human papillomavirus – Page 14

Many throat cancer patients can skip neck surgery

Source: medicalxpress.com Author: Fox Chase Cancer Center A new study shows that patients with human papillomavirus (HPV) – the same virus associated with both cervical and head and neck cancer – positive oropharyngeal cancer see significantly higher rates of complete response on a post-radiation neck dissection than those with HPV-negative oropharyngeal cancer. Fox Chase Cancer Center researchers presented the findings at the American Society for Radiation Oncology's 56th Annual Meeting on Wednesday, September 17. "For patients that achieve a complete response, neck surgery is probably unnecessary," says Thomas J. Galloway, MD, Attending Physician and Director of Clinical Research at Fox Chase and lead author on the study. After radiation and chemotherapy to remove tumors from the tonsils or back of the tongue, many head and neck cancer patients still have persistent lumps in their neck, albeit perhaps smaller than when they were first diagnosed. "The question is: Do we need to remove those lumps, as well, or can we just let them dissolve on their own?" asks Dr. Galloway. To investigate, he and his colleagues reviewed the medical records from 396 patients whose oropharyngeal tumors had spread to at least one lymph node. Within 180 days after completing radiation therapy, 146 patients underwent neck surgery. For 99 patients, their records indicated whether or not their tumors had likely been triggered by HPV. Interestingly, patients with HPV often respond better to treatment for their oropharyngeal tumors than those without. The researchers noted the same trend here – people who tested positive [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2014-09-17T18:59:34-07:00September, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

HPV vaccine: Why boys are less likely to get it

Source: http://topnews.us/ Author: Prakash Sharma A Conservative MP's tongue and throat cancer alarm is reigniting the verbal confrontation over whether young people ought to get the HPV antibody free of charge. Amid his nine-month episode of cancer, Peter Kent says, specialists persuaded him its vital to inoculate young men against human papillomavirus. MP beats throat malignancy, urges HPV immunization for young men. Two sorts of HPV reason 70 per cent of cervical malignancy in ladies, as indicated by the Canadian Cancer Society. In men, the infection is in charge of a high rate of mouth, nose and throat growths, and also a few malignancies of the penis and anus. Young ladies between ages nine and 13 going to class anyplace in Canada can pick to get a free HPV inoculation. Just two regions, Alberta and Prince Edward Island, offer the same option to youngsters. Outside of those two areas, young men can in any case be immunized, yet just if their guardian or watchman decides to pay out-of-pocket. "Our huge concern is that its out there and that individuals aren't exploiting it," Dr. Robert Nuttall, the Canadian Cancer Society's executive of cancer control policy, said.

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2014-09-09T07:22:58-07:00September, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

Three shots that could stop cancer

Source: tucson.com Author: Meredith Wadman Not so long ago, when my sons still had smooth cheeks and children's voices, I had them vaccinated against human papillomavirus, the most common sexually transmitted disease. It was late 2011, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had just recommended that boys join girls in being vaccinated at age 11 or 12. I was certainly receptive: HPV, as it's commonly called, causes cervical cancer, cancer of the tonsils, cancer of the back of the tongue and, less often, cancers of the vulva, vagina, anus and penis. It seemed important to ensure that my kids were protected. Yet numbers released last month by the CDC show that my sons, now 14 and 15, are among a small minority of adolescent males who have been vaccinated. In 2013, just 14 percent of American boys ages 13 to 17 had received all three recommended doses of the HPV vaccine. (The CDC also recommends "catch-up" vaccination for males up to age 21.) Not that parents are rushing to have their girls vaccinated either, even though the CDC first recommended the vaccine for prepubescent girls in 2007 and virtually all insurers pay for it. In 2013, fewer than 38 percent of American girls between 13 and 17 had received the full three-dose course. It is heartbreaking to watch a safe, effective vaccine go unused. Consider this: The CDC estimates that increasing the vaccination rate of American girls to 80 percent would prevent 53,000 cervical cancers during the lifetimes [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2014-08-26T06:24:27-07:00August, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

