The laryngeal disease of the German Emperor Friedrich III: treatment failure or fateful course.

Background: Since the death of the Emperor Friedrich III in June 1888, there are still controversial discussions whether the Crown Prince could have been healed from his laryngeal cancer by a thyrotomy planned by his German physicians for May 21, 1887.

Methods: In order to find an answer to this historical question, the Emperor's biographies, the literature on laryngology published in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, German manuals on laryngology and ENT, the BMJ and Lancet were thoroughly studied where in particular not only Mackenzie but also Virchow had published several articles on the disease of Friedrich III.

Results: Prof.

Cyfra 21-1 in diagnosis of distant metastases of head and neck carcinoma.

Follow-up examinations of patients might detect local tumor recurrences at a curable stage, which is more difficult for distant metastases (DM). Recently, elevated Cyfra 21-1 serum levels (CySL) could be shown not only to correlate with HNSCC-tumor size but also with development of DM. We focussed on the CySL of 476 HNSCC patients as a first step.

p53 autoantibodies as tumor marker in head and neck squamous cell cancer.

p53 autoantibodies (AAB) are a new serological parameter with unknown potential in patients with malignancies. The reason why and the mechanism by which they develop is still unclear. So far, only in a limited number of studies has the usefulness of p53 AAB in the follow-up of cancer patients been shown.