HPV

Queensland scientist develops new HPV cancer vaccine

Source: 9News
Date: May 22, 2019
Author: 9News Staff

*click Source to view video*

Former Australian of the Year Professor Ian Frazer has developed a vaccine aimed at treating HPV-related cancers of the head, neck, throat and tongue.

While funding is still being finalised, a trial of the vaccine is being prepared for people with incurable oropharyngeal cancers.

Professor Frazer, the Scottish-born immunologist who developed and patented the vaccine against HPV-related cervical cancer, has been working on this vaccine for nearly 15 years.

While the cervical cancer vaccine works as a preventative, this new vaccine is a treatment therapy.

It works by teaching the patient’s immune system to target the cancer cells containing HPV. The patient will then be given immunotherapy drugs that supercharge the immune system.

“This is all about a new way to treat cancer using the body’s defence against infection,” Professor Frazer said.

“This might give a second chance at life.”

HPV-related throat cancer kills three Australians every day.

“It’s going to become a major problem in Australia, in fact in the US we’ve seen an increase in HPV-related throat cancers by 225 per cent,” head and neck radiation oncologist Sandro Porceddu said.

Professor Porceddu will conduct the trial at the Princess Alexandra Hospital. It should begin towards the end of this year if a further $700,000 in necessary funding is found.

May, 2019|Oral Cancer News|

Oral HPV DNA Persistence After Head and Neck Cancer Treatment Linked to Disease Progression

Source: genomeweb
Date: May 2, 2019
Author: Staff Reporter

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Persistent traces of human papilloma virus DNA after treatment for HPV-positive head and neck cancer is linked to an increased recurrence risk, a new study has found.

Head and neck cancers affect some 53,000 people in the US each year, according to the National Cancer Institute, and HPV has been implicated in many of those cases. In general, patients with HPV-positive tumors have higher survival rates than those with HPV-negative tumors.

A team of MD Anderson Cancer Center-led researchers collected oral rinse samples from nearly 400 patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinomas at diagnosis and as their treatments progressed. As they reported today in JAMA Oncology, the researchers found that viral load in patients’ oral samples broadly decreased as they underwent therapy. But some patients’ viral loads persisted despite treatment, which was linked to an increased risk of cancer recurrence and death, the researchers reported.

“Our data suggest that a subset of patients with HPV-positive HNSCC at high risk for locoregional recurrence can be identified by detection of persistent, oral HPV after treatment,” MD Anderson’s Maura Gillison and her colleagues write in their paper.

The researchers enrolled 396 patients with oral cavity, oropharyngeal, or unknown primary HNSCC in their study. They tested the patients’ tumors for the presence of 13 high-risk HPV types using an mRNA expression test and found 202 patients had HPV-positive tumors.

At the same time, the researchers collected oral rinse samples from patients at diagnosis, after surgery, and at six months. Additionally, patients who underwent radiotherapy provided weekly oral rinse samples. The researchers tested these samples — a total of 2,922 oral rinse samples — for the presence of HPV using a multiplex PCR-based approach.

At diagnosis, patients with HPV-positive tumors were significantly more likely to have oral rinse samples positive for HPV than were patients with HPV-negative tumors. In particular, the researchers reported that the detection of any oral HPV DNA had a sensitivity of 84 percent, a specificity of 88 percent, a positive predictive value of 88 percent, and a negative predictive value of 84 percent for the diagnosis of an HPV-positive tumor.

The prevalence of oral HPV DNA, though, went down after treatment, the researchers reported. Prior to treatment, the prevalence of HPV DNA in oral rinses that matched that of HPV in the tumor sample was 69 percent. But after primary surgical resection, it was about 14 percent. Its prevalence fell similarly for patients who underwent radiotherapy, going from 85 percent before treatment to 9 percent after radiotherapy.

As expected, overall and recurrence-free survival was higher for patients with HPV-positive tumors than with HPV-negative tumors. Patients with HPV-positive tumors had a two-year overall survival of 91 percent, as compared to 75 percent for patients with HPV-negative tumors.

But for a subset of patients with HPV-positive tumors — about 14 percent — the prevalence of oral HPV DNA didn’t decline with treatment. These patients were more likely to recurrent disease, with about 45 percent experiencing disease recurrence within two years. Additionally, this subset had a lower two-year overall survival of 68 percent.

