Oral Cancer News – Page 37 – The Oral Cancer Foundation News Archive

Research applies Raman spectroscopy to oral cancer diagnostics

Source: www.photonics.com Author: staff According to research from the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Raman spectroscopy may provide early detection of oral squamous cell carcinoma. One of the most common cancers, oral squamous cell carcinoma is often undetected until a late stage. Currently, clinically apparent, conspicuous mucosal lesions of the oral cavity require initial conservative treatment and monitoring. If they persist, surgical biopsy is used to make a diagnosis. “Our study shows the potential of Raman spectroscopy for revealing whether a lesion is cancerous in real time,” said research team leader Levi Matthies. “Although it won’t replace biopsies any time soon, the technique could help reduce the lapse of valuable time as well as the number of invasive procedures.” The researchers used a variation of Raman spectroscopy known as SERDS (shifted excitation Raman difference spectroscopy), which is capable of analyzing tissues that exhibit strong background fluorescence. To test the method, they designed a compact and portable Raman sensor consisting of a tunable diode laser, a fiber-coupled spectrometer, and a Raman probe. The scientists used the device to analyze unlabeled biopsy samples from 37 patients at 180 measurement locations. To classify the raw data, the team trained and tested computer models, ultimately distinguishing oral squamous cell carcinoma from nonmalignant lesions with an accuracy of over 88%, and from healthy tissue with an accuracy of over 89%. The majority of spectral features used to distinguish malignant and nonmalignant lesions came from protein and nucleic acid molecules. “Our results show that this approach is [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2021-01-15T15:51:27-07:00January, 2021|Oral Cancer News|

Top cancer surgeon urges public to get mouth ulcers checked

Source: www.dentistry.co.uk Author: staff A top cancer surgeon is calling on people with mouth ulcers and neck lumps to get their symptoms checked. This follows fears from dentists that mouth cancer cases may have gone undetected as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the fact that a new international study suggests patients undergoing surgery for head and neck cancers are at no extra risk when it comes to COVID-19 transmission. Professor Richard Shaw is a consultant and head and neck cancer surgeon at Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. He is calling on the public to act fast if they notice any symptoms. These include neck lumps, mouth ulcers, mouth or throat lumps, difficulty swallowing and a hoarse voice. Don’t delay ‘We know that it can be scary to come to a hospital or any healthcare setting at the moment. People are putting off that trip to the GP and waiting that bit longer to see if their symptoms go away,’ he said. ‘The findings of this study are really important because we can now assure people who need head and neck cancer surgery that it is safe, even during the pandemic.’ He added: ‘Time is of the essence with head and neck cancer. The sooner it is diagnosed the sooner we can treat it – and if we catch it early then the curative surgery required is much less invasive. ‘My message to anyone concerned about symptoms is to get them looked at by a health professional without [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2021-01-12T15:53:19-07:00January, 2021|Oral Cancer News|

Timing and intensity of oral sex may affect risk of oropharyngeal cancer

Source: www.eurekalert.org Author: Research News Human papillomavirus (HPV) can infect the mouth and throat to cause cancers of the oropharynx. A new study published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, has found that having more than 10 prior oral sex partners was associated with a 4.3-times greater likelihood of having HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer. The study also shows that having oral sex at a younger age and more partners in a shorter time period (oral sex intensity) were associated with higher likelihoods of having HPV-related cancer of the mouth and throat. Previous studies have shown that performing oral sex is a strong risk factor for HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer. To examine how behavior related to oral sex may affect risk, Virginia Drake, MD, of Johns Hopkins University, and her colleagues asked 163 individuals with and 345 without HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer to complete a behavioral survey. In addition to timing and intensity of oral sex, individuals who had older sexual partners when they were young, and those with partners who had extramarital sex were more likely to have HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer. "Our study builds on previous research to demonstrate that it is not only the number of oral sexual partners, but also other factors not previously appreciated that contribute to the risk of exposure to HPV orally and subsequent HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer," said Dr. Drake. "As the incidence of HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer continues to rise in the United States, our study offers a contemporary evaluation of risk [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2021-01-11T06:41:36-07:00January, 2021|Oral Cancer News|

Factors identified for poor long-term survival in RT-treated patients with oropharyngeal cancer

