Despite recent advances in the diagnosis and treatment of head and neck cancer, there has been little evidence of improvement in 5-year survival rates over the last few decades. To determine more accurate trends in site-specific outcomes as opposed to a more general overview of head and neck cancer patients, we analyzed the site-specific data collected in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, Population-based cancer statistics in the United States (US) for 2004 is expected to yield 28,260 new cases of oral cavity and pharynx cancer and 20,260 new cases of larynx cancer, with a mortality of 7,230 and 3,830 deaths per year, respectively. 1 Despite improvements in diagnosis and treatment, in the last 3 decades there have been no changes in the 5-year survival rate for larynx cancer patients and only a slight but significant improvement for oral cavity and pharynx cancer patients when comparing patients treated during 1973-1977 (5-year survival rate of 53%) to patients treated during 1993-1997 (5-year survival rate of 56%) according to results based on data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program of the National Cancer Institute. 2 This slight change in survival was first noted in the 2002 publication, 2 but these data can still be interpreted as indicating that "there is no change in prognosis for the last 2 decades" for head and neck cancer (HNC). However, during the last 2 decades many articles have consistently demonstrated advances in treatment, most notably the use of combination therapy (adjuvant radiotherapy after surgery, concurrent chemotherapy and radiotherapy) with improvements in survival rates. [3][4][5][6] In addition, improvements in radiotherapy and perioperative care, as well as prevention of chemotherapy-related complications, have resulted in increased quality of life and decreased treatment-related mortality. 6 Another important factor that may influence survival includes lead-time bias. New technologies such as fiberoptic laryngoscopy, more widespread dental professional screening for oral cancer and higher-resolution radiological techniques may result in earlier stage diagnosis for some tumors, as well as more accurate staging. 7-9 Such improvements in diagnosis may also occur in a site-specific manner.In addition, treatment for head and neck cancer has evolved and become site-specific with treatment modalities individualized for specific anatomic sites and stages. 4,6 Therefore, analysis of head and neck cancer as a group may obscure important differences in survival trends for site-specific tumors that are dependent upon site-specific treatment advances.For all historical periods, specific head and neck cancer sites have had very different treatment approaches and more importantly, different 5-year survival rates. For example, lip cancer has a 5-year survival rate over 80%, while hypopharynx cancer survival rates reach only about 30%. 4 It is also possible that the stage and site distribution of cancer cases has changed over time. Unfortunately, conventional methods of ...

The 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a highly contagious zoonosis produced by SARS-CoV-2 that is spread human-to-human by respiratory secretions. It was declared by the WHO as a public health emergency. The most susceptible populations, needing mechanical ventilation, are the elderly and people with associated comorbidities. There is an important risk of contagion for anesthetists, dentists, head and neck surgeons, maxillofacial surgeons, ophthalmologists, and otolaryngologists. Health workers represent between

CFR is a safe surgical treatment for malignant tumors of the skull base, with an overall mortality of 4.7% and complication rate of 36.3%. The impact of medical comorbidity and intracranial tumor extent should be carefully considered when planning therapy for patients whose tumors are amenable to CFR.

Adequate resection margins are critical to the treatment decisions and prognosis of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). However, there are numerous controversies regarding reporting and interpretation of the status of resection margins. Fundamental issues relating to the basic definition of margin adequacy, uniform reporting standards for margins, optimal method of specimen dissection, and the role of intraoperative frozen section evaluation, all require further clarification and standardization. Future horizons for margin surveillance offer the possible use of novel methods such as "molecular margins" and contact microscopic endoscopy, However, the limitations of these approaches need to be understood. The goal of this review was to evaluate these issues to define a more rational, standardized approach for achieving resection margin adequacy for patients with HNSCC undergoing curative resection.

A case-control study of risk factors for carcinomas of the tongue, gum, floor, and other specified parts of the mouth was conducted in 3 metropolitan areas in Brazil: São Paulo (southeast), Curitiba (south), and Goiânia (central-west). We analyzed information on demographics, occupational history, environmental exposures, tobacco smoking and alcohol drinking habits, as well as diet, oral and other health characteristics obtained from interviews with 232 cases and 464 hospital non-cancer controls matched for 5-year age-group, sex, hospital catchment area and trimester of admission. Tobacco and alcohol consumption were the strongest risk factors irrespective of the anatomical site. The adjusted relative risks (RR) for ever vs. never smokers were: 6.3, 13.9, and 7.0, for industrial-brand cigarettes, pipe, and hand-rolled cigarettes, respectively. A strong correlation was seen between number of pack-years and risk. The RR for the heaviest vs. the lowest consumption categories (greater than 100 vs. less than 1 pack-years) was 14.8. Risk levels generally decreased to those of never smokers after 10 years had elapsed since stopping smoking. The risk associated with alcohol was mostly evident for wine (cancer of the tongue) and "cachaça" (all sites), a hard liquor distilled from sugar cane. Other important risk factors were drinking "chimarrão" (a type of maté), use of a wood stove for cooking, and frequent consumption of charcoal-grilled meat and manioc. Oral hygiene characteristics represented correlates of disease risk. A significant protective effect was observed for consumption of carotene-rich vegetables and citric fruits, but not for green vegetables in general.

CFR for malignant paranasal sinus tumors is a safe surgical treatment with an overall mortality of 4.5% and complication rate of 33%. The status of surgical margins, histologic findings of the primary tumor, and intracranial extent are independent predictors of outcome.

Background:Lymph node density (LND) has previously been reported to reliably predict recurrence risk and survival in oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). This multicenter international study was designed to validate the concept of LND in OSCC.Methods:The study included 4254 patients diagnosed as having OSCC. The median follow-up was 41 months. Five-year overall survival (OS), disease-specific survival (DSS), disease-free survival (DFS), locoregional control and distant metastasis rates were calculated using the Kaplan–Meier method. Lymph node density (number of positive lymph nodes/total number of excised lymph nodes) was subjected to multivariate analysis.Results:The OS was 49% for patients with LND⩽0.07 compared with 35% for patients with LND>0.07 (P<0.001). Similarly, the DSS was 60% for patients with LND⩽0.07 compared with 41% for those with LND>0.07 (P<0.001). Lymph node density reliably stratified patients according to their risk of failure within the individual N subgroups (P=0.03). A modified TNM staging system based on LND ratio was consistently superior to the traditional system in estimating survival measures.Conclusion:This multi-institutional study validates the reliability and applicability of LND as a predictor of outcomes in OSCC. Lymph node density can potentially assist in identifying patients with poor outcomes and therefore for whom more aggressive adjuvant treatment is needed.

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