HPV – Page 16 – Oral Cancer News

HPV and cancer: Key mechanism may suggest treatment

Source: www.medicalnewstoday.com Author: Maria Cohut New research from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., investigates how the human papillomavirus promotes cancer. The findings might point to a potential new and improved strategy for targeted treatment. The human papillomavirus (HPV) refers to a group of viruses transmitted through sexual contact. Some types of HPV cause various kinds of cancer, including mouth, anus, and cervical cancer. According to data from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), around 1 in 4 people in the United States are infected with HPV. Although treatments for HPV-related conditions do exist, they either target non-cancerous outcomes (such as genital warts) or they focus on the prevention of cancer through screening of abnormal cell activity. Treatments for cancers caused by HPV include surgical interventions and chemotherapy, but at present, none of the options specifically address the viral source. Researchers from Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C., have now identified the mechanism that promotes the survival of cancerous cells due to HPV. The study, which was led by Dr. Xuefeng Liu, describes a molecular apparatus that renders cancer cells "immortal." Understanding how this apparatus works may lead to better targeted treatments in the future, the researcher suggests. "There is no targeted treatment now for these cancers since German virologist Harald zur Hausen, Ph.D., discovered in 1983 that HPV can cause cervical cancer," says Dr. Liu. "Recently," he adds, "the numbers of HPV-linked head and neck cancers have increased in the U.S. Now we have a chance to [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2017-10-02T10:24:34-07:00October, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

B.C. to begin providing free HPV vaccines for Grade 6 boys

Source: ctvnews.ca Author: Darcy Matheson Date: September 26, 2017 For the first time in British Columbia, boys in Grade 6 will be receiving free vaccinations for the Human Papillomavirus. HPV is one of the most commonly sexually transmitted infections and B.C. health authorities say three out of four sexually active people will get it at some point in their lives. Often showing no physical symptoms, HPV can lead to cervical, vaginal, and vulvar cancers in women and penile cancer in men – and can also cause anal and throat cancer in both men and women. Up until now, the vaccine to protect against HPV was only provided free to girls in Grade 6, with the assumption that boys would be indirectly protected through “herd immunity.” Vancouver Coastal Health will soon be sending out letters to parents and caregivers through children's schools regarding upcoming clinics for both girls and boys. People can also be immunized through health-care providers, family doctors and local public health units. Dr. Meena Dawar, medical health officer for Vancouver Coastal Health, said that immunizations are key because the symptom-less virus is often passed onto others without knowing it. “Most often an HPV infection will clear on its own but sometimes HPV won’t go away and cells infected with the virus can become cancerous," Dawar said in a statement. Cancer survivor Sandy Yun had her 14-year-old daughter immunized as part of the B.C. program. She was going to pay for her 11-year-old son to get the vaccine but now she [...]

Charlotte Parker2017-10-29T20:12:48-07:00September, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

Treatment That’s Easy to Swallow in HPV+ Throat Cancer

Source: Medscape.com Author: Nick Mulcahy Date: September 27, 2017 SAN DIEGO, California ― Daniel Ma, MD, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, treats a lot of relatively young patients with human papillomavirus (HPV)-related oropharyngeal cancers who are cured by various standard combinations of surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy and then have "another 30 to 40 years of life ahead of them." But that life expectancy can be marred by the "potentially life-altering side effects" of standard treatment, including dry mouth, loss of taste, and, in about one half of patients, difficulty swallowing, he said. These patients inspired the genesis of Dr. Ma's phase 2 study of an "aggressive dose de-escalation" of adjuvant radiation in this setting, he said. The investigators evaluated experimental radiation doses of 30 to 36 Gy, which is a 50% reduction from the current standard of 60 to 66 Gy. At a median of 2 years' follow-up among 80 patients, the treatment de-escalation has resulted in locoregional control rates comparable to historical controls, low toxicity, and, perhaps most notably, no decrement in swallowing function or quality of life, Dr. Ma reported here at the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) 2016 Annual Meeting. The toxicity and swallowing results are "the most exciting data," Dr. Ma told a standing-room-only crowd at a meeting session today. "It's the first clinical trial in head and neck cancer to demonstrate no injury to swallowing function after radiation," he told Medscape Medical News. In other words, patients' ability to swallow was no [...]

