Oral Cancer News – Page 86 – The Oral Cancer Foundation News Archive

Why men need to start caring about HPV

Source: www.refinery29.com Author: Sarah Jacoby The human papillomavirus (HPV) is one of very few STIs that we have a vaccine for. And — bonus! — that vaccine prevents cancer. But a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released last month indicated that although we've made some improvements in the vaccination rates, they still aren't where we want them — especially for boys. This is despite the fact that pretty much everyone who's sexually active will get the virus at some point and men are at risk for their own unique set of HPV-related health consequences. Let's start with the basics: "HPV is a virus that’s sexually transmitted, but it’s incredibly common," explains Kathleen Schmeler, MD, of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Up to 80% of people get it at some point in their lives, she says, which is why some doctors refer to it as the "common cold" of STIs. For most people, the virus goes away on its own, without causing symptoms or needing treatment. Some people develop genital warts that can be treated with medication. But in some rare instances, the virus can go on to cause more serious health issues — including some types of cancer. "The problem is we don't know who’s going to clear it and who won’t," Dr. Schmeler says. Most notably, HPV is known to cause cervical cancer. In fact, nearly all cases of cervical cancer are attributed to HPV. In 2013, the most recent [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-09-11T06:23:50-07:00September, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Chronic sinusitis linked to head and neck cancers in elderly

Source: www.cancernetwork.com Author: Anna Azvolinsky Chronic sinusitis is associated with three rare types of head and neck cancer, including nasopharyngeal cancer, human papillomavirus (HPV)-related oropharyngeal cancer, and nasal cavity and paranasal sinus cancers, according to a new study published in JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery. Chronic sinusitis is local inflammation caused by either a virus or bacteria that lasts for longer than 12 weeks. Either the chronic inflammation from the sinusitis, the immunodeficiency that can accompany chronic sinusitis, or both may contribute to the development of these head and neck cancers. The effect is modest, however, wrote the study authors. “There are currently no general US guidelines for head and neck cancer screening, but given the low absolute risk, our findings do not support a need for head and neck cancer screening in individuals with chronic sinusitis,” wrote study authors Daniel C. Beachler, PhD, MHS, and Eric A. Engels, MD, MPH, of the infections and immunoepidemiology branch of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. The absolute risk of these cancer types was low. At 8 years after a chronic sinusitis diagnosis, they had a cumulative incidence of less than 0.07%. The authors conducted a case-cohort study using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)–Medicare database to assess this link among elderly individuals in the United States. The authors included 483,546 Medicare beneficiaries and an additional 826,436 individuals from the database who developed cancer, including 21,716 individuals who developed head and neck cancer. The mean age of individuals in the [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-09-11T06:05:29-07:00September, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Impact of cancer screening in California over past 15 years

Source: www.sciencedaily.com Author: University of California - Davis Health System A new report from the UC Davis Institute for Population Health Improvement (IPHI) shows the impact of cancer screening over the past 15 years, identifying areas where increased screening and other cancer-control efforts would save lives and significantly benefit population health. The CalCARES report uses heat maps to show areas with higher proportions of particular cancers diagnosed at a late stage, pointing to a need for increased screening. The CalCARES report uses heat maps to show areas with higher proportions of particular cancers diagnosed at a late stage, pointing to a need for increased screening. "We have effective screening tests for several cancers, which allow physicians and other health-care providers to identify the disease at an earlier stage -- often before symptoms surface -- when treatment is more likely to result in a cure," said senior author of the report and IPHI Director Kenneth W. Kizer. "However, too many Californians are not getting screened and, as a result, many persons are not being diagnosed until their cancers have progressed to an advanced stage. "With cancer now surpassing heart disease as the leading cause of death in California and 22 other states, we need to increase cancer screening efforts to save lives," he said. IPHI's California Cancer Reporting and Epidemiologic Surveillance (CalCARES) Program works in partnership with the California Department of Public Health to manage the day-to-day operations of the California Cancer Registry (CCR), the state mandated population-based cancer surveillance system. [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-09-05T06:36:46-07:00September, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Google and UCLH to develop AI to improve cancer therapies

Source: www.phgfoundation.org Author: Julian Harris Google’s Artificial Intelligence research group announced a new partnership with University College London Hospitals, applying machine learning to radiotherapy treatment for head and neck cancer. The new partnership is the third since the launch of DeepMind’s health division in February 2016. The partnership aims to assist clinicians in the segmentation process – designating which areas of the body to target with radiotherapy – which in the case of head and neck cancer is highly time consuming, taking around four hours. The agreement will give DeepMind access to the anonymised scans of around 700 patients, as well as the expertise of UCLH’s world leading team at their specialised head and neck cancer centre. Google DeepMind hopes to utilise machine learning to make the planning of radiotherapy treatment more efficient and reduce the duration of the segmentation process. Ultimately , clinicians will still be responsible for deciding on treatment plans, but the reduced workload will free up their time to focus on patient care. If successful, the team hope that they will be able to adapt their segmentation algorithm to other parts of the body and other cancers which can also be treated with radiotherapy. Machine learning continues to be a promising new area of health technology, with the potential to provide novel solutions to a range of problems in healthcare. In the UCLH press release, the Co-Founder of DeepMind, Mustafa Suleyman said that "this real-world application of artificial intelligence (AI) technology is exactly why we set [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-09-05T06:10:59-07:00September, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Expert Asserts Pembrolizumab to Play Important Role in Head and Neck Cancer Treatment