These patients, the researchers noted, might benefit from increased surveillance or adjuvant therapy.

The researchers added that their findings suggest that oral rinses to detect HPV DNA in head and neck cancer patients might be helpful. They cautioned, though, that its clinical utility might be limited by the need to identify tumor-type infections.

“Ongoing studies will evaluate whether multiplexed detection of plasma HPV DNA can improve these limitations,” the researchers added.

NOTE: This research was paid for in part by the Oral Cancer Foundation,www.oralcancer.org

May, 2019|Oral Cancer News|

Twitter lends insight to HPV-associated oral cancer knowledge

Source: www.oncnursingnews.com
Author: Brielle Benyon

The incidence of human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated oral cancer has risen in recent years, and the virus has now surpassed tobacco and alcohol use as the leading cause of the disease. In fact, while the HPV vaccine is typically associated with preventing cervical cancer, there have been more cases of HPV-associated oral cancer than there have been cervical cancer.1

While the link between oral cancer and HPV may be well-known to healthcare professionals, researchers at Howard University recently took to Twitter to get a glimpse into the public’s knowledge about the topic.

“By looking at the social media data, we wanted to know what people are hearing about oral cancer – especially HPV-caused oral cancer,” study co-author Jae Eun Chung, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Strategic, Legal & Management Communication at Howard University, said. “We wanted to see what the gaps are between the knowledge of the healthcare professionals and the public.”

The researchers collected 3,229 unique tweets over the course of 40 weeks using search terms such as “HPV or papilloma” and “mouth or oral or throat or pharyngeal or oropharyngeal.” They then used a program called nVivo 12.0 to conduct a content analysis that looked at certain phrasing, terms, and themes that commonly appeared.

More than half (54%; 1679 total) of the tweets had information about prevention, while 29% (910) were about the causes of oral cancer. Far fewer tweets were about treatment (5%; 141), diagnosis (3%; 97), symptoms (1%; 42), and prognosis (1%; 25).

Interestingly, the researcher discovered a prominence on the risk of HPV-associated oral cancer in men, with tweets that referred to males outnumbering tweets that referred to females in a 3:1 ratio. Also, the most popular hashtag used in the dataset was #jabsfortheboys, appearing in 89 tweets.

“There was a heavy emphasis on the risk of HPV-associated (oropharyngeal cancer) among men, which is different than what we see with HPV vaccination among girls,” Chung said. “That was very positive news to us, because HPV-associated (oral cancer) rates are higher among the male population and HPV vaccination rates are higher among girls.”

While spreading HPV vaccination and oral cancer is important on a global scale, the United States might have some catching up to do, as the 5 most mentioned Twitter users discussing the topic were located outside of the US–1 in New Zealand, 2 in Australia, and 2 in the United Kingdom.

“That’s kind of sad, because there are more Twitter users from the United States than from any other country,” Chung said.

Ultimately, Chung explained, these findings outlined an area where the country can benefit from more education and social media campaigns.

“In conclusion, this study provides some insight as to how the public makes sense of HPV-associated oral cancer,” she said. “More education and campaigns are needed, and US residents can benefit from more active involvement of US-based health education.”

Reference
1. Chung JE, Mustapha I, Gu X, Li J. Understanding public perception about human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated oropharyngeal cancer (OPC) through Twitter. Presented at: D.C. Health Communication Conference; Fairfax, Virginia; April 26-27, 2019.

May, 2019|Oral Cancer News|

The HPV Vaccine Is Already Dramatically Lowering Rates of Cervical Disease

Source: Gizmodo
Date: 04/03/19
Author: Ed Cara

A new study out Wednesday in the BMJ is the latest to showcase even the short-term benefits of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. It found that the routine vaccination of preteen girls in Scotland, starting in 2008, led to drastically lower rates of cervical disease by the time the girls turned 20. That included conditions known to raise the risk of cervical cancer later on in life.

There are over 100 different types of HPV that regularly infect humans. Most types cause no symptoms at all, while some can cause annoying but harmless warts on our hands, feet, or genitals, depending on where they like to call home. High-risk HPV types, however, linger in the cells that line the surfaces of our body, triggering changes that can eventually turn them cancerous. These HPV types account for nearly all cases of cervical cancer, as well as a substantial proportion of cancers in the mouth, throat, anus, and penis.

