cancer – Oral Cancer News

Five Things To Look Out For In Cancer Research In 2019

Date: 12/28/18 Source: Forbes.com Author: Victoria Forster 2018 was a remarkable year for cancer research, with great strides made in diagnosing and treating various types of cancer as well as important breakthroughs looking at the health of cancer survivors. What can we expect to see from cancer research in 2019? As a cancer research scientist, here are the top five topics that I'll be looking out for. 1. Immunotherapy. Who will respond, who won't respond and why? Immunotherapy is now seemingly everywhere, with several therapies approved for various cancer types, including CAR T-cells and immune checkpoint inhibitors and several more in development such as tumor infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy. TILs successfully cleared all tumors from a woman with metastatic breast cancer, in a research breakthrough which was one of the most reported in 2018. Over 2,500 trials are now registered worldwide, but as the use of immunotherapy grows, there are still major questions to be answered. One particularly important to the use of immune-checkpoint blocking drugs such as those which target PD-1 or CTLA-4 is 'why do some patients respond whereas others do not?' Several research teams worldwide are currently grappling with this question, which is unlikely to have a single, clear answer, but I expect to see much more research published on this in 2019, which will hopefully start to benefit patients by identifying who will and won't respond to these expensive drugs. 2. Liquid biopsy tests. More clarity on precisely what they do and more evidence that they [...]

Charlotte Parker2019-01-02T13:07:21-07:00January, 2019|Oral Cancer News|

Why I tell Everyone I have HPV

Source: bustle.com Author: Emma McGowen I have HPV. Or, to be more accurate, I was diagnosed with HPV when I was 19 and found a little bump on my vulva in an area where there was no chance it could be an ingrown hair. The nurse at the health clinic at my college put acid on it, watched while it turned white, and told me it was definitely a wart. That was the one and only “outbreak” I’ve ever had, but it was enough for me to say, sure, I have HPV. And I’m not shy about telling people that. But I wasn’t always this chill about it. When I was diagnosed, I basically lost it. I fell right down the slut-shaming hole. I told myself that was “what I get” for sleeping around, and cycled through the usual you can never have sex again/HPV doesn’t go away/your vagina is going to be covered in hideous warts/YOU’RE A TERRIBLE PERSON thoughts that so many of us go through when we get an STI diagnosis. Mid-freak out, I called a close friend. “Oh yeah, I have it, too,” she said. I got the same response from a female family member. And that’s when I calmed down and realized — HPV isn’t a big deal. Or, at least, the type of HPV I have isn’t a big deal. What I didn’t know at the time of diagnosis — but learned with a little Googling and had reinforced since, in my training as [...]

Charlotte Parker2018-09-11T10:41:04-07:00September, 2018|Oral Cancer News|

DCD: Oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma now and most common HPV associated with cancer

In 2015, oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma surpassed cervical cancer as the most common HPV-associated cancer in the U.S., with 15,479 cases among men and 3,438 cases among women, according to data from the CDC published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The report also showed that rates of HPV-related anal squamous cell carcinoma and vulvar cancer increased over the past 15 years, whereas rates of HPV-related cervical cancer and vaginal squamous cell carcinoma decreased. “Although smoking is a risk factor for oropharyngeal cancers, smoking rates have been declining in the United States, and studies have indicated that the increase in oropharyngeal cancer is attributable to HPV,” Elizabeth A. Van Dyne, MD, epidemic intelligence services officer in division of cancer prevention and control at the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion of the CDC, and colleagues wrote. “In contrast to cervical cancer, there currently is no U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended screening for other HPV-associated cancers,” they added. The trends in HPV-related cancers report included data from 1999 to 2015 from cancer registries — CDC’s National Program of Cancer Registries and NCI’s SEER program — covering 97.8% of the U.S. population. The CDC reported 30,115 new cases of HPV-associated cancers in 1999 compared with 43,371 new cases in 2015. During the study period, researchers observed a 2.7% increase in rates of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma among men and a 0.8% increase among women. Rates of anal squamous cell carcinoma increased by 2.1% among men and 2.9% among [...]

