vaccine – Page 4 – Oral Cancer News

Which HPV vaccination schedule is best: 1, 2 or 3 doses?

Source: www.precisionvaccinations.com Author: Don Ward Hackett A new cervical cancer prevention study of women first offered Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine found that 1-dose of quadrivalent HPV vaccine was as effective as 3-doses at preventing histologically confirmed, high–grade cervical lesions. This Australian study’s finding published online on July 15, 2019, supports the hypothesis that the 1-dose HPV vaccination schedule may be a viable strategy when working towards the global elimination of cervical cancer. These researchers said ‘If one dose could prevent precancerous cervical lesions, then global cervical cancer prevention would be greatly facilitated.’ This is an important goal since about 90 percent of cervical cancer cases are caused by HPV. This study included 250,648 women in Australia with 19.5 percent unvaccinated, 69.8 percent had received 3-doses, 7.3 percent 2-doses, and 3.4 percent just 1-dose of the HPV vaccine. This study’s limitations include some degree of under–linkage and inaccurate data linkage because Australia does not have a unique national identifier, which impacts the classifications of vaccinated women as unvaccinated. Additionally, these researchers said ‘we believe that these data support decision-makers to consider how a 1-dose HPV vaccination schedule, or a planned schedule with a 3–5 year interval between doses, could reduce vaccine demand globally, which currently exceeds vaccine supply.’ But the Gardasil 9 vaccine manufacturer appears to be resolving this supply/demand imbalance. During July 2019, Merck said it is spending $1.68 billion, opening 2 new Gardasil production plants, and adding 525 related jobs. To clarify the Gardasil 9 vaccine dosing schedule, the [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2019-08-05T06:21:26-07:00August, 2019|Oral Cancer News|

Updated HPV vaccine recommendations follow big HPV infection drops shown in new study

Source: www.forbes.com Author: Tara Haelle A vial of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine Gardasil. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast) Adults up to age 45 are now recommended to discuss with their doctors getting the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, which prevents 3% of all cancer in women and 2% of all cancer in men—an estimated 34,000 cancers a year in the U.S. Following confirmation from the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the recommendations also extend the age in men from age 21 to age 26, the same as in women. The decision from the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) July 26 came the same day The Lancet published the largest study to date on the vaccine’s effectiveness. The meta-analysis of 65 studies found drops of 31%-83% of HPV infections and genital warts in men and women, depending on age and diagnosis. HPV is responsible for nearly all cervical cancer, over 90% of anal cancer, 70% of oral, throat and neck cancers and over 60% of penile cancer. Though HPV is primarily transmitted through sexual contact, non-sexual transmission occurs as well. Previously, the HPV vaccine had been recommended for females and males in a series of two doses up to age 14 or three doses up to age 26 in women and age 21 in men. Men ages 22-26 could also get the vaccine. ACIP’s unanimous vote to extend the recommendation to age 26 in men corresponds to evidence showing the vaccine’s substantial benefits [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2019-07-05T06:35:12-07:00July, 2019|Oral Cancer News|

Cancer ‘vaccine’ shown to be effective in small trial

Source: www.upi.com Author: Dennis Thompson, HealthDay News A new method of brewing a cancer vaccine inside a patient's tumor could harness the power of the immune system to destroy the disease, researchers report. Immune stimulants are injected directly into a tumor, which teaches the immune system to recognize and destroy all similar cancer cells throughout the body, said senior researcher Dr. Joshua Brody. He is director of the Lymphoma Immunotherapy Program at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. "We're injecting two immune stimulants right into one single tumor," Brody said. "We inject one tumor and we see all of the other tumors just melt away." Eight out of 11 lymphoma patients in a small, early clinical trial experienced partial or complete destruction of the tumor that received the initial injection, according to the report published April 8 in the journal Nature Medicine. The vaccine also halted overall cancer progression in six patients for three to 18 months, and caused significant regression or actual remission in three patients, the investigators found. The results were solid enough that the research team is expanding its next clinical trial to include lymphoma, breast, and head and neck cancer patients, Brody said. That trial started in March. Prior efforts at unleashing the immune system to fight cancer have focused on T-cells, which Brody calls the "soldiers" of the immune army because they directly attack harmful invaders in the body. Drugs called checkpoint inhibitors help T-cells identify cancer cells as [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2019-04-11T15:45:36-07:00April, 2019|Oral Cancer News|

