Oral Cancer News – Page 316 – The Oral Cancer Foundation News Archive

Early-stage head and neck cancer in patients 80 years of age or older highly treatable

Source: professional.cancerconsultants.com Author: staff Researchers from France have reported that patients 80 years of age or older with Stage I-II head and neck cancer have good outcomes following surgery or radiation therapy. The details of this study appeared in an early online publication in Cancer on October 17, 2008.[1] Although most cancers occur in older individuals, this patient population is not proportionately represented in current clinical trials. In fact, many trials specifically exclude older patients on the assumption that they will not tolerate the protocol therapies. Thus, the results of many clinical trials are only applicable to the minority of younger patients with a specific type of cancer. In a recent study, researchers affiliated with ECOG looked at 53 patients with head and neck cancers who were 70 years or older. These patients were entered on two randomized trials and represented only 13% of the study group. However, the median age of patients with head and neck cancer is over the age of 65 years. This shows that a disproportionate number of younger patients are included in these trials. However, in this study the results in elderly patients were as good as for younger patients but with more treatment-related toxicities. This study looked at the outcomes of 316 patients with head and neck cancer who were 80 years of age or older treated in a single institution from 1987 to 2006. Thirty-one percent of patients received surgery, and 57% received definitive radiotherapy. Patients with Stage I-II head and neck cancer [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-11-22T08:09:13-07:00November, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

New platinum-phosphate compounds kill ovarian vancer cells, other cancer cells

Source: www.sciencedaily.com Author: staff A new class of compounds called phosphaplatins can effectively kill ovarian, testicular, head and neck cancer cells with potentially less toxicity than conventional drugs, according to a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The compounds could be less harmful than current cancer treatments on the market such as cisplatin and carboplatin because they don’t penetrate the cell nucleus and attach to DNA, said lead author Rathindra Bose. Conventional drugs can interfere with the functions of the cell’s enzymes, which lead to side effects such as hearing and hair loss and kidney dysfunction. Though scientists don’t fully understand the mechanism by which the phosphaplatins kill cancer cells, they suspect that the compounds bind to the cell surface membrane proteins and transmit a “death signal” to the interior of the cell, Bose said. The compounds are created by attaching platinum to a phosphate ligand, which can readily anchor to the cell membrane. Future studies will focus on identifying the exact process. “The findings suggest a paradigm shift in potential molecular targets for platinum anticancer drugs and in their strategic development,” said Bose, a professor of biomedical sciences and chemistry and vice president for research at Ohio University who conducted the work while at Northern Illinois University. The first drug developed for the treatment of ovarian and testicular cancers, cisplatin, was approved for use in 1982. Though it’s 95 percent effective, it works best during the early stages of the disease, and [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-11-22T08:00:49-07:00November, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

Cancer: the effects of canola oil and broccoli

Source: www.canada.com/montrealgazette Author: staff Replacing corn oil with canola oil may lower cancer risk not only for women but for their unborn babies, U.S. researchers reported yesterday. They found that mice fed canola oil while pregnant were less likely to develop breast cancer - and so were their unborn pups - than mice fed corn oil. The findings are probably because of omega-6 fatty acids, the researchers told a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. Some research has linked high amounts of omega-6 fatty acids to health problems including cancer. Fifty per cent of the fatty acids in corn oil are omega-6, while just 20 per cent of the fatty acids in canola oil are. And canola oil is much richer than corn oil in omega-3 fatty acids, which are linked with heart and cancer benefits. Broccoli and similar vegetables appear to offer special protection from cancer for smokers, researchers reported. They found that former smokers and, especially, people still smoking heavily got special benefits from eating the vegetables. "The most significant effect was in heavy smokers," said Li Tang of Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y., who led the study. People who smoked more than 20 cigarettes a day were considered heavy smokers. Smoking raises the risk of many types of cancer, including lung cancer, head and neck cancer and bladder cancer. Broccoli and other so-called cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts have been known to lower the risk of cancer in general, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-11-22T07:32:33-07:00November, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

Study finds new tobacco product highly addictive

Source: www.wtrf.com Author: Courtney Dunn Are makers of a new tobacco product targeting young adults in West Virginia? That is the question of a study being conducted in our area. West Virginia University researchers have made some startling discoveries about a new tobacco product. Not only are they calling it highly addictive, but they also believe tobacco companies are trying to strategically market the product in high-use areas, like West Virginia. The new spit-less, smokeless tobacco product can be found at local gas station convenience stores. It is called Camel Snus. Researchers say the pouches have more nicotine than most other smokeless products. That is something they say is particularly alarming because it is being advertised as a socially acceptable alternative. "This is not a health product," said Dr. Alan Ducatman, the WVU Hospitals Chair of the Department of Community Medicine. "This is a product designed to get people to use it over time and even though it hasn't been around all that long, they already found in Scandinavia, health consequences are already being studied and detected." Ducatman says those consequences can range from oral to pancreatic cancer, hypertension and even heart disease. On the back of Camel's "Snusing Guide" there is a label warning the product may cause mouth cancer. You also have to be 18 to buy it. Because it is virtually undetectable researchers worry it is something that will catch on around college campuses and with even younger age groups.

