Oral Cancer News – Page 78 – The Oral Cancer Foundation News Archive

Personalized cancer vaccines successful in first-stage human trials

Source: http://newatlas.com/cancer-personalized-vaccine-success-trial/50402/ Author: Rich Haridy Date: July 9, 2017 A cancer vaccine is one of the holy grails of modern medical research, but finding a way to stimulate the immune system to specifically target and kill cancer cells has proven to be a difficult task. Now two recent clinical trials that have produced encouraging results in patients with skin cancer are are providing hope for the development of personalized cancer vaccines tailored to individual patient's tumors. Both studies focus on neoantigens, which are mutated molecules found only on the surface of cancer cells. Neoantigens prove to be ideal targets for immunotherapy as they are not present on healthy cells. A vaccine's challenge is to train the body's immune cells, known as T cells, to hunt and kill only those specific tumor cells that hold the target neoantigens. In the first trial, at Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, samples of tumors were taken from six patients with melanoma. The patients were identified as having a high risk for recurrence after first having their tumors removed by surgery. For each individual patient the researchers identified up to 20 neoantigens specific to a subject's tumor. Computer algorithms were then utilized to help the researchers select which specific neoantigens would best stimulate the body's T cells. Those neoantigens were then synthesized, mixed with an adjuvant to stimulate immune response, and injected into the individual patients. Four out of the six patients in this first trial displayed no recurrence of their cancer 25 months after vaccination. [...]

Charlotte Parker2017-07-10T09:33:39-07:00July, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

Biotech exec facing death urges: Get the vaccine that prevents his cancer

Source: www.philly.com Author: Michael D. Becker Like most people who pen a new book, Michael D. Becker is eager for publicity. But he has an unusual sense of urgency. A former oncology biotech CEO, Becker has neck cancer. He expects his 49th birthday in November to be his last, if he makes it. What also drives him to get his message out, however, is this: Children today can get a vaccine that prevents the kind of oropharyngeal cancer that is killing him. As he collides with his mortality, Becker wants to share his story and raise awareness about the vaccine, which protects against dangerous strains of human papillomavirus, or HPV, the extremely common, sexually transmitted virus that caused his disease. His book, A Walk With Purpose: Memoir of a Bioentrepreneur (available on Amazon.com), was produced and self-published in a creative sprint between December, when his cancer recurred just a year after initial diagnosis and treatment, and April. He also has a blog, My Cancer Journey, and has been conducting media interviews. “I had a lot of motivation to write the book quickly,” he said wryly at his home in Yardley. In the final pages, he urges parents “to talk to their doctor about the HPV vaccine,” which “simply didn’t exist when I was a teenager, or it could have prevented my cancer.” The leading vaccine brand, Gardasil, was hailed as a breakthrough when it was introduced in 2006. It is approved to prevent cervical cancer and less common genital malignancies, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2017-07-06T09:33:47-07:00July, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

Mayo Clinic Q and A: Throat cancer symptoms

Source: newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org Author: Dr. Eric Moore, Otorhinolaryngology, Mayo Clinic DEAR MAYO CLINIC: Are there early signs of throat cancer, or is it typically not found until its late stages? How is it treated? ANSWER: The throat includes several important structures that are relied on every minute of the day and night to breathe, swallow and speak. Unfortunately, cancer can involve any, and sometimes all, of these structures. The symptoms of cancer, how early these symptoms are recognized and how the cancer is treated depend on which structures are involved. All of the passageway between your tongue and your esophagus can be considered the throat. It includes three main areas. The first is the base of your tongue and tonsils. These, along with the soft palate and upper side walls of the pharynx, are called the oropharynx. Second is the voice box, or larynx. It consists of the epiglottis — a cartilage flap that helps to close your windpipe, or trachea, when you swallow — and the vocal cords. Third is the hypopharynx. That includes the bottom sidewalls and the back of the throat before the opening of the esophagus. Tumors that occur in these three areas have different symptoms, behave differently and often are treated differently. That’s why the areas of the throat are subdivided into separate sections by the head and neck surgeons who diagnose and treat them. For example, in the oropharynx, most tumors are squamous cell carcinoma. Most are caused by HPV, although smoking and alcohol can [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2017-06-22T08:04:29-07:00June, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