HPV discovery raises hope for new cervical cancer treatments

Source: www.eurekalert.org Author: press release - University of Virginia Health Syste Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have made a discovery about human papillomavirus (HPV) that could lead to new treatments for cervical cancer and other cancers caused by the virus. HPV is responsible for nearly all cases of cervical cancer and 95 percent of anal cancers. It is the most common sexually transmitted disease, infecting more than 79 million Americans. Most have no idea that are infected or that they could be spreading it. "Human papillomavirus causes a lot of cancers. Literally thousands upon thousands of people get cervical cancer and die from it all over the world. Cancers of the mouth and anal cancers are also caused by human papillomaviruses," said UVA researcher Anindya Dutta, PhD, of the UVA Cancer Center. "Now there's a vaccine for HPV, so we're hopeful the incidences will decrease. But that vaccine is not available all around the world, and because of religious sensitivity, not everybody is taking it. The vaccine is expensive, so I think the human papillomavirus cancers are here to stay. They're not going to disappear. So we need new therapies." HPV and Cancer HPV has been a stubborn foe for scientists, even though researchers have a solid grasp of how it causes cancer: by producing proteins that shut down healthy cells' natural ability to prevent tumors. Blocking one of those proteins, called oncoprotein E6, seemed like an obvious solution, but decades of attempts to do so [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2018-12-19T14:14:58-07:00December, 2018|Oral Cancer News|

Research Update: Vaccine Plus Checkpoint Inhibitor Combos for HPV-related Cancers

Source: MedPage Today Author: Mark L. Feurst Two new studies show the profound impact of a combined vaccine and anti-programmed death-1 (PD-1) antibody approach in the treatment of human papilloma virus (HPV)-related cancers. HPV causes nearly all cervical cancers, as well as most oropharyngeal, anal, penile, vulvar, and vaginal cancers. HPV16 and HPV18 are the leading viral genotypes that increase cancer risk. Given the viral cause of these cancers, immunotherapy has been considered a strong potential approach. Many patients with the HPV16 and HPV18 subtypes of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma have good outcomes from treatment that includes surgery or chemotherapy and radiation. Although anti-PD-1 therapy is approved for patients who do not respond to treatment or who develop metastatic disease, it benefits only about 15% of patients. The theory, therefore, is that a vaccine could potentially boost the immune systems of patients with HPV-related head and neck cancer, opening the door for better responses to other existing therapies. Vaccine + Nivolumab in Phase II Study In the first study, a phase II trial, a tumor-specific vaccine combined with the immune checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab was found to shrink tumors in patients with incurable HPV-related cancers. "Ours are the first results with this particular approach," Bonnie Glisson, MD, of the Department of Thoracic Head and Neck Medical Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, told the Reading Room. "The rates of response and survival are approximately double what have been observed with nivolumab given alone [...]

Charlotte Parker2018-11-08T13:07:57-07:00November, 2018|Oral Cancer News|

Cultural barriers still stand in the way of HPV vaccine uptake

Source: arstechnica.com Author: Cathleen O'Grady Every year, nearly 34,000 cases of cancer in the US can be attributed to HPV, the human papillomavirus . The CDC estimates that vaccination could prevent around 93 percent of those cancers. Yet HPV vaccination rates are abysmal: only half of the teenagers in the US were fully vaccinated in 2017. Cultural barriers play a role in that low rate. Vaccinating pre-teens against a sexually transmitted infection has had parents concerned that that this would encourage their kids to have sex sooner, with more partners, or without protection or birth control. And vaccine rates vary across different social and cultural groups: for instance, rural teenagers are less likely to be vaccinated than urban ones. Two recent studies explore different facets of the cultural barriers standing in the way of better HPV vaccine uptake. The first, a paper published last month in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, looks at the data on whether the vaccine encourages riskier sexual behavior and finds no evidence that it does. And the second, an early draft of a paper presented at an American Association for Cancer Research meeting this week, reports the results of a culturally-targeted intervention aiming to increase vaccine uptake among low-income Chinese Americans. The kids are alright Although the vaccine is now recommended for both boys and girls, the initial drive was to get teenage girls vaccinated, given the link between HPV and cervical cancer. That’s why girls are the focus of the recent study on risky [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2018-11-06T09:37:25-07:00November, 2018|Oral Cancer News|

Why oral cancer threatens men

Source: www.scientificamerican.com Author: Claudia Wallis, Scientific American November 2018 Issue Back in 2006, when the vaccine for human papillomavirus (HPV) was introduced, I rushed to get my teenage daughters immunized. Here, amazingly, was a vaccine that could actually prevent cancer. By blocking HPV infection, it protects girls from the leading cause of cervical malignancies. I didn't give much thought to my son, and neither did the medical establishment. It wasn't until 2011 that health authorities recommended the vaccine for boys. In hindsight, that delay was a mistake, though perfectly understandable: the vaccine was developed with cervical cancer in mind and initially tested only in girls. Today, however, we see a rising tide of cancers in the back of the throat caused by HPV, especially in men, who are three to five times more vulnerable than women. This surge of oropharyngeal cancers, occurring in many developed nations, took doctors by surprise. Oral cancers were expected to decline as a result of the drop in smoking that began in the 1960s. Smoking-related oropharyngeal cancers are, in fact, down. But making up the difference, particularly in men, are those related to HPV, which have more than doubled over the past two decades. With cervical cancer waning (thanks to screening and prevention), this oral disease is now the leading HPV-related cancer in the U.S. Nearly 19,000 cases were reported in 2015, according to a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Roughly nine out of 10 involve a nasty strain called [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2018-10-17T07:39:00-07:00October, 2018|Oral Cancer News|

