Head & Neck Oncology

INTRODUCTION: Perioperative blood transfusion is associated with reduced prognosis in a number of solid malignancies. We investigate its role in a head & neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC) cell lines. Growth of these cell lines was analogous to endothelial growth. Direct exposure to transfusion products exaggerated this effect. It was logical therefore to assess the effects of anti-endothelial antibodies on this interaction. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Control (HUVEC) and tumour cell lines were exposed to transfusion products...

BACKGROUND: Advanced and recurrent cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma of the scalp and forehead require aggressive surgical excision often resulting in complex defects requiring reconstruction. This study evaluates various microvascular free flap reconstructions in this patient population, including the rarely utilized radial forearm free flap. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A retrospective review of patients undergoing free flap surgeries (n = 47) of the scalp between 1997 and 2011 were included...

INTRODUCTION: This article presents the case of a 26-year-old woman with tongue cancer. The median age at the diagnosis of the tongue's cancer is 61 years. Only approximately 2% of patients are diagnosed before the age of 35. CASE PRESENTATION: Our patient survived acute myeloid leukemia (AML) before her second year. She had been having recurrent, poorly healing aphtae on the right side of the tongue for a period of months before the symptoms of the tongue cancer appeared...

Salivary gland cancers are very rare tumors. They are characterized by a histologic heterogeneity and a poor outcome. According to this rarity, few prospective data are available to date. No standard recommendations could be held for the use of systemic therapy in these tumors. Several case reports and small studies have investigated the contribution of different agents of chemotherapy. With the extension of molecular biology approach in oncology several signaling pathways have been discovered in different cancers including salivary gland cancers; thus a number of targeted therapies have been investigated...

OBJECTIVES: Ceruminous adenoma of the external auditory canal (EAC) is a rare type of tumour that is diagnosed histologically. However, the clinical behaviour of these tumours remains controversial. Here, we report a case of ceruminous adenoma of the EAC and expression of a hypoxia marker. CASE REPORT: A 78-year-old man presented with a 6-month history of recurrent otorrhoea in the right ear. Surgery was performed by the transmeatal approach with total removal of the mass...

The CO2 laser was invented in 1963 by Kumar Patel. Since the early 1970s, CO2 laser has proved to be an effective method of treatment for patients with several types of oral lesions, including early squamous cell carcinoma.Laser surgery of oral premalignant disorders is an effective tool in a complete management strategy which includes careful clinical follow-up, patient education to eliminate risk factors, reporting and biopsying of suspicious lesions and any other significant lesions. However, in a number of patients, recurrence and progression to malignancy remains a risk...

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a minimally-invasive surgical tool successfully targeting premalignant and malignant disorders in the head and neck, gastrointestinal tract, lungs and skin with greatly reduced morbidity and disfigurement. The technique is simple, can commonly be carried out in outpatient clinics, and is highly acceptable to patients. The role of photodynamic therapy in the management of oral potentially malignant disorders and early oral cancer is being discussed.

Several factors have been identified to affect morbidity and mortality in oral cancer patients. The time taken to process a resected cancer specimen in a patient presenting with primary or recurrent disease can be of interest as delay can affect earlier interventions post-surgery. We looked at this variable in a group of 168 consecutive oral cancer patients and assessed its relationship to mortality from the disease at 3 and 5 years. It is expected that delay in pathological processing time of surgical specimens acquired from patients with recurrent disease may increase or contribute to the increased rate of mortality...

Clear cell chondrosarcoma is a rare variant of chondrosarcoma that mostly involves the end of long bones. However, nine cases have been reported in the head and neck: four in larynx, two in nasal septum, two in maxilla and one in the skull. These cases form the basis of this review. Head and neck cases accounts for less than 5% of Clear cell chondrosarcomas in the whole body and the larynx is the most common place. The histological findings of head and neck cases are consistent with general features of this entity in the whole body and nearly all tumors in this case series had a component of conventional chondrosarcoma...

BACKGROUND: Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) has seen increasing use as a salvage strategy for selected patients with recurrent, previously-irradiated squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (rSCCHN). PET-CT may be advantageous for tumor delineation and evaluation of treatment failures in SBRT. We analyzed the patterns of failure following SBRT for rSCCHN and assessed the impact of PET-CT treatment planning on these patterns of failure. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 96 patients with rSCCHN treated with SBRT...

