radiation – Page 29 – Oral Cancer News

Fighting Cancer With Deadly Light

Source: Forbes Magazine Author: Kerry A. Dolan Drugs toxic enough to kill cancer cells are toxic enough to kill healthy ones, too. How can the poison be targeted? One possibility that has long fascinated scientists is to administer a drug that becomes activated only when exposed to radiation. One treatment for the rare skin cancer cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, for example, involves an interaction between a chemical (psoralen) and ultraviolet light. But the trick is not easily applied to internal cancers, and in any event most therapies involving light-activated drugs have been commercial failures. Llew Keltner believes he can succeed where others have faiLED. He is chief executive of Light Sciences Oncology, a firm in Bellevue, Wash. that aims to use tiny light-emitting diodes to activate anticancer drugs. The LEDs are inserted through the skin using a biopsylike needle that goes directly into a tumor. Light Sciences' target, for now, is liver cancer, one of the deadliest and hardest cancers to treat. Most liver tumors can't be removed with conventional surgery because either they are inaccessible or the patient is too sick to go under the knife. The treatment starts with the injection of a photosensitive chemical derived from chlorophyll, the green pigment in plants and algae that help them feed off sunlight. By itself the chemical is close to harmless. Exposed to red light, the molecule transfers energy to an oxygen molecule (O2), splitting it into singlet oxygen, which is unstable and causes damage to the tumor as well as to [...]

Webmaster2009-01-15T12:57:42-07:00January, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Robotic tongue cancer surgery

Source: kaaltv.com Author: staff Fighting cancer is not easy. Chemotherapy, radiation and surgery can be very hard on your body. Take head and neck cancers, for example. These tumors are often hard to reach. Doctors have to cut through bones such as your jaw to reach them. Now, doctors at Mayo Clinic are using robots to access these cancers leaving face bones intact. Roger Combs may be having a tough time beating his wife Gloria at a game of gin rummy. But he's winning a much tougher battle; a fight against cancer that formed at the base of his tongue. "I really didn't feel badly. I had some difficulty swallowing," he says. Roger's doctors told him the cancer had to be removed. "But the tongue and tonsillar area is a very hard area to get to," says Dr. Eric Moore. Dr. Moore says traditional surgery often involves splitting the jawbone open to access the tumor. "And obviously that's disfiguring, interferes with speech and swallowing and it takes a lot of time to recover, " he says. So instead, Dr. Moore used a robot to remove Roger's cancer. The operation involves lowering the robotic equipment through Roger's mouth to the site of the tumor. While seated at a control panel Dr. Moore then guides the robot as it removes the cancer without damaging surrounding structures. After Roger healed from the operation, he went through radiation and chemotherapy - both of which were not easy. "We've had some ups and downs as [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-12-11T13:29:12-07:00December, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

Cancer survivor is again living the life of a teenager

Source: heraldnet.com Author: Julie Muhlstein Mark Edmondson doesn't ask "Why me?" The 18-year-old has endured more pain than most people suffer in a long lifetime. "I'm still alive," the Everett High School senior said Monday. "I appreciate a lot of things now most teenagers don't." Two years ago today, when Edmondson was featured in this column, he'd just been diagnosed with an aggressive type of mouth cancer. He'd survived grueling surgery. Still ahead were months of chemotherapy and radiation. At 16, as friends were staring to drive and enjoying high school, his future looked bleak. With every reason for self-pity, he never let himself sink. "Never," said his mother, Stephanie Edmondson. "There's no complaining, no whining, no 'Why me?' He's always been like that. He has kind of an old soul. I'm very proud of him," she said. She is also thankful beyond words. Today, Mark Edmondson is strong and fit. He missed a year of school, but is on track for June graduation. He works out at the YMCA and has two jobs. He looks forward to Thanksgiving with his mother, younger brother John, grandmother Celeste Berdahl and extended family. Just a year ago, Mark had a feeding tube. At 5 feet, 10 inches tall, his mother said, he weighed 104 pounds. He finished radiation treatments at Seattle's Swedish Medical Center in the spring of 2007. Since then, scans and biopsies have shown that he's cancer-free. But last fall he suffered an intestinal infection. "He did not look like [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-11-30T11:56:52-07:00November, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

