HPV – Page 20 – Oral Cancer News

Recognizing oral carcinoma

Source: nurse-practitioners-and-physician-assistants.advanceweb.com Author: Amber Crossley, MSN, ARNP, FNP-BC Oral carcinoma is identified as one of the top ten cancers worldwide, accounting for nearly 2% to 5% of all cancer cases.1, 2 In 2014, there were an estimated 42,440 new cases of oral and pharyngeal carcinoma. Males have a greater risk of developing the disease compared to females.2 Black males in particular are amongst the highest at-risk group for developing oral carcinoma.2 Oral carcinoma typically develops after the age of 50, with the majority of cases occurring between the ages of 60 and 70.2 When initially diagnosed with oral carcinoma, more than 50% of people will have metastases.3 The most common causes of oral carcinoma are related to tobacco use and alcohol consumption.4 In fact, 75% of all cases of oral carcinoma may be caused by the combination of tobacco and alcohol use.4 However, it has also been extrapolated that chronic trauma to the oral mucosa, such as in the case of ill-fitting dentures or the consumption of high-temperature foods, is a leading modifiable risk factor for oral carcinoma.1,5 Dietary deficiencies of vitamins A, C, E, selenium, and folates may also contribute to the development of malignant cancerous lesions in the oral cavity.6 While cases of oral carcinoma have decreased over the last few years in the United States, oropharyngeal cancer is increasing in incidence.4 The rise in cases of oropharyngeal cancer may be related to viral and infectious diseases; however, the mechanisms are largely unclear. Some of these infections and [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-10-10T09:18:47-07:00October, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Immunotherapy drug a ‘gamechanger’ for head and neck cancer

Source: www.theguardian.com Author: staff An immunotherapy drug hailed as a potential gamechanger in the treatment of cancer could soon offer new hope to patients with currently untreatable forms of the disease. Nivolumab outperformed chemotherapy significantly in keeping relapsed head and neck cancer patients alive. Photograph: Alamy Nivolumab was found to extend the lives of relapsed patients diagnosed with head and neck cancers who had run out of therapy options. After a year of treatment, 36% of trial patients treated with the drug were still alive compared with 17% of those given standard chemotherapy. Trial participants treated with nivolumab typically survived for 7.5 months, and some for longer. Middle-range survival for patients on chemotherapy was 5.1 months. The phase-three study, the last stage in the testing process before a new treatment is licensed, provided the first evidence of a drug improving survival in this group of patients. Prof Kevin Harrington, from the Institute of Cancer Research, London, who led the British arm of the international trial, said: “Nivolumab could be a real gamechanger for patients with advanced head and neck cancer. This trial found that it can greatly extend life among a group of patients who have no existing treatment options, without worsening quality of life. “Once it has relapsed or spread, head and neck cancer is extremely difficult to treat. So it’s great news that these results indicate we now have a new treatment that can significantly extend life, and I’m keen to see it enter the clinic [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-10-09T14:08:46-07:00October, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Particular HPV strain linked to improved prognosis for throat cancer

Source: medicalxpress.com Author: provided by University of North Carolina Health Care When it comes to cancer-causing viruses like human papillomavirus, or HPV, researchers are continuing to find that infection with one strain may be better than another. In an analysis of survival data for patients with a particular type of head and neck cancer, researchers from the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center confirmed findings that a particular strain of HPV, a virus linked to a number of cancers, resulted in better overall survival for patients with oropharyngeal cancer than patients with other strains of the virus in their tumors. They believe their findings, reported in the journal Oral Oncology, are particularly important as physicians move to lessen treatment intensity for patients with HPV-linked oropharyngeal cancer in clinical trials to try to spare them negative side effects of radiation or drugs. They also found that a test used widely to determine patients' HPV status may not be sensitive enough to select patients for de-intensification. "What we demonstrate in this study is that the type of HPV can help us to better determine a patient's prognosis," said the study's senior author Jose P. Zevallos, MD, MPH, an associate member of UNC Lineberger and an associate professor in the UNC School of Medicine. "We think this is important because HPV positive patients do so well generally, and there's been a huge move nationally to take treatment down a couple notches to limit morbidity and side effects. The risk is that [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-09-29T08:04:03-07:00September, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Men with throat cancer will soon outnumber women with cervical cancer In The US

