Michael Douglas – Page 2 – 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|

HPV Becomes a Major Topic for Researchers as a Source of Oral Cancers

By Andy Blatchford, The Canadian Press MONTREAL — Amid Michael Douglas's personal and philanthropic battle with throat cancer, the Oscar-winning actor is shedding light on a viral form of the disease lurking in a growing number of mouths. Oral cancer has long been linked to tobacco and alcohol use, but an expanding body of research suggests human papillomavirus, or HPV, is an increasing cause of the deadly disease. The culprit behind the sexually transmitted virus' emergence in mouth and throat cancers? Experts say a major factor is the prevalence of oral sex. More and more researchers have cast their microscopes on the mysteries of HPV-caused oral cancers, including McGill University, which received a big fundraising boost last week with the help of Douglas. The grateful actor, diagnosed with throat cancer last year in a Montreal hospital, volunteered to headline a charity event for the McGill Head and Neck Cancer Fund. The 66-year-old, who calls himself a "poster boy" for head-and-neck cancer, has blamed alcohol as a likely source of his illness, not HPV. Still, a portion of the $2 million amassed at the event will support HPV-caused oral cancer research. The doctor who first detected the walnut-sized tumour in Douglas's throat said the fund has supported HPV projects in the past and more are in the works. "This is an area of increasing incidence," Dr. Saul Frenkiel said of HPV-caused oral cancer at the university-affiliated hospital where he treated Douglas. Although relatively rare, the Canadian Cancer Society estimates oral cancers, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-05-09T14:38:18-07:00May, 2011|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

Michael Douglas turns alarming diagnosis into resources for Montreal hospital

Source: TheStar.com The atmosphere was electric when elegant, beleaguered actor Michael Douglas appeared at New York Fashion Week with his beautiful wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones. The glamourous couple had come out to support their designer pal Michael Kors, whose 30th anniversary show was part of the February shows at Lincoln Center. Like many fans, I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the 66-year-old actor, looking chic in his tailored cashmere. Last summer, Douglas had been diagnosed with Stage 4 throat cancer. We had all said our prayers. This week, in gratitude to the doctor and hospital that helped save his life, Douglas appeared at a gala benefit in Montreal for the McGill Head and Neck Cancer Fund. But he was flying solo: Zeta-Jones, who was recently diagnosed and treated for bipolar II disorder, was at work on a film in the United States. Their family has gone through some unspeakably tough trials, but it appears things are happily back on track. At the gala, the dapper Douglas posed for countless pictures and chatted with guests, adamant about spreading the word that cancer can be beaten and a positive attitude is key. Free of the disease for three months now, Douglas told the crowd that his cancer had gone undiagnosed by doctors in the U.S. While on vacation at his farm outside Mont Tremblant in 2010, Douglas sought a second opinion from Dr. Saul Frenkiel, a head and neck surgeon at Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital. The chilling news: Douglas had [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-05-06T09:29:07-07:00May, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Michael Douglas compliments Canadian health care

Source: The Globe and Mail Hollywood star Michael Douglas offered up high praise for Canadian health care on Tuesday in a nod to the Montreal medical staff who made the breakthrough diagnosis of his throat cancer. Mr. Douglas said a doctor at Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital detected the disease that had eluded specialists in the United States. In gratitude, the Oscar winner agreed to add a new role to his résumé: fundraising draw for Canadian medical research. The actor travelled to Montreal from New York on Tuesday to act as leading man for McGill University’s annual fundraiser for head and neck cancer research. In an interview at a Montreal ballroom where he was about to be honoree for the evening, a dapper-looking Mr. Douglas said getting the news was like being “hit by a truck.” Yet when it came, he said, he had suspected it for months. He said he’d been having bothersome symptoms over the course of nine months: pain in his throat, in the back of his gums and up toward his ears. He consulted various ear, nose and throat doctors and was prescribed antibiotics for what was thought to be an infection. But while summering last year in Quebec’s Mont Tremblant, where he shares a home with his wife, actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, Mr. Douglas went to see Dr. Saul Frenkiel at the Jewish General, a McGill teaching hospital. The doctor put a tongue depressor in the actor’s throat. “I looked in his eyes and I immediately knew [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-05-05T09:49:17-07:00May, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Dental professionals join The Oral Cancer Foundation to raise awareness as HPV is now the primary cause of Oral Cancers in America

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., April 4, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- A serious change in the cause of oral cancer is taking place nationally, and its implications are impacting the American public in a manner that a decade ago no one would have predicted. For decades, oral cancer (also known as mouth cancer, tongue cancer, tonsil cancer, and throat cancer) has been a disease which most often occurred in older individuals, who during their lifetimes had been tobacco users. Most cases were ultimately the result of lifestyle choices. Today that paradigm has changed. A common, sexually transferred virus has replaced tobacco as the number one cause of oral cancers, Human Papilloma Virus number 16 (HPV16). This is one of the same viruses that are responsible for the majority of cervical cancers in women. This year alone, approximately 37,000 Americans will be newly diagnosed with oral cancer, and one person will die every hour of every day from this disease. HPV16, one of about 130 versions of the virus, is now the leading cause of oral cancer, and is found in about 60% of newly diagnosed patients. Dr. Maura Gillison from the James Cancer Center, a long time researcher of the relationship between HPV and oral cancers, recently reported these new findings at the American Academy for the Advancement of Science meeting. This change in etiology, which has accelerated its influence over the last two decades as tobacco use in the US simultaneously was declining, has also changed the demographics of who is getting [...]

