Almost half of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) have at least one suboptimally controlled cardiovascular (CV) risk factor, which in turn may be associated with an increased risk for CV events and death, suggests a study among US veterans. The findings show that “CV risk mitigation…

Since most head and neck cancer patients relapse, and there is strong evidence that subtypes exist, there is an urgent need for biomarkers to guide treatment. Now, researchers have developed a biobank of over 100 organoids, which may help clinicians choose the most appropriate treatment. These patients typically undergo surgery,…

Patients with oropharyngeal cancer caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV) should be double tested to improve their outcomes, according to new research. One test detects the actual virus, the other looks for the P16 protein that has been established as a commonly used biomarker for HPV, and which is…

The antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) might boost the effectiveness of chemotherapy against some types of cancer by inhibiting pathways that drive drug resistance, suggest results from research led by the University of Pittsburgh. The newly reported work published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), found that among…

A clinical trial led by Trisha Wide-Draper, M.D., at the University of Cincinnati (UC) that added permbrolizumab to standard of care treatments for head and neck cancer patients has exhibited increased survival rates with intermediate risk features. The findings were reported late last week in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal…

Researchers at Mass Eye and Ear and Massachusetts General Hospital have developed a liquid biopsy test for head and neck cancer associated with the human papilloma virus (HPV).  In a new study, the test was shown to be more accurate, faster, and cheaper than conventional testing methods. Their report, published…

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) OmniSeq announced today will collaborate on a cancer clinical study. Under the deal, UMPC will use the RNA-seq gene expression profile assay for selecting immunotherapy combination in patients with recurrent/metastatic (R/M) head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). The primary objective is to…

Diagnosing head and neck cancers is challenging. It is particularly difficult to distinguish pulmonary metastases of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSC) from primary lung squamous cell carcinomas (LUSCs). However, differentiating these from each another can have important clinical implications. Now, a team of researchers has developed a machine learning algorithm,…

Researchers at Johns Hopkins led a proof-of-principle study that successfully identified tumor DNA shed into the blood and saliva of 93 patients with head and neck cancer. Their report (“Detection of somatic mutations and HPV in the saliva and plasma of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma”) is…

A study that looked at data from 562,145 people found the incidence rates of early-onset cancers increased substantially from 2010 to 2019. Gastrointestinal cancers had the fastest-growing incidence rates among all early-onset cancers. But the increase in breast cancer in women under 50 was also notable. In contrast the rate…

A multisite study published today in the Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) shows that a commonly prescribed anxiety drug is linked with worse outcomes in pancreatic cancer patients and shorter progression-free survival (PFS). The drug, benzodiazepine lorazepam, sold under the trade name…

Just four-and-a-half minutes of vigorous activity during daily tasks could reduce the risk of some cancers by up to 32%, according to a large-scale observational study that used data from wearables. Vigorous Intermittent Lifestyle Physical Activity, or ‘VILPA’, was associated with a substantially lower cancer risk in those who engaged…

New light has been shed on programmed death receptor ligand-1 (PD-L1) and how its intracellular signaling affects immune suppression and cancer progression. A team from the University of Colorado School of Medicine studied the interactome, or group of proteins with which the intracellular domain of PD-L1 interacts. They found that…

Chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy, commonly referred to as CAR T therapy, is an intervention that uses a patient’s own cells to fight their cancer. The therapy first received US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in 2017. For some patients, this meant long term remission and even cures…

A little over a decade ago, a paper was published in Science1  that made science fiction a reality. Emmanuel Charpentier, Jennifer Doudna, and colleagues reported that they had identified a means of harnessing an element of a bacterial immune system to carry out genome editing in a way that was…