Hemangiopericytoma (HPC) is a rare tumor of uncertain malignant potential arising from mesenchymal cells with pericytic differentiation. It accounts for 3-5% of soft tissue sarcomas and 1% of vascular tumors. It usually presents in 5th to 6th decade of life. Most common sites are limbs, pelvis and head and neck. About 20% of all hemangiopericytomas are seen in head and neck, mostly in adults. Usually it presents in orbit, nasal cavity, oral cavity, jaw, parotid gland, parapharyngeal space, masticator space and jugular foramen...

BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of Nimesulide, a selective cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitor, on the growth of hypopharyngeal carcinoma cells (FaDu) in vitro, and investigate its potential mechanism. METHODS: After FaDu cells were treated with graded concentrations of Nimesulide for divergent time, sensitivity of cells to drug treatment was analyzed by MTT assay. Morphological changes of FaDu cells in the presence of Nimesulide were observed by acridine orange cytochemistry staining...

BACKGROUND: Myoepithelial carcinoma is a rare tumour. The clinical and biological behaviours of these tumours are variable. Although many factors have been evaluated as potential prognostic indicators, including clinical stage, site and size of the tumour, high proliferative activity, extensive invasion into the surrounding tissue, perineural permeation, the abnormal presence of nuclear DNA content, and marked cellular pleomorphism, there are no definite histological features that clearly correlate with their behaviour...

BACKGROUND: Thyroid gland lacks squamous epithelium (except in some rare situations like embroyonic remnants or in inflammatory processes); for that reason the primary squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of thyroid is extremely rare entity, seen only in less than 1% of all thyroid malignancies and is considered almost fatal. So, far, only few case reports have been published in literature. CASE PRESENTATION: Herein we present a 54 years old Saudi female with 3 months history of progressive neck swelling and hoarse voice, who was referred to us by her primary care physician as suspected case of anaplastic carcinoma of thyroid for radical external beam radiation therapy (EBRT)...

Accurate clinical staging of oral squamous cell cancer can be quite difficult to achieve especially if nodal involvement is identified. Radiologically-assisted clinical staging is more accurate and informs the clinician of loco-regional and distant metastasis.In this study, we compared clinical TNM (cTNM) staging (not including ultrasonography) to pathological TNM (pTNM) staging in 245 patients presenting with carcinoma of the oral cavity and the oro-pharyngeal region. Tumour size differences and nodal involvement were highlighted...

BACKGROUND: The use of tobacco is known to increase the incidence of developing oral cancer by 6 times, while the additive effect of drinking alcohol further increases the risk leading to higher rate of morbidity and mortality. In this short communication, we prospectively assessed the effect of tobacco smoking and alcohol drinking in oral cancer patients on the overall mortality from the disease, as well as the effect of smoking and drinking reduction/cessation at time of diagnosis on mortality in the same group...

OBJECTIVES: The etiology of Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor(IMT) is contentious. In this study, we used computed tomography (CT) to examine tonsillar IMT and further analyzed the etiology of this entity. METHODOLOGY: We presented CT features of left tonsillar IMT and reviewed the English-language literature published between 1984 and 2011. RESULTS: To our knowledge, there are only six published cases of tonsillar IMT including the present case...

BACKGROUND: The assessment of Quality of Life (QoL) is a Medical goal; it is used in clinical research, medical practice, health-related economic studies and in planning health management measures and strategies. The objective of this project is to develop an informational platform to achieve a patient self-assessment with standardized QoL measuring instruments, through friendly software, easy for the user to adapt, which should aid the study of QoL, by promoting the creation of databases and accelerating its statistical treatment and yet generating subsequent useful results in graphical format for the physician analyzes in an appointment immediately after the answers collection...

BACKGROUND: In thyroid surgery vessel division and haemostasis make up an important and time consuming part of the operation. While the presence of the recurrent laryngeal nerve limits the liberal use of diathermia, the many arterial and venous branches to and from the thyroid gland necessitates the use of numerous conventional suture ligatures.This study evaluates the effect of using a vessel sealing system on operation time during thyroid surgery. METHODS: A randomized clinical trial was performed between September 2005 and October 2008 in a teaching hospital...

Oral and pharyngeal cancers are the sixth most common cancers internationally. In the United States, there are about 30,000 new cases of oral and pharyngeal cancers diagnosed each year. Furthermore, survival rates for oral and pharyngeal cancers have not significantly improved over the last three decades. This review examines the scientific literature surrounding the epidemiology of oral and pharyngeal cancers, including but not limited to risk factors, disparities, preventative factors, and the epidemiology in countries outside the United States...