HPV – Page 13 – Oral Cancer News

Head and neck cancer: Getting a diagnosis of head and neck cancer

Source: www.curetoday.com Author: staff Meryl Kaufman, M.Ed., CCC-SLP, BRS-S, and Itzhak Brook, M.D., M.Sc., board members of the Head and Neck Cancer Alliance, discuss which symptoms should lead one to seek a diagnosis of head and neck cancer and which tests are available to aid in evaluation. Transcript: Meryl Kaufman, M.Ed., CCC-SLP, BRS-S: When we talk about the HPV-related cancers, those are primarily in the oropharynx, which is the tongue base and the tonsil. But the traditional cancers typically can also involve the tongue, the lips, the floor of the mouth, the jaw, the gums and the hard palate. And the pharynx; that includes the nasopharynx behind the nose. We’ve addressed the oropharynx but also the hypopharynx, near the larynx. And in your case, laryngeal cancer that involves the larynx, the voice box, and the epiglottis. So, head and neck cancers can occur in any of those places. Can you talk about some of the signs and symptoms people can look out for in those areas? Itzhak Brook, M.D., M.Sc.: Well, the important signs that are common to oral cancers are having a sore throat, a feeling that you cannot swallow and difficulty in swallowing. In advanced stages, it can interfere with breathing. If you have increased lymph glands in the neck and are also feeling like a lump or something is stuck in your mouth, those could be a sign. Sometimes they have symptoms such as pain in the ear or pain in the throat. And there are specific [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2018-09-04T13:05:12-07:00September, 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|

The surge in throat cancer, especially in men

Source: newswise.com Author: UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center Humanpapilloma virus (HPV) is now the leading cause of certain types of throat cancer. Dr. Michael Moore, director of head and neck surgery at UC Davis and an HPV-related cancer expert, answers some tough questions about the trend and what can be done about it. Q: What is HPV and how is it related to head and neck cancers? A: There are about 150 different types of HPV, but HPV 16 is the one that most frequently causes cancers that affect the tissue in the oropharynx, which includes back of the throat, soft palate, tonsils and the back or base of the tongue. You can get non-cancerous lesions from other types of HPV that look like warts in the nose, mouth or throat, called papillomas. Some can develop in childhood just from exposure early in life. Some develop later in life and only occasionally turn into cancer. Q: How do you get HPV? A: HPV can spread from mother to her baby around the time of delivery. It also spreads through unprotected vaginal, anal or oral sex, and even open-mouth kissing. Some people have been found to be infected without an obvious cause. Q: How does HPV cause cancer? A: Most people who are infected clear the virus on their own. In a small group of people it hangs around and causes a persistent infection. Around 1% of US adults have a persistent HPV 16 infection, and in a small subset of [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2018-08-01T07:56:03-07:00August, 2018|Oral Cancer News|

The UK will give boys cancer-preventing HPV vaccine

Source: www.care2.com Author: Steve Williams The UK has announced that, after a great deal of pressure, it will be making the HPV vaccine available to teenage boys, potentially protecting them from a number of cancers. The vaccine is routinely offered to teenage girls in schools. It has shown an impressive safety record while at the same time driving down cervical, oral and throat cancer rates by protecting young women from sexually transmitted HPV. Campaigners have long said that teenage boys should also be provided the vaccine, because evidence has shown the HPV vaccine can reduce rates of oral, throat, penile and anal cancers. Unfortunately, Public Health England has taken some convincing on this issue, with a cash-strapped National Health Service having to make sure that every investment more than pays its way. Now, the government says it believes the cost is far outweighed by the public health benefit. Dr. Mary Ramsay, Head of Immunisations at Public Health England, is quoted as saying, “This extended programme offers us the opportunity to make HPV related diseases a thing of the past and build on the success of the girls’ programme, which has already reduced the prevalence of HPV 16 and 18, the main cancer-causing types, by over 80 percent.” This change of course comes after the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation said earlier this month that, after careful review, it believed the HPV vaccination program should be extended to boys, as it found “gender-neutral vaccination is highly likely to be cost [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2018-07-30T07:55:48-07:00July, 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|

Changes in cancer staging: what you should know

Source: health.clevelandclinic.org Author: staff When you learn you have cancer, you want to know what to expect: How will doctors treat your illness? How effective is treatment likely to be? Much depends on the way doctors first classify, or “stage,” your cancer, using the official staging manual from the American Joint Committee on Cancer. Staging guidelines continue to evolve as knowledge about individual tumor growth and innovative technologies come into play. An ever-evolving system “Historically, we staged cancers according to tumor size, lymph node involvement and the presence of metastases,” says oncologist Dale Shepard, MD, PhD. “The latest staging manual incorporates new findings on the importance of changes in molecular DNA and tumor genomic profiling. This will affect many patients going forward.” Among those most impacted by changes in staging are people newly diagnosed with breast cancer; head and neck cancer caused by human papillomavirus (HPV); or sarcoma. How staging works “Staging allows us to stratify patients into groups based on anatomic and other criteria. It gives us a framework for understanding the extent of disease,” Dr. Shepard explains. Cancers are staged clinically and pathologically: The clinical stage is determined during the initial workup for cancer. The pathologic stage is determined by studying a surgically removed tumor sample under the microscope. Adds Tumor Registry Manager Kate Tullio, MPH, MS, “Staging helps physicians and other researchers to compare patients with the same types of cancer to each other in a consistent way — so that we might learn more about these cancers and [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2018-07-05T07:45:14-07:00July, 2018|Oral Cancer News|

