Oral Cancer News – Page 8 – The Oral Cancer Foundation News Archive

Best practices for immunotherapy for metastatic head and neck cancer

Source: www.medpagetoday.com Author: Mark L. Fuerst , Contributing Writer, MedPage Today Immunotherapy with anti–programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) is now an essential treatment for patients with recurrent and metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), and ICIs also show promise for patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma and other rare head and neck cancer types. A recently released ASCO Guideline on immunotherapy and biomarker testing in recurrent and metastatic HNSCCs provided evidence-based recommendations. A new related document by expert panel co-chairs Emrullah Yilmaz, MD, PhD, of the Cleveland Clinic, and Loren K. Mell, MD, of the University of San Diego, and colleagues poses questions and answers about the guideline. The following is a summary: For patients with recurrent and metastatic head and neck cancer, which biomarkers should be used in the selection of anti–PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy? We recommend programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) combined positive score (CPS) testing for recurrent and metastatic HNSCC. PD-L1 reports come via immunohistochemistry using CPS or tumor proportion score. CPS has emerged as a preferred biomarker in HNSCC and has been used in landmark head and neck clinical trials such as KEYNOTE-048. Tumor mutational burden (TMB), another emerging biomarker for predicting response to anti–PD-1 ICIs, was studied in KEYNOTE-158. TMB is not used routinely in HNSCC, but may help in cases where PD-L1 CPS is unavailable or for rare head and neck cancers. In first-line treatment of patients with PD-L1 CPS ≥ 1 recurrent and metastatic HNSCC, can pembrolizumab [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2023-08-19T06:39:22-07:00August, 2023|Oral Cancer News|

Running can help cut risk of 9 different cancers in men: study

Source: runningmagazine.ca Author: Paul Baswick Maintaining high levels of cardiorespiratory fitness in young adulthood can help men lower their risk of developing nine different forms of cancer later in life, according to research released this week. In a study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers analyzed the rates of cancer in a cohort of more than a million men in Sweden over an average period of 33 years, beginning at age 18. Using the results from fitness tests that were used to gauge the men’s suitability for military service—assessments that were formerly mandatory in Sweden—researchers divided the participants into low, moderate and high levels of cardiorespiratory fitness, and compared cancer rates among men in these groups in later life. The researchers found the men who showed the highest levels of fitness in young adulthood had a 20 per cent lower risk of kidney cancer and a 19 per cent lower risk of head and neck cancer compared to men in the low-fitness category. The study also suggests high cardiorespiratory fitness can play a major role in reducing the risk of gastrointestinal cancers. Participants in the high-fitness category saw their risk of cancer of the liver, the bile ducts, the esophagus and the gallbladder slashed by nearly 40 per cent, and their risk of stomach and colon cancer reduced by 20 per cent. The greatest difference was seen in rates of lung cancer. The study shows men in the high-fitness category cut their risk of lung cancer by [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2023-08-19T06:23:00-07:00August, 2023|Oral Cancer News|

Hollings head-and-neck team leads trial to reduce delays in care

Source: web.musc.edu Author: Leslie Cantu Beginning radiation therapy on time is critical for people with head and neck cancer. Delays in starting radiation therapy after surgery are associated with worse outcomes – and yet half of patients across the country don’t start radiation therapy when they should. A multidisciplinary team at MUSC Hollings Cancer Center has spent the last five years bringing this issue to light. Now, the team, led by Evan Graboyes, M.D., has been awarded a $3.5 million grant to test an approach for reducing those delays, which should improve outcomes. Called ENDURE, for Enhanced Navigation for Disparities and Untimely Radiation thErapy, the approach addresses the issue at three levels: organization, team and patient. New benchmark Reducing delays in moving to radiation from surgery has become a focus for cancer centers since November 2021, when the Commission on Cancer added a quality measure that grades centers on how many patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma begin radiation within six weeks of surgery. The commission accredits cancer programs, and this is the first time it’s included a head and neck cancer benchmark in its quality measures. The work of the Hollings team, which began when Hollings awarded Graboyes a K12 Paul Calabresi Career Development Award for Clinical Oncology in 2018, has been instrumental in providing the rationale for this new benchmark. Since that first grant award to Graboyes, the team has published 10 peer-reviewed publications showing that the time to starting radiation is a key measure, and [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2023-08-17T09:03:57-07:00August, 2023|Oral Cancer News|

Johns Hopkins engineers develop deep-learning technology that may aid personalized cancer therapy