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-11-22T07:27:00-07:00November, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

Survival of head and neck cancer patients is greatly affected by coexisting ailments

Source: mednews.wustl.edu Author: Gwen Ericson Current estimates for head and neck cancer survival are largely inaccurate because they widely disregard many of the most common diseases such patients have in addition to their primary cancer, says Jay Piccirillo, M.D., a head and neck specialist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, the Siteman Cancer Center and Barnes-Jewish Hospital. This highlights a broader problem with cancer survival statistics, which generally don't take into account the effect of co-existing conditions, or comorbidities, according to Piccirillo. In a recent study, Piccirillo, director of the Clinical Outcomes Research Office at Washington University School of Medicine and professor of otolaryngology, showed that the risk of death increased up to seven-fold when patients with head and neck cancer developed new or more severe co-existing ailments such as heart problems, diabetes or lung disorders after cancer diagnosis. The study, published in the October issue of the Archives of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, is the first to look at comorbidities in head and neck cancer patients in the period following diagnosis. "For decades, we have used a cancer staging system based on tumor size, lymph node involvement and whether cancer has spread to other parts of the body when estimating a patient's survival while mostly ignoring how sick patients are from other diseases," Piccirillo says. "In fact, national databases used to estimate cancer survival don't account for comorbidities, and as a result, we don't have very accurate estimates of how long patients are likely to [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-11-21T14:36:13-07:00November, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

Lorillard at Morgan Stanley

Source: www.apply-best-credit-card.com Author: staff Executives of cigarette maker Lorillard Inc. are scheduled to speak to investors Tuesday at the Morgan Stanley Global Consumer & Retail Conference. Chief Executive Martin L. Orlowsky and Chief Financial Officer David H. Taylor are scheduled to speak at 10:30 a.m. EST. Greensboro, N.C.-based Lorillard sells Newport, Kent and Old Gold cigarettes. The company was spun off from Loews Corp. in June, a move that may have made it a more attractive acquisition target. The tobacco industry has been consolidating, with U.S. sellers becoming more aggressive about smokeless products such as moist smokeless, chewing tobacco and snus. Snus is a teabag-like pouch users stick between their cheek and gum. Altria Group Inc., which owns Marlboro maker Philip Morris USA, is expected to close on its acquisition of smokeless tobacco leader UST Inc. by the first week of January. Reynolds American Inc. owns the Conwood business and sells moist snuff under the Grizzly brand.

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-11-21T14:31:35-07:00November, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

Smoking and drinking linked to throat and stomach cancer

Source: uk.reuters.com Author: Michael Kahn Drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes appear to increase the risk of certain common throat and stomach cancers, Dutch researchers reported on Monday. The findings, presented at an American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Washington, underline other health recommendations for people to follow a healthy lifestyle and drink and smoke only in moderation. "It appeared that current smokers have the highest risks, and former smokers have an intermediate risk compared with never smokers," Jessie Steevens, an epidemiologist at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, said in a statement. The incidence of stomach cancer has fallen dramatically in the United States and western Europe over the past 60 years but the disease remains a serious problem in much of the rest of the world, where it is a leading cause of cancer death, according to the Mayo Clinic. Oesophageal, or throat, cancer is a form of cancer that starts in the inner layer of the oesophagus, the 10-inch-long tube that connects the throat to the stomach. The researchers followed more than 120,000 Dutch residents for more than two decades to investigate risk factors for oesophageal adenocarcinoma and gastric cardia adenocarcinoma -- a type of stomach cancer -- as well as oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma, which resembles head and neck cancer. Other studies have linked oesophageal cancer in general to drinking and smoking, but Steevens and colleagues wanted to refine the risk of the different types of the tumours. They found that for oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma -- [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-11-19T18:43:46-07:00November, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

Analysis of prognostic factors in patients with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma treated with radiotherapy alone or in combination with systemic chemotherapy

