lymphedema

How do speech-language pathologists support cancer patients?

Source: syvnews.com Author: Aundie Werner Question: What are speech-language pathologists and how do they support cancer patients? It is estimated that about 100,000 people will be diagnosed with a head, neck or thyroid cancer this year. Although this does not grab headlines as often as many other cancers, for those affected the disease and treatment can have a significant impact on their lives. In general, most people survive head and neck cancer; however, side effects of treatment can sometimes be a long-term problem. The support and guidance of a speech-language pathologist (SLP) can do much to help promote recovery and cope with the difficult symptoms of treatment. Ideally, the SLP becomes involved when the patient has been identified as having head and neck cancer before their surgery or before their chemotherapy/radiation protocol. Counseling and education are provided as to the functions of voice, speech and swallowing. Assessment is made to determine the patient’s baseline and to provide guidance as to the patient’s role in their rehabilitation. Frequently, the SLP works with patients who have difficulty eating and drinking. Treatment is based on the cause of the problem: anatomical changes from surgery, decreased saliva, changes in taste, difficulty opening the mouth due to trismus, and problems protecting the airway, which can result in coughing and choking during meals. Maintaining nutrition after surgery and during treatment is necessary to help the body heal. At times, the patient may need to have a feeding tube to help with nutrition when it becomes too [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2019-03-26T11:50:47-07:00March, 2019|Oral Cancer News|

Minimally-invasive treatment option for early stage oral cancer reduces recovery time, improves survival

Source: www.newswise.com Author: Henry Ford Health System Henry Ford Cancer Institute is a leader in providing a minimally invasive procedure called a sentinel lymph node biopsy for patients with early stage oral cancer. The biopsy can be performed at the same time oral cancer is surgically removed, and it can determine if the cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes. For Henry Ford patient Marlene Calverley, the biopsy meant having three lymph nodes removed versus 30-60 lymph nodes, and a two-inch scar instead of a five-to-six-inch scar. It also meant no neck drains, no physical therapy, and a decreased risk of complications. “We are one of the few – if not the first – medical center in the State of Michigan to adopt this new paradigm for treating early oral cavity squamous cell cancers,” says head and neck cancer surgeon Tamer A. Ghanem M.D., Ph.D., director of Growth, Access, and Service for the Department of Otolaryngology at Henry Ford Cancer Institute. This new paradigm is based on a standard treatment for breast cancer and melanoma skin cancer. The early data shows that sentinel lymph node biopsy may improve patients’ survival rate. Research also demonstrates a significant decrease in recovery time, complications, and effects attributed to a treatment, says Steven Chang, M.D., director of the Head and Neck Oncology program and the Microvascular Surgery Division at the Henry Ford Cancer Institute. Head and neck cancers are among the most common cancers in the U.S. and globally. At the time patients are [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2019-02-12T14:19:17-07:00February, 2019|Oral Cancer News|

New study analyzes physical therapy for head and neck cancer survivors

Source: www.curetoday.com Author: Andrew J. Roth The aftermath of treatment for head and neck cancer can be particularly difficult, according to Ann Marie Flores. Flores, assistant professor, Department of Physical Therapy, Movement & Rehabilitation Science, Bouvé College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, conducted a pre-pilot study looking at early physical therapy education for this patient population. CURE interviewed Flores about her poster, which she presented at the 8th Biennial Cancer Survivorship Research Conference in Washington, DC. Could you first give some background about this study? How did it come to be? It was a spinoff of some studies that I began in breast cancer. I conducted a literature review of rehab needs of breast cancer survivors about 10 years ago and found that there was very little out there. Then, when I started a rehab oncology program at a previous institution, the patient population that were referred to the program tended to not be breast cancer patients, because they physically and functionally tend to do well in aggregate. Most of my patients referred were those with head and neck cancer. I went through the same process to look through literature critically to figure out what exists in terms of physical therapy and rehabilitation-based approaches. I've updated this over a long period of time and this poster is a systematic review of the quality of evidence. I combined this literature and data review with talking to a focus group of cancer survivors. What did you find? I asked the focus group [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-06-26T08:37:15-07:00June, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Forgotten patients: New guidelines help those with head-and-neck cancers

