Practice Focus

Treatment Options: Study reports neck dissection effective in patients with residual disease

Patients who had residual neck disease after treatment for a primary head and neck squamous carcinoma and then underwent neck dissection had comparable survival rates to those who had their disease resolved after their initial chemotherapy and radiation treatment, according to a retrospective analysis from researchers at the University of Louisville in Kentucky presented here Jan. 27.

A Patient with Right-Sided Odynophagia

A 33-year-old white male presented with a one-year history of right-sided odynophagia. Symptoms were constant and exacerbated by swallowing. He had a history of cryptic tonsils but had not undergone tonsillectomy; his past medical history was otherwise unremarkable. There was tenderness to palpation over the right tonsil with exacerbation of symptoms. No head and neck masses were appreciated. A CT scan was obtained.

Research Overhaul: Changes to cancer research organizations on the horizon, expert says

The system of clinical cancer research, including that of head and neck cancer, is in need of an overhaul, but steps are being taken that might lead to more efficient work and will hopefully mean more medical breakthroughs, said David Schuller, MD, the chair in cancer research at the Ohio State University College of Medicine in Columbus, at the Triological Society’s Combined Sections Meeting, held here on Jan. 27.

Another Option for Allergic Rhinitis?: Study examines long-term safety, efficacy of RF turbinoplasty

When patients with allergic rhinitis don’t respond to medical therapy, an otolaryngologist’s arsenal of treatment includes surgical options. Among these is radiofrequency (RF) turbinate reduction, also known as RF turbinate ablation or turbinoplasty, an office procedure that advocates say is cost-effective and minimally invasive, with fewer complications than other surgical remedies. Some otolaryngologists, however, are still hesitant to use this relatively new therapy.