human papillomavirus – Page 25

ASCO: Mouth cancer patients do better if tumor is HPV-positive

Source: www.medpagetoday.com Author: Michael Smith, North American Correspondent, MedPage Today Patients with cancer of the oropharynx did significantly better if their tumor showed markers of human papillomavirus (HPV), a researcher said. In a retrospective analysis of patients in a large chemotherapy trial, those with HPV-positive tumors had a five-year survival rate of 79% regardless of the type of treatment, according to Marshall Posner, MD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. In contrast, those whose tumors were HPV-negative had a five-year survival rate of just 31% -- a difference that was statistically significant at P<0.0001, Posner said in a poster discussion session at the annual meeting here of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. The pattern was similar for progression-free survival, Posner told MedPage Today. The two groups were significantly different in several ways, he said, including age, T-stage, and performance status, suggesting that HPV-positive cancers are a different clinical entity from environmentally driven HPV-negative cancers. One possible clinical implication is that patients with HPV-positive tumors might be treated with lower doses of radiation, since they respond well to treatment, he said. "We might reduce the late consequent toxicity (of radiation) - the scarring, the fibrosis, the dry mouth, the osteo-radionecrosis," he said. He noted that patients with HPV-positive tumors tend to be younger, and thus have longer to live with the consequences of therapy. "If we can reduce those effects, we would do a big boon," he said. The finding comes from an analysis of patients who took part [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-06-06T07:41:22-07:00June, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

ASCO: Antibody improves head and neck cancer results

Source: www.medpagetoday.com Author: Michael Smith, North American Correspondent, MedPage Today A novel antibody improved outcomes for patients with advanced and inoperable squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, researchers reported. Combined with radiation or chemoradiation, the substance -- a fully humanized monoclonal antibody dubbed nimotuzumab -- significantly outperformed either modality alone in an open-label randomized trial, according to K. Govind Babu, MD, of Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology in Bangalore, India, and colleagues. At the same time, there was little serious toxicity -- such as debilitating skin rash -- attributed to the compound, the researchers reported in a poster discussion session at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology here. It's the first randomized study of the drug to show clinical benefit without the toxicities associated with similar antibodies, the researchers said. In general, neither radiation nor chemotherapy provides a good outcome for patients with inoperable stage III or IVa squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. However, substances such as cetuximab (Erbitux) that target the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) -- overexpressed in such tumors -- have improved outcomes. Nimotuzumab, like cetuximab, targets EGFR, but is highly selective for tumor tissues, limiting toxicity, the researchers said. The study enrolled 92 patients, and 76 were evaluable for efficacy. They were treated with radiation or chemoradiation (with cisplatin), with or without nimotuzumab. The substance was given by intravenous infusion of 200 milligrams over a 60-minute period, once a week for six weeks. In group A -- [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-06-06T07:24:13-07:00June, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

UC Davis probes into oral cancer

Source: theaggie.org Author: Eric C. Lipsky UC Davis is searching for new and more effective methods to deal with oral cancer. Researchers have begun using a fluorescent oral probe to aid in the detection of malignant tissues. The probe allows doctors to differentiate between healthy and malignant tissue, along with having the capacity of working as a screening device. Although still a prototype, the fluorescent probe is showing that it can be helpful to doctors both prior to and during surgery. "The big picture is to improve the ability to diagnose tumors at an earlier stage," said Dr. Gregory Farwell, a head and neck surgeon at the UC Davis Medical Center. Farwell said that people's ability to survive oral cancer is significantly increased if the cancer is detected at an early stage. He said that oral cancer is primarily caused by smoking, drinking and human papillomavirus (HPV). Farwell said oral cancer through HPV usually takes 10 to 20 years to develop. 43,000 Americans are diagnosed with oral cancer each year. While the cancer is not the most prevalent in the United States, Farwell said it is a major problem worldwide, especially in countries like India and China. He said this probe could be of great utility for efficiently diagnosing different stages of cancer. "It is a very effective way to discriminate between normal tissue and tumor tissue," Farwell said. "We're showing better results in distinguishing differences in tissue. It can even help discriminate between pre-cancer and advanced cancer." The probe, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-05-20T12:26:51-07:00May, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

