Increased sensitivity to bleomycin in upper aerodigestive tract mucosa of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma patients.

Previous studies on lymphocytes have suggested that patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) have an increased susceptibility for chromosomal damage induced by bleomycin, a known radiomimetic mutagen. However, it has so far not been possible to study whether this genetic instability is present also in the epithelial component of the upper aerodigestive tract mucosa, the tissue from which HNSCC originates. In the present study, we have successfully cultured epithelial cells and fibroblasts isolated from non-neoplastic mucosa samples of 30 HNSCC patients and 56 controls.

Patient flows in the care process of mandibular third molar surgery.

Our aim was to describe patient flows in mandibular third molar surgery at oral and maxillofacial specialist units. Our hypothesis was that there are variations in how care is delivered and that the variations could be explained by inter-individual variations in surgeons' practice, the quality of the radiographs appended to the referral, and the staffing of the specialist units. A flow chart was constructed to simulate all possible patient flows in the care process.