We’ve had a vaccine available for two of the most common high-risk types of HPV since 2006, when it was at first recommended only for teen girls. Over the years, the window of opportunity for getting the vaccine has expanded, as has the number of HPV types it protects against. The newest version protects against seven high-risk types that account for 90 percent of cervical cancers (along with two types that cause genital warts). And young boys and men are now also encouraged to get the vaccine, as are women up to age 45.

Despite this increase in recommended age, getting vaccinated while young provides the most benefit, since it’s incredibly easy to contract HPV once a person becomes sexually active. But rates of childhood HPV vaccination in places like the U.S. are still abysmally low. According to one estimate, only 35 percent of children are fully vaccinated by age 15 (the current guidelines call for kids to begin their vaccination from age 11 to 12, with only two shots needed if they get both by age 15; otherwise three shots are required). That low adherence rate not only hampers the protective effects of the vaccine, it also complicates efforts by researchers to study the real-world impact of the vaccine on a population.

In countries like Scotland, though, routine HPV vaccination was quickly adopted and made commonplace, thanks to a nationally funded vaccination program that targeted 12- to 13-year-old girls starting in 2008, along with a later program that targeted older teens. But there are other factors that make Scotland an ideal country to test the value of widespread HPV vaccination, according to lead author Tim Palmer, a pathologist at the University of Edinburgh.

“Up until June 2016, we started [cervical disease] screening at age 20, so we’re one of the first countries to have immunized women attend for screening,” he told Gizmodo via email. “We are also one of the few countries to be able to link directly the fact that an individual had or had not been vaccinated and her screening outcome many years later.”

Palmer and his team looked at the records of more than 130,000 women in Scotland who received one of these cervical screenings at age 20. They compared women vaccinated for HPV as young girls to slightly older women vaccinated during the catch-up program and to unvaccinated women born in 1988.

Compared to these unvaccinated women, they found, the women vaccinated as young girls were far less likely to have any kind of cervical disease, defined as the growth of abnormal cells in the cervix. Most importantly, the rate of growths classified as a cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) grade 3 also dropped substantially, by nearly 90 percent. That’s crucial because a CIN3 growth puts women at their greatest risk of someday developing cervical cancer. According to Palmer, the 90 percent reduction they found is the largest drop seen with CIN3 in any population where HPV vaccination is available.

“Thus, we are confident that the reduction in CIN3 will lead to a reduction in cancers,” Palmer said.

The high vaccination rate in Scotland also had indirect effects, they found. The rate of cervical disease in the minority of women who were eligible but did not get vaccinated dropped as well, meaning vaccine coverage was high enough to provide some herd immunity (put simply, the more protected a population is from a disease, the less opportunity the disease has to spread to unprotected people). As expected, women who were older when vaccinated still had a lower rate of cervical disease than unvaccinated women, but not to the same degree as those who got the vaccine when young.

All in all, Palmer said, the study shows that Scotland’s HPV program has been an unmitigated success, one that will continue to pay off for decades. And Scotland’s early success story should provide plenty more motivation for other countries to drive up their own local vaccination rates.

That said, it’ll still take some time before we can really be sure that cervical cancer rates will similarly plummet, since many women develop it in their mid 30s and 40s. But Palmer says his team is already at work studying screening data that might show the vaccine’s effectiveness at preventing earlier cases of cancer.

The growing success of the HPV vaccine might eventually lead to changes in how we screen women for cervical cancer, Palmer said, since there’ll be fewer total cases of cancer to catch—a welcome problem, obviously.

“Ultimately, when routinely immunized women form the majority of the women eligible for screening, the need for cervical screening programs should be reviewed; they may no longer be justified,” he said. “However, this point will not be reached in Scotland for at least 25 or 30 years. Before that stage, the frequency and number of screening tests will need to be reviewed; there are suggestions that just two or three tests in a screening ‘lifetime’ will be adequate.”

Currently, in the U.S., it’s estimated there are 12,000 new cases of cervical cancer annually.

April, 2019|Oral Cancer News|

Flossing and going to the dentist linked to lower risk of oral cancer

Source: www.livescience.com
Author: Yasemin Saplakoglu, Staff Writer

Regularly flossing and going to the dentist may be tied to a lower risk of oral cancer.

