Oral Cancer News – Page 93 – The Oral Cancer Foundation News Archive

Immunotherapies gaining traction in head and neck cancers

Source: www.targetedonc.com Author: Greg Kennelty An explosion of immunotherapies is on the horizon for patients with metastatic head and neck cancer, specifically as phase III trials begin to report findings for PD-1 inhibitors. This upcoming wave of new therapies places importance on understanding optimal treatment settings and adverse events associated with these therapies. In late January, the phase III CheckMate-141 trial investigating the anti–PD-1 agent nivolumab was stopped early, due to a substantial improvement in the primary endpoint of overall survival (OS). The drug was put up against the investigator’s choice of cetuximab (Erbitux), methotrexate, or docetaxel following progression on a platinum-based therapy. At this time, data from the study have not yet been released but are being prepared for future presentation. Findings from the study are being discussed with the FDA and other health authorities. In addition to nivolumab, the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda) demonstrated encouraging activity in patients with with advanced PD-L1–positive esophageal carcinoma during the phase Ib KEYNOTE-028 study. Additionally, the agent was effective for patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck in the phase I KEYNOTE-012 study. In the head and neck cancer population, the objective response rate with pembrolizumab was 24.8% in 117 evaluable patients. Tumor shrinkage was experienced by 56% of patients and another 25% had stable disease. The response rate seen with pembrolizumab was similar, regardless of HPV infection status. In those with HPV-positive disease, the ORR was 20.6% compared with 27.2% in the negative group. To gain further insight, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-02-18T14:35:44-07:00February, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Oral cancer less likely in women who have more sex; but not the same for men

Source: www.parentherald.com Author: Diane Ting Having more sex partners reduces the chance of oral cancer for women. Unfortunately, men are more likely to become infected as the number of oral sex partners increases. A study suggests that women who have more vaginal sex partners appear to have a lower risk of oral human papillomavirus (HPV) infections. The information was released during the annual conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Throat and mouth cancer are linked to HPV, which is one of the most prevalent sexually transmitted diseases. HPV is rather common, as most people are treated of the virus within two years. According to the study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), oral sex may increase the risk of head and neck cancer by 22 percent. In the last 20 years, the number of oral cancer patients has risen to 225 percent. Oral cancer is typically linked to lifestyle causes such as heavy drinking and smoking, according to Mirror. Two in three sufferers of oral cancer were men, which made experts question the imbalance. HPV is the same cancer that causes cervical cancer in women. Research states that because women are first exposed to HPV vaginally, they may develop an immune response that prevents them from getting the infection. Unfortunately, research suggests that this may not be the same for men as they are found twice more likely to develop oral cancer. As the number of oral sex partners increase, the risk of [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-02-18T14:27:17-07:00February, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

HPV vaccination rates are low, especially in Kansas and Missouri, and cancer experts are alarmed

Source: www.kansascity.comAuthor: Lisa Gutierrez The HPV vaccine is recommended for girls and boys starting at ages 11 to 12. But in state-by-state comparisons, children in Kansas and Missouri rank at or near the bottom of the list. John Amis The Associated Press The University of Kansas Cancer Center recently joined nearly 70 other cancer centers across the country to sound an alarm about the HPV vaccine. Many children still are not getting the recommended vaccine for human papillomavirus, which causes head and neck cancer in men and women, cervical cancer in women and a host of other cancers in both. In Kansas and Missouri, less than 49 percent of girls have received the vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Kansas ranks dead last in the nation, and Missouri is near the bottom. Both states rank low for the number of boys who are vaccinated too. The public call from KU’s cancer center was blunt: The vaccine prevents cancer. What’s the problem? “It absolutely breaks my heart,” said Terry Tsue, physician-in-chief at the University of Kansas Cancer Center. “We have two vaccines against cancers that are caused by virus, the hepatitis A vaccine and the HPV vaccine. Otherwise, we don’t have a vaccine that prevents cancer. “There are thousands and thousands of people dying annually from this disease that could have been prevented had we had this vaccine 30 years ago. We didn’t have it and were so slow in adopting it that for the next [...]