Source: www.targetedonc.com Author: Laura Panjwani The FDA approval of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) as a treatment for patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) in August 2016 was extremely significant for this patient population, which previously had limited options following progression on a platinum-based chemotherapy. The approval was based on the phase Ib KEYNOTE-012 study, which demonstrated that pembrolizumab had an overall response rate (ORR) of 18% and a stable disease rate of 17% in patients with recurrent/metastatic HNSCC. Several other studies are further evaluating the immunotherapy agent in HNSCC.Preliminary results of the phase II KEYNOTE-055 study—which included 92 evaluable patients who received pembrolizumab after failing platinum and cetuximab therapies—were presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting. In an interview with Targeted Oncology, lead study author Joshua M. Bauml, MD, an assistant professor of Medicine, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and the Veteran's Administration Medical Center, discusses the impact of pembrolizumab’s success in HNSCC, the results of the KEYNOTE-055 study, and what he sees on the horizon for the PD-1 inhibitor in this field. TARGETED ONCOLOGY: What role do you envision pembrolizumab having in this patient population? Baumi: It is going to play a critical role in head and neck cancer. The other agents that are available have limited efficacy, and are associated with significant toxicities. This is a clear improvement for our patient population with limited options. TARGETED ONCOLOGY: What were the key takeaways from KEYNOTE-055? Baumi: Patients with recurrent/metastatic head and neck cancer that [...]

Charlotte Parker2016-09-22T14:29:26-07:00September, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

New method of cancer immunotherapy developed

Source: www.nextbigfuture.com Author: staff A team of Stanford ChEM-H scientists has discovered a novel form of cancer immunotherapy, which works by removing certain sugars from the surface of cancer cells and making those cells visible to the immune system. Scientists have long known that if certain sugars are present on a tumor, it is less likely to respond well to therapies. But nobody knew what that halo of sugars was doing, in part because such a small number of labs study the glycocalyx. Evidence had been mounting within those few labs that do study the glycocalyx, including Bertozzi’s, that a subset of sugars called sialic acids act as a signal for the innate immune system to ignore the otherwise suspicious-looking tumor. Eliminate those sugars, and maybe innate immune cells would be more likely to recognize and attack the cancer cells, Bertozzi thought. And essentially that’s exactly what happened. Current immunotherapies on the market work by blocking one of the inhibitory signals that are recognized by the adaptive immune system. Block those and the balance tilts in such a way that the immune system will attack the now recognizable cancer. Bertozzi’s approach provides a second way of tiling the balance in favor of attack, this time for the innate immune system. She said this study shows just one example of how it could work, but her sugar-removing lawnmower could be used on a wide variety of cell types, not just those expressing HER2, and on different types of sugars. PNAS - [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-08-25T20:54:47-07:00August, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Expert says Nivolumab Poised to Change Standard of Care in SCCHN

Source: www.onclive.com Author: Laura Panjwani Nivolumab (Opdivo) is a game-changing agent for the treatment of patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN), according to Robert L. Ferris, MD, PhD. “Recent findings have shown us that this agent is really the new standard-of-care option for all platinum-refractory patients with head and neck cancer,” says Ferris, vice chair for Clinical Operations, associate director for Translational Research, and co-leader of the Cancer Immunology Program at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. “This is regardless of whether patients are PD-L1–positive or negative or whether they are HPV-positive or negative.” The PD-L1 inhibitor received a priority review designation by the FDA in July 2016 based on the CheckMate-141 study, which demonstrated a median overall survival (OS) with nivolumab of 7.5 months compared with 5.1 months with investigator's choice of therapy (HR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.51-0.96; P = .0101) in patients with recurrent or metastatic SCCHN. The objective response rate (ORR) was 13.3% with nivolumab and 5.8% for investigator's choice. The FDA is scheduled to make a decision on the application for the PD-1 inhibitor by November 11, 2016, as part of the Prescription Drug User Fee Act. Ferris was the lead author on an analysis that further evaluated preliminary data from CheckMate-141, which was presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting. In an interview with OncLive, he discusses the findings of this study, potential biomarkers for nivolumab, and questions that remain regarding the use of the immunotherapy in SCCHN. OncLive: What [...]

