radiation – Page 27 – Oral Cancer News

PMH finding may help some tonsil cancer patients avoid chemotherapy

Source: www.sciencecodex.com Author: staff Clinical researchers at Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) have confirmed that patients with oropharyngeal squamous cell cancer ("tonsil cancer") harbour a common type of human papilloma virus (HPV16), but also that such cancers are very sensitive to radiation. For some patients, this may mean successful treatment with radiation alone and avoiding the side effects of chemotherapy. "This represents the power of personalized medicine. By using a relatively simple molecular test to evaluate the tumour, we can customize the treatment plan, produce an excellent outcome, and maintain the patient's quality of life," says principal investigator Dr. Fei-Fei Liu, PMH radiation oncologist, Head of the Division of Applied Molecular Oncology, Ontario Cancer Institute, and Dr. Mariano Elia Chair in Head & Neck Cancer Research, University Health Network. Dr. Liu's team discovered that patients whose tumours tested positive for HPV16 had a much better survival, compared to patients whose tumours did not harbour HPV16. This HPV effect was independent of treatment (radiation alone, or radiation plus chemotherapy), suggesting that some HPV16 patients could be treated with radiation only. As a result, PMH now routinely tests tonsil-area tumours for HPV16 -- one of the first cancer programs to do so. The study's finding is important because this particular type of cancer is increasing – up more than 10% in the past 20 years. The jump is likely attributed to the spread of HPV16 through sexual activity, compared with a 20% decline in other similar head-and-neck cancers over the same period because [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-11-04T12:27:48-07:00November, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Adding chemo helps head, neck cancer patients

Source: HealthDayNews Author: Staff TUESDAY, Oct. 27 (HealthDay News) -- Combining chemotherapy with radiation treatment for patients with advanced head and neck cancer increases their event-free survival to 2.2 years from just one year with radiotherapy alone, finds a new study. According to the study authors, "events" include cancer recurrence, new tumors or death. British researchers looked at the 10-year outcomes of 966 patients with locally advanced head and neck cancer. Those who hadn't undergone surgery for their cancer were randomly assigned to one of four groups: radiotherapy alone (233 patients); two courses of simultaneous (SIM) chemotherapy given at the same time as radiotherapy (166 patients); two courses of chemotherapy after (subsequent -- SUB) completing radiotherapy (160 patients); or both SIM and SUB (154 patients). Patients who'd had surgery were randomly assigned to radiotherapy alone (135 patients) or SIM alone (118 patients). Overall, non-platinum-based chemotherapy given at the same time as radiotherapy reduced deaths and cancer recurrence in patients who hadn't undergone surgery, with acceptable toxicity. But patients who'd undergone surgery didn't benefit from this combined treatment. The researchers also found that chemotherapy given after radiotherapy was ineffective, didn't improve survival, and doubled the rate of toxicity. Among patients who didn't have surgery, median survival time was 2.6 years in the radiotherapy group, and 4.7 years, 2.3 years and 2.7 years, respectively, in patients who received SIM alone, SUB alone, and SIM plus SUB. Median event-free survival among patients who didn't have surgery was one year in the radiotherapy group, 2.2 years in [...]

Charlotte Parker2009-10-30T05:30:39-07:00October, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

At our throats

Source: www.forbes.com Author: Matthew Herper Oncologist Maura Gillison was looking for patients with tonsil cancer for a clinical study several years ago. The first enlisted was a malpractice lawyer, followed by a doctor, then a scientist. She joked to a colleague that all she needed was a rear admiral. In walked a member of the military brass. All were in their 30s, 40s and 50s. People in their prime didn't used to get throat tumors. Head-and-neck cancer, as doctors call it, was a disease of older problem drinkers who also chain-smoked (more men than women). Years of exposure to scotch and Lucky Strikes would damage the DNA of cells lining the throat, leading to cancer. But Gillison, 44, a professor at Ohio State University, was among the first researchers to make a startling realization: The old cigarettes-and-alcohol form of the disease was being eclipsed by a new form, caused by the same human papilloma virus (HPV) that causes cervical cancer. The tumors grow in the tonsils or in the tissue that remains after tonsillectomy. The only good news is that the prognosis for these patients is better than for the old disease. Gillison and researchers at the National Cancer Institute estimate that 4,000 people, 75% of them men, develop this new form of throat cancer annually. That's only a tenth of head-and-neck cases, but it's half as many people as get cervical cancer in the U.S. More worrisome, Gillison's work shows HPV tonsil cancer is increasing at a rate of [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-10-15T13:20:48-07:00October, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Human papillomavirus infection and cancers of the oropharynx