Source: www.cancertherapyadvisor.com Author: Susan Moench, PhD, PA-C Specific patient- and treatment-related factors were identified as potential survival detriments for patients with a history of oropharyngeal cancer (OPC) who received radiation therapy (RT) and were alive for at least 5 years following diagnosis, according to findings from a retrospective database review published in Cancer. Specifically, older age at diagnosis (≥55 years; standardized mortality ratio [SMR], 3.68), status as a current or former smoker (SMR, 3.28 vs 7.43), and the presence of tonsil (SMR, 4.39) or base of tongue tumors (SMR, 3.10) or category T4 tumors (SMR, 5.43) correlated with a higher risk for death. Previous research has demonstrated that patients with head and neck cancers who remain recurrence-free for 5 years following diagnosis have a very low risk of disease recurrence. However, less is known about the conditional long-term survival of this group of patients, represented by the 2-, 5- and 10-year overall survival (OS) probabilities for those without evidence of disease recurrence 5-years post-diagnosis. Furthermore, patient, disease-, and treatment-related factors associated with long-term survival in these patients are also not well understood. Of the 1699 patients included in this analysis, all were newly diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma OPC between 1980 and 2012, had no cancer event for the 5 years that followed OPC diagnosis, and had been treated with RT without surgery at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. Baseline characteristics of this patient cohort included a median age of 60 years. Most of [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2021-01-05T20:20:28-07:00January, 2021|Oral Cancer News|

Providence performs first ‘Jaw in a Day’ surgery in Oregon

Source: www.kgw.com Author: Brittany Falkers The innovative procedure for patients with oral cancers offers a faster recovery and better cosmetic results. Click here to watch Terry Sambrailo is strolling into the new year with a new perspective on her health. “The worst is all over now, it’s behind me,” she said. Sambrailo lives in Idaho but is staying with friends in Hillsboro while she recovers from a first-in-Oregon procedure for oral, head and neck cancer patients. “I think it’s wonderful and I’m just fortunate that I was a good candidate for it,” Sambrailo said. The 74-year-old was diagnosed with cancer in her left jaw last year. It started with a toothache. “And then another toothache and that’s when we finally did the biopsy and we found out it was more than just tooth. It was the cancer in the bone,” she said. She found a team of specialists and surgeons working through Providence Cancer Institute in Portland with an innovative new procedure called "Jaw in a Day." “It took a heck of a team to do it,” Sambrailo said. Leading that team were Providence head and neck oncologic and microvascular reconstructive surgeons Ashish Patel, M.D., D.D.S., and Baber Khatib, M.D., D.D.S., F.A.C.S. “I think for lack of a better medical word, it is really cool,” Dr. Khatib said. “The technology behind this is phenomenal.” A diagnosis of oral, head or neck cancer can mean a series of surgeries to remove the tumor, rebuild the jaw and teeth and then [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2020-12-31T07:48:53-07:00December, 2020|Oral Cancer News|

Is poor survivorship care driving high second-cancer risk?

Source: www.medscape.com Author: Kristin Jenkins In the United States, men and women who survive adult-onset cancers for at least 5 years are at significantly increased risk of developing and dying from new primary cancers, particularly those driven by smoking and obesity, a new study shows. "This was disturbing but at the same time provides tremendous opportunities for cancer prevention and control, not only to mitigate the subsequent cancer risk but also to minimize comorbidities," lead author Hyuna Sung, PhD, of the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, Georgia, told Medscape Medical News. "The importance of smoking cessation, weight control, physical activity, and other factors consonant with adoption of a healthy lifestyle should be consistently emphasized to cancer survivors," Sung said. Results from a retrospective analysis of the most recent Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data from a cohort of 1.5 million survivors of first primary cancers (FPCs) show that male survivors — excluding those with prostate cancer — had a 45% higher risk of dying from any subsequent primary cancer (SPC) compared with men in the general population without a history of cancer. Female survivors had a 33% higher risk of any SPC-related mortality, the study authors report in the Journal of the American Medical Association. A significant proportion of the total incidence and mortality from SPCs was made up of smoking- or obesity-associated SPCs, the analysis shows. "The risks of smoking-related SPCs were commonly elevated following many types of smoking-related FPCs, suggesting the role of smoking as a shared [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2020-12-30T11:53:06-07:00December, 2020|Oral Cancer News|

Study reveals low risk of COVID-19 infection among patients undergoing head and neck cancer surgery

Source: www.eurekalert.org Author: news release A recent international observational study provides important data on the safety of head and neck cancer surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings are published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. The study is part of the COVIDSurg Collaborative, an initiative to describe surgical practices during the early period of the pandemic, when many hospitals had limited capacity and when it was unclear whether it was safer to delay or continue in-hospital cancer treatments. "The problems were particularly acute in head and neck cancer surgery because for many cases, cure is dependent on surgery, but there was great concern about spreading infection from aerosol-generating procedures in the airway," said corresponding author Richard J. Shaw, MD, FDS, FRCS, of The University of Liverpool Cancer Research Centre, in the U.K. Professor Shaw and his colleagues in the COVIDSurg Collaborative examined information on 1,137 patients with head and neck cancer undergoing potentially curative surgery in 26 countries. The most common sites were the oral cavity (38 percent) and the thyroid (21 percent). The death rate within 30 days after surgery was 1.2 percent, a rate that would be normally expected in this patient population, without a pandemic. Also, 29 (3 percent) patients tested positive for COVID-19 within 30 days of surgery; of these 13 (44.8 percent) developed severe respiratory complications and three (10.9 percent) died. According to Professor Shaw, clinicians now know that these risks can be minimized with precautions such as [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2020-12-21T21:32:31-07:00December, 2020|Oral Cancer News|