Charlotte Parker2011-04-07T10:39:32-07:00April, 2011|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

Michael Douglas Fights Oral Cancer

Source: The Science of Dentistry Actor Michael Douglas‘ recent revelation that he has stage IV oral 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 includes a walnut-sized tumor at the base of his tongue, and he will require radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and surgery. Douglas says his doctors told him he has an 80% survival rate if it hasn’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 (HPV). HPV are common viruses that cause warts. 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. 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. This is why an opportunistic screening by the dental community [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-12-13T15:13:27-07:00December, 2010|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

“Staggering” lack of awareness of mouth cancer revealed

Source: Dental Health Foundation A NEW SURVEY undertaken by British Dental Health Foundation has revealed an alarming lack of awareness about the causes and symptoms of one of the UK’s fastest growing cancers – mouth cancer. Despite the recent case of actor Michael Douglas, who is suffering from advanced throat cancer, the answers from over 1,000 members of the public who were questioned in the survey for Mouth Cancer Action Month supported by Denplan reveal that there is only limited knowledge and understanding of this potentially deadly disease. One person in 10 claimed not even to have heard of mouth cancer. Chief Executive of the Foundation, Dr Nigel Carter, said: “After recent high profile coverage of the Michael Douglas case it is staggering to see that some people still have no awareness at all of the condition." Dr Carter added: “It is vital that the public have a greater awareness because survival rates increase massively with early detection from just 50 percent to 90 percent. The public need to be aware of the risk factors and whether they are in a high risk group and how they can self–examine or who they can turn to if they’re concerned.” The results of the survey reveal that it is the older members of the public who are most aware of mouth cancer, with more than 96 percent of those interviewed saying that they had heard of it. Dr Carter added: “This sounds good as the majority of cases occur in the over [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-10-31T11:03:00-07:00October, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Poll reveals patients are not mouth cancer-savvy

Source: Dentistry.co.uk Author: Staff The public are oblivious to signs of mouth cancer. A poll, commissioned to coincide with November's Mouth Cancer Action Month, reveals that one person in 10 claimed not to have even heard of the condition. Despite the much-publicised news of the battle actor Michael Douglas is currently having with advanced throat cancer, the survey, conducted by the British Dental Health Foundation and Denplan. oll reveals an alarming lack of awareness about the causes and symptoms of one of the UK's fastest growing cancers. The poll of more than 1,000 people suggests that there is only limited knowledge and understanding of this potentially deadly disease. Chief executive of the Foundation, Dr Nigel Carter, says: “After recent high profile coverage of the Michael Douglas case it is staggering to see that some people still have no awareness at all of the condition. 'The public need to be aware of the risk factors and whether they are in a high risk group and how they can self-examine or who they can turn to if they're concerned.' The results of the survey reveal that it is the older members of the public who are most aware of mouth cancer, with more than 96% of those interviewed saying that they had heard of it. Dr Carter adds: 'This sounds good as the majority of cases occur in the over 50s but now more young people are being diagnosed with mouth cancer it is important that everyone is aware of the problem. [...]

Charlotte Parker2010-10-26T12:37:32-07:00October, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

‘I like my odds’ against cancer, Michael Douglas says

By Donna Freydkin Source:USA TODAY NEW YORK— They don'tmake'em like Michael Douglas anymore. In this age of crass reality upstarts and pampered starlets, he's a movie star of the old school. And even in his third week of grueling radiation treatments for Stage IV throat cancer, Douglas is a gentleman first, making sure a guest is comfortable on the green sofa in his family room and apologizing repeatedly for being a little off his game after a particularly brutal radiation session this morning. He hasn't pondered the meaning of life yet, or gone on any soul-searching journeys to faraway lands. "I like my odds. I'm not dealing with mortality issues until they tell me, 'Oops, we have to go back and do surgery' or something like that," Douglas says. "The tumor is shrinking. The odds are good." He pauses a beat, smiles, and takes a sip of the aloe-infused water he's drinking to soothe his throat. "I haven't found God yet." There's no woe-is-me self-pity as Douglas manages to poke fun at his condition. "There's never a really great time for cancer, but this is one for the books," he cracks. "Actually I was doing really good, but today has not been great." It has been a doozy of a year for Douglas, 65, full of highs and staggering lows. After little-seen turns in 2009's Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and 2007's King of California, he earned positive reviews for playing a sleazy seducer in this year's intimate drama Solitary Man. [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-09-10T21:33:53-07:00September, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Actor’s diagnosis puts spotlight on oral cancer

By: Donna Domino, Associate Editor Source: DrBicuspid.com Actor Michael Douglas' recent revelation that he has 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. “Tobacco is no longer the only bad guy.” — Brian Hill, executive director, Oral Cancer Foundation The actor's cancer includes a walnut-sized tumor at the base of his tongue, and he will require radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and surgery. Douglas says his doctors told him he has an 80% survival rate if it hasn'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 (HPV). 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. [...]

Charlotte Parker2017-03-29T19:08:30-07:00September, 2010|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|