Source: www.ajho.com Author: Robert Haddad, MD Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA The author was invited to contribute his thoughts on the topic of human papillomavirus and cancers of the oropharynx. Squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) is a major public health problem, affecting nearly half a million individuals worldwide each year. These cancers can arise from the oral cavity, oropharynx, nasopharynx, hypopharynx and larynx.1 Treatment of head and neck cancer is often multidisciplinary, involving chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and surgery. Patient symptoms can include a sore throat, ear pain, odynophagia, or hoarseness. Most patients will present with stage III or IV disease. The major risk factors are smoking tobacco and alcohol abuse. A large number of patients diagnosed with oropharynx cancer, however, have no history of smoking or drinking, and increasing epidemiological, molecular, and clinical evidence suggests that high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV), especially HPV-16, account for the development of these cancers.2-5 Most individuals are unaware of their infection and have no symptoms. HPV is one of the more common virus groups in the world, and more than 80 types of HPV have been identified. Some types (eg, HPV 6 and 11) are known to cause benign conditions such as genital warts, while other types (eg, HPV 16 and 18) are known to be associated with malignant, cancerous transformation. Although different types of HPV are known to infect different parts of the body, HPV usually infects the epithelial cells of skin and mucosa. The epithelial surfaces include all [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-10-13T21:15:33-07:00October, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

IsoRay announces Cornell Medical Center adopts Cesium-131 to treat head and neck cancer

Source: www.businesswire.com Author: press release IsoRay, Inc. (Amex: ISR) announced today that on August 5, 2009, Dr. Bhupesh Parashar from the Department of Radiation Oncology, Dr. David Kutler of the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, and Dr. Jason Spector of the Department of Plastic Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical Center performed the world’s first Cesium-131 implant for a recurrent head and neck cancer (buccal mucosa). The implant was performed using Vicryl®-embedded seeds on a 66-year-old patient who had received a full course of radiation to the head and neck several years ago. Cesium-131 was chosen for its short half-life and the higher dose rate. The patient tolerated the implant procedure well, and has had no adverse effects that can be attributed to the use of Cs-131 seeds. There is no evidence of cancer recurrence to date. Dr. Parashar stated, “We are very pleased to date with this patient’s progress. Having Cs-131 with its combination of short half-life and high energy gave us another option for treating this patient’s recurring buccal mucosa cancer.” Dr. Dattatreyudu Nori, the Chairman of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Weill Cornell Medical Center, and a pioneer in the field of brachytherapy, performed some of the initial Cesium-131 prostate implants in 2005. Until now clinical experience with Cesium-131 has been focused on prostate cancer and ocular melanoma. However, Cesium-131 has been cleared by the FDA for use in the treatment of malignant disease (e.g., prostate, ocular melanoma, head and neck, lung, brain, breast, etc.) and may be used [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-09-29T04:12:27-07:00September, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Head, neck cancer treatment often not completed

Source: www.ajc.com/health Author: staff Incomplete and interrupted radiation treatment is a common problem among Medicare patients with head and neck cancer, a new study has found. Researchers analyzed data from 5,086 Medicare patients diagnosed with head and neck cancer between 1997 and 2003 and found that nearly 40 percent of them experienced interruptions in radiation therapy or failed to complete the course of therapy. People who had surgery before radiation treatment were more likely to complete the treatment without interruption than were those who did not have surgery (70 percent versus 52 percent). People with co-existing illnesses, those who had undergone chemotherapy and those whose disease had spread to surrounding lymph nodes were less likely to do so, the study found. The findings are in the September issue of Archives of Otolaryngology -- Head & Neck Surgery. "Surgical patients may be more likely to complete radiotherapy for several reasons," wrote Megan Dann Fesinmeyer, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, and her research colleagues. "First, characteristics that make patients good candidates for surgery may also make them more likely to complete radiotherapy. Because comorbidities are known to decrease survival in patients with head and neck cancer, healthier patients may be chosen by surgeons to complete more rigorous treatments (e.g., surgery in addition to radiotherapy)." The study authors added that people "willing to undergo major surgery to treat their disease may also be more motivated to complete a full course of uninterrupted radiation therapy, despite any toxic effects of [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-09-22T06:05:35-07:00September, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Review: Erythropoietin could harm some cancer patients