That’s according to findings presented March 31, here at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting.

In the new study, researchers analyzed the dental health behaviors of patients who were diagnosed with oral cancer between 2011 and 2014 at the ear, nose and throat clinic at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center. The patients’ behaviors were compared to those of non-cancer patients who came to the clinic for other reasons, such as dizziness or an earache. [7 Odd Things That Raise Your Risk of Cancer (and 1 That Doesn’t)]

All of the patients in the study had responded to a survey that included questions about how often they flossed, how often they went to the dentist, how sexually active they were and if they smoked or drank alcohol.

Oral cancer can be divided into two categories: those driven by the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV) and those that aren’t, said lead study author Jitesh Shewale, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. (Smoking and drinking are both risk factors for non-HPV oral cancers.)

After adjusting for factors such as age, gender, socioeconomic status and race, the researchers found that oral HPV-negative people who went to the dentist less than once a year had nearly twice the risk of developing oral cancer than those who went once a year or more. Similarly, oral HPV-negative people who flossed less than once a day had over twice the risk than those who flossed more. In other words, poor oral hygiene was linked to increased non-HPV oral cancer risk.

The study didn’t find an association between poor dental hygiene and oral cancer in those who also had oral HPV, however.

The researchers hypothesize that the oral microbiome may play a role in the association between oral hygiene and cancer risk. In previous research, scientists from the same team found evidence that “poor oral hygiene practices causes a shift in your oral microbiome,” Shewale told Live Science. That shift “promotes chronic inflammation and [can lead to] the development of cancers.” HPV-positive oral cancers mostly affect the base of the tongue and the tonsils region, while HPV-negative cancers mostly affect oral cavities, which are more affected by oral hygiene, he added.

Denise Laronde, an associate professor in dentistry at the University of British Columbia who was not a part of the study, said that the new research was “interesting” but added that it was too early to draw conclusions. (The study found an association between oral hygiene and cancer risk, but did not show cause-and-effect.)

Still, “a lot of the times people look at their oral health as almost disconnected from the rest of their body,” Laronde told Live Science. “But so many systemic diseases are reflected in your oral health and vice versa.”

Laronde added that the new research will hopefully raise awareness about the importance of flossing. “We all know people say they floss way more than they do,” she said. But studies like this raise awareness that “you’re not just flossing to keep your teeth, you’re flossing to maintain your health.”

The findings have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

April, 2019|Oral Cancer News|

Robot that can cut out hard-to-reach throat tumours through patients’ mouths: Pioneering operation reduces need for chemo and radiotherapy

Source: www.dailymail.co.uk
Author: Fiona McCrae, Roger Dobson

British surgeons are using a cutting-edge robot to remove difficult-to-reach throat tumours – through the mouths of patients.

The pioneering operation is designed to dramatically reduce the need for gruelling radiotherapy and chemotherapy, which can leave patients unable to swallow and dependent on a feeding tube for life.

With growing numbers of people developing throat cancer, it is more important than ever to have a range of effective treatments that lessen the impact on quality of life, says Asit Arora, consultant head and neck surgeon at Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Trust in London.

Once most common in elderly people with a history of drinking and smoking, rates of head and neck cancers have soared by 31 per cent in the past 25 years and are now as common in people in their 50s as in those in their 80s.

The 90 minute operation is designed to dramatically reduce the need for gruelling radiotherapy and chemotherapy, which can leave patients unable to swallow and dependent on a feeding tube for life

Much of the rise is attributed to HPV – a range of viruses that can be passed on during intimate and sexual contact. At least 80 per cent of the adult population carries some kinds of HPV on their skin, although most will never know it. In some cases, HPV can cause skin or genital warts, and other types are a known cause of cervical and anal cancers.

HPV can also infect the mouth and throat and is now to blame for at least half of throat cancers in the UK. Until a tumour occurs, the infection is typically symptomless.

Conventional treatment for early-stage throat cancer involves either powerful radiotherapy and chemotherapy to destroy the tumour, or laser surgery to cut it out.

Courses of radiotherapy and chemotherapy are time-consuming – some patients make up to 30 trips to hospital over a few months. The treatment can also damage the jaw and the swallowing muscles, meaning patients cannot eat without the help of a feeding tube.

