chemotherapy – Page 29 – Oral Cancer News

‘Mama!’ First word of boy with tongue built out of his tummy muscles

Source: www.dailymail.co.uk/health Author: Angela Epstein A child's first words are memorable for any parent. But when Daniel Sewell said 'mama' for the first time, his parents had more reason than most to rejoice. Just 12 weeks earlier, their then 19-month-old son had undergone pioneering surgery to rebuild his tongue after first having an operation to remove a cancerous tumour. The family had been warned he might never be able to speak. So Daniel's first word was a monumental achievement. 'I just couldn't believe it,' says his mother Alison. 'That single word meant there was hope that the horrors of the previous months might finally be behind us.' Daniel Sewell and mum Alison Nearly 5,000 people are diagnosed with mouth cancer annually. While other cancers have seen a drop in mortality rates, those for mouth cancer have remained at more than 1,500 deaths a year for a decade. It is often triggered by smoking and drinking - alcohol and nicotine damage the mouth lining, causing cell changes - and is almost unheard of in children. So when Daniel, the youngest of the couple's five children, began having trouble sucking on a bottle, cancer was the furthest thing from his parents' mind. 'With the benefit of hindsight, it was clear that something was bothering him,' remembers Alison, 43, a housewife, who lives with her husband Richard, 42 a shop fitter in Crook, County Durham. 'But at the time we just put it down to teething. I'll always feel terribly guilty about that.' [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-12-09T07:15:12-07:00December, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

Cancer survivor is again living the life of a teenager

Source: heraldnet.com Author: Julie Muhlstein Mark Edmondson doesn't ask "Why me?" The 18-year-old has endured more pain than most people suffer in a long lifetime. "I'm still alive," the Everett High School senior said Monday. "I appreciate a lot of things now most teenagers don't." Two years ago today, when Edmondson was featured in this column, he'd just been diagnosed with an aggressive type of mouth cancer. He'd survived grueling surgery. Still ahead were months of chemotherapy and radiation. At 16, as friends were staring to drive and enjoying high school, his future looked bleak. With every reason for self-pity, he never let himself sink. "Never," said his mother, Stephanie Edmondson. "There's no complaining, no whining, no 'Why me?' He's always been like that. He has kind of an old soul. I'm very proud of him," she said. She is also thankful beyond words. Today, Mark Edmondson is strong and fit. He missed a year of school, but is on track for June graduation. He works out at the YMCA and has two jobs. He looks forward to Thanksgiving with his mother, younger brother John, grandmother Celeste Berdahl and extended family. Just a year ago, Mark had a feeding tube. At 5 feet, 10 inches tall, his mother said, he weighed 104 pounds. He finished radiation treatments at Seattle's Swedish Medical Center in the spring of 2007. Since then, scans and biopsies have shown that he's cancer-free. But last fall he suffered an intestinal infection. "He did not look like [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-11-30T11:56:52-07:00November, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

Battle of his life

Source: www.hattiesburgamerican.com Author: Patrick Magee Barney Farrar has never been one to back down from any type of fight. The Mississippi native is a determined man whose tenacity makes him a passionate coach and dogged recruiter as a member of the Southern Miss football team's coaching staff. He's also known as a compassionate man who will make a visit on his own to the ailing parents of one of the countless high school coaches he's gotten to know over his lengthy career of recruiting his home state. So when word came down in July that Farrar had been diagnosed with throat cancer, the reaction sent waves around the close community of football coaches. He received many calls from coaching cohorts wishing him well. Once the kind words were behind him, Farrar battened down for the biggest battle of his life, which has yet to reach a full conclusion. "They diagnosed it as a category three, but they moved it up to a category four because of the size of the tumor. That scared me," Farrar said. "They told me to not be too alarmed over that at that point because it was just the size that moved me into the worst category." From there, it was a matter of finding the right course of treatment for the lump in his throat that doctors say had likely been there for a year, when he was living in Iowa, before it was diagnosed by Hattiesburg physicians. Farrar, 48, visited different clinics around [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-11-23T17:51:28-07:00November, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

Iressa as good as chemotherapy for lung cancer

Source: health.usnews.com Author: Steven Reinberg The cancer-fighting pill Iressa works as well as chemotherapy as a second-line treatment for lung cancer, researchers report. Although neither therapy prolongs survival beyond eight months, Iressa (gefitinib) causes fewer serious side effects and may be a better choice for patients who did not do well on their first round of chemotherapy. "A pill, with less side effects, taken once a day, has similar activity to traditional chemotherapy given by vein every three weeks," said lead researcher Dr. Edward Kim, an assistant professor at the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. This finding should reassure doctors that they are not compromising effective therapy by using a pill, Kim said. Iressa is not available in the United States, but a similar drug, Tarceva, is. Iressa was first developed by AstraZeneca, but it failed to meet expectations. The National Cancer Institute ended clinical trials of the drug in 2005 because it failed to prolong the lives of lung cancer patients. The latest finding has meaning for these patients, however, Kim said. "You can be treated for lung cancer. There are different therapies available, and they have different side-effect profiles," he said. "Chemotherapy will never be eliminated, but we are getting more options for targeted therapy; and people can live as normal a life as they can bearing the weight of lung cancer." The report was published in the Nov. 22 issue of The Lancet. In a head-to-head comparison, Kim's team randomly assigned 1,466 lung cancer patients [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-11-23T09:25:18-07:00November, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

Analysis of prognostic factors in patients with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma treated with radiotherapy alone or in combination with systemic chemotherapy

