Head & Neck Cancer

The staging of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma has undergone key changes in the eighth edition of the American Joint Committee on Cancer Staging Manual, set to take effect January 1, 2018. We describe the revised staging parameters and the rationale in support of the changes.

Results from a study of patients with newly diagnosed head and neck cancer indicate that cognitive screening should be incorporated into pretreatment assessment for patients in order to improve outcomes.

Researchers found a statistically significant difference in median survival time between smokers and nonsmokers at diagnosis of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

In this interview we discuss a retrospective study that looked at survival outcomes in HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer patients treated with either definitive chemoradiation therapy or primary surgery. 

This video highlights an education session on the challenge of perineural invasion in head and neck cancer from the 2017 ASTRO Annual Meeting.

Use of a single-day multidisciplinary clinic visit allowed for more efficient and comprehensive cancer care in a group of patients with head and neck cancer, according to the results of a new study.

This video examines results of a study that looked at treatment tolerability in elderly patients with HPV-positive oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma.

This video highlights 2-year results of a phase II study evaluating aggressive adjuvant chemoradiation dose de-escalation in HPV-positive oropharynx squamous cell carcinoma.

Use of unilateral intensity-modulated radiotherapy reduced acute toxicities and maintained oncologic outcomes compared with bilateral IMRT in patients with lateralized palatine tonsillar cancer, according to the results of a new study.

FDG-PET/CT surveillance using a standardized reporting criteria 12 weeks after concurrent chemoradiotherapy was reliable in patients with locoregionally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, except in patients with late manifesting residual disease, according to the results of the ECLYPS study.

This video highlights studies on HPV-positive head and neck cancer presented at the 2017 ASTRO Annual Meeting.

Chemoprevention with low-dose 13-Cis retinoic acid, a synthetic vitamin A derivative, did not lower the incidence of second primary tumors in patients with squamous cell cancer of the head and neck.

The addition of high-intensity primary tumor ablation in addition to systemic chemotherapy may improve the survival of patients with metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Adherence to each of five quality metrics for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma was associated with a reduced risk for death.

Higher nodal yield during definitive surgery for clinically node-negative oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma was associated with improved mortality.

Three-weekly cisplatin is superior to a weekly dose in preventing locoregional relapse when combined with radiotherapy in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Patients with recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck treated with the checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab were able to maintain baseline levels of quality of life.

The addition of two cycles of neoadjuvant chemotherapy to concurrent chemoradiotherapy improved tumor control in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

This video reviews results of LUX-Head & Neck 2, a randomized phase III trial that studied afatinib as adjuvant therapy in patients with unresected squamous cell head and neck cancer.

This video highlights results of a phase III randomized trial that tested chemotherapy plus bevacizumab in patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck cancer.

Prophylactic HPV vaccination significantly reduced vaccine-type oral HPV infections among young adults, according to the results of a cross-sectional study.

Improving oropharyngeal cancer survival rates necessitates better coordination of survivorship care between oncology teams and primary care providers, according to a presentation at ONS.

A new study is suggesting there may be an association with high tumor levels of the protein PD-L1 and head and neck disease recurrence.

Surgery followed by postoperative radiotherapy was associated with prolonged overall survival compared with concurrent chemoradiotherapy in patients with locally advanced oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma.

Oropharyngeal small-cell carcinoma was more likely to present as distant disease and was associated with worse survival outcomes compared with squamous cell carcinoma, according to new research.

This video reviews ongoing trials testing immunotherapy for patients with head and neck cancer.

In this video we discuss efforts to reduce treatment doses in order to lessen long-term side effects and improve quality of life among patients with head and neck cancers.

Head and neck cancer patients who have a human papillomavirus (HPV) infection detectable with a blood-based biomarker have a better prognosis compared with HPV-negative patients.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in record time has approved nivolumab (Opdivo) for the treatment of patients with recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) with disease progression on or after a platinum-based therapy.

A study presented last month at ASTRO found that better radiation outcomes for head and neck cancer were associated with higher facility volume.