tongue cancer – Page 2 – Oral Cancer News

New Association found between Obesity in patients with Tongue Cancer

Source: US NewsPublished: February 7, 2014By: Robert Preidt, HealthDay Reporter FRIDAY, Feb. 7, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Obese people who are diagnosed with tongue cancer might be at increased risk of dying from the disease, a small new study finds. Researchers looked at about 150 people who had surgery for early stage squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue and found that obese patients had a five-fold increased risk of death. Three years after surgery, 87 percent of normal-weight patients were alive, compared with 68 percent of obese patients, according to the findings, which were published recently in the journal Cancer. The study is the first to link obesity and increased risk of death in patients with any type of head or neck cancer, the researchers said. They said previous studies have found an association between obesity and worse outcomes among patients with several common cancers, including breast and colon cancers. "The role of obesity across several common cancers is a focus of increased attention," study senior author Dr. Clifford Hudis, chief of breast cancer medicine at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, said in a center news release. Hudis is also president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Because the study was so specific in terms of the cancer's location in the body and disease stage, it helped clarify the effect of obesity, another researcher said. "Most prior research investigating the interaction between [obesity] and head and neck cancers included multiple tumor sites and disease [...]

Charlotte Parker2014-02-10T16:31:09-07:00February, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

Michael Douglas: ‘Throat cancer’ was really tongue cancer

Source: cnn.com Author: Jen Christensen, CNN Michael Douglas never had throat cancer, as he told the press in 2010. The actor now says he had tongue cancer. Douglas said he hid the diagnosis at the urging of his doctor to protect his career. "The surgeon said, 'Let's just say it's throat cancer,' " Douglas told fellow actor Samuel L. Jackson for a segment that ran on British television as a part of Male Cancer Awareness Week. Douglas says that the doctor told him if they had to do surgery for tongue cancer, "it's not going to be pretty. You could lose part of your tongue and jaw." When Douglas first talked about his cancer diagnosis in the summer of 2010, he was on a worldwide publicity tour for the movie "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps." Douglas and Jackson joked that could have been the end of his acting career. Douglas said if he had surgery he could see the director saying, "What's your good side? I've got no side over here." "There really is no such thing as throat cancer per se," explained Brian Hill, an oral cancer survivor and the founder of the Oral Cancer Foundation. Douglas has taped a public service announcement to raise awareness about oral cancer for Hill's foundation. "Throat" cancer and tongue cancer are both colloquial terms that fall under the oral cancer umbrella. Throat cancer usually refers to cancerous tumors that develop in your pharynx, voice box or tonsils. Tongue cancer refers to cancerous [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2013-10-15T07:17:01-07:00October, 2013|Oral Cancer News|

Leaders in Dentistry: Dr. Ezra Cohen

Source: Dr. Bicuspid By: Donna Domino, Features Editor Date: July 17, 2013 May 21, 2013 — DrBicuspid.com is pleased to present the next installment of Leaders in Dentistry, a series of interviews with researchers, practitioners, and opinion leaders who are influencing the practice of dentistry. We spoke with Ezra Cohen, MD, an associate professor of medicine and the co-director of the head and neck cancer program at the University of Chicago, and the associate director for education at the university’s Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Cohen specializes in head and neck, thyroid, and salivary gland cancers, and is an expert in novel cancer therapies who has conducted extensive research in molecularly targeted agents in the treatment of these cancers. His research interests include discovering how cancers become resistant to existing treatments and overcoming these mechanisms and ways to combine radiotherapy with novel agents. Here Dr. Cohen discusses trends in the incidence, detection, and treatment of oral and head and neck cancers. DrBicuspid.com: What’s the significance of your recent finding that there may be five distinct subgroups of the human papillomavirus (HPV)? Dr. Cohen: The purpose of the research was trying to define molecular subgroups of head and neck cancer (HNC) to inform therapy and outcomes a lot more than we do now as defined by stage and anatomic site. We were taking advantage of a cohort of patients that we treated in a similar fashion at the University of Chicago with a chemotherapy regimen that we commonly use here. The patients [...]

