prevention – Page 2 – Oral Cancer News

Oral HPV infection affects 7% of the US population

Source: www.onclive.com Author: Ben Leach Approximately 7% of Americans are infected with oral human papillomavirus (HPV), and men are 3 times as likely to be infected as women, according to an analysis that helps define a leading factor in the rise of oropharyngeal cancer. The findings of the HPV prevalence study were presented at the Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Symposium in Phoenix, Arizona, in January and concurrently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.1 The cross-sectional study was based on samples taken from 5579 men and women between the ages of 14 to 69 years that were obtained at mobile examination centers as part of the National Health And Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2009-2010. The samples were obtained through an oral rinse and gargle, with subsequent DNA samples used to determine HPV type. Demographic data were obtained using standardized interviews. HPV prevalence in the overall study population was 6.9% (95% confidence interval [CI], 5.7%-8.3%). HPV type 16, which accounts for 90% of HPVpositive oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas, was the most common form, affecting 1.0% of the study population (95% CI, 0.7%-1.3%). Prevalence of HPV was significantly higher in men versus women (10.1% [95% CI, 8.3%- 12.3%] for men compared with 3.6% [95% CI, 2.6%- 5.0%] for women; P < .001]). Sexual contact was identified as a major factor in the rate of infection, with 7.5% of those who had experienced any form of sexual contact (95% CI, 6.1%-9.1%) infected, compared with 0.9% (95% CI, 0.4%-1.8%; P < .001) [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-03-14T12:09:29-07:00March, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Adolescents and oral sex: is it really something to worry about?

Source: aaas.confex.com Author: Bonnie Halpern-Felsher , University of California, San Francisco, CA National studies show that the most common form of partnered sexual behavior among adolescents is oral sex. While oral sex does not result in pregnancy, it can lead to STIs. Most studies on adolescent sex have focused on vaginal sex, thus leaving important questions concerning adolescents’ attitudes, perceptions, and experiences with oral sex untapped. This presentation will utilize longitudinal data collected over the first three years of high school to address the following questions: 1) What are adolescents’ beliefs concerning the social, emotional and health consequences of oral compared to vaginal sex? 2) What is the relationship between adolescent oral and vaginal sex? 3) What are the positive and negative outcomes experienced by adolescents who have engaged in oral sex, vaginal sex, or both? Beginning in the fall of 9th grade, 637 adolescents (56% female) were surveyed every 6 months for three years. Between 74% and 92% of the participants responded at each wave. Participants reported diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Results showed adolescents: 1) perceived oral sex to entail less social, emotional and health risks than vaginal sex; 2) believed that oral sex was more prevalent and more acceptable than vaginal sex; 3) who reported only having engaged in oral sex experienced fewer STIs as well as fewer social and emotional consequences, compared to adolescents who had vaginal sex experience; 4) who only engaged in oral sex reported experiencing fewer benefits, including pleasure or feeling good about [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-02-23T14:44:41-07:00February, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Medicare expands coverage of tobacco cessation

Source: thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch Author: Mike Lillis The Obama administration on Wednesday expanded Medicare to cover more seniors hoping to kick their tobacco habits. "Most Medicare beneficiaries want to quit their tobacco use," Health and Human Services Department (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement announcing the move. "Now, [they] can get the help they need." Under previous rules, Medicare covered tobacco-related counseling only for beneficiaries already suffering from a tobacco-related disease. Under the new policy, Medicare will cover as many as two tobacco-cessation counseling tries each year, including as many as four individual sessions per attempt. The move is the latest in a string of White House efforts to shift the nation's healthcare system toward prevention, in lieu of simply treating diseases after they've developed. If successful, the new tobacco policy could pay dividends. Of the 46 million Americans estimated to smoke, about 4.5 million are seniors older than 65, HHS says. And nearly 1 million more smokers are younger than 65, but eligible for Medicare benefits. They aren't cheap. Tobacco-related diseases are estimated to cost Medicare about $800 billion between 1995 and 2015. Donald Berwick, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the expansion lends seniors valuable help "to avoid the painful — and often deadly — consequences of tobacco use." The change affects Medicare Parts A and B — hospital care and physician services — but not Part D, which already covers smoking-cessation drugs for all beneficiaries.

