Head & Neck Cancer

Modern head and neck imaging has led to advances in both the diagnosis and treatment of head and neck cancers. Both computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies provide important information

Intracranial germinomas are uncommon tumors. In the past, patients have traditionally been diagnosed with a trial of focal radiotherapy without biopsy. If the tumor was radiosensitive, it was presumed to be a germinoma.

During the past decade, federal health agencies have focused on reducing the incidence of oral and pharyngeal cancer and increasing the 5-year survival rate from these cancers in the United States. Beginning with a consortium of health agencies in

Findings that tissue levels of two proteins correlate closely with the prognosis of head and neck cancer may significantly alter the detection, staging, and treatment of this disease, according to an article published in the June 3rd issue of the Journal of

TORONTO--The use of whole-body fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) offers an opportunity to improve the outcome for patients with advanced head and neck cancers. Two papers presented at the 45th annual meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine found that FDG-PET was more accurate than conventional imaging for the diagnosis of regional and distant recurrence.

The common clinical presentations of head and neck cancer include early (stage I or II) disease, locally or regionally advanced (stage III or IV, M0) disease, and recurrent or metastatic disease (< 5% of patients).

LOS ANGELES--A genetically engineered adenovirus that replicates in and kills tumor cells deficient in p53 tumor suppressor gene activity has shown promising results in patients with advanced head and neck cancer, David H. Kirn, MD, said at an ASCO poster session. Dr. Kirn is director of clinical research at Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Richmond, California, which is developing the new agent, known as ONYX-015.

TORONTO--Therapeutic strategy in patients with head and neck cancer is sometimes based on the staging of regional lymph nodes. However, standard imaging techniques such as computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) cannot differentiate between inflammation and metastasis in an enlarged lymph node and may not discover distant disease.

Management of patients who have head and neck cancer necessitates a multidisciplinary approach.[1,2] Comprehensive care must be initiated prior to therapy, maintained throughout course of treatment, and systematically coordinated for the rest of the patient’s life. As Dwyer and Minasian note, a multidisciplinary team that includes dental professionals, a speech/language pathologist, and a registered dietician is best suited for this complex management challenge. These individuals, working in conjunction with physicians, nurses, and other professionals, can provide patients with key preventive and therapeutic supportive care interventions.

he authors are to be commended for providing an overview of several important, though often overlooked, management issues in head and neck cancer. In their overview of nutrition, they correctly state that the nutritional status of head and neck cancer patients is frequently compromised even before cancer diagnosis and treatment. Documented reasons for this include poor oral hygiene, ill-fitting dentures, and a high incidence of alcoholism.[1] Consequently, it is imperative that patients’ pretreatment nutritional status be determined so that necessary dietary modifications can be made prior to therapy. As the authors emphasize, nutritional reassessment and intervention should continue during and after treatment.

Tumors of the head and neck account for 4% of cancers in the United States. Both the disease process itself and side effects of cancer treatment, such as xerostomia, dysphagia, and malnutrition, compromise oral health,

An ideal diagnostic test for cancer would be noninvasive and provide accurate results with sufficient specificity and sensitivity. Currently, no test for cancer meets all of these criteria. However, results of a study presented at the annual meeting of the

DURHAM, NC--Use of amifostine (Ethyol) significantly reduces the incidence of chronic as well as acute xerostomia and associated symptoms in patients undergoing radiotherapy for the treatment of head and neck cancer, David Brizel, MD, associate professor of radiation oncology, Duke University Medical Center, said at the ASCO meeting.

PROVIDENCE, RI--Weekly chemotherapy with carboplatin (Paraplatin) and paclitaxel (Taxol) followed by irradiation resulted in a 91% overall response rate in patients with inoperable cancer of the head and neck.

NEW ORLEANS--A diagnostic test under development may be able to detect many head and neck squamous cell carcinomas while they are still in their early stages, David Sidransky, MD, professor in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, reported at the 89th annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Results of treatment for patients with salivary gland carcinoma have improved in recent years, most likely due to earlier diagnosis and the use of more effective locoregional therapy. Salivary gland tumors are treated surgically, often in conjunction with postoperative radiation therapy when the tumor is malignant. Good results rest strongly on the performance of an adequate, en bloc initial resection. Radical neck dissection is indicated in patients with obvious cervical metastasis, and limited neck dissection may be appropriate in patients with clinically negative nodes in whom occult nodal involvement is likely. Postoperative radiation therapy should be administered when the tumor is high stage or high grade, the adequacy of the resection is in question, or the tumor has ominous pathologic features. Neutron beam therapy shows promise in controlling locoregional disease but requires further study. No single chemotherapeutic agent or combination regimen has produced consistent results. At present, chemotherapy is clearly indicated only for palliation in symptomatic patients with recurrent and/or unresectable cancers. Patients with salivary gland carcinomas must be followed for long periods, as recurrence may occur a decade or more following therapy. Distant metastasis appears to occur in approximately 20% of patients.[ONCOLOGY 12 (5): 671-683, 1998]

n ORLANDO-Amifostine (Ethyol) given prior to radiation therapy in head and neck cancer patients significantly reduced the incidence of radiation-induced grade 2 xerostomia. Mucositis was not a dose-limiting toxicity, and patients generally were able to receive their scheduled radiation doses without delays,