Why drinking wine causes very dry mouth, and how eating cheese helps prevent it

Source: www.medicaldaily.com Author: Lizette Borreli The real reason why wine and cheese are often paired together has to do with creating a more balanced mouth feel to prevent dry mouth. Photo courtesy of Pexels, Public Domain At a happy hour, a dinner event, or a winery, we're likely to see wine and cheese together on the menu. This classic food pairing makes it less likely for us to get dry mouth when we drink wine, and science has found out why. The food combination pair of astringent wine with fatty cheese, opposing foods of sensory perception, help create a more balanced mouth feel. In the video, "Why Does Wine Make Your Mouth Feel Dry?" MinuteEarth explains the temporarily leather-like feel in our mouth is linked to the tannins in wine. The over consumption of tannins, like having a few glasses of wine, causes the slippery proteins in our saliva, tongues and cheeks to stick together, which produces a rough feeling on the tongue. Luckily, the bonds between the tannins and proteins are temporary, meaning once the mouth creates new saliva, it will dilute the tannins and carry them away. Instead of waiting for new saliva to develop, there are proteins in fatty foods that will bond with the tannins, rather than our mouth. In a 2012 study, published in the journal Cell, researchers suggest drinking wine and eating cheese together work as the mild astringent cuts fat. Astringents tend to have a strong effect each time the mouth [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2017-06-20T07:20:44-07:00June, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

Don’t start, be smart: Local, Reno Rodeo competitor advocates being tobacco-free

Source: mynews4.com Author: Kenzie Bales Date: June 13th, 2017 RENO, Nev. (News 4 & Fox 11) — As a country phenomenon, Garth Brooks once said, "It's bulls and blood, it's dust and mud, it's the roar of a Sunday crowd. It's the white in his knuckles, the gold in the buckle, he'll win the next go 'round. It's boots and chaps, it's cowboy hats, it's spurs and latigo, it's the ropes and the reins, and the joy and the pain and they call the thing rodeo." 2017 Reno Rodeo competitor Cody Z Kiser has been riding and roping for as long as he can remember. Born and raised to Carrie and P.D. Kiser in Carson City, Nevada, Cody started riding bulls as a Dayton High School student. A horrific injury would set Kiser back, but by no means did it keep him from chasing his dreams. Kiser says a bull stepped on his face and crushed all the bones in the left side of his face. After recovering, Kiser transitioned from bull riding to bareback bucking horses and hasn't looked back since. If traveling to rodeos all the time wasn't enough to keep someone completely preoccupied, Cody competed while pursuing a Bachelor's Degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno. After testing the waters in the engineering field for awhile, Kiser decided it was time to chase his lifelong dream and give rodeo his full attention. During his endeavors as a cowboy, Cody was fortunate enough to establish a [...]

Charlotte Parker2017-06-14T12:17:21-07:00June, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

HPV Vaccination Linked to Decreased Oral HPV Infections

Author: NCI Staff Date: June 5th, 2017 Source: www.cancer.org New study results suggest that vaccination against the human papillomavirus (HPV) may sharply reduce oral HPV infections that are a major risk factor for oropharyngeal cancer, a type of head and neck cancer. The study of more than 2,600 young adults in the United States found that the prevalence of oral infection with four HPV types, including two high-risk, or cancer-causing, types, was 88% lower in those who reported receiving at least one dose of an HPV vaccine than in those who said they were not vaccinated. About 70% of oropharyngeal cancers are caused by high-risk HPV infection, and the incidence of HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer has been increasing in the United States in recent decades. In the United States, more than half of oropharyngeal cancers are linked to a single high-risk HPV type, HPV 16, which is one of the types covered by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved HPV vaccines. “In an unvaccinated population, we would estimate that about a million young adults would have an oral HPV infection by one of these vaccine HPV types. If they had all been vaccinated, we could have prevented almost 900,000 of those infections,” said senior study author Maura Gillison, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Gillison presented the new findings at a May 17 press briefing ahead of the 2017 annual American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting, held June 2–6 in Chicago. A Rapidly Rising Cancer Oropharyngeal [...]

Charlotte Parker2017-06-05T14:39:41-07:00June, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

Novel vaccine therapy can generate immune responses in patients with HPV-related head and neck cancer

Source: www.news-medical.net Author: staff A novel vaccine therapy can generate immune responses in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCCa), according to researchers at the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania. The treatment specifically targets human papillomavirus (HPV), which is frequently associated with HNSCCa, to trigger the immune response. Researchers will present the results of their pilot study during the 2017 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting in Chicago (Abstract #6073). HNSCCa is a cancer that develops in the mucous membranes of the mouth, and throat. While smoking and tobacco use are known causes, the number of cases related to HPV infection - a sexually transmitted infection that is so common, the Centers for Disease Control says almost all sexually active adults will contract it at some point in their lifetimes - is on the rise. The CDC now estimates 70 percent of all throat cancers in the United States are HPV-related. Sixty percent are caused by the subtype known as HPV 16/18. "This is the subtype we target with this new therapy, and we're the only site in the country to demonstrate immune activation with this DNA based immunotherapeutic vaccine for HPV 16/18 associated head and neck cancer," said the study's lead author Charu Aggarwal, MD, MPH, an assistant professor of Hematology Oncology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The vaccine is delivered as an injection of antigens - which leads the immune system to start producing antibodies and [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2017-06-01T13:08:47-07:00June, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

