HPV – Page 60 – Oral Cancer News

Noted Hopkins scientist says research indicates need for effective HPV vaccine for women and men and a simple HPV screening test

Source: www.hopkinskimmelcancercenter.org/news Author: press release A call to explore a broader use of HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccines and the validation of a simple oral screening test for HPV-caused oral cancers are reported in two studies by a Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center investigator. Leading HPV expert Maura Gillison, M.D., Ph.D., the first to identify HPV infection as the cause of certain oral cancers and who identified multiple sex partners as the most important risk factor for these cancers, reports her latest work in the November 3, 2008, journal Clinical Cancer Research and in a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) monograph. The CDC report on HPV-associated cancers appears on line November 3 and in the November 15, 2008, supplement edition of Cancer. In the CDC report, believed to be the first and most comprehensive assessment of HPV-associated cancer data in the United States, investigators analyzed cancer registry data from 1998-2003 and found 25,000 cancer cases each year occurred at cancer sites associated with HPV infection. In additional analysis, Gillison and colleagues at the National Cancer Institute identified HPV infection as the underlying cause of approximately 20,000 of these cancers. Gillison and team found approximately 20,000 cases of cancer in the United States each year are caused by HPV infection. Oral cancers are the second most common type of HPV-associated cancers and are increasing in incidence in the U.S., particularly among men. Add to that anal, penile, vaginal, and vulvar cancers that are also linked to HPV infection, and Gillison [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-01-25T16:27:22-07:00January, 2009|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

Wart virus caused 25,000 cancers in 5 years – CDC

Source: www.reuters.com Author: Reporting by Maggie Fox, editing by Will Dunham and Philip Barbara The human wart virus HPV caused 25,000 cases of cancer in the United States between 1998 and 2003, including not only cervical cancer but also anal and mouth cancers, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Monday. The study suggests a broad need for screening both men and women for human papillomavirus, or HPV, another team of researchers, who did a similar survey, said. HPV includes about 100 different viruses, and they are the leading cause of cervical cancer. The viruses, transmitted sexually and by skin-to-skin contact, can also cause anal and penile cancers, as well as cancers of the mouth and throat. HPV also causes common warts. Both Merck and Co. and GlaxoSmithKline make vaccines against some of the strains of HPV most strongly linked with cervical cancer. They are recommended for girls and young women who have not begun sexual activity. "This gives us baseline data to measure the impact of HPV vaccine and cervical cancer screening programs in reducing the incidence of cervical cancer and other HPV-associated cancers and precancers," the CDC's Dr. Mona Saraiya, who led the study, said in a statement. Dr. Maura Gillison of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, who has studied the link between HPV and oral cancers, said the findings suggest a wider use of the cervical cancer vaccines may be justified. "Currently available HPV vaccines have the potential to reduce the rates of HPV-associated [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-12-23T20:01:22-07:00December, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

What to expect: HPV vaccine Gardasil for men

Source: www.vaccinerx.com Author: written by Vaccind Rx Daily Staff The four-type (6,11,16,18) human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine Gardasil® is also effective in men according to the primary analysis from a pivotal phase III clinical study. In previously uninfected men aged 16 to 26 years*, Gardasil® prevented 90% (95%CI: 69, 98) of external genital lesions caused by HPV types 6, 11, 16 or 18. The data were presented this week at the congress of the European Research Organisation on Genital Infection and Neoplasia (EUROGIN) in Nice, France.1 The study was designed to determine the efficacy of Gardasil® in preventing HPV 6,11,16 or 18- related 'external genital lesions' a composite endpoint that included genital warts, penile / perineal / perianal lesions† (PIN, PIN2/3; potential pre-cursors to cancer) and penile / perineal / perianal cancer. In the study, Gardasil was 90.4% effective in reducing external genital lesions (3 cases in the vaccine group vs 31 cases in the placebo group; 95% CI:69.2, 98.1). All three cases observed in the HPV vaccinated group were of genital warts, resulting in a vaccine efficacy of 89.4% (95% CI [65.5, 97.9]) in preventing genital warts in men. There were no cases of penile / perineal / perianal lesions in the vaccinated group vs. 3 cases in the placebo group. There were no cases of penile / perineal / perianal cancer in either group. At the time of this analysis, the study had a mean duration of about 29 months. No HPV vaccine-related serious adverse events were reported. A [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-11-25T22:12:42-07:00November, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