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-08-29T07:43:33-07:00August, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

New biomarker technique could provide early detection for cancer

Source: www.physorg.com Author: press release provided by University of Connecticut Modern genetic testing can predict your risk of contracting particular diseases based on predispositions discovered in your DNA. But what if similar biotechnology could tell you that you’ve got a disease before you notice any symptoms? What if it could even tell you, before any signs of a tumor, that you have cancer? Jim Rusling, professor of chemistry at UConn and professor of cell biology at the UConn Health Center, ponders these questions on a daily basis. Since 2006, he and colleagues at the University and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have been developing techniques to detect biomarker proteins - the physiological traits that indicate that a person has a specific disease - for prostate and oral cancer. Because these biomarkers are often present in the blood in a disease’s early stages, they can be used for early detection and prevention. “DNA predicts which proteins can be made, but it can’t predict which proteins are actively expressed,” Rusling says. “It only assesses the risk of a disease. There’s a big push now to measure proteins as biomarkers.” In a recent publication in the journal Analytical Chemistry, Rusling and his colleagues describe a system they developed to detect with record sensitivity the bloodstream levels of a protein associated with several types of oral cancer, including head and neck squamous cell carcinomas. The project was funded by a $1.5 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences at NIH. [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-05-19T20:29:55-07:00May, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

New model for oral cancer/tobacco research

Source: www.upi.com/Health_News Author: staff A carcinogen in tobacco smoke is being used in oral cancer research to provide a more relevant model to understand the disease, U.S. researchers say. Joseph Guttenplan of the the New York City College of Dentistry and Dr. Karam El-Bayoumy of the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine say smoking is understood to be one of the leading causes of oral cancer, but research on oral cancer in has been limited to using synthetic carcinogens manufactured especially for cancer research, instead of examining the carcinogens that occur in tobacco smoke. The researchers injected low, medium and high doses of dibenzo(a,l)pyrene, a carcinogen in tobacco, into the mouths of 104 mice. After 38 weeks, one group of the mice developed excessive numbers of mutations in their oral tissue and within one year, 31 percent of a second group of mice displayed large tumors in their mouths. "As a result of this study, we now have a model that is significantly better than past models which relied on synthetic carcinogens," Guttenplan says in a statement. "We plan to use this new model in future studies to examine potential agents for cancer prevention." The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Washington.

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-05-14T14:40:06-07:00May, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

First-time walk raises awareness of oral cancer

Source: indarticles.com Author: staff A support group for people with oral and head and neck cancer is looking to send a message Saturday with its inaugural Oral Cancer Awareness Walk, co-sponsored by the Oral Cancer Foundation. "Last year approximately 35,700 new cases were diagnosed in the United States, and there were about 7,600 deaths," walk organizers said in a news release. "Sixty percent of people aren't diagnosed until the cancer has progressed to Stage III or IV, and almost half of those victims die within five years. But if caught early, oral cancer has one of the highest overall treatment and survival rates." Organizers hope the walk will call attention to the importance of early detection and prevention, not only to the general public but to dentists, who spot problems. Perhaps the highest-profile patient is movie critic Roger Ebert, who has recently detailed his battle with oral cancer. Locally, Jeanna Richelson, an engineer at Siskin Steel, has shared her story. Now cancer-free, she is spearheading the support group, known officially as the Chattanooga Chapter of Support for People With Oral and Head and Neck Cancer. "When I was diagnosed with oral cancer in 2001, I had no idea how my life would be changed forever," she said in the news release. "If I can save one life or keep one person from having to go through the hardships that me and so many others have gone through, it will be worth it." Registration for the walk begins at 10 a.m. [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-04-18T10:29:09-07:00April, 2010|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

Saskatchewan students choose anti-tobacco ad for national non-smoking week

Source: www.canadaviews.ca Author: Government of Saskatchewan Saskatchewan’s Health Minister is pleased to announce the winning anti-tobacco advertisement selected by Saskatchewan students participating in the View and Vote program. Students in Grades 6 to 12 were given the opportunity to view and vote on some of the best international, American and Canadian anti-tobacco television ads. Two hundred and fifty seven schools in Saskatchewan participated in this year’s View and Vote program, which generated 14,000 student ballots. Nearly 3,200 students rated the Australian ad “Mouth Cancer” as most effective. This ad will be aired on Saskatchewan television stations starting January 17 during the National Non-Smoking Week. “Encouraging our youth to be tobacco-free is an important step toward healthy, productive lives,” Health Minister Don McMorris said. “This project is an innovative way of reaching large numbers of young people and educating them about the addictive nature of tobacco and the effects of smoking. Studies show that if young people remain tobacco-free until they become adults, they are less likely to start using tobacco in the future.” Students played an active role in the project. The ads were used as a tool to generate classroom discussions about the effects of tobacco use. Students then voted on the ad that they felt would keep them from starting to use tobacco or, if they already use tobacco, the ad that made them think about quitting. View and Vote is one component of the provincial tobacco reduction strategy focusing on youth, which has three main goals: prevention [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-01-15T19:52:47-07:00January, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