Laser treatment is more gentle on the body but it can be difficult to cut out a hard-to-reach cancer completely and most patients need radiotherapy afterwards. Some also need chemotherapy.

Using the robot, the surgeon can zero in on the tumour and cut it away precisely. With the patient under general anaesthetic, the surgeon controls the robot with his hands and feet. One of the robot arms holds a 3D camera, while two others wield tiny instruments that can be passed through the mouth and into the throat, and turned and twisted in ways impossible with the human hand alone.

Surgery in the mouth and throat can be challenging because you are working in very small areas, manipulating surgical instruments in a tight space where there are important nerves and blood vessels to be avoided,’ says Mr Arora, who has pioneered robotic surgery for throat cancer in the UK.

‘With the latest robotic systems, we can be more targeted than ever before in how we treat these throat conditions in order to reduce unwanted side effects, particularly related to swallowing.’

Studies suggest that trans-oral robotic surgery (TORS) is at least as good as conventional surgery, although a definitive comparison has yet to be carried out, says Mr Arora. But importantly, by cutting out the tumour so precisely, it may reduce the amount of chemotherapy and radiotherapy patients need.

A £4.5 million Cancer Research UK trial into the procedure is now being carried out at Guy’s and hospitals around the country.

Mr Arora has used the method to remove about 30 throat tumours in the year since setting up the service with Jean-Pierre Jeannon, Guy’s clinical director for cancer.

The operation takes 90 minutes and patients are usually discharged after two days. They then undertake rehab, including speech therapy.

Retired policeman David Wonfor, 60, chose to take part in the trial after being diagnosed with early-stage throat cancer last summer. After his operation, David, 60, of Petts Wood, Kent, started on five weeks of low-dose radiotherapy. Although he lost weight and his sense of taste at first, he has now largely recovered, and says he is convinced that his recovery would have been very different if he had had chemotherapy.

March, 2019|Oral Cancer News|

HPV infection may be behind rise in vocal-cord cancers among young nonsmokers

Source: www.eurekalert.org
Author: Public Release Massachusetts General Hospital

A remarkable recent increase in the diagnosis of vocal-cord cancer in young adults appears to be the result of infection with strains of human papilloma virus (HPV) that also cause cervical cancer and other malignancies. Investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) describe finding HPV infection in all tested samples of vocal-cord cancer from 10 patients diagnosed at age 30 or under, most of whom were non-smokers. Their report appears in a special supplement on innovations in laryngeal surgery that accompanies the March 2019 issue of Annals of Otology, Rhinology and Laryngology.

“Over the past 150 years, vocal-cord or glottic cancer has been almost exclusively a disease associated with smoking and almost entirely seen in patients over 40 years old,” says Steven Zeitels, MD, director of the MGH Division of Laryngeal Surgery, senior author of the report. “Today nonsmokers are approaching 50 percent of glottic cancer patients, and it is common for them to be diagnosed under the age of 40. This epidemiologic transformation of vocal-cord cancer is a significant public health issue, due to the diagnostic confusion it can create.”

The researchers note that the increase in vocal-cord cancer diagnosis appears to mimic an earlier increase in the diagnosis of throat cancer, which has been associated with infections by high-risk strains of HPV. After initially attributing incidents of vocal-cord cancer in nonsmokers, which they began to see about 15 years ago, to increased travel and exposure to infectious diseases, Zeitels and his colleagues decided to investigate whether HPV infection might explain the diagnosis in younger nonsmokers.

To do so they examined the records of patients treated by Zeitels either from July 1990 to June 2004 at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary or between July 2004 and June 2018 at MGH. Of 353 patients treated for vocal-cord cancer during the entire period, none of the 112 treated from 1990 to mid-2004 were age 30 or younger. But 11 of the 241 patients treated from 2004 to 2018 were 30 or younger – 3 were age 10 to 19 – and only 3 of the 11 were smokers. Analysis of tissue samples from the tumors of 10 of the 11 younger patients revealed high-risk strains of HPV in all of them.

