The imaging findings in squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the oral cavity and oropharynx vary widely, depending on the site of origin of the primary tumor and the extent of its involvement of other regions. Knowledge of the complex anatomy of the oral cavity and oropharynx, as well as the most common routes by which SCC spreads from various anatomic sites, allows the radiologist to accurately determine the extent of disease and help clinicians plan appropriate treatment. SCCs that originate in the oral cavity tend to behave differently than those that originate in the oropharynx, with the latter group exhibiting more aggressive growth. Furthermore, primary tumors in certain anatomic subsites within the oral cavity or oropharynx have a greater propensity to spread by direct extension along muscle, bone, or neurovascular bundles or to be disseminated along lymphatic drainage pathways to regional or distant nodes. Imaging findings of deep muscular, neurovascular, osseous, or nodal involvement are indicative of an advanced stage of disease for which management options are limited.

Intrapolyp steroid injection is associated with a significantly lower rate of complication than is surgical excision of sinonasal polyps. Steroid injection also may decrease the need for further surgical intervention of polyps.

This study demonstrated a successful method for percutaneous injection of tissue-engineered cartilage as a mixture of chondrocytes suspended in fibrin glue. The thrombin concentration, along with the concentration of fibrinogen and chondrocytes, must be optimized to succeed consistently in cartilage growth.

Cyclin D1 and FADD may have utility as predictors of long-term outcomes for patients with HNSCC. Further study is needed to determine if these proteins predict response to different treatment approaches or assist in selecting patients for multimodality therapy.

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<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> The standard complete evaluation of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) has included a staging exam under anesthesia (EUA) since the 1970s. The EUA for all sites of HNSCC has historically consisted of panendoscopy for the purpose of diagnostic biopsy, accurate staging of primary disease, and identification of second primary tumors. However, due to the accessibility of the oral cavity, the sole purpose of EUA for tumors of this site is to identify second primary tumors. Since the EUA became the gold standard for evaluation of HNSCC, there have been significant advancements in less invasive technologies such as CT, PET-CT, MRI, and fiberoptic examination. In this study, we sought to determine the value to patient care and cost-effectiveness of EUA in patients with oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OCSCC). <b><i>Methods:</i></b> A retrospective chart review identified 77 patients who underwent EUA for OCSCC. <b><i>Results:</i></b> The most common subsites were the oral tongue and floor of mouth (59.7% and 24.7% respectively). All underwent direct laryngoscopy, 94.8% underwent esophagoscopy, and 20.8% underwent flexible transnasal examination in clinic prior to EUA. For 90.9% of patients, the EUA did not change initial T-staging based on clinical examination and imaging. The remaining 9.1% of patients were upstaged after EUA, however this change did not impact the treatment plan. Second primary tumors were identified in 3.9% of patients, all were found in either the oral cavity or oropharynx, and were also identified with clinical examination or imaging. Analysis of patient charges determined an average cost of $8,022.93 per patient under the current paradigm involving EUA, however with a new algorithm eliminating mandatory EUA average cost decreases to $1,448.44. <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> Formal EUA has historically been the gold standard for all HNSCC tumors. However, when performed for cases of oral cavity carcinoma, it is safe and cost effective to limit its use to select clinical scenarios.

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Thyroid cancer is among the most common endocrine malignancies, with papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) accounting for approximately 80% of new thyroid cancer cases in 2017 (ACS). Despite the high sensitivity (95%) of ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration biopsies (FNAB), approximately 20% of FNA biopsies are indeterminate, which require resection, despite the fact that about 50% are benign. The outcome is that many patients undergo surgical resection of benign disease resulting in avoidable iatrogenic morbidity, and about $700 million in health care costs. Thus, identifying diagnostic/prognostic molecular signatures of PTC would greatly reduce the number of costly, unnecessary resections following indeterminate biopsies. Following consenting of NYEEI patients, surgery, and diagnosis by the pathologist, RNA was prepared from PTC and matched-normal tissue samples, rRNA eliminated and RNA-Seq performed (100bp, paired-end). STARv2.5.2b/ htseq-countv0.6.1 and DESeq2 were used to align raw sequences, and measure transcript abundance. Preliminary bioinformatics analysis was performed with Advaita's iPathway Software. Over 1500 protein-coding transcripts, and 386 lincRNAs achieved 1.5 fold level differential expression (p= 0.05). Gene Ontology enrichment analysis indicated that locomotion, cell motility, signaling, cell differentiation and cell communication were among the most statistically significantly biological processes altered between PTC and matched-normal tissue. Cytokine, signal transducer, ion channel activity, receptor and growth factor activities were among the most statistically significantly molecular functions altered between PTC and matched, normal tissue. Additionally, Pathway Analysis indicated that cell adhesion molecules, cytokine-cytokine receptor, ECM-receptor, cancer, proteoglycans and Jak-Stat signaling were significantly altered. Thyroid differentiation scores (TDS) were calculated for each patients and correlations between differentially expressed lincRNA’s and the TDS were identified. We expect followup experiments modulating the expression of lincRNAs most strongly correlated to the TDS will augment the expression of iodine-handling genes and differentiation in PTC cell lines. We anticipate that the detailed bioinformatics analysis of our coding and noncoding databases in addition to evidence from in vitro studies will yield new diagnostic/prognostic biomarkers, and therapeutic targets. Citation Format: Sina Dadafarin, Anvita Gupta, Katharine Dermigny, Leyla Cavdar, Brandon Pecchia, Melanie Jones, Timmy O'Connell, JK Rasamny, Nina Suslina, Codrin Iacob, Monica Schwarcz, Ameet Kamat, Cameron Budenz, Craig Berzofsky, Deya Jourdy, Tali Lando, Stimson Schantz, Sarnath Singh, Edward Shin, Augustine Moscatello, Raj Tiwari, Jan Geliebter. Investigating coding and non-coding RNA in papillary thyroid cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 3570.