New survey shows slow decline in youth smoking, troubling increase in smokeless tobacco use – congress, states must step up tobacco prevention efforts

Source: www.streetinsider.com Author: staff The 2009 Monitoring the Future Survey released today by the National Institute of Drug Abuse shows that the nation continues to make gradual progress in reducing youth smoking, but declines have slowed significantly compared to the dramatic gains early in the decade. In especially troubling news, the survey also finds that smokeless tobacco use has increased among 10th and 12th graders in recent years, a period during which tobacco companies have introduced a slew of new smokeless tobacco products and significantly increased marketing for smokeless tobacco. There is no question that we know how to dramatically reduce youth tobacco use. The use of proven strategies has caused smoking rates (the percentage who have smoked in the past 30 days) to decline by 69 percent among 8th graders, 57 percent among 10th graders and 45 percent among 12th graders since peaking in the mid-1990s. This is a remarkable public health success story. Before the recent increase, youth smokeless tobacco use also declined significantly from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s. However, the much slower progress in recent years is a clear warning to elected officials at all levels that they must resist complacency and redouble efforts to implement proven measures - rather than cutting tobacco prevention programs, as 34 states did this year. It is unacceptable to stand still or risk backsliding in the fight against the nation's number one preventable cause of death. It is also unacceptable that one in five high school seniors still smoke [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-12-15T21:51:05-07:00December, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Mouth is indicator of overall health, says dental school professor

Source: www.sciencedaily.com Author: staff One day in medical clinics, the big picture of a patient's state of health may be found in little pictures from the mouth, says Li Mao, MD, a new professor at the University of Maryland Dental School. The mouth or oral cavity area is an excellent indicator of the whole body's health, says Mao, who is the chair of the new Department of Oncology and Diagnostic Sciences at the School. Mao recently joined the Dental School to be at the forefront of a movement to retool dental education, he says, to make dentists practice more within the bigger health care community. Future lung cancer prevention trials, for example, could soon be designed so that surface tissues inside the cheek could be checked to detect tobacco-induced damage in the lungs, according to a study led by Mao last year published in the journal Cancer Prevention Research. "We hypothesized that tobacco-induced molecular alterations in the oral epithelium are similar to those in the lungs," says Mao. "This might have broader implications for using the mouth as a diagnostic indicator for general health." University of Maryland Dental School Dean Christian S. Stohler, DMD, DrMedDent, a leader in the movement to retool dental education, says, "I feel that dentists should play a major role in prevention of cancer and Dr. Mao is the leading oral cancer researcher in the country. He crosses the bridge between medicine and dentistry. Being a physician helps expand dental health care and he wants to [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-11-13T14:11:41-07:00November, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Green tea shows promise as chemoprevention agent for oral cancer, M. D. Anderson study finds

Source: www.eurekalert.org Author: press release Green tea extract has shown promise as cancer prevention agent for oral cancer in patients with a pre-malignant condition known as oral leukoplakia, according to researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. The study, published online in Cancer Prevention Research, is the first to examine green tea as a chemopreventative agent in this high-risk patient population. The researchers found that more than half of the oral leukoplakia patients who took the extract had a clinical response. Long investigated in laboratory, epidemiological and clinical settings for several cancer types, green tea is rich in polyphenols, which have been known to inhibit carcinogenesis in preclinical models. Still, clinical results have been mixed. "While still very early, and not definitive proof that green tea is an effective preventive agent, these results certainly encourage more study for patients at highest risk for oral cancer," said Vassiliki Papadimitrakopoulou, M.D., professor in M. D. Anderson's Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology, and the study's senior author. "The extract's lack of toxicity is attractive - in prevention trials, it's very important to remember that these are otherwise healthy individuals and we need to ensure that agents studied produce no harm." In the Phase II dose-finding study, 41 M. D. Anderson oral leukoplakia patients were randomized between August 2002 and March 2008 to receive either green tea extract or placebo. Participants took the extract, an oral agent, for three months at one of three doses - 500 per [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-11-05T13:05:14-07:00November, 2009|Oral Cancer News|