Charlotte Parker2016-08-24T13:28:58-07:00August, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

NYU Expert Says Cancer Pain Varies by Tumor Type

Source: www.onclive.com Author: Jane de Lartigue, PhD Brian L. Schmidt, DDS, MD, PhD, is a specialist in head and neck cancers whose research focus includes an exploration of the biological and molecular mechanisms of pain related to cancer and associated treatments. He is the director of the New York University (NYU) Oral Cancer Center and of the Bluestone Center for Clinical Research, and a professor of oral and maxillofacial surgery at the NYU School of Dentistry. In June 2016, the National Institutes of Health awarded Schmidt and colleagues a $1.2 million grant to study gene therapy for the treatment of patients with oral cancer pain. Schmidt talked to OncLive about the difficulties of studying cancer pain and developing new drugs. OncLive: How has our understanding of the mechanisms of cancer pain changed in the past decade? Schmidt: The field was developed probably in about 1999. That’s the first publication that I’m aware of that looked at mechanisms in terms of using preclinical models, and by that I mean animal models. Before that time we really had no understanding of basic mechanisms, so there’s been significant advancement over the last 10 years. Could you briefly describe our current understanding of how cancer pain develops? Let me tell you what it’s not, because I think that’s important. For many years, people were writing about it but we weren’t testing the possible mechanisms, and what people were writing turned out probably not to be true. It was initially thought that the pain was [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-08-05T16:30:08-07:00August, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Henry Schein Donates Medical Supplies In Support of Free Oral Cancer Screening Events throughout the United States

Source: www.mysocialgoodnews.com Author: Api Potter Company’s Donation to Support 77 Screening Events in 2016 and 2017 by the Oral Cancer Foundation Press Release – MELVILLE, N.Y., July 25, 2016 – Henry Schein, Inc. (Nasdaq: HSIC) announced today that it is donating more than $10,000 in medical supplies to the Oral Cancer Foundation (OCF) in support of 77 free oral cancer screening events being held throughout the United States in 2016 and 2017. Each OCF-hosted event aims to boost awareness of the disease and increase early detection. The Company’s donation of gauze, tongue depressors, and disposable dental mirrors, facemasks, and gloves is an initiative of Henry Schein Cares, the Company’s global corporate social responsibility program, and continues the Company’s support of OCF’s screening events. OCF hosts the events in a range of locations, including pharmacy parking lots, health fairs, farmer’s markets, colleges, and OCF Walk/Run for Awareness events. “The health of our mouths greatly impacts our ability to eat and drink, communicate thoughts and ideas, and express feelings for loved ones,” said Brian Hill, Founder of the Oral Cancer Foundation. “When cancer affects our mouths, it does more than take away these everyday functions, it too often takes our lives. Our screening events are designed to identify signs of oral cancer before it ever gets that far, and we thank Henry Schein for this generous donation and its continued support of oral cancer awareness and early detection efforts.” The donation comes at a time when nearly 500,000 people worldwide are diagnosed annually [...]

Charlotte Parker2016-07-27T12:17:07-07:00July, 2016|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

Knowledgeability, Attitude and Behavior of Primary Care Providers Towards Oral Cancer: a Pilot Study

Source: www.link.springer.com Authors: Neel Shimpi, Aditi Bharatkumar, Monica Jethwani, Po-Huang Cyou, Ingrid Glurich, Jake Blamer, Amit Acharya The objective of this study was to assess current knowledgeability, attitudes, and practice behaviors of primary care providers (PCPs) towards oral cancer screening. Applying a cross-sectional design, a 14-question survey was emailed to 307 PCPs practicing at a large, multi-specialty, rurally based healthcare system. Survey data were collected and managed using REDCap and analyzed applying descriptive statistics. A 20 % response rate (n = 61/307) was achieved for survey completion. Approximately 70 % of respondents were physicians, 16 % were nurse practitioners, and 13 % were physician assistants. Nearly 60 % of respondents were family medicine practitioners. Limited training surrounding oral cancer screening during medical training was reported by 64 %. Although 78 % of respondents reported never performing oral cancer screening on patients in their practice, >90 % answered knowledge-based questions correctly. Frequency rate for specialist referral for suspicious lesions by PCPs was 56 % “frequently”. Optimal periodicity for oral cancer screening on all patients selected by respondents was 61 % “annually”, 3 % “every 6 months”, 3 % “every visit”, 2 % “not at all”, and 31 % “unsure”. This study established a baseline surrounding current knowledgeability, practice patterns, and opinions of PCPs towards oral cancer screening at a single, large, regional healthcare system. In the absence of evidence-based support for population-based cancer screening, this study result suggests a need for better integration of oral cancer surveillance into the medical setting, supplemented by education and training with emphasis on assessment of high-risk patients to achieve early detection. [...]

Charlotte Parker2016-07-25T10:18:19-07:00July, 2016|Oral Cancer News|