HPV – Page 40 – Oral Cancer News

Can HPV vaccine stop throat cancer?

Source: children.webmd.com Author: Daniel J. DeNoon, WebMD Health News (Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD) HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccines protect against the sexually transmitted strains of HPV that cause cervical cancer. The same HPV strains -- spread by kissing and by oral sex -- cause oropharyngeal (OP) cancer, the form of head and neck cancer that affects the back and sides of the throat, the base of the tongue, and the tonsils. There's strong evidence that HPV vaccines prevent cervical cancer. There's no direct proof that these vaccines prevent throat cancer, but the rapid rise in cases among young people has some experts wanting to vaccinate first and get proof later. "We don't need to wait until all these molecular events are understood," Dong Moon Shin, MD, of Emory University's Winship Cancer Center, tells WebMD. "The time is now. For the HPV vaccine, cost is the only issue as side effects are minimal. Routine HPV vaccination has to be implemented very soon, for both boys and girls." In the U.S., that recommendation is made by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). The ACIP now recommends routine HPV vaccination only for girls and young women in order to prevent cervical cancer. It permits vaccination of boys who want protection against HPV-caused genital warts. For two years, the ACIP has been mulling whether to recommend the HPV vaccine for boys. This would help prevent cervical cancer in unvaccinated women. It also would prevent HPV-related anal cancer and genital warts in both men [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-06-25T08:44:16-07:00June, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Can HPV Vaccine Prevent Oral Cancer?

Source: WebMD.com June 23, 2011 -- Can HPV vaccines stop the explosive rise of HPV-related head and neck cancer? HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccines protect against the sexually transmitted strains of HPV that cause cervical cancer. The same HPV strains -- spread by kissing and by oral sex -- cause oropharyngeal (OP) cancer, the form of head and neck cancer that affects the back and sides of the throat, the base of the tongue, and the tonsils. There's strong evidence that HPV vaccines prevent cervical cancer. There's no direct proof that these vaccines prevent throat cancer, but the rapid rise in cases among young people has some experts wanting to vaccinate first and get proof later. "We don't need to wait until all these molecular events are understood," Dong Moon Shin, MD, of Emory University's Winship Cancer Center, tells WebMD. "The time is now. For the HPV vaccine, cost is the only issue as side effects are minimal. Routine HPV vaccination has to be implemented very soon, for both boys and girls." In the U.S., that recommendation is made by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). The ACIP now recommends routine HPV vaccination only for girls and young women in order to prevent cervical cancer. It permits vaccination of boys who want protection against HPV-caused genital warts. For two years, the ACIP has been mulling whether to recommend the HPV vaccine for boys. This would help prevent cervical cancer in unvaccinated women. It also would prevent HPV-related anal cancer and [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-06-24T08:50:47-07:00June, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Michael Douglas Continues to Put Oral Cancer in the Spotlight

Source: Dr.Biscupid.com Actor Michael Douglas' recent revelation that he had stage IV oropharyngeal cancer has highlighted the growing incidence of oral cancer, and experts say dentists can help stem the alarming increase of the disease by checking for it during routine examinations. The actor's cancer included a walnut-sized tumor at the base of his tongue, requiring radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and surgery. Douglas says his doctors told him he had an 80% survival rate if it hadn't spread to his lymph nodes. While tobacco was the prime cause of oral cancer in the past, recent studies have attributed the steady increase of the disease to the human papillomavirus (HPV16). There are approximately 130 versions of HPV but only nine cause cancers, and the HPV16 version causes almost half of the oral cancers in the U.S., said Brian Hill, executive director of the Oral Cancer Foundation. "Tobacco is no longer the only bad guy," he told DrBicuspid.com. “HPV16 is increasing in incidence as the causative etiology, and if it continues on this trend line, it will replace tobacco as the primary cause of oral cancers." Dentists can play a key role in catching the disease in its early stages if they check for it during examinations, Hill pointed out. "But many dentists think it's such a rare disease that they don't bother to screen for it," he said. "Most Americans have never even heard of oral cancer, but it's not as rare or uncommon as people would like to think it is. [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-06-23T20:17:05-07:00June, 2011|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

Early effect of the HPV vaccination programme on cervical abnormalities in Victoria, Australia: an ecological study