Charlotte Parker2018-08-27T11:05:48-07:00August, 2018|Oral Cancer News|

Study: Cetuximab, radiation inferior to standard HPV throat cancer treatment

Source: upi.com Author: Allen Cone Treating HPV-positive throat cancer with cetuximab and radiation had worse overall and progression-free survival results compared with the current method of treatment with radiation and cisplatin, the National Institutes of Health revealed Tuesday. The trial, which was funded by the National Cancer Institute, was intended to test whether the combination would be less toxic than cisplatin but be just as effective for human papillomavirus-positive oropharyngeal cancer. The trial, which began in 2011, enrolled 849 patients at least 18 years old with the cancer to receive cetuximab or cisplatin with radiation. The trial is expected to finish in 2020. Cetuximab, which is manufactured under the brand name Erbitux by Eli Lilly, and cisplatin, which as sold as Platinol by Pfizer, are used in chemotherapy. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration had approved cetuximab with radiation for patients with head and neck cancer, including oropharyngeal cancer. HPV, which is transmitted through intimate skin-to-skin contact, is the leading cause of oropharynx cancers, which are the throat at the back of the mouth, including the soft palate, the base of the tongue and the tonsils. Most people at risk are white, non-smoking males age 35 to 55 -- including a 4-to-1 male ratio over females -- according to The Oral Cancer Foundation. The NIH released the trial results after an interim analysis showed that cetuximab with radiation wasn't as effective. In a median follow-up of 4.5 years, the test combination was found to be "significantly inferior" to the cisplatin [...]

Charlotte Parker2018-08-15T15:48:59-07:00August, 2018|Oral Cancer News|

HPV: The gender-neutral killer in need of prevention among men

Source: CNN Author: Dominic Rech In July 2014, Phil Rech, then 59, was diagnosed with tonsil cancer. "I had got a lump in my neck. I had the tonsils out, and within the next few days, I was having radical neck dissection," he said. "Then I had six weeks of intensive, targeted radiotherapy. The burning effect towards the end of the treatment became very painful." The therapy involved a radiotherapy mask, molded to the shape of his face, that went over his head as radiotherapy was beamed in, targeting the cancer. The discovery of his cancer not only startled him, it startled everyone who knew him. Phil is my dad, and to our family, he had always been healthy: He doesn't smoke, he rarely drinks alcohol, and he generally stays fairly fit. But that's not how cancer works. At the time of the diagnosis, Phil didn't question how or what could have caused his cancer, as he focused on getting better. Like many men in the UK and around the world, he wasn't aware of a group of viruses that were a threat, human papillomavirus or HPV, which were eventually connected to his cancer. "To discover it was linked to HPV was a massive shock," he said. "There was a lot of speculation over what could have caused it. To discover it was that, was certainly a surprise. I didn't really know it was a threat to me." A cancerous virus HPV is a group of 150 related viruses that [...]

Charlotte Parker2018-07-28T15:15:04-07:00July, 2018|OCF In The News|

Cancer: Can testosterone improve patients’ quality of life?

Source: Medical News Today Author: Maria Cohut Cachexia is a condition characterized by loss of body mass — including muscular atrophy — that is usually accompanied by severe weakness and fatigue. Many people who go through cancer experience this. Studies have noted that "[a]pproximately half of all patients with cancer experience cachexia," severely impairing their quality of life. It appears to be "responsible for the death of 22 [percent] of cancer patients." What exactly causes this condition — which appears in some patients but not in others — remains unclear, and options to manage and address it are scarce. But recently, researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston — led by Dr. Melinda Sheffield-Moore, from the Department of Health and Kinesiology — have been investigating the potential of administering testosterone in addition to chemotherapy in order to ameliorate the impact of cachexia. "We hoped to demonstrate these [cancer] patients [who received testosterone treatment] would go from not feeling well enough to even get out of bed to at least being able to have some basic quality of life that allows them to take care of themselves and receive therapy." Dr. Melinda Sheffield-Moore The researchers' findings — now published in the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle — confirm that administering testosterone to individuals experiencing cachexia can, in fact, improve their quality of life to some extent, by restoring some independence of movement. Adjuvant testosterone shows promise The most widely used approach to manage cachexia is special nutrition treatments, but [...]

Charlotte Parker2018-07-17T09:30:54-07:00July, 2018|OCF In The News|

Suicide Among Cancer Survivors — Highest Risk in HNC

Author: Roxanne Nelson, RN, BSN Source: MedScape.com Date: Feb. 20, 2018 ORLANDO, Florida — Head and neck cancer (HNC) accounts for only about 4% of new cancer cases in the United States, but the risk for suicide among survivors is significantly higher than for survivors of all other cancer types, with the exception of pancreatic cancer. "The risk of suicide is significantly elevated across cancer sites, and the risk is especially high among HNC and pancreatic cancer survivors," said Nosayaba Osazuwa-Peters, BDS, MPH, CHES, instructor, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, Missouri. "Cancer survivors are candidates for suicide-related psychosocial surveillance," he added. Cancer is the number 2 cause of death in the United States and accounts for 1 of every 4 deaths. Suicide is the tenth cause of death, independent of cancer. "If you add cancer to it, you get the perfect storm," he said. "Survivorship does come at a cost, and this is one of the more unfortunate costs of cancer survivorship," Osazuwa-Peters told delegates here at the Cancer Survivorship Symposium (CSS) Advancing Care and Research. Currently, there are more than 16 million survivors in the United States. The good news is that more people are surviving cancer, and there is now more focus on competing causes of death and comorbidities, he explained. There is also more focus on the increased risk for acute and late toxicities, which needs to be addressed as the rate of survival increases. Osazuwa-Peters pointed out that there [...]