Webmaster2013-07-19T07:48:02-07:00July, 2013|Oral Cancer News|

Grant Achatz Drops Malpractice Suits After Four-Year Battle

Source: Crain's Chicago Business Renowned chef Grant Achatz, whose successful battle with tongue cancer added an unusual twist to his story, has dropped his medical malpractice lawsuits filed against Chicago dentists. Mr. Achatz sued two dentists and their practices in April 2008 in Cook County Circuit Court for negligence. He claimed neither took the steps necessary to diagnose his cancer. He sought damages in excess of $50,000 plus court costs. The last of the suits, one filed against Dr. Loveline Dulay and her Wilmette practice, was dismissed Wednesday, according to another defendant's attorney. The medical malpractice trial had already started with jury selection under way, the attorney said. Mr. Achatz's attorney, Chuck Hornewer of Phillips Law Offices of Chicago, declined to comment. Mr. Achatz and his business partner Nick Kokonas opened Alinea in 2005. While it was accumulating accolades from around the country (and eventually from around the world), Mr. Achatz noticed a painful lesion on his tongue. In November 2005 he visited Dr. Dulay, who did not order a biopsy, a decision that Mr. Achatz said was negligent, according to his original complaint. In July 2006, he visited Dr. Michelle Schwartz at Bucktown Wicker Park Dental Associates, who also did not order a biopsy. Mr. Achatz believed she was also negligent, according to the original complaint. By 2007, he was diagnosed with stage 4 tongue cancer, and doctors found the cancer metastasized to his neck. He took part in a University of Chicago clinical trial that used radiation and [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-03-22T15:24:48-07:00March, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Kenneth Price dies at 77; artist transformed traditional ceramics

Source: Los Angeles Times Kenneth Price was among the first generation of iconoclastic L.A. artists to attain international stature. His work with glazed and painted clay was 'resolutely original' and redefined contemporary sculpture, an observer says. Kenneth Price, a prolific Los Angeles artist whose work with glazed and painted clay transformed traditional ceramics while also expanding orthodox definitions of American and European sculpture, died early Friday at his home and studio in Taos, N.M. He was 77. Price had struggled with tongue and throat cancer for several years, his food intake restricted to liquids supplied through a feeding tube. Despite his infirmity, he continued to produce challenging new work and to mount critically acclaimed exhibitions at galleries in Los Angeles, New York and Europe. At the time of his death Price had completed preparations for a 50-year retrospective, scheduled to open at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in the fall in an exhibition designed by architect Frank Gehry. The show will travel to the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. A 1992 retrospective traveled from the Menil Collection in Houston to the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. In the decades following World War II, Price was among the first generation of iconoclastic L.A. artists to attain international stature. Three Price sculptures were on view in "Pacific Standard Time: Crosscurrents in L.A. Painting and Sculpture, 1950-1970," a survey of 47 leading postwar artists that closed this month at theJ. Paul [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-02-27T12:28:51-07:00February, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Tongue and tonsil cancer patients surviving longer

Source: Dr.Biscuspid.com The five-year survival rate for U.S. patients with cancer of the base of the tongue or tonsils doubled between 1980 and 2002, according to a new study in Cancer Causes & Control (January 2012, Vol. 23:1, pp. 153-164). In addition, patients with human papillomavirus (HPV)-related cancers had greater survival rates than those with other oral cancers, and survival was greater for male patients than females regardless of age, according to the study authors, from the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, the University of Utah School of Medicine, and the University of California, Los Angeles School of Public Health. However, patients with subsequent multiple cancers showed no overall survival improvement. The incidence rates of tongue and tonsil cancers have increased significantly in recent decades in the U.S., particularly among younger patients, the researchers noted. At the same time, a number of studies have shown a strong association between HPV infection and tongue and tonsil cancers. For this study, they used data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) 1973-2006 registry system to examine changes in survival rates among patients with base of tongue, tonsil, and other tongue cancers in recent decades. The study included 10,704 patients with squamous tongue or tonsil cancer who were at least 20 years old. The researchers separated the patients into those with one primary cancer and those with subsequent multiple cancers, then compared trends using three nonoverlapped periods: 1980-1982, 1990-1992, and 2000-2002. The first group included those with only one primary base of tongue, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-01-04T15:27:37-07:00January, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Quebecers waiting longer for surgery

Source: CTV.ca Canadians who needed surgeries or other treatments in 2011 had to wait longer than they have in close to two decades, says a new report from the Fraser Institute, and the average waiting time for Quebecers has grown to the longest it's been since 2003. The think-tank, which has been tracking wait times since 1993, says that the median wait time for surgery in 2011 jumped to 19 weeks, from 18.2 weeks in 2010. In Quebec the average time in 2011 grew to 19.9 weeks. The previous year patients waited 18.8 weeks, while in 2009 the average waiting time was 16.6 weeks. Despite the growth in waiting times, Quebec patients were the third quickest in the country at getting the operations they needed. The survey suggests the main reason for delays in Quebec was the time between seeing a specialist after getting a referral from a General Practitioner, which at 10.7 weeks is above the national average. The wait for second step of the process -- actually getting the operation -- had actually decreased in Quebec from 9.9 weeks to 9.2 weeks. Only in Ontario, B.C., and Manitoba were patients faster at moving into the operating room after an initial visit with a surgeon. Life-threatening cases always treated quickly Surgery is not a first-come, first-served affair. Doctors at the Jewish General Hospital say priority is always given to life-threatening cases. "There are patients walking around with hernias, for example, that are not symptomatic, that they've had for 15 [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-12-13T10:25:29-07:00December, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