Ms. Clarke provides an excellent overview of the rehabilitation process for the head and neck cancer patient. She highlights pretreatment and posttreatment rehabilitation issues and details the nature of each multidisciplinary intervention. I concur with the rehabilitation process that she describes and second the importance of multidisciplinary interventions beginning prior to treatment.

Although head and neck cancer accounts for only about 5% of all malignancies, the functional and cosmetic changes that result from the tumor or its treatment pose a challenge to the health-care community. In today’s health-care environment, we are being forced or at least encouraged to decrease the length of hospital stay for patients following all types of surgical procedures. As a result, the inpatient census for most units has decreased substantially, causing many specialized patient care units to close.

As the economics of health care increasingly dictate the parameters of patient care delivery, the role of rehabilitation has taken on new meaning with regard to positive patient outcomes. This is particularly true for the head and neck cancer patient coping with devastating physical and functional changes. With treatment advances leading to increased survival, health-care providers must therefore focus on restoring function and assisting the patient to achieve an acceptable quality of life. For the head and neck cancer patient with multiple rehabilitation needs, this can best be accomplished through a comprehensive, coordinated approach, utilizing interdisciplinary clinical and community resources aimed at facilitating the rehabilitation process and ultimately achieving individualized rehabilitation goals.

In the past, head and neck cancers were felt to be primarily a locoregional control challenge. Distant metastases were not thought to occur frequently. However, the popularity of combined-modality programs emphasizing regional treatment with surgery and radiation in the 1960s enhanced the ability to control the disease at the primary site and within the regional cervical lymphatics. Nevertheless, survival was not improved because treatment failure at distant sites occurred frequently. Apparently, prior treatment programs that did not provide locoregional control masked the ability of this disease to spread to distant sites. Patients died of uncontrolled locoregional disease before they could experience distant metastases.

In 1970, Ansfield and colleagues published the results of a randomized trial in head and neck cancer, which showed that giving fluorouracil (5-FU) concomitantly with radiation decreased regional recurrences and improved overall survival over radiation alone.[1] Publication of these results came 6 years before those of an Italian trial showing similar findings with adjuvant cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and 5-FU (CMF) in breast cancer.[2] Yet, while adjuvant chemotherapy has rapidly become the norm in the management of early breast cancer, concomitant chemotherapy is still considered undefined in the treatment of head and neck cancer. This situation is elegantly described by Dr. Karen Fu, one of the most respected investigators in this area.

Chemotherapy, when combined with radiotherapy and/or surgery in the treatment of patients with head and neck cancer, appears to be most efficacious if it is given concurrently with radiotherapy. Concurrent chemotherapy and

SAN FRANCISCO-Not all clinicians are satisfied with the current TNM staging system for head and neck cancers. The problem is that the TNM system is based on a morphologic description of the tumor.

This study compared the activity and toxicity of fluorouracil (5-FU)/cisplatin with the combination tegafur and uracil (UFT)/cisplatin in the neoadjuvant treatment of locally advanced-stage III or IV (M0)-head and neck

Squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck is a potentially curable neoplasm. Historically, the standard approach to treatment has been either surgery or radiation therapy, or a combination of the two. Over the past

The treatment of head and neck cancer has traditionally consisted of surgery with postoperative radiation therapy. Chemotherapy has been reserved for palliation.

DENVER--Novel agents have been designed to exploit molecular markers as therapeutic targets in head and neck cancer. Two studies presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting involved agents targeting the p53 gene, either by eradication of p53-altered tumor cells or restoration of normal gene function. The third study involved a monoclonal antibody targeted at tumor cells with an abnormality of the EGF receptor.

The Society of Surgical Oncology surgical practice guidelines focus on the signs and symptoms of primary cancer, timely evaluation of the symptomatic patient, appropriate preoperative evaluation for extent of disease, and role of the surgeon in

The Society of Surgical Oncology surgical practice guidelines focus on the signs and symptoms of primary cancer, timely evaluation of the symptomatic patient, appropriate preoperative evaluation for extent of disease, and role of the surgeon in