Charlotte Parker2018-02-27T17:02:46-07:00February, 2018|Oral Cancer News|

Anti-smoking plan may kill cigarettes–and save Big Tobacco

Date: January 19, 2018 Author: Matthew Perrone Source: www.apnews.com WASHINGTON (AP) — Imagine if cigarettes were no longer addictive and smoking itself became almost obsolete; only a tiny segment of Americans still lit up. That’s the goal of an unprecedented anti-smoking plan being carefully fashioned by U.S. health officials. But the proposal from the Food and Drug Administration could have another unexpected effect: opening the door for companies to sell a new generation of alternative tobacco products, allowing the industry to survive — even thrive — for generations to come. The plan puts the FDA at the center of a long-standing debate over so-called “reduced-risk” products, such as e-cigarettes, and whether they should have a role in anti-smoking efforts, which have long focused exclusively on getting smokers to quit. “This is the single most controversial — and frankly, divisive — issue I’ve seen in my 40 years studying tobacco control policy,” said Kenneth Warner, professor emeritus at University of Michigan’s school of public health. The FDA plan is two-fold: drastically cut nicotine levels in cigarettes so that they are essentially non-addictive. For those who can’t or won’t quit, allow lower-risk products that deliver nicotine without the deadly effects of traditional cigarettes. US health officials are pushing ahead with an unprecedented plan to make cigarettes less addictive and provide lower-risk alternative products to US smokers. (Jan. 19) This month the government effort is poised to take off. The FDA is expected to soon begin what will likely be a years-long process [...]

Charlotte Parker2018-02-06T14:58:15-07:00January, 2018|Oral Cancer News|

HPV vaccine is safe, effective after 10 years: study

Author: AFP/RelaxNews Date: November 30, 2017 Source: Globalnews.ca New research looking into the long-term effects of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine has found it to be both safe and effective in protecting against the most virulent strains of the virus. Led by Dr. Daron G. Ferris, professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Medical College of Georgia and at the Georgia Cancer Center at Augusta University, the study is the longest followup to date on the vaccine, looking at data from 1,661 male and female participants who were followed for just under 10 years. Of these participants, around two-thirds received a three-dose regimen of the vaccine when they were ages nine to 15 and sexually inactive. Initially about one-third received a placebo — not a vaccine — however, the placebo group also received the vaccine 30 months into the study, meaning that these individuals were followed a shorter period of time. Ferris found that the vaccine was virtually 100 per cent effective in preventing the disease, although vaccinating earlier produced the most robust initial and long-term antibody response, the proteins found in the blood which help fight infection. “We needed to answer questions like if we vaccinate earlier in life, will it last,” explained Ferris, “The answer is yes, this cancer prevention vaccine is working incredibly well 10 years later. A booster vaccine likely will not be needed by these young people. I think now we have come full circle.” The new finding also supports previous research which suggests that [...]

Charlotte Parker2017-12-03T14:03:35-07:00November, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

Superseed? Apricot kernels, touted as cancer cure, linked to cyanide poisoning

Author: Catherine Solyom Date: November 22, 2017 Source: flipboard.com Brendan Brogan had just returned from a shopping trip on the Plateau laden with exotic snacks. On a visit to Montreal from California, he stood in the doorway of his buddy Mike Guetta’s room, munching away on something as they discussed the absurdities of the day. Then Guetta looked up. “Those better not be almonds,” he said. “You know I’m allergic to those.” “No, no,” Brogan replied, “I would never do that. These are apricot pits.” “What?!? Don’t eat those! They’re poisonous!” Brogan pooh-poohed the warning, arguing the kernels were organic and he’d bought them at the health food store. “Look! It’s the superseed of the Hunza people, with Vitamin B17!” Then he turned the bag over and read the fine print. His face went grey: “Caution: Do not consume more than 2-3 kernels per day. Keep out of the reach of children. Pregnant and nursing women should not consume apricot kernels. Health Canada warns that eating too many apricot kernels can lead to acute cyanide poisoning.” After a quick call to poison control, Brogan rushed to the nearest emergency room. He had eaten a third of the bag. Apricot kernels, like cherry pits and apple seeds, contain a product called amygdalin, also known as laetrile and marketed as Vitamin B17. Bitter apricot kernels — the pits of the pits — are widely available in Montreal health food stores, including at Rachelle-Béry branches across the city, where Brogan bought some. They are [...]

Charlotte Parker2018-02-06T14:58:38-07:00November, 2017|Oral Cancer News|