Predictors of survival in advanced oral cancers after salvage surgery with free tissue flap reconstruction.

Objective: To identify prognostic factors for patients with advanced persistent, recurrent, or 2nd primary oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OCSCC) potentially unsuitable for salvage surgery with free tissue flap (FTF) reconstruction.

Materials And Methods: A population-based cohort of 83 consecutive patients with advanced OCSCC who underwent salvage surgery with FTF reconstruction at a tertiary referral centre between 1990 and 2017. Retrospective uni- and multivariable analyses were performed to identify factors affecting all-cause mortality (ACM), i.

Survival benefits from concomitant chemoradiotherapy before radical surgery in stage IVA sinonasal mucosal melanoma?

Background: The aim of the study was to review a local treatment protocol for sinonasal mucosal melanoma (SNMM) focusing on triple modality treatment (TMT), that is, neoadjuvant concomitant chemoradiotherapy (CRT) and surgery.

Methods: In a retrospective design, data on clinical presentation, treatment, and survival were retrieved for 22 consecutive patients from a tertiary referral center.

Results: The mean overall survival (OS) for all patients (3 stage III, 16 stage IVA, and 3 stage IVB) was 62 months, and the 5-year OS rate 50%.

Transoral robotic surgery in the management of head and neck squamous cell cancer with unknown primary.

Transoral robotic surgery (TORS) assisted base of the tongue (BOT) resection has been suggested as part of the work-up for head and neck squamous cell cancer with unknown primary (HNSCC-CUP). Success rates vary with regard to identification of primary BOT lesions, and cases with likely such lesions appear to be included in previous reports. To analyse the possible benefits of a superficial TORS-assisted BOT resection in thoroughly investigated HNSCC-CUP.

Transoral Robotic Surgery in the Nordic Countries: Current Status and Perspectives.

The five Nordic countries with a population of 27 M people form a rather homogenous region in terms of health care. The management of head and neck cancer is centralized to the 21 university hospitals in these countries. Our aim was to gain an overview of the volume and role of transoral robotic surgery (TORS) and to evaluate the need to centralize it in this area as the field is rapidly developing.

Benefits of initial CT staging before sentinel lymph node biopsy in patients with head and neck cutaneous melanoma.

Background: The value of CT at the time of diagnosis for patients with cutaneous head and neck melanoma clinically asymptomatic for metastatic disease is unclear.

Methods: A retrospective medical chart review was performed on 198 consecutive patients identified with primary T1b-T4b head and neck melanoma clinically asymptomatic for metastatic disease referred for sentinel lymph node biopsy procedures between 2004 and 2014.

Results: Initial CTs identified clinically occult melanoma metastases in 8.

Aspiration as a late complication after accelerated versus conventional radiotherapy in patients with head and neck cancer.

Conclusion Neck dissection after radiotherapy increased the risk of aspiration as a late effect in a sub-sample of patients treated for head and neck cancer in the ARTSCAN study. Patients treated with accelerated fractionation (AF) developed aspiration, with or without coughing, more frequently than patients treated with conventional fractionation (CF). Objectives A long-term follow-up study was conducted to determine the frequency of aspiration as a late effect in patients with head and neck cancer treated with AF or CF.

Sentinel lymph node biopsy staging for cutaneous malignant melanoma of the head and neck.

Conclusion Sentinel lymph node biopsies (SLNBs) can be performed safely and with reasonable accuracy in HNM patients. The outcome provides important prognostic information concerning DFS and further treatment. However, one must recognize that SLNB is a multidisciplinary procedure with a learning curve for all.

Qualitative interpretation of PET scans using a Likert scale to assess neck node response to radiotherapy in head and neck cancer.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine whether PET scans after radiotherapy (RT), visually interpreted as equivocal regarding metabolic neck node response can be used to accurately categorize patients as responders or nonresponders using a Likert scale and/or maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax). Other aims were to determine the performance of different methods for assessing post-RT PET scans (visual inspection, a Likert scale and SUVmax) and to establish whether any method is superior in predicting regional control (RC) and overall survival (OS).

Methods: In 105 patients with neck node-positive head and neck cancer, the neck node response was evaluated by FDG PET/CT 6 weeks after RT.

A prospective study of positron emission tomography for evaluation of neck node response 6 weeks after radiotherapy in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate if a positron emission tomography (PET) scan, 6 weeks after radiotherapy (RT), adequately selects patients in whom a neck node dissection can be omitted. Primary endpoints were isolated neck recurrences and overall survival (OS).

Methods: One hundred five patients, mainly with oropharyngeal human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive tumors, with a positive PET scan before treatment, were evaluated regarding the neck response 6 weeks post-RT.

Radiotherapy response in head and neck cancer - evaluation of the primary tumour site.

Conclusion: PET-CT scans seem to be sufficient to rule out residual tumour at the primary site. Patients with positive or equivocal PET findings should be scheduled for endoscopy with biopsy or a second PET-CT scan.

Objectives: Assessment of remission at the primary site, in patients treated with organ preservation therapy with curative intent, is important to identify residual tumours requiring treatment with salvage surgery.

Weight loss and body mass index in relation to aspiration in patients treated for head and neck cancer: a long-term follow-up.

Purpose: Persistent severe swallowing dysfunction with aspiration is a common and sometimes overlooked sequelae after treatment for squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) and may impact food intake and nutritional status. More knowledge is needed to increase the understanding of severe swallowing dysfunction as a risk factor for persistent nutritional deteriorations in SCCHN survivors. The purpose of the study was to investigate weight loss and body mass index (BMI) in relation to pharyngeal swallowing function in a long-term perspective in patients after SCCHN treatment.

