New therapy shortens treatment for HPV-related cancers of the tonsils, tongue

Source: medicalxpress.com Author: From Mayo Clinic News Network, Mayo Clinic News Network Patients with HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer who undergo surgery and are treated with chemotherapy, may be able to forgo significant radiation therapy without increasing the risk of their cancer spreading, according to the results of a clinical trial led by researchers at Mayo Clinic. "We found that decreasing the amount of radiation therapy after a minimally invasive robotic surgery improved the quality of life of patients with HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer while delivering excellent cure rates," says Dr. Eric Moore, a Mayo Clinic otolaryngologist. "In essence, we found exactly the right amount of treatment to deliver without over-treating these patients." Dr. Moore and his colleagues compared 79 patients treated at Mayo Clinic for HPV-related tonsil and tongue cancer with surgery and two weeks of radiation therapy to a group of 115 patients with the same cancer who were treated with surgery, and the standard six weeks of radiation therapy and chemotherapy. Dr. Moore and his colleagues found no decrease in survival or cancer recurrence in the group that received two weeks of radiation therapy, compared to the group that received six weeks of radiation therapy. He says that by decreasing the amount of radiation therapy after minimally invasive robotic surgery, physicians were able to improve the quality of life of patients and achieve excellent cure rates. "In essence, we found exactly the right amount of treatment to deliver without overtreating," says Dr. Moore. Dr. Moore says Mayo Clinic now offers [...]

2021-05-13T12:03:25-07:00May, 2021|Oral Cancer News|
Read More

HPV vaccine leads to more than 80% drop in infections: What parents need to know

Source: Good Morning, America Date: April 2nd, 2021 Author: Katie Kindelan   A new study has shown the effectiveness of the HPV vaccine, and found a dramatic decline in human papillomavirus infections in both vaccinated and unvaccinated teen girls and young women in the United States. "This study shows that the vaccine works very well against a common virus, HPV," Dr. Hannah Rosenblum, lead author of the study and medical epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told "Good Morning America." "HPV can cause serious health problems later in life, including some cancers in both women and men," she said. "HPV vaccination is cancer prevention -- by vaccinating children at age 11 or 12, we can protect them from developing cancers later in life." HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States and can cause health problems like genital warts in addition to cancer, which are most commonly cervical cancer in women and throat cancer in men, according to the CDC. The HPV vaccine was first authorized in the U.S. for females in 2006, and for males in 2011. There has since been a more than 80% decline in HPV infections nationally, according to the CDC study. The newly-released data from the CDC shows an 88% decrease in HPV infections among 14 to 19-year-old females and an 81% decrease among 20 to 24-year-old females. There has also been a drop in unvaccinated females, according to Rosenblum, who warned that does not mean people [...]

2021-05-11T10:31:22-07:00May, 2021|Oral Cancer News|
Read More

New saliva oral and throat cancer diagnosis test receives FDA approval

Source: medicalxpress.com Author: Rose Trapnell, Queensland University of Technology A QUT researcher's identification of saliva as an early detection liquid biopsy for oral and throat cancer has been realized by the development and commercialization of a diagnostic device by US-based biotech company Viome. Viome's early detection device has been designated a Breakthrough Device by The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US. QUT Associate Professor Chamindie Punyadeera has spent a decade researching the possibility of saliva being the optimum diagnostic liquid for the early detection of oral and throat cancer. Professor Punyadeera was driven to this field of research after her young brother-in-law passed away within six months of being diagnosed with oral cancer. Her systematic collection of saliva samples from oral and throat cancer patients, establishment of saliva collection and optimisation protocols, identification of a key unmet-clinical need and work with clinicians provided the foundations for the commercialisation of the new device. "This test could save many lives because until now early-stage oral cancer has been hard to detect because effective diagnostic tools have not been available," Professor Punyadeera said. "This has led to late diagnosis, a poor prognosis and low survival rates." Professor Punyadeera said the risk of oral cancer increased with age and increased more rapidly after the age of 50. "The salivary metatranscriptome as an accurate diagnostic indicator of oral cancer" has been accepted for publication in npj Genomic Medicine.

