Scalp and forehead reconstruction using free revascularized tissue transfer.

Objective: To examine the indications for, and the success of, free flap reconstruction in patients with forehead and scalp defects.

Design: Case series.

Setting: Two tertiary referral university teaching hospitals.

Head and neck reconstruction with anterolateral thigh flap.

Objective: Our goal was to present our experience with the free anterolateral thigh flap for reconstruction of various cutaneous and mucosal defects of the head and neck.

Study Design: We conducted a retrospective review of 37 patients who underwent reconstruction between 1994 and 2002. Outcome measures included ethnicity, flap harvest technique, vascular anatomy, flap success, general surgical complications, and donor site morbidity.

Impact of nodal metastases on prognosis in patients with well-differentiated thyroid cancer.

Objectives: To study the clinical and pathological variables predicting lymph node metastases in patients with well-differentiated thyroid carcinoma and to examine the impact of these metastases on recurrence and survival.

Design: Cohort study. Median follow-up, 56 months.

Hypoxia-inducible factors HIF-1alpha and HIF-2alpha in head and neck cancer: relationship to tumor biology and treatment outcome in surgically resected patients.

Hypoxia within head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) predicts a poor response to radiotherapy and poor prognosis. Hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1 and HIF-2 are nuclear transcription factors that regulate the cellular response to hypoxia and are important for solid tumor growth and survival. Overexpression of HIF-1alpha and HIF-2alpha was demonstrated in three HNSCC cell lines under hypoxia and tumor tissue versus normal tissue (n = 20, HIF-1alpha, P = 0.

Overexpression of cyclin D1 and underexpression of p27 predict lymph node metastases in papillary thyroid carcinoma.

Lymph node metastasis in papillary thyroid carcinoma increases the morbidity of treatment and the risk of local regional relapse and may also affect cure rates and survival. Factors that predict lymph node metastasis are, however, unclear. We analyzed 125 patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma for factors that predict lymph node metastasis.

Intratumoral lymphangiogenesis and lymph node metastasis in head and neck cancer.

How tumors access and spread via the lymphatics is not understood. Although it is clear that dissemination via the blood system involves hemangiogenesis, it is uncertain whether tumors also induce lymphangiogenesis or simply invade existing peritumoral vessels. To address the issue we quantitated tumor lymph vessels in archival specimens of head and neck cancer by immunostaining for the recently described lymphatic endothelial marker LYVE-1, the vascular endothelial marker CD34, and the pKi67 proliferation marker, correlating lymph vessel density and proliferation index with clinical and pathological variables.