Source: Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2008;134(11):1196-1204 Authors: Paola A. G. Pedruzzi, MD et al. Objective: To assess the prognostic significance of several factors in oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma treated with radiotherapy alone or in combination with chemotherapy. Design: Retrospective study. Setting: Erasto Gaertner Hospital, Curitiba, Brazil, and A. C. Camargo Hospital, São Paulo, Brazil. Patients: A total of 361 patients treated for squamous cell carcinoma from January 1, 1990, to December 31, 2001. Interventions: Radiotherapy alone or with chemotherapy. Main Outcome Measures: Disease-free survival, overall survival, and treatment response. Results: Most tumors were located at the tonsil (46.8%) or base of the tongue (28.0%) and were at clinical stage III or IV (92.8%). Treatment response was associated with Zubrod scale score, weight loss, number of comorbidities, symptom-severity and Piccirillo stages, hemoglobin level, tumor site, macroscopic appearance of the tumor, and clinical stage. The 5-year overall survival rate was 17.6% and disease-free survival rate was 16.2%. The significant prognostic variables were age; Zubrod scale score; weight loss; comorbidities; Berg, Piccirillo, and symptom-severity staging; involvement of adjacent soft-tissue areas and bone; lymph node mobility; clinical stage; and radiotherapy doses. The multivariate analysis showed Zubrod scale score, symptom-severity staging system, Berg staging system, comorbidities, and radiotherapy dose as independent prognostic factors. Conclusion: A combination of clinical factors, such as symptoms, patients' general status, weight loss, and comorbidities, leads to a relevant stage of clinical severity that can be associated with the TNM stage as predictors of survival in oropharyngeal carcinoma. Authors: Paola [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-11-18T03:43:52-07:00November, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

Improvements for patients with oral mucositis

Source: cancerfocus.net Author: staff New data show that Caphosol® (www.caphosol.com), an advanced electrolyte solution, significantly limits the occurrence and severity of oral mucositis (OM) in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and radiation therapy. The data, which contain the final results from a prospective observational study sponsored by EUSA Pharma, were presented today at the 50th annual meeting of the American Society of Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO), and demonstrate that Caphosol use is associated with high levels of medication compliance and patient and physician satisfaction. The latest findings expand upon the growing body of evidence of the benefits of Caphosol in the management of OM and related symptoms in patients with various types of cancer. "Oral mucositis is a common, debilitating side effect of chemotherapy and radiation therapy, resulting from erosion of epithelial cells in the oral cavity (cells lining the surface of the throat and esophagus) during therapy," said principal investigator Marilyn L. Haas, PhD, RN, CNS, ANP-C, Nurse Practitioner, Carolina Clinical Consultant. "Patients with oral mucositis often experience severe pain, difficulty eating and swallowing, and greater susceptibility to infection. The registry data suggests that CAPHOSOL, a supersaturated electrolyte oral rinse, has a significant positive impact on the occurrence and severity of oral mucositis, and is highly regarded by patients and physicians." Dr. Haas and colleagues reported data from 68 patients with head and neck (HN) cancer enrolled in an open-label, observational registry maintained at 26 treatment centers in the U.S. The patients were considered at high risk of developing [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-09-28T21:23:42-07:00September, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

As The World Turns cancer storyline nominated for award

Source: www.soaps.com Author: staff Congratulations to the cast and crew of As The World Turns for their nomination for a 2008 Sentinel for Health Award! The Barbara/Cancer storyline was nominated. The Sentinel for Health awards recognize television storylines, both Primetime and Daytime, that inform, educate and motivate viewers to make choices for healthier and safer lives. A panel of experts from the Centers for Disease Control, National Cancer Institute and partner organizations evaluate the nominees to develop a list of finalists. The finalists are then chosen based on entertainment value and benefit to the viewing audience. The awards are part of the Norman Lear Center, a research center which studies the impact of entertainment on society. Barbara's oral cancer storyline was actually brought about because of Colleen Zenk Pinter's (Barbara) real life battle with oral cancer. Last fall, after weeks of fans asking about the change in her speech patterns, Colleen announced that she had been battling oral cancer for months; when she was diagnosed, doctors found that she had stage two oral cancer. Colleen underwent three surgeries and actually had part of her tongue removed and reconstructed. She has been in remission for a year now. On the show, Barbara has been battling the same cancer with rounds of chemotherapy. One of her doctors recently told Babs she was responding well and she has returned to her life before the diagnosis. However, she has also been very preoccupied with Paul's money problems, Meg's current pregnancy and has been ignoring [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-09-20T07:35:53-07:00September, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

FDA News Impacts Cancer Patients

Source: National Anemia Action Council (www.anemia.org) Author: staff The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ordered specific changes for the use of erythropoeisis-stimulating agents (ESAs) to treat anemia in patients receiving chemotherapy. The label changes will state treatment should only begin when a patient’s hemoglobin level drops to 10 g/dL and removes the mention of 12 g/dL as an upper hemoglobin level of treatment because the safety of ESA use at that level is not yet known. The labeling will also advise not to use ESAs when chemotherapy is given to cure patients, which based on a doctor’s discretion, could include treatment designed to prevent cancer from coming back. The announced label changes reflect most of the recommendations from the Oncology Drugs Advisory Committee’s meeting March 13, 2008. Not included is advice from the committee to limit use of the drug for patients with breast cancer or head and neck cancer, despite recent studies showing more rapid tumor growth or shortened survival when these patients received treatment with ESAs. The drug’s manufacturer, Amgen, announced the revised product labeling for ESAs will be released to both physicians and patients soon. The FDA and Amgen agreed on a majority of the new label, but could not reach agreement on a couple points, prompting the FDA to invoke new authority to mandate drug label changes.

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-08-02T05:48:47-07:00August, 2008|Oral Cancer News|