Management of Cancer of the Head and Neck — A Cocktail with Your PORT?

Squamous-cell cancer of the head and neck is the sixth most common cancer worldwide, with a lifetime risk of 2 percent for men and 0.6 percent for women. There are approximately 76,000 and 37,000 new cases of oral-cavity, pharyngeal, and laryngal cancer diagnosed each year in Western Europe and the United States, respectively. The presence or absence of local and regional disease primarily determines the treatment outcome among these patients. Nonetheless, although the incidence of distant metastases is relatively low, as compared with that of other cancers of the upper aerodigestive tract, distant metastases will develop in almost one third . . .