radiation – Page 28 – Oral Cancer News

Floor of the mouth cancer requires more aggressive treatment to prevent metastases

Source: www.docguide.com Author: Louise Gagnon More aggressive management of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the floor of the mouth has decreased the number of failures in local, regional, and distant metastases, according to a retrospective chart review presented here at the 2nd World Congress of the International Academy of Oral Oncology (IAOO). In the study, a total of 142 treatment-naïve patients with newly diagnosed floor of mouth cancer received treatment with curative intent from 1994 through 2004 at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto, Ontario. About a third of patients received postoperative radiation, explained lead author Jane Lea, MD, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Toronto/Princess Margaret Hospital. The researches wanted to review outcomes and assess any predictive information of survival in patients, noted Dr. Lea. "We wanted to determine clinical and pathological prognosticators of survival," Dr. Lea told attendees at an oral abstract session on July 9. The primary mode of treatment was surgery, with the majority (91%) of those undergoing surgery undergoing neck dissections, noted Dr. Lea. Overall 5-year survival was 68%, and 5-year cause-specific survival was 80%. Mortality due to floor of mouth disease was 14%, and failures were reported in 24 patients. Researchers compared the outcome of this chart review to previously published reviews on the management of SCC of the floor of mouth and found more aggressive management, characterised by increased rates of neck dissections, in their practice compared with management of the condition in the 1970s and 1980s. The more [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-07-21T20:05:37-07:00July, 2009|OCF In The News|

In push for cancer screening, limited benefits

Source: nytimes.com Author: Natasha Singer "Don’t forget to check your neck,” says an advertising campaign encouraging people to visit doctors for exams to detect thyroid cancer. In another cancer awareness effort, Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat, has more than 350 House co-sponsors for her bill to promote the early detection of breast cancer in young women, teaching them about screening methods like self-exams and genetic testing. Meanwhile, the foundation of the American Urological Association has a prostate cancer awareness campaign starring Hall of Fame football players. “Get screened,” Len Dawson, a former Kansas City Chiefs quarterback, says in a public service television spot. “Don’t let prostate cancer take you out of the game.” Nearly every body part susceptible to cancer now has an advocacy group, politician or athlete with a public awareness campaign to promote routine screening tests — even though it is well established that many of these exams offer little benefit for the general public. An upshot of the decades-long war on cancer is the popular belief that healthy people should regularly examine their bodies or undergo screening because early detection saves lives. But in fact, except for a few types of cancer, routine screening has not been proven to reduce the death toll from cancer for people without specific symptoms or risk factors — like a breast lump or a family history of cancer — and could even lead to harm, many experts on health say. That is why the continued rollout of screening campaigns, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-07-17T06:13:51-07:00July, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Thyroid cancer increase puzzles experts

Source: HealthDay News Author: Staff Intensified screening doesn't entirely explain the jump in thyroid cancers noted in the United States since 1980, and scientists now believe that other as-yet-unknown factors are to blame. A new study finds that thyroid tumors of all sizes are being picked up, not just the smaller ones that more aggressive screening would be expected to detect. "You cannot simply explain this by increased screening, there's a real increased incidence," said Dr. Amy Chen, lead author of a study published online July 13 in the journal Cancer. Although, "some of this increased incidence is due to increased screening finding smaller tumors," she added. The findings surprised one expert. "I wrote a chapter about this for a textbook about a year ago and I came away thinking this [rise in cancers] is a reflection of enhanced diagnostics," said Dr. Bruce J. Davidson, professor and chairman of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C. But, "it is more disturbing that it's not just small tumors; it seems to be all tumors," he said. An estimated 37,200 new cases of thyroid cancer will be diagnosed this year, according to the U.S. National Cancer Institute. Fortunately, the cancer is considered highly curable, but the researchers said survival rates have not improved with better detection. Until now, an uptick in cases seen over the past three decades was attributed to increased use of ultrasound and image-guided biopsy to detect tumors. Some researchers had found that thyroid cancer [...]