Charlotte Parker2016-02-18T13:37:23-07:00February, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Nivolumab Could Change Head and Neck Cancer Treatment Paradigm

Source: www.Targetedonc.comAuthor: Laura Panjwani "To have an anti–PD-1 agent be proven to improve survival in head and neck cancer in a randomized phase III trial, and the potential for a new FDA approval in the near future is a game changer." - Robert Ferris, MD, PhD With the phase III CheckMate-141 trial being stopped early due to the anti–PD-1 agent nivolumab having met its primary endpoint of overall survival improvement in head and neck cancer, Robert Ferris, MD, PhD, couldn't be more elated. "This is what I've devoted my career to, and it is gratifying to see that really come to pass," said Ferris, professor and chief, Division of Head and Neck Surgery, vice chair for Clinical Operations, associate director for Translational Research, and coleader of the Cancer Immunology Program at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, in an exclusive interview with Targeted Oncology. "To have an anti–PD-1 agent be proven to improve survival in head and neck cancer in a randomized phase III trial, and the potential for a new FDA approval in the near future is a game changer. There is now hope for a lot of patients and physicians who have been frustrated by this difficult-to-treat disease. This opens up a whole new class of therapies for this population." Ferris, who acted as cochair/coprimary investigator for the trial alongside Maura Gillison, MD, PhD, Ohio State University, said the trial pitted nivolumab against the investigator’s choice of cetuximab (Erbitux), methotrexate, or docetaxel in patients with platinum-refractory squamous cell carcinoma [...]

Charlotte Parker2016-02-16T09:24:23-07:00February, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

e-Cigarette Use Tied to Tobacco Use in Teenagers

Source: www.Medscape.comAuthor: Diana Swift e-Cigarette smoking appears to promote progression to traditional cigarette smoking and may be helping form a new population of smokers, according to a prospective study published online September 8 in JAMA Pediatrics. Brian A. Primack, MD, PhD, from the Division of General Internal Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in Pennsylvania, and colleagues analyzed data on 694 young nonsmokers who were attitudinally nonsusceptible to smoking at baseline. The very small proportion (2.3%) who already used e-cigarettes at baseline proved more likely to progress to smoking or to being open to it. The cohort, which was more than 75% non-Hispanic white, consisted of 374 females. The mean age of the 16 baseline e-cigarette users was 19.5 years compared with 20 years for nonusers. Study data came from waves 2 and 3 of the US-based Dartmouth Media, Advertising, and Health Study, a national survey of adolescents and young adults aged 16 to 26 years who were recruited via random digit dialing using landline (66.7%) and cellular (33.3%) telephone numbers. The survey, conducted from October 1, 2012, to May 1, 2014, started tracking e-cigarette use at wave 2 (2012 - 2013), which served as the baseline, whereas wave 3 (2013 - 2014) served as follow-up for the current study. Eligible participants had to be never-smokers and attitudinally nonsusceptible to smoking at baseline. This was assessed with these questions: "If one of your friends offered you a cigarette, would you try it?" and "Do you think you will smoke a [...]

Charlotte Parker2016-02-10T17:34:33-07:00February, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Possible marker for recurring HPV-linked oropharyngeal cancers

Source: www.eureka.orgAuthor: John Hopkins Media Contact: Vanessa Wasta A look-back analysis of HPV infection antibodies in patients treated for oropharyngeal (mouth and throat) cancers linked to HPV infection suggests at least one of the antibodies could be useful in identifying those at risk for a recurrence of the cancer, say scientists at The Johns Hopkins University. A report on the study is published in the February issue of Cancer Prevention Research. HPV infections, which are virtually all sexually transmitted, are responsible for the recent rise in the incidence of oropharyngeal cancers in the United States, according to the National Cancer Institute, and now account for about 80 percent of these cancers. People with HPV-positive tumors of the throat, base of the tongue and tonsils have higher overall survival rates compared to people with similar tumors not caused by HPV, but studies show that more than 25 percent of HPV-positive cancers recur--usually within the first two years after treatment. "There are currently no reliable tests available to detect early recurrence, so we hope to find a biological marker that could help identify those most at risk," says Carole Fakhry, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and member of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. For the new study, Fakhry and her colleagues focused their attention on the antibodies, or immune system protein the body produces to fight HPV-related cancer proteins. One such antibody, called E6, is strongly linked to the diagnosis [...]

Charlotte Parker2016-02-08T12:03:57-07:00February, 2016|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

NCI-designated Cancer Centers Urge HPV Vaccination for the Prevention of Cancer

Source: www.medicine.wustl.eduAuthor: Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis Staff Approximately 79 million people in the United States are currently infected with a human papillomavirus (HPV) according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and 14 million new infections occur each year. Several types of high-risk HPV are responsible for the vast majority of cervical, anal, oropharyngeal (middle throat) and other genital cancers. The CDC also reports that each year in the U.S., 27,000 men and women are diagnosed with an HPV-related cancer, which amounts to a new case every 20 minutes. Even though many of these HPV-related cancers are preventable with a safe and effective vaccine, HPV vaccination rates across the U.S. remain low. Together we, a group of the National Cancer Institute (NCI)- designated Cancer Centers, recognize these low rates of HPV vaccination as a serious public health threat. HPV vaccination represents a rare opportunity to prevent many cases of cancer that is tragically underused. As national leaders in cancer research and clinical care, we are compelled to jointly issue this call to action. According to a 2015 CDC report, only 40 percent of girls and 21 percent of boys in the U.S. are receiving the recommended three doses of the HPV vaccine. This falls far short of the goal of 80 percent by the end of this decade, set forth by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s Healthy People 2020 mission. Furthermore, U.S. rates are significantly lower than those of countries such as [...]

