| National News | | International News | Medical News  | HPV Tied to 3-Fold Greater Risk for Esophageal Cancer AUSTRALIA :: STDs
Fox News (07.31.2013) :: By Reuters | | | Data from the National Cancer Institute reported that the United States diagnosed nearly 18,000 cases of esophageal cancer and recorded 15,000 deaths from the disease annually. According to World Health Organization data, esophageal cancer is the eighth most common cancer in the world and caused approximately 400,000 deaths annually. The STD human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is linked to cervical cancer, anal cancer, and some cancers of the upper throat. Dr. Surabhi Liyanage, a graduate student at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and colleagues investigated the relationship between HPV and esophageal cancer.
The researchers collected results from all studies that compared patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and those without it. They examined esophageal tissue samples from patients with and without the cancer from the 21 eligible studies, to determine whether HPV was present. The researchers found HPV in the esophageal tissue of 35 percent of cancer patients compared to 27 percent of those without esophageal cancer.
The results indicated that those with HPV infection in their esophageal tissue were three times more susceptible to esophageal cancer. The author noted that if HPV caused the cancer, then HPV vaccines could help prevent it. However, she acknowledged that further study was needed because cancer-preventing vaccines most often took many years after the initial vaccination to show benefits. Liyanage suggested alternative ways of reducing the risk of developing esophageal cancer, such as not smoking and not drinking excessively.
The full report, “The Aetiological Role of Human Papillomavirus in Oesophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Meta-Analysis,” was published online in the journal PLoS One (2013; doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0069238) |  Read Full Article | Share this Article     | | Back to Top  |  | | Local and Community News  | Campaign Urges Hepatitis B Screening CALIFORNIA :: Viral Hepatitis
San Jose Mercury News (07.29.2013) :: By Sharon Noguchi | | | More than 200 people in central California received free hepatitis B screening last Sunday. The event was part of a World Hepatitis Day campaign to draw awareness to this deadly disease that affects one in 12 Asian-Americans, many of whom are unaware of their infection. Twenty-five percent of those infected could develop life-threatening complications, including liver cancer.
Former California Assembly Member Fiona Ma became a campaign spokesperson after learning at a previous awareness event that she suffered from chronic hepatitis B. She acquired hepatitis at birth from her mother but she thought she was only a “silent carrier.” Six years ago, a doctor informed her that people could only either have active or inactive hepatitis B, which prompted her to get a liver test and urge her family to do the same. Her mother’s test revealed early liver cancer, which doctors treated successfully.
Many testing participants indicated that they considered hepatitis B to be a mild health problem rather than a serious epidemic. They also believed having regular physicals and routine blood tests would automatically screen for the disease. CDC, which partly funded the testing, has launched a national screening education campaign. US hepatitis case numbers have decreased due to routine vaccinations of newborns, but it is still endemic.
ThinkTank Learning, a tutoring and test-prep company with a 95-percent Asian-American clientele, offered its centers as test sites as well as offered its students community service hours for each adult they recruited for testing. "This is a very good service for the community," said Palo Alto resident Bob Zhang. He was recruited by his daughter Lily, a senior at Palo Alto High School and a table tennis Olympian who also recruited seven visiting Chinese table tennis players for testing. The Chinese team members stated that they could not recall ever being tested for the disease in China.
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8/1/2013
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