The authors note that these high-risk-HPV-associated vocal-cord cancers greatly resemble recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP), a benign condition caused by common, low-risk strains of HPV. One of the 11 patients treated by Zeitels had previously been diagnosed at another center with vocal-cord cancer, and when it recurred after being surgically removed, she was misdiagnosed with RRP and treated with a medication that made the cancer worse, leading to the need for a partial laryngectomy.

“Benign RRP of the vocal cords has been a well-known HPV disease for more than a century, and it is very remarkable that there is now an HPV malignancy that looks so similar, creating diagnostic and therapeutic confusion,” says Zeitels, the Eugene B. Casey Professor of Laryngeal Surgery at Harvard Medical School. “It should be noted that these HPV-associated vocal-cord carcinomas are not a malignant degeneration of the benign disease.”

Zeitels adds that HPV vocal-cord cancers are amenable to endoscopic treatment with the angiolytic KTP laser that he developed. “Large-scale studies are now needed to determine the pace of the increase in glottic cancer among nonsmokers, the incidence of high-risk HPV in these cancers and changes in the age and genders of those affected,” he says.

Note:
The lead author of the Annals of Otology, Rhinology and Laryngology paper is Semirra Bayan, MD, previously a fellow in laryngeal surgery at MGH and now at University of Chicago Medicine; William Faquin, MD, PhD, MGH Pathology, is a co-author. The study was supported by the Voice Health Institute, the National Philanthropic Trust, and the Eugene B. Casey Foundation.

March, 2019|Oral Cancer News|

The epidemic of throat cancer sweeping the industrialized world

Source: www.mercurynews.com
Author: Dr. Bryan Fong

Tonsils – Angina Pectoris

Over the past three decades, a dramatic increase in a new form of throat cancer has been observed throughout the industrialized world. The good news is that it’s potentially preventable — if parents get their children vaccinated.

The disease shows up primarily in men, typically between the ages of 45 and 70. Those who are affected often lead healthy lifestyles. They do not have extensive histories of smoking tobacco or consuming alcohol, which are risk factors for traditional throat cancers.

The rate of this new cancer has been increasing 5 percent per year and today, it is more than three times as common as in the mid-1980s. If you think this scenario sounds like a slow-moving infectious medical drama (think Contagion or World War Z), you would be right.

The source of this cancer is a virus, the human papillomavirus (HPV) — the same virus that causes most cervical cancer in women. It’s widely known that parents should get their girls vaccinated. Now, with the surge in oral HPV cancers, especially in men, parents should get their boys vaccinated too.

Currently, vaccination against HPV is recommended by the Centers for Disease Control for children and young adults ages 9-26. The vaccination includes a series of two or three injections; the side effects are mild.

Ideally, the vaccinations should be administered before someone becomes sexually active. That’s because HPV is spread via sexual activity. Risk of HPV infection and throat cancer increases with the number of lifetime partners.

Men have a lower immune response to the virus than women, which explains the predilection of this disease for men. It’s difficult to know if someone has an active oral HPV infection because there are no symptoms. Currently, there is no widely accepted test for HPV in men.

Chronic infection leads to cellular changes within the lymphatic tissues in the throat, specifically the tonsils and base of tongue. Over the course of 20-30 years, these changes can result in the formation of cancer.

Throat cancer caused by HPV is insidious. The primary tumor in the tonsil or base of tongue often causes little to no symptoms. Early signs of this cancer may be a mild sore throat, occasional blood-tinged oral saliva, or increased or new snoring.

Often, the first sign of the cancer is a lump in the neck after the cancer has spread into the lymphatic system. The lump may arise quickly and then shrink to varying degrees, lulling one into complacency.

Early stage cancer can be treated with surgery or radiation. More advanced cancers are treated with combined therapy such as surgery followed by radiation therapy, or chemotherapy in conjunction with radiation therapy.

Finally, some good news. Treatment for HPV-related throat cancer is successful in about 90 percent of cases and is significantly more successful than treatment of non-HPV related throat cancer.

But, as successful as medicine has been in treating this cancer, an even better alternative is prevention via vaccination. Initial studies have shown that vaccination produces an immune response to HPV and reduces the rate of HPV infection. Given time and good vaccination coverage, a decline in throat cancer is expected.

In summary, here are a few simple take-home messages: If you have a lump in the neck or a chronic sore throat, don’t procrastinate. Have your doctor check it out. If you are a partner of someone with these symptoms, strongly encourage your partner to see his or her doctor.

