Oral Cancer News – Page 51 – The Oral Cancer Foundation News Archive

Prevalence of Oral HPV Infection Declines in Unvaccinated Individuals

Source: Infectious Disease Advisor Date: September 30th, 2019 Author: Zahra Masoud Oral human papillomavirus (HPV) prevalence has decreased in unvaccinated men, possibly as a result of herd protection, but the incidence of such infection has remained unchanged in unvaccinated women from 2009 to 2016 in the United States, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Since 2011 for women and 2006 for men, prophylactic HPV vaccination for prevention of anogenital HPV infection has been recommended for routine use in the United States. Previous studies have demonstrated that this vaccine has high efficacy in reducing the prevalence of oral HPV infection. However, the vaccine is not indicated to prevent oral HPV infection or oropharyngeal cancers because there are few results from randomized trials. Further, there has been a lack of surveillance studies reporting on herd protection against oral HPV infection, which is defined as a form of indirect protection from infectious diseases that occurs when a large percentage of the population has become immune/vaccinated, thereby providing protection for individuals who are not immune/not vaccinated. Therefore, this study investigated evidence for herd protection against oral HPV infection in unvaccinated men and women in the United States using temporal comparisons of oral HPV prevalence for 4 vaccine types and 33 non-vaccine types. This study was conducted across 4 cycles (from 2009 to 2016) of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), using a cross-sectional, stratified, multistage probability sample of the civilian population in the United States. For the examination [...]

Charlotte Parker2019-10-01T16:15:25-07:00October, 2019|OCF In The News|

Anti-malarial drug can make cancer chemotherapy more effective

Source: medicalxpress.com Author: Emma McKinney, University of Birmingham Scientists at the University of Birmingham have found an anti-malarial drug was effective in treating head and neck cancer in mice. The drug quinacrine was used extensively to prevent and treat malaria in soldiers fighting in mosquito-ridden areas during World War Two. It is similar to the quinine that makes tonic water glow, has minimal side-effects, and is now used for treating parasite infections and other conditions. Each year around 11,900 people are diagnosed with head and neck cancer in the UK. Current treatment relies heavily on debilitating surgery and toxic chemotherapy, but despite this, it has a poor outcome with three to seven in 10 people surviving their disease for five years or more. The drug, quinacrine, was tested through a number of methods, including on cell cultures, in tumour biopsies from patients with head and neck cancer, and in mice. The research results, published in Oncotarget, show that in mice quinacrine can make standard chemotherapy more effective—suggesting a lower dose may be used, reducing toxic side effects. The results also showed the drug to be effective at reducing the growth of cancer cells grown in the lab, and in tumors. Significantly, the research in mice showed a combination therapy of quinacrine and chemotherapy, and so allowed for the chemotherapy dose to be halved while still maintaining the same impairment of tumor growth. Lead author Dr. Jennifer Bryant, of the University of Birmingham's Institute of Head and Neck Studies and Education, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2019-10-01T14:04:25-07:00October, 2019|Oral Cancer News|

Radiation for head and neck cancer may cause problems years later

Source: www.usnews.com Author: Steven Reinberg Ten years after radiation treatment for head and neck cancer, some patients may develop problems speaking and swallowing, a new study finds. These problems are related to radiation damage to the cranial nerves, the researchers explained. The condition is called radiation-induced cranial neuropathy. "We had always thought that radiation did not damage cranial nerves because they get treated in every patient with head and neck cancer, and we do not see cranial neuropathy that commonly," said Dr. Thomas Galloway, of the department of radiation oncology at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. "What our data is suggesting is that a small percentage of people do get cranial nerve damage from treatment, but it occurs after a long latency period," Galloway said. For the study, the researchers collected data on 1,100 patients who had radiation for head and neck cancer between 1990 and 2005. Among these patients, 112 were followed for at least 10 years. Of the 112 patients, 14% developed at least one cranial neuropathy. The median time until the condition was seen was more than seven years. It took some patients more than 10 years to develop the problem, the findings showed. Curing the initial cancer is the most important concern, Galloway said. But these patients need to be followed for the rest of their lives, if possible, he added. The report was published recently in the journal Oral Oncology.

