Mouth Cancer

Cancer of the Mouth and Throat Overview

The oral cavity (mouth) and the upper part of the throat (pharynx) have roles in many important functions, including breathing, talking, chewing, and swallowing. The mouth and upper throat are sometimes referred to as the oropharynx. The important structures of the mouth and upper throat include the following:

Lips

Inside lining of the cheeks (buccal mucosa)

Teeth

Gums

Tongue

Floor of the mouth

Back of the throat, including the tonsils (oropharynx)

Roof of the mouth (the bony front part [hard palate] and the softer rear part [soft palate])

Area behind the wisdom teeth

Salivary glands

Many different cell types make up these different structures. Cancer occurs when normal cells undergo a transformation whereby they grow and multiply without normal controls.

As the cells multiply, they form small abnormalities called lesions. Eventually, they form a mass called a tumor.

Tumors are cancerous only if they are malignant. This means that, because of their uncontrolled growth, they encroach on and invade neighboring tissues.

Malignant tumors may spread to neighboring tissues by direct invasion or by traveling along lymphatic vessels and nerves or through the blood stream.

They may also travel to remote organs via the bloodstream.

This process of invading and spreading to other organs is called metastasis.

Tumors overwhelm surrounding tissues by invading their space and taking the oxygen and nutrients they need to survive and function.

Tumors in the mouth and throat include both benign and malignant types.

Benign tumors, although they may grow and penetrate below the surface layer of tissue, do not spread by metastasis to other parts of the body.

Benign tumors of the oropharynx are not discussed here.

Uterine Cancer

What is cancer of the uterus?

Cancer is a disease in which certain body cells don't function right, divide very fast, and produce too much tissue that forms a tumor. Cancer of the uterus is cancer in the womb, the hollow, pear-shaped organ where a baby grows during a woman's pregnancy. There are different types of uterine cancers. Two types are endometrial cancer and uterine sarcomas. In the United States, endometrial cancer is a common cancer of the female reproductive system. This type of cancer happens when cancer begins in the tissue lining the uterus (endometrium). Uterine sarcomas occur when cancer grows in the muscles or other supporting tissues in the uterus. Uterine sarcomas account for only a small portion of cancers of the uterus.

Why should I be concerned about cancer of the uterus?

Some women who get uterine cancer have certain risk factors, or things in their life that cause them to have a higher chance of getting this disease. But there are women who get uterine cancer who do not have any of these high risk factors. Uterine cancer usually occurs after menopause. But it may also occur around the time that menopause begins. Abnormal vaginal bleeding is the most common symptom of uterine cancer. Bleeding may start as a watery, blood-streaked flow that gradually contains more blood. Women should not assume that abnormal vaginal bleeding is part of menopause. If you have abnormal vaginal bleeding after menopause, talk with your health care provider.

Malignant Tumors

Malignant tumors are cancer. They invade and destroy nearby healthy tissues and organs. Cancer cells also can metastasize, or spread, to other parts of the body and form new tumors. When cancer of the uterus spreads, it may travel through the bloodstream or lymphatic system. Cancer cells can be carried along by blood or lymph, an almost colorless fluid discharged by tissues into the lymphatic system. Lymph nodes scattered along this system filter bacteria and abnormal substances such as cancer cells. For this reason, surgeons often remove pelvic lymph nodes to learn whether they contain cancer cells.

Because uterine cancer can spread, it is important for the doctor to find out as early as possible if a tumor is present and whether it is benign or malignant. As soon as a diagnosis is made, treatment can begin. Each year, more than 32,000 women in the United States find out they have cancer of the uterus.

Celebrex Cancer

Nov. 30, 2004 -- The popular pain drug Celebrex activates a "death receptor" that makes cancer cells self-destruct, a new study shows.
Normal doses of Celebrex may be too low to trigger significant anticancer effects. But the new finding points the way to new Celebrex-based anticancer therapies. It also suggests that combining Celebrex with new kinds of designer molecules might have powerful anticancer effects.
The findings come from Xiangguo Liu, PhD, Shi-Yong Sun, PhD, and colleagues at Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. The study appears in the Dec. 1 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
"The approach of [Celebrex]-based combination regimens for cancer chemoprevention and therapy and identification of [Celebrex]-derived novel anticancer drugs with more potent efficacy should be explored further," Liu and colleagues write. "We suggest that death-receptor induction be evaluated as a target for screening novel [Celebrex]-based anticancer drugs."
Indeed, the researchers note that new Celebrex-based compounds with more powerful anticancer activity have already been discovered.
The researchers' studies confirm earlier work showing that Celebrex fights cancer in a completely different way than it fights pain. They found that the drug plugs into a molecular keyhole on the outside of cancer cells - the so-called death receptor. This turns on a self-destruct program.
A helper molecule called TRAIL greatly increases this anticancer effect. Liu and colleagues suggest that a drug based on this molecule might be given together with Celebrex.

The FDA has already approved Celebrex for the treatment of adenomatous polyposis, an inherited disease that predisposes a person to colon cancer. Clinical trials are exploring whether Celebrex - alone or in combination with other agents -- can prevent or fight several different kinds of cancer, including lung cancer.