smoking – Page 19 – Oral Cancer News

U.S. scores dead last again in healthcare study

Source: www.reuters.com Author: edited by Sandra Maler and Cynthia Osterman The United States ranked last when compared to six other countries -- Britain, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand, the Commonwealth Fund report found. "As an American it just bothers me that with all of our know-how, all of our wealth, that we are not assuring that people who need healthcare can get it," Commonwealth Fund president Karen Davis told reporters in a telephone briefing. Previous reports by the nonprofit fund, which conducts research into healthcare performance and promotes changes in the U.S. system, have been heavily used by policymakers and politicians pressing for healthcare reform. Davis said she hoped health reform legislation passed in March would lead to improvements. The current report uses data from nationally representative patient and physician surveys in seven countries in 2007, 2008, and 2009. It is available here. In 2007, health spending was $7,290 per person in the United States, more than double that of any other country in the survey. Australians spent $3,357, Canadians $3,895, Germans $3,588, the Netherlands $3,837 and Britons spent $2,992 per capita on health in 2007. New Zealand spent the least at $2,454. This is a big rise from the Fund's last similar survey, in 2007, which found Americans spent $6,697 per capita on healthcare in 2005, or 16 percent of gross domestic product. "We rank last on safety and do poorly on several dimensions of quality," Schoen told reporters. "We do particularly poorly on going without care [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-06-27T14:42:29-07:00June, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

HPV is changing the face of head and neck cancers

Source: www.hemonctoday.com Author: Christen Cona In February, at the Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Symposium in Chandler, Ariz., Maura Gillison, MD, PhD, professor and Jeg Coughlin Chair of Cancer Research at The Ohio State University in Columbus, presented data that showed that the proportion of all head and neck squamous cell cancers that were of the oropharynx — which are most commonly HPV-positive cancers — increased from 18% in 1973 to 32% in 2005. In addition, studies from the United States, Europe, Denmark and Australia indicate that HPV-positive patients have a more than twofold increased cancer survival than HPV-negative patients, according to Gillison. With the rising incidence of HPV-related oropharynx cancers, it will soon be the predominant type of cancer in the oral or head and neck region, according to Andy Trotti, MD, director of radiation oncology clinical research, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, in Tampa, Fla. “We should be focusing on HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer because it will dominate the field of head and neck cancers for many years,” he said during an interview with HemOnc Today . “It is certainly an important population for which to continue to conduct research.” Because HPV-associated oropharyngeal cancer is emerging as a distinct biological entity, the recent rise in incidence will significantly affect treatment, and prevention and screening techniques, essentially reshaping current clinical practice. Social change driving incidence In the analysis performed by Gillison and colleagues, trends demonstrated that change in the rates of head and neck cancers [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-06-27T10:24:39-07:00June, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

A year later, the tobacco war still isn’t won

Source: www.mercurynews.com Author: Patty Fisher A year ago this week, I was celebrating with health advocates across the country when they won their 20-year battle to get the federal government to regulate dumb and deadly cigarettes. I can't believe it took that long to convince Congress that nicotine, the powerful addictive drug in tobacco, should be treated like any other drug sold to the public. After years of marketing cancer sticks to kids and denying that they manipulated the amount of nicotine in their products to hook smokers, shameless tobacco companies at last had to answer to the Food and Drug Administration. They were given a year to stop their clever tricks such as making candy-flavored smokes and using labels like "light" and "low-tar" to make cigarettes sound less harmful. On Tuesday, the new rules will take effect. But those devoted to the anti-smoking cause know the toxic battles are far from over. With a $12.8 billion marketing budget, tobacco companies will find subtle new ways to attract new smokers. "They are always just one step ahead of us," said Margo Sidener of Breathe California. "The tobacco companies have the best advertising people in the world, unfortunately." Smoking on the screen It doesn't help that cigarette makers get lots of free advertising in movies and on TV. When Sigourney Weaver infamously puffed on a cigarette in "Avatar," it wasn't just a ridiculous endorsement of smoking for the most massive worldwide audience of children and adults ever. Worse, it made no [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-06-21T19:31:00-07:00June, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Researchers: B6 may cut cancer risk for smokers by 50%

Source: allyoucanreadbusiness.com Author: staff People who smoke and have a high level of vitamin B6 and other essential proteins and vitamins in their body will cut their chance of contracting lung cancer by fifty percent. According to a study by scientist at the International Agency for Research on Cancer, cigarette smoking causes many kinds of diseases like heart attack, throat cancer and so on. However, the major disease caused by smoking is lung cancer.This disease is very common and is seen in non-smokers. Deficiency in vitamin B6 and methionine is the major cause for lung cancer. Over 1.2 million people fatally fall victim to lung cancer every year. Vitamin B6 is very prevalent in vegetables, meat, nuts, and other high protein nutrient foods. Thus, taking in more vitamins and proteins daily will lessen the chance for smokers to develop lung cancer. Eighty percent of all lung cancer diagnoses are related to smoking cigarettes.

