Evaluation of speech outcomes following treatment of oral and oropharyngeal cancers

The Fatty Acid Synthase Inhibitor Orlistat Reduces the Growth and Metastasis of Orthotopic Tongue Oral Squamous Cell Carcinomas

“…Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is the sixth most common cancer worldwide (1,2), with a 5-year survival rate of 50% that remains relatively unchanged for the past three decades (2,3). The oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma (OTSCC) is the most common cancer of the oral cavity (4) characterized by a high incidence of metastasis to the draining lymph nodes (5).…”

Development and validation of first‐ever speech‐specific perceptual speech evaluation tool for patients with head and neck cancer: The London speech evaluation (LSE) Scale

“…1 So there was a pressing need for developing and validating a new tool that is reliable and valid for perceptual speech assessment in patients with head and neck cancer.…”

“…1,7 In auditory-perceptual evaluation (APE), recorded speech from the patient is presented to the blinded rater/ raters, who then transcribe it for different speech or voice parameters. 1,8 This process is regarded as an essential 1,7 Also, no clear distinction is drawn between speech and voice in the available literature on oral and oropharyngeal cancers and head and neck cancer in general. As such, scales for perceptual evaluation of voice have been and are being used for speech evaluation in this group of patients, a practice that is scientifically unjustified and insufficient.…”

Towards a predictive model for functional loss after oral cancer treatment

“…[71,72] A partial glossectomy, for instance, is bound to affect eating, drinking, swallowing, and speech, to a degree which will strongly correlate with T-status of the disease. Function loss in turn may lead to other problems like depression and deficient intake.…”

“…[3,22] Several studies have analysed consequences of surgery for speech [4,73,74], swallowing [75,76], or both [77]. Langendijk et al evaluated swallowing dysfunction after treatment with either radiotherapy or chemoradiation [78]; Weber et al studied multiple functional outcomes after surgery and/or chemoradiation [3]; and Dwivedi et al reviewed literature on speech outcomes after any kind of treatment for oral cavity and oropharyngeal cancer [72]. All of these studies do confirm that factors like tumour size and location have predictive value for functional outcome, yet all they can do is show trends, rather than quantifying expected treatment effects in individual patients.…”