Source: Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2008;134(11):1196-1204 Authors: Paola A. G. Pedruzzi, MD et al. Objective: To assess the prognostic significance of several factors in oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma treated with radiotherapy alone or in combination with chemotherapy. Design: Retrospective study. Setting: Erasto Gaertner Hospital, Curitiba, Brazil, and A. C. Camargo Hospital, São Paulo, Brazil. Patients: A total of 361 patients treated for squamous cell carcinoma from January 1, 1990, to December 31, 2001. Interventions: Radiotherapy alone or with chemotherapy. Main Outcome Measures: Disease-free survival, overall survival, and treatment response. Results: Most tumors were located at the tonsil (46.8%) or base of the tongue (28.0%) and were at clinical stage III or IV (92.8%). Treatment response was associated with Zubrod scale score, weight loss, number of comorbidities, symptom-severity and Piccirillo stages, hemoglobin level, tumor site, macroscopic appearance of the tumor, and clinical stage. The 5-year overall survival rate was 17.6% and disease-free survival rate was 16.2%. The significant prognostic variables were age; Zubrod scale score; weight loss; comorbidities; Berg, Piccirillo, and symptom-severity staging; involvement of adjacent soft-tissue areas and bone; lymph node mobility; clinical stage; and radiotherapy doses. The multivariate analysis showed Zubrod scale score, symptom-severity staging system, Berg staging system, comorbidities, and radiotherapy dose as independent prognostic factors. Conclusion: A combination of clinical factors, such as symptoms, patients' general status, weight loss, and comorbidities, leads to a relevant stage of clinical severity that can be associated with the TNM stage as predictors of survival in oropharyngeal carcinoma. Authors: Paola [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-11-18T03:43:52-07:00November, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

7 Facts you need to know about HPV and Gardasil

Source: www.usnews.com Author: Bernadine Healy M.D. As women—and soon men—gain access to the new Merck vaccine Gardasil, which targets the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stepped up efforts to identify the 25,000 or more cancers primarily associated with HPV that increase the burden of cancer in the United States each year. As reported in the November 15 supplement to the journal Cancer, the latest figures include 10,846 patients with invasive cancer of the cervix, followed by 7,360 with cancers of the mouth, particularly the tonsils and the back of the tongue. In addition, there are 3,018 cancers of the anus, 2,266 of the vulva, and 828 of the penis. To the CDC, these are baseline numbers to track the life-threatening consequences of HPV infection. To sexually active young people, this report should be a wake-up call. The hows and whys of catching contagious warts and cancer through sex should be part of every parent's birds-and-bees talk, every school's sex-ed curriculum, and—most of all—all young people's thinking about their own sexual vulnerability. Here are seven need-to-know facts: 1. Infected boys and men are silent carriers of HPV, spewing out their contagion in body fluids. With some strains, visible warts on the genitals bud off fresh virus. 2. Infected girls and young women (particularly vulnerable to infection because of a still-developing cervix) also shed abnormal cells bearing virus into Pap smears, tests that sexually active women should have yearly. The atypical cells usually clear in [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-11-18T03:34:59-07:00November, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

LSUHSC Public Health contributes to estimate of HPV-related cancers

Source: www.canceraids.org Author: staff Professor Vivien Chen, PhD,. Associate Professor Xiao Cheng Wu, MD, PhD and Assistant Professor Edward Peters, DMD, SM, ScD, at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Public Health contributed five papers to the largest most comprehensive assessment of the burden of human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated cancers in the United States to date. The report, “Assessing the Burden of Human Papillomavirus (HPV)-Associated Cancers in the United States (ABHACUS),” is available now online and will be published in the November 15, 2008 supplement to the journal Cancer. The publication reports that 25,000 cases of HPV-associated cancers were diagnosed in 38 states and the District of Columbia from 1998-2003. These include cancers of the cervix, vagina, vulva, penis, anus, oral cavity and oropharynx. Human papillomaviruses comprise about 100 different types, more than 30 of which are sexually transmitted. As the data were collected prior to the development of the HPV vaccine, they will provide baseline incidence rates to determine the effectiveness of the vaccine as well as cervical cancer screening programs in reducing the incidence of HPV-associated cancers and precancers. The most comprehensive analysis studied data from the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) cancer registries, including the Louisiana Tumor Registry at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, and the Centers for Disease Control’s National Program of Cancer Registries. The papers on which the LSUHSC public health faculty are co-authors are Incidence of in situ and invasive vulvar cancer in the US, 1998-2003 (p 2865-2872), [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-11-16T11:40:36-07:00November, 2008|Oral Cancer News|