Charlotte Parker2017-10-29T20:12:22-07:00September, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

Halving radiation therapy for HPV-related throat cancer offers fewer side effects, similar outcomes

Source: www.eurekalert.org Author: Mayo Clinic press release Mayo Clinic researchers have found that a 50 percent reduction in the intensity and dose of radiation therapy for patients with HPV-related throat cancer reduced side effects with no loss in survival and no decrease in cure rates. Results of a phase II study were presented today at the 59th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology in San Diego by Daniel Ma, M.D. a radiation oncologist at Mayo Clinic. "A common approach for treating HPV-related throat cancer is a combination of surgery followed by daily radiation therapy for six to 6½ weeks," says Dr. Ma. "However, the radiation treatment can cause a high degree of side effects, including altered taste, difficulty swallowing, dry mouth, stiff neck and damage to the jaw bone." Dr. Ma says that patients with HPV-related throat cancer tend to be young and, once treated, are likely to live a long time with possibly life-altering side effects from the standard treatment. "The goal of our trial was to see if an aggressive reduction of radiation therapy (two weeks of radiation twice daily) could maintain excellent cure rates, while significantly reducing posttreatment side effects, improving quality of life and lowering treatment costs." Researchers followed 80 patients with HPV-related oropharyngeal squamous cell cancer with no evidence of residual disease following surgery and a smoking history of 10 or fewer pack years. That's the number of years smoking multiplied by the average packs of cigarettes smoked per day. At two [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2017-09-26T07:17:21-07:00September, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

What’s next after creating a cancer-prevention vaccine?

Source: www.scientificamerican.com Author: Dina Fine Maron A winner of this year’s Lasker Awards talks about his work with HPV Imagine a vaccine that protects against more than a half-dozen types of cancer—and has a decade of data and experience behind it. We have one. It’s the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, and it was approved for the U.S. market back in June 2006. It can prevent almost all cervical cancers and protect against cancers of the mouth, throat and anus. It also combats the sexually transmitted genital warts that some forms of the virus can cause. On Wednesday, two researchers who completed fundamental work on these vaccines received one of this year’s prestigious Lasker Awards, a group of medical prizes sometimes called the “American Nobels.” Douglas Lowy and John Schiller, whose research provided the basis for the HPV vaccine, were selected alongside a researcher who separately unraveled key aspects of metabolic control of cell growth. Planned Parenthood was also given an award, for its public service. Lowy and Schiller, who both work at the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI), received the Lasker for their research on animal and human papillomaviruses—work that enabled the development of a vaccine against HPV-16 type, a form of the virus that fuels many HPV malignancies. The duo’s experiments proved that the vaccine is effective in animals, and they also conducted the first clinical trial of an HPV-16 vaccine in humans. That gave pharmaceutical companies the evidence they needed to invest in their own vaccines designed to [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2017-09-06T08:08:49-07:00September, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

Why HPV Vaccination Rates Remain Low in Rural States

Source: TechnologyReview.com Author: Emily Mullin Date: September 1, 2017 Mandi Price never thought she’d be diagnosed with cancer at age 24. She was a healthy college student finishing her senior year when, during a regular Pap smear, her gynecologist found abnormal cells in her cervix. It was stage II cervical cancer. Even more devastating was the fact that her cancer was preventable. Doctors detected a strain of human papillomavirus, the most common sexually transmitted infection in the U.S., in Price’s cancer cells. That strain of HPV is targeted by a vaccine called Gardasil. But Price never got the vaccine. Her primary care doctor didn’t recommend it when she was a teenager growing up in Washington state. Had she received it before becoming infected with HPV, she wouldn’t have gotten cancer. Price dropped out of her classes to get treatment. She needed surgery to remove the tumor from her cervix, then underwent chemotherapy and radiation to kill any remaining cancerous tissue. At her one-year follow-up appointment, doctors found that the cancer had spread. She endured chemotherapy for another six months. Now, at 29, Price is in remission and is working in Los Angeles. “Most of my 20s comprised being in a hospital. It was isolating,” she says. Merck’s Gardasil vaccine was considered a breakthrough when it was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in June 2006. It was the first vaccine to protect against several cancers. But more than a decade after the vaccine came out, vaccination rates [...]

Charlotte Parker2017-10-29T20:13:32-07:00September, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

HPV-related oral cancers have risen significantly in Canada

Source: www.ctvnews.ca Author: Sheryl Ubelacker, The Canadian Press The proportion of oral cancers caused by the human papillomavirus has risen significantly in Canada, say researchers, who suggest the infection is now behind an estimated three-quarters of all such malignancies. In a cross-Canada study, published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, the researchers found the incidence of HPV-related oropharyngeal cancers increased by about 50 per cent between 2000 and 2012. "It's a snapshot of looking at the disease burden and the time trend to see how the speed of the increase of this disease (is changing)," said co-author Sophie Huang, a research radiation therapist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto. Researchers looked at data from specialized cancer centres in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Nova Scotia to determine rates of HPV-related tumours among 3,643 patients aged 18 years or older who had been diagnosed with squamous cell oropharyngeal cancer between 2000 and 2012. HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection worldwide. Most people never develop symptoms and the infection resolves on its own within about two years. "In 2000, the proportion of throat cancer caused by HPV was estimated at 47 per cent," said Huang. "But in 2012, the proportion became 74 per cent ... about a 50 per cent increase." Statistics from a Canadian Cancer Society report last fall showed 1,335 Canadians were diagnosed in 2012 with HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer and 372 died from the disease. HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection worldwide. Most people [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2017-08-14T12:10:46-07:00August, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

