oral cancer – Page 22 – Oral Cancer News

Victorian novel– Actress Colleen Zenk moves on & moves in

Source: NY Post By: Micki Siegel Right now, I’m starting everything over,” says actress Colleen Zenk. Zenk endured a series of terrible losses over the past year. In August, her 23-year marriage ended in divorce. A month later, “As the World Turns,” the CBS soap opera she’d worked on for 32 years (in the role of Barbara Ryan), went off the air. “I needed to start a new life with my kids,” Zenk, 57, says. So, she gathered up her 20-year-old-son, Morgan, and her 17-year-old daughter, Georgia (the last of her three children and three stepchildren who still live with her), four birds and two dogs and made a giant leap. They left behind the Redding, Conn., home Zenk had lived in throughout her marriage and moved about 20 minutes away, to Easton. And they did it fast; she barely gave herself time to think twice. “I saw this beautiful house and grabbed it quickly,” she says of the home she spotted last autumn. The 22-year-old reproduction of a Victorian house, which she rents, sits on 3 acres and measures about 4,000 square feet, and there’s an additional 1,000-square-foot suite over the garage. The house has a parlor, a family room, a dining room, a breakfast nook, four bedrooms, 4½ bathrooms and a home office. The over-the-garage suite boasts a bedroom, a dining area, an enormous bathroom and a walk-in closet bigger than the house’s living room. And though the house is relatively new, it’s full of classic details like [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-01-13T12:01:36-07:00January, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

R.J. Reynolds Pulls Dissolvable Smokeless Products from Test Markets; Company Must Stop Pushing Tobacco Products that Entice Kids

Source: PR Newswire It is good news for the communities involved that R.J. Reynolds has decided to stop its initial test-marketing of new, dissolvable smokeless tobacco products – called Camel Sticks, Strips and Orbs – that look, taste and are packaged like candy and are likely to entice children. According to media reports and a letter RJR sent to customers, the company is pulling the products from the test markets of Columbus, Ohio, Indianapolis and Portland, Oregon, where the products have provoked outrage among public officials and the public. Unfortunately the company told the media that these products have been pulled only for potential redesign and may be test-marketed elsewhere in the future. We call on R.J. Reynolds to permanently pull these products and to stop its insidious marketing of tobacco products in ways that appeal to kids and seek to discourage smokers from quitting and keep them hooked on nicotine. The Camel dissolvable products appeal to children in that they are easily concealed and colorfully packaged, shaped and flavored to resemble mints or gum. These products also have been marketed as an alternative to cigarettes in the growing number of places where smoking is not allowed, which discourages smokers from quitting and truly protecting their health. One ad for these products states, "Enjoy Anywhere. Anytime. Anyplace." U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) took swift and laudable action by including a mandate that the Food and Drug Administration review the impact of these products on public health [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-12-22T10:51:57-07:00December, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Hospital Performs Area’s First Robotic Surgeries on Oral Cancers HEALTH CARE: Technique Could Reduce the Length Of Patients Hospital Stay

Source: San Diego Business Journal By: Steve Sinovic The first transoral robotic surgeries in San Diego have been performed at Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center and all three patients who underwent those procedures are recovering well, said the surgeon who is leading up the effort to help patients beat early-stage oral cancer. Advances in robotic surgery prompted the hospital to look for ways to apply that technology to treat tumors of the mouth and throat. And thanks to a local benefactor, the institution hopes to be performing more procedures on local patients. The hospital is one of fewer than a dozen in the U.S. to offer the procedure, which was launched thanks to a $1.2 million anonymous donation to Sharp Chula Vista. The donation helped fund the acquisition of Intuitive Surgical Inc.’s da Vinci Surgical System, said Dan Dredla, vice president of business development for the 343-bed hospital in south San Diego County. “We were fortunate that a donor helped us purchase the da Vinci,” said Dredla. “It’s a costly system, and it was challenging to find the capital to acquire it on our own.” The da Vinci robot, which combines enhanced 3-D views with precise incision capabilities, is already being used for various surgeries at hundreds of hospitals throughout the country and around the world. However, it was just recently that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved using the da Vinci for the transoral surgeries, or TORS, procedures on head and neck cancers. While Dredla didn’t have exact [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-12-17T11:39:08-07:00December, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Zometa aids patients with head and neck cancer