Source: scitechdaily.com Author: by Johns Hopkins Medicine Cytotoxic CD8+ T-cells recognizing cancer cells by receptor binding neoantigens. Credit: Image generated by DALL-E 2 from OpenAI A team of engineers and cancer researchers from Johns Hopkins has developed a deep-learning technology capable of accurately predicting protein fragments linked to cancer, which might trigger an immune system response. Should this technology prove successful in clinical tests, it could address a significant challenge in the creation of personalized immunotherapies and vaccines. In a study published July 20 in the journal Nature Machine Intelligence, investigators from Johns Hopkins Biomedical Engineering, the Johns Hopkins Institute for Computational Medicine, the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, and the Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy show that their deep-learning method, called BigMHC, can identify protein fragments on cancer cells that elicit a tumor cell-killing immune response, an essential step in understanding response to immunotherapy and in developing personalized cancer therapies. “Cancer immunotherapy is designed to activate a patient’s immune system to destroy cancer cells,” says Rachel Karchin, Ph.D., professor of biomedical engineering, oncology, and computer science, and a core member of the Institute for Computational Medicine. “A critical step in the process is immune system recognition of cancer cells through T cell binding to cancer-specific protein fragments on the cell surface.” The cancer protein fragments that elicit this tumor-killing immune response may originate from changes in the genetic makeup of cancer cells (or mutations), called mutation-associated neoantigens. Each patient’s tumor has a unique set of such neoantigens [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2023-08-13T12:32:46-07:00August, 2023|Oral Cancer News|

Henry Ford Health joins study to improve body image among head and neck cancer survivors

Source: www.dbusiness.com Author: Tim Keenan Henry Ford Health in Detroit is the first health care system in Michigan to join a multi-center study led by the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) Hollings Cancer Center aimed at improving the body image of head and neck cancer survivors. Known as the Building a Renewed Image after Head and Neck Cancer Treatment (BRIGHT) trial, the study was developed with extensive input from survivors of head and neck cancer, caregivers, oncologists, and psychologists to help identify the most effective ways to manage concerns about body image among survivors of head and neck cancer. Individuals who have undergone treatment for head and neck cancer often experience changes to their physical appearance, independence, and ability to do certain tasks, such as eating or speaking. The BRIGHT trial is studying two six-week telemedicine-based programs to help head and neck cancer survivors adapt their thoughts, behaviors, and coping skills to their new circumstances. “Among survivors of head and neck cancer, body image can play a significant role in quality of life,” says Dr. Steven Chang, co-investigator of the BRIGHT trial and vice chair of the Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery at Henry Ford Health. “Studies have shown that approximately one in four survivors struggle with clinically significant body image distress, with younger patients, patients who have had extensive surgery, and patients who had wound healing problems at the highest risk. We are eager to participate in this important study, which has the potential to positively [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2023-08-13T05:19:55-07:00August, 2023|Oral Cancer News|

New classification method for HPV-associated head and neck cancers

Source: www.techexplorist.com Author: Vidya Nagalwade Over the past few decades, the number of cases of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) related to the human papillomavirus (HPV+) has risen significantly and is still rising. The human papillomavirus (HPV) has been linked to an increase in cancer of the throat and tonsils, which is projected to become the most common form of head and neck cancer by 2030. Identifying the right patients with HPV-related cancers is a major challenge in reducing treatment intensity. A new study identifies a subclass of HPV+ head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC). It shows that treatment depends on the tumor type. The data show two distinct subtypes of HPV+ HNSCC, each with its features and treatment responses. The researchers examined data from 104 HPV+ HNSCC tumors and two publically available sources to find gene expression patterns that might reliably distinguish distinct tumor types. Among the 22 modules tested, one accurately classified HPV+ HNSCC tumors based on a different gene expression pattern. The NFKB classifier accurately predicted a favorable result in patients treated in the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group trial E1308, even with low-dosage radiation. Barbara Burtness, a Professor of Medicine at Yale School of Medicine, said, “This discovery opens new opportunities for treatment personalization, as we can now better understand the distinct requirements for tumor development in each subclass.” The findings have significant clinical implications. Clinicians treating HPV+ HNSCC are constantly looking for biomarkers that can be used to determine treatment intensity. The new [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2023-08-13T05:14:01-07:00August, 2023|Oral Cancer News|

AI-driven muscle mass assessment could improve care for head and neck cancer patients

Source: medicalxpress.com Author: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have found a way to use artificial intelligence (AI) to diagnose muscle wasting, called sarcopenia, in patients with head and neck cancer. AI provides a fast, automated, and accurate assessment that is too time-consuming and error-prone to be made by humans. The tool, published in JAMA Network Open, could be used by doctors to improve treatment and supportive care for patients. "Sarcopenia is an indicator that the patient is not doing well. A real-time tool that tells us when a patient is losing muscle mass would trigger us to intervene and do something supportive to help," says lead author Benjamin Kann, MD, a radiation oncologist in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center. Head and neck cancers are typically treated with combinations of surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. The treatments can be curative, but they also can have harsh side effects. Patients sometimes have trouble drinking and eating during and after treatment, leading to poor nutrition and sarcopenia. Sarcopenia is associated with an increased chance of needing a feeding tube, having a lower quality of life, and worse outcomes in general, including earlier death. "Muscle mass is a very important indicator of health," says Kann. "People with more muscle mass are generally healthier and more robust." Doctors can assess muscle mass by analyzing computed tomography (CT) scans of the abdomen or the neck. CT scans of the neck are common and frequent for patients with head and [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2023-08-13T05:04:36-07:00August, 2023|Oral Cancer News|