Charlotte Parker2009-07-15T12:58:55-07:00July, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Surgery effective in achieving local control of tongue cancer

Source: www.docguide.com Author: Louise Gagnon Surgery is effective in achieving local control of tongue cancer, but additional therapy with radiation does not produce a significant advantage in regional disease control, according to a study presented here at the 2nd World Congress of the International Academy of Oral Oncology (IAOO). The review, presented on July 9, identified 282 patients (mean age, 59 years) who were treatment naïve and then received treatment for squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue between 1994 and 2004 at the Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto, Ontario. "These were newly diagnosed patients who were previously untreated," said David Goldstein, MD, Head and Neck Surgical Oncology, Department of Surgical Oncology, University Health Network and Princess Margaret Hospital and Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario. "We wanted to analyse the outcomes and patterns of failure at our institution." The medical literature suggests a wide variability in outcomes in the management of squamous cell carcinoma of the oral tongue, according to Dr. Goldstein. A total of 268 (95%) were treated primarily with surgery, and 70 patients (26%) received postoperative adjuvant therapy. The majority of patients were in early stages of cancer. Patients were followed for a median of 4.54 years. The mean tumour thickness was 11 mm. The intent was curative, noted Dr. Goldstein. A minority of patients did not receive surgery as primary treatment, noted Dr. Goldstein, pointing out they received chemoradiation. "These patients were not medically fit for surgery or refused surgery as primary [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-07-15T04:31:18-07:00July, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Drug to treat anemia in cancer is harmful

Source: www.emaxhealth.com Author: ruzik_tuzik A new review of data confirms that erythropoietin — a drug to treat anemia in many cancer patients — might be harmful. The review found that patients with head and neck cancers who received erythropoietin in combination with radiation had poorer outcomes than those who received radiation treatment alone. The review appears in the latest issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research. Systematic reviews draw evidence-based conclusions about medical practice after considering both the content and quality of existing medical trials on a topic. Severe anemia in cancer patients can lead to decreased oxygen supply to tumor cells. A lower level of oxygen in tumor cells is associated with more rapid tumor progression and a poorer response to therapy. Many use erythropoietin, or EPO, a hormone that controls red blood cell production, to correct anemia. “It has therefore been thought logical that using erythropoietin to correct anemia before or during chemotherapy, radiotherapy or both would improve prognosis,” the review authors write. Dr. Philippe Lambin and colleagues at the MAASTRO (Maastricht Radiation Oncology) Clinic in the Netherlands conducted the review. The investigators analyzed data from five published clinical trials that looked at whether combined radiation and EPO was better than standard radiation therapy alone in the treatment of head and neck cancers. Nearly 1,400 patients were included in the analysis. The researchers compared overall survival, the length of time during and after treatment in which the [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-07-10T12:24:13-07:00July, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

New radiotherapy technique proven safe, less toxic for cancer patients, University Of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute study finds

Source: www.medicalnewstoday.com Author: staff A new technique known as stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) is safe for patients with recurrent head and neck cancers and may improve their quality of life, according to researchers from the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI). Results of the phase I study were reported today in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics. Each year approximately 500,000 cases of squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck are diagnosed worldwide. While treatment has improved with advances in surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, more than half of patients will die from recurrent disease. Treatment options for patients with recurrent disease are limited, and for many, surgery may not be an option, according to principal investigator Dwight E. Heron, M.D., director, Radiation Oncology Services, UPMC Cancer Centers. "Chemotherapy alone can provide this patient population some palliation and pain relief, but it doesn't prolong survival," said Dr. Heron. "A few patients may be able to receive additional radiation treatments, but head and neck cancers, by their very nature, develop in very delicate areas of the body, which provide significant retreatment challenges." SBRT may offer these patients an alternative, noted Dr. Heron. "At the completion of our study, we found this treatment was tolerated very well. No maximum tolerated dose was reached, and no toxicities occurred that caused us to limit the dosing." SBRT is a relatively new technique using CyberKnife® technology, which delivers high doses of radiation with more precision than conventional techniques. The vast majority of patients [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-06-17T19:09:07-07:00June, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Acupuncture relieves radiation-induced xerostomia in head and neck cancer

Source: www.medscape.com Author: Roxanne Nelson Acupuncture can improve subjective symptoms of dry mouth in patients with radiation-induced xerostomia, according to the results of a pilot trial. When treated twice a week for 4 weeks with acupuncture, oncology patients who received radiation treatments to the head and neck area reported significant improvements in physical well being and quality of life. The results of the trial, published online April 17 in Head & Neck, showed that acupuncture relieved symptoms as early as 2 weeks after starting therapy, with the benefits lasting for at least 1 month after treatment ended. Although this was a pilot study, the results appear quite encouraging; little or no recovery is generally seen in these patients after they reach the damaging threshold of radiation. But all patients in this study had reached the damaging threshold, explained senior author William Chambers, DMD, MS, chief of the Section of Oncologic Dentistry and Prosthodontics at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. "They all received over 50 Gy of definitive external-beam radiation therapy," he said. However, the data did not find a change in measured stimulated or unstimulated salivary flow, even though the patients reported symptom relief. "There was no statistically significant increase in saliva flow from baseline, but there was a positive trend, with a spike for unstimulated saliva [P = .08]," Dr. Chambers told Medscape Oncology. The researchers also note that basal and salivary flow rates vary significantly among individuals, and therefore, subjective perceptions and objective [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-05-02T05:42:13-07:00May, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Mucositis versus tumor control: the therapeutic index of adding chemotherapy to irradiation of head and neck cancer