Source: DrBicuspid.com Zoledronic acid, a drug currently approved for osteoporosis treatment, has been shown to reduce bone loss in a study of mice with oral cancer, suggesting it could serve as a supplemental therapy in patients with head and neck cancers that erode bone (Cancer Research, November 1, 2010, Vol. 70:21, pp. 8607-8616). The drug, known by the brand name Zometa, is designed to inhibit bone resorption. Oral squamous cell carcinoma accounts for about 90% of all tumors in the mouth, according to the National Cancer Institute. The five-year survival rate for this form of cancer is 61% for all stages combined. When these tumors form in the gums, their growth in the mouth leads to bone loss in the jaw. In turn, bone erosion stimulates the cancer to grow. Scientists call this phenomenon, driven in part by the release of cancer stimulatory compounds from bone, a vicious cycle that occurs in this and other forms of cancer. Even though the bone loss itself is not life-threatening, loss of bone means the tumor is continuing to grow. "The goal is to stop the vicious cycle," said Thomas Rosol, DVM, PhD, professor of veterinary biosciences at Ohio State, in a press release. "Chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery are all used to treat head and neck cancers. Zoledronic acid is a very safe drug and all it does is block bone resorption, so patients could receive all of the standard treatments, and this drug could be added as an additional benefit. That's the [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-12-15T11:16:48-07:00December, 2010|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|

More Indians chew tobacco blend, get oral cancer

Source: Boston.com By: Adi Narayan MUMBAI — Safiq Shaikh was 13 when he began chewing a blend of tobacco, areca nut, and spices that jolted him awake when his job at a textile loom got too dreary. Five years later, doctors in Mumbai lopped off his tongue to halt the cancer that was spreading through his mouth. Shaikh believed the fragrant, granular mixture he chewed, known in India as gutka, was a harmless stimulant and at first he ignored the milky lump growing inside his mouth. Now Shaikh is one of about 200,000 Indians diagnosed with a tobacco-related malignancy this year, said his surgeon, Pankaj Chaturvedi. India now has the highest number of oral cancers in the world, after a group of entrepreneurs known locally as “gutka barons’’ turned a 400-year-old tobacco product hand-rolled in betel leaves into a spicy blend sold for 2 cents on street corners from Bangalore to New Delhi. Sales of chewing tobacco, worth $4.6 billion in 2004, are on track to double by 2014, according to Datamonitor, a branch of the international research firm based in Hyderabad, India. The combination of tobacco and areca nut makes gutka and its hand-made ancestor, known as paan, addictive, scientists said. Areca nut is the fourth-most commonly used psychoactive substance in the world after tobacco, alcohol, and caffeine, according to the World Health Organization. “Now you have an industrial version of a traditional thing’’ spurring demand, said Chaturvedi, who works at Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, Asia’s largest cancer [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-12-13T11:35:06-07:00December, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Time for a national immunization strategy, health officials say

Source: The Globe and Mail As Ottawa and the provinces embark on negotiations to renew the Health Accord in 2014, they should take the opportunity to invest in a truly national vaccination strategy, public health leaders say. “Right now, we have a patchwork of approaches across the country,” Debra Lynkowski, CEO of the Canadian Public Health Association, said in an interview. “It’s time for a harmonized and national approach.” She was speaking on behalf of a coalition of public health officials, government and industry representatives who are calling for a strategy that includes several elements, including: - A national immunization registry where there is a central record of all vaccines individuals have received – currently some provinces have registries but they are not linked; - Creating a single childhood immunization schedule so children get the same vaccines at the same time across Canada – there are now wide variations between jurisdictions and some children miss key vaccines as a result; - Harmonizing vaccine delivery and access to ensure the same vaccines are funded in every province and territory at the same time. Ian Gemmill, past chair of the Canadian Coalition for Immunization Awareness and Promotion, said such a strategy exists on paper but not in practice. “It needs a kick start. Our governments need to make a sustained investment in the health of our children,” he said. The coalition has not put a dollar figure on the initiative but, based on past efforts, at least $100-million a year would be [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-12-07T12:22:45-07:00December, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Autofluorescence and early detection of mucosal lesions in patients at risk for oral cancer.

