Cigarette, Cigar, and Pipe Smoking and the Risk of Head and Neck Cancers: Pooled Analysis in the International Head and Neck Cancer Epidemiology Consortium

Source: Oxford JournalsReceived July 26, 2012.Accepted February 8, 2013 Abstract Cigar and pipe smoking are considered risk factors for head and neck cancers, but the magnitude of effect estimates for these products has been imprecisely estimated. By using pooled data from the International Head and Neck Cancer Epidemiology (INHANCE) Consortium (comprising 13,935 cases and 18,691 controls in 19 studies from 1981 to 2007), we applied hierarchical logistic regression to more precisely estimate odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for cigarette, cigar, and pipe smoking separately, compared with reference groups of those who had never smoked each single product. Odds ratios for cigar and pipe smoking were stratified by ever cigarette smoking. We also considered effect estimates of smoking a single product exclusively versus never having smoked any product (reference group). Among never cigarette smokers, the odds ratio for ever cigar smoking was 2.54 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.93, 3.34), and the odds ratio for ever pipe smoking was 2.08 (95% CI: 1.55, 2.81). These odds ratios increased with increasing frequency and duration of smoking (Ptrend ≤ 0.0001). Odds ratios for cigar and pipe smoking were not elevated among ever cigarette smokers. Head and neck cancer risk was elevated for those who reported exclusive cigar smoking (odds ratio = 3.49, 95% CI: 2.58, 4.73) or exclusive pipe smoking (odds ratio = 3.71, 95% CI: 2.59, 5.33). These results suggest that cigar and pipe smoking are independently associated with increased risk of head and neck cancers. *This news story was resourced by the [...]

2013-07-19T07:23:54-07:00July, 2013|Oral Cancer News|

NSAIDs may cut oral cancer risk

Source: www.newsfix.ca Author: Martin March People who smoke are protected from oral cancer by aspirin or ibuprofen, according to a study. It’s already known that smoking is a strong risk factor for oral cancer. A study from the Norwegian Radium Hospital reveals that non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) may help protect some smokers from the disease. They looked at a group of light to moderate smokers who had taken NSAIDs over a long period. They were about 65 per cent less likely to develop oral cancer compared to smokers who did not take NSAIDs. All types of NSAID were protective, including ibuprofen, aspirin and indomethacin. However, acetaminophen, a common pain reliever which is not an NSAID, was not found to be effective. The benefit of NSAIDs was found to be greatest for those who smoked least. At higher levels of consumption of tobacco, its carcinogenic effect overcomes the benefit of the NSAID.

HPV vaccine still fights for acceptance, despite benefits

Source: www.floydcountytimes.com Author: Tom Collins Last month, actor Michael Douglas caused a stir in the media when he suggested his throat cancer might have been caused by oral sex. He could be right. Although smoking and alcohol use have long been regarded as the key risk factors, new research indicates that HPV, a sexually transmitted virus, is now the leading cause of mouth and throat cancers in the United States. But there’s an important take-away message to this story: Some cancers caused by HPV can be prevented easily, with a simple series of three vaccinations. Since 2000, scientists have known that certain strains of HPV are responsible for nearly all cervical cancer in women. But newer studies indicate HPV can cause other types of cancer as well. Recent findings have also linked HPV to oral, head/neck, anal, vaginal, vulvar and penile cancers, and even some cases of lung cancer. About half of all Americans will become infected with HPV at least once during their lifetime. The most common visible symptom of an HPV infection is genital warts, although the majority of HPV infections do not display symptoms. That’s why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that boys and girls alike be vaccinated against HPV. Ideally, they should be vaccinated between the ages of 11 and 12. Vaccination can be initiated as early as age 9, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the vaccine to be given up to age 26. Yet HPV vaccination rates remain [...]