Source: The Lancet Summary: Background Australia introduced a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programme with the quadrivalent HPV vaccine for all women aged 12—26 years between 2007 and 2009. We analysed trends in cervical abnormalities in women in Victoria, Australia, before and after introduction of the vaccination program. Methods With data from the Victorian Cervical Cytology Registry between 2003 and 2009, we compared the incidence of histopathologically defined high-grade cervical abnormalities (HGAs, lesions coded as cervical intraepithelial neoplasia of grade 2 or worse or adenocarcinoma in situ; primary outcome) and low-grade cytological abnormalities (LGAs) in five age groups before (Jan 1, 2003, to March 31, 2007) and after (April 1, 2007, to Dec 31, 2009) the vaccination programme began. Binary comparisons between the two periods were done with Fisher's exact test. Poisson piecewise regression analysis was used to compare incident rate trends. Findings After the introduction of the vaccination programme, we recorded a decrease in the incidence of HGAs by 0·38% (95% CI 0·61—0·16) in girls younger than 18 years. This decrease was progressive and significantly different to the linear trend in incidence before introduction of the vaccination (incident rate ratio 1·14, 1·00—1·30, p=0·05). No similar temporal decline was recorded for LGAs or in older age groups. Interpretation This is the first report of a decrease in incidence of HGAs within 3 years after the implementation of a population-wide HPV vaccination programme. Linkage between vaccination and screening registers is needed to confirm that this ecological observation is attributable to vaccination and [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-06-20T10:53:42-07:00June, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Finally, a selfish reason to get boys vaccinated for HPV

Source: www.slate.com Author: Kent Sepkowitz A vaccine that prevents cancer is the dream of just about every patient, doctor, and public health official. Therefore, hopes were quite high five years ago, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a vaccine to prevent human papillomavirus, or HPV, a sexually transmitted virus that causes almost all cases of cervical cancer. But despite its clear efficacy, the vaccine has been something of a dud. According to a 2008 survey, only 34 percent of the target crowd, girls aged 13 to 17 years, had received it. The reasons for the slow uptake relate to generic vaccine issues (cost, pain, distrust) as well as a particular discomfort with this one, dubbed the "sex vaccine" by many conservatives, who object to it on the grounds that it somehow promotes licentious behavior (as if it were possible to make teenagers any hornier). However, a new study presented at last week's annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncologists makes the vaccine look even more valuable. Though preliminary and still unpublished, these findings have the potential to finally shift the perception that HPV is a woman's problem and convince parents to get their boys vaccinated against the virus, too. The researchers make the most compelling case to date that HPV causes yet another malignancy—oropharyngeal cancer, a disease that affects men three times more often than women. (It's a subcategory of "oral" or "head and neck" cancer, which also predominantly affect men.) Their work appears to have [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-06-17T12:56:58-07:00June, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Cellular p16 localization and survival outcomes in head and neck cancer.

Source: ASCO.org Background: Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) constitutes approximately 3-5 percent of all cancers. Recent data suggest an increasing incidence rate among younger people who are often non-smokers and non-drinkers, which are believed to be caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. HPV positive tumors are typically found in the oropharynx and have better response to treatment and better disease outcome despite more advanced nodal stages. Therefore, HPV-positive HNSCCs represent a unique clinical subgroup with a separate tumor entity. Methods: Patients treated for HNSCC from 2002 to 2006 at UNC hospitals and had banked tissue available were eligible for this study. Tissue microarrays (TMA) were generated in triplicate. Immunohistochemical (IHC) staining for p16 was performed and scored separately for nuclear staining and cytoplasmic staining. Human papilloma virus (HPV) staining was also carried out using monoclonal antibody E6H4. P16 expression, HPV status and other clinical features were correlated with progression-free (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Results: 135 patients had sufficient sample for this analysis. Median age of diagnosis was 57 years (range 20-82), with 68.9% males, 8.9% never smokers and 32.6 % never drinkers. 3 year OS rate and PFS rate was 63.0% and 54.1% respectively. Based on the p16 staining score, patients were divided into three groups: high nuclear any cytoplasmic staining group (HNAC), low nuclear low cytoplasmic staining group (LNLC) and low nuclear high cytoplasmic staining group (LNHC). HNAC and LNLC groups had significantly better overall survival than LNHC groups with hazard ratios of 0.01 and 0.37 [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-06-03T12:35:21-07:00June, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Head and Neck Cancers Linked to HPV are on the Rise

Source: The Wall Street Journal A form of head and neck cancer associated with the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus is on the rise, especially in men, the WSJ reports. Fast-rising rates of oropharyngeal cancer — tumors in the tonsil and back-of-the-tongue area — have been linked to changes in sexual behavior that include the increased practice of oral sex and a greater number of sexual partners. But HPV-positive cancer has also been reported in individuals who report few or no sexual partners. It may also be possible for the virus to be transmitted to an infant via an infected mother’s birth canal. An HPV vaccine is routinely recommended for girls because the virus can cause cervical cancer. The rise in HPV-positive head and neck cancers is leading to a new focus both on treatment of the disease, and whether recommending routine vaccination for boys could prevent oral infections and cancers. (A CDC advisory panel said in 2009 that it was fine for boys to get the vaccine, but recommended against routine administration.) Eric Genden, chief of head and neck oncology at Mt. Sinai Medical Center, tells the Health Blog that when treated appropriately, patients with HPV-positive cancers have an 85% to 90% disease-free survival rate over five years. By contrast, patients with HPV-negative head and neck cancers, which are often associated with smoking and drinking, typically have more advanced disease when the cancer is detected and face a five-year survival rate of only 25% to 40%, Genden says. HPV-induced head [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-05-31T11:00:57-07:00May, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Boys and HPV Vaccine: The Facts

