HPV

PHILADELPHIA -- The past 12 months have seen new drugs and vaccines for indications from quitting smoking to preventing HPV. Which ones should clinicians embrace and which should they be more cautious about?

HELSINKI, Finland -- The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine Gardasil, developed to prevent cervical cancer, also appears to block pre-cancerous vulval and vaginal lesions, researchers said.

LYON, FRANCE -- Smoking and alcohol are independent risk factors for head and neck cancer, but a dose-dependent relationship was observed only for smoking, said researchers here.

SEATTLE -- The quadrivalent human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine (Gardasil) is nearly 100% effective in preventing disease from two major cancer-causing strains, two industry-sponsored studies reported.

BALTIMORE -- The human papilloma virus -- known to cause a range of anogenital cancers -- is also associated with a dramatically increased risk of some throat cancers, according to researchers here.

BOSTON -- Girls perinatally infected with HIV early in the AIDS epidemic have reached adolescence and a mixed picture is emerging on their reproductive health, researchers here reported.

LOS ANGELES -- Cervarix, an investigational cervical cancer vaccine, prevented all precancerous lesions because of human papillomavirus types 16 and 18 for 5.5 years, researchers reported here.

LOS ANGELES -- Like a Pap smear, detection of abnormal anal cytology is clinically useful in HIV-positive gay men to predict the presence of anal dysplasia, according to researchers here.

ATLANTA -- The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the CDC, as expected, has recommended wide use of the vaccine against four major strains of human papillomavirus that cause cervical cancer.

ATLANTA -- One in four women in the U.S. ages 14 to 59 are infected with human papillomavirus (HPV), according to the first nationally representative study. Some 3.4% of the women tested positive for the four major strains against which the new HPV vaccine protects, representing an estimated 3.1 million women.

A recent editorial in The New York Times heralded the conclusion, from 2 large sub-Saharan African studies, that male circumcision dramatically suppresses HIV acquisition rates as the "most important development in AIDS research since the debut of antiretroviral drugs."1 The editorial went on to state that while a "real [AIDS] vaccine is years away . . . we know its near equivalent [now] exists."1But Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease, was more circumspect. "These results could be negated by a small decrease in condom use or the addition of more sexual partners," he cautioned.2

ATLANTA -- A more comprehensive vaccination schedule for children and adolescents has been issued by the CDC for 2007.

BETHESDA, Md. -- Cancer therapy in 2006 was marked, as it is every year, by a string of hits and misses.

A healthy 21-year-old man presented with a rapidly growing, filiform, ringshapedwart on his great toe (Figure).

A 48-year-old African Americanwoman with HIV infection who hadbeen hospitalized several days earlierfor presumed Pneumocystis cariniipneumonia (PCP) is readmittedbecause of worsening dyspnea and atemperature of 38.8oC (102oF).She also complains of painful swellingand erythema on her right arm.Her symptoms have worseneddespite treatment with trimethoprimsulfamethoxazole.

An estimated 20million Americansare currentlyinfectedwith humanpapillomavirus (HPV). Assuch, HPV is now the mostprevalent sexually transmitteddisease (STD) in thiscountry. Answers to commonquestions like the onesabove are therefore of particularinterest to physicians.The issue of when and howto use testing for HPV hasbecome especially crucial.

My patient is a 7-year-old girl with multiple plantar warts on both feet.

ATLANTA -- Tuberculosis remained at relatively low rates in the U.S., despite more reported cases of multi-drug resistant TB (MDR TB). But a new alarm was sounded in 2006 ? extensively drug resistant TB (XTR TB).

SYDNEY, Australia -- Kidney transplantation is associated with a significant increase in risk of cancer, including a tripling of the risk for cancer at 18 sites, researchers here reported.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- The cyclooxygenase inhibitors -- including aspirin as well as Celebrex (celecoxib) -- may reduce the antibody-producing effect of vaccines, making them less useful in preventing disease, according to researchers here.

STOCKHOLM -- Smoking and human papillomavirus (HPV) may work together to increase the risk of cervical cancer in situ, according to researchers here.

COPENHAGEN -- Testing for the human papilloma virus -- particularly in older women -- can be a valuable tool for predicting future cervical abnormalities and cancer, found researchers here.

ABSTRACT: Risk factors for oral cancer include tobacco use and alcohol intake (especially in conjunction with tobacco use). Many benign conditions may be confused with squamous cell carcinoma, the most common type of intraoral neoplasm. Any red and/or white lesion that has surface corrugation, stippling, or induration is considered dysplastic or neoplastic until proved otherwise. Even without these clinical signs, white plaques of any size that persist for several months may represent dysplasia. These lesions should be assessed by biopsy. Risk factors for lichen planus include stress, exposure to certain foods and medications, and systemic illness. Erosive lichen planus may cause significant pain and oral dysfunction.

ABSTRACT: Risk factors for oral cancer include tobacco use and alcohol intake (especially in conjunction with tobacco use). Many benign conditions may be confused with squamous cell carcinoma, the most common type of intraoral neoplasm. Any red and/or white lesion that has surface corrugation, stippling, or induration is considered dysplastic or neoplastic until proved otherwise. Even without these clinical signs, white plaques of any size that persist for several months may represent dysplasia. These lesions should be assessed by biopsy. Risk factors for lichen planus include stress, exposure to certain foods and medications, and systemic illness. Erosive lichen planus may cause significant pain and oral dysfunction.

This condition, also known as squamous cell carcinoma in situ, manifests in two thirds of patients as a solitary asymptomatic, slowly enlarging, erythematous, scaly 3-mm to 3-cm hyperkeratotic plaque that is crusted, fissured, or ulcerated.

An 80-year-old man has had an asymptomatic, flesh-colored swelling on his right ear for 4 to 5 months. In the center is a 1-mm white scab pointing downward from the helix. At times, the patient shaves a white spicule that grows in this crusted area. He sleeps on his right side and does not use a cell phone.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Sexually active postmenopausal women who are not married or living as married may benefit from continued cervical cancer screening, researchers here reported.

SEATTLE -- The human papillomavirus has a long racial memory. So concluded researchers here, who found that variants of two carcinogenic HPV types tend to linger longer in women whose ancestors came from the same area where the variants first arose.

NEW YORK -- A dramatic increase in foot infections from unclean yoga mats, reported by a podiatrist last week, remains a mystery to other podiatrists who have seen no such increase.

A 51-year-old woman is seen because of burning at the site of entry of a urethral (Foley) catheter. The catheter had been placed perioperatively for a cholecystectomy. No history of genitourinary difficulty or trauma to the area. A urine culture that revealed Escherichia coli led to a diagnosis of urinary tract infection (UTI), but the relationship between this infection and the physical finding was unclear.