Radiation-induced trismus in the ARTSCAN head and neck trial.

Unlabelled: Trismus, a well-known sequelae after treatment of head and neck cancer, decreases a patient's oral function and quality of life. The main objectives of this study were to: 1) investigate the long-term prevalence of radiation-induced trismus in patients treated for head and neck cancer according to two different fractionation schedules; and 2) model a dose-response relationship for trismus.

Material And Methods: Patients were recruited from the Swedish ARTSCAN trial, a prospective randomised multicentre study comparing conventional and accelerated fractionation.

The anti-tumour effect of cisplatin and ifosfamide on xenografted squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck is schedule-dependent.

The role of chemotherapy (CHX) in squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) has been expanding. Although combination chemotherapy regimens regularly produce significantly high response rates, meta-analyses show little benefit regarding final outcome. One way to improve induction CHX is to improve drug combinations and schedules for CHX.

[Chronic Lyme borreliosis--fact or fiction?].

Persistent infection after proper antibiotic treatment in Lyme borreliosis is rare. Symptoms may sometimes continue, especially from the nervous and the articular systems. There are many possible mechanisms for persistence of inflammation even after successful treatment of the infection.

Comparison of cisplatin sensitivity and the 18F fluoro-2-deoxy 2 glucose uptake with proliferation parameters and gene expression in squamous cell carcinoma cell lines of the head and neck.

Background: The survival of patients with locally advanced head and neck cancer is still poor, with 5-year survival rates of 24-35%. The identification of prognostic and predictive markers at the molecular and cellular level could make it possible to find new therapeutic targets and provide "taylor made" treatments. Established cell lines of human squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) are valuable models for identifying such markers.

Chemorefractory rhabdomyosarcoma treated with radiotherapy, bevacizumab, statins and surgery and maintenance with bevacizumab and chemotherapy.

Background: Rhabdomyosarcoma is a rare disease in children and young adults, usually responsive to chemotherapy. Here we report on a patient with chemorefractory disease, treated in an unconventional approach.

Case Report: A young woman presented with an embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma of the retromaxillary space.

Fluorescence investigations to classify malignant laryngeal lesions in vivo.

Background: The extent of surgical resection for malignant laryngeal lesions influences voice quality. An instrument to estimate histopathologic grading of dysplasia in vivo may spare normal tissue without increasing the risk of local failure.

Methods: Laryngeal lesions (N = 39; 21 after administration of delta-aminolevulinic acid (ALA)) were investigated with laser-induced fluorescence, and the results correlated to histopathologic grading in 4 groups: non/mild dysplasia (I), moderate dysplasia (II), severe dysplasia/cancer in situ (III), and carcinoma.

2-Deoxy-2-[18F] fluoro-D-glucose uptake and correlation to intratumoral heterogeneity.

Unlabelled: The aim of this study was to investigate the pattern of 2-deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro-D-glucose (FDG) uptake in relation to the intratumoral histopathological appearance.

Materials And Methods: Intratumoral distribution of FDG in nude mice with xenografted tumours originating from an established head and neck squamous cell carcinoma was studied. FDG uptake and the correlation to histopathological appearance was evaluated in four separate quarters of each tumour.

Differences in estimates of cisplatin-induced cell kill in vitro between colorimetric and cell count/colony assays.

The aim of this study was to evaluate some bioassays that are different in principle: cell counting, colony forming assay, 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl-tetrazolium bromide (MTT), sulforhodamine B (SRB), crystal violet, and alamarBlue, with respect to their ability to measure cisplatin-induced cell death of in vitro-cultivated squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN). Cisplatin was applied in concentrations of 1.0, 5.

TBE in Aland Islands 1959-2005: Kumlinge disease.

Tick-borne encephalitis, TBE, has been observed in Aland Islands (population 26,500) for more than 60 years. Because of the small population, the relative incidence is high. Antibodies to TBE virus have been found in ca.

p53 mutation and cyclin D1 amplification correlate with cisplatin sensitivity in xenografted human squamous cell carcinomas from head and neck.

To investigate the response of tumour growth to cisplatin treatment, in relation to p53 mutation and cyclin D1 dysregulation on DNA and protein level, biopsies from seven xenografted human squamous cell carcinomas from the head and neck were analysed with immunohistochemistry for p53 expression and cyclin D1 expression. Polymerase chain reaction-singlestranded conformation polymorphism was used to determine p53 mutations. Fluorescence in situ hybridization was performed to analyse cyclin D1 amplification.

Characteristics of erythema migrans in Borrelia afzelii and Borrelia garinii infections.

Erythema migrans is the most common manifestation of stage I Lyme borreliosis. This study investigated the relation between the subspecies of Borrelia burgdorferi involved, the time of development and the appearance of the manifestation. The study comprised 33 cases of erythema migrans yielding B.

Carcinoma of the parotid and submandibular glands--a study of survival in 2465 patients.

Salivary gland carcinomas demonstrate a wide diversity of histopathological types and biological behavior. The aim of this study was to analyze relative survival of patients with major salivary gland carcinomas with special reference to histopathology, gender and age. All new carcinomas of the major salivary glands reported to the National Swedish Cancer Registry 1960-1995 were searched for and the vital status of the cases was updated by record linkage to the Swedish Population Registry through December 31 1996.