End of cervical cancer is possible

Source: The News and Observer Author: Martha Quillin May 19--RALEIGH -- North Carolina could be among the first states to eliminate cervical cancer, according to a group of health care experts who launched an effort Tuesday with that goal. More than 100 clinicians, researchers, community activists and some cancer survivors attended the launch of the Cervical Cancer-Free Initiative at a Raleigh hotel. That's almost as many women -- 114, on average -- who die of cervical cancer in North Carolina each year. While the number of deaths from the illness has dropped over three decades in the state and across the nation, all cervical-cancer deaths are preventable, said Noel T. Brewer, director of the initiative. Brewer is also an associate professor in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, which is a partner with the N.C. Division of Public Health, in the initiative. "This is an illness that kills people in countries where people don't have access to health care," Brewer said. In the United States, 4,070 women died of the disease last year, according to the National Cancer Institute. "We are a rich country," Brewer said. "This shouldn't be happening here." Participants talked about ways to get more girls vaccinated against HPV, or human papillomavirus, which is present in every case of cervical cancer, and to increase screening for cervical cancer in women who weren't vaccinated. Those two steps could prevent most of the deaths, Brewer said. In North Carolina, only a third of girls aged 13 to [...]

Charlotte Parker2010-05-20T12:20:57-07:00May, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Fluorescent probe for oral cancer

Source: www.physorg.com Author: UC Davis Approximately 43,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with tumors of the mouth, pharynx and larynx each year. The main risk factor is smoking, but a recent rise in cases has been linked to human papillomavirus. Most cases are not diagnosed until the cancer has reached an advanced stage. "There's a lot out there about breast, prostate and brain cancer, but people are not so aware about oral cancer and its devastating consequences," said Laura Marcu, a professor of biomedical engineering at UC Davis. "People don't think to look for it, and there isn't any routine screening." Marcu's laboratory collaborated with Dr. Gregory Farwell's group in the Department of Otolaryngology at the UC Davis Cancer Center to develop the fiber-optic probe. The probe stimulates molecules in the patient's tissues with a laser. Some of these molecules naturally respond by re-emitting fluorescent light. The device rapidly detects and analyzes this light using a process called "time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy" (TR-LIFS), which provides information about the types of molecules present. During surgery, blood can distort the intensity of the fluorescence signal but not its duration. By using sensitive measurements of the change in fluorescence over time, surgeons can see the tumor margins even as they are cutting the tissue. Based on encouraging results in animal tests, Marcu and Farwell's team recruited nine human volunteers from among patients who arrived at the UC Davis Medical Center for surgical therapy of the mouth, throat and larynx. They compared readings from [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-05-09T10:14:42-07:00May, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Another call to extend HPV vaccine to boys. Is anyone listening?

Source: www.abc.net.au Author: Lindy Kerin Australian researchers say the human papillomavirus (HPV), which can cause cervical cancer in women, is now a leading cause of oral cancer in men in the Western world. The news has reignited debate over whether the HPV vaccine, which is free for young women, should also be offered to men. A University of Sydney study shows that 60 per cent of throat and tonsil cancers are caused by the virus. "We've tested just over 300 cancers of the oropharynx, and the oropharynx includes the tonsil and the base of tongue and part of the pharangyl wall," said Barbara Rose, an Associate Professor in research at the University of Sydney. "We've tested those for the human papillomavirus type-16 and type-18, which are the major cause of cervical cancer in women. "And we found a sizeable proportion are associated with those types. In fact, probably in excess of 50 per cent now." Those figures from 2001 to 2005 increased to almost 60 per cent in 2006 and 2007. Associate Professor Rose says head and neck cancers have traditionally been associated with older men and related to alcohol and smoking. She says these findings show that has now changed and most are due to the increasing practise of oral sex. "We now know that there's another subset, which is quite distinct biologically, which tends to affect younger people who don't smoke and don't drink, caused by human papillomavirus probably by sexual transmission," she said. "And the types of [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-04-19T22:26:55-07:00April, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Study evaluating clinical performance of Cervista(R) HPV HR presented at AOGIN

