Symptoms of throat cancer depend on which throat structures are affected

Source: tribunecontentagency.com Author: Eric Moore, M.D. Dear Mayo Clinic: Are there early signs of throat cancer, or is it typically not found until its late stages? How is it treated? Answer: The throat includes several important structures that are relied on every minute of the day and night to breathe, swallow and speak. Unfortunately, cancer can involve any, and sometimes all, of these structures. The symptoms of cancer, how early these symptoms are recognized and how the cancer is treated depend on which structures are involved. All of the passageway between your tongue and your esophagus can be considered the throat. It includes three main areas. The first is the base of your tongue and tonsils. These, along with the soft palate and upper side walls of the pharynx, are called the oropharynx. Second is the voice box, or larynx. It consists of the epiglottis — a cartilage flap that helps to close your windpipe, or trachea, when you swallow — and the vocal cords. Third is the hypopharynx. That includes the bottom sidewalls and the back of the throat before the opening of the esophagus. Tumors that occur in these three areas have different symptoms, behave differently and often are treated differently. That’s why the areas of the throat are subdivided into separate sections by the head and neck surgeons who diagnose and treat them. For example, in the oropharynx, most tumors are squamous cell carcinoma. Most are caused by HPV, although smoking and alcohol can play a role [...]

2017-05-26T08:35:35-07:00May, 2017|Oral Cancer News|
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Incisionless robotic surgery offers promising outcomes for oropharyngeal cancer patients

Source: medicalxpress.com Author: press release, Henry Ford Health System A new study from researchers at Henry Ford Hospital finds an incisionless robotic surgery – done alone or in conjunction with chemotherapy or radiation – may offer oropharyngeal cancer patients good outcomes and survival, without significant pain and disfigurement. Patients with cancers of the base of tongue, tonsils, soft palate and pharynx who underwent TransOral Robotic Surgery, or TORS, as the first line of treatment experienced an average three-year survival from time of diagnosis. Most notably, the study's preliminary results reveal oropharyngeal cancer patients who are p16 negative – a marker for the human papilloma virus, or HPV, that affects how well cancer will respond to treatment – have good outcomes with TORS in combination with radiation and/or chemotherapy. "For non-surgical patients, several studies have shown that p16 positive throat cancers, or HPV- related throat cancers, have better survival and less recurrence than p16 negative throat cancers," says study lead author Tamer Ghanem, M.D., Ph.D., director of Head and Neck Oncology and Reconstructive Surgery Division in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery at Henry Ford Hospital. "Within our study, patients treated with robotic surgery had excellent results and survival, irrespective of their p16 status." Study results will be presented Sunday, Sept. 18 at the 2016 American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) annual meeting in San Diego. Led by Dr. Ghanem, Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit was among the first in the country to perform TORS using the da [...]

2016-09-18T06:20:43-07:00September, 2016|Oral Cancer News|
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When a virus causes cancer, surgical robot can help

Source: www.bizjournals.com Author: James Ritchie Dr. Keith Wilson finds robotic surgery to be a good approach for removing tumors growing deep in the throat, as I recently reported. As it turns out, such tumors are often part of an alarming trend. They’re often caused by the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, also known as HPV. In decades gone by, oral cancer was almost always associated with tobacco and alcohol use. It was typically a disease of old men. No more. Many of Wilson’s patients are nonsmokers and very light drinkers. “I can’t tell you how surprised people get,” said Wilson, who is chief of staff at University of Cincinnati Medical Center. “We’re seeing younger, more affluent and more highly educated patients.” High-risk HPVs cause virtually all cervical cancers. They have in recent years been implicated in oropharyngeal cancers. The oropharynx is the middle part of the throat, including the soft palate, the base of the tongue and the tonsils. About 63 percent of oropharyngeal cancers, or 11,000 cases per year, are associated with HPV infection, according to the American Dental Association. They’re frequently under age 50. Fortunately for such patients, HPV-associated oropharyngeal cancers have a better prognosis than those with other causes. Wilson said that cure rates can approach 90 percent. The da Vinci surgical robot is an effective tool for removing them, he said, because its long, joined arms can go where a surgeon’s hands can’t. But the machines, made by Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Intuitive Surgical Inc., are gaining some criticism. [...]