If you have children ages 9-17, talk to your pediatrician about HPV vaccination. If you are 18-26 years old, talk to your primary care doctor about vaccination. These simple steps may save your life or the life of your loved one.

Note: Dr. Bryan Fong is the senior practicing head and neck surgical oncologist for Northern California Kaiser Permanente.

February, 2019|Oral Cancer News|

Why salivary diagnostics for dental practices?

Source: www.dentistryiq.com
Author: Barbara Kreuger, MA, RDH

I recently had the opportunity to visit OralDNA Labs and learn more about the process of running salivary diagnostic tests. Admittedly, when I first heard about salivary diagnostics, I didn’t immediately embrace the tests and what they had to offer. I was not convinced that they were necessary, believing they would not change how we treat dental disease.

However, we’ve been fortunate to use salivary diagnostics in practice and see the benefits in our patients firsthand. These tests have proven to be a great addition to our prevention tool box. Salivary diagnostics can play an important role in helping us produce high quality outcomes for patients and create awareness of their oral-systemic risk factors.

Bacterial identification
There are numerous salivary diagnostic tests available. The most widely used test from OralDNA Labs is MyPerioPath, which tests for the 11 pathogens that are known to contribute to periodontal destruction.(1) Once the test reveals which pathogens are contributing to the patient’s periodontal disease, it also offers antibiotic recommendations that target these specific bacteria.

When combined with periodontal maintenance visits and patient homecare, this test can lower a patient’s bacterial load, thus increasing positive outcomes. Retesting has shown that this reduction in bacteria can have a dramatic effect. We’ve seen tough cases—patients who were compliant with homecare but still exhibited clinical signs of periodontal disease—that improved dramatically after being treated with the test’s recommended systemic antibiotic. Periodic monitoring with MyPerioPath combined with periodontal maintenance treatment can help keep patients’ oral health stable.

Genetic predisposition
In addition to bacterial profile testing, various tests from OralDNA labs can tell us a patient’s genetic predisposition toward inflammation. This can reveal one of the reasons why some patients continue to experience periodontal destruction after treatment despite compliance and lower quantities of periodontal pathogens. In addition, much of the research connecting oral health to systemic conditions reveals that it is a patient’s total inflammatory burden that puts someone at risk for a host of health problems.(2,3)

While the patient’s genetic profile cannot be changed, the knowledge that the person has an overactive inflammatory response can help the practitioner and patient understand that there is a need for more frequent continuing care, adjunctive therapies, or treatment with a periodontist. This information can also help patients manage and control their systemic health with the help of their physician.

Caries risk assessment
When we look beyond the patient’s periodontal health, salivary diagnostics can also test for the bacteria that are known to contribute to caries. When we have an objective measure of the quantity and types of cariogenic bacteria in the patient’s mouth, we can once again tailor treatments to reduce his or her caries risk and motivate the patient toward behavioral change. If we then combine the test with a caries risk assessment tool, we can use the test to monitor the effectiveness of these behavior changes. Knowing the patient’s risk allows us to encourage the person to use interventions, such as fluoride to re-mineralize teeth and xylitol to inhibit the bacterial metabolism.

Oral cancer screening
Finally, salivary diagnostics can also test for the presence of various human papillomavirus (HPV) strains that have been shown to cause oral cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, oral cancer will take the lives of 10,860 people this year, and HPV is now seen as the leading cause.(4,5) Early diagnosis is key and increases survival from a dismal 20% when discovered after it has metastasized to distant sites, to 93% when discovered early.(6)

Knowing a patient’s HPV status may prompt us to increase the frequency of someone’s oral cancer screenings, or to use adjunctive diagnostic tools such as oral anomaly detection devices to more closely monitor the patient and potentially catch the cancer at an earlier stage.

More and more research studies are correlating the various bacteria that cause periodontal disease to systemic conditions. The more we understand about a patient’s bacterial load and risk factors, the better equipped we can be to help manage periodontal disease and improve overall health. Salivary diagnostics can help us provide optimal care for patients, increasing our ability to provide them with positive outcomes through tailored treatment and patient education.

