tumors

Analysis of cellphone studies finds tumor risk

Source: www.latimes.com Author: Shari Roan Scientists looking at 23 studies involving almost 38,000 people initially see no connection. But a closer look at the highest-quality studies tells another story. The answer to the question of whether cellphones increase the risk of brain, head and neck tumors is truly a matter of whom you ask. An analysis published Tuesday of data from 23 epidemiological studies found no connection between cellphone use and the development of cancerous or benign tumors. But when eight of the studies that were conducted with the most scientific rigor were analyzed, cellphone users were shown to have a 10% to 30% increased risk of tumors compared with people who rarely or never used the phones. The risk was highest among those who had used cellphones for 10 years or more. "The other group of 15 studies were not as high-quality," said study coauthor Joel M. Moskowitz, director of the UC Berkeley Center for Family and Community Health. "They either found no association or a negative association or a protective effect -- which I don't think anyone would have predicted." The main message of the analysis, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, is that studies should be conducted so that findings are harder to refute, he said. In recent years, concerns have arisen that the radio-frequency energy emitted by cellphones may be high enough to cause tumors and other health problems. But the risks are hotly debated. "I went into this really dubious that anything was going [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-10-14T08:53:17-07:00October, 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|

From cars to cancer: UH professor employs auto industry tools for tumor therapy

Source: www.genengnews.com Author: staff An effort is under way at the University of Houston to use technologies with origins in the automobile industry to develop new tools that will help doctors and technicians better plan radiation therapy for patients with head and neck cancer. Dr. Ali Kamrani, founding director of the Design and Free Form Fabrication Laboratory at UH and a former auto industry researcher, is teaming up with Dr. Lei Dong, associate professor and deputy research director of radiation physics at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, to develop predictive models of tumors that hopefully will increase the accuracy of radiation therapy. "We aim to better understand tumor deformations using geometric and statistical models rather than repetitive CT scans," said Kamrani, an associate professor of industrial engineering at the Cullen College of Engineering. "In this case, patients will undergo a minimum number of CT scans, and the radiation plans will be developed using the predictive models." Traditional computed tomography sessions, also known as CT scans, require a large series of two-dimensional X-ray images that, when combined, provide detailed three-dimensional images of many types of tissue. "A CT scan is used to collect information with respect to tumor size, location and volume," he said. "But the CT scan itself is a source of harmful radiation to body tissues and other organs. During the treatment, patients undergo a series of CT scans, which are costly and tedious." Reducing the number of CT scans is a primary objective for Kamrani, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-05-06T13:31:06-07:00May, 2009|Oral Cancer News|