Finding better ways to treat, prevent HPV

Source: www.fhcrc.or Author: Diane Mapes - Fred Hutch News Service Twenty-nine years ago, scientists didn’t know what caused many of the genital-tract cancers they studied, much less how to stop them. Today, not only has human papillomavirus been pinpointed as the viral perpetrator behind nearly all genital-tract and some head and neck cancers, there’s now an incredibly effective vaccine that can prevent high-risk HPV infections from ever developing into cancer. “You can almost say on the street, ‘I’m doing HPV research’ and ordinary people will know what that is,” said Aaro Turunen, an HPV researcher from the University of Turku in Finland. “It’s a sexy subject, especially for the media.” While scientific advancements, public awareness and yes, media coverage, have grown exponentially in the last three decades, there is still much to learn and do – particularly with regard to getting the vaccine to the people who most need it, both here in the U.S. and around the world. That’s where the International Papillomavirus Conference, currently in its twenty-ninth year, comes in. The HPV2014 conference, now underway at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle, has drawn the brightest minds in HPV research, including nearly 1,300 basic scientists, public health researchers, physicians, providers and others dedicated to eliminating the suffering caused by the human papillomavirus. The goal of the conference is to share cutting-edge scientific advances in the field of HPV infection and disease and come up with new ways to collaborate to advance science and public health. The conference [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2014-08-26T06:18:49-07:00August, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

The Cancer Cure Parents Aren’t Using

Source: washingtonpost.comAuthor: Meredith Wadman Not so long ago, when my sons still had smooth cheeks and children’s voices, I had them vaccinated against human papillomavirus, the most common sexually transmitted disease. It was late 2011, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had just recommended that boys join girls in being vaccinated at age 11 or 12. I was certainly receptive: HPV, as it’s commonly called, causes cervical cancer, cancer of the tonsils, cancer of the back of the tongue and, less often, cancers of the vulva, vagina, anus and penis. It seemed important to ensure that my kids were protected. Yet numbers released last month by the CDC show that my sons, now 14 and 15, are among a small minority of adolescent males who have been vaccinated. In 2013, just 14 percent of American boys ages 13 to 17 had received all three recommended doses of the HPV vaccine. (The CDC also recommends “catch-up” vaccination for males up to age 21.) Not that parents are rushing to have their girls vaccinated either, even though the CDC first recommended the vaccine for prepubescent girls in 2007 and virtually all insurers pay for it. In 2013, fewer than 38 percent of American girls between 13 and 17 had received the full three-dose course. It is heartbreaking to watch a safe, effective vaccine go unused. Consider this: The CDC estimates that increasing the vaccination rate of American girls to 80 percent would prevent 53,000 cervical cancers during the lifetimes of girls who are now 12 and younger. When [...]

Charlotte Parker2014-08-25T11:08:26-07:00August, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

PET may artificially boost HNC survival rates

Source: www.drbicuspid.com Author: Donna Domino, Features Editor The use of positron emission tomography (PET) is associated with a stage migration phenomenon in locally advanced head and neck cancer (HNC) patients, according to a recent report in JAMA Otolaryngology -- Head & Neck Surgery. Multiple studies have shown the increased sensitivity of fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)-PET over computed tomography (CT) for detecting primary tumors, regional nodal disease, and distant metastases. Because of potential treatment changes and prognostic information, as well as patient and physician preference, FDG-PET has been rapidly adopted for managing head and neck cancers. Because FDG-PET is more sensitive than CT, it often leads to patients being assigned a higher stage than if they were staged with CT alone, the study authors noted. In this retrospective study, the researchers sought to confirm whether the increased use of FDG-PET over time is associated with the appearance of improved stage-specific survival due to stage migration (JAMA Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg, July 1, 2014, Vol. 140:7, pp. 654-661). Results In the study's model of clinically important variables, PET scan use was associated with a higher stage of disease. In addition, oropharyngeal cancers were more likely to be assigned a higher stage than oral cavity cancers. Within the PET era, no statistically significant survival difference was found between those who underwent FDG-PET and those who did not. However, a significant increase in stage-specific survival was detected for patients with locally advanced disease. No stage-specific survival differences were found in patients with local disease or metastatic [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2014-08-12T08:29:46-07:00August, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

Blood test could predict oral cancer recurrence

Source: www.livescience.com Author: Rachael Rettner, Senior Writer A new blood and saliva test that looks for traces of the human papillomavirus (HPV) can predict whether some people with oral cancers will have their cancer come back, early research suggests. It helps to know as soon as possible that cancer has returned, because tumors that are caught early are easier to treat. In the study, the researchers analyzed blood and saliva samples from 93 people with head and neck cancers; about 80 percent of these patients had cancers that tested positive for HPV. All of their cancers had previously been treated with surgery, radiation or chemotherapy. The researchers looked for fragments of DNA from HPV-16, a strain of the virus that is strongly linked with head and neck cancer. The virus may be found in cancer cells that linger in the body after treatment, the researchers said. Among people with HPV-positive tumors, the new test identified 70 percent of those whose cancer returned within three years, the researchers said. "Until now, there has been no reliable biological way to identify which patients are at higher risk for recurrence, so these tests should greatly help [to] do so," study researcher Dr. Joseph Califano, professor of otolaryngology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, said in a statement. Patients with head and neck cancer typically visit the doctor every one to three months during the first year after their diagnoses to check for cancer recurrence. But new tumors in the tonsils, throat and base [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2014-08-02T11:03:13-07:00August, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