Cancer research specialist believes uptake in HPV vaccine should be higher

Source: www.mayonews.ie Author: Anton McNulty Parents are potentially harming their children's health by not signing them up to receive the HPV vaccine, which protects against cancer in both males and females. That is the opinion of Martin Clynes, Emeritus Professor of Biotechnology in Dublin City University, who has spent his life researching cancer cells and how they develop in the body. The HPV vaccine is currently available free of charge to all second level students to protect against cervical cancer in women as well as other cancers. The free school-based vaccination programme started in 2010 but uptake of the vaccine slowed around 2016 when some parents established lobby groups because of concerns raised about the vaccine's safety. The current uptake is at 76 percent for the first dose and 65 percent for the second dose. Last year the scheme was extended to women under 25 years of age following a campaign from Bernie and Larry Brennan, parents of the late Laura Brennan who campaigned for higher uptake of the HPV vaccine before her death from cervical cancer in 2019, aged 26. Despite the European Medicines Agency (EMA) dismissing any long-term effects caused by the vaccine, Prof Clynes believes that the uptake is not as good as it should be. Speaking to The Mayo News ahead of a talk he gave on cancer as part of the Féile Chill Damhnait festival on Achill last Wednesday evening, Prof Clynes said parents should get their children to take the vaccine. Scare stories “I [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2023-08-13T04:59:38-07:00August, 2023|Oral Cancer News|

PET/CT follow-up may confer survival benefit in head and neck cancer

Source: www.cancertherapyadvisor.com Author: Andrea S. Blevins Primeau, PhD, MBA Annual follow-up with 18FDG-PET/CT can improve survival, as compared to conventional follow-up, in patients with head and neck cancer, according to study results published in JAMA Network Open. Researchers found that this survival benefit was driven by patients with advanced disease and those with oropharyngeal tumors. This study included 782 patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) who were treated with curative intent during 2006-2019. Their median age was 61 (range, 32-95) years, and 82.1% of patients were men. The most common tumor site was the oropharynx (35.3%), followed by the larynx (24.8%), oral cavity (21.6%), and hypopharynx (15.5%). Most patients had stage IV disease (55.2%), followed by stage I (17.8%), stage III (15.5%), and stage II (11.3%). Exactly half of patients underwent surgery, and half received radiotherapy. The patients underwent 18FDG-PET/CT follow-up (n=497) or conventional follow-up (n=285). In both groups, follow-up included clinical examination every 2 months for the first year, every 3 months during year 2, and every 4 months during year 3, as well as imaging at 12 months, 24 months, and 36 months. Imaging consisted of chest CT in the conventional group and 18FDG-PET/CT in the other group. Over 3 years of follow-up, 111 relapses occurred, of which 62 (55.9%) were detected by 18FDG-PET/CT in patients who were asymptomatic. The subclinical recurrence detection rate was 12.4% with 18FDG-PET/CT. Of all subclinical recurrences, 18FDG-PET/CT revealed 58.1% at the 12-month follow-up, 30.6% at 24 months, and 11.3% [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2023-08-11T05:16:48-07:00August, 2023|Oral Cancer News|

Finding reconstructive solutions

Source: www.sydney.edu.au Author: George Dodd for Sydney Alumni Magazine They house the parts we need to see, hear, eat and breathe. Our heads and necks are machines for living but also subject to cancers that can destroy it all. New technology has changed all that. Nicola Salmond’s first thought was that the small ulcer inside her mouth was caused by her wisdom teeth. Her wisdom teeth were removed. The ulcer stayed. Then, a biopsy revealed that the ulcer was, in fact, a squamous cell carcinoma. Cancer. Specifically, a mouth cancer that is aggressive and can be life threatening. “People think they’re invincible, right?” says Salmond, a warm and straight-talking person, obviously still disquieted by the memory of the diagnosis. “I’ve never been fitter than I am now in my 40s. Yet there was this thing in my mouth. No symptoms at first, just this thing.” Professor Jonathan Clark in scrubs in front of a blue background, holding a 3D printed mouth piece Determined to stay in the lives of her three young daughters, Salmond joined in the search for a surgeon with the skills to help her. Professor Jonathan Clark (MBiostat ’12) came up early as one of the best in the field of head and neck surgery. Appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2019, Professor Clark is one of a team of highly regarded surgeons at Chris O’Brien Lifehouse in Camperdown, which performs the highest volume of complex head and neck cancer surgery in [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2023-08-08T06:36:32-07:00August, 2023|Oral Cancer News|