carcinogens – Page 2 – Oral Cancer News

Strong Oral Carcinogen Identified in Smokeless Tobacco

Source: ScienceDaily.com Although smokeless tobacco products have long been linked with certain cancers, including oral cavity cancers and esophageal cancers, this is the first study to identify a specific chemical present in smokeless tobacco products that induces oral cancer in animals, according to Silvia Balbo, Ph.D., research associate at the Masonic Cancer Center of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minn. "(S)-NNN is the only chemical in smokeless tobacco known to cause oral cancer," Balbo said. "This finding provides mechanistic underpinning for the epidemiologic observations that smokeless tobacco products cause oral cancer." Balbo and colleagues administered two forms of NNN called (S)-NNN and (R)-NNN to four groups of 24 rats. The rats were given either (S)-NNN alone, (R)-NNN alone, a combination of both or tap water. The total dose was approximately equivalent to the amount of (S)-NNN to which a smokeless tobacco user would be exposed from chronic use of these products. All rats assigned to (S)-NNN alone or the combination began losing weight after one year of exposure and died by 17 months. Rats assigned to (R)-NNN or tap water were terminated at 20 months. All rats assigned to (S)-NNN had esophageal tumors and demonstrated 100 percent incidence of oral tumors including tumors of the tongue, buccal mucosa, soft palate and pharynx. In contrast, researchers found oral tumors in only five of 24 rats given (R)-NNN and esophageal tumors in three of 24 rats assigned to (R)-NNN. Twelve rats given the combination of (S)-NNN and (R)-NNN had 153 esophageal [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-04-02T16:22:05-07:00April, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

U.S. Government rolls out new teen anti-smoking program

Source:EmaxHealth.com As 2012 draws nigh, many smokers will make yet another resolution to quit smoking. However, in a matter of days or weeks, many of them will be puffing away. Many of these smokers have damaged their health from the habit with ailments including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer, and throat cancer. One group of smokers is not yet afflicted with those ailments and would benefit the most from quitting: teen smokers. Unfortunately, however, research suggests most of those teens will keep smoking and some light smokers will become heavy smokers. According to current estimates, 19% of U.S. teens are smokers by the 12th grade. To address this issue, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) is introducing a new smoking-cessation program focused on teens. At present, a Website has been developed (teen.smokefree.gov) and texting support is available. In January 2012, the NCI will add a smartphone application. The program joins others with the same aim: Helping teen smokers quit before they become chronic adult smokers. For example, on September 1, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius published an opinion in the Washington Post in which she pointed out the national problem of teen smoking. A new study by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), released on December 14, reported that smoking had declined among U.S. teens. Countering that bit of good news was that one out of every 15 high school students smoked marijuana on a regular basis. Smoked marijuana and smoked tobacco are chemically very similar; [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-12-28T10:53:32-07:00December, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

CU Med School prof seeing red over wine benefit study

Source: www.aurorasentinel.com Author: Sara Castellanos There’s a reason Robert Sclafani always chooses red wine over white wine, and it’s not just because he thinks it tastes better. Sclafani, a professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at the University of Colorado’s School of Medicine, prefers the darker of the two wines because of its health benefits. Red wine contains much more of a compound called resveratrol, found in the skin of grapes and also in peanuts and leeks. Sclafani and his colleagues are currently testing the effects of resveratrol on mice, and this month he received encouraging news from overseas that resveratrol can have health benefits for obese humans. “There are a number of studies in animals where you can take an animal like a mouse and give it cancer by treating it with carcinogens or manipulating the genes in mice so they’ll get cancer,” Sclafani said. “If you treat the animal with resveratrol, it blunts the effect; they either get less cancers, cancers never develop or they never go anywhere.” Here’s how it works: resveratrol causes damage to the DNA in cancer cells, he said. “We think that’s the Achilles heel,” he said. The compound has been known to have positive effects for more than a decade, but on Nov. 2, a group of scientists in the Netherlands showed for the first time that it can have health benefits in obese humans. Eleven obese but healthy men had taken a relatively low dose of the compound daily for a month, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-11-20T09:52:00-07:00November, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