New Jersey Dentist Involved in Lawsuit After Patient Dies of Metastatic Tongue Cancer

Source: MyCentralJersey.com The dentist of a local firefighter who last year died of cancer at the age of 33 is being sued by the man’s estate, which accuses him of failing to warn his patient quickly enough that an tongue abnormality could have been a troubling sign of a bigger problem. Steven M. Runyon, who grew up in Manville before moving to Somerville, died of metastatic tongue cancer on Aug. 13, 2010, just eight days after his wife of four years, Colleen, gave birth to the couple’s fourth child. But the lawsuit alleges that Runyon’s dentist, Francis Barbieri Jr., first noticed a “raised area” on his patient’s tongue in December 2008 — nine months before he first was diagnosed with cancer — and failed to advise him to look into it further. Runyon returned to Barbieri for another appointment in June 2009, when the dentist noted visible changes to Runyon’s tongue, and he went back for follow-up sessions three times that summer, the lawsuit indicates. But it was only during the final visit, in August, that Barbieri finally referred him to Somerset Oral Surgery for an evaluation and biopsy, according to the allegations. Runyon subsequently underwent “extensive” treatment by various physicians in various locations — suffering “severe pain, physical disfigurement, mental anguish and suffering,” the suit states — but died less than a year later. Barbieri did not return a phone call placed to his office last week. The dentist has an office on East Main Street in Somerville and [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-10-04T15:16:39-07:00October, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Life After Tongue Cancer, & a Total Glossectomy

Source: UCSF Medical Center Author: Sierra Tzoore Tongue cancer is uncommon, and it's especially unusual for it to strike a young person who doesn't smoke or drink heavily. Kate Brown was just 32 years old, recently married and beginning a new job, when she learned that a spot on her tongue was stage III tongue cancer. Brown was referred to UCSF Medical Center, where surgeons recommended a drastic treatment that was her best shot at survival: a total glossectomy, or tongue removal, followed by chemotherapy and radiation. Four years later, Brown is cancer-free and, unlike many patients who undergo total glossectomy, able to eat and speak understandably. We asked Brown about her treatment and path to recovery. How did you discover you had tongue cancer? A small sore appeared on my tongue when I had a sore throat. I took antibiotics for the sore throat, but the spot was still there after the sore throat subsided. I then started to have ear pain and the sore got larger. I was prescribed antibiotics again. When my doctor looked in my ear she didn't see any swelling, but the earache became unbearably painful. I'd never been in pain like that. In my heart of hearts, I knew at that point that something was terribly wrong, but I wasn't sure what it was. I decided to see another doctor, who referred me to an ear, nose and throat specialist, Dr. Ivor Emanuel at California Pacific Medical Center. Dr. Emanuel's specialty is allergies but I think [...]

Charlotte Parker2011-08-22T12:33:47-07:00August, 2011|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

Aerosmith’s Bassist is Treated for Tongue Cancer with Laser Surgery

Source: KSAT.com Aerosmith will be performing in Mexico and South America this fall and one of the band members will be along for the tour thanks to a radical medical procedure. In one Aerosmith song, bassist Tom Hamilton sends a message to his throat and tongue cancer with the lyrics "you've got no business with me." Five years ago, Hamilton underwent chemotherapy and radiation for tongue-base cancer, but it came back and extended into his voice box. That is when he turned to Dr. Steven Zeitels. "This is not your classic way, or even traditional way, to try and remove a cancer from the tongue base," Zeitels said. Radical surgery was now Hamilton's only option. But that could leave his voice and breathing passage permanently damaged. "I was just terrified," Hamilton said. "I really though, 'Oh, I am looking at not being able to talk.'" Zeitels has treated vocal cord cancer with the green-light KTP laser, so Hamilton agreed to be the first person treated that way for tongue base cancer. The laser emits a green light, which is concentrated in the extra blood running through the cancer. "Where there is a lot of cancer, there will be a lot of blood," Zeitels said. "Where there is a lot of blood, there will be a lot of combustion so that you are actually watching the tissues burn completely different" But not everyone is a candidate for this surgery. "The second I had a tiny bit of consciousness, the first thing I did was make [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-08-09T10:30:12-07:00August, 2011|Oral Cancer News|