Awareness Days Head and Neck Tumors

Head and neck tumors - Which areas of the head and neck are covered?

"Head and neck tumors include a whole range of different tumors, especially of the oral cavity, jaw, tongue, but also of the larynx and salivary glands."

Prof. Dr. Dr. med. Frank Tavassol, Deputy Clinical Director and Senior Consultant Tumor Surgery at the Clinical Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery

What are risk factors for the development of head and neck tumors?

"Risk factors for the development of head and neck tumors are usually the consumption of high-proof alcohol and smoking. But other factors, such as genetic aspects or viral infections, can also contribute to the development of a head and neck tumor."

Prof. Dr. med. Frank Tavassol, Deputy Clinical Director and Senior Consultant Tumor Surgery at the Clinical Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery

What signs indicate tumors in the head or throat and when should you see a physician?

"Hoarseness for more than three weeks is the leading sign of laryngeal cancer. It can either be ruled out or the suspicion confirmed during an ENT mirror examination by the ENT physician. Head and neck malignancies have very diverse and very unspecific symptoms. These include symptoms such as throat swelling, difficulty swallowing, unspecific unilateral nasal secretions or bloody, mucous secretions from the nose, tympanic effusion or restricted mobility of the lower jaw. As you can see, very unspecific. What is striking is the fact that patients usually present to ENT colleagues in private practice with a T2 stage or higher, which means that the tumor is at least 2 centimetres in size. This has a negative impact on subsequent treatment. That's why it makes a lot of sense for patients to see their ENT specialists for regular check-ups and simply have themselves checked."

PD Dr. med. Martin Durisin, Center Coordinator Head and Neck Tumor Center and Senior Consultant Tumor Surgeon at the Clinical Department of Ear, Nose and Throat Medicine

What treatment options are available?

"Various treatment concepts are available. Surgery, radiotherapy, drug therapy and, more recently, immunotherapy. The therapy concept for each individual patient is specifically and individually tailored to the patient and their disease in a tumor conference with experts from various tumor disciplines. Small tumors can be treated surgically. In the case of large tumors, we usually speak of multimodal therapy concepts, which means that several specialist disciplines are involved in the treatment with the aim of curing the patient."

PD Dr. med. Martin Durisin, Center Coordinator Head and Neck Tumor Center and Senior Consultant Tumor Surgeon at the Clinical Department of Ear, Nose and Throat Medicine

What are the consequences of the therapies for the patient? How "gentle" are they?

"In recent decades, therapies in surgery, radiotherapy, drug therapy and immunotherapy have developed considerably. In surgery, we have at our disposal: intraoperative navigation, intraoperative imaging, CO2 laser, robot-assisted surgery. Radiotherapy has undergone enormous technical development. Nowadays it is gentle on the tissue and very tumor-specific. New tumor-specific drugs have been introduced in drug therapy. In addition, immunotherapy has been admitted for the treatment of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma in recent years. All these innovations in therapies mean that treatment is now more precise and specific. This is of course also reflected in the success of the therapy and the survival rate increases. The aim of the therapy is to maintain functionality and, of course, the cosmetics and healing of the patient. In the case of laryngeal carcinoma, we are talking about an organ that is responsible for a very complex function, namely "speech". Today's treatment concepts make it possible to preserve the voice in the vast majority of cases."

PD Dr. med. Martin Durisin, Center Coordinator Head and Neck Tumor Center and Senior Consultant Tumor Surgeon at the Clinical Department of Ear, Nose and Throat Medicine

Laryngeal cancer: What happens after treatment and what does aftercare look like?

"After the treatment of a patient with a carcinoma of the larynx, the first step is rehabilitation. The focus here is on the voice but also on the act of swallowing. This rehabilitation is carried out by colleagues and cooperation partners. These are, on the one hand, voice therapists and, on the other hand, cooperation clinics that specialize in the rehabilitation of patients after cancer treatment, especially for swallowing training. Once treatment and rehabilitation measures have been completed, the patient remains in tumor aftercare for 10 years to rule out tumor recurrence."

PD Dr. med. Martin Durisin, Center Coordinator Head and Neck Tumor Center and Senior Consultant Tumor Surgeon at the Clinical Department of Ear, Nose and Throat Medicine

Why can it be useful to take part in clinical trials?

"Actually, all expert committees recommend that a patient should always be treated in a trial if possible. Why? The quality of the treatment is usually outstanding, because a committee of experts has given the treatment a lot of thought beforehand. The second aspect is that, despite all the innovations, we patients are not satisfied with the options we have and always want more options. A study can certainly be an opportunity to participate in the therapy of the future today."

PD Dr. Philipp Ivanyi, Senior Physician at the Clinical Department of Haematology, Haemostaseology, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation

On the topic:

• What are clinical trials?
• Head and neck studies on the study platform of the CCC Lower Saxony