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2019-10-01T13:54:29-07:00October, 2019|Oral Cancer News|

New blood test capable of detecting multiple types of cancer

Source: www.sciencedaily.com Author: Materials provided by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. A new blood test in development has shown ability to screen for numerous types of cancer with a high degree of accuracy, a trial of the test shows. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute investigators will present the results of the multi-center trial during a session today at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2019 Congress. The test, developed by GRAIL, Inc., uses next-generation sequencing technology to probe DNA for tiny chemical tags (methylation) that influence whether genes are active or inactive. When applied to nearly 3,600 blood samples -- some from patients with cancer, some from people who had not been diagnosed with cancer at the time of the blood draw -- the test successfully picked up a cancer signal from the cancer patient samples, and correctly identified the tissue from where the cancer began (the tissue of origin). The test's specificity -- its ability to return a positive result only when cancer is actually present -- was high, as was its ability to pinpoint the organ or tissue of origin, researchers found. The new test looks for DNA, which cancer cells shed into the bloodstream when they die. In contrast to "liquid biopsies," which detect genetic mutations or other cancer-related alterations in DNA, the technology focuses on modifications to DNA known as methyl groups. Methyl groups are chemical units that can be attached to DNA, in a process called methylation, to control which genes are "on" and which are "off." Abnormal [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2019-09-29T06:38:28-07:00September, 2019|Oral Cancer News|

How Anti-Vaccine Sentiment Took Hold in the United States

Source: The New York Times Date: September 23, 2019 Author: Jan Hoffman As families face back-to-school medical requirements this month, the country feels the impact of a vaccine resistance movement decades in the making. The question is often whispered, the questioners sheepish. But increasingly, parents at the Central Park playground where Dr. Elizabeth A. Comen takes her young children have been asking her: “Do you vaccinate your kids?” Dr. Comen, an oncologist who has treated patients for cancers related to the human papillomavirus that a vaccine can now prevent, replies emphatically: Absolutely. She never imagined she would be getting such queries. Yet these playground exchanges are reflective of the national conversation at the end of the second decade of the 21st century — a time of stunning scientific and medical advances but also a time when the United States may, next month, lose its World Health Organization designation as a country that has eliminated measles, because of outbreaks this year. The W.H.O. has listed vaccine hesitancy as one of the top threats to global health. As millions of families face back-to-school medical requirements and forms this month, the contentiousness surrounding vaccines is heating up again, with possibly even more fervor. Though the situation may seem improbable to some, anti-vaccine sentiment has been building for decades, a byproduct of an internet humming with rumor and misinformation; the backlash against Big Pharma; an infatuation with celebrities that gives special credence to the anti-immunization statements from actors like Jenny McCarthy, Jim Carrey and Alicia Silverstone, the rapper Kevin Gates and Robert F. [...]

Charlotte Parker2019-09-24T11:31:18-07:00September, 2019|Oral Cancer News|

AI can predict the chances of surviving oral cancer

Source: medicalxpress.com Author: University of Warwick Whole slide images are multi-gigapixel images and cannot be used directly for image analysis tasks particularly training a deep learning based classifier. Therefore, we divide the WSIs into small regions (patches) for processing. A deep learning based classifier is applied on the patches to identify whether the patch contains tumour, lymphocytes or other histological primitives. However, the regions where the lymphocytes are infiltrating the tumour may not be confined within a patch. Besides, there is considerable variation in the size of TIL regions, making the quantification of TILs a non-trivial task. We address this issue by adopting the widely accepted definition of TILs, i.e., lymphocytes that lie in the neighbourhood of tumour areas. The patch labels predicted as lymphocytes or tumour are then used to compute a statistical measure of co-localization, which is further incorporated into the computation of the TILAb score of lymphocytic infiltration. Credit: University of Warwick The chances of surviving oral cancers can be predicted by state of the art AI algorithms—developed by scientists at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Warwick—that precisely calculate the abundance of immune cells in the midst of tumour cells to help better understand the spread of and resistance to cancer. In 2014 there were more than 11,000 cases of head and neck cancers in the UK and more than 2,300 deaths resulting from the most common of them; oral cavity cancer. Oral cancer is most prevalent in South Asia, particularly India, Pakistan [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2019-09-18T09:24:41-07:00September, 2019|Oral Cancer News|

Researchers: Favorable survival, fewer side effects after reduced therapy for HPV-linked head and neck cancer

Source: medicalxpress.com Author: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers reported that reducing the intensity of radiation treatment for patients with human papillomavirus-associated head and neck cancer produced a promising two-year progression-free survival rate and resulted in fewer side effects. The findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, were drawn from a phase II clinical trial that included 114 patients with HPV-linked head and neck cancer and a limited smoking history. The researchers reported that they saw a similar progression free survival rate, and that patients experienced fewer long-term side effects in the study compared with patients who received standard intensity treatment in previous studies. "A simple de-intensification strategy of reducing radiation and chemotherapy appears to be as effective at cancer control as the standard seven-week regimen," said UNC Lineberger's Bhishamjit S. Chera, MD, associate professor in the UNC School of Medicine Department of Radiation Oncology. "Furthermore, there were fewer toxicities." For the trial, patients received six weeks of treatment, including a reduced intensity of radiation therapy of 60 Gray with weekly low-dose chemotherapy of cisplatin. The standard of care regimen is seven weeks of treatment 70 Gray and high-dose chemotherapy. The main outcome that the researchers were studying was two-year progression-free survival. On the reduced regimen, researchers found that the two-year progression free survival was 86 percent, compared to a two-year progression free survival reported from other studies using standard treatment doses of 87 percent. Chera [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2019-09-14T09:18:38-07:00September, 2019|Oral Cancer News|

Which feeding tubes do head and neck cancer clinicians prefer to use in patients undergoing radiotherapy?