2021-05-08T06:16:26-07:00May, 2021|Oral Cancer News|
Read More

How Big Pharma Finds Sick Users on Facebook

Source: The MarkUp Date: May 6th, 2021 Author: Colin Lecher If you’re a drug manufacturer looking for patients, one company has become a major destination in the past few years: Facebook. The social media giant, through its power to target users based on their interests, is especially attractive to pharmaceutical companies looking to sell drugs to potential patients. The Washington Post reported last year that health and pharmaceutical companies spent almost $1 billion on just Facebook mobile ads in 2019. The draw? Unlike a traditional TV or radio ad, Facebook’s ad categories help those companies target their drug ads at users who likely suffer from a specific illness the drug treats. And data from The Markup’s Citizen Browser project—which collects Facebook data from thousands of users—shows how precise and wide-ranging that targeting is. Though Facebook does not offer advertisers categories that explicitly identify people’s health conditions, The Markup identified dozens of ads for prescription pharmaceuticals targeted at people with “interests” in topics like “bourbon,” “oxygen,” and “Diabetes mellitus awareness.” Indeed, The Markup found, “awareness” of a disease is a frequent proxy for illness in targeting decisions made by advertisers. Zejula, a drug manufactured by pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, for example, is prescribed to treat advanced ovarian cancer. We found the drug targeted at users who Facebook determined had shown an interest in “cancer awareness.” Piqray, another cancer treatment, manufactured by Swiss company Novartis, was shown to users with an interest in “National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.” Several drugs were targeted at either [...]

2021-05-07T10:54:17-07:00May, 2021|Oral Cancer News|
Read More

Study: Secondhand smoke exposure significantly increases risk of developing mouth cancer

Source: www.studyfinds.org Author: Stephen Beech, SWNS writer When most people think about the dangers of smoking, they probably consider the risks of cancer for the smoker. Although it’s common knowledge secondhand smoke is also dangerous, a new study is revealing just how devastating that exposure can be. Researchers say exposure to secondhand smoke can increase the risk of oral cancer by a staggering 51 percent. Oral cancer, or cancers of the mouth, include those affecting the lip, oral cavity, and throat. These cancers account for almost 450,000 new disease cases and more than 228,000 deaths every year globally. Scientists say that significant risk factors for these forms of cancer include tobacco smoking and use of smokeless tobacco products. Drinking alcohol can also increase the risk of oral cancer. Tobacco smoke represents the largest amount of human exposure to chemical carcinogens and causes a fifth of cancer-related deaths worldwide. However, active smokers are not the only people who suffer from these chemicals. Researchers examining data from 192 countries find 33 percent of male non-smokers, 35 percent of female non-smokers, and 40 percent of children have experienced exposure to involuntary smoking through inhaling secondhand tobacco smoke. Previous research also shows that inhaling secondhand smoke can cause several other diseases, including lung cancer. Although tobacco smoking can cause oral cancer, there is less evidence proving whether or not secondhand smoke also leads to the disease. Long-term smoke exposure doubles cancer risks A team from Britain, Portugal, Spain, and the United States evaluated the [...]

2021-05-02T12:23:46-07:00May, 2021|Oral Cancer News|
Read More

Genetic changes in head and neck cancer, immunotherapy resistance identified

Source: MedicalXPress Date: April 26th, 2021 Author: University of San Diego-California A multi-institutional team of researchers has identified both the genetic abnormalities that drive pre-cancer cells into becoming an invasive type of head and neck cancer and patients who are least likely to respond to immunotherapy. "Through a series of surprises, we followed clues that focused more and more tightly on specific genetic imbalances and their role in the effects of specific immune components in tumor development," said co-principal investigator Webster Cavenee, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor Emeritus at University of California San Diego School of Medicine. "The genetic abnormalities we identified drive changes in the immune cell composition of the tumors that, in turn, dictates responsiveness to standard of care immune checkpoint inhibitors." Reporting in the April 26, 2021 online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers describe the role of somatic copy-number alterations—abnormalities that result in the loss or gain in a copy of a gene—and the loss of chromosome 9p in the development of human papillomavirus (HPV)-negative head and neck cancer. The loss of chromosome 9p and the deletion of JAK2 and PD-LI, two neighboring genes found on chromosome 9p, was associated with resistance to immune checkpoint inhibitors, a type of cancer immunotherapy that uses antibodies to make tumor cells visible to a patient's immune system. "Although programmed death-1 (PD-1) immune checkpoint inhibitors represent a major breakthrough in cancer treatment, only 15 percent of patients with HPV-negative head and neck cancer respond to treatment," said [...]

