HPV – Page 35 – Oral Cancer News

New indicator may help Identify patients with increased risk from throat cancer

Source: www.onclive.com Author: staff Patients with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma who had "matted" lymph nodes -- nodes that are connected together -- are more likely to metastasize than those without matted lymph nodes, according to a study published online in the journal Head & Neck. Metastases account for about 45% of the deaths among patients with oropharyngeal carcinoma, wrote Douglas B. Chepeha, MD, MPH, an associate professor of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor. "Our findings may help doctors identify patients who are at higher risk for having their cancer metastasize and who would benefit from additional systemic therapy," he said, adding that the opposite was also true -- those without matted nodes might benefit from reducing therapy. The researchers tracked 78 patients who were part of a clinical trial evaluating 2 cancer drugs with intensity-modulated radiation therapy. All of the treatment-naive patients had stage III-IV squamous cell carcinoma of the oropharynx. Sixteen of the 78 patients had matted nodes. They found that patients with matted nodes had a 69% survival rate over 3 years, compared with 94% for patients without matted nodes. The risk was independent of other prognostic factors, such as the patient's history of smoking, alcohol use, or human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. Matted nodes appear to be an especially strong indicator of increased risk among patients who are HPV-positive. However, HPVpositive patients had better overall outcomes than HPV-negative patients did. The patients with the best outcomes were HPV-positive [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-03-19T07:12:42-07:00March, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Studies underscore genetic complexity of head and neck squamous cell cancers

Source: Dentistry IQ By Maria Perno Goldie, RDH, MS While we should be screening patients for oral and pharyngeal cancer daily, April has been designated as the month when we highlight this disease, and increase awareness about its prevention and treatment. Powerful new technologies that pinpoint the connections between human genes and diseases have clarified the background of cancer, singling out changes in tumor DNA that force the development of certain types of malignancies. Several major biomedical centers have collaborated to study head and neck squamous cell cancer. Their large-scale analysis has revealed a surprising new set of mutations involved in this disease. The studies underscored the genetic complexity of head and neck squamous cell cancers. Two independent, multi-institution research teams identified a large number of genetic defects associated with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), the most common form of head and neck cancer. The researchers sequenced the entire protein-coding regions, or exomes, of the DNA in dozens of patient tissue samples.(1,2) Tobacco use, excessive alcohol consumption, and human papillomavirus (HPV) infection are known risk factors for HNSCC, including cancers occuring in the mouth and throat. The 5-year survival rate for many types of HNSCC has improved little over the past 40 years. According to the authors, the degree of differentiation, or tumor cell grade, has never consistently been shown to be a clinical prognostic factor in HNSCC. They said it was surprising to find mutations in a series of genes that appear to contribute to differentiation. Both [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-03-15T12:57:26-07:00March, 2012|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

Discussing the Horrors of Oral Cancer with Two Survivors

Source: Dentistry IQ Mar 14, 2012 By Kevin Henry Managing Editor, Dental Economics Editor’s Note: I recently had the chance to talk with Christine Brader, a former smoker and three-time oral cancer survivor who lives in Allentown, Pa. She is a volunteer senior patient advocate and a board administrator for the Oral Cancer Foundation. For nearly five years, Brader has been active with the Oral Cancer Foundation’s online public forum. She devotes several hours a day to compassionately helping oral cancer patients with information and support. I discussed her battle against oral cancer as well as her current push to get more dental offices involved in the war against the disease. Brader and Eric Statler (interviewed later in this article) will be featured on the April cover of Dental Economics. Kevin Henry: You survived oral cancer three times. How were you able to overcome? Christine Brader: There aren’t very many three-time cancer survivors out there, especially when we are talking about oral cancer. I believe God saved me for my children. I wasn’t going to do any kind of surgery because I really didn’t think I was going to survive the third round of oral cancer within three years. I knew the surgery would be bad; I was Stage IV and needed my jaw removed. I knew I would probably end up disfigured. It’s hard to do something when you know your looks are going to be gone overnight and you’re not guaranteed that you will survive, but I knew [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-03-14T16:30:53-07:00March, 2012|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

Oral HPV infection affects 7% of the US population

Source: www.onclive.com Author: Ben Leach Approximately 7% of Americans are infected with oral human papillomavirus (HPV), and men are 3 times as likely to be infected as women, according to an analysis that helps define a leading factor in the rise of oropharyngeal cancer. The findings of the HPV prevalence study were presented at the Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Symposium in Phoenix, Arizona, in January and concurrently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.1 The cross-sectional study was based on samples taken from 5579 men and women between the ages of 14 to 69 years that were obtained at mobile examination centers as part of the National Health And Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2009-2010. The samples were obtained through an oral rinse and gargle, with subsequent DNA samples used to determine HPV type. Demographic data were obtained using standardized interviews. HPV prevalence in the overall study population was 6.9% (95% confidence interval [CI], 5.7%-8.3%). HPV type 16, which accounts for 90% of HPVpositive oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas, was the most common form, affecting 1.0% of the study population (95% CI, 0.7%-1.3%). Prevalence of HPV was significantly higher in men versus women (10.1% [95% CI, 8.3%- 12.3%] for men compared with 3.6% [95% CI, 2.6%- 5.0%] for women; P < .001]). Sexual contact was identified as a major factor in the rate of infection, with 7.5% of those who had experienced any form of sexual contact (95% CI, 6.1%-9.1%) infected, compared with 0.9% (95% CI, 0.4%-1.8%; P < .001) [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-03-14T12:09:29-07:00March, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

