Oral Cancer News – Page 94 – The Oral Cancer Foundation News Archive

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|

Rodeo Insider: Cowboy takes it on himself to ride home a message

Source: www.star-telegram.comAuthor: Brett Hoffman Bronc rider Cody Kiser is trying to encourage cowboys to abstain from tobacco. Richard W. Rodriguez Star-Telegram In a day when rodeo riders are approaching the sport from an athletic standpoint more than ever, there’s a heavier emphasis on physical fitness and many competitors are taking a closer look at abstaining from substances such as alcohol and tobacco. One cowboy attempting to send a message about abstaining from frequent tobacco consumption is bareback bronc rider Cody Kiser. “A lot of these cowboys don’t smoke or chew, and if they do, it’s really rare,” Kiser said. “A lot of the guys consider themselves as athletes. So they want to keep their bodies at an optimum performance and they don’t want to do anything that would break them down.” When the Fort Worth Stock Show conducted the opening performance of its 16-day Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association show on Friday, Kiser turned in a bareback score of 80, the highest marking of the night. As he competed in the renowned rodeo, Kiser wore a patch on his shirt that said: “Oral Cancer Foundation.” The foundation’s website lists Kiser and a spokesman and states: “The western/rodeo environment has had a long-term relationship with tobacco, and until 2009 the PRCA had a lengthy history of tobacco sponsorship money. While that has ended, tobacco use, and smokeless/spit tobaccos still thrive in the sport. While adults have the right to make any lifestyle choice, they inadvertently expose impressionable young people to what [...]

Charlotte Parker2016-01-26T15:26:25-07:00January, 2016|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

HPV vaccines: Research on safety, racial disparities in vaccination rates and male participation

Source: journalistsresource.us1.list-manage.com Author: staff Since it became available in the United States in 2006, the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine has been a source of debate, with proponents lauding it as a substantial gain in the fight against cancer, and opponents concerned with its implications for sexual activity among youth. With the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s recent approval of Gardasil-9 — a vaccine that protects against nine of the most common strains of HPV that account for approximately 90 percent of cervical, vulvar, vaginal and anal cancers — there is both a renewed interest and concern that calls for a nuanced and comprehensive review of the science. HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States, with nearly all sexually active men and women believed to contract at least one form of it during their lifetime. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an estimated 79 million Americans have HPV, and about 14 million become newly infected annually. While most infections clear the body within two years, some can persist and result in genital warts, cervical cancer or other types of cancers in men and women. Of the many HPV strains that exist, HPV types 16 and 18 have been identified as high risk, accounting for about 70 percent of all cervical cancer, as well as a large proportion of other HPV-related cancers. While cervical cancer was previously a leading cause of death among women in the U.S., death rates declined substantially after [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-01-26T15:17:35-07:00January, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

New pen-sized microscope could ID cancer cells in doctor’s offices and operating rooms

Source: www.sciencecodex.com Author: staff Surgeons removing a malignant brain tumor don't want to leave cancerous material behind. But they're also trying to protect healthy brain matter and minimize neurological harm. Once they open up a patient's skull, there's no time to send tissue samples to a pathology lab -- where they are typically frozen, sliced, stained, mounted on slides and investigated under a bulky microscope -- to definitively distinguish between cancerous and normal brain cells. But a handheld, miniature microscope being developed by University of Washington mechanical engineers could allow surgeons to "see" at a cellular level in the operating room and determine where to stop cutting. The new technology, developed in collaboration with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Stanford University and the Barrow Neurological Institute, is outlined in a paper published in January in the journal Biomedical Optics Express. "Surgeons don't have a very good way of knowing when they're done cutting out a tumor," said senior author Jonathan Liu, UW assistant professor of mechanical engineering. "They're using their sense of sight, their sense of touch, pre-operative images of the brain -- and oftentimes it's pretty subjective." "Being able to zoom and see at the cellular level during the surgery would really help them to accurately differentiate between tumor and normal tissues and improve patient outcomes," said Liu. The handheld microscope, roughly the size of a pen, combines technologies in a novel way to deliver high-quality images at faster speeds than existing devices. Researchers expect to begin testing it [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-01-26T15:10:41-07:00January, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Celine Dion’s husband René Angélil dies following long battle with throat cancer

