Although recurrent respiratory papillomatosis is a benign disease of the upper aerodigestive tract caused by infection with human papillomavirus, the disease process is unpredictable, ranging from mild disease and spontaneous remission to an aggressive disease with pulmonary spread and requirement for frequent surgical debulking procedures. It can present a protracted clinical course and cause potentially life-threatening compromise of the airways. Over recent decades, a number of alternative medical therapies to standard surgical treatment have been investigated, with modest outcomes overall. Currently, some additional therapies are being explored, together with novel surgical instrumentation that can help to avoid inevitable long-term stenotic complications, ultimately affecting quality of life. Hopefully, clinicians might soon be able to significantly improve the quality of treatment and outcomes for patients affected with recurrent respiratory papillomatosis, with human papillomavirus vaccination having a potentially important role.

Oncological results: the 5-year actuarial disease-free survival was 85%; the 5-year determinate actuarial survival was 88.3%. Functional results: organ preservation rate was 97%. Phonation was assessed according to the GRBAS scale.

Bronchogenic cysts are rare congenital malformations of ventral foregut development. They are usually located in the mediastinum and intrapulmonary regions. Localization in the cervical area is unusual and the majority of cases reported have been found in the pediatric population: the literature reports few cases in adults. We describe a 57-year-old male who presented an asymptomatic right lateral neck mass. Diagnostic studies included chest X-ray, pharyngo-esophagus double-contrast X-ray, computed tomography (CT), and bronchoscopy. The mass was excised through a transverse right cervical skin incision. The right lateral neck mass of the patient was identified as a bronchogenic cyst. The embryology, the presentation, the pathological and radiological evaluation, treatment of the cyst and a review of the English literature are reported in this paper. Cervical bronchogenic cysts are usually diagnosed in the pediatric population; these lesions are rare in adults. We suggest that the clinical observation of an asymptomatic lateral neck mass in an adult should include the possibility of a bronchogenic cyst in the differential diagnosis. Surgical excision is the elective treatment for this tumor, in order to prevent complications including infection, compression symptoms, malignant transformation, and the rare but fatal air embolism.

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Head and neck squamous cell carcinomas evade immune response through multiple immunologic resistance mechanisms. Two of the most commonly involved checkpoint inhibitory mechanisms are CTLA-4 and PD-1/PD-L1, which act at earlier and later stages of immune response to tumors. Pembrolizumab and nivolumab are PD-1 antibodies that interrupt the immunosuppressive pathway of inhibitory checkpoints, which are used by tumor cells to prevent immune reaction. Both recently gained US FDA approval for the treatment of patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck cancer with disease progression during or following platinum containing chemotherapy. No conclusions can be drawn on the role of PD-L1 in identifying patients responding to immunotherapy, given that similar studies lead to contrasting results. It will be crucial to identify predictive markers of immunotherapy response, and to evaluate them prospectively. A better understanding of the complex network between tumor, immune system and other oncologic treatments will help us to develop more efficient multimodality treatments.

To our knowledge, this is the first study to stratify different risk classes in early T1-T2 or N0 malignant tumors of the major salivary glands that identified aggressive lesions with elevated Ki-67 expression at an initial stage.

In the present study, we describe a PEComa that occurred in the nasal cavity and discuss the behavior of this entity. The importance of recognizing this disease will ensure its consideration in the differential diagnosis of tumors of the head that have similar morphological features. The histogenesis of PEComa still remains elusive, and collection of additional cases with a prolonged follow-up will be important in accurately determining the behavior of these distinctive tumors.

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