Adverse Radiation Therapy Effects in the Treatment of Head and Neck Tumors.

Whether used as a single modality or as part of a combined approach, radiation therapy (RT) plays an essential role in the treatment of several head and neck malignancies. Despite the improvement in radiation delivery techniques, normal structures in the vicinity of the target area remain susceptible to a wide range of adverse effects. Given their high incidence, some of these effects are referred to as expected postradiation changes (eg, mucositis, sialadenitis, and edema), while others are considered true complications, meaning they should not be expected and can even represent life-threatening conditions (eg, radionecrosis, fistulas, and radiation-induced neoplasms).

Letter to the editor: radiomics analysis for predicting pembrolizumab response in patients with advanced rare cancers.

A commentary on the original research article: 'Radiomics analysis for predicting pembrolizumab response in patients with advanced rare cancers'. Of note, the predictor selection process, the cross-validation method, along with the lack of final testing of the developed model with a separated data set may mask overfitting, overestimating performance metrics.

CT-based Radiomic Signatures for Predicting Histopathologic Features in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

Purpose: To determine the performance of CT-based radiomic features for noninvasive prediction of histopathologic features of tumor grade, extracapsular spread, perineural invasion, lymphovascular invasion, and human papillomavirus status in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC).

Materials And Methods: In this retrospective study, which was approved by the local institutional ethics committee, CT images and clinical data from patients with pathologically proven HNSCC from The Cancer Genome Atlas ( = 113) and an institutional test cohort ( = 71) were analyzed. A machine learning model was trained with 2131 extracted radiomic features to predict tumor histopathologic characteristics.

Involvement of Multiple Trigeminal Nerve Branches in IgG4-Related Orbital Disease.

Purpose: To describe the occurrence of multiple trigeminal nerves (TGNs) enlargement in patients with orbital IgG4-related disease.

Methods: Retrospective review of MRI findings and medical records of 6 patients (10 orbits) with orbital IgG4-related disease and enlargement of more than 1 TGN. Orbital biopsies were performed in all cases revealing the typical lymphoplasmacytic infiltrate with significant plasma cell positivity for IgG4 (IgG4+/IgG ratio ≥ 40%).

Development and validation of radiomic signatures of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma molecular features and subtypes.

Background: Radiomics-based non-invasive biomarkers are promising to facilitate the translation of therapeutically related molecular subtypes for treatment allocation of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC).

Methods: We included 113 HNSCC patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA-HNSCC) project. Molecular phenotypes analyzed were RNA-defined HPV status, five DNA methylation subtypes, four gene expression subtypes and five somatic gene mutations.

Monitoring optic chiasmatic-hypothalamic glioma volumetric changes by MRI in children under clinical surveillance or chemotherapy.

Purpose: Optic pathway gliomas represent 5% of pediatric brain tumors and are typically low-grade lesions. Because of their unpredictable clinical course, adequate treatment approaches have been controversial, involving surveillance, surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. In this study, we use volumetric imaging to compare evolution of optic chiasmatic-hypothalamic gliomas (OCHG) treated with and without chemotherapy, analyzing tumor volume variation during the overall period.

Magnetic resonance imaging: dynamic contrast enhancement and diffusion-weighted imaging to identify malignant cervical lymph nodes.

Objective: To examine the potential of two magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques-dynamic contrast enhancement (DCE) and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI)-for the detection of malignant cervical lymph nodes.

Materials And Methods: Using DCE and DWI, we evaluated 33 cervical lymph nodes. For the DCE technique, the maximum relative enhancement, relative enhancement, time to peak enhancement, wash-in rate, wash-out rate, brevity of enhancement, and area under the curve were calculated from a semi-quantitative analysis.

Perineural spread of malignant head and neck tumors: review of the literature and analysis of cases treated at a teaching hospital.

Perineural tumor spread refers to the migration of tumor cells along nerve tissues. It worsens the prognosis, increases the recurrence rate, and diminishes 5-year survival by up to 30%. It is an important finding on imaging tests employed in the staging of patients with head and neck cancers, because it cannot be assessed by the surgeon alone.

Intraconal gauze mass: An unusual complication of orbital fracture repair - a case report.

Gossypiboma and textiloma are terms used to describe tumor-like masses caused by retained gauze or surgical sponges after any operation. It is a rare surgical complication, usually difficult to diagnose due to its variable clinical presentation and nonstandard radiological appearance. We describe here a rare case of orbital gossypiboma in a child after surgical correction of an orbital blowout fracture.

Lacrimal Gland Involvement in Blepharophimosis-Ptosis-Epicanthus Inversus Syndrome.

Purpose: To describe the involvement of the lacrimal gland (LG) in blepharophimosis-ptosis-epicanthus inversus syndrome (BPES).

Design: Observational, cross-sectional study.

Participants: Twenty-one patients with BPES (10 female, 11 male) aged on average 15 years (range, 2-39 years), from 3 Brazilian medical centers and 1 Portuguese medical center.

Hyperostosis Following Orbital Exenteration.

Purpose: To describe CT scan findings following orbital exenteration in 27 patients and to identify the factors involved in the development of post exenteration hyperostosis.

Methods: Noncomparative case series. The authors reviewed the charts of 27 patients ranging in age from 33 to 99 years, who underwent unilateral exenteration at King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and at the School of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo, Brazil.

Giant dacryocystocele and congenital alacrimia in lacrimo-auriculo-dento-digital syndrome.

The lacrimo-auriculo-dento-digital syndrome, also known as Levy-Hollister syndrome, is a rare multiple congenital dysplasia characterized by malformation of the lacrimal apparatus and by aural, dental, and digital anomalies. Since the first report in 1973, different clinical findings such as urogenital malformations and facial dysmorphism have been described in the affected patients, showing that the phenotypic spectrum of the syndrome is broad. The authors report for the first time an association among giant dacryocystocele, alacrima, and agenesis of the lacrimal puncta in a patient with lacrimo-auriculo-dento-digital syndrome.

Orbital invasion by squamous cell carcinoma arising in multiple epidermoid cysts.

Epidermal or epidermoid cysts usually are benign, solitary-growing masses located in the mid- or lower dermis. They are believed to derive from pilosebaceous units and are lined with an epidermis-like epithelium including a granular cell layer. The occurrence of multiple epidermal cysts on the scalp of nonsyndromic patients is extremely rare.