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-06-19T12:30:56-07:00June, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

CDC: Global tobacco marketing is reaching young women

Source: CDC Author: Staff As World Recognizes “World No Tobacco Day 2010” Although women account for only about 20 percent of the world’s 1.3 billion smokers, tobacco use among women is on the rise. Particularly troubling is new data from three countries —Bangladesh,Thailand, and Uruguay—indicating greater exposure to cigarette marketing among young women (ages 15 to 24) than older women, according to a CDC study. In Bangladesh, exposure to bidi cigarettes (80.1 percent) and smokeless tobacco (69.9 percent) marketing was widespread among women and did not vary by age. Bidi cigarettes are hand rolled cigarettes made of tobacco that are primarily used in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. Launched in 2007, the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) is a nationally representative household survey of persons ages 15 years and older being implemented in 14 countries around the world. Bangladesh, Thailand and Uruguay are the first three countries for which 2009 data is available. Before GATS, no one standard global survey for adults has consistently tracked tobacco use and other tobacco control measures. “Tobacco kills more people each year than HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria combined, and tobacco deaths are increasing steadily,” said CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. “The results of these surveys show one of the key reasons for the tobacco epidemic – marketing, including to women and girls. Countries around the world should establish and enforce comprehensive bans on advertising, sponsorship, and promotion of tobacco products,” he said. Other report highlights: In Bangladesh, 1.5 percent of women are current smokers, compared with 44.7 percent [...]

Charlotte Parker2010-06-14T19:58:02-07:00June, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

ASCO: Second study links HPV to mouth cancer outcomes

Source: www.medpagetoday.com/ Author: Michael Smith, North American Correspondent, MedPage Today Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection predicts a better chance of survival in patients with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma, researchers said. In a retrospective analysis of a major radiation therapy trial, more than four-fifths of patients whose tumors were HPV-positive were alive three years after treatment, according to Maura Gillison, MD, PhD, of Ohio State University in Columbus, and colleagues. In contrast, fewer than six of 10 patients with HPV-negative tumors were still alive at the three-year mark, Gillison and colleagues reported online in the New England Journal of Medicine, in an article released to coincide with a presentation at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting here. The study follows a report earlier at the meeting that found a similar pattern among patients enrolled in a chemotherapy trial. The virus is, of course, well known to cause cervical cancer. The New England Journal study adds to the evidence that "HPV-positive oropharyngeal squamous-cell carcinoma represents a distinct clinicopathological entity associated with a better prognosis than HPV-negative oropharyngeal squamous-cell carcinoma," said Douglas Lowy, MD, of the NIH, and Karl Munger, PhD, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Writing in an accompanying editorial, Lowy and Munger argued that if the diseases are distinct, "their treatment or prevention might benefit from different approaches." One possibility, they said, would be to target HPV proteins to treat the disease in some patients, while prevention might involve vaccination against the virus. Gillison and colleagues looked at the [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-06-07T16:09:05-07:00June, 2010|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

Big Tobacco Files Lawsuit Over Anti-Smoking Ads

Source: Gothamist Author: John Del Signore A Board of Health directive could soon require any retailers selling cigarettes to display graphic warning signs (like the sample here) about the dangers of smoking, plus information on where to seek help quitting. But that would violate their First Amendment rights by focring them to "undertake graphic advocacy on behalf of the city," according to a lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court today by cigarette manufacturers' R.J. Reynolds, Philip Morris and Lorillard, along with two Queens convenience stores and two retail groups. The signs, which vividly depict the insalubrious effects of smoking on various parts of the human body (think mouth cancer and heart disease), "do not describe the risks of smoking in purely factual terms," the lawsuit claims.Furthermore, "The mandated signs crowd out other advertisements and otherwise dominate the point of sale in many smaller establishments, to the exclusion of merchandise or other messages chosen by the store owners. The signs thus deprive retailers of the limited space available for communicating with their customers and thereby restrict their speech." Say, it's nice to see Big Tobacco sticking up for the little guy, innit? In a statement, the Health Department says: Tobacco is an addictive drug that kills some 7,500 New Yorkers every year. It disables many more. Yet studies show that many smokers are still unaware of the full risks that smoking poses. By requiring cigarette vendors to post warning signs at the point of sale in retail outlets, New York City is trying to alert [...]