Study reveals high environmental cost of tobacco

Source: www.cnn.com Date: May 31st, 2017 Author: Jacopo Prisco Details of the environmental cost of tobacco are revealed in a study released Wednesday by the World Health Organization, adding to the well-known costs to global health, which translate to a yearly loss of $1.4 trillion in health-care expenses and lost productivity. From crop to pack, tobacco commands an intensive use of resources and forces the release of harmful chemicals in the soil and waterways, as well as significant amounts of greenhouse gases. Its leftovers linger, as tobacco litter is the biggest component of litter worldwide. "Tobacco not only produces lung cancer in people, but it is a cancer to the lungs of the Earth," said Dr. Armando Peruga, who previously coordinated the WHO Tobacco Free Initiative and now works as a consultant. He reviewed the new report for the WHO. Commercial tobacco farming is a worldwide industry that involves 124 countries and occupies 4.3 million hectares of agricultural land. About 90% of it takes place in low-income countries, with China, Brazil and India as the largest producers. Because tobacco is often a monocrop -- grown without being rotated with other crops -- the plants and the soil are weak in natural defenses and require larger amounts of chemicals for growth and protection from pests. "Tobacco also takes away a lot of nutrients from the soil and requires massive amounts of fertilizer, a process that leads to degradation of the land and desertification, with negative consequences for biodiversity and wildlife," Peruga [...]

Charlotte Parker2017-05-31T11:27:48-07:00May, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

More patients presenting with HPV-associated oral cancers in Lubbock, TX

Source: lubbockonline.com Author: Ellysa Harris Detecting oral cancers in patients in their 50s and 60s has never been uncommon. But local dentists and doctors say finding it in younger patient populations has become a new norm. Oral cancers driven by Human Papillomavirus are now the fastest growing oral and oropharyngeal cancers, according to the Oral Cancer Foundation website. And local health officials say they’ve seen a few more cases than usual. Dr. Joehassin Cordero, FACS, professor, chairman and program director ofTexas Tech’s Health Sciences Center Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, said less people are smoking and that has contributed to the decrease in the number of cases of oral cancers in the past two decades. “In that same period, we have seen an increase in the HPV oropharyngeal cancer,” he said. “And oropharyngeal cancer — what it means it’s affecting the base of your tongue and tonsils.” Dr. Brian Herring, a Lubbock dentist, chalks the increase up to increased awareness. “I’m assuming probably for years and years and years it has affected the mouth but we didn’t know that,” he said. “As we get better at cellular diagnostics and molecular diagnostics, things like that, we’re finding that there is a large portion of cancers that do have an HPV component.” What’s more alarming, said Dr. Ryan Higley, oral surgeon with West Texas Oral Facial Surgery, is it’s being diagnosed in younger people. Higley said oral cancers are generally diagnosed between the ages of 55 and 65, mostly in women. [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2017-05-28T11:56:52-07:00May, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

Symptoms of throat cancer depend on which throat structures are affected

Source: tribunecontentagency.com Author: Eric Moore, M.D. Dear Mayo Clinic: Are there early signs of throat cancer, or is it typically not found until its late stages? How is it treated? Answer: The throat includes several important structures that are relied on every minute of the day and night to breathe, swallow and speak. Unfortunately, cancer can involve any, and sometimes all, of these structures. The symptoms of cancer, how early these symptoms are recognized and how the cancer is treated depend on which structures are involved. All of the passageway between your tongue and your esophagus can be considered the throat. It includes three main areas. The first is the base of your tongue and tonsils. These, along with the soft palate and upper side walls of the pharynx, are called the oropharynx. Second is the voice box, or larynx. It consists of the epiglottis — a cartilage flap that helps to close your windpipe, or trachea, when you swallow — and the vocal cords. Third is the hypopharynx. That includes the bottom sidewalls and the back of the throat before the opening of the esophagus. Tumors that occur in these three areas have different symptoms, behave differently and often are treated differently. That’s why the areas of the throat are subdivided into separate sections by the head and neck surgeons who diagnose and treat them. For example, in the oropharynx, most tumors are squamous cell carcinoma. Most are caused by HPV, although smoking and alcohol can play a role [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2017-05-26T08:35:35-07:00May, 2017|Oral Cancer News|