Dear Oral Cancer & Diagnostics Insider,
Studies show the majority of oral cancer cases are preceded by clinically evident, potentially malignant disorders, the most common of which is leukoplakia.
In this latest Insider Exclusive, German researchers have found that periodontitis increases the risk of developing oral leukoplakia and mucosal lesions that are predisposed to become oral cancer. Learn how their study provides clues into the complex relationship between systemic and local disease.
In other Oral Cancer & Diagnostics Community news, at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in 1981, oral medicine specialists were seeing patients with Kaposi's sarcoma who had mysterious white lesions of the lateral tongue. Pathologists initially thought it was premalignant leukoplakia, but Dr. John S. Greenspan and Dr. Deborah Greenspan, both at the University of California, San Francisco, determined that it was a type of Epstein-Barr virus. Their discovery is now recognized as one of about 30 oral lesions associated with AIDS.
Click here to read about their groundbreaking research in our popular Leaders in Dentistry series.
In a related story, the growing number of existing and new cases of HIV infection worldwide shows a parallel need for dental practitioners and other healthcare practitioners to carefully treat oral and periodontal conditions unique to HIV/AIDS. Read which conditions are most closely associated with HIV infection.
Meanwhile, human papillomavirus (HPV) type 16, the most common sexually transmitted infection, has been identified as the leading cause of oral cancers in the U.S. But researchers say that positive testing for HPV DNA alone is a poor biomarker for HPV-driven head and neck cancers. Read why.
On the other hand, a new study revealed that immunohistochemistry can help classify a head and neck cancer tumor as being truly associated with HPV. Click here to read how HPV infections in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma patients were significantly related to the tumor anatomic sites.
And the federal government has added oral cancers to the list of diseases that will be eligible for treatment for first responders at the World Trade Center after the 9/11 attacks. Research has linked the inhalation and ingestion of the dust from the fires and building collapses with the development of cancer.
In other news, scientists have discovered a drug that protects stem cells and could prevent cancer patients from developing radiation-induced oral mucositis. Click here to read details about the drug, which has been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and is currently in clinical trials.
In a related story, an ingredient found in red wine could prevent a variety of cancers in patients with Fanconi anemia, a rare genetic disorder. Read how the substance could help such patients who have a high risk for developing leukemias and head and neck cancer.
And the FDA has accepted a new drug application for cabozantinib as a treatment for patients with medullary thyroid cancer. Click here to read about how patients who received the drug in a clinical trial survived longer.
Finally, a new surgical technique can rebuild the lower mandible and mouth while preserving a patient's ability to eat and speak after removing an invasive facial tumor. Click here to read about a rare occurrence of osteosarcoma that spread from a patient's right femur to his mandible.
