Head & Neck Cancers

In thyroid cancer, molecular diagnostic tests enable oncologists to evaluate thyroid nodules with atypical, suspicious, or indeterminate fine-needle aspiration cytology to determine the best course of treatment based on cytopathological result.

Vidhya Karivedu, MD, fellow/resident at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, discusses the antitumorigenic immune response seen with the combination of metformin and chemoradiation in patients with locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Patients with differentiated thyroid cancer who were felt to not have a choice in receiving radioactive iodine treatment reportedly had lower satisfaction with the treatment decision, suggesting a need for increased shared decision making between physicians and patients.

Among patients with medullary thyroid cancer, PD-L1 positive status is linked to more aggressive clinicopathological features and predictive of structural and biochemical recurrences.

Barbara Burtness, MD, professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology); Disease Aligned Research Team Leader, Head and Neck Cancers Program; co-director, Developmental Therapeutics Research Program; of Yale Cancer Center, discusses the future of immunotherapy in head and neck cancer.

Nabil F. Saba, MD, FACP, director, Head and Neck Medical Oncology Program, Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, professor, Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Department of Otolaryngology, Emory University School of Medicine, discusses investigational deintensification approaches in HPV-related oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma.

Nabil F. Saba, MD, FACP, director, Head and Neck Medical Oncology Program, Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, professor, Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Department of Otolaryngology, Emory University School of Medicine, discusses treatment deintensification for patients with HPV-related oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma.

Danny Rischin, MD, director, Division of Cancer Medicine, head, Department of Medical Oncology, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia, discusses the phase III KEYNOTE-048 trial, which examines pembrolizumab or pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy versus EXTREME as first-line therapy for patients with recurrent/metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Nabil F. Saba, MD, FACP, discussed the role of general practitioners in maintaining the health of their patients with cancer and how to better diagnosis select types of head and neck cancer.

The FDA has approved pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic or unresectable recurrent head and neck squamous cell carcinoma as monotherapy whose tumors express PD-L1 (composite positive score [CPS] ≥1) and also in combination with platinum and fluorouracil (FU) for this patient population, irrespective of PD-L1 expression.

Rozita Yarmand, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Endocrine Neoplasia and Hormonal Disorders-Research, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses unmet needs in medullary thyroid cancer.

Ezra Cohen, MD, associate director, Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego, discusses the treatment era before immunotherapy in head and neck cancer.

In an effort to build more sophisticated protocols that keep QoL and cost questions at the forefront, Montefiore Einstein Center for Cancer Care and Albert Einstein College of Medicine’s Institute for Onco-Physics created a mathematical model to identify the optimal candidates for proton therapy, the most modern form of radiation therapy for patients with head and neck cancers.