OBJECTIVES To assess the rate of thyroid gland invasion and the need for thyroidectomy in advanced laryngeal and hypopharyngeal carcinomas that require total laryngectomy. PATIENTS AND METHODS Between 1994 and 2001, 129 total laryngectomy with ipsilateral hemithyroidectomy and 14 total laryngopharyngectomy with total thyroidectomy operations were performed for primary squamous cell carcinoma ...

Squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) of the larynx is the one of the most common cancers of the head and neck region, accounting for 2.4% of new malignancies and 0.7% of all cancer deaths worldwide every year [1]. Hypopharyngeal SCCs, although less common, carry a poor overall prognosis. Worldwide estimation of 5-year overall survival (OS) of laryngeal and hypopharyngeal cancers ranges from 32 to 70%...

OBJECTIVE Hypopharyngeal carcinoma is an aggressive malignancy that usually presents at a late stage, thereby resulting in an overall poor prognosis for these patients. The aim of this study is to determine the evolution and postoperative results of patients treated in our department for hypopharyngeal cancer. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed 60 patients who had undergone surgery followed ...

BACKGROUND We report an extremely rare case of hypopharyngeal paraganglioma that was accompanied by a paraneoplastic neurologic syndrome (PNS). METHODS The clinical, radiological, and histopathologic findings of the patient are presented. RESULTS A 49-year-old woman presented with a history of progressive asthenia of the lower extremities persisting for 2 months. She also experienced numbne...

BACKGROUND This study attempted to reveal the incidence and risk of synchronous and metachronous esophageal cancer in subjects with oral, oropharyngeal and hypopharyngeal cancer based on a population-wide database in Taiwan. METHODS We retrieved data for this cross-sectional study from the Taiwanese Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2000. The study group included 2,965 subjects who had r...

Hypoxia renders tumor cells with reduced sensitivity and increased resistance to chemotherapeutic agents. One of the possible mechanisms underlying this unfavorable status is activation of the unfolded protein response (UPR) under hypoxic conditions, due to the upregulation of glucose-regulated protein 78 (GRP78) expression. GRP78, an endoplasmic reticulum chaperone protein and a key regulator ...

Osteomyelitis of mandible as a delayed adverse event following radiation therapy has been widely reported; however, osteomyelitis of the cervical spine has rarely been reported. In this study, we reported our experience with a case of cervical spine osteomyelitis and epidural abscess after concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) for hypopharyngeal carcinoma. The case involved a 68-year old man who ...

BACKGROUND The hypopharynx is the site with the worst prognosis among head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the oncologic outcomes of hypopharyngeal SCCs to identify the major clinical predictive factors and to compare the different primary therapeutic modalities. METHODS The medical records of 123 consecutive patients diagnosed with primary ...

BACKGROUND Focal adhesion kinase (FAK) plays an important role in tumor metastasis. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the significance of FAK expression in surgically treated patients with hypopharyngeal cancer. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed the clinical charts of patients treated at our institution between 2004 and 2012 and identified 87 patients with hypopharyngeal cancer. FAK...