alcohol

Mouth cancer rates soar over 20 years

Source: www.sciencedaily.com Author: staff A new Cancer Research UK analysis reveals that rates of mouth (oral) cancer have jumped by 68 per cent1 in the UK over the last 20 years. The figures -- released during Mouth Cancer Action Month -- reveal the cancer is on the rise for men and women, young and old, climbing from eight to 13 cases per 100,000 people over the last two decades. For men under 50, the rate has jumped by 67 per cent in the last 20 years2 -- going up from around 340 cases to around 640 cases each year. For men aged 50 and over, rates have increased by 59 per cent climbing from around 2,100 cases to around 4,400 cases annually. Oral cancer is more common in men, but there have been similar increases women3. In women under 50, oral cancer rates have risen by 71 per cent in the last 20 years, with annual cases climbing from around 160 to around 300. Rates for women over 50 have also gone up by 71 per cent, with cases increasing from around 1,100 to around 2,200. Around nine in 10 cases are linked to lifestyle and other risk factors. Smoking is the biggest avoidable risk factor, linked to an estimated 65 per cent of cases. Other risk factors include alcohol, diets low in fruit and vegetables, and infections with the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). Oral cancers include cancer of the lips, tongue, mouth (gums and palate), tonsils and the middle [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-11-29T07:10:47-07:00November, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

For this cancer, ‘stage 4’ isn’t as bad as it sounds

Source: www.omaha.com Author: Steve Hendrix - The Washington Post Hearing the word "cancer" in a doctor's office is bad enough. Hearing "stage 4" invokes even more dread. When I learned I had stage 4 HPV-related oral cancer, I didn't know exactly what it meant, but I knew there wasn't a stage 5. Doctors use the standardized staging system to describe the location, size and extent of a cancer and its spread throughout the body. Using data on the treatment and survivability of each particular kind of cancer, clinicians combine these factors to produce a number from stage 1 (a small tumor confined to one spot) to stage 4 (a cancer that has spread, either to a single adjacent lymph node or to distant organs). My cancer was stage 4A, a small tumor at the base of my tongue that had spread to a single lymph node in my neck. My doctor immediately tried to soften the blow. There were problems with the staging rules as they applied to this kind of cancer, he said. HPV oropharyngeal cancers, while potentially fatal, were far more treatable than other oral cancers, particularly the ones related to tobacco and alcohol use that were used to define the staging standards. He was right. A study published in the Lancet early this year found that the current guidelines lead to needless panic for the newly diagnosed. "At the present time, most patients with HPV+ oropharyngeal cancer are told they have (stage 4) disease, but the reality [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-11-21T10:00:30-07:00November, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

HPV and mouth cancer

Source: www.hippocraticpost.com Author: Thea Jourdan Mouth cancer kills nearly 2000 people in the UK each year. The Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) of which there are over 100 different types, is more commonly associated with cervical cancer and genital warts, but it can also cause oral cancer, particularly of the back of the tongue and tonsils. The virus incorporates itself into the cell’s DNA and causes the cell to multiply out of control, leading to cancer. In Britain, the number of mouth and throat cancers have increased by 40 per cent in just a decade, to 6,200 cases a year. According to Cancer Research UK, the HPV virus, which is transmitted to the mouth region from the genitals during oral sex, may be key to the ‘rapid rise’. Statistics also show that the more sexual partners you have the greater your chance of acquiring mouth cancer. “There is now scientific evidence that a proportion of mouth and throat cancers are linked to HPV infection,” says Hazel Nunn, head of health information at Cancer Research UK. “We know that HPV is found in the mouth but we do not yet know how it gets there – whether through oral sex or otherwise. HPV virus has been found on the fingers and elsewhere on the body. It is possible that oral sex is having an impact but more research needs to be done into the kinds of behaviour that leads to this infection.” “HPV has been causing mouth cancer for decades but the [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-11-07T08:10:14-07:00November, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

The startling rise in oral cancer in men, and what it says about our changing sexual habits