Salivary gland cancers rare, but sometimes deadly

Source: articles.baltimoresun.com Author: Andrea K. Walker Professional baseball great Tony Gwynn Sr., also known as Mr. Padre, died last month of salivary gland cancer, which he believed was caused by years of using smokeless chewing tobacco. The cancer is a rare form that begins in any of the salivary glands in the mouth, neck or throat. Two adults in 100,000 are diagnosed with salivary gland cancer each year. The chances of survival drop if the cancer has spread to other parts of the body. Dr. Patrick K. Ha, with Johns Hopkins Head and Neck Surgery at Greater Baltimore Medical Center, says new types of treatments and therapies are in the works to treat the disease. What is salivary gland cancer and how common is it? Salivary gland cancers are a diverse group of rare malignancies that can involve any of the major salivary glands (the parotid, submandibular and sublingual) or minor salivary glands, which are found within the lip, palate, tongue base, nasal cavity or sinuses. There are numerous different cancers that may arise from the salivary glands, and these may behave differently based on their cell of origin. What causes it, and who is more likely to get it? Little is known about the causes of salivary gland cancers. Unlike the more common head and neck cancers, which have a clear association with smoking, drinking or even the human papillomavirus (HPV), salivary gland cancers do not have such strong associations. There may be a link between significant radiation exposure (i.e., treatment [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2014-07-12T08:55:49-07:00July, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

New immunotherapy drug shows promise for advanced head/neck cancer

Source: www.drbicuspid.com Author: DrBicuspid staff A new immunotherapy treatment, MK3475, known as pembrolizumab, from Merck has proved effective in some patients with advanced head and neck, according to the early findings of a study presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago. The findings were presented by Tanguy Seiwert, MD, the associate director of the Head and Neck Cancer Program and assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago. In the phase IB study, a small number of patients with advanced head and neck cancer were treated with pembrolizumab, an anti-PD-1 antibody. The drug is part of an emerging class of medications that work by blocking the PD-1 protein, which is used by cancer cells to evade the body's immune system. When PD-L1 attaches to its receptor PD-1 on immune cells, tumors are able to hide from the immune system; drugs that target either PD-L1 or PD-1 inhibit this interaction. In the study presented at the ASCO meeting, 56 patients with advanced head and neck cancer whose tumors were assessed as positive for PD-L1 expression were evaluable for treatment response with pembrolizumab; 20 of the patients tested positive for human papillomavirus (HPV). The early findings showed a best overall response rate of 20%, with 29% of patients having stable disease. Similar overall response rates were observed in HPV-positive and HPV-negative patients. Tumor shrinkage was demonstrated in 51% of evaluable patients who had measurable disease with one postbaseline scan. The most common treatment-related adverse events [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2014-06-04T06:39:22-07:00June, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

Low-dose IMRT may be safe for patients with HPV-positive head and neck cancer

Source: www.oncologypractice.com Author: Laura Nikolaides Lower-dose radiation therapy may be safe for some patients with human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive oropharyngeal cancer, decreasing the risk of often long-term side effects, such as trouble swallowing, dry mouth, loss of taste, neck stiffness, and thyroid problems, investigators reported at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Two-year overall survival and progression-free survival were 93% and 80%, respectively, among 62 patients with operable stage III/IVA HPV-positive oropharyngeal squamous carcinoma who received lower-dose intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) after clinical complete response to induction chemotherapy, reported Dr. Anthony Cmelak, professor of radiation oncology at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., and medical director of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center at Franklin. Overall, the phase II study enrolled 90 patients, median age 57 years, who all received induction chemotherapy with paclitaxel, cisplatin, and cetuximab. The response to induction chemotherapy determined IMRT dose. The 62 patients who had a complete clinical response received a reduced dose (54 Gy) of IMRT, and the rest of the patients received standard dose IMRT (70 Gy). All patients received standard cetuximab along with radiation. Two-year overall survival and progression-free survival for the higher-risk patients who received the standard dose of IMRT were 87% and 65% respectively. Among those patients receiving low-dose IMRT, survival was slightly higher for those with less than 10 pack-years of smoking and earlier-stage disease; in those patients 2-year progression-free and overall survival were 92% and 97%, respectively. However, Dr. Cmelak does not yet recommend modifying regimens for patients with [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2014-06-03T05:55:31-07:00June, 2014|Oral Cancer News|