E-Cigarettes Are in Vogue and at a Crossroads

By LIZ ALDERMANPublished: June 12, 2013Source: NY Times PARIS — On a recent day in the shadow of the Arc de Triomphe, a line of 20 people spilled onto the sidewalk of a trendy new boutique, eager to get a taste of its latest gourmet offerings. Olivia Foiret, the manager of ClopiNette, demonstrates filling an e-cigarette for a client. A sign in the window promoted piña colada as the store’s flavor of the month. A woman wearing a Chanel jacket said she wanted to try peach. But this was no temple of gastronomy. It was one of scores of electronic cigarette shops that have been springing up by the week in Paris as well as in numerous cities across Europe and the United States. Inside the ClopiNette boutique, shoppers can choose from among more than 60 flavors of nicotine liquid — including Marlboro and Lucky Strike flavors — all in varying strengths and arranged in color-coded rows. (ClopiNette is a play on “clope,” French slang for a cigarette.) “It’s like visiting a Nespresso store,” said Anne Stephan, a lawyer specializing in health issues at a nearby law firm. What’s driving her into the store is a desire shared by many: they want to give up smoking tobacco but don’t want to kick the smoking habit. After smoking 20 cigarettes daily for 25 years and failing to quit, Ms. Stephan said she had cut down to one a day in the three months since she began puffing on a so-called e-cig. Using [...]

2013-06-13T12:19:06-07:00June, 2013|Oral Cancer News|

Heartburn and throat cancer: is there a link?

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com Author: staff Heartburn may raise a person's risk for throat cancer, but it seems that antacids could have a protective effect, according to a new study. The research, published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, shows that people with a history of frequent heartburn, also known as acid reflux, have a 78 percent higher risk of developing vocal cord or throat cancers. But they also found that for people with frequent heartburn, taking antacids can lower risk of these cancers by 41 percent. "Additional studies are needed to validate the chemopreventive effects of antacids among patients with frequent heartburn," study researcher Scott M. Langevin, Ph.D., a postdoctoral research fellow at Brown University, said in a statement. "The identification of gastric reflux as a risk factor for throat and vocal cord cancers, however, may have implications in terms of risk stratification and identification of high-risk patients." The study included 631 people who were part of a case-control study in Boston, 468 of whom had throat cancer and 163 of whom had vocal cord cancer, as well as 1,234 people with no cancer history. Researchers analyzed family history of cancer, smoking history and drinking history of all the study participants, as well as presence of HPV 16 viral protein antigens since HPV can cause some head and neck cancers. Researchers found that the increased risk for throat and vocal cord cancers was higher among the people experiencing frequent heartburn, even when they had no history of smoking or [...]

Public lacks awareness of head and neck cancer

Source: www.alberniportal.ca Author: Leatitia Michael A survey reveals that the general public, including those who smoke, do not know very much about oral, head, and neck cancer (OHNC). There were nearly 40,000 new cases of oral, head and neck cancer diagnosed last year in the USA, of which 85 per cent could be linked to tobacco use and heavy alcohol consumption. Yet, according to a survey from the Medical University of South Carolina, the public remains largely unaware of the risks. In the study, over 1,000 members of the public were telephoned and 62 per cent said they were not knowledgeable about OHNC. Among smokers, the lack of awareness ran at 58 per cent. Under half of non-smokers and smokers knew that smoking was a risk factor. Hoarseness was correctly identified as a symptom by only one per cent of smokers and two per cent overall. But 17 per cent of the sample incorrectly named headache as a symptom. People can spot the signs and symptoms of OHNC themselves, but 94 per cent had not been told to look for problems like mouth sores that do not heal. And only 26 per cent had been check for this by a doctor. Clearly there is some way to go in raising awareness among the public of OHNC.

HPV linked to certain lung cancers; is oral sex to blame?

Source: www.medicaldaily.com Author: Jonathan Weiss By now, it's a given that smoking causes lung cancer. The American Lung Association reports that 80 to 90 percent of all cases of lung cancer are smoking-related. The remaining 10 to 20 percent, though, has been more of a mystery — until now. A new line of research has implicated thye sexually transmitted infection human papillomavirus, or HPV, in lung cancers that were found in non-smokers. HPV is the leading cause of all cervical cancer cases in the world. It's a well-known disease that's gottena lot of press in recent years; an effective vaccine was recently developed that can prevent the viral infection and subsequent cervical cancer development. Whether or not the vaccine should be required for teenage girls has become a hot-button political issue. Adding fuel to the fire, a research team from the Fox Chase Cancer Center recently looked at tissue samples from lung cancer patients who had no history of smoking and saw that close to 6 percent showed evidence that they had been driven by HPV infection. Four out of 36 lung samples had signs of infection from two strains of HPV known to cause cancer. Looking more closely at the two samples infected by one strain of HPV, Dr. Ranee Mehra, MD, attending physician in medical oncology at Fox Chase and her team saw signs the virus had integrated into the tumor's DNA — which is even more suggestive that the infection had caused the tumor in the first [...]

