early detection

Late-stage cancer detection in the USA is costing lives

Source: The Lancet In the USA, cancer is the most common cause of death in people aged between 49 and 80 years. In 2007, 562 875 cancer deaths were reported, which account for about 23% of all deaths. Cancers of the lung, colorectum, breast, and prostate are the most common and have the highest mortalities. In high-income countries remarkable progress has been made in cancer management and care, and although cancer incidence continues to rise, due to the influences of ageing, lifestyle, and population growth, mortality has fallen and survival rates are improving for several cancers, largely because of advances in screening, early detection, and treatment. So in light of this progress, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report published last week makes for troubling reading, showing as it does that almost half of colorectal and cervical cancers and a third of breast cancers are being diagnosed at a late stage when treatment is less effective. The study is the first nationwide examination of stage-specific cancer incidence rates and screening prevalence for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer by demographics including age and race or ethnic origin. The study found a lower uptake of screening and the presentation of symptoms late in low-income and ethnic minority communities, who also had longer delays in getting their diagnosis and treatment after an abnormal test. All these factors have been well documented to be associated with a late diagnosis for over a decade, so it is disappointing to see that cancer care [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-12-03T11:14:15-07:00December, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Practical strategy for oral cancer management in dental practices published in UK

Source: www.medicalnewstoday.com Author: staff The British Dental Association (BDA) has published a practical guide to help dental professionals combat the growing problem of oral cancer. It reiterates the importance of the early detection of the condition, stressing the improved chances of patient survival in cases where early diagnosis takes place. The proportion of patients with oral cancer who die is higher than for cervical, breast or prostate cancers, the guide points out. It also warns that some patients are beginning to take legal action against dentists alleging failure to detect the condition. The BDA guide, Early detection and prevention of oral cancer: a management strategy for dental practice, offers practical advice on preventing, detecting and managing oral cancer. It addresses both the clinical aspects of the condition and the management of relationships with patients. It explains the risk factors for the disease, provides guidance on talking to patients about examinations and offers tips on medical history taking and record keeping. It also explores taboos around the practitioner's right to explore patients' lifestyle choices that can cause oral cancer, such as drinking, smoking and chewing tobacco, and offers advice on how to overcome them. Professor Damien Walmsley, the BDA's Scientific Adviser, said: "The magnitude of the problem of oral cancer in the UK is growing. While the treatment of many cancers is leading to an improvement in survival rates, the same cannot be said for oral cancer. Early detection is absolutely vital to addressing this situation. "General dental practitioners and their [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-11-14T08:22:50-07:00November, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Diagnosis for Michael Douglas highlights oral cancer risk

Source: www.dental-tribune.com Author: Fred Michmershuizen, DTA After it became known recently that the Academy Award winning actor Michael Douglas has been diagnosed with oral cancer, dental professionals around the world seized on an opportunity to urge members of the public to pay more attention to key risk factors and early warning signs of the disease. The Academy Award winner was diagnosed with a tumor in his throat, and he now faces an eight-week course of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. This high-profile case has brought oral cancers into the limelight, and oral health experts are keen to make the public more aware of the key risk factors and early warning signs. The British Dental Health Foundation is calling for more attention to be paid to mouth cancers. The foundation is advising the public to regularly check their mouths. Douglas quit smoking in 2006, after a long “half a pack a day” habit. Yet, according to the foundation, the possibility of developing oral cancer remains higher for ex-smokers than non-smokers for 20 years after quitting. Tobacco is considered to be the main cause of mouth cancer, with three in four cases being linked to smoking, according to the foundation. Drinking in excess is also a known factor, with those who both smoke and drink to excess being up 30 times more likely to be at risk. “It is crucial the public know about the risk factors and early symptoms as early detection can save lives,” said Dr. Nigel Carter, chief executive of the [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-11-07T08:29:37-07:00November, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

