Advances in surgery for head and neck cancer

Advances in surgery for head and neck cancer

Advances in surgery for head and neck cancer
In an operation of head and neck cancer, oral and maxillofacial surgeons are responsible for removing the affected tumor areas and their reconstruction, ensuring the minimum possible sequels.

The sentinel node technique , able to identify the lymph node that could be invaded by the tumor has begun to be used in ceremonial way of head and neck cancer services in oral and maxillofacial surgery several Spanish hospitals which will prevent the realization cervical surgery nearly 8 out of 10 patients, as revealed in the national congress of the Spanish Society of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, held in Valladolid.

Until now neck dissection was performed in almost all patients with head and neck cancer, was well therapeutic, preventive, or to determine the extent of the disease, but less than a third of the patients had lymph node metastases. The implementation of the sentinel node technique and a more selective lymphadenectomy, by stage, will reduce side effects of the intervention and accelerate patient recovery.

The technique involves injecting a radioactive isotope to detect the nodes in the drainage of tumor area occurs then determine intraoperatively if it is infiltrated by cancer cells, so that it may indicate the need for more aggressive .

Lymphatic metastases develop in between 20% to 30% of patients with oral cancer in early stages and in most centers hitherto performed elective neck dissection, so that 70% to 80% were exposed to possible morbidity without benefits. The utility of sentinel node biopsy-proven melanoma and breast cancer, has also been validated in oral cavity cancer after the publication last year of a study in the journal Journal of Clinical Oncology . This technique of sentinel node with other nodes obtained in the neck dissection was compared. It was demonstrated that the rate of false negatives in cancer of the mouth floor reaches 25%, but not for the rest of oral cancers that reached about 10%. In addition, no false negatives were found in early stages or procedures performed by experienced surgeons.

In early stages (stages I and II) get surgery next figures cure 80%. However, only one third of patients are diagnosed at these stages, comments Dr. Redondo. When the disease occurs locally advanced (stages III and IV), survival at 5 years is 30% of the patients.