7 Facts you need to know about HPV and Gardasil

Source: www.usnews.com Author: Bernadine Healy M.D. As women—and soon men—gain access to the new Merck vaccine Gardasil, which targets the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stepped up efforts to identify the 25,000 or more cancers primarily associated with HPV that increase the burden of cancer in the United States each year. As reported in the November 15 supplement to the journal Cancer, the latest figures include 10,846 patients with invasive cancer of the cervix, followed by 7,360 with cancers of the mouth, particularly the tonsils and the back of the tongue. In addition, there are 3,018 cancers of the anus, 2,266 of the vulva, and 828 of the penis. To the CDC, these are baseline numbers to track the life-threatening consequences of HPV infection. To sexually active young people, this report should be a wake-up call. The hows and whys of catching contagious warts and cancer through sex should be part of every parent's birds-and-bees talk, every school's sex-ed curriculum, and—most of all—all young people's thinking about their own sexual vulnerability. Here are seven need-to-know facts: 1. Infected boys and men are silent carriers of HPV, spewing out their contagion in body fluids. With some strains, visible warts on the genitals bud off fresh virus. 2. Infected girls and young women (particularly vulnerable to infection because of a still-developing cervix) also shed abnormal cells bearing virus into Pap smears, tests that sexually active women should have yearly. The atypical cells usually clear in [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-11-18T03:34:59-07:00November, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

LSUHSC Public Health contributes to estimate of HPV-related cancers

Source: www.canceraids.org Author: staff Professor Vivien Chen, PhD,. Associate Professor Xiao Cheng Wu, MD, PhD and Assistant Professor Edward Peters, DMD, SM, ScD, at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Public Health contributed five papers to the largest most comprehensive assessment of the burden of human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated cancers in the United States to date. The report, “Assessing the Burden of Human Papillomavirus (HPV)-Associated Cancers in the United States (ABHACUS),” is available now online and will be published in the November 15, 2008 supplement to the journal Cancer. The publication reports that 25,000 cases of HPV-associated cancers were diagnosed in 38 states and the District of Columbia from 1998-2003. These include cancers of the cervix, vagina, vulva, penis, anus, oral cavity and oropharynx. Human papillomaviruses comprise about 100 different types, more than 30 of which are sexually transmitted. As the data were collected prior to the development of the HPV vaccine, they will provide baseline incidence rates to determine the effectiveness of the vaccine as well as cervical cancer screening programs in reducing the incidence of HPV-associated cancers and precancers. The most comprehensive analysis studied data from the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) cancer registries, including the Louisiana Tumor Registry at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, and the Centers for Disease Control’s National Program of Cancer Registries. The papers on which the LSUHSC public health faculty are co-authors are Incidence of in situ and invasive vulvar cancer in the US, 1998-2003 (p 2865-2872), [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-11-16T11:40:36-07:00November, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

Doctors warn of HPV link to developing oral cancer

Source: Tampa Bay Online (www2.tbo.com) Author: staff Ten years ago, most of Brian Nussenbaum's oral cancer patients were men older than 60 who used tobacco and drank heavily. Today, his patients look different, as does the risky behavior that seems to be leading to their cancer. Nussenbaum, an ear, nose and throat doctor at Washington University in St. Louis, estimates 70 percent of his cancer patients have tumors on the back of their tongues and tonsils caused by human papillomavirus-16. Most of those patients are between ages 45 and 55. About half are women. And experts suspect that all of them - men and women - got the HPV from oral sex. "We know now that 98 percent of cervical cancer is caused by HPV, and mostly HPV-16," he says. "But no one talks about how you can also get mouth cancer from it." Researchers at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center reported a link between HPV and these specific throat cancers in 2000. The increase in HPV oral cancer stems from a shift in sexual behaviors, combined with a dramatic decrease in the number of tonsillectomies performed. Cancer from the HPV virus often develops on the tonsils. In a Johns Hopkins study, researchers concluded that people with HPV infections were 32 times more likely to develop oral cancer than those without HPV. These findings have ramifications for anyone who is sexually active. Parents have another reason to think hard about whether they want their adolescent daughters, and perhaps even sons, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-11-16T08:03:40-07:00November, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

HPV virus helps cervical and head and neck cancers resist treatment and grow and spread

Source: www.sciencedaily.com Author: staff The human papillomavirus (HPV) allows infected cervical and head and neck cancer cells to maintain internal molecular conditions that make the cancers resistant to therapy and more likely to grow and spread, resulting in a poor prognosis for patients, researchers with UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center found. Virtually all human cancers experience a state called intratumoral hypoxia, or a low amount of oxygen within the tumor. In the UCLA study, researchers showed that the HPV-positive cancers adapted to and took advantage of the hypoxic environment by expressing a protein that activates a cell signaling pathway that helps the cancers survive, grow and spread. The study is published in the Nov. 4, 2008 issue of the journal Cancer Cell. The research, done on cells in culture and in animal models, may lead to the development of new therapies that target the cell signaling pathway, thereby interrupting ability of the cancer cells to thrive, said Dr. Matthew Rettig, senior author of the study and a researcher at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. "There is potential for therapeutic intervention based on this finding," said Rettig, an associate professor of urology and medicine. The finding is crucial because 90 to 98 percent of cervical cancers are caused by HPV. Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women worldwide, with more than 500,000 cases diagnosed annually. In all, 200,000 women die from cervical cancer every year. In oral cavity and pharynx cancers, the HPV virus is linked to about 20 [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-11-15T09:51:58-07:00November, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