As HPV-related cancer rates climb, experts scrutinize barriers to HPV vaccination

Source: www.cancertherapyadvisor.com Author: Bryant Furlow Oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) are now the most commonly diagnosed human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated cancers in the United States, with 15,479 men and 3438 women diagnosed in 2015, according to an analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).1 Between 1999 and 2015, cervical cancer and vaginal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) rates declined, by 1.6% and 0.6% per year, respectively. But rates for vulvar SCC increased by 1.3% annually during the same period. Anal SCC rates also climbed by approximately 2% a year among men and 3% among women.1 Rates of oropharyngeal SCC — cancers of the throat and tongue — climbed as well, particularly among men (2.7% a year vs 0.8% in women). All told, more than 43,000 Americans were newly diagnosed with HPV-related cancers in 2015, the analysis showed, up from 30,115 in 1999.1 Most people diagnosed with HPV-associated malignancies are older than 49 years.1 Most women diagnosed with cervical cancer are older than 30 years.1 “We don't actually know what caused the increase in HPV infections but we know now that we have a safe and effective vaccine that can prevent infections,” said Lois Ramondetta, MD, professor of gynecologic oncology and reproductive medicine at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston. “We're seeing people who were infected decades ago developing these cancers,” Dr Ramondetta said. “We'll see rates continue to rise over the coming years because the vaccine wasn't available before 2006.” HPV vaccination rates are improving, Dr [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2018-10-16T12:00:04-07:00October, 2018|Oral Cancer News|

HPV vaccine expanded for people ages 27 to 45

Source: www.nytimes.com Authors: Denise Grady and Jan Hoffman About 14 million women and men become infected with the human papillomavirus each year in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CreditCreditKeith Bedford/The Boston Globe, via Getty Images The HPV vaccine, which prevents cervical cancer and other malignancies, is now approved for men and women from 27 to 45-years-old, the Food and Drug Administration said on Friday. The vaccine is Gardasil 9, made by Merck, and had been previously approved for minors and people up to age 26. It works against the human papillomavirus, HPV, which can also cause genital warts and cancers of the vulva, anus, penis and parts of the throat. The virus has many strains. It is sexually transmitted, and most adults encounter at least one strain at some point in their lives. The vaccine protects against nine strains, including those most likely to cause cancers and genital warts. “Today’s approval represents an important opportunity to help prevent HPV-related diseases and cancers in a broader age range,” Dr. Peter Marks, director of the F.D.A.’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in a statement. The approval was based on a study in women ages 27 to 45, showing that an earlier version of the vaccine was highly effective in preventing persistent HPV infection, genital warts, vulvar and vaginal precancers, cervical precancers and cervical cancers related to the virus types covered by the vaccine. The vaccine’s effectiveness in men ages 27 to [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2018-10-07T18:38:18-07:00October, 2018|Oral Cancer News|

Oral sex and ‘deep kissing’ linked to increase in HPV-positive head and neck cancer

Source: www.sbs.com.au Author: Amelia Dunn Jake Simpson was 22 when he started to get painful toothaches. Trips back and forth to the dentist couldn’t seem to fix the growing lump at the back of his mouth It came as a total surprise to Jake, his partner Carly, and their newborn son Noah, when oncologists in Brisbane told him he had stage four head and neck cancer, and would need to start treatment immediately. “We didn’t know what any of it meant. He was so young and healthy, we couldn’t believe it,” Carly said. Despite rigorous treatment and surgery that removed more than two-thirds of his tongue, Jake’s cancer was too aggressive and spread to his lungs. He died within eight months of his diagnosis. These cancers, known as oropharyngeal cancers in the back of the tongue and tonsils, are on the rise in young men, and are caused by the sexually transmitted disease HPV – human papillomavirus. While doctors believe it is most commonly passed on through oral sex, some argue it’s now as easy as ‘deep kissing’. “Jake wasn't tested for HPV because it was too aggressive from the day one, but that age bracket that he fell in, more than likely, the cause was HPV,” Carly said. HPV has been dubbed the ‘common cold’ of STDs. Over 80 per cent of Australian adults will get HPV at one point in their lives, and most will clear it without even knowing. But two particular strains, P16 and P18 are [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2018-10-02T07:41:21-07:00October, 2018|Oral Cancer News|