Head and neck cancers are malignant growths originating in the lip and oral cavity (mouth), nasal cavity, pharynx, larynx, thyroid, paranasal sinuses, salivary glands and cervical lymph nodes of the neck. Head and neck cancers are most commonly squamous cell carcinomas, originating from the squamous cells that line the upper aerodigestive tract. According to the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, however, "Cancers of the brain, eye, and thyroid as well as those of the scalp, skin, muscles, and bones of the and neck are not usually grouped with cancers of the head and neck."
Treatment:
Improvements in diagnosis and local management, as well as targeted therapy, have led to improvements in quality of life and survival for head and neck cancer patients since 1992
After a histologic diagnosis has been established and tumor extent determined, the selection of appropriate treatment for a specific cancer depends on a complex array of variables, including tumor site, relative morbidity of various treatment options, patient performance and nutritional status, concomitant health problems, social and logistic factors, previous primary tumors, and patient preference. Treatment planning generally requires a multidisciplinary approach involving specialist surgeons and medical and radiation oncologists.
Several generalizations are useful in therapeutic decision making, but variations on these themes are numerous. Surgical resection and radiation therapy are the mainstays of treatment for most head and neck cancers and remain the standard of care in most cases. For small primary cancers without regional metastases (stage I or II), wide surgical excision alone or curative radiation therapy alone is used. More extensive primary tumors, or those with regional metastases (stage III or IV), planned combinations of pre- or postoperative radiation and complete surgical excision are generally used. Survival and recurrence risk has been roughly equivalent between surgical and radiation-based approaches, with a head-to-head comparison in only one randomized study[citation needed]. More recently, as historical survival and control rates are recognized as less than satisfactory, there has been an emphasis on the use of various induction or concomitant chemotherapy regimens.
Patients with head and neck cancer can be categorized into three clinical groups: those with localized disease, those with locally or regionally advanced disease, and those with recurrent and/or metastatic disease. Comorbidities (medical problems in addition to the diagnosed cancer) associated with tobacco and alcohol abuse can affect treatment outcome and the tolerability of aggressive treatment in a given patient.