2013-05-03T14:06:57-07:00May, 2013|Oral Cancer News|
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Robotic surgery yields better quality of life for OC patients

Source: www.drbicuspid.com Author: Donna Domino, Features Editor Patients with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma maintain a high quality of life a year after having transoral robotic surgery, according to a new study in the JAMA Otolaryngology -- Head & Neck Surgery (April 10, 2013). But elderly patients and those treated with adjuvant treatments such as external-beam radiation therapy and chemoradiation therapy do not, according to the study authors. Patients with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) have historically been treated with primary open surgery. However, cure rates were low, complication rates were high, and patient health-related quality of life (HRQOL) decreased, the researchers noted. Efforts to minimize morbidity and preserve organs have shifted treatments to primary external-beam radiation therapy or chemoradiation therapy, but these treatments are often associated with significant side effects and decreased quality of life, they added. Transoral laser microsurgery was pioneered in the 1990s by Wolfgang Steiner, MD, for laryngeal tumors and eventually adapted to the oropharynx. Since then, primary laser microsurgery has yielded favorable treatment outcomes for OPSCC patients, the researchers noted. Transoral robotic surgery (TORS), a more minimally invasive approach, was introduced in 2005 and has since been recognized as "oncologically sound," while also preserving function in OPSCC patients. Complication rates are low and swallowing function remains high, according to the study authors. Research has shown that speech, eating, social, and overall quality of life tend to decrease but remain high three months after TORS. However, long-term results among a significant number of patients are lacking. Long-term quality [...]

2013-04-25T08:14:15-07:00April, 2013|Oral Cancer News|
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Team approach improves oral cancer outcomes

Source: www.drbicuspid.com Author: Donna Domino, Features Editor Providence Cancer Center in Portland, OR, is one of a growing number of facilities that is working to improve care for patients with oral cancer and head and neck cancers through a multidisciplinary program that brings together a spectrum of treatment providers. To illustrate the challenges many oral cancer patients face, R. Bryan Bell, MD, DDS, medical director of the Oral, Head and Neck Cancer Program at Providence, described the extreme effects the illness and its treatment had on one of his patients. The woman had undergone surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation for her oral cavity cancer. "This was a beautiful 32-year-old woman who had lost all her teeth and couldn't chew," Dr. Bell told DrBicuspid.com. "She had aged about 40 years during treatment, and she just looked awful. But she had no means of affording needed dental rehabilitation, which would have cost about $60,000. People need to see what happens when you don't restore these patients." Dr. Bell used the woman's case to convince officials at Providence Health, which oversees the medical center, of the need for a multidisciplinary approach for these patients. The new cancer treatment center, which opened last month, is a unique collaboration between dental and medical oncology specialists. The center provides coordinated care for oral cancer patients who often need expensive and complex dental rehabilitation, regardless of their ability to pay, according to Dr. Bell. His team includes head and neck surgical oncologists, radiation oncologists, medical oncologists, otolaryngologists, neuro-otologists, [...]

2013-01-28T14:52:16-07:00January, 2013|Oral Cancer News|
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Robotic surgery vs. radiation therapy: study will find which better for throat cancer

Source: http://www.windsorstar.com/ Author: Beatrice Fantoni, The Windsor Star In the first trial of its kind in the world, doctors in London, Ont., are comparing robotic surgery and radiation therapy to find out which method helps throat-cancer patients retain speech and swallowing functions - two very important functions that can have a serious effect on quality of life for cancer survivors. Dr. Anthony Nichols and Dr. David Palma of the London Health Sciences Centre are working with 68 test subjects who have cancer of the back of the throat (also known as oropharyngeal cancer) and measuring the swallowing functions of each patient one year after treatment. Because the cure rate for oropharyngeal cancer is pretty good, Nichols said, he and Palma want to focus on how to improve patients' post-treatment quality of life. In Canada, the standard way of treating oropharyngeal cancer is with a combination of radiation and chemotherapy. However, Nichols said, there can be some longterm side-effects with this treatment, such as dry mouth, hearing loss, taste changes and compromised swallowing function. "The side-effects are more than what we'd like," said Palma. "We want to improve the quality of life." Surgery using a robot is a newer treatment that could perhaps be more appropriate for some oropharyngeal cancer patients, Nichols said. London is currently the only site in Canada to offer what is known as transoral robotic surgery. The robot sounds promising, Palma said, and so it warrants more study. "We don't really know if the 'surgery first' approach [...]

