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fiannotti@planningsource.comIdentafi™ Key Opinion Leader Dr. Larry Hamburg At Patterson Dental's Customer Appreciation Day – Oral Cancer Survivor Focuses on Need for Regular Screenings At Wednesday, Sept. 23 Event Attended By More Than 200
SPRINGFIELD, Mass., Sept. 25, 2009 — The Wednesday, Sept. 23 seminar delivered at Patterson Dental, Connecticut's 4th annual "Customer Appreciation Day" by Dr. Larry Hamburg, a key opinion leader for the Identafi™ 3000 ultra oral cancer detection device, attracted more than 200 attendees. Patterson Dental, Connecticut's Joe McGonigal noted that of the 600 people who attended the day's event, at Springfield's Mass Mutual Center, one-third attended Dr. Hamburg's talk about surviving oral cancer.
Every Dentist Needs to Screen for Oral Cancer
Two years ago Dr. Hamburg, a dentist, was diagnosed with Stage IV oral cancer — squamous cell carcinoma, the most serious kind. Dr. Hamburg stressed how important it is for dentists to conduct regular oral cancer screenings for all patients, dentists included. He described his personal battle with oral cancer, his recovery, and his belief that dentists need to seek out the best adjunctive cancer detection technology.
He added that oral cancer kills one person every hour of every day. It is typically detected by a doctor, not a dentist, by which time it is usually a late-stage diagnosis.
"The family dentist, dental hygienist, and family doctor play a critical role in stemming the spread of the oral cancer scourge, which is escalating at a rate of 11 percent annually," Dr. Hamburg said. "In fact, ADA estimates that while 60 percent of Americans visit a dentist every year, fewer than 15 percent of those who regularly visit a dentist actually receive an oral cancer screening. Clearly, dentists need to do a better job."
He pointed out that oral cancer is more deadly (in terms of five-year mortality rate) than cervical, breast, liver, kidney, thyroid, colon, or prostate cancers. It is growing at double-digit rates. despite declines in alcohol and tobacco use. This increase is due largely to the spread of HPV-16 and -18 via all forms of sex, but especially oral sex. Seventy-eight percent of those diagnosed with Stage IV oral cancer will be dead in five years.
Conversely, those diagnosed with Stage I have an 80-90 percent survival rate.
Cancer Seen As 'Gift' That Inspired Dr. Hamburg
Dr. Hamburg noted the irony of his personal battle with oral cancer is that as a dentist it's his job to tell patients to take dental health seriously. But for six months he ignored that advice. He had a superball-size mass at the base of his tongue and a secondary tumor in his lymph node the size of a baseball. He realized when he couldn't button his shirt collar that it had to be more than an infection. Subsequently, he underwent seven chemo treatments and 33 radiation sessions, radiation implant therapy, and surgery.
"Unlike others there I kept my tongue and vocal cords," Dr. Hamburg said. "Outside of a lengthy scar on my neck, the loss of my taste buds and salivary gland function, and some numbness in my fingers and toes from chemo and radiation treatments, I'm fine."
He is in remission, and, indeed, considers it a miracle that he can speak. In fact, that's why he named his company I Can Speak! Seminars (www.icanspeakseminars.com).
Dr. Hamburg observed that in retrospect his cancer has been a gift because it has transformed him into a crusader against what has become one of the deadliest cancers. Since his recovery, he has founded The Oral Cancer Awareness Foundation, or OrCA (www.oralcancerawareness.com), whose mission it is to "take a bite out of cancer" by making people aware of the insidious nature of the disease.
Catching it early is absolutely vital, said Dr. Hamburg, who has a restorative dental practice, Hudson Valley Dental Arts, P.C., in LaGrange, N.Y. He has also founded the OrCA Blues Band (www.orcabluesband.com) to improve prevention awareness. In addition, he lectures on cosmetic dentistry and has taught at New York University.
Identafi Is Only Device to Use "Multispectral" Technology
What doctors, dentists, and hygienists have lacked in the past was a reliable, effective, easy-to-use, and affordable handheld oral cancer detection tool, Dr. Hamburg said.
"The gold standard of determining if a patient has cancer or pre-cancer continues to be the biopsy," he observed. "But certainly it is not practical to do a biopsy on every patient when only about 10 percent of patients have something that might be of concern."
He explained that Trimira LLC's small cordless Identafi™ 3000 ultra, which was created exclusively for intraoral use, minimizes false positives/negatives and reveals abnormalities in oral tissue missed by the naked eye. "My staff and I especially like that the light fits into the mouth, which means you can see the area at the base of the tongue, where my tumor was, and where a great percentage of cancers are found."
Identafi™ 3000 ultra
The multispectral optical fluorescence and reflectance technology used in Identafi™ 3000 ultra was developed in collaboration with The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Rice University, and British Columbia Cancer Research Centre. "My discussions with the research scientists at M.D. Anderson have convinced me that multispectral technology really does represent a quantum leap in the visualization of mucosal abnormalities, including oral cancer or premalignant dysplasia," he added.
Identafi™ 3000 ultra is ergonomically shaped for dentists, periodontists, oral surgeons, otolaryngologists, and primary-care physicians. Trimira's industry-leading device incorporates next-generation oral cancer-detection optical technology that is changing the screening and diagnostic landscape for the nation's dentists and doctors.
Identafi™ 3000 ultra is still the only device on the market that illuminates with three wavelengths of brilliant white, violet, and green-amber light. Unlike other methods, Identafi™ 3000 ultra empowers doctors and dentists to pinpoint biochemical and morphological changes in cells. Moreover, the multispectral technology is effective not only in screening oral cancers but also in diagnosing cervical, skin, gastrointestinal, and bladder cancers.
About Trimira™ LLC
Trimira LLC is venture capital-funded by Dallas cancer research philanthropist T. Boone Pickens, of oil and windfarming fame. Other Trimira sister subsidiaries are working on screening and diagnostic devices for skin, cervical, gastrointestinal, and bladder cancers. Remicalm, as the parent company, has licensed exclusive use of certain of its patents and patents pending for use as a cervical cancer product to be later expanded to include additional epithelial-based cancers. Remicalm's core technologies are based on high-speed, high-resolution capabilities from its patented optical processing technology platforms and include the ability to read metabolic and physiologic differences in diseased and healthy tissue in the human body.
Visit Trimira™ at: http://www.trimira.net
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