Charlotte Parker2010-06-03T15:40:35-07:00June, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

UC Davis probes into oral cancer

Source: theaggie.org Author: Eric C. Lipsky UC Davis is searching for new and more effective methods to deal with oral cancer. Researchers have begun using a fluorescent oral probe to aid in the detection of malignant tissues. The probe allows doctors to differentiate between healthy and malignant tissue, along with having the capacity of working as a screening device. Although still a prototype, the fluorescent probe is showing that it can be helpful to doctors both prior to and during surgery. "The big picture is to improve the ability to diagnose tumors at an earlier stage," said Dr. Gregory Farwell, a head and neck surgeon at the UC Davis Medical Center. Farwell said that people's ability to survive oral cancer is significantly increased if the cancer is detected at an early stage. He said that oral cancer is primarily caused by smoking, drinking and human papillomavirus (HPV). Farwell said oral cancer through HPV usually takes 10 to 20 years to develop. 43,000 Americans are diagnosed with oral cancer each year. While the cancer is not the most prevalent in the United States, Farwell said it is a major problem worldwide, especially in countries like India and China. He said this probe could be of great utility for efficiently diagnosing different stages of cancer. "It is a very effective way to discriminate between normal tissue and tumor tissue," Farwell said. "We're showing better results in distinguishing differences in tissue. It can even help discriminate between pre-cancer and advanced cancer." The probe, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-05-20T12:26:51-07:00May, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Fluorescent probe for oral cancer

Source: www.physorg.com Author: UC Davis Approximately 43,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with tumors of the mouth, pharynx and larynx each year. The main risk factor is smoking, but a recent rise in cases has been linked to human papillomavirus. Most cases are not diagnosed until the cancer has reached an advanced stage. "There's a lot out there about breast, prostate and brain cancer, but people are not so aware about oral cancer and its devastating consequences," said Laura Marcu, a professor of biomedical engineering at UC Davis. "People don't think to look for it, and there isn't any routine screening." Marcu's laboratory collaborated with Dr. Gregory Farwell's group in the Department of Otolaryngology at the UC Davis Cancer Center to develop the fiber-optic probe. The probe stimulates molecules in the patient's tissues with a laser. Some of these molecules naturally respond by re-emitting fluorescent light. The device rapidly detects and analyzes this light using a process called "time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy" (TR-LIFS), which provides information about the types of molecules present. During surgery, blood can distort the intensity of the fluorescence signal but not its duration. By using sensitive measurements of the change in fluorescence over time, surgeons can see the tumor margins even as they are cutting the tissue. Based on encouraging results in animal tests, Marcu and Farwell's team recruited nine human volunteers from among patients who arrived at the UC Davis Medical Center for surgical therapy of the mouth, throat and larynx. They compared readings from [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-05-09T10:14:42-07:00May, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Poor awareness of head and neck cancer

Source: www.imn.ie Author: Kay Kinsella Eighty-three per cent of those surveyed on their knowledge of head and neck cancer (HNC) have admitted to knowing little or nothing about the disease. The study of 200 Irish people, published in the Irish Medical Journal, showed the majority (96 per cent) of those surveyed identified smoking as a major risk factor to developing HNC, but few (27 per cent) recognised excessive alcohol consumption as a risk. Less than 100 (50 per cent) would have concern about persisting hoarseness or a prolonged oral ulcer, despite them being common symptoms of HNC. HNC is the sixth most common cancer worldwide, with more than half a million new cases diagnosed every year and 200,000 deaths resulting from this cancer annually. Survival rates of the cancer, however, remain low with 50 per cent of those diagnosed with tongue cancer dying within five years. Early diagnosis of HNC could boost survival rates up to 70-80 per cent, however, it is reported that 60 per cent of patients diagnosed with HNC are at an advanced stage of the disease. The study reveals that 98 per cent of the public surveyed desired more information about the disease, however, there is little awareness being raised on the topic among the Irish public. The disease has higher mortality rates than any other form of cancer, including, breast, cervical, and prostate cancer, but these all have higher profiles in the public domain. Note: 1. The study was carried out in the Department of [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-04-23T12:29:01-07:00April, 2010|Oral Cancer News|