Source: www.prnewswire.com Author: press release Hologic, Inc. (Hologic or the Company), a leading developer, manufacturer and supplier of premium diagnostics, medical imaging systems and surgical products dedicated to serving the healthcare needs of women, today announced that interim data from the first large-scale independent evaluation of clinical performance of Cervista® HPV HR compared to Hybrid Capture 2 (hc2), were presented at the 4th Biennial Meeting of AOGIN (Asia-Oceanic Research Organization in Genital Infection and Neoplasia) in New Delhi, India on March 26-28, 2010. Cervista HPV HR is a diagnostic test for the detection of 14 high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) types. The study, SHENCCAST II, is a major cervical cancer screening trial including more than 10,000 women that is being conducted in China to evaluate the performance of HPV assays, among other endpoints. A preliminary analysis of data from 5,043 patients showed the Cervista HPV HR test performed as follows: Overall HPV positivity for this cohort was 12.2 percent for the Cervista HPV HR test and 14.6 percent with the hc2 test. For histologically confirmed CIN 2 or more severe lesions, the Cervista HPV HR test showed a sensitivity of 90.7 percent and a specificity of 90.2 percent. For the hc2 test, sensitivity and specificity were 94.7 percent and 87.9 percent, respectively. While the Cervista HPV HR test demonstrated improved specificity and the hc2 test yielded higher sensitivity, a statistical analysis of overall test accuracy that plots sensitivity and specificity found the two methods were clinically equivalent (area under the ROC [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-03-29T20:21:43-07:00March, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

HPV-related cancer leap to have big impact on health services

Source: www.dentistry.co.uk Author: staff The rapid rise in cases of squamous cell carcinoma related to human papillomavirus (HPV) infection has serious implications for health services around the world, warn researchers. They suggest that sexual transmission of HPV might be the reason for the rise. Head and neck cancer is the sixth most common cancer, with about 640,000 new cases each year worldwide. Despite an overall marginal decline in most head and neck cancers in recent years, the level of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) has increased greatly, especially in the developed world. In the US, cases increased by 22% between 1999 and 2006, after showing no change between 1975 and 1999, while the UK has seen a 51% increase in oral and oropharyngeal cancer in men between 1989 and 2006. This increase seems to be accounted for by a rise in HPV-related tumours, say the authors, led by Hisham Mehanna at the Institute of Head and Neck Studies and Education, University Hospital, Coventry. A recent study showed a 70% increase in the detection of HPV in biopsies taken to diagnose oropharyngeal carcinoma in Stockholm since the 1970s. HPV-related oropharyngeal carcinoma has also been reported in 60-80% of recent biopsy samples in studies conducted in the US, compared with 40% in the previous decade. HPV-related oropharyngeal carcinoma seems to be a new and distinct disease entity, explain the authors. It has a better prognosis than non-HPV related oropharyngeal carcinoma, particularly in non-smokers, but the reason for this improved survival is not [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-03-24T14:33:53-07:00March, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Tobacco usage affects risk of metastases of HPV-related oropharynx cancer

Source: professional.cancerconsultants.com Author: staff Researchers from the University of Michigan have reported that current tobacco users with advanced, human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive oropharyngeal cancer are at increased risk of disease recurrence. The details of this study were published in the February 15, 2010 issue of Clinical Cancer Research.[1] Human papillomaviruses are probably the sole cause of cancers of the cervix and have been associated with cancers of the vulva, vagina, penis, and rectum. Epidemiologic and molecular biology studies have also suggested that HPV infection may be associated with cancers of the head and neck. The overall frequency of HPV in benign and precancerous lesions ranges from 18.5% to 35.9%, depending upon the detection methodology. Researchers affiliated with an international study have also that reported that oral infection with HPV is associated with the development of head and neck cancers. These authors concluded that HPV infection increased the risk of oropharyngeal cancer in both users and non-users of alcohol and tobacco. These authors also suggested that the more prevalent practice of oral sex may explain the increased incidence of tonsillar and base-of-the-tongue cancers since 1973. Researchers from the University of Maryland and Harvard University have also reported that the better survival among White patients compared with African-American patients with oropharyngeal cancer appears to be due, at least in part, to the higher prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV)-related cancers in White patients. The current study evaluated the effect of tobacco usage on the outcomes of patients with HPV-related advanced oropharyngeal cancer. These authors [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-03-22T08:55:40-07:00March, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Needed: HPV vaccine, simple screening test, for women and men

Source: jhu.edu/~gazette Author: Valerie Mehl, Johns Hopkins Medicine A call to explore a broader use of human papillomavirus vaccines and the validation of a simple oral screening test for HPV-caused oral cancers are reported in two studies by an investigator at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins. Leading HPV expert Maura Gillison, 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 Nov. 3 in the journal Clinical Cancer Research and in a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention monograph. The CDC report on HPV-associated cancers appears online Nov. 3 and in the Nov. 15 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 to 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 her team found that 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 United States, particularly among men. Add to that anal, penile, vaginal and vulvar cancers that are [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-03-19T21:39:40-07:00March, 2010|Oral Cancer News|