Study suggests Merck’s Gardasil is effective in males

Source: money.cnn.com Author: Peter Loftus A new study suggests Merck & Co.'s (MRK) Gardasil vaccine, which is primarily given to prevent cervical cancer in girls and women, may also be effective in preventing genital warts and penile cancer when given to males. Merck hopes the company-funded study will support roughly doubling the target population for the vaccine, which could help jump-start sagging sales. The Whitehouse Station, N.J., company said it remains on track to apply by year end for Food and Drug Administration approval to market Gardasil to boys and men ages 9 to 26 for prevention of external genital lesions caused by certain viral strains. "This is groundbreaking data," said Anna Giuliano, professor of medicine and epidemiology at University of South Florida, who co-authored the study. "To demonstrate that Gardasil prevents infection and disease at a very high level in males - that's the other half of the world." It was the first study to demonstrate Gardasil's effectiveness in males - prior studies had shown it could produce a positive immune response in males. The vaccine, which was launched in 2006, is currently approved in the U.S. for girls and women ages 9 through 26 to prevent cervical, vulvar and vaginal cancers, as well as genital warts and other lesions caused by certain viral strains. These diseases, in both males and females, share the same cause: Human papillomavirus, or HPV, which is transmitted through sexual contact. The cancers in men caused by HPV, however, are rarer than cervical cancer. [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-11-13T16:09:00-07:00November, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

World renowned HPV expert joins OSU cancer program

Source: media-newswire.com Author: press release Leading human papilloma virus ( HPV ) expert Maura Gillison, MD, PhD, will join The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute on Jan. 1 as a professor of medicine in the division of hematology and oncology and a member of the Cancer Control and Viral Oncology Programs in Ohio State’s Comprehensive Cancer Center. She will hold the Jeg Coughlin Chair in Cancer Research. Focusing on the role that HPV plays in the development of head and neck cancers, Gillison was the first to identify HPV infection as the cause of certain oral cancers and identified multiple sex partners as the most important risk factor for these cancers. At Ohio State, Gillison plans to build a program focused on identifying associations between infections and cancers, with the ultimate goal of applying discoveries to prevent and treat cancer. A frequent guest on national network newscasts and quoted extensively in cancer trade and national consumer publications, Gillison was recruited from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she was an associate professor and a member of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center. The American Society of Clinical Oncology named Gillison’s research on HPV-associated head/neck cancers as one of six major clinical cancer advances for 2007. “Recruiting Dr. Gillison is part of our aggressive and ongoing strategy to recruit the world’s best and brightest cancer researchers and clinicians to The Ohio State University,” said Dr. Michael Caligiuri, director of Ohio State’s [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-11-13T16:00:01-07:00November, 2008|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

U.S. reported 25,000 cases of HPV-related cancers annually

Source: health.usnews.com Author: staff An estimated 25,000 cases of cancers associated with human papilloma virus (HPV) occurred in 38 states and the District of Columbia between 1998 and 2003, U.S. officials reported Monday. HPV is a group of viruses that includes more than 100 different types, more than 30 of which can be sexually transmitted. Most people with HPV infections don't develop symptoms or health problems, but some HPV types can cause cancer. In its report, which covers the period before the HPV vaccine was available, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the most common sites for HPV-associated cancers were the cervix, head and neck, anus, vulva, penis and vagina. HPV-associated cancers occur most often in the cervix -- about 10,800 per year. Black and Hispanic women had higher rates of cervical cancer than white and non-Hispanic women, the CDC said. There were almost 7,400 HPV-associated head and neck cancers per year. These types of cancers increased 3 percent a year during the period examined in the study. Among the other findings: There were more than 3,000 HPV-associated anal cancers per year; about 1,900 occurred in women and 1,100 in men. Whites had the highest rates among women, while blacks had the highest rates among men. There were 2,300 cases of HPV-associated vulvar cancer each year. White women had higher rates than black and Asian/Pacific Islander women. HPV-associated penile cancer was diagnosed in about 800 men a year. Hispanic men were more likely than non-Hispanic men [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-11-09T18:45:16-07:00November, 2008|Oral Cancer News|