Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is a local ablative treatment that is based on the reversible electroporation and intracellular accumulation of hydrophilic drug molecules, which greatly increases their cytotoxicity. In mucosal head and neck cancer (HNC), experience with ECT is limited due to the poor accessibility of tumors. In order to review the experience with ECT in mucosal HNC, we undertook a systematic review of the literature. In 22 articles, published between 1998 and 2020, 16 studies with 164 patients were described. Curative and palliative intent treatment were given to 36 (22%) and 128 patients (78%), respectively. The majority of tumors were squamous cell carcinomas (79.3%) and located in the oral cavity (62.8%). In the curative intent group, complete response after one ECT treatment was achieved in 80.5% of the patients, and in the palliative intent group, the objective (complete and partial) response rate was 73.1% (31.2% and 41.9%). No serious adverse events were reported during or soon after ECT and late effects were rare (19 events in 17 patients). The quality-of-life assessments did not show a significant deterioration at 12 months post-ECT. Provided these preliminary data are confirmed in randomized controlled trials, ECT may be an interesting treatment option in selected patients with HNC not amenable to standard local treatment.
COBISS.SI-ID: 61662211
Background: In head and neck cancer (HNC), the relationship between a delay in starting radiotherapy (RT) and the outcome is unclear. The aim of the present study was to determine the impact of the amount of time before treatment intervention (TTI) and the growth kinetics of individual tumors on treatment outcomes and survival. Methods: Two hundred sixty-two HNC patients with 273 primary tumors, treated with definitive (chemo) RT, were retrospectively analyzed. The TTI was defined as the time interval between the date of histopathologic diagnosis and the first day of the RT course. Volumetric data on 57 tumors were obtained from diagnostic and RT planning computer tomography (CT) scans in order to calculate the tumor growth kinetic parameters. Results: No significant association between locoregional control or cause-specific hazards and TTI was found. The log hazard for locoregional recurrence linearly increased during the first 40 days of waiting for RT, although this was not significant. The median tumor volume relative increase rate and tumor volume doubling time was 3.2%/day and 19 days, respectively, and neither had any impact on locoregional control or cause-specific hazards. Conclusion: The association between a delay in starting RT and the outcome is complex and does not harm all patients waiting for RT. Further research into imaging-derived kinetic data on individual tumors is warranted in order to identify patients at an increased risk of adverse outcomes due to a...
COBISS.SI-ID: 25915651
Purpose To determine whether the psychological state of patients with head and neck cancer (HCN) is associated with their nutritional status. Methods In 40 patients with locally advanced HNC treated with defnitive or adjuvant (chemo)radiotherapy, psychological and nutritional status were assessed before treatment, at its completion and 3 months% post-therapy. Psychosocial distress was measured using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale questionnaire (HADS-A, HADS-D), whereas the nutritional status was evaluated using standard methods (Nutritional Risk Screening Tool 2002, anthropometric data, dynamometry and laboratory tests) and with a bioelectrical impedance analysis parameter phase angle (PA). Results Before treatment, more patients were screened positive for anxiety than at treatment completion (p=0.037) or 3 months% post-therapy (p=0.083). Depression prevalence was non-signifcantly higher at the end and after therapy. Compared to the baseline, more cachectic patients and a reduction of PA values were found at successive assessments. Anxiety was more often recorded among malnourished/cachectic patients (assessment 1, p=0.017; assessment 2, p=0.020) who were also found more frequently depressed (assessment 2, p=0.045; assessment 3, p=0.023). Signifcantly higher PA values were measured in patients without distress determined at 3 months% post-therapy by the HADS-A (p=0.027). Conclusion The association between the psychological and nutritional status found in this...
COBISS.SI-ID: 3476603
in a favorable prognosis for HPV-positive patients treated with radiation alone or with concurrent platinum-based chemotherapy. The degree of radiosensitivity in fractionated regimens has not yet been fully explored; therefore, in this study, the radiosensitivity of HPV-negative tumors (FaDu) was compared to that of HPV-positive tumors (2A3) subjected to concurrent cisplatin chemotherapy and fractionated versus isoeffective single-dose tumor irradiation in immunodeficient mice. HPV-positive tumors were approximately 5 times more radiosensitive than HPV-negative tumors, irrespective of the irradiation regimen. In both tumor models, concurrent cisplatin chemotherapy and the fractionated regimen induced significant tumor radiosensitization, with a 3- to 4-fold increase in the tumor growth delay compared to that of single-dose irradiation. Furthermore, the degree of radiosensitization induced by cisplatin chemotherapy concurrent with the fractionated irradiation regimen was much higher in HPV-positive tumors, where a synergistic antitumor effect was observed. Specifically, after combined therapy, a 26% higher survival rate was observed in mice with HPV-positive tumors than in mice with HPV-negative tumors. These data suggest that HPV-positive tumors are more radiosensitive to fractionated regimen than to single-dose irradiation with concurrent cisplatin chemotherapy acting synergistically to irradiation.
COBISS.SI-ID: 3455611
The poorly differentiated neuroendocrine carcinomas (NECs) of the larynx are rare tumors that comprise of a small cell-type (SCNEC) and a large cell-type (LCNEC). In order to consolidate the current knowledge about their characteristics and management a systematic review of the available literature was performed. The PubMed/Medline and Scopus databases search resulted in 141 articles published between 1972 and 2019, describing 273 patients: 230 cases were of SCNEC histology (84.2%) and 43 cases were LCNECs (15.8%). Comparing both histological entities, patients with LCNECs were older (63.2 vs. 58.7%years, p = 0.036) than SCNEC patients and had more often primary tumor in a supraglottic larynx (79.5 vs. 56.1%, p = 0.039), advanced-stage neck disease (N2-3, 56.8 vs. 40%, p = 0.061), surgery-based treatment (83.7 vs. 51.9%, p ( 0.001) and had no radiotherapy (44.2 vs. 29%, p = 0.071). At presentation, systemic metastases were diagnosed in 12.1% of the patients, whereas disease relapse was experienced by two-thirds (65.3%) of those initially staged M0; systemic relapse, alone or in combination with local/regional recurrence, was the most frequent type of failure (in 71.9%). On multivariate analysis, more advanced disease stage and SCNEC histology adversely influenced disease-specific survival. Wide variations in the pattern of care, including radiotherapy doses and chemotherapy regimens, were found among long-term survivors without known disease at )24%months of follow-up...
COBISS.SI-ID: 3328123