December 2015, Vol 141, No. 12, Pages 1039-1148 | 2015 AHNS

This medical record review study supports the role of transoral robotic surgery in the treatment of patients with head and neck cancer, especially for those with oropharyngeal cancer.

Fibular free-tissue reconstruction of head and neck defects in patients with head and neck cancer was found to be associated with a longer-than-10-day hospital stay for procedures lasting longer than 11 hours and in patients who were ventilator dependent longer than 48 hours.

This study of patients with recurrent head and neck squamous cell carcinoma treated with salvage surgery recommends that medical comorbidity and age, primary T3/T4 stage, and disease-free interval be considered in selecting patients for surgical salvage.

This retrospective cohort analysis uses data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results–Medicare linked database to estimate monthly costs of all services used during the last months of life by patients with oral cavity and pharyngeal cancers.

This cohort study of SEER data found that patients with head and neck cancer have more than 3 times the incidence of suicide compared with the general US population and that patients with hypopharyngeal and laryngeal cancer are at highest risk.

This study examines surgical decisions made for patients with indeterminate thyroid nodules who underwent gene expression classifier (GEC) testing and compares actual vs recommended treatments to determine the effects on management of GEC testing.

This medical record review demonstrates that large thyroid nodules (TNs) of any given Bethesda class are not associated with increased probability of malignant disease beyond that which is expected based on their cytological classification and suggest that smaller TNs pose a relatively increased risk of malignant disease.

In a retrospective study to determine the ideal antibiotic prophylaxis in patients undergoing head and neck free flap reconstruction, Mitchell et al found ampicillin-sulbactam to be the preferred antibiotic for major clean-contaminated head and neck procedures.

This review reports that margin sampling from the tumor bed is associated with worse local control in patients with oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma while margin assessment from resection specimens is associated with better local control.

This retrospective review compares surgical vs nonsurgical treatment of advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the supraglottic larynx, finding that nonsurgical treatment as part of a larynx preservation protocol is associated with a higher likelihood of recurrence but has similar overall survival.

In evaluating oncologic outcomes for T4 oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma treated with primary surgical and nonsurgical therapies, the authors of this retrospective study found that primary surgical treatment may be associated with improved outcomes.

This comparative medical record review assesses the effect of aggressive treatment on survival and quality of life in patients with anaplastic thyroid carcinoma.

This Original Investigation demonstrates that neutralizing tumor-associated fibroblast–derived hepatocyte growth factor with ficlatuzumab effectively mitigates c-Met signaling and decreases HNSCC proliferation, migration, and invasion.