PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

New study links air pollution with higher rates of head and neck cancer

2024-11-12
(Press-News.org) DETROIT — A recent study published in the journal Scientific Reports correlates higher levels of pollutant particulate matter to higher occurrences of head and neck aerodigestive cancer.

The article, "Air Pollution Exposure and Head and Neck Cancer Incidence," is the work of a multi-institutional collaboration with researchers from Wayne State University, Johns Hopkins University and Mass General Brigham.

The study was led by John Cramer, Ph.D., associate professor of otolaryngology, and John Peleman, M.D., medical resident in the Department of Otolaryngology, in the Wayne State University School of Medicine. They collaborated with Mass General Brigham, an integrated academic health care system.

“There has been previous research on air pollution, but the effects mostly were connected to cancers within the lower respiratory system,” said Cramer. “Head and neck cancer is a harder link to show, and it has a much lower occurrence than lung cancers, but since they also occur as a result of smoking, similar to lung cancers, we wanted to explore any connections. Presumably, the link to head and neck cancer comes from what we breathe to that material affecting the lining in the head and neck. We see a lot of occurrences of where carcinogens touch or pool in the body to where cancers can occur.”

“While there has been substantial research investigating the effects of air pollutants on lung disease, few studies have focused on air pollution exposure as a risk factor for the upper airway, including the development of head and neck cancer,” said senior author Stella Lee, M.D., of the Center for Surgery and Public Health and Division of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham health care system. “These findings shed light on the significant role of environmental pollution in cancers of the upper aerodigestive tract, highlighting the need for further awareness, research and mitigation efforts.”

Their research used data from the U.S. Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) national cancer database from the years 2002-12. Cramer observed the highest association between this type of pollution exposure with head and neck cancer after a five-year lag period. They focused on PM2.5, which is particulate matter measuring less than 2.5 microns, and its effect on head and neck aerodigestive cancer incidence.

“We are looking at a certain size of air pollution particulates,” said Cramer. “The size of the particles is relevant because the classic model for studying the upper airways is that the nose and throat act as filters before it gets into the lungs. Larger particles are being filtered out, but we are conceptualizing that different types of pollution hit different parts of the airways.”

Cramer hopes to expand their research by taking other data sets into account. He hopes that by showing this research to the public, it could help guide policy as well as aid treatment in the future.

“Environmental health and personal health are inextricably linked,” said co-author Amanda Dilger, M.D. of CSPH and Massachusetts Eye and Ear, a member of the Mass General Brigham health care system. “Our study highlights the need to improve air quality standards in order to decrease the risk of developing cancer, including head and neck cancer.”

# # #

About Wayne State University

Wayne State University is one of the nation’s pre-eminent public research universities in an urban setting. Through its multidisciplinary approach to research and education, and its ongoing collaboration with government, industry and other institutions, the university seeks to enhance economic growth and improve the quality of life in the city of Detroit, state of Michigan and throughout the world. For more information about research at Wayne State University, visit research.wayne.edu.

Wayne State University’s research efforts are dedicated to a prosperity agenda that betters the lives of our students, supports our faculty in pushing the boundaries of knowledge and innovation further, and strengthens the bonds that interconnect Wayne State and our community. To learn more about Wayne State University’s prosperity agenda, visit president.wayne.edu/prosperity-agenda.

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LSU researchers excavate earliest ancient Maya salt works

LSU researchers excavate earliest ancient Maya salt works
2024-11-12
The team was led by LSU Alumni Professor Heather McKillop, who first discovered wooden buildings preserved there below the sea floor, along with associated artifacts, and the only ancient Maya wooden canoe paddle in 2004. Her key collaborator, Assistant Professor Elizabeth Sills at the University of Texas at Tyler, began working with McKillop as a master’s student and then as a doctoral student at LSU. Since their initial discovery of wood below the sea floor in Belize, the team has uncovered an extensive pattern of sites that include “salt kitchens” for boiling ...

Building a diverse wildland fire workforce to meet future challenges

2024-11-12
Every year around this time, California’s wildland firefighters hold their breath as hot, dry winds threaten to spread flames across the state. As such conflagrations grow in size and severity throughout the Western U.S., the strain on fire managers has intensified. A new report from Stanford University’s Climate and Energy Policy Program provides a blueprint for fostering a more inclusive, diverse and well-supported workforce to meet the increasing need for fire mitigation and management. “The wellbeing of the wildland fire workforce has ...

MBARI researchers discover remarkable new swimming sea slug in the deep sea

MBARI researchers discover remarkable new swimming sea slug in the deep sea
2024-11-12
MBARI researchers have discovered a remarkable new species of sea slug that lives in the deep sea. Bathydevius caudactylus swims through the ocean’s midnight zone with a large gelatinous hood and paddle-like tail, and lights up with brilliant bioluminescence. The team published a description of the animal, nicknamed the “mystery mollusc,” in the journal Deep-Sea Research Part I. “Thanks to MBARI’s advanced underwater technology, we were able to prepare the most comprehensive description of a deep-sea animal ever made. We’ve ...

Decentralized social media ‘increases citizen empowerment’, says Oxford study

2024-11-12
Researchers from the Oxford Martin Programme on Ethical Web and Data Architectures (University of Oxford) have reported findings from a paper exploring the motivations and challenges in running decentralised social media such as Mastodon, concluding such platforms offer potential for increased citizen empowerment in this digital domain. In their study, presented at the 27th ACM SIGCHI Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (CSCW) today, the researchers interviewed 16 administrators of Mastodon servers (otherwise known as instances), including those supporting marginalised and stigmatised communities. Their ...