Battle of his life

Source: www.hattiesburgamerican.com Author: Patrick Magee Barney Farrar has never been one to back down from any type of fight. The Mississippi native is a determined man whose tenacity makes him a passionate coach and dogged recruiter as a member of the Southern Miss football team's coaching staff. He's also known as a compassionate man who will make a visit on his own to the ailing parents of one of the countless high school coaches he's gotten to know over his lengthy career of recruiting his home state. So when word came down in July that Farrar had been diagnosed with throat cancer, the reaction sent waves around the close community of football coaches. He received many calls from coaching cohorts wishing him well. Once the kind words were behind him, Farrar battened down for the biggest battle of his life, which has yet to reach a full conclusion. "They diagnosed it as a category three, but they moved it up to a category four because of the size of the tumor. That scared me," Farrar said. "They told me to not be too alarmed over that at that point because it was just the size that moved me into the worst category." From there, it was a matter of finding the right course of treatment for the lump in his throat that doctors say had likely been there for a year, when he was living in Iowa, before it was diagnosed by Hattiesburg physicians. Farrar, 48, visited different clinics around [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-11-23T17:51:28-07:00November, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

Re-irradiation with concurrent chemotherapy in recurrent head and neck cancer: a decision analysis model based on a systematic review

Source: Clin Otolaryngol, August 1, 2008; 33(4): 331-7 Authors: V Paleri and CG Kelly Objectives: Local recurrence is the major cause of treatment failure in head and neck cancer patients after radiation or combined therapy. If surgically unresectable, management involves supportive care or chemotherapy with palliative intent. Recent studies have assessed the role of re-irradiating these patients with concurrent chemotherapy (CTReRT) and have reported improved local control. The aim of this study was to perform a decision analysis model comparing quality adjusted life years (QALYs) between patients undergoing CTReRT and best supportive care for radio-recurrent head and neck squamous cancer. Design: Outcome data from recent reviews on the topic were used. A decision analysis model was generated. An expert panel arrived at a consensus to assign utility values for the various health state outcomes when CTReRT is administered for recurrent cancer, or in the setting of palliative care for these patients. Main Outcome Measures: Quality adjusted life years from the decision analysis model. RESULTS: Patients who do not suffer a severe complication following CTReRT were assigned by the expert panel to have a utility value of 0.7, and those who suffered one, a utility value of 0.6. A value of 1.0 equates to perfect health and 0 to death. The utility value assigned in the setting of good palliation was 0.8, with 0.6 given when symptom control was less than optimal. The model showed superior QALYs for the CTReRT arm of approximately 5 weeks (20 weeks versus 15 weeks for [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-11-16T11:17:31-07:00November, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

Improvements for patients with oral mucositis

Source: cancerfocus.net Author: staff New data show that Caphosol® (www.caphosol.com), an advanced electrolyte solution, significantly limits the occurrence and severity of oral mucositis (OM) in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and radiation therapy. The data, which contain the final results from a prospective observational study sponsored by EUSA Pharma, were presented today at the 50th annual meeting of the American Society of Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO), and demonstrate that Caphosol use is associated with high levels of medication compliance and patient and physician satisfaction. The latest findings expand upon the growing body of evidence of the benefits of Caphosol in the management of OM and related symptoms in patients with various types of cancer. "Oral mucositis is a common, debilitating side effect of chemotherapy and radiation therapy, resulting from erosion of epithelial cells in the oral cavity (cells lining the surface of the throat and esophagus) during therapy," said principal investigator Marilyn L. Haas, PhD, RN, CNS, ANP-C, Nurse Practitioner, Carolina Clinical Consultant. "Patients with oral mucositis often experience severe pain, difficulty eating and swallowing, and greater susceptibility to infection. The registry data suggests that CAPHOSOL, a supersaturated electrolyte oral rinse, has a significant positive impact on the occurrence and severity of oral mucositis, and is highly regarded by patients and physicians." Dr. Haas and colleagues reported data from 68 patients with head and neck (HN) cancer enrolled in an open-label, observational registry maintained at 26 treatment centers in the U.S. The patients were considered at high risk of developing [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-09-28T21:23:42-07:00September, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

Radiation treatments lead Omaha man to perform emergency tracheotomy on himsel

Source: www.naturalnews.com Author: David Gutierrez A man had no choice but to perform an emergency tracheotomy on himself with a steak knife when an allergic reaction caused his radiation-damaged throat to swell shut, suffocating him. Fifty-five-year-old Steve Wilder of Omaha, Neb., suffered from throat cancer several years ago, which would often cause his throat to become so swollen that he could not breathe. Although he underwent radiation treatment and has not had cancer or radiation for the past four years, scar tissue from the radiation remains in his throat, making it narrower than it once was. On the night of April 30, Wilder fell asleep while watching television and woke to feel himself suffocating. When the same thing had happened to him two years previously, he had been forced to cut his own throat open to survive. "They think I might have some kind of allergy," Wilder said. "The only time I get a shortage of wind is in the spring. It's seasonal." His wife called an ambulance, but Wilder was afraid that he would die before it arrived. "I thought they might get here fast enough that I wouldn't have to do that," he said. "But I couldn't breathe no more." Wilder ran into the kitchen, where he used a steak knife to cut a quarter-inch incision in his throat. "I didn't feel no pain. I was just trying to survive," Wilder said. "I got relief right away. There was a big gush of blood, and I was able [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-09-28T21:28:00-07:00September, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

