periodontitis

Johnson & Johnson Sued for $70 Million Over Oral Cancer Test Detection

Source: Dr.Bicuspid.com July 8, 2011 -- Oral Cancer Prevention International (OCPI), makers of the Oral CDx brush test for oral cancer detection, is suing Johnson & Johnson (J&J) over a terminated distribution contract with OraPharma. OraPharma was previously a subsidiary of J&J until it was acquired last December by Water Street Healthcare Partners, a private equity firm in Chicago. J&J, which among other things sells Listerine mouthwash, was worried that a 2008 study linking alcohol-containing mouthwashes with oral cancer would negatively affect sales of Listerine and allegedly induced OraPharma to breach the sales agreement, according to OCPI. The lawsuit, filed July 6 in U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey, claims that J&J "maliciously and fraudulently" interfered with a contract between OCPI and OraPharma that gave OraPharma exclusive rights to sell the test to U.S. dentists. J&J's interference caused OraPharma "to suppress sales of and withhold from the public a proven lifesaving oral cancer prevention product in order to protect sales of its mouthwash, Listerine, which has been linked to oral cancer," according to the complaint. After OCPI signed the contract in February 2010, J&J did not want to "lend credence to the link between Listerine and oral cancer" by selling both its mouthwash and OralCDx, the complaint states. As of press time, J&J did not return calls for comment by DrBicuspid.com. Sales of Listerine bring in more than $1 billion per year, the suit claims. OralCDx is a "quick, painless, and inexpensive test that can prevent oral cancer by [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-07-11T10:12:41-07:00July, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Growth factor regenerates tooth supporting structures: Results of a large randomized clinical trial

Source: www.eurekalert.org Author: press release It is well known that oral infection progressively destroys periodontal tissues and is the leading cause of tooth loss in adults. A major goal of periodontal treatment is regeneration of the tissues lost to periodontitis. Unfortunately, most current therapies cannot predictably promote repair of tooth-supporting defects. A variety of regenerative approaches have been used clinically using bone grafts and guiding tissue membranes with limited success. In an article titled "FGF-2 Stimulates Periodontal Regeneration: Results of a Multicenter Randomized Clinical Trial," which is published in the International and American Associations for Dental Research's Journal of Dental Research, M. Kitamura, from Osaka University Graduate School of Dentistry, Japan, and a team of researchers conducted a human clinical trial to determine the safety and effectiveness of fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2) for clinical application. This is the largest study to date in the field of periodontal regenerative therapy. A randomized, double-masked, placebo-controlled clinical trial was conducted in 253 adults afflicted with periodontitis. Periodontal surgery was performed, during which one of three different doses of FGF-2 was randomly administered to localized bone defects. Each dose of FGF-2 showed significant superiority over the standard of care (vehicle alone (p

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-11-19T15:10:25-07:00November, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Periodontitis associated with fourfold increased risk for squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck

Source: www.hemonctoday.com Author: staff Results of a study involving 473 participants showed that periodontitis was linked with the development of squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. Researchers conducted a hospital-based case-control study between June 1999 and November 2005. The study involved 266 patients with head and neck cancer treated at the Roswell Park Cancer Center’s department of dentistry and maxillofacial prosthetics, and 207 healthy participants. The researchers said that after adjusting for age at diagnosis, gender, race/ethnicity, marital status, smoking status, alcohol use and number of missing teeth, each millimeter of alveolar bone loss was associated with a more than fourfold increased risk of SCCHN (OR=4.36; 95% CI, 3.16-6.01). When researchers evaluated disease at specific head and neck sites, they found strength of the association was higher in the oral cavity (OR=4.52; 95% CI, 3.03-6.75) compared with the oropharynx (OR=3.64; 95% CI, 2.54-5.22) and larynx (OR=2.72; 95% CI, 1.78-4.16). The researchers also said that there was a link between smoking and alveolar bone loss (P=.03), although the association between alveolar bone loss and SCCHN was weaker in current smokers (OR=2.85) compared with former smokers (OR=7.59) and never smokers (OR=5.96). Alcohol use was not found to be a significant risk factor. The researchers said the association between alveolar bone loss and SCCHN was similar in drinkers and nondrinkers. Source: Tezal M. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2009;doi:10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-09-0334.

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-09-09T13:47:15-07:00September, 2009|Oral Cancer News|