Source: www.houstonpublicmedia.org Author: Carrie Feibel The national increase in cases of oropharyngeal cancer related to the human papilloma virus is troubling, because there is no screening test to catch it early, like the Pap test for cervical cancer. The oropharynx is the area of the throat behind the mouth, and includes the tonsils and the base of the tongue. Oropharyngeal cancer is increasing in both men and women, but for reasons that aren’t well understood, male patients are outnumbering female patients by five to one, according to Dr. Erich Sturgis, a head and neck surgeon at MD Anderson Cancer Center. “It’s usually a man, and he notices it when he’s shaving. He notices a lump there,” Sturgis said. “That lump is actually the spread of the cancer from the tonsil or the base of the tongue to a lymph node. That means it’s already stage three at least.” In the U.S., the number of oropharyngeal cancers caused by HPV are predicted to exceed the number of cervical cancers by 2020, Stugis said. “With cervical cancer, we’ve seen declining numbers well before we had vaccination, and that’s due to the Pap smear being introduced back in the late 50s,” he said. “But we don’t have a screening mechanism for pharynx cancer.” Research on an effective screening test for early-stage pharynx cancer is still underway. The reasons for the disproportionate effect on men are unknown. One theory is that people are engaging in more oral sex, but that doesn’t explain why men [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-09-28T07:20:10-07:00September, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Cancer-Preventing Vaccines Given To Less Than Half Of US Kids

Source: www.houstonpublicmedia.org Author: Carrie Feibel U.S. regulators approved a vaccine to protect against the human papilloma virus (HPV) in 2006, but cancer experts say misconceptions and stigma continue to hamper acceptance by both doctors and parents. Eighty percent of Americans are exposed to the human papilloma virus in their lifetimes. Some strains of HPV can cause genital warts, but most people experience no symptoms and clear the virus from their systems within a year or two. But for an unlucky minority, the virus causes damage that, years later, leads to cervical cancer, throat cancer, and other types. Researchers at MD Anderson are frustrated that ten years after the first vaccine arrived on the market, only 42 percent of U.S. girls, and 28 percent of boys, are getting the three-shot series. The series can be given to girls and boys between the ages of 9 and 26, but the immune response is strongest at younger ages, before sexual activity begins. n 2007, then-Texas governor Rick Perry proposed making the HPV vaccine mandatory for all preteen girls. At the time, the vaccine was only approved and marketed for girls. Dr. Lois Ramondetta, a cervical cancer specialist at MD Anderson, remembers the outcry. “A lot of people felt that was the right idea, but the wrong way to go about it. Nobody really likes being told what to do, especially in Texas,” Ramondetta said. “I think there was a lot of backlash.” Eventually, the legislature rejected Perry’s plan, even though it included an opt-out [...]

Charlotte Parker2016-09-27T11:19:43-07:00September, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

HPV symptoms and health consequences

Source: www.kristv.com Author: Roland Rodriguez No one dreams of walking into his or her doctor’s office and hearing the words "you have been diagnosed with human papillomavirus, or HPV." Unfortunately, this scenario is all too real. HPV is the most common sexually-transmitted infection (STI) in the United States. In fact, it's so common that nearly all sexually active men and women get it at some point in their lives. There are over 100 different kinds of HPV but only some of them can cause serious health problems like genital warts or cancer of the cervix, vagina, vulva or anus. Testing positive for HPV does not automatically mean you will get cancer. Some studies estimate that 50 percent of those infected with HPV will clear the virus within eight months— and 90 percent will be cured within two years. It's only when your immune system isn’t able to fight off the infection that some strains of HPV can persist and possibly lead to cancer. The number of human papilloma virus (HPV)-associated cancers in the United States has increased by 17 percent, to nearly 39,000 cases a year, according to a report released from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While men cannot get HPV-linked cervical cancers, they are particularly vulnerable to HPV-related cancers of the mouth, tongue and throat, called oropharyngeal cancers. According to the new CDC report, the rates of mouth and throat cancers are more than four times higher among males than females. In the past, people always [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-09-20T08:55:25-07:00September, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Incisionless robotic surgery offers promising outcomes for oropharyngeal cancer patients

Source: medicalxpress.com Author: press release, Henry Ford Health System A new study from researchers at Henry Ford Hospital finds an incisionless robotic surgery – done alone or in conjunction with chemotherapy or radiation – may offer oropharyngeal cancer patients good outcomes and survival, without significant pain and disfigurement. Patients with cancers of the base of tongue, tonsils, soft palate and pharynx who underwent TransOral Robotic Surgery, or TORS, as the first line of treatment experienced an average three-year survival from time of diagnosis. Most notably, the study's preliminary results reveal oropharyngeal cancer patients who are p16 negative – a marker for the human papilloma virus, or HPV, that affects how well cancer will respond to treatment – have good outcomes with TORS in combination with radiation and/or chemotherapy. "For non-surgical patients, several studies have shown that p16 positive throat cancers, or HPV- related throat cancers, have better survival and less recurrence than p16 negative throat cancers," says study lead author Tamer Ghanem, M.D., Ph.D., director of Head and Neck Oncology and Reconstructive Surgery Division in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery at Henry Ford Hospital. "Within our study, patients treated with robotic surgery had excellent results and survival, irrespective of their p16 status." Study results will be presented Sunday, Sept. 18 at the 2016 American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) annual meeting in San Diego. Led by Dr. Ghanem, Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit was among the first in the country to perform TORS using the da [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-09-18T06:20:43-07:00September, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Why men need to start caring about HPV