A step toward a saliva test for cancer

Source: www.sciencedaily.com Author: staff A new saliva test can measure the amount of potential carcinogens stuck to a person's DNA -- interfering with the action of genes involved in health and disease -- and could lead to a commercial test to help determine risks for cancer and other diseases, scientists reported in Denver during the 242nd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS). "The test measures the amount of damaged DNA in a person's body," said Professor Hauh-Jyun Candy Chen, Ph.D., who led the research team. "This is very important because such damaged DNA -- we call this 'DNA adducts' -- is a biomarker that may help doctors diagnose diseases, monitor how effective a treatment is and also recommend things high-risk patients can do to reduce the chances of actually getting a disease," said Chen. The research team is at National Chung Cheng University (NCCU) in Taiwan. "We tried urine and blood and found these adducts. Then we turned our attention to saliva. It's much more convenient to collect a sample of saliva." A DNA adduct forms when a potentially cancer-causing substance is chemically attached to a strand of DNA, which makes up genes. People come into contact with such substances in the environment, certain workplaces and through everyday activities. Cigarette smoke, for instance, contains at least 20 known cancer-causing substances. When such a substance binds to DNA, it changes the DNA so that genes may not work normally. Our body has a built-in repair system that [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-09-02T19:27:30-07:00September, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

New Smokeless Tobacco from Sweden is Gaining Popularity in the US

Source: DrugFree.org A type of smokeless tobacco popular in Sweden called snus is growing in popularity in the United States. While most recognize that it is a safer alternative to cigarettes or older forms of smokeless tobacco, others are concerned that it will attract young people, becoming a steppingstone to cigarettes, says a researcher who spoke this week at the Smokeless Tobacco Summit in Austin, TX. There is also concern that smokers may use snus in places where they can’t smoke, which will encourage them to keep smoking instead of quitting, says Lois Biener, PhD, Adjunct Professor, Department of Psychology at the University Of Massachusetts – Boston and Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Survey Research, University Of Massachusetts – Boston. Snus (pronounced snoos) was first introduced in several U.S. test markets in 2006, and has been available nationwide since 2009. It is sold under several brands including Marlboro Snus and Camel Snus. The product is different from other types of smokeless tobacco in several important ways, Dr. Biener says. Snus is manufactured using a process that makes it lower in carcinogens called tobacco-specific nitrosamines. Snus also doesn’t stimulate saliva the way that snuff does and thus doesn’t require spitting. A person using snus puts a small pouch filled with the product between the lip and the gum. Dr. Biener’s research has shown that the primary group of snus users in the United States is male smokers. “There is very little trial of the product among females and virtually [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-05-16T11:25:33-07:00May, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Star Scientific – filed application with U.S. FDA for approval to market a moist-snuff product

Source: snus-news.blogspot.com Author: staff Star Scientific, Inc. filed an application yesterday, February 2nd with the U.S. Food & Administration (FDA) for approval to market a moist-snuff product, Stonewall Moist-BDL™, as a modified-risk tobacco product (MRTP). The company believes that this is the first application filed with the FDA for approval of a tobacco product in a longstanding market segment. The data submitted in the application to the Center for Tobacco Products at FDA document TSNA levels in Stonewall Moist-BDL™ that are below limits of detection, or "BDL", by current standards of measure. Recent findings in the form of test results from an independent international laboratory validate the extraordinarily low levels in recently submitted samples of Stonewall Moist-BDL™, which the company believes are the lowest found anywhere in the world. The company pointed out that this application is particularly significant in two ways. First, moist snuff product sales accounted for roughly 75% of the total smokeless tobacco market in 2009. Moist snuff sales increased from 31,500 metric tons and $3.3 billion in 2004 to 37,990 metric tons and $4.64 billion in 2009 – an average annual growth rate of roughly 4%, and a 41% overall increase in sales over the six-year period. The moist snuff market segment has been well established for many decades, and is one of the oldest tobacco product categories in the United States. Second, tobacco-specific nitrosamine (TSNA) levels among the moist snuff products with the largest sales volume in 2009 averaged over 10,000 parts per billion in [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-02-06T08:36:25-07:00February, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

New snuff low in carcinogens, Virginia company says

Source: www2.journalnow.com Author: Richard Craver A small tobacco manufacturer in Richmond, Va., said Tuesday that it has developed a moist-snuff product that has the lowest levels of carcinogens — in this case nitrosamines — in the marketplace. That includes "99 percent lower than the levels found in conventional American moist snuffs, such as Copenhagen or Skoal, and 90 percent less than the level found in current snus products," the company said. Star Scientific Inc. plans to apply soon to the Food and Drug Administration for permission to market the product, part of its Stonewall brand, as "modified risk" under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009. That act gave the FDA the regulatory control over new tobacco products. Star applied last year to market its Ariva and Stonewell lozenges as modified risk. "Our company's belief and hope is that the FDA will give a robust look at the science of our application and other reduced-risk applications," said Sara Machir, the vice president of communications and investor relations for Star. The request is likely to stoke further debate between two sets of anti-smoking groups. One set says smokeless tobacco serves as gateway products for teenagers to cigarettes and discourages users from quitting. The other set says the products are a way to reduce the risk of tobacco use compared with cigarettes. Scott Ballin, the past chairman of the Coalition on Smoking or Health, said the debate "is more about competition, market share and profits than it is about [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-01-07T11:41:27-07:00January, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

