the Movies, is on the other side of the room, one row down. The guy who [...]

Charlotte Parker2010-02-23T12:40:29-07:00February, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Both sides take tobacco fight to Supreme Court

Source: www.thesunnews.com Author: Mark Sherman The Obama administration asked the Supreme Court Friday to allow the government to seek nearly $300 billion from the tobacco industry for a half-century of deception that "has cost the lives and damaged the health of untold millions of Americans." Both sides in a landmark, decade-long legal fight over smoking took their case to the high court Friday. The administration, joined by public health groups, wants the court to throw out rulings that bar the government from collecting $280 billion of past tobacco profits or $14 billion for a national campaign to curb smoking. Friday's filings with the Supreme Court mark the latest phase in a lawsuit that began during Bill Clinton's presidency. Philip Morris USA, the nation's largest tobacco maker, its parent company Altria Group Inc., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., British American Tobacco Investments Ltd. and Lorillard Tobacco Co. filed separate but related appeals that take issue with a federal judge's 1,600-page opinion and an appeals court ruling that found the industry engaged in racketeering and fraud over several decades. In 2006, U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler ruled that the companies engaged in a scheme to defraud the public by falsely denying the adverse health effects of smoking, concealing evidence that nicotine is addictive and lying about their manipulation of nicotine in cigarettes to create addiction. A federal appeals court in Washington upheld the findings. At the same time, however, the courts have said the government is not entitled to collect $280 billion in [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-02-20T22:40:43-07:00February, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

New test genetically fingerprints tumors

Source: online.wsj.com Author: Ron Winslow In a fresh advance for the burgeoning field of personalized medicine, researchers have developed a blood test based on the DNA of tumors that could help tailor treatment for individual cancer patients. The report, announced Thursday, represents one of the most tangible examples yet of how the ability to sequence a person's entire genetic code could have a direct impact on patient care. There have been a flurry of reports on new sequencing technology that is yielding enormous amounts of information about genetics and disease, but that has yet to deliver much in the way of new treatment strategies. "For cancer patients there hasn't been much utility so far. This may prove to be one of the first useful approaches," said Victor Velculescu, co-director of the cancer biology program at Johns Hopkins University's Kimmel Cancer Center and senior author of the new study. Much research involving whole-genome sequencing is aimed at finding differences in the individual letters that make up the genetic code. The belief is that those small alterations will point to molecular pathways that regulate disease, which would be potential targets for drug therapies. The Hopkins researchers, writing in the journal Science Translational Medicine, took a different approach. They scanned the DNA of tumors taken from six patients with breast or colon cancer, looking not for tiny DNA changes, but what they call rearrangements in large sections of the genome of tumor cells. The DNA of tumors varies genetically from that of normal [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-02-20T22:29:37-07:00February, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Oral cancer’s toll, cruel

Source: CNN Author: Madison Park (CNN) -- It brought a tough, All-Star NBA coach to tears this week. And it stilled the voice of a famous film critic. Head and neck cancers are rare, but known to be severe -- they can strip away a person's voice, distort the face and rob the basic abilities to eat, drink and swallow. The cancer can be so disfiguring, some patients seldom appear in public. In a tear-filled press conference this week, Denver Nuggets coach George Karl announced he has a type of neck and throat cancer. Karl said he will continue to coach, but will miss some games and practices. His type of cancer -- a squamous cell tumor found on his right tonsil -- is the most common and expected to be treatable with radiation and chemotherapy. Also this week, Esquire profiled film critic Roger Ebert, who also had a head and neck cancer. He suffered complications from surgery to treat the cancer that had spread to the salivary gland. The magazine published a full-page photo of the film critic, who no longer has a lower jaw. Ebert spent little time feeling sorry for himself: "If we think we have physical imperfections, obsessing about them is only destructive. Low self-esteem involves imagining the worst that other people can think about you. That means they're living upstairs in the rent-free room," he wrote on his blog after the photo published. While Ebert cannot speak, he continues to lambaste bad movies online. Head and neck [...]

Charlotte Parker2010-02-20T22:24:38-07:00February, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Study suggests VELscope can help reduce recurrence of oral cancer

Source: www.dentaleconomics.com Author: staff LED Dental has announced a recent study suggests that its VELscope screening system can help surgeons reduce the recurrence rate for oral cancer following surgery. The article, "Tracing the 'At-Risk' Oral Mucosa Field with Autofluorescence: Steps Toward Clinical Impact," was just published in the journal, Cancer Prevention Research. The article was was authored by Catherine F. Poh, Calum E. MacAulay, and Miriam Rosin of the BC Cancer Agency and Lewei Zhang of the University of British Columbia. The study was prompted by numerous previous studies that showed oral cancer recurs in a significant percentage of patients following oral cancer surgery. The study examined the experience of 60 oral cancer surgery patients between 2004 and 2008. Their cancerous lesions were treated with surgical excision alone with a minimum follow-up time of 12 months. For 38 of the 60 patients, the surgeon used a surgical margin that was 10 mm beyond the tumor edge defined by the VELscope exam. Because the VELscope system utilizes fluorescence visualization, or FV, technology, these patients are described in the article as having had FV-guided surgery. The remaining 22 patients--the control group--did not have FV-guided surgery. Instead, the surgeon used a surgical margin that was 10 mm beyond the tumor edge defined by the standard white-light exam. White light exams rely on visual inspection with the naked eye, whereas the VELscope system allows clinicians to discover cancerous and precancerous tissue that might not be apparent to the naked eye. Four years into the [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-02-18T22:37:36-07:00February, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