Agusta University Speech Therapy program helps cancer patients with speech and swallowing problems

Source: www.augustachronicle.com Author: Jozsef Papp, Augusta Chronicle After getting surgery in April for cancer of the oral cavity, Lenny Schaeffer was having problems opening his mouth wide enough to eat anything larger than a grape. He went through the whole process: surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. During that process, he lost his ability to open his mouth, and it even affected his speech. An oncologist and his radiation therapist informed him of a new program, speech therapy, at the Georgia Cancer Center at Augusta University that could help him. “What the speech therapy program did is basically give me exercises to do to increase the flexibility that I have in my mouth,” he said. “It allows me to eat better, more kinds of food and also improve speech.” Dr. Sarah Smith, a speech pathologist at the Georgia Cancer Center, said the program is aimed at helping cancer patients like Schaeffer, patients who have cancer of the neck and mouth area and are suffering from exposure to radiation during their treatment. As a National Cancer Center Network Facility, the center was called to have a multidisciplinary approach to treating cancer, Smith said. Smith was moved to the cancer center in the summer, mainly to keep cancer patients from walking from the center to the hospital because of COVID-19. “Treating head and neck cancer is very different than treating other types of disabilities," she said. "When cancer patients come to the cancer center, we offer a variety of providers, right on site, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2020-12-20T20:37:18-07:00December, 2020|Oral Cancer News|

UK Innovators target nanoparticles at inoperable cancers

Source: www.politicshome.com Author: from Medicines Discovery Catapult At a point of critical clinical need for improved treatments for pancreatic and head and neck cancers, a partnership of healthcare innovators set out to revolutionise radiotherapy for inoperable, and the most difficult to treat tumours. With the aim of achieving a higher quality of life for those with unfavourable prognoses, this project, funded by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, brings together partners with a wealth of experience and specialist know-how in the areas of nanoparticle development, drug delivery and bioimaging. The pioneering work being conducted will target cancerous cells more selectively, enabling a reduced dose of radiation, which would lower the toxic effects a patient receives as a result. This targeted approach will employ Xerion Healthcare’s non-toxic radiosensitiser - this heightens the cells’ sensitivity to radiotherapy, increasing the likelihood of successful treatment while reducing the often devastating side effects. To ensure the nanoparticles carrying the therapeutic agent reaches deep inside the tumour, Active Needle Technology’s unique delivery system conveys the treatment to the cancerous cells with the assistance of ultrasonic vibrations, which not only allow accurate placement, but also enables an optimal distribution throughout the tumour and limits damage of healthy cells in the process. Medicines Discovery Catapult’s (MDC) advanced pre-clinical imaging suite and state-of-the-art expertise in complex medicines validation will undertake in-life imaging of the nanoparticle distribution, allowing the partners to validate its biodistribution in tumour and across other tissues and organs. Ian Quirk, CEO of Active Needle Technology said: [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2020-12-19T08:18:56-07:00December, 2020|Oral Cancer News|

Addenbrooke’s to use Microsoft’s AI tool to speed up cancer treatment

Source: www.governmentcomputing.com Author: staff Microsoft said that Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, UK, will use its artificial intelligence (AI) technology powered InnerEye tool for speeding up cancer treatment. Developed at its Cambridge Research Lab, the InnerEye project helps in developing AI models that leverage the hospital’s own data to automatically show tumours and healthy organs on patient scans. These are then checked and confirmed by a clinical oncologist prior to giving treatment to the patient, said Microsoft. According to the tech major, the process will reduce the otherwise lengthy treatment planning stage, which is crucial for head and neck cancers, which can multiply quickly if left untreated. Microsoft claims that InnerEye can help execute contouring process in complex cases 13 times faster than the current approach. Addenbrooke’s Hospital oncologist and InnerEye co-lead Dr Raj Jena said: “The results from InnerEye are a game-changer. To be diagnosed with a tumour of any kind is an incredibly traumatic experience for patients. “So as clinicians we want to start radiotherapy promptly to improve survival rates and reduce anxiety. Using machine learning tools can save time for busy clinicians and help get our patients into treatment as quickly as possible.” Run by Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Addenbrooke’s is a teaching hospital, research centre, and also a designated academic health science centre. Addenbrooke’s Hospital and Microsoft are said to have been collaborating over the last eight years to develop and pilot InnerEye. The hospital will become the first NHS facility to have introduced a [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2020-12-12T10:01:59-07:00December, 2020|Oral Cancer News|