New Throat Cancer Gene Uncovered

Source: Science Daily Researchers at King's College London and Hiroshima University, Japan, have identified a specific gene linked to throat cancer following a genetic study of a family with 10 members who have developed the condition. The study, published March 8 in the American Journal of Human Genetics, uncovered a mutation in the ATR gene, demonstrating the first evidence of a link between abnormality in this gene and an inherited form of cancer. The researchers say this finding raises new ideas about genetic factors linked to throat cancer and provides a platform for exploring the role of ATR more generally in cancer biology. Scientists carried out a genome-wide linkage study in a US family with an unusual hereditary condition affecting 24 members of the family over five generations. Characteristics include developmental abnormalities of hair, teeth and nails as well as dilated skin blood vessels. Strikingly, nearly every person with the condition involved in the study had developed throat cancer (oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma) in their 20s or 30s. The team took blood samples from 13 members of the affected family, as well as samples from 13 unaffected people. After analysing these samples they found a single mutation in ATR was present in all the people with the condition, but none of the unaffected people had the mutation. Ten of the 13 people with the condition had developed throat cancer. Professor John McGrath from the King's College London Genetic Skin Disease Group at St John's Institute of Dermatology, based at Guy's [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-03-09T15:03:16-07:00March, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

HPV exposure increases men’s risk of cancer

Source: http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/ Author: Zen Vuong “We’re at the precipice of this epidemic,” said Dr. Ezra Cohen, who specializes in head and neck cancers. The culprit is sexually-transmitted human papillomavirus-16. Human papillomavirus-positive head and neck cancer cases have been rising about 3 percent every year for the last three decades, said Cohen of The University of Chicago Medicine, an institution that includes the University of Chicago Hospitals. HPV-16 infection is three times more likely in men than in women, he added. Cells of the upper respiratory system of both men and women are very similar to the surface of the cervix in women, said Dr. Kenneth Alexander, chief of infectious diseases at The University of Chicago Medicine. HPV is linked to cervical cancer as well. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 10,800 new cases of HPV-associated cervical cancer in the United States each year. This number is nearly 35 percent larger than the 7,100 cases of HPV-associated head and neck cancers found in the United States each year. Oral sex is “probably the most important risk factor” in contracting HPV-16-related head and neck cancer, which “will become more common than cervical cancer in this decade,” he added. Some 5,600 men are diagnosed with HPV-associated head and neck cancers each year, whereas only 1,500 women suffer the same fate, according to the CDC. HPV-16, one of more than 150 strains, is a sexually transmitted condition. More than 40 HPV types can be sexually transmitted, according to the National Cancer Institute. [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-03-07T15:30:30-07:00March, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Robotic surgery less invasive on HPV-related oral cancers

Source: Dr.Bicuspid.com March 1, 2012 -- Robotic surgery conducted through patients' mouths provides excellent results in removing squamous cell carcinoma at the back of the throat, especially in patients with HPV, according to a new Mayo Clinic study (Mayo Clinic Proceedings, March 2012, Vol. 87(3), pp. 211-212). "We were surprised that the cancer cure results were even better than the traditional treatments that we have been doing, but that is probably almost as much of a matter that these cancers are HPV-mediated for the most part, and they respond much better to treatment," said study author Eric Moore, MD, a head and neck surgeon at Mayo Clinic. "Importantly, the treatment preserved patients' ability to swallow, and their speech performance was excellent." Dr. Moore and his team followed 66 patients with oropharyngeal cancer who underwent transoral robotic surgery with the da Vinci robotic surgical system. Every few months, the patients underwent imaging studies, scans, and exams to determine if cancer was recurring. After two years, the researchers found that the patients' survival rates were greater than 92%, which is as high as some other surgical and nonsurgical treatments for oropharyngeal cancer. Because traditional surgery techniques to remove throat tumors can be traumatic, requiring cutting and reconstructing the mandible, neck, and tongue, the researchers were also interested in patients' healing after robotic surgery. "We found that with transoral robotic surgery, 96% of patients could swallow a normal diet within three weeks of treatment," Dr. Moore said. Less than 4% required a gastrostomy [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-03-01T16:21:18-07:00March, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Evaluation of a combined triple method to detect causative HPV in oral and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas: p16 Immunohistochemistry, Consensus PCR HPV-DNA, and In Situ Hybridization