Source: www.refinery29.com Author: Sarah Jacoby The human papillomavirus (HPV) is one of very few STIs that we have a vaccine for. And — bonus! — that vaccine prevents cancer. But a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released last month indicated that although we've made some improvements in the vaccination rates, they still aren't where we want them — especially for boys. This is despite the fact that pretty much everyone who's sexually active will get the virus at some point and men are at risk for their own unique set of HPV-related health consequences. Let's start with the basics: "HPV is a virus that’s sexually transmitted, but it’s incredibly common," explains Kathleen Schmeler, MD, of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Up to 80% of people get it at some point in their lives, she says, which is why some doctors refer to it as the "common cold" of STIs. For most people, the virus goes away on its own, without causing symptoms or needing treatment. Some people develop genital warts that can be treated with medication. But in some rare instances, the virus can go on to cause more serious health issues — including some types of cancer. "The problem is we don't know who’s going to clear it and who won’t," Dr. Schmeler says. Most notably, HPV is known to cause cervical cancer. In fact, nearly all cases of cervical cancer are attributed to HPV. In 2013, the most recent [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-09-11T06:23:50-07:00September, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Expert says Nivolumab Poised to Change Standard of Care in SCCHN

Source: www.onclive.com Author: Laura Panjwani Nivolumab (Opdivo) is a game-changing agent for the treatment of patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN), according to Robert L. Ferris, MD, PhD. “Recent findings have shown us that this agent is really the new standard-of-care option for all platinum-refractory patients with head and neck cancer,” says Ferris, vice chair for Clinical Operations, associate director for Translational Research, and co-leader of the Cancer Immunology Program at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. “This is regardless of whether patients are PD-L1–positive or negative or whether they are HPV-positive or negative.” The PD-L1 inhibitor received a priority review designation by the FDA in July 2016 based on the CheckMate-141 study, which demonstrated a median overall survival (OS) with nivolumab of 7.5 months compared with 5.1 months with investigator's choice of therapy (HR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.51-0.96; P = .0101) in patients with recurrent or metastatic SCCHN. The objective response rate (ORR) was 13.3% with nivolumab and 5.8% for investigator's choice. The FDA is scheduled to make a decision on the application for the PD-1 inhibitor by November 11, 2016, as part of the Prescription Drug User Fee Act. Ferris was the lead author on an analysis that further evaluated preliminary data from CheckMate-141, which was presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting. In an interview with OncLive, he discusses the findings of this study, potential biomarkers for nivolumab, and questions that remain regarding the use of the immunotherapy in SCCHN. OncLive: What [...]

Charlotte Parker2016-08-24T13:28:58-07:00August, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Despite medical backing, HPV vaccine rates remain low amid sexual and moral controversy

Source: www.omaha.com Author: Rick Ruggles, World-Herald staff writer The HPV vaccine can reduce the rates of certain cancers, including many cervical and oral cancers, physicians and medical organizations say. But opposition by some individuals is strong, and HPV vaccination rates remain low when compared with other kinds of vaccinations recommended for adolescents. Because the human papillomavirus is sexually transmitted and seventh grade is considered the ideal time to receive the three-dose vaccine regimen, the issue is rife with sexual and moral implications. Perhaps more potent today, though, are Internet horror stories and concerns about side effects. A World-Herald Facebook request for views on the HPV vaccine generated far more negatives than positives. “NO NO & NO!! There is NO reason for this vaccine,” one wrote. Another called it a “deadly shot.” Two Omaha mothers who were interviewed expressed their belief that it’s wise to have children vaccinated, and said their kids suffered no side effects. But an Iowa man described health problems suffered by his daughter, and he and an Ohio physician believe the girl was injured by the HPV vaccinations. So mediocre are HPV vaccination rates that GSK, the maker of Cervarix, plans to cease distribution of its HPV vaccine in the United States in September. It will continue to supply it in many other nations, such as Great Britain, Germany, France and Mexico. The departure of Cervarix leaves the market to Gardasil, a vaccine produced by Merck. “GSK has made the decision to stop supplying Cervarix ... in [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-07-24T12:18:56-07:00July, 2016|Oral Cancer News|