Charlotte Parker2016-02-04T12:35:06-07:00February, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Japanese team invents movable tongue prosthesis to enable speech for cancer victims

Source: www.japantimes.co.jp Author: Tomoko Otake Dentistry researchers at Okayama University have come up with what could be the world’s first movable tongue prosthesis to help oral cancer patients who have partially lost the ability to speak. The invention, the product of a team led by Shogo Minagi, a professor of dentistry at the university, is good news for scores of oral cancer victims in Japan with speech problems. The number of oral cancer patients in the nation has surged to 7,800 in 2015, up from around 2,100 in 1975, according to estimates by the Japan Society of Oral Oncology. The figure does not include those with damaged tongues from traffic accidents and other physical injuries. Minagi’s work was inspired by Kenichi Kozaki, also a dentistry professor at Okayama University and an expert on dental pharmacology. Kozaki was diagnosed with tongue cancer in May 2014 and has had most of his tongue surgically removed. Kozaki asked Minagi to create a tongue prosthesis that he could use to speak. Minagi said he looked into tongue prostheses developed in the past but found just one paper in Japan, in which the artificial tongue was part of a denture and could not be moved. “Developing an oral prosthesis is a painstaking process for patients,” Minagi said by phone Monday. “This time, we could create a really good prosthesis quickly thanks to Kozaki, who is a dentist himself. He tried many different versions of the prosthesis and offered us detailed feedback.” When a person speaks, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-02-01T13:11:30-07:00February, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

HPV debate reframed to focus on cancer

January 27, 2016 By Dr. Rachel Tompa / Fred Hutch News Science U.S. cancer centers unanimously call for increase in vaccine use for cancer prevention. Amid recent talk of “moonshot” cancer cures and new treatments in development, it can be easy to forget that we already have an effective, simple way to prevent at least six types of cancer. It’s called the HPV vaccine and it protects people from infection with the strains of human papillomavirus responsible for causing nearly all cervical and anal cancers, as well as many other genital cancers and certain head and neck cancers. And it’s not getting used. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that all adolescent boys and girls receive the three-dose vaccine series at age 11 or 12. But in 2014, only about 40 percent of eligible teenage girls and just over 21 percent of boys had received the full course, according to the CDC’s latest data. Now, all 69 National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers are joining together to voice their frustration at the low uptake of the HPV vaccine — with the hope of refocusing the lens of the vaccination discussion on cancer prevention. Public debate about the vaccine — and, possibly, the low levels of vaccine use among adolescents — likely stems from the virus’ sexual transmission, said Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center virologist Dr. Denise Galloway. Galloway made critical discoveries linking HPV to cervical and other cancers and her laboratory helped lay the groundwork that made the vaccine’s [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-01-28T12:27:53-07:00January, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Cancer Centers urge increase in HPV vaccinations

Source: www.wsj.com Author: Ron Winslow The top cancer centers in the U.S. jointly called for an increase in vaccination against the human papilloma virus, or HPV, saying low uptake of the three-shot regimens amounts to a “public health threat” and a major missed opportunity to prevent a variety of potentially lethal malignancies. In a statement issued Wednesday, all 69 of the nation’s National Cancer Institute-designated centers urged parents and health-care providers to “protect the health of our children” by taking steps to have all boys and girls complete the three-dose vaccination by their 13th birthdays, as recommended by federal guidelines, or as soon as possible in children between 13 and 17 years old. Currently, just 40% of girls and 21% of boys in the U.S. have received the vaccine, according to a report last year by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Healthy People 2020 initiative has set the goal for HPV vaccination for both boys and girls at 80%. The first HPV vaccine, Merck & Co.’s Gardasil, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2006. A second version of Gardasil and GlaxoSmithKline PLC’s Cervarix are now on the market. Neither company was involved in development of the cancer centers’ statement, those involved in the effort said. The CDC estimates that 79 million Americans are infected with HPV, a sexually transmitted virus that causes 14 million new infections each year. While the body’s immune system fights off [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-01-27T09:29:37-07:00January, 2016|Oral Cancer News|