Smoking on waking increase cancer risk

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com Author: Malathy Iyer It is well known that smoking is injurious to health, but what is now emerging is that smokers who light up first thing in the morning are more likely than other smokers to suffer from lung or oral cancer. The research could serve as an eye-opener for India, where tobacco-related cancers claim over 1 million lives every year. The correlation between the time of the first smoke and cancer comes from a carcinogen found in cigarettes. A new study from Penn University in the US has shown that smokers who consume cigarettes immediately after waking up have higher levels of a carcinogen called NNAL (a derivative of NNK (4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-[3-pyridyl]-1-butanone) throughout the day in comparison to others. Steven Branstetter, assistant professor at Penn University, said that other researches had shown that NNK induces lung tumors in several rodent species. His team hence believes that levels of NNAL in the blood can predict lung cancer risk in rodents as well as in humans. The team examined data on 1,945 smoking adults and found that around 32 % smoked their first cigarette of the day within 5 minutes of waking; 31 % smoked within 6 to 30 minutes of waking; 18 % smoked within 31 to 60 minutes of waking; and 19 percent smoked more than one hour after waking. "Most importantly, we found that NNAL level was highest among people who smoked the soonest upon waking, regardless of the frequency of smoking and other factors that predict [...]

Spike in oral cancers puzzles experts

Source: www.turnto23.com Author: Victoria Colliver/San Francisco Chronicle Christine Schulz has never visited England, but she speaks with the clipped inflection of a vaguely British accent. It's not an affectation but, rather, the mystifying after-effect of an 18-hour surgery she endured in 2009 to remove about half her tongue due to a cancerous growth that had spread to her lymph nodes. Surgeons used skin from her wrist and upper leg to re-create the missing portions of her tongue. Through long term speech therapy, Schulz, 47, of Hollister, Calif., re-learned how to eat and talk with her reconstructed tongue. If she sounds as if she's from a different country, Schulz isn't complaining. "At the moment I woke up from surgery, I realized exactly what a huge deal it was," she said, describing how she had an incision in her throat to allow her to breathe and was prohibited to speak in her earliest days of healing. Oral cancers, which include those of the mouth and tongue, are most common in men over 60 with a long history of smoking or chewing tobacco, often combined with heavy drinking. But in recent years, a spike in the incidence of oral cancers is being attributed to human papilloma virus or HPV. But Schulz's cancer was neither HPV-- nor tobacco-related. That puts her in a camp of fewer than 7 percent of all oral cancers that have no identifiable cause, according to the Oral Cancer Foundation, an advocacy group based in Newport Beach, Calif. "Surprisingly, a [...]

Five genetic subgroups revealed in head and neck tumor analysis

Source: www.onclive.com Author: Ben Leach Oncologists who treat patients with head and neck cancer are aware that those whose disease has been caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) have significantly better outcomes than those whose disease is caused by other factors such as smoking. However, new research suggests that there may be five distinct subgroups in which specific genetic profiles may be utilized to guide treatment decisions in patients. “Currently, we treat all patients with head and neck cancer in essentially the same way,” said Ezra E. W. Cohen, MD, co-director of the Head and Neck Cancer Program at the University of Chicago Medical Center. “But we do know that the prognosis for patients who are HPV-positive is much better.” To determine whether patients’ genetic profiles differed, Cohen and his colleagues at the University of Chicago, led by researcher Tanguy Seiwert, MD, took approximately 130 tumor samples from patients with stage IV squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck and performed gene expression (mRNA) analysis. The samples were gathered before patients received therapy, and all of the participants subsequently were treated with a 5-fluorouracil, hydroxyurea, and concurrent radiation (FHX)-based regimen. This way, the researchers could determine the outcome as a function of gene expression in the groups identified through the analysis, since patients received the same treatment across all the subgroups eventually identified. Cohen said that patients were enrolled regardless of whether they were HPV-positive or HPV-negative. Based on these findings, the University of Chicago team was able to classify [...]

Go to Top