In India, an epidemic of oral cancer

Source: www.businessweek.com Author: Adi Narayan Safiq Shaikh was 13 when he began chewing a blend of tobacco and spices that jolted him awake whenever his job at a textile loom got too dreary. Five years later, doctors in Mumbai lopped off his tongue to halt the cancer spreading through his mouth. Shaikh believed the fragrant, granular mixture he chewed, known in India as gutka, was harmless, so at first he ignored the milky lump growing inside his mouth. Now he is one of about 200,000 Indians diagnosed with a tobacco-related malignancy this year, says his surgeon, Dr. Pankaj Chaturvedi, who works at Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai. Chaturvedi says a group of entrepreneurs known as "gutka barons" bear much of the blame for this epidemic by mass marketing a mix of tobacco and areca nut for 1 rupee (2 cents) a pack on street corners across India. Sales of chewing tobacco in India, worth 210.3 billion rupees ($4.6 billion) in 2004, are on track to double by 2014, according to Datamonitor, the international research firm. Before, a traditional chewing mixture, known as paan, came with or without tobacco. It had to be handmade, was messy to carry around, and lacked modern packaging. "Now you have an industrial version of a traditional thing" spurring demand, says Chaturvedi. On Dec. 7, India's Supreme Court banned the sale of tobacco products in plastic wrappers as of Mar. 1, citing harm to public health and environmental damage from improper disposal of the packets. The [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-12-30T16:03:01-07:00December, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Smokeless tobacco won’t help smokers quit

Source: www.webmd.com Author: Bill Hendrick Smokeless tobacco products -- whether chewed or used as dry or moist snuff -- may increase the risk of heart attack, fatal stroke and certain cancers, says a new policy statement published online in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. "No tobacco product is safe to consume," Mariann Piano, PhD, lead writer of the policy statement and a professor in the department of behavioral health science at the University of Illinois at Chicago, says in a news release. The notion that smokeless tobacco may help reduce the rate of cigarette smoking is based in part on Swedish research, which showed a significant decline in smoking by Swedish men between 1976 and 2002 that corresponded with an increase in the use of smokeless tobacco. But in similar research in the U.S., the opposite was found to be true, the article says. There was no reduction in smoking rates among people who used smokeless tobacco products. Nicotine-Replacement Therapy Piano says that smokers trying to kick the habit might want to try nicotine-replacement therapy, by chewing nicotine gum or using a nicotine patch that can be attached to the skin, rather than using smokeless tobacco products. Piano tells WebMD that most people who use nicotine-replacement therapy do so for short periods of time, and it doesn't appear to be as addictive as smokeless tobacco "because of slower absorption, lower doses of nicotine, greater cost, lack of flavoring, sociocultural influences" or a combination of such factors. She says [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-09-14T09:06:26-07:00September, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

FDA analysis finds toxic substances in electronic cigarettes

Source: www.rwjf.org/publichealth Author: staff A preliminary analysis by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) indicates that electronic cigarettes contain traces of toxic substances and carcinogens, contradicting manufacturers' claims that the products are safe alternatives to tobacco, the New York Times reports. According to manufacturers, the battery-powered devices, which produce a vapor that users inhale, contain little more than water, nicotine and propylene glycol, which is used in theatrical performances to create artificial smoke. However, an FDA analysis of the ingredients in two leading brands of electronic cigarettes found that some had detectable levels of nitrosamines, tobacco-specific compounds known to cause cancer. In addition, one Smoking Everywhere cartridge contained diethlyene glycol, a common ingredient in antifreeze that contributed to the death of hundreds of individuals worldwide after it was incorrectly used as a substitute for glycerin in toothpaste. According to the FDA's principal commissioner, the effect of inhaling diethlyene glycol and other carcinogens through electronic cigarettes on the human body remains unknown. The study also highlighted several quality control issues with the electronic cigarettes, which are manufactured in China. For example, nicotine levels varied among cartridges with labels that claimed to contain identical amounts of nicotine, and some cartridges claiming to be nicotine free did contain nicotine. Calling the products drug delivery devices, the FDA says electronic cigarettes should not be allowed in the United States and has rejected approximately 50 shipments at the border since summer 2008. However, vendors in malls nationwide and online continue to sell electronic cigarettes, which [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-07-20T06:49:17-07:00July, 2010|Oral Cancer News|