laryngectomy – Oral Cancer News

A new way to predict complications after larynx cancer surgery

Source: www.eurekalert.org Author: News release - Michigan Medicine, University of Michigan Rebecca Hoesli, M.D., and Matthew Spector, M.D., evaluate an image from the studey A technique that illuminates blood flow during surgery predicted which head and neck cancer patients were likely to have issues with wound healing. It could enable surgeons to make adjustments during surgery or recovery to improve outcomes. A team of surgeons at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center found the approach so successful in a clinical trial that they closed the study early. Most people with larynx cancer will have radiation and chemotherapy. But about one-third of the time, the cancer will return or will prove resistant, leaving surgery as the next option. At this point, tissue damage from the radiation adds challenges to the operation. When the surgeon closes the wound, damaged tissue can interfere. For about 40% of patients, this will lead to a pharyngocutaneous fistula, a hole in the neck where saliva can leak out. It can cause bleeding or infections, keeping patients in the hospital longer, and in 10% of cases sending them back to the operating room to fix it. "Radiation damage is something you can't always see. There have been very few examples in the literature that would explain or predict who's going to have a complication," says Matthew E. Spector, M.D., assistant professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at Michigan Medicine. Spector is the senior author on a paper made available online in February ahead of [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2019-06-02T08:52:12-07:00June, 2019|Oral Cancer News|

New app gives throat cancer patients their voice back

Source: www.straitstimes.com Author: staff Throat cancer patient Vlastimil Gular can say what he wants in his own voice thanks to technology that uses past recordings of his voice to create synthetic speech that can be played on his mobile phone via an app. Photo: AFP Vlastimil Gular's life took an unwelcome turn a year ago: minor surgery on his vocal cords revealed throat cancer, which led to the loss of his larynx and with it, his voice. But the 51-year-old father of four is still chatting away using his own voice rather than the tinny timbre of a robot, thanks to an innovative app developed by two Czech universities. "I find this very useful," Mr Gular told AFP, using the app to type in what he wanted to say, in his own voice, via a mobile phone. "I'm not very good at using the voice prosthesis," he added, pointing at the hole the size of a large coin in his throat. This small silicon device implanted in the throat allows people to speak by pressing the hole with their fingers to regulate airflow through the prosthesis and so create sound. But Mr Gular prefers the new hi-tech voice app. It was developed for patients set to lose their voice due to a laryngectomy, or removal of the larynx, a typical procedure for advanced stages of throat cancer. The joint project of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, Prague's Charles University and two private companies - CertiCon and [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2019-01-14T13:32:07-07:00January, 2019|Oral Cancer News|

Head and neck Cancer: Overcoming Challenges in Treatment

Source: www.curetoday.com Author: staff Itzhak Brook, M.D., M.Sc., shares the story of his initial diagnosis and treatment for cancer of the head and neck, outlining the challenges that came along with treatment, with fellow board member of the Head and Neck Cancer Alliance Meryl Kaufman, M.Ed., CCC-SLP, BRS-S. Transcript: Meryl Kaufman, M.Ed., CCC-SLP, BRS-S: Dr. Brook, can you please share your story about your cancer diagnosis in 2006 and the treatment that followed and also the subsequent surgery that you went through? Itzhak Brook, M.D., M.Sc.: Once I learned I had cancer and my doctors removed it when they had to biopsy, I needed to receive radiation therapy. I did not get any chemotherapy, and the radiation therapy lasted six weeks, five days a week. It was very difficult to experience the radiation, and the side effects start to accumulate within a few days. And I had to deal with inflammation of the mouth, mucositis, difficulty in swallowing and pain in my throat, and I experienced a burning of the skin around the area of radiation, weakness and then difficulty maintaining intake of food. After a while, I could lose weight, and I tried to persevere because I knew that I had to receive the treatment to get better and soldier through it until it was over. Meryl Kaufman, M.Ed., CCC-SLP, BRS-S: Exactly. And some people have such severe side effects from the radiation that they actually require a feeding tube to support them during their treatment. In that case, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2018-09-04T13:05:32-07:00September, 2018|Oral Cancer News|