Source: 7thspace.com Recent emerging evidences identify Human Papillomavirus (HPV) related Head and Neck squamous cell carcinomas (HN-SCCs) as a separate subgroup among Head and Neck Cancers with different epidemiology, histopathological characteristics, therapeutic response to chemo-radiation treatment and clinical outcome. However, there is not a worldwide consensus on the methods to be used in clinical practice. The endpoint of this study was to demonstrate the reliability of a triple method which combines evaluation of: 1. p16 protein expression by immunohistochemistry (p16-IHC); 2. HPV-DNA genotyping by consensus HPV-DNA PCR methods (Consensus PCR); and 3 viral integration into the host by in situ hybridization method (ISH). This triple method has been applied to HN-SCC originated from oral cavity (OSCC) and oropharynx (OPSCC), the two anatomical sites in which high risk (HR) HPVs have been clearly implicated as etiologic factors. Methylation-Specific PCR (MSP) was performed to study inactivation of p16-CDKN2a locus by epigenetic events. Reliability of multiple methods was measured by Kappa statistics. Results: All the HN-SCCs confirmed HPV positive by PCR and/or ISH were also p16 positive by IHC, with the latter showing a very high level of sensitivity as single test (100% in both OSCC and OPSCC) but lower specificity level (74% in OSCC and 93% in OPSCC).Concordance analysis between ISH and Consensus PCR showed a faint agreement in OPSCC (kappa = 0.38) and a moderate agreement in OSCC (kappa = 0.44). Furthermore, the addition of double positive score (ISHpositive and Consensus PCR positive) increased significantly the specificity of HR-HPV detection on [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-02-29T17:24:29-07:00February, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Canadian provinces weighing HPV vaccination of boys

Source: www.cmaj.ca/ Author: Laura Eggertson Provinces weighing the merits of implementing the National Advisory Committee on Immunization's recommendation to offer human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine to boys and men aged 9–26 are facing a tricky trade-off between benefits and costs. “I think the benefits are there, but the costs are high,” which is a crucial issue for publicly funded programs, says Dr. Monika Naus, medical director of immunization programs and vaccine-preventable diseases for the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control. The National Advisory Committee on Immunization last month recommended extending the human papillomavirus vaccine to boys and men aged 9 to 26 “for the prevention of anal intraepithelial neoplasia (AIN) grades 1, 2, and 3, anal cancer, and anogenital warts”. The move followed on the heels of an October 2011 recommendation from United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel recommendation that HPV vaccine be given to boys aged 11–12 to ward off genital warts, anal cancer and “possibly” head and neck cancer. In deciding whether to proceed, the provinces should note that “the public health and economic burden of AGWs [anogenital warts] in Canada is considerable, particularly among men whose incidence rates and incidence rate ratios compared to females have been increasing in recent years,” the committee stated. The committee’s report also noted that the number of annual cases (and average annual incidence per 100 000) of penile cancer among men in Canada is 127.4 (1.0 per 100 000), while the number for cancer of the anus is [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-02-26T10:01:29-07:00February, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

HPV and on HPV oral cancers need to be treated differently to reduce toxicity and improve out comes in each type

The National Cancer Institute In a large randomized European clinical trial, accelerated radiation therapy for locally advanced, inoperable head and neck cancer—given either with or without chemotherapy—did not prolong the time to disease progression compared with standard radiation therapy plus concurrent chemotherapy, which has been the standard of care in Europe and the United States. Results from the study were published online January 18 in Lancet Oncology. Another trial published in 2010, by the U.S. Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG), showed similar results, but the two research teams have drawn different conclusions, which will affect ongoing clinical trials and, potentially, future research collaborations. The researchers, from the European Groupe d'Oncologie Radiothérapie Tête et Cou (GORTEC), compared two experimental regimens with standard chemoradiotherapy in the trial, called GORTEC 99-02. All participating patients had stage III or stage IV head and neck squamous-cell carcinoma that had not metastasized but that could not be removed surgically. The 244 patients in the conventional chemoradiotherapy arm received three cycles of chemotherapy with the drugs carboplatin and fluorouracil plus 70 Gy of radiation given over the standard 7 weeks. In one experimental arm, 245 patients received "accelerated chemoradiotherapy," which consisted of two cycles of the same chemotherapy drugs plus radiation therapy accelerated by 1 week. In the second experimental arm, 242 patients received only "very accelerated" radiation therapy, which consisted of a total dose of 64.8 Gy given over 3.5 weeks. The GORTEC trial results are somewhat difficult to interpret because the trial "didn't change just one variable, it changed two—in addition to the radiation regimen, it also changed the chemotherapy," explained Dr. Bhadrasain [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-02-16T15:19:01-07:00February, 2012|Oral Cancer News|