2021-04-27T10:01:12-07:00April, 2021|Oral Cancer News|
Read More

Sentinel node biopsy makes case in oral cavity cancer

Source: www.medpagetoday.com Author: Charles Bankhead Patients with early-stage oral cavity cancers had similar survival with less neck disability with a less invasive approach to lymph node assessment, a multicenter randomized study showed. The 3-year overall survival (OS) rate was 87.9% with sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) and 86.6% with elective node dissection (ND). The 3-year disease-free survival (DFS) rate was 78.7% versus 81.3% in the SLNB and ND groups. Both outcomes met statistical criteria for noninferiority of the two approaches to lymph node assessment. The SLNB group had significantly better scores on a test of neck function, reported Yasuhisa Hasegawa, MD, PhD, of Asahi University Hospital in Gifu, Japan, and co-authors. "SLNB-navigated ND is noninferior and less invasive than elective ND," the authors wrote in the paper online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. "The results of this study may promote a widespread use of SLNB (for early-stage OCSCC [oral-cavity squamous cell carcinoma]) worldwide." The results added to a growing volume of evidence suggesting similar outcomes between SLNB and the more-invasive ND. Last year a randomized study from France showed a 2-year relapse-free survival rate of 89-91% with the two approaches to lymph node assessment in oral and oropharyngeal cancer. A large retrospective cohort study resulted in similar OS and a shorter hospital stay as compared with ND. Multiple studies have demonstrated improved functional outcomes and lower complication rates with SLNB, the authors noted. Optimal management of clinically node-negative early-stage OCSCC remains controversial. Advantages have been reported for observation, ND, [...]

2021-04-27T06:01:14-07:00April, 2021|Oral Cancer News|
Read More

A new method for fighting ‘cold’ tumors

Source: www.eurekalert.org Author: news release University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus Not all cancerous tumors are created equal. Some tumors, known as "hot" tumors, show signs of inflammation, which means they are infiltrated with T cells working to fight the cancer. Those tumors are easier to treat, as immunotherapy drugs can then amp up the immune response. "Cold" tumors, on the other hand, have no T-cell infiltration, which means the immune system is not stepping in to help. With these tumors, immunotherapy is of little use. It's the latter type of tumor that researchers Michael Knitz and radiation oncologist and University of Colorado Cancer Center member Sana Karam, MD, PhD, address in new research published this week in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer. Working with mouse models in Karam's specialty area of head and neck cancers, Knitz and Karam studied the role of T cells in tumor treatment. "What we found is that the cells that normally tell the T cell, 'Hey, here's a tumor -- come and attack it,' are being silenced," Karam says. She and her team found that regulatory T cells (Tregs), a specialized T cell type that suppresses immune response, are essentially telling the T cells to stop fighting the cancer. "Tregs normally serve as an important balance in a healthy immune system," Knitz says. "They prevent autoimmune disease and put the brakes on the T cells when needed. However, in many tumors, Tregs are too numerous or overly suppressive, bringing the T cell response [...]

2021-04-24T12:59:36-07:00April, 2021|Oral Cancer News|
Read More

A story NOT silenced by oral cancer: a message to dental professionals

Source: dentistryiq Author: Eva Grayzel The storyteller gets tongue cancer? How ironic! Sharing my personal oral cancer journey publicly is a tribute to those who came before me and an obligation to those who will follow. Knowing my story will save lives. That’s why I tell it. Here it is, in a nutshell. Just a simple little sore spot It started with a sore on the left side of my tongue. A strange place for what seemed like an ordinary canker sore. After four weeks, I went to an oral surgeon, complaining of pain. He said if it bothered me so much, he could take it off. Two weeks later, the oral surgeon’s receptionist called to tell me my biopsy was negative. “Excuse me, are you calling the right patient?” I was never told about a biopsy. “The oral surgeon took tissue from your tongue, correct?” she questioned. “Yes, that was me.” I thought to myself, What could they possibly be looking for in a biopsy of the tongue? “You have nothing to worry about,” she assured me. I did not know I had to worry. She should have said my biopsy was negative for cancer. I had no idea you could get cancer in the mouth. No dental professional had ever used the word cancer in my presence. Cancer of the oral cavity was simply beyond my scope of understanding. “Nothing to worry about” Two years later, the sore returned right over the biopsy site. Eight weeks later, I [...]

2021-04-24T10:59:32-07:00April, 2021|Oral Cancer News|
Read More
© - The Oral Cancer Foundation - Head & Neck Cancer IRS 501(c)3 Charity - 3419 Via Lido #205, Newport Beach, CA 92663 | Disclaimer / Privacy Policy
Go to Top