Source: www.fredhutch.org Author: Diane Mapes and Sabrina Richards Stigma, isolation and medical complexity may keep patients from getting all the care they need; recommendations aim to change that. Like many cancer patients, Jennifer Giesel has side effects from treatment. There’s the neuropathy in her hands, a holdover from chemo. There’s jaw stiffness from her multiple surgeries: an emergency intubation when she couldn’t breathe due to the golf ball-sized tumor on her larynx and two follow-up surgeries to remove the cancer. And then there’s hypothyroidism and xerostomia, or dry mouth, a result of the 35 radiation treatments that beat back the cancer but destroyed her salivary glands and thyroid. “I went to my primary care doctor a couple of times and mentioned the side effects,” said the 41-year-old laryngeal cancer patient from Cleveland, who was diagnosed two years ago. “She was great but she didn’t seem too knowledgeable about what I was telling her. She was like, ‘Oh really?’ It was more like she was learning from me.” Patients like Giesel should have an easier time communicating their unique treatment side effects to health care providers with the recent release of new head-and-neck cancer survivorship guidelines. Created by a team of experts in oncology, primary care, dentistry, psychology, speech pathology, physical therapy and rehabilitation (with input from patients and nurses), the guidelines are designed to help primary care physicians and other health practitioners without expertise in head-and-neck cancer better understand the common side effects resulting from its treatment. The goal is [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2016-04-11T07:48:09-07:00April, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

ONS Connections: External lymphedema scale developed for head and neck cancer

Source: www.oncologynurseadvisor.com Author: Kathy Boltz, PhD Lymphedema in patients with head and neck cancer can be described through an instrument that has been developed and validated, in research that was reported at the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) Connections: Advancing Care Through Science conference. Aggressive multi-modality treatment regimens for locally advanced head and neck cancer often lead to a damaged lymphatic system. Then, patients are at risk for developing secondary lymphedema. Assessing head and neck lymphedema had received little attention prior to this work. These researchers sought to develop a scale to grade external lymphedema in patients with head and neck cancer. They used a conceptual framework of the continuum from fibrosis to lymphedema to direct the study, which had two phases. The first phase of the study generated a proposed scale for head and neck external lymphedema. This scale came from the study conceptual framework, a literature review, and analysis of their previous study, which had compared and contrasted four current lymphedema scales to grade external lymphedema in patients with head and neck cancer. Then, they used expert feedback to revise the proposed scale. The second phase of the study tested the revised scale by physically examining 30 patients with head and neck cancer and facial swelling. The patients had a mean age of 57.67 years (standard deviation 6.54 years), and 40% had oropharyngeal carcinoma. The interrater reliability of the Head and Neck External Lymphedema Scale (HN-LE) was acceptable, since exact agreement on grading lymphedema severity occurred 83% of the [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-11-20T19:11:43-07:00November, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Lymphedema Common After Head and Neck Cancer

Source: Elsevier Global Medical News SAN FRANCISCO (EGMN) - Lymphedema is highly common and a source of considerable morbidity among patients who undergo treatment for head and neck cancer, finds a cross-sectional study among 103 survivors. Fully three-fourths had developed some degree of lymphedema, according to results presented at the annual Oncology Congress presented by Reed Medical Education. The more severe it was, the more likely patients were to have symptoms, functional impairments, and poorer quality of life. Disease and treatment-related factors such as high radiation dose and combined surgery and radiation therapy were risk factors for the development of lymphedema. "This is the first study that we are aware of in the United States of this depth to systematically examine lymphedema" in this population, noted lead investigator Jie Deng, Ph.D., R.N., O.C.N., a postdoctoral fellow at the Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn. "Health care professionals should be aware that lymphedema is a frequent late effect in the head and neck cancer population," she advised. "We need to educate patients about the risk of lymphedema prior to treatment, during treatment, and posttreatment, and we need to conduct external and internal examinations to evaluate related signs and symptoms at each clinic visit." Patients found to have any signs or symptoms should be referred for lymphedema assessment. Furthermore, "it's very important we have very detailed documentation so we can follow up on patients' treatment effect and also identify potential issues in this population," Dr. Deng stressed. "An interdisciplinary approach is needed to [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-12-06T10:29:30-07:00December, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Manual Drainage for Lymphedema Investigated in First-Ever RCT