VELscope used to screen Olympic athletes for oral cancer

Source: www.dentaleconomics.com Author: staff LED Dental has announced that the VELscope oral cancer screening system is being used to conduct oral cancer screenings for up to 800 athletes at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, British Columbia. The International Olympic Committee mandated that 20% of athletes--up from 10% four years ago--receive a comprehensive examination to include a screening for oral cancer. The device selected to conduct the screenings is the VELscope system, which was developed in British Columbia by LED Dental in collaboration with the British Columbia Cancer Agency. The VELscope has been used to conduct an estimated 3 million screenings in the past year. During the Vancouver Games, a team of 72 dentists and volunteer assistants is anticipated to have approximately 800 athletes sit in their dental chairs not only for oral cancer screenings, but for everything from routine dental care to trauma surgery. Dr. Jack Taunton, co-chief medical officer of the Games, said athletes are so nomadic they tend to defer dental care. So Dr. Taunton is hoping many of them take advantage of the care they can get while in Vancouver and Whistler. "Year-round, the alpine athletes follow winter around the world to train, and they are at higher risk of lip and mouth cancers because of the altitude and sun exposure," he said. "The skin on the lips is thin and poorly protected. The damage is cumulative and you have to consider they are exposed to these intense ultraviolet rays for up to 30 years, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-02-18T22:31:31-07:00February, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

New uses for erectile disfunction drugs

Source: abclocal.go.com/wjrt Author: Leslie Toldo Could Viagra be the next cancer cure? HealthFirst reporter Leslie Toldo shows us why doctors think some impotence drugs may be as versatile as aspirin. E-D, or erectile dysfunction drugs, are being explored as treatments for more than a dozen diseases and health problems. They're the images of happy couples that helped make erectile dysfunction drugs a $3 billion business. But now doctors say those little pills may also save lives. "I did ask them what on earth they were talking about," said cancer patient Brian Kumnick. Kumnick is fighting throat cancer. He's been through months of radiation and surgery. "Well, the radiation, it's barbaric. It's really barbaric, and I've lost my taste buds, for example. I can't taste anything. Water tastes like acid going down." He's part of a clinical trial to see if the E-D drug Cialis can cure head and neck cancers. "It'd be really nice to just take a pill that has a pleasant side effect," Kumnick said. In preliminary studies, doctors at Johns Hopkins say Cialis energized patients' immune systems so their bodies could battle the cancer cells. Next, they'll test to see if the drug also shrinks tumors. Dr. Joseph Califano is a professor in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital. "When we looked at the blood of head and neck cancer patients, we could get their immune response to rev up to near normal levels, whereas they were suppressed maybe 75 percent, sometimes [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-02-18T22:26:38-07:00February, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

University of Rochester expands robotic surgeries to oral, pharyngeal cancers

Source: www.healthcanal.com Author: staff Doctors at University of Rochester Medical Center are first in upstate New York to incorporate the precision and dexterity of a surgical robot to remove cancerous tumors in the mouth and throat. The first transoral robotic procedure – a partial glossectomy -- was performed Feb. 8 by surgeon Matthew Miller, M.D. This procedure expands the Medical Center’s robot-assisted surgery capabilities to include procedures for head and neck, urologic and gynecologic conditions. “Traditional approaches to these tumors have the potential to be invasive and disfiguring – oftentimes leading to an extensive recovery and rehabilitation period,” said Miller, a fellowship trained head and neck cancer surgeon. “The robot allows us to limit or even eliminate some of the side effects associated with more invasive surgeries while still effectively treating the cancer.” Strong Memorial Hospital’s daVinci Surgical Systems consist of robotic arms that replicate a surgeon’s motions in real time. The movements are by a surgeon using high-definition images provided by cameras positioned within the patient’s mouth. The surgeon is working from a console, across the room from the patient. Traditional surgery for some head and neck cancers requires large incisions – extending from the lip, across the chin and to the neck before entering the mouth or throat. Many times surgeons need to cut through the lower jaw and move aside vital cranial nerves to gain access to the back of the mouth and throat. Using the high-precision robotic system, surgeons insert the slender instruments into the mouth [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-02-18T08:53:06-07:00February, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Tobacco use linked to worse outcomes In HPV-positive head and neck cancer, U-M study finds

Source: www.medicalnewstoday.com Author: Nicole Fawcett, University of Michigan Health System Patients with head and neck cancer linked to high risk human papillomavirus, or HPV, have worse outcomes if they are current or former tobacco users, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center. High-risk HPVs are the same viruses that are associated with cancers of the uterine cervix. The research suggests that current or former tobacco users may need a more aggressive treatment regimen than patients who have never used tobacco. Past research shows that HPV-positive head and neck cancers tend to be more responsive to current treatments and these patients overall tend to have better outcomes than patients with HPV-negative tumors. However, the new study found that current tobacco users with HPV-positive tumors were five times more likely to have their cancer recur. Even former smokers had an increased risk of recurrence. "Because the effect of HPV is so strong in giving a very good prognostic picture, we were surprised to find that smoking remained a huge issue, and it actually affected the outcome in patients who smoked," says senior study author Thomas Carey, Ph.D., professor of otolaryngology and pharmacology, and co-director of the Head and Neck Oncology Program at the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center. Results of the study appear in the Feb. 15 issue of Clinical Cancer Research. The study looked at 124 patients with advanced oropharyngeal cancer, which is cancer of the tonsils or the base of the tongue. Most [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-02-17T21:51:15-07:00February, 2010|Oral Cancer News|