Head and neck cancer: Getting a diagnosis of head and neck cancer

Source: www.curetoday.com Author: staff Meryl Kaufman, M.Ed., CCC-SLP, BRS-S, and Itzhak Brook, M.D., M.Sc., board members of the Head and Neck Cancer Alliance, discuss which symptoms should lead one to seek a diagnosis of head and neck cancer and which tests are available to aid in evaluation. Transcript: Meryl Kaufman, M.Ed., CCC-SLP, BRS-S: When we talk about the HPV-related cancers, those are primarily in the oropharynx, which is the tongue base and the tonsil. But the traditional cancers typically can also involve the tongue, the lips, the floor of the mouth, the jaw, the gums and the hard palate. And the pharynx; that includes the nasopharynx behind the nose. We’ve addressed the oropharynx but also the hypopharynx, near the larynx. And in your case, laryngeal cancer that involves the larynx, the voice box, and the epiglottis. So, head and neck cancers can occur in any of those places. Can you talk about some of the signs and symptoms people can look out for in those areas? Itzhak Brook, M.D., M.Sc.: Well, the important signs that are common to oral cancers are having a sore throat, a feeling that you cannot swallow and difficulty in swallowing. In advanced stages, it can interfere with breathing. If you have increased lymph glands in the neck and are also feeling like a lump or something is stuck in your mouth, those could be a sign. Sometimes they have symptoms such as pain in the ear or pain in the throat. And there are specific [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2018-09-04T13:05:12-07:00September, 2018|Oral Cancer News|

“They don’t care:” Hamilton senior left five months without a voice

Source: www.thespec.com Author: Joanna Frketich Donna Thombs has not uttered a word in five long months. The east Hamilton senior is desperate to get her voice back, but has so far faced a waiting list with no room for compassion at St. Joseph's hospital. "It's terrible," mouths Thombs. "They don't care." The only sound is wheezing as she attempts to talk with gestures along with slowly mouthing out words using exaggerated movements. It takes multiple attempts to get across even the simplest words. Often, she shakes her head and just gives up. Credit: Hamilton Spectator Donna Thombs has been living in silence for five months as she awaits an operation to restore her voice following surgery for throat cancer. "Try not talking for one day," she mouths. "I've done it for months. Now, it's really starting to get to me." Thombs says the surgical procedure essential to giving her a voice takes roughly 20 minutes. She came achingly close when it was scheduled for Aug. 26, only to have it cancelled. As of Friday, Thombs had been given no information by the office of head and neck surgeon Dr. Michael Gupta on how much longer she'd have to wait. She'd been told her case was a low priority despite the safety concerns of a woman in her 80s living alone with no voice to call for help. Her relatives phone to check on her but her only way to communicate with them is to knock once to let [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2015-09-23T07:40:20-07:00September, 2015|Oral Cancer News|

Ten year results of landmark neck cancer trial published

Source: www.modernmedicine.com Author: Gabriel Miller The latest data from a trial that opened in 1992 confirm that for locally advanced laryngeal cancer, sequential and concomitant chemoradiotherapy each produce similar survival rates, but the concomitant approach more often allows the larynx to be preserved. When the results of RTOG 91-11 were first published in 2003. "they changed the standard of care treatment for preserving the larynx from the sequential use of chemotherapy then radiotherapy to giving both together," said lead investigator Dr. Arlene Forastiere of Johns Hopkins University in an email to Reuters Health. "The results have held up over the last decade," she said, "...and this exact treatment remains the standard of care today because on average, 15% will ultimately require laryngectomy with the concomitant approach, compared to double that, or 30%, with either giving chemotherapy and radiation in sequence or giving radiotherapy alone." "There's no question that this study has changed the way we approach and treat this disease, so it is truly a landmark study," said Dr. Chris Holsinger, a head and neck cancer surgeon at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas who wasn't involved in the research. Between 1992 and 2000, 547 patients were randomly assigned to three treatment groups: induction chemotherapy followed by radiation; concomitant chemoradiotherapy; and radiotherapy alone. The induction group received up to three cycles of cisplatin 100 mg/m2 on day one and fluorouracil 1,000 mg/m2 per day for five days, every three weeks. Responders then received up to 70 Gy of radiotherapy [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-11-30T05:39:25-07:00November, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Novel one-step system for restoring voice in throat cancer patients