Doctors push HPV vaccine, Merck asks FDA to expand Gardasil 9 age range

Source: www.drugwatch.com Author: Michelle Llamas, Emily Miller (editor) Doctors, national cancer organizations and 70 nationally recognized cancer centers banded together in June to increase HPV vaccinations and improve cervical cancer screening. But they’re not the only ones pushing for more vaccinations. HPV vaccine maker Merck requested the FDA expand the recommended age range for Gardasil 9. Gardasil 9 is currently the only HPV vaccination available in the U.S. Nearly 80 million Americans get HPV infections each year. Of those people, about 32,500 get HPV-related cancers, according to the CDC. Studies show the HPV vaccine is effective in protecting against the human papilloma virus. The virus can lead to several cancers. These include cervical, vaginal, vulvar, anal, penile or throat cancers. HPV vaccination rates in the U.S. remain low. Doctors and cancer centers say low vaccination rates are a public health threat. “HPV vaccination is cancer prevention,” Dr. Deanna Kepka, assistant professor in the University of Utah’s College of Nursing, said in a statement. “It is our best defense in stopping HPV infection in our youth and preventing HPV-related cancers in our communities.” Right now, the vaccination rate among teens ages 13 to 17 is 60 percent. Doctors are pushing for an 80 percent HPV vaccination rate in pre-teen boys and girls. “[Vaccination] combined with continued screening and treatment for cervical pre-cancers … could see the elimination of cervical cancer in the U.S. within 40 years,” Dr. Richard Wender, chief cancer control officer for the American Cancer Society, said in a [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2018-06-23T08:31:54-07:00June, 2018|Oral Cancer News|

Praised West Palm attorney fought for many, but is now fighting for his life

Source: www.mypalmbeachpost.com Author: Daphne Duret - Palm Beach Post Staff Writer A knock on a door stopped Richard Tendler mid-sentence. His back straightened almost instinctively in his chair, just as it has at the first sign of every verdict. Two decades as a criminal defense attorney in Palm Beach County have taught the 51-year-old West Palm Beach man to never predict how things will go. “I’ve had cases I thought I won come back guilty,” Tendler had said hours earlier. “Then there were cases I was sure I lost, and the jury would come back not guilty.” Another certainty: Tendler knew was that he would go home a free man that night, regardless of his client’s fate. This time was different. Tendler was seated in an examination room at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, where he is one of 10 patients in an exclusive clinical trial for cancer patients whom other doctors have told to prepare to die. Knocking on the door was Dr. Christine Chung, who is treating Tendler and nine others with an immunotherapy regimen as part of a trial that includes 500 patients in the U.S. and around the world. Chung, the chief of head and neck oncology at Moffitt, was ready to deliver her own verdict — on the results of Tendler’s third six-week cycle. She greeted Tendler’s larger-than-usual entourage that day with polite handshakes and a tight smile. After the first two cycles, she said, the treatments have cut in half the size of one [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2018-06-21T19:59:41-07:00June, 2018|Oral Cancer News|

The rise of HPV-related cancers in men

Source: www.tmc.edu Author: Alexandra Becker Scott Courville admired his full beard and round belly in the mirror: He was ready for the upcoming holiday season. It was November 2015 and Courville, who plays Santa Claus in Lafayette, Louisiana, was too excited about his favorite time of year to worry much about the pain developing in his jaw. By February, though, the ache had worsened and was accompanied by new symptoms: white spots on his right tonsil, difficulty swallowing and lumps in his throat. He finally made his way to a walk-in clinic where he was diagnosed with tonsillitis and prescribed antibiotics. “They sent me home and said, ‘In two weeks everything should clear up,’” Courville recalled. But his symptoms only worsened. Courville made an appointment with a local ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist who also diagnosed Courville with tonsillitis. The doctor prescribed more antibiotics and steroids, but two weeks later there were no improvements. Courville was referred to a dentist—“In case they see something we don’t”—but that, too, was a dead end. Courville’s dentist insisted he return to his ENT, where he ultimately had a CT scan that revealed a mass in his throat. That was June 6, 2016. Two days later, Courville underwent a biopsy. When he awoke from the surgery, his doctor was standing over him. Courville always gets choked up retelling this part of his story. “The hardest part for me is always remembering when the doctor said, ‘I’m sorry, but you’ve got cancer.’” Courville was [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2018-06-06T12:31:29-07:00June, 2018|Oral Cancer News|