Source: www.oncologynurseadvisor.com Author: Susan Moench, PhD, PA-C A study of the perceptions of health care professionals involved in the care of patients with head and neck cancer undergoing radiation therapy regarding optimal feeding tube practices showed no consensus; however, feeding tube placement was considered important for some patients. This study was published in JPEN Journal of Parenteral Enteral Nutrition. Patients with head and neck cancer frequently undergo intensive treatment that may include a long course of radiation therapy in addition to surgery and chemotherapy. Treatment-related toxicity can involve severe dysphagia and mucositis, as well as reduced food intake and unintentional weight loss; these clinical sequelae can also lead to treatment delays and an increased risk of hospitalization. Clinical practice guidelines include recommendations for early enteral feeding in patients with stage IV disease or hypopharyngeal tumors who are receiving chemoradiotherapy, as well as other patients with head and neck cancer, “depending on factors including their treatment, nutrition status, dysphagia, social support, and food intake.” However, there is no conclusive evidence as to which of the most commonly used feeding tubes — a nasogastric tube (NGT) placed when additional nutritional support is needed or a prophylactic gastrostomy tube (PGT) placed before radiation therapy — is preferable. In this qualitative study, in-depth interviews were conducted with interdisciplinary health care professionals from 4 radiation therapy departments (2 in the United States and 2 in Australia) to evaluate their perspectives and experiences regarding feeding tube practices in patients with head and neck cancer. Of the [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2019-09-14T09:13:13-07:00September, 2019|Oral Cancer News|

OU researcher creating novel device for early detection of oral cancer

Source: www.eurekalert.org Author: press release Because two-thirds of oral cancer diagnoses are made when the cancer is advanced, treating it usually requires complex surgeries, followed by reconstructive procedures that are necessary because tissue has been removed from the patient's face. A University of Oklahoma researcher is developing computer technology and a new medical device that he hopes can detect oral cancer at an early stage, when the survival rate is much higher. Javier Jo, Ph.D., is a professor with the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering on OU's Norman campus, and a member of Stephenson Cancer Center at OU Medicine. His expertise in applying engineering concepts to solve a medical problem earned him a $2.5 million grant from the National Cancer Institute. Jo's research involves creating a hand-held endoscope to look for precancerous and cancerous lesions of the mouth, and "training" it to recognize patterns and signatures of those lesions with more accuracy and at an earlier stage. "When oral cancer is diagnosed early, treating the patient is much more effective and a lot less invasive," he said. "The survival rate and quality of life of the patient is fairly high if the cancer is detected early." Jo's technology aims to address two problems in oral cancer detection. A person's general dentist is usually the first health provider to examine the tissue inside the mouth and search for lesions based on look and feel. However, it's difficult to distinguish a benign lesion from a cancerous or precancerous lesion, Jo said. [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2019-09-13T05:56:39-07:00September, 2019|Oral Cancer News|

Treatment delay in HNSCC tied to worse outcomes

Source: www.medpagetoday.com Author: Leah Lawrence, Contributing Writer Treatment delayed longer than 2 months from the time of diagnosis negatively affected survival and increased recurrence among patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), a retrospective study found. Looking at a group of 956 patients treated at a single urban academic center, those with a time to treatment initiation (TTI) longer than 60 days were significantly more likely to die from their disease (odds ratio [OR] 1.69, 95% CI 1.32-2.18) and have disease recurrence (OR 1.77, 95% CI 1.07-2.93) compared to those treated within this timeframe, reported Vikas Mehta, MD, MPH, of Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, and colleagues. As described in JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery, the 5-year overall survival for patients dropped from 64.5% to 47.0% when the TTI stretched beyond 60 days. "If I invented a drug that could give a 20% improved survival in head and neck cancer patients, a disease where survival has not changed for many years, I would probably be getting handed a large amount of funding," Mehta told MedPage Today. "This study is just as important," he continued. "Getting patients to treatment in a timely manner can independently improve survival." Initial diagnoses at the treatment institution decreased the odds of TTI delay by almost 50% (OR 0.53, 95% CI 0.37-0.76). However, patients with Medicaid as compared with commercial insurance were significantly more likely to have treatment delays (OR 2.17, 95% CI 1.28-3.66). As were African-American patients and those with a [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2019-09-13T05:50:07-07:00September, 2019|Oral Cancer News|