Source: www.oncologynursingnews.com Author: staff A new review of data confirms that erythropoietin might be unsafe for people with head and neck cancers who receive the drug in combination with radiation: Radiation patients who were given erythropoietin had poorer outcomes than those who undergoing radiation treatment alone. The hormone erythropoietin is used to combat the anemia suffered by many people undergoing cancer treatment. Because severe anemia can lower the oxygen supply to tumor cells, decreased oxygen in these cells is associated with more rapid tumor progression and a poorer response to therapy. “It has therefore been thought logical that using erythropoietin to correct anemia before or during chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or both would improve the prognosis,” observed radiation oncologist Phillippe Lambin and colleagues from the MAASTRO (Maastricht Radiation Oncology) Clinic in the Netherlands. Their review was published in The Cochrane Library (July 2009, issue 3), a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research. Dr Lambin's team analyzed data from 5 published clinical trials involving nearly 1400 patients. The studies focused on whether combined radiation and erythropoietin was better than standard radiation therapy alone in the treatment of head and neck cancers. The reviewers learned that compared with patients who did not receive erythropoietin, those who did take it had significantly worse overall survival and significantly shorter times before their cancers worsened. Data included in the review suggested that the reduced survival rates in the erythropoietin patients were not due to some toxic effect of the drug itself, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-09-10T07:30:55-07:00September, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Throat cancer from HPV proves treatable

Source: Sciencenews.org Author: Nathan Seppa Cancer of the throat that stems from a human papillomavirus infection responds to treatment better than throat cancer that’s triggered by other causes, researchers report online July 29 in Cancer Prevention Research. The scientists also find that blacks are less likely than whites to have throat cancer that’s attributable to HPV, which may explain why the cancer also proved more deadly in blacks in this study. Throat cancer, formally known as oropharyngeal cancer, includes malignancies at the base of the tongue, on the tonsils, in the back of the mouth or on the walls of the throat. The cancer has been linked to smoking and alcohol use, but it can also arise from HPV infections acquired via oral sex (SN: 5/12/07, p. 291). In the new study, researchers analyzed two sets of people with throat cancer. One group included 196 whites and 28 blacks participating in an ongoing international medical trial. While 66 of the white patients had HPV-positive cancer, only one of the blacks did. All received chemotherapy and radiation. Looking at survival among these patients over more than five years, the researchers found that HPV-negative throat cancer patients had a median survival of only 20 months. Race didn’t change this data significantly. In contrast, patients with HPV-positive throat cancer lived substantially longer. Their median survival time could not be accurately discerned because many patients were still alive when the study data were analyzed, says study coauthor Kevin Cullen, a medical oncologist at the University [...]

Charlotte Parker2009-07-30T19:12:26-07:00July, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

MuGard data From UK study shows prevention of oral mucositis in head and neck cancer patients

Source: news.prnewswire.com Author: press release Access Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced today that its European partner, SpePharm, is collecting data from a post approval study of MuGard in head and neck cancer patients undergoing radiation treatment in the UK showing prevention of oral mucositis. In a multi-center study expected to enroll a total of 280 patients, patients are provided with seven weeks of MuGard therapy, and begin using MuGard one week prior to radiation treatment and then throughout the subsequent six weeks of planned therapy. The first 140 patients being treated in this assessment study have been enrolled and treated, and as of the time of the update, none of these patients have experienced any oral mucositis. "The initial feedback from SpePharm on their experience in the UK, with the first 140 patients in the assessment study, exceeds our most positive expectations," stated Jeffrey B. Davis, Access' President & CEO. "Normally, roughly 100% of patients undergoing radiation treatment for head and neck cancer experience some level of oral mucositis. This condition varies from a low level of discomfort and pain, up to Grades 3 and 4 which are debilitating to the point of patients discontinuing therapy. To see a result where all or substantially all of the patients using MuGard, and using it prophylactically, are not getting oral mucositis is extremely important with respect to treatment regimens. We believe the final data set will show that MuGard should be used prophylactically with all radiation or chemotherapy regimens that have the potential to [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-07-23T13:14:45-07:00July, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Oral spray reduces mouth sores

Source: patient.cancerconsultants.com Author: staff Among patients treated with radiation therapy for head and neck cancer, mouth sores (oral mucositis) were reduced by use of an oral spray containing epidermal growth factor (EGF). These results were published in Cancer. Mouth sores are one of the most common and serious complications of radiation therapy for head and neck cancer. Mouth sores are painful, interfere with eating and drinking, and can also lead to infection. If they become severe enough they may require a reduction or delay in cancer treatment. Epidermal growth factor (EGF) is a protein that plays several important roles in the body, including wound healing and tissue growth. To evaluate the use of an EGF-containing oral spray for the treatment of mouth sores, researchers in Korea conducted a Phase II clinical trial among 113 patients with head and neck cancer. The most common sites of cancer among the study participants were the nasopharynx, oropharynx, and oral cavity. All of the patients were treated with radiation therapy with or without chemotherapy. In addition, patients were assigned to receive one of three doses of the EGF oral spray or a placebo. The spray was used twice a day through week five of radiation therapy. Patients were considered to have responded to the EGF spray or placebo if they had no mucositis or only mild mucositis at weeks 4 and 5 of radiation therapy. Response rate among patients in the placebo group was 37%. Response rates among patients in the EGF spray groups [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-07-22T05:23:02-07:00July, 2009|Oral Cancer News|