CU finds supplement could help treat some cancers

Source: cbs4denver.com Author: Libby Smith Researchers in Colorado have found that a natural supplement called Resveratrol may help in treating certain cancers. Many people swear by Resveratrol because it's been shown to have anti-aging benefits and prevent cancer in some animals. Now local researchers are finding that Resveratrol may make radiation more effective in treating head and neck cancers. The study is currently in the lab at the University of Colorado Cancer Center, but researchers are hoping to eventually try their therapy on humans. "What we're trying to do is exploit what we know about Resveratrol to use in therapy," said Dr. Robert Sclafani, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics. " Sclafani and Dr. David Raben, a radiation oncologist, are working together studying head and neck cancer cells grown in the laboratory and treating them with Resveratrol. "This compound or these types of compounds seem to have a lot of activity in stopping head and neck cancer cells from growing," Raben said. They've found Resveratrol fools the cancer cells into thinking their DNA has been damaged, much like radiation, but without damaging normal cells. By treating cancer with both Resveratrol and radiation, the radiation may be more effective and have fewer side effects. "It fools cancer cells into thinking that its DNA has been damaged very much like radiation does but without the toxicity," Sclafani said. "One of the other areas interesting about this particular compound is that we may even be able to prevent secondary head and neck cancers [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-09-03T06:48:38-07:00September, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

Radiation treatment breaks and ulcerative mucositis in head and neck cancer

Source: The Oncologist, Vol. 13, No. 8, 886-898, August 2008 Authors: Gregory Russo et al. Unplanned radiation treatment breaks and prolongation of the radiation treatment time are associated with lower survival and locoregional control rates when radiotherapy or concurrent chemoradiotherapy is used in the curative treatment of head and neck cancer. Treatment of head and neck cancer is intense, involving high-dose, continuous radiotherapy, and often adding chemotherapy to radiotherapy. As the intensity of treatment regimens has escalated in recent years, clinical outcomes generally have improved. However, more intensive therapy also increases the incidence of treatment-related toxicities, particularly those impacting the mucosal lining of the oral cavity, pharynx, and cervical esophagus, and results in varying degrees of ulcerative mucositis. Ulcerative mucositis is a root cause of unscheduled radiation treatment breaks, which prolongs the total radiation treatment time. Alterations in radiotherapy and chemotherapy, including the use of continuous (i.e., 7 days/week) radiotherapy to ensure constant negative proliferative pressure, may improve efficacy outcomes. However, these approaches also increase the incidence of ulcerative mucositis, thereby increasing the incidence of unplanned radiation treatment breaks. Conversely, the reduction of ulcerative mucositis to minimize unplanned breaks in radiotherapy may enhance not only tolerability, but also efficacy outcomes. Several strategies to prevent ulcerative mucositis in radiotherapy for head and neck cancer have been evaluated, but none have demonstrated strong efficacy. Continued investigation is needed to identify superior radiation treatment regimens, technology, and supportive care that reduce unplanned radiation treatment breaks with the goal of improving clinical outcomes in [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-09-01T09:36:49-07:00September, 2008|Oral Cancer News|

CMS receives FDA 510(k) clearance for Atlas-based auto-segmentation software

Source: www.earthtimes.org Author: press release CMS, Inc., an Elekta Company, and worldwide leader in radiation treatment planning and workflow management solutions, has received FDA 510(k) clearance for its new Atlas-Based Autosegmentation (ABAS) product. This clearance allows CMS to immediately begin distributing Atlas-Based Autosegmentation for clinical use in the United States. Significantly reducing the amount of time spent creating and editing patient contours, ABAS is a software application that produces an estimate of the anatomy boundary contours needed to create a radiation treatment plan. Image segmentation, or contouring, is a time consuming component of the treatment planning process, and ABAS helps save clinicians time by providing a good starting point from which minimal editing is required. In addition to its time-saving benefits, ABAS distinguishes itself from competing products in several ways. A stand alone, vendor neutral product that communicates using standard DICOM file formats for both input and output, ABAS is compatible with any radiation treatment planning system that can read standard DICOM RT structure set files. ABAS also provides structure specific refinement algorithms for head and neck treatments, as well as prostate treatments, in addition to a general algorithm that allows it to be used with other treatment sites. "We are extremely proud and very pleased to receive clearance to distribute Atlas-Based Autosegmentation to the U.S. market," says Terry Wolf, Director of Research for CMS, an Elekta Company. "An embodiment of our core values, ABAS is an innovative solution delivered in a vendor-neutral platform aimed at improving the quality of [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2008-08-24T07:08:02-07:00August, 2008|Oral Cancer News|