Barbara Kreuger, MA, RDH, earned a Bachelor of Science in dental hygiene from the University of Minnesota and holds a Master of Arts in organizational leadership from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota. She spent more than 18 years as a clinical dental hygienist before moving to her current role as dental hygiene senior specialist for Pacific Dental Services. Barbara is currently serving as president of the Minnesota Dental Hygienists’ Association.

References

1. Oral DNA tests. OralDNA website. https://www.oraldna.com/tests.html. Accessed February 1, 2019.
2. Hunter P. The inflammation theory of disease. The growing realization that chronic inflammation is crucial in many diseases opens new avenues for treatment. EMBO Rep. 2012;13(11):968-70.
3. Minihane AM, et al. Low-grade inflammation, diet composition and health: current research evidence and its translation. Brit Jour Nutrition. 2015;114(7):999–1012.
4. Key Statistics for Oral Cavity and Oropharyngeal Cancers. American Cancer Society website. https://www.cancer.org/cancer/oral-cavity-and-oropharyngeal-cancer/about/key-statistics.html. Accessed February 1, 2019.
5. HPV/Oral Cancer Facts. Oral Cancer Foundation website. https://oralcancerfoundation.org/understanding/hpv/hpv-oral-cancer-facts/. Accessed February 1, 2019.
6. Survival Rates for Oral Cavity and Oropharyngeal Cancer. American Cancer Society website. https://www.cancer.org/cancer/oral-cavity-and-oropharyngeal-cancer/detection-diagnosis-staging/survival-rates.html. Accessed February 1, 2019.

February, 2019|Oral Cancer News|

CDC: Top HPV-Associated Cancer Is Now Oropharyngeal

Date: 08/23/18
Source: medscape.com
Author: Nick Mulcahy

Oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is now the most common HPV-associated cancer in the United States, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that covers the years 1999 to 2015.

During that period, cervical cancer dropped from being the top HPV-associated cancer and oropharyngeal SCC took its place.

The transition happened because cervical carcinoma incidence rates decreased 1.6% per year, and oropharyngeal SCC incidence rates increased 2.7% per year among men and 0.8% per year among women.

In 2015, there were a total of 11,788 cervical cancers compared with 18,917 oropharyngeal SCCs.

The decline in cervical cancer is a “continued trend since the 1950s as a result of cancer screening,” write the report authors, led by Elizabeth Van Dyne, MD, MPH, an epidemic intelligence service officer at the CDC.

The uptick in oropharyngeal SCC could be due in part to “changing sexual behaviors,” including unprotected oral sex, especially among white men, who report having the highest number of sexual partners and performing oral sex at a younger age compared with other racial/ethnic groups, the authors say.

Oropharyngeal SCCs include those at the base of tongue, pharyngeal tonsils, anterior and posterior tonsillar pillars, glossotonsillar sulci, anterior surface of soft palate and uvula, and lateral and posterior pharyngeal walls.

The new report was published August 24 in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

The study authors defined HPV-associated cancer as “an invasive malignancy in which HPV DNA was frequently found in special studies.” In other words, the new study data reveal the total number of certain cancers that are associated with — but not necessarily caused by — HPV.

A total of 30,115 new cases of HPV-associated cancers were reported in 1999 and 43,371 in 2015.

Overall, the rate of HPV-associated cancers dropped among women (change, –0.4%) during the study period and rose among men (change, 2.4%).

The CDC analyzed data from their National Program of Cancer Registries and the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program for all years from 1999 to 2015. “These data cover approximately 97.8% of the US population,” say the authors.

However, these two population-based cancer registries have a limitation: They tally invasive cancers but not the HPV status of cancers.

The authors point out HPV causes cervical cancer and “some oropharyngeal, vulvar, vaginal, penile, and anal cancers.”

Table. Annual Change in Type of Cancer From 1999 to 2015

Cancer Type	Average Annual Change (%)
Cervical	–1.6
Vaginal	–0.6
Oropharyngeal in men	2.7
Oropharyngeal in women	0.8
Anal in men	2.1
Anal in women	2.9
Vulvar	1.3

Penile cancer rates remained stable during the study period.

The study authors say that the public health implication of the study is that HPV vaccination “can prevent infection with the HPV types most strongly associated with cancer.”

January, 2019|Oral Cancer News|

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Compiled by The Oral Cancer Foundation