A piece of the shoulder blade used to save woman's voice

Reconstruction of the voice box using bone obtained from the shoulder blade prevented total  laryngectomy in a patient with a rare form of cancer. This allowed the patient to keep her voice box including the vocal cords. The patient suffered from  a slow-growing cancer in the cricoid cartilage, a ring that supported her voice box. Of the about 50,000 people diagnosed with laryngeal cancer every year in the U.S., less than 1% have this particular form of cancer.

After removing the cancer Dr. Douglas Chepeha at the Univerity of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbour who performed the surgery used part of the 59 years old patient’s shoulder blade cartilage to reconstruct her voice box in a surgery at University Hospital in Ann Arbor. It is the first time this type of surgery has been done successfully. According to the surgeon this advance could help many other patients, including cancer patients with oral cancer, those who lose their voices and premature babies who end up with ruined voice boxes after being on a tracheotomy tube too long.

                        A picture explaining the procedure performed to save the voice box

Michael Douglas and wife Catherine Zeta Jones at anniversary of "beating" cancer

Michael Douglas and wife Catherine Zeta Jones was vacationing at Michael's anniversary of beating his oral cancer. The couple was photographed on the beach in Panama. It is good to see Michael return to enjoyable activities with his family after his treatment for cancer. He was diagnosed with oral cancer in August 2010 and received treatment with chemotherapy and radiation.  

Michael Douglas and wife Catherine Zeta Jones 

Oral Cancer is more common in men and smokers

Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is the main cause of a distinct form of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma that is increasing in prevalence a in the USA.

A recent study By Gillison et al. published in the Journal of American Medicine Association (JAMA) determined the prevalence of oral HPV infection in the USA.

Oral rinses from 5579 men and women aged 14 to 69 years were evaluated by polymerase chain reaction and type-specific hybridization.

The overall prevalence of oral HPV infection was about 7%. The prevalence was three times higher among men than among women as 10.1 % of men were infected orally, compared with 3.6 % of women.  Only 1% (projected estimate of 2 million Americans), were infected with HPV 16, the strain linked to throat cancers and many cases of cervical cancer. Since only less than 10,000 cases of throat cancer caused by HPV 16 are diagnosed every year, most individuals with the oral HPV virus infection do not develop cancer.  

The researchers found a high prevalence of oral HPV at 2 periods of life – between the age 30 to 34 years and 60 to 64 years.  Oral HPV infection was more common among those with a history of any type of sexual contact, increased with number of sexual partners and cigarettes smoked per day.

The increased risk associated with smoking may be due to the weakening of the immune system by smoking which may increase the susceptibility of smokers to infection. Furthermore smoking may also make transmission more likely by damaging the lining of the mouth.

Vaccination against HPV was shown to prevent cervical cancer.  Even though there is no proof yet that HPV vaccination prevent oral cavity oropharyngeal cancer, these findings underscore the importance of vaccination against HPV virus of both males and females.
For more on HPV click this link.

"My voice-a physician's personal experience with throat cancer" was obtained by the University of Southern California Head and Neck Cancer Support Group for their members.

                    

 Members of the University of Southern California Head and Neck Cancer Support Group with the book at their February 4 , 2012 meeting.