Demographic and Tumor Characteristic Impact on Laryngeal Cancer Outcomes in a Minority Underserved Patient Population.

Objective: Advanced laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma remains associated with approximately 50% mortality at 5 years. Delivery of multimodality treatment remains critical to maximizing survival for this disease, but achieving this at a national level remains a difficult undertaking, particularly in under- and uninsured patients as well as minority patients. We sought to evaluate laryngeal cancer treatment delivery and clinical outcomes in a predominantly minority and underserved cohort of largely under- and uninsured patients in a county hospital.

Repairing angle of the mandible fractures with a strut plate.

Importance: Despite multiple fixation techniques, the optimal method of repairing mandibular angle fractures remains controversial.

Objective: To evaluate the outcomes when using a 3-dimensional, curved strut plate in repair of angle of the mandible fractures.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Infectious Collet-Sicard syndrome in the differential diagnosis of cerebrovascular accident: a case of head-to-neck dissociation with skull-based osteomyelitis.

Background Context: Collet-Sicard syndrome (CSS) is a rare condition that includes palsies of cranial nerves IX, X, XI, and XII. There are multiple reported causes in the literature, although infection is particularly unusual.

Purpose: To report an unusual case of CSS as a result of infection causing head-to-neck dissociation with involvement of the upper cervical spine.

Skin cancer prevention counseling and clinical practices of pediatricians.

Little is known about pediatricians' counseling and clinical practices to reduce skin cancer risk among their patients. Thus our objectives were to characterize skin cancer preventive counseling and clinical practices in a sample of pediatricians and identify correlates of these practices. Physicians practicing general pediatrics in Harris County, Texas, received a mail survey that assessed their sun protection recommendations and skin cancer preventive counseling and clinical practices.

XPD/ERCC2 EXON 8 Polymorphisms: rarity and lack of significance in risk of squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.

Background: Inherited polymorphisms of DNA repair genes may contribute to genetic susceptibility to squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN). The objective was to assess whether two polymorphisms in the nucleotide excision repair gene XPD (ERCC2) are markers of SCCHN risk.

Methods: We performed a hospital-based case-control study of 180 SCCHN patients and 400 cancer-free controls frequency matched on age, sex, smoking, and alcohol use.

Expression of nucleotide excision repair genes and the risk for squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.

Background: Phenotypic differences in the ability to repair genetic damage induced by tobacco carcinogens may reflect genetic differences in susceptibility to squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN). The objective of this study was to assess the variation in baseline expression of five nucleotide excision repair genes between individuals with SCCHN and cancer free controls.

Methods: The authors conducted a hospital-based case-control study of 57 SCCHN patients and 105 cancer free controls.

A prospective study of intraoperative lymphatic mapping for head and neck cutaneous melanoma.

Background: Intraoperative lymphatic mapping and sentinel lymph node biopsy have been used successfully to stage regional lymphatics for trunk and extremity melanomas. However, the accuracy and applicability of these techniques in the head and neck have not been determined conclusively.

Objective: To report the results of a prospective trial of intraoperative lymphatic mapping and sentinel lymph node identification in patients with head and neck cutaneous melanoma.