Source: Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys, March 20, 2009 Authors: Irwin H Lee and Avraham Eisbruch Purpose: To determine whether the addition of concurrent chemotherapy to radiation for head and neck cancer (HNSCC) improves the therapeutic ratio regarding tumor control vs. mucositis. Methods and Materials: Data were taken from 14 randomized trials of radiation with or without concurrent chemotherapy for HNSCC. Mucositis-bioequivalent dose (mBED) was computed for each study using mBED = D [1 + d/(alpha/beta)] - 0.693(T - Tk)/Tp. An "S-value," relating the increase in the rate of Grade 3 (confluent) mucositis to the increase in mBED with radiation alone, was determined using data from trials of radiation alone with altered fractionation. We then determined the difference in the rate of mucositis and used the S-value to estimate the apparent difference in mBED in the chemoradiation and radiation alone arms for each trial. After accounting for differences in the radiation schedules, we estimated the mBED attributable to adding chemotherapy and compared it with previously published estimates of increases in tumor BED. Results: Computed S-values ranged from 0.4 to 1.7. For S = 1, the mean increase in mBED attributable to chemotherapy was 8.3 Gy(10) (SD = 6.4). The average difference between tumor-BED and mBED was 2.8 Gy(10) (SD = 6.0). Increasing the S-value decreases the estimated increase in mBED due to chemotherapy. Conclusions: Concurrent chemotherapy improves the therapeutic index for radiation of HNSCC. Further refinements are needed in quantifying the therapeutic gain attributable to specific radiosensitizing agents in [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-04-02T13:38:55-07:00April, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Colleen Zenk Pinter’s battle with cancer

Source: www.womansday.com Author: By Colleen Zenk Pinter, as told to Micki Siegel The cameras were rolling and I was trying to say my lines, but I knew I sounded like I'd had a stroke. For the last 30 years I've been playing Barbara Ryan, a feisty woman who's never at a loss for words, on As the World Turns. But now I couldn't get the words out clearly. Viewers started writing to the show and flooding fan websites, wondering why I sounded so awful. I knew I owed them an explanation, but I just wasn't ready. I was still digesting the bad news. On March 5, 2007–my daughter Georgia's 14th birthday–I found out that I had oral cancer. Stage 2 squamous cell carcinoma, to be exact. I remember leaving the doctor's office, picking up Georgia's birthday cake, wrapping some presents and hosting a party as if nothing had happened. I was in shock. I thought most people who got oral cancer were men who smoked and drank heavily, and I don't fall into any of those categories. But I learned that I was probably among the fastest-growing group of oral cancer patients, because my illness was most likely caused by HPV-16, a strain of a common sexually transmitted virus that can also cause cervical cancer. Scary Signs It started in December 2005, when I noticed that my speech was changing. Suddenly my s's had a bit of a whistle. My dentist said that because I was in my 50s, my [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-03-24T21:30:08-07:00March, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Current status and perspectives of brachytherapy for head and neck cancer

Source: Int J Clin Oncol, February 1, 2009; 14(1): 2-6 Author: H Shibuya Brachytherapy delivers a high radiation dose to a limited volume while sparing surrounding normal tissues. In head and neck cancer, severe soft-tissue damage and bone damage to the mandible has decreased markedly since the introduction of computer dosimetry and the use of spacers during treatment. For the curative treatment of head and neck cancer, the selection of brachytherapy sources from among the several linear and small permanent implant sources available, not only according to the tumor site but also according to the patient's physical and mental condition is important. Following the successful treatment of early head and neck cancer by brachytherapy, two major problems and one minor problem may confront the physician. The major problems are neck node metastasis and a second primary cancer of the respiratory tract or upper digestive tract, and the minor problem is radiation-induced cancer. Author's affilation: Department of Radiology, Tokyo Medical and Dental University Hospital, 1-5-45 Yushima, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8519, Japan

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-02-27T09:56:47-07:00February, 2009|Oral Cancer News|