“Staggering” lack of awareness of mouth cancer revealed

Source: Dental Health Foundation A NEW SURVEY undertaken by British Dental Health Foundation has revealed an alarming lack of awareness about the causes and symptoms of one of the UK’s fastest growing cancers – mouth cancer. Despite the recent case of actor Michael Douglas, who is suffering from advanced throat cancer, the answers from over 1,000 members of the public who were questioned in the survey for Mouth Cancer Action Month supported by Denplan reveal that there is only limited knowledge and understanding of this potentially deadly disease. One person in 10 claimed not even to have heard of mouth cancer. Chief Executive of the Foundation, Dr Nigel Carter, said: “After recent high profile coverage of the Michael Douglas case it is staggering to see that some people still have no awareness at all of the condition." Dr Carter added: “It is vital that the public have a greater awareness because survival rates increase massively with early detection from just 50 percent to 90 percent. The public need to be aware of the risk factors and whether they are in a high risk group and how they can self–examine or who they can turn to if they’re concerned.” The results of the survey reveal that it is the older members of the public who are most aware of mouth cancer, with more than 96 percent of those interviewed saying that they had heard of it. Dr Carter added: “This sounds good as the majority of cases occur in the over [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-10-31T11:03:00-07:00October, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Can saliva-based HPV tests establish cancer risk and guide patient management?

Source: Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology doi:10.1016 Author: Mark W. Lingen, DDS, PhD Section Editor, Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is the 6th most common malignancy in the world today.1 Despite numerous advances in treatment, the 5-year survival rate has remained modest. This poor outcome is due to several factors, including delayed diagnosis. Therefore, improved early detection and effective prevention strategies are critical components for management of this malignancy. The etiology of classical HNSCC has been attributed to chronic exposure to tobacco and alcohol.2 In addition, there is now sufficient evidence to support the contention that high-risk forms of the human papillomavirus (HPV) are a major causative factor for HNSCC of the tonsil, base of tongue, and oropharynx.3-8 The increasing importance of HPV in oropharyngeal HNSCC has raised considerable concern and uncertainty among healthcare professionals and patients. For example, I am often asked to describe the clinical features of HPV-associated premalignant lesions. Unfortunately, to my knowledge, the clinical spectrum of HPV-associated premalignant disease has not been adequately described. Furthermore, because this subset of HNSCC often develops in hard to- examine locations, such as tonsillar crypts, it can be exceedingly difficult to even identify the carcinomas. In the absence of such information, how can clinicians identify patients that are at increased risk for harboring an HPV-associated premalignant lesions or HNSCC? Recently, a large commercial diagnostic lab began offering a saliva-based test for the identification of oral HPV infections. As a result of this new offering, I [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-08-31T12:09:37-07:00August, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Hollywood star’s diagnosis highlights high risk of mouth cancer

Source: www.dentalhealth.org.uk Author: press release THE British Dental Health Foundation, which runs UK Mouth Cancer Action Month each November, is calling for more attention to be paid to mouth cancers reminding people that there is a death from mouth cancer on average every five hours in the UK. Oral health experts and the Foundation are advising the public to regularly check their mouths after news broke this week of actor Michael Douglas being diagnosed with oral cancer. The Academy Award winner has recently been diagnosed with a tumour in his throat, and now faces an eight–week cause of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. This high profile case has brought oral cancers into the lime light, and oral health experts are keen to make the public more aware of the key risk factors and early warning signs. Douglas quit smoking in 2006, after a long ‘half a packet a day’ habit. Yet, the possibility of developing oral cancer remains higher for ex–smokers than non–smokers for 20 years after quitting. Tobacco is considered to be the main cause of mouth cancer, with three in four cases being linked to smoking. Drinking in excess is also a known factor, with those who both smoke and drink to excess being up 30 times more likely to be at risk. The Chief Executive of the British Dental Health Foundation, Dr Nigel Carter said: “It is crucial the public know about the risk factors and early symptoms as early detection can save lives. Survival rates can increase from [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-08-19T19:03:52-07:00August, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

New biomarker technique could provide early detection for cancer

Source: www.physorg.com Author: press release provided by University of Connecticut Modern genetic testing can predict your risk of contracting particular diseases based on predispositions discovered in your DNA. But what if similar biotechnology could tell you that you’ve got a disease before you notice any symptoms? What if it could even tell you, before any signs of a tumor, that you have cancer? Jim Rusling, professor of chemistry at UConn and professor of cell biology at the UConn Health Center, ponders these questions on a daily basis. Since 2006, he and colleagues at the University and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have been developing techniques to detect biomarker proteins - the physiological traits that indicate that a person has a specific disease - for prostate and oral cancer. Because these biomarkers are often present in the blood in a disease’s early stages, they can be used for early detection and prevention. “DNA predicts which proteins can be made, but it can’t predict which proteins are actively expressed,” Rusling says. “It only assesses the risk of a disease. There’s a big push now to measure proteins as biomarkers.” In a recent publication in the journal Analytical Chemistry, Rusling and his colleagues describe a system they developed to detect with record sensitivity the bloodstream levels of a protein associated with several types of oral cancer, including head and neck squamous cell carcinomas. The project was funded by a $1.5 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences at NIH. [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-05-19T20:29:55-07:00May, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Evaluation of a low-cost, portable imaging system for early detection of oral cancer