No HPV Vaccination for Boys in UK

Source: Peter Russell Date: July 20, 2017 Source: www.medscape.com Health bodies are condemning a decision not to include boys in the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccination programme as "shameful" and a "missed opportunity". The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has concluded that it "did not recommend vaccinating boys at this time as it was considered unlikely to be cost-effective". Girls aged 12 to 13 have routinely been offered the HPV jab since September 2008 as part of the NHS childhood vaccination programme. The JCVI has been considering whether to include boys on the scheme since 2014. Protection Against Some Cancers HPV is the name for a group of viruses that are most commonly passed on through genital contact between straight and same-sex partners. It is a very common infection. Almost every sexually active person will get HPV at some time in their lives. Most people who get HPV never develop symptoms or health problems, but for some it can lead to cancer of the cervix, vulva, vagina, penis, anus, and head and neck, as well as cause genital warts. According to health professionals, the virus has been linked to 1 in 20 cases of cancer in the UK. Campaigners in favour of giving boys the jab argue that HPV does not discriminate between the sexes and that offering the vaccine to boys in school would save lives. 'Few Additional Benefits' The JCVI has decided that a high take-up of the vaccine among girls would provide 'herd protection' to [...]

Charlotte Parker2017-08-01T08:42:02-07:00August, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

Transoral robotic surgery cuts patient recovery time

Source: exclusive.multibriefs.com Author: Carolina Pickens Oral cancer is diagnosed in almost 50,000 Americans each year and has a 57 percent survivability rate past five years, according to research from the Oral Cancer Foundation. 3D illustration of surgical robot The number of diagnoses has been fairly constant in oral and pharyngeal cancer for decades, but survivability has actually gone up slightly in the last 10 years. This can be attributed to the increasing percentage of patients with dental insurance attending annual appointments (when oral cancer is most often recognized and diagnosed earlier), the spread of HPV-related oral cancer (which is easier to treat) and advances in diagnostic tools for dentists and oral specialists. These advancements aren't limited to recognizing oral and throat cancer; strides in scientific approaches for surgical treatment are changing the way specialists treat oral phalangeal cancers. For example, Nepean Hospital of New South Wales has seen drastic improvement in patients' quality of life and surgical recovery time by performing transoral robotic surgery (TORS) with the da Vinci System. This technology provides surgeons the tools needed to perform successful, minimally-invasive surgeries for patients with T1 or T2 throat cancers. "Without the robot, tongue and throat cancers are among the most difficult tumors to surgically remove," said Dr. Chin, an otolaryngology, head and neck surgeon at the hospital. Previous surgical methods required surgeons cut into the neck to access tumors in the throat and back of the mouth — and operations would often last for up to 12 [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2017-07-30T14:52:05-07:00July, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

Plan not to give HPV vaccine to boys causes concern

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/health-40658791 Date: July 19th, 2017 A decision not to vaccinate boys against a cancer-causing sexually transmitted infection has attracted fierce criticism. Reported cases of human papilloma virus (HPV) - thought to cause about 80% of cervical cancers - have fallen sharply since girls were given the vaccine. But the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) found little evidence to justify treating boys too. Critics said vaccinating boys could help reduce the risk still further. Across the UK, all girls aged 12-13 are offered HPV vaccination as part of the NHS childhood vaccination programme. Mary Ramsay, head of immunisation at Public Health England, said: "Evidence from around the world suggests that the risk of HPV infection in males is dramatically reduced by achieving high uptake of the HPV vaccine among girls. "While there are some additional benefits to vaccinating both males and females, the current models indicate that extending the programme to boys in the UK, where the uptake in adolescent girls is consistently high (over 85%), would not represent a good use of NHS resources." This initial recommendation by JCVI will now be subject to a public consultation and a final decision will be made in October. The British Dental Association said it would urge the committee to reconsider the evidence. The chair of the BDA, Mick Armstrong, said: "HPV has emerged as the leading cause of oropharyngeal cancers, so JCVI's unwillingness to expand the vaccination programme to boys is frankly indefensible." Shirley Cramer of the Royal Society [...]

Charlotte Parker2017-07-19T09:44:49-07:00July, 2017|Oral Cancer News|