2012-08-03T09:54:30-07:00August, 2012|Oral Cancer News|
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Western University profs to test robotic treatment of throat cancer

Source: metronews.ca Author: Josh Elliott Western University professors David Palma and Anthony Nichols will lead a first-ever study to see if robotic surgery can treat throat cancer while avoiding the long-term side effects that come with chemotherapy and radiation. Transoral robotic surgery (TORS) allows doctors to use miniature robotic arms to operate in tight spaces where human hands can’t fit. London has the only TORS program in Canada. Early stage oropharyngeal cancer patients will be randomly assigned standard radiation care, or the new TORS treatment. Doctors will measure long-term side effects and quality of life following both treatments. Oropharyngeal cancer affects the back of the throat. Radiation therapy is effective at controlling the cancer, but some patients still suffer long-term side effects such as dry throat, difficulty swallowing, and hearing loss. “In the U.S., TORS is being used readily in the treatment of oropharyngeal cancer, in spite of the lack of high-level evidence supporting the use,” said Nichols, a head and neck cancer surgeon at London Health Sciences Centre. Palma, a radiation oncologist at LHSC, says the Western study will compare TORS treatment to traditional radiation therapy. “Before we can implement TORS, we need to prove that it meets that standard: Are the cure rates just as good, and are the side effects less?” Nichols sees reason for optimism: “Early studies of TORS show it holds promise to provide good disease control, as well as offer good speech and swallowing outcomes for patients.”

2012-07-18T06:09:13-07:00July, 2012|Oral Cancer News|
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200 Years of surgery: cutting to cure has come a long way

Source: abcnews.go.com Author: Katie Moisse The three-and-a-half-inch tumor in Cynthia Miller's throat threatened to choke her, leaving her no choice but to have it removed. "I had no idea I was even sick," said Miller, 55, who lives in Maitland, Fla. "I woke up in the middle of the night coughing. … The next thing I knew they were booking emergency surgery." Instead of radical surgery -- which would involved cutting her face, pulling teeth and breaking her jaw -- Miller had her tumor removed through her mouth by a miniature robotic arm guided by the surgeon. "With the robot, there are no cuts anywhere. No breathing tube, no broken bones," said Dr. Bert O'Malley, who pioneered the procedure at the University of Pennsylvania's Head and Neck Cancer Center in Philadelphia. "We go in through the mouth with a high-magnification 3-D camera and very small instruments, like a surgeon's fingers but very tiny, and we're able to remove the tumor without the side effects of traditional surgery." Side effects like spasms, difficulty with swallowing and speech, not to mention chronic pain. "The more you disrupt and injure tissue, the greater the risk of dysfunction and chronic problems," said O'Malley. Today's minimally invasive surgery is far different from the procedures of 200 years ago, when surgeons hacked through skin, muscle and bone briskly and brutally without anesthesia or antisepsis. "Pain and the always-looming problem of infection restricted the extent of a surgeon's reach," Dr. Atul Gawande, a surgeon at Brigham and [...]

2012-05-06T12:11:05-07:00May, 2012|Oral Cancer News|
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With HPV-related head and neck cancers rising, focus on treatment and vaccination

Source: blogs.wsj.com/health Author: Laura Landro A form of head and neck cancer associated with the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus is on the rise, especially in men, the WSJ reports. Fast-rising rates of oropharyngeal cancer — tumors in the tonsil and back-of-the-tongue area — have been linked to changes in sexual behavior that include the increased practice of oral sex and a greater number of sexual partners. But HPV-positive cancer has also been reported in individuals who report few or no sexual partners. It may also be possible for the virus to be transmitted to an infant via an infected mother’s birth canal. An HPV vaccine is routinely recommended for girls because the virus can cause cervical cancer. The rise in HPV-positive head and neck cancers is leading to a new focus both on treatment of the disease, and whether recommending routine vaccination for boys could prevent oral infections and cancers. (A CDC advisory panel said in 2009 that it was fine for boys to get the vaccine, but recommended against routine administration.) Eric Genden, chief of head and neck oncology at Mt. Sinai Medical Center, tells the Health Blog that when treated appropriately, patients with HPV-positive cancers have an 85% to 90% disease-free survival rate over five years. By contrast, patients with HPV-negative head and neck cancers, which are often associated with smoking and drinking, typically have more advanced disease when the cancer is detected and face a five-year survival rate of only 25% to 40%, Genden says. HPV-induced head [...]

2011-05-31T14:23:46-07:00May, 2011|Oral Cancer News|
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