Source: www.mirror.co.uk Author: Zoe Shenton Celine Dion’s husband René Angélil has died at the age of 73. René, who acted as a mentor and manager to Celine, had been battling throat cancer since 2013 but lost the fight on Thursday morning. “Rene Angelil, 73, passed away this morning as his home in Las Vegas after a long and courageous battle against cancer. The family requests that their privacy be respected at the moment; more details will be provided at a later time," his representative told People in a statement. René had been undergoing treatment for the disease, but his struggle was very difficult on Celine as well as the pair’s three children - 14-year-old son, Rene, and five-year-old fraternal twins Eddy and Nelson. RIP: René Angélil had been battling cancer since 2013 He also has three grown up children from a previous relationship - Anne-Marie, Patrick and Jean-Pierre. Celine took a break from her residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace Las Vegas Hotel and Casino last year when René’s illness worsened, but returned to the stage in August. She previously revealed it was her spirituality that has helped her to cope during her spouse’s health struggles. Speaking to Taste of Life magazine, Celine - who was raised a Roman Catholic - revealed: "Life is not always perfect. You have to deal with it. Whatever life imposes - sickness, or whatever, you don't have a choice. This is life, this is nature. "But you do have the choice [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-01-15T14:11:11-07:00January, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Expanded age indication cleared for Gardasil 9 in males

Source: www.FormularyJournal.ModernMedicine.comAuthor: Erin Bastick FDA approved an expanded age indication for Human Papillomavirus 9-valent Vaccine, Recombinant (Gardasil 9, Merck) in males. Seven HPV types in Gardasil 9 (HPV 16, 18, 31, 33, 45, 52, and 58) cause approximately 90% to 95% of HPV-related anal cancers, 90% of cervical cancers, and 80% of high-grade cervical lesions worldwide.These 7 types also cause the majority of HPV-related vulvar and vaginal cancers. Gardasil 9 includes the greatest number of HPV (Human Papillomavirus) types of any available HPV vaccine. Gardasil 9 was previously approved for use in girls and young women aged 9 to 26 years for the prevention of cervical, vulvar, vaginal, and anal cancers caused by HPV 16, 18, 31, 33, 45, 52, and 58, precancerous or dysplastic lesions caused by HPV 6, 11, 16, 18, 31, 22, 45, 52, and 58, and genital warts caused by HPV types 6 and 11. As for use in male patients, the vaccine was previously approved for use in boys aged 9 to 15 years for the prevention of anal cancer caused by HPV types 16, 18, 31, 33, 45, 52, and 58, precancerous or dysplastic lesions caused by HPV types 6, 11, 16, 18, 31, 33, 45, 52, and 58. With the newest approval, Gardasil 9 is now also indicated for use in males aged 16 to 26 years for the prevention of these diseases. According to the CDC, HPV vaccination rates are unacceptably low compared to rates for other adolescent vaccines, and vaccination coverage in [...]

Charlotte Parker2015-12-30T18:31:17-07:00December, 2015|Oral Cancer News|

Depressed Head and Neck Cancer Patients Have Lower Survival and Higher Recurrence Risk

Source: www.OncologyNurseAdvisor.comAuthor: Kathy Boltz, PhD Depression is a significant predictor of 5-year survival and recurrence in patients with head and neck cancer, according to a new study published in Pyschosomatic Medicine (doi: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000000256). These findings represent one of the largest studies to report on the impact of depression on cancer survival. Although depression can have obvious detrimental effects on a person's quality of life, its impact on cancer patients is more apparent, explained lead author Eileen Shinn, PhD, assistant professor of Behavioral Science at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston. Increasing evidence shows modest associations between elevated symptoms of depression and greater risk for mortality among patients with lung, breast, ovarian, and kidney cancers. The research team sought to clarify the influence of depression on survival, focusing their analysis on a single cancer type. By limiting the sample set and adjusting for factors known to affect outcome, such as age, tumor size, and previous chemotherapy, they were able to uncover a more profound impact of depression. The researchers followed 130 patients at MD Anderson with newly diagnosed oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), a type of cancer in which the tumor originates at the back of the throat and base of the tongue. At the beginning of their radiation therapy, Patients completed a validated questionnaire at the beginning of their radiation therapy to identify symptoms of clinical depression. Researchers monitored the participants, all of whom completed treatment, until their last clinic visit or death, a median period of [...]

Charlotte Parker2015-12-30T18:15:58-07:00December, 2015|Oral Cancer News|

E-cigarettes may be ‘no better’ than smoking regular cigarettes, warn scientists

Source: www.independent.ie Author: staff According to a new study, the vapour from the electronic devices was shown to damage or even kill human cells during lab tests. The research comes as UK public health officials and Prime Minister David Cameron backed the use of e-cigarettes to help people quit smoking. An estimated 2.6 million people in the UK use e-cigarettes. They are to be licensed and regulated as an aid to quit smoking from 2016. Dr Jessica Wang-Rodriguez, co-author of the latest study, said: "Based on the evidence to date I believe they are no better than smoking regular cigarettes." The scientists treated cells in Petri dishes with vapour from a nicotine-based e-cigarette and a nicotine-free variety and found that the cells which had been exposed to the vapour were more likely to become damaged or die than those that had not. Those containing nicotine were also said to be more harmful than those that did not, although the authors said it may not be as a result of the addictive substance. Dr Wang-Rodriguez, chief of pathology at the San Diego branch of the US Department of Veteran Affairs, added: "There have been many studies showing that nicotine can damage cells. But we found that other variables can do damage as well. It's not that the nicotine is completely innocent in the mix, but it looks like the amount of nicotine that the cells are exposed to by e-cigarettes is not sufficient by itself to cause these changes. "There must [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2015-12-30T08:51:54-07:00December, 2015|Oral Cancer News|

Poison’s Rikki Rockett Reveals He Is Battling Oral Cancer

Source: www.loudwire.comAuthor: Chad Childers Poison drummer Rikki Rockett revealed during an appearance on the Eddie Trunk Live radio show that he’s completed nine rounds of chemotherapy and seven weeks of radiation treatments after being diagnosed with oral cancer this past summer and that he’ll find out in February if the treatments were successful. Rockett told Trunk (as transcribed by Blabbermouth), “[In] June, I kind of got sick. I had this horrible cold, sore-throat thing, and they were scoping me and they were doing biopsies, and nothing was coming up. And finally a doctor at USC did a biopsy and took a look and he said, ‘I believe you have oral cancer.’ And what it was is a tumor at the base of my tongue … This is very similar to Bruce Dickinson, very similar to Michael Douglas, similar to Tom Hamilton, as far as I know; I don’t know the details of his. And two adjacent lymph nodes that it kind of … Normally, it does spread to the lymph nodes; that’s typical. That’s how you find out you have it ninety percent of the time.” According to the Rockett, his doctor told him that it was a very treatable cancer, but was “a son of a bitch to treat.” He was then told that he would either have to undergo radiation and chemotherapy at the same time or undergo surgery, but even if he chose the latter, he might still have to do radiation and chemotherapy. Rockett revealed that it [...]

Charlotte Parker2015-12-15T16:23:53-07:00December, 2015|Oral Cancer News|

Cancer treatment: New method helps white blood cells fight tumors

Source: www.hngn.com Author: Tyler MacDonald The clinical trial for a groundbreaking cancer treatment that engineers the immune system to better fight the disease is now taking place at the National Institute for Health Research and King's College London, according to The Guardian. The patients, who have head and neck cancer, are receiving genetic modifications that help their white blood cells recognize and attack tumorous growths. Although white blood cells are naturally equipped to eliminate unnecessary and infected cells, they sometimes need help to combat cancer cells. The team of scientists is taking blood samples and treating the white blood cells with a virus that introduces two new genes - the first makes cell growth in the laboratory easier, and the second helps the white blood cells identify and attack tumors. "In most cancers, metastasis, the spread of a disease from the part of the body where it started to another not directly connected, is the commonest cause of death," said John Maher, principal investigator of the trial. "However, head and neck cancer is unusual in that local spread or recurrence of the disease accounts for most suffering and death. This means that tumours may become inoperable and do not shrink in response to traditional treatments such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy." The treatment is called a CAT T-cell and takes two weeks to create; once produced, it is injected directly into the patient's tumor and helps white blood cells in their attack, according to The Scientist. Although the treatment works best [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2015-12-13T09:13:29-07:00December, 2015|Oral Cancer News|