Source: www.washingtonpost.com Author: Ariana Eunjung Cha Oral cancer is on the rise in American men, with health insurance claims for the condition jumping 61 percent from 2011 to 2015, according to a new analysis. The most dramatic increases were in throat cancer and tongue cancer, and the data show that claims were nearly three times as common in men as in women during that same period with a split of 74 percent to 26 percent. The startling numbers — published in a report on Tuesday by FAIR Health an independent nonprofit — are based on a database of more than 21 billion privately billed medical and dental claims. They illustrate both the cascading effect of human papillomavirus (HPV) in the United States and our changing sexual practices. The American Cancer Society estimates that nearly 50,000 Americans will be infected this year, with 9,500 dying from the disease. In past generations, oral cancer was mostly linked to smoking, alcohol use or a combination of the two. But even as smoking rates have fallen, oral cancer rates have remained about the same, and researchers have documented in recent studies that this may be caused by HPV. HPV infects cells of the skin and the membranes that lines areas such as the mouth, throat, tongue, tonsils, rectum and sexual organs. Transmission can occur when these areas come into contact with the virus. HPV is a leading cause of cervical, vaginal and penile cancers. Surveys have shown that younger men are more likely to [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-10-26T08:15:03-07:00October, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Forgotten patients: New guidelines help those with head-and-neck cancers

Source: www.fredhutch.org Author: Diane Mapes and Sabrina Richards Stigma, isolation and medical complexity may keep patients from getting all the care they need; recommendations aim to change that. Like many cancer patients, Jennifer Giesel has side effects from treatment. There’s the neuropathy in her hands, a holdover from chemo. There’s jaw stiffness from her multiple surgeries: an emergency intubation when she couldn’t breathe due to the golf ball-sized tumor on her larynx and two follow-up surgeries to remove the cancer. And then there’s hypothyroidism and xerostomia, or dry mouth, a result of the 35 radiation treatments that beat back the cancer but destroyed her salivary glands and thyroid. “I went to my primary care doctor a couple of times and mentioned the side effects,” said the 41-year-old laryngeal cancer patient from Cleveland, who was diagnosed two years ago. “She was great but she didn’t seem too knowledgeable about what I was telling her. She was like, ‘Oh really?’ It was more like she was learning from me.” Patients like Giesel should have an easier time communicating their unique treatment side effects to health care providers with the recent release of new head-and-neck cancer survivorship guidelines. Created by a team of experts in oncology, primary care, dentistry, psychology, speech pathology, physical therapy and rehabilitation (with input from patients and nurses), the guidelines are designed to help primary care physicians and other health practitioners without expertise in head-and-neck cancer better understand the common side effects resulting from its treatment. The goal is [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-04-11T07:48:09-07:00April, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

A small revolution in cancer treatment by Belarusian and U.S. scientists

Source: http://eng.belta.by/ Author: Igor Belotserkovsky Scientists from Belarus and the United States have developed a new method for detecting residual cancer cells. This method also contributes to their destruction. This is done with the help of nanobubbles generated in some cancer cells. The method was successfully tested on laboratory mice with implanted head and neck cancer cells. Although scientists are only at the beginning of the road, they call their discovery a small revolution in the fight against cancer. The results of the research titled “Intraoperative diagnostics and elimination of residual microtumors with plasmonic nanobubbles” was published in the prestigious science journal Nature Nanotechnology on 15 February. To learn more about the successes of oncologists, BelTA talked to Igor Belotserkovsky, PhD in Medical Sciences, one of the authors of the research, the leader of the head and neck tumor research team at the Aleksandrov National Cancer Center. Mr Belotserkovsky, what is the share of head and neck tumors in the structure of other localizations? In the total structure of oncological morbidity, the share of head and neck tumors is 3-4% (excluding skin cancer). Larynx and oral cavity cancer are diagnosed most frequently. For example, in 2014 laryngeal cancer was detected in 604 Belarusians, oro-pharyngo-laryngeal cancer in 1,338 people. Men fall ill ten times more often. Despite the fact that head and neck cancers are categorized as tumors of outside localization, many patients with cancer have their disease diagnosed when it has already reached an advanced stage. This is due to [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-02-18T14:45:09-07:00February, 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|

For the war against oral cancer, what’s in your arsenal?