Source: 7thspace.com Author: staff There is an important global need to improve early detection of oral cancer. Recent reports suggest that optical imaging technologies can aid in the identification of neoplastic lesions in the oral cavity; however, there is little data evaluating the use of optical imaging modalities in resource limited settings where oral cancer impacts patients disproportionately. In this article, we evaluate a simple, low-cost optical imaging system that is designed for early detection of oral cancer in resource limited settings. We report results of a clinical study conducted at Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH) in Mumbai, India using this system as a tool to improve detection of oral cancer and its precursors. Methods: Reflectance images with white light illumination and fluorescence images with 455 nm excitation were obtained from 261 sites in the oral cavity from 76 patients and 90 sites in the oral cavity from 33 normal volunteers. Quantitative image features were used to develop classification algorithms to identify neoplastic tissue, using clinical diagnosis of expert observers as the gold standard. Results: Using the ratio of red to green autofluorescence, the algorithm identified tissues judged clinically to be cancer or clinically suspicious for neoplasia with a sensitivity of 90% and a specificity of 87%. Conclusions: Results suggest that the performance of this simple, objective low-cost system has potential to improve oral screening efforts, especially in low-resource settings. Notes: 1. Authors: Mohammed Rahman, Nilesh Ingole, Darren Roblyer, Vanda Stepanek, Rebecca Richards-Kortum, Ann Gillenwater, Surendra Shastri, Pankaj Chaturvedi 2. Source: [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-04-23T13:32:51-07:00April, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

First-time walk raises awareness of oral cancer

Source: indarticles.com Author: staff A support group for people with oral and head and neck cancer is looking to send a message Saturday with its inaugural Oral Cancer Awareness Walk, co-sponsored by the Oral Cancer Foundation. "Last year approximately 35,700 new cases were diagnosed in the United States, and there were about 7,600 deaths," walk organizers said in a news release. "Sixty percent of people aren't diagnosed until the cancer has progressed to Stage III or IV, and almost half of those victims die within five years. But if caught early, oral cancer has one of the highest overall treatment and survival rates." Organizers hope the walk will call attention to the importance of early detection and prevention, not only to the general public but to dentists, who spot problems. Perhaps the highest-profile patient is movie critic Roger Ebert, who has recently detailed his battle with oral cancer. Locally, Jeanna Richelson, an engineer at Siskin Steel, has shared her story. Now cancer-free, she is spearheading the support group, known officially as the Chattanooga Chapter of Support for People With Oral and Head and Neck Cancer. "When I was diagnosed with oral cancer in 2001, I had no idea how my life would be changed forever," she said in the news release. "If I can save one life or keep one person from having to go through the hardships that me and so many others have gone through, it will be worth it." Registration for the walk begins at 10 a.m. [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-04-18T10:29:09-07:00April, 2010|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

Needed: HPV vaccine, simple screening test, for women and men

Source: jhu.edu/~gazette Author: Valerie Mehl, Johns Hopkins Medicine A call to explore a broader use of human papillomavirus vaccines and the validation of a simple oral screening test for HPV-caused oral cancers are reported in two studies by an investigator at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins. Leading HPV expert Maura Gillison, the first to identify HPV infection as the cause of certain oral cancers and who identified multiple sex partners as the most important risk factor for these cancers, reports her latest work Nov. 3 in the journal Clinical Cancer Research and in a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention monograph. The CDC report on HPV-associated cancers appears online Nov. 3 and in the Nov. 15 supplement edition of Cancer. In the CDC report, believed to be the first and most comprehensive assessment of HPV-associated cancer data in the United States, investigators analyzed cancer registry data from 1998 to 2003 and found 25,000 cancer cases each year occurred at cancer sites associated with HPV infection. In additional analysis, Gillison and colleagues at the National Cancer Institute identified HPV infection as the underlying cause of approximately 20,000 of these cancers. Gillison and her team found that approximately 20,000 cases of cancer in the United States each year are caused by HPV infection. Oral cancers are the second most common type of HPV- associated cancers and are increasing in incidence in the United States, particularly among men. Add to that anal, penile, vaginal and vulvar cancers that are [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-03-19T21:39:40-07:00March, 2010|Oral Cancer News|