Source: medicalxpress.com This picture shows the cannula (A) and the tool (B) for inserting the voice prosthesis which is usually made of silicon (partly shown on the left side of the tool). This tool will then be inserted into the cannula so that it can be injected into the patient's fistula according to the length required, using the calibration on the cannula. Credit: National University of Singapore. Patients who have lost their voice box through disease such as throat cancer may be able to speak immediately after a procedure to create a small opening at the throat. A novel system developed through an Engineering-in-Medicine project led by Dr Chui Chee Kiong, NUS Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Dr David Lau, Consultant Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) Surgeon at Raffles Hospital, cuts down a two-week duration before patients can speak, to about 10 minutes after the initial procedure. People who undergo laryngectomy and lose their voice box can recover approximately 80 per cent of normal speech by having a voice prosthesis fitted into an opening or fistula between the trachea (windpipe) and esophagus (food pipe). To speak, the patient covers the stoma (breathing opening in the neck) with his or her thumb and forces air through the prosthesis into the esophagus and out through the mouth. Before the prosthesis can be inserted, the doctor needs to make a small puncture (tracheo-esophageal puncture or TEP) in the wall between the trachea and esophagus. During the puncture, a guide-wire is inserted into the [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-10-09T09:36:31-07:00October, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Throat cancer survivors sing to give thanks, encourage others

Source: www.wfaa.com Author: Jim Douglas Five cancer survivors stepped up to the microphones Tuesday at Baylor All Saints Medical Center in Fort Worth. About 300 people waited to hear the North Texas Laryngectomy Choir. Video available here. It takes courage for anyone to sing in front of a crowd. Imagine doing it without vocal cords. Howard Defibaugh found his courage by first singing to his wife, Diana. He sang her the song she sang to him to soothe his recovery from throat surgery a couple of years ago: You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray. It came out low and raspy... almost mechanical. Doctors removed Defibaugh's larynx to save his life. Same with John Robinson. They now have plastic implants. Both hold their hands over the valves in their necks as they talk... and sing. "I don't know how I'm going to do with a big crowd today," Robinson said with a smile. Defibaugh gave him a reassuring pat on the back. This is how the North Texas Laryngectomy Choir started: As a support group. They joke they couldn't carry a tune in bucket (even when they had their real voices). But this concert is about what they carry in their hearts. The five singers stepped to the mics, and sang, "What a Wonderful World." The occasion was the first annual banquet for cancer survivors and caregivers at Baylor All Saints. The crowd gave them a standing ovation.

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-06-06T14:37:24-07:00June, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Touched by another human’s touch

Source: www.latimes.com Author: Itzhak Brook, M.D. I was deeply shaken to learn I had hypopharyngeal cancer. As a physician, I had access to my hospital's laboratory results, so I took a shortcut: Rather than wait for my surgeon to call me, I looked for my name in my hospital's pathology laboratory log book. After my name, the log book stated in no uncertain terms: "mildly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma." I could not believe my eyes. Was this possible? Could it be a mistake? In spite of the hopeful questions that permeated my mind, I knew it was not a mistake: Right here, in front of me, in black and white — my own death sentence. Still, to be convinced that the diagnosis was real, I had to view the biopsy specimens under the microscope myself — and there it was. In that very instant, my whole world changed. I had always had a sense of invulnerability. Now I was left with uncertainty about my prognosis and future. I was in a state of desperation and disbelief when I left the pathology laboratory and walked into my internist's office to break the news to him. He slowly got out of his chair without uttering a word and gave me a big, supportive hug. It felt so good to know that he deeply cared for me beyond our professional relationship. His embrace moved me — made me feel that I was surrounded by those who truly appreciated my pain and distress, and [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-05-24T06:39:31-07:00May, 2011|Oral Cancer News|