Source: Medscape Today By: Zosia Chustecka December 11, 2010 (San Antonio, Texas) — Manual lymph drainage (MLD) in the form of massage was not effective in preventing arm lymphedema in patients with breast cancer who had undergone axillary lymph node dissection. The results come from a randomized clinical trial in 160 patients with breast cancer, reported here today at the 33rd Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. "This is a very nice study," commented session moderator Hiram Cody, MD, from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. "This has been a data-free zone, and this [study] is a very nice addition," he added. The results were presented by Nele Devoogdt, from University Hospitals Leuven, in Belgium, who undertook the study as part of her doctoral thesis. She was the recipient of a scholarship awarded by the American Association for Cancer Research Translational Research Scholars and funded by Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Massage to Increase Lymph Drainage MLD is a kind of massage where the skin is stretched, Ms. Devoogdt explained. The theory is that it would help to prevent the development of lymphedema by increasing the resorption of lymph, increasing lymph transport, and creating collateral pathways to aid in lymph drainage. However, she pointed out that its effectiveness in preventing lymphedema has never been tested in a randomized controlled clinical trial. So this is what her group set out to investigate. They compared a program consisting of information and exercises therapy, with and without the addition [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-12-13T11:44:05-07:00December, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Get moving: cancer survivors urged to exercise

Source: apnews.myway.com Author: Lauran Neergaard New guidelines are urging survivors to exercise more, even - hard as it may sound - those who haven't yet finished their treatment. There's growing evidence that physical activity improves quality of life and eases some cancer-related fatigue. More, it can help fend off a serious decline in physical function that can last long after therapy is finished. Consider: In one year, women who needed chemotherapy for their breast cancer can see a swapping of muscle for fat that's equivalent to 10 years of normal aging, says Dr. Wendy Demark-Wahnefried of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In other words, a 45-year-old may find herself with the fatter, weaker body type of a 55-year-old. Scientists have long advised that being overweight and sedentary increases the risk for various cancers. Among the nation's nearly 12 million cancer survivors, there are hints - although not yet proof - that people who are more active may lower risk of a recurrence. And like everyone who ages, the longer cancer survivors live, the higher their risk for heart disease that exercise definitely fights. The American College of Sports Medicine convened a panel of cancer and exercise specialists to evaluate the evidence. Guidelines issued this month advise cancer survivors to aim for the same amount of exercise as recommended for the average person: about 2 1/2 hours a week. Patients still in treatment may not feel up to that much, the guidelines acknowledge, but should avoid inactivity on their good [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-06-28T20:08:45-07:00June, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Lymphedema common in head and neck cancer

Source: www.medpagetoday.com Author: Charles Bankhead, Staff Writer, MedPage Today Treatment of head and neck cancer causes potentially severe lymphedema, which responds to complete decongestive therapy in most cases, a retrospective chart review showed. The most severe lymphedema occurred in patients treated with surgery and radiation therapy, followed by definitive surgery alone. Complete decongestive therapy led to clinical improvement in a majority of the patients, including 83% of those treated with surgery alone. "Lymphedema is vastly under-recognized and under-reported in patients with head and neck cancer," Jan S. Lewin, PhD, of M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, said in an interview at the Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Symposium (MHNCS). "The lymphedema can be just as severe as what's seen after treatment of breast and other types of cancer. Lymphedema in patients with head and neck cancer can be terribly disfiguring and cause severe functional problems." "Complete decongestive therapy leads to clinically significant improvement in most patients, whether it's performed in a clinic or at home," she added. Available evidence suggests that fewer than half of patients with head and neck cancer develop lymphedema after treatment. However, cosmetic and functional sequelae can be severe, including problems with speaking, eating, airway obstruction, and drooling, as well as self-image. As compared with lymphedema in other cancers, a paucity of information exists about the presentation and treatment of the condition in patients with head and neck cancer, said Lewin. In an effort to add to the information base, she and her colleagues retrospectively reviewed [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-03-13T12:45:20-07:00March, 2010|Oral Cancer News|