Source: Forbes Magazine CNN reports on a study that argues that boys should get vaccinated for the human papilloma virus (HPV), which causes cervical cancer in women. But it misses the main reason that boys should be getting jabs of either Merck‘s Gardasil or GlaxoSmithKline’s rival Cervarix. Cue CNN: Men also carry the human papillomavirus, the virus that can lead to male cancers and genital warts. And they could spread HPV to their sexual partners, putting those people at risk for cervical cancer. So the HPV vaccine, that is often recommended for girls, should extend to boys as well, say researchers from Innsbruck Medical University in Austria. Their study was presented at the meeting of the American Urological Association on Tuesday. …. In the study, Dr. Michael Ladurner Rennau and his colleagues tested 133 men, between 7 months to 82 years old for the presence of HPV, one of the most common sexually transmitted infections. They used DNA extraction. They found 18.8% of the examined foreskins had the low-risk HPV genotypes and 9.77% had the high-risk HPV. via Males should get HPV vaccine too, study says – The Chart – CNN.com Blogs. Of course, the reason there’s not a big push to vaccinate men for HPV is because genital warts are treatable and penile and anal cancers are rare. And saying, “Let’s vaccinate your son so that the women he sleeps with won’t get HPV” is an uncomfortable and probably unconvincing approach for pediatricians to take with parents. Girls — [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-05-23T12:25:32-07:00May, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

UCSF Professor of Oral Medicine speaks about Oral Cancer

Source: Dr.Bicuspid.com May 17, 2011 -- DrBicuspid.com is pleased to present a new feature series, Leaders in Dentistry, a series of interviews with researchers, practitioners, and opinion leaders who are influencing the practice of dentistry. For the first installment, we spoke with Sol Silverman Jr., DDS, a professor of oral medicine in the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Dentistry and head of one of the oral medicine clinics at UCSF. In addition to seeing patients in the clinic, his research is focused on the diagnosis and treatment of precancerous lesions, as well as effective anti-inflammatory agents for autoimmune diseases that do not have adverse side effects. An advocate for the prevention and early detection of oral cancer and an expert in the treatment of oral cancers, Dr. Silverman has helped develop training programs for dentists to better detect oral cancer and education programs on smoking cessation to reduce the risk of oral cancer. Sol Silverman, DDS, University of California, San Francisco School of Dentistry. Image courtesy of the University of California, San Francisco. DrBicuspid: What is the greatest challenge we face today regarding oral cancer? Dr. Silverman: Professional and public education. The No. 1 thing for professionals is to perform examinations and pursue any deviations from normal signs and/or symptoms and to take part in their patients' lives. If they have a patient who smokes, they should try to get them to stop smoking or tell them not to start. On the other hand, it's public education. [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-05-17T18:33:10-07:00May, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

HPV and EGFR are hottest topics in head and neck cancer

Source: www.medscape.com Author: Zosia Chustecka The hottest topic in head and neck cancers is the role of human papillomavirus (HPV) in the disease, although there is also a lot interest in treatment with EGRF inhibitors, especially the second-generation products, according to an expert here at the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology 11th Biennial Conference. HPV has only been associated with head and neck cancer in the last few years, but it is now clear that patients who are positive for the virus have a better prognosis, said Cai Grau, MD, DMSC, professor of oncology at Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark. He chaired a session during which both hot topics were discussed. "These patients have a better prognosis, irrespective of treatment, and their risk of a second cancer is virtually zero," added session participant Lisa Licitra, MD, medical oncologist at the Istituto Nazionale per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori in Milan, Italy. However, there is a difference between patients in the United States and those in Europe with regard to risk, she told meeting attendees. For American patterns, Dr. Licitra cited the analysis published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine (2010;363:24-35), which reported a risk model for death from oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma on the basis of HPV status, pack-years of tobacco smoking, and tumor and nodal stage. In this 266-patient cohort, 43% were low risk, 30% were intermediate risk, and 27% were high risk. Dr. Licitra reported that when she performed the same analysis [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-05-17T06:56:01-07:00May, 2011|Oral Cancer News|