Source: HighWire--Stanford University Loss of autofluorescence as an early phenomenon associated with tissue degeneration seems to be promising for the diagnosis of oral cancer. The method seems to make visible early structural and biochemical alterations of the oral mucosa not always evident under direct inspection of the oral cavity.For this reason, the margins of the mucosal lesions usually appear wider compared with direct visualization. Actual extension of the potentially malignant lesions must be precisely perceived to avoid any underestimation of the tumor. In this study, 32 patients at risk for oral cancer underwent autofluorescence test. Of these patients, 12 (group A) experienced potentially malignant diseases. The other 20 patients (group B) were previously operated on for oral cancer. In addition, 13 patients showed loss of autofluorescence (8 patients from group A and 5 patients from group B). Among these 13 patients, 12 were affected with lesions of relevance (in group A, 6 had squamocellular carcinoma and 2 had low-grade dysplasia; in group B, 2 patients had high-grade dysplasia, 2 had low-grade dysplasia, and 1 had an epithelial hypertrophy with inflammatory cells). Preliminary results seem to indicate that autofluorescence is a high-performing test for the individuation of oral cancer in populations at risk (sensibility up to 100% and specificity up to 93% in this study).

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-12-03T10:39:40-07:00December, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

BCOCPP TEAM WINS CDA ORAL HEALTH PROMOTION AWARD—TEAM INCLUDES UBC ALUMNA / FACULTY MEMBER

Source: UBC Dentistry The Canadian Dental Association has presented the Oral Health Promotion Award to the BC Oral Cancer Prevention Program (BCOCPP) and to two of its founding pioneers, Dr. Miriam Rosin and UBC alumna and faculty member Dr. Michele Williams (DMD 1988). Rosin and Williams are part of a team of scientists and clinicians that has worked tirelessly to develop a program that has heightened the awareness of oral cancer, and the need for early oral cancer detection. They led a working group in creating Guidelines for the Early Detection of Oral Cancer that have been adopted as the standard in this area and have been widely circulated in BC and the rest of Canada. In addition, their team has established a variety of community outreach programs that are linked to the central BC Cancer Agency/BC Cancer Research Centre, Vancouver General Hospital and the University of British Columbia Faculty of Dentistry. There has been as special emphasis on outreach to high-risk under-served groups such as the poor, new immigrant populations and the elderly who have limited access to care and information. Through their work, Rosin and Williams have defined the pathway to reducing the incidence of oral cancer and have led the way to the initiation of research into new technologies to assist in recognizing and diagnosing oral cancer. Their impact has been broad in the dental community where they have been recognized and in the patient community where early detection using new technology and comprehensive protocols have made huge [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-11-22T11:43:32-07:00November, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

NIH grant awarded to the NYU College of Dentistry to identify bacteria associated with oral cancer

Source: New York University By: Ami Finkelthal The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, part of the NIH, has awarded a two-year, $245,000 grant to an New York University dental research team to identify bacteria in the oral cavity that may be associated with oral cancer. The team will collaborate with researchers at the NYU School of Medicine and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. The principal investigator, Dr. Deepak Saxena, an Assistant Professor of Basic Science & Craniofacial Biology at the NYU College of Dentistry (NYUCD), said that the pilot study will compare the bacterial profiles of healthy, premalignant, and malignant oral tissue. Samples will be collected from 35 patients at NYUCD and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Saxena will use genetic sequencing to identify the bacteria present in each sample and to assess which of the bacteria spur an inflammatory process known to be associated with the development of oral cancer. “Our ultimate goal is to develop a risk assessment protocol for oral cancer based on the bacterial profile of premalignant lesions and malignant tumors,” said Dr. Saxena. Plans call for a follow-up study involving a larger number of tissue samples. Dr. Saxena’s co-investigators include Dr. Zoya Kurago, Assistant Professor of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, Radiology & Medicine; Dr. Yihong Li, Professor of Basic Science & Craniofacial Biology; Dr. Robert G. Norman, Research Associate Professor of Epidemiology & Health Promotion; and Dr. Peter Sacks, Professor of Basic Science & Craniofacial Biology, all of NYUCD. Additional [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-11-09T20:52:13-07:00November, 2010|Oral Cancer News|