Source: www.dentistryiq.com Author: Dennis M. Abbott, DDS The face of oral cancer has changed: No longer is oral cancer a disease isolated to men over 60 years of age with a long history of smoking and alcohol consumption. Today, the demographic for the disease includes younger people of both sexes with no history of deleterious social habits who are otherwise healthy and active. It spans all socioeconomic, racial, religious, and societal lines. In other words, oral and oropharyngeal cancer is an equal opportunity killer. Today, as you read this article, 24 people in the US will lose their battles with oral cancer. That is one person for each hour of the day, every day of the year. Each of those lost is someone’s sister, a father’s son, a small child’s mommy, or maybe even a person you hold dear to your heart. The truth is, oral and oropharyngeal cancer has several faces . . . and each of those faces is a human being, just like you and me. So how can we, as dental professionals, be instrumental in the war against oral and head and neck cancer? Views of the oropharynx, the base of the tongue, and the epiglottis, taken with the Iris HD USB 3.0 intraoral camera using different points of focus. Photos courtesy of the author. The answer, as with most other cancers, lies in early detection. When oral and oropharyngeal cancer is detected early, the five-year survival rate can be as high as 80% [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2015-07-22T05:02:02-07:00July, 2015|Oral Cancer News|

DNA shed from head and neck tumors detected in blood and saliva

Source: www.medicalexpress.comAuthor: Wang et al., Science Translational Medicine (2015) Schematic showing the shedding of tumor DNA from head and neck cancers into the saliva or plasma. Tumors from various anatomic locations shed DNA fragments containing tumor-specific mutations and human papillomavirus DNA into the saliva or the circulation. The detectability of tumor DNA in the saliva varied with anatomic location of the tumor, with the highest sensitivity for oral cavity cancers. The detectability in plasma varied much less in regard to the tumor’s anatomic location. Credit: Wang et al., Science Translational Medicine (2015) On the hunt for better cancer screening tests, Johns Hopkins scientists led a proof of principle study that successfully identified tumor DNA shed into the blood and saliva of 93 patients with head and neck cancer. A report on the findings is published in the June 24 issue of Science Translational Medicine. "We have shown that tumor DNA in the blood or saliva can successfully be measured for these cancers," says Nishant Agrawal, M.D., associate professor of otolaryngology—head and neck surgery—and of oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "In our study, testing saliva seemed to be the best way to detect cancers in the oral cavity, and blood tests appeared to find more cancers in the larynx, hypopharynx and oropharynx. However, combining blood and saliva tests may offer the best chance of finding cancer in any of those regions." Agrawal explains that inborn genetic predispositions for most head and neck cancers are rare, but [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2015-06-25T16:43:35-07:00June, 2015|Oral Cancer News|

Researchers ID potential prognostic marker for recurrence of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Source: medicalxpress.com Author: press release A new study provides the first evidence that the mediator complex subunit 15 (MED15) may play a crucial role in the pathophysiology of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). MED15 overexpression was found to be associated with higher mortality rates in HNSCC patients with cancer recurrence, particularly in oral cavity/oropharyngeal tumors, according to the study published in The American Journal of Pathology. MED15 overexpression was also associated with heavy alcohol consumption, which is an HNSCC risk factor. HNSCC is the sixth most common cancer worldwide and has a high rate of recurrence and early metastatic disease, resulting in approximately 350,000 deaths each year. "Our findings suggest that MED15 may serve as a prognostic marker for HNSCC recurrence and as a therapeutic target in HNSCC patients suffering from recurrences," said lead investigator Sven Perner, MD, PhD, of the Department of Prostate Cancer Research, Institute of Pathology, and the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at the University Hospital of Bonn (Germany). Mediator is a multiprotein complex that regulates many signaling pathways. In humans, it consists of 30 subunits including MED15, which has been implicated in breast and prostate cancer, with particular attention being given to its link to transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) signaling. "The evidence that multiple aberrant pathways account for the progression of HNSCC calls for a much deeper understanding of the effect of molecules involved in these signaling pathways upon HNSCC progression," noted Dr. Perner. To investigate the role of MED15 in HNSCC, the researchers analyzed tissues from 113 patients [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2015-03-23T06:29:12-07:00March, 2015|Oral Cancer News|