Validating an electronic frailty index in a national health system

Validating an electronic frailty index in a national health system
2024-11-12
“The classification of patients according to their level of frailty allows us to adjust prevention programs and focus our limited resources on the right action for the right person.” BUFFALO, NY- November 12, 2024 – A new research paper was published in Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as "Aging (Albany NY)" and "Aging-US" by Web of Science), on October 24, 2024, Volume 16, Issue 20, titled, "Development and validation of an electronic frailty index in a national health ...

Combination approach shows promise for treating rare, aggressive cancers

2024-11-12
A research team led by UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center investigators has shown that that combining pembrolizumab, an immunotherapy drug, with standard chemotherapy can improve treatment outcomes for patients with small cell bladder cancer and small cell/neuroendocrine prostate cancer. Small cell carcinomas can arise in various tissues—including the bladder, prostate, lung, ovaries and breast—and are known for their rapid progression, tendency to relapse after initial treatment and poor overall survival ...

Raise the roof: How to reduce badminton birdie drift

Raise the roof: How to reduce badminton birdie drift
2024-11-12
WASHINGTON, Nov. 12, 2024 – Indoor badminton courts are often used for high-stakes tournaments, but even an enclosed court can affect the path of a birdie. The airflow from a court’s heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system and cross ventilation plays a significant role in badminton. The lightweight feathered birdie passed between the players can be affected by low wind speed in the stadium. This is known as wind drift and has been at the center of multiple tournament controversies. While shutting ...

Ouch! Commonalties found in pain vocalizations and interjections across cultures

Ouch! Commonalties found in pain vocalizations and interjections across cultures
2024-11-12
WASHINGTON, Nov. 12, 2024 – There are an estimated 7,000 languages spoken worldwide, each offering unique ways to express human emotion. But do certain emotions show regularities in their vocal expression across languages? In JASA, published on behalf of the Acoustical Society of America by AIP Publishing, an interdisciplinary team of linguists and bioacousticians led by Maïa Ponsonnet, Katarzyna Pisanski, and Christophe Coupé explored this by comparing expressive interjections (like “wow!”) ...

Income-related disparities in mortality among young adults with type 2 diabetes

2024-11-12
About The Study: In this cohort study of 1.2 million individuals ages 20 to 79 in South Korea, the risk of mortality with low income was most prominent among individuals with type 2 diabetes ages 20 to 39. These findings highlight the need for socioeconomic support to reduce income-related health disparities in younger individuals. Corresponding authors: To contact the corresponding authors, email Sin Gon Kim, MD, PhD (k50367@korea.ac.kr) and Nam Hoon Kim, MD, PhD (pourlife@korea.ac.kr). To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi: ...

Medical board discipline of physicians for spreading medical misinformation

2024-11-12
About The Study: The frequency of discipline for physician-spread misinformation observed in this cross-sectional study was quite low despite increased salience and medical board warnings since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic about the dangers of physicians spreading falsehoods. These findings suggest a serious disconnect between regulatory guidance and enforcement and call into question the suitability of licensure regulation for combatting physician-spread misinformation. Corresponding author: To contact the corresponding author, Richard S. Saver, J.D., ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Reality check: making indoor smartphone-based augmented reality work

Overthinking what you said? It’s your ‘lizard brain’ talking to newer, advanced parts of your brain

Black men — including transit workers — are targets for aggression on public transportation, study shows

Troubling spike in severe pregnancy-related complications for all ages in Illinois

Alcohol use identified by UTHealth Houston researchers as most common predictor of escalated cannabis vaping among youths in Texas

Need a landing pad for helicopter parenting? Frame tasks as learning

New MUSC Hollings Cancer Center research shows how Golgi stress affects T-cells' tumor-fighting ability

#16to365: New resources for year-round activism to end gender-based violence and strengthen bodily autonomy for all

Earliest fish-trapping facility in Central America discovered in Maya lowlands

São Paulo to host School on Disordered Systems

New insights into sleep uncover key mechanisms related to cognitive function

USC announces strategic collaboration with Autobahn Labs to accelerate drug discovery

Detroit health professionals urge the community to act and address the dangers of antimicrobial resistance

3D-printing advance mitigates three defects simultaneously for failure-free metal parts 

Ancient hot water on Mars points to habitable past: Curtin study

In Patagonia, more snow could protect glaciers from melt — but only if we curb greenhouse gas emissions soon

Simplicity is key to understanding and achieving goals

Caste differentiation in ants

Nutrition that aligns with guidelines during pregnancy may be associated with better infant growth outcomes, NIH study finds

New technology points to unexpected uses for snoRNA

Racial and ethnic variation in survival in early-onset colorectal cancer

Disparities by race and urbanicity in online health care facility reviews

Exploring factors affecting workers' acquisition of exercise habits using machine learning approaches

Nano-patterned copper oxide sensor for ultra-low hydrogen detection

Maintaining bridge safer; Digital sensing-based monitoring system

A novel approach for the composition design of high-entropy fluorite oxides with low thermal conductivity

A groundbreaking new approach to treating chronic abdominal pain

ECOG-ACRIN appoints seven researchers to scientific committee leadership positions

New model of neuronal circuit provides insight on eye movement

Cooking up a breakthrough: Penn engineers refine lipid